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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bc79ee --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #52548 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52548) diff --git a/old/52548-8.txt b/old/52548-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5346e85..0000000 --- a/old/52548-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6444 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seafarers, by John Bloundelle-Burton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Seafarers - -Author: John Bloundelle-Burton - -Release Date: July 10, 2016 [EBook #52548] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAFARERS *** - - - - -Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by -Google Books (the University of California) - - - - - - - - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - 1. Page scan source: - https://books.google.com/books?id=u3spAQAAIAAJ - (the University of California) - - - - - - -THE SEAFARERS - - - - - - -BY THE SAME AUTHOR - -A Bitter Heritage. -Fortune's My Foe. -The Scourge of God. -Across the Salt Seas. -The Clash of Arms. -Denounced. -In the Day of Adversity. -The Hispaniola Plate. -The Desert Ship. -A Gentleman Adventurer. -The Silent Shore. -His Own Enemy. - - - - - - -THE SEAFARERS - - - -BY -JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON - -AUTHOR OF 'THE CLASH OF ARMS' -'FORTUNE'S MY FOE,' 'ACROSS THE SALT SEAS' - - - -LONDON -C. ARTHUR PEARSON LIMITED -HENRIETTA STREET W.C. -1900 - - - - - - -TO -ALL OLD FRIENDS AND COMRADES -WHO HAVE BEEN, OR ARE STILL -SEAFARERS -EITHER IN THE ROYAL NAVY -OR OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SEA SERVICE -I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK - - - - - - - - -CONTENTS - -CHAP. -1. 'Sweeter than Blue-Eyed Violets or the Damask Rose' -2. Stephen Charke -3. 'Let those love now who never loved before' -4. Portsmouth _en fête_ -5. 'So farewell, Hope!' -6. 'And bend the gallant Mast, my Boys' -7. 'An Ocean Waif' -8. 'His Name is--What?' -9. 'Through the Salt Sea Foam' -10. The Growing Terror -11. The Terror increases -12. Stricken -13. 'Spare her! Spare her!' -14. Struck down -15. A Light from the Past -16. Man overboard -17. 'Farewell, my Rival' -18. 'She will never know' -19. 'I almost dreaded this Man once' -20. 'I do believe you' -21. Washed ashore -22. A Sailor's Knife -23. 'The Tiger did that' -24. Beaten! Defeated! -25. 'I have loved my last' -26. 'Here is my Journey's End' - - - - -CHAPTER I - -'SWEETER THAN BLUE-EYED VIOLETS OR THE DAMASK ROSE' - - -That Bella Waldron should have felt sad, and her night's rest have -been disturbed in consequence, was, in the circumstances, most -natural. For one cannot suppose that any young girl leaves her home, -her mother, and her country without much grief and perturbation; -without tears and sorrow and heavy sighs, as well as tremendous fears -that she may never return to, nor see, them again. And such is what -Bella was about to do when this particular night should have come to -an end: she was about to traverse not one ocean, but two; to pass from -a life that, if not luxurious, was at least comfortable, to another -which, if more brilliant, would undoubtedly be strange, and, -consequently, not easily to be adopted at first. In fact, to go from -one side of the world to the other. - -Yet, all the same, it was singular that, between her intervals of -weeping and sobbing, and when she had at last cried herself to sleep, -she should have been tormented with such frightful dreams as those -which came to her. Dreams of horrors that in their weirdness became -almost ludicrous, or would have been ludicrous to those who, knowing -of them, did not happen to be experiencing them. Thus, the idea of a -crocodile regarding one with a glittering eye from its ambush in the -sand, seems for some reason, in our waking moments, to conjure up a -comical sense of terror--perhaps because of the 'glittering eye'; yet -there was nothing comical about it to the mind of Bella as she awoke -with a shriek from her sleep after the vision of the creature had had -momentary existence in the cells of her brain. And, even when she was -thoroughly awakened and knew that she had only been suffering from a -bad dream, she still shuddered at the recollection, and muttered, 'It -appeared as if it was creeping towards me to seize me with its horrid -jaws! Oh, it was dreadful!' - -Then she slept again--only, however, to dream of other things. Of a -desolate shore at first, with, upon it, a misty creature waving its -hands mournfully above its head, those hands being enveloped in some -gauzy material, so that the figure appeared more like a skirt-dancer -than aught else; then, of two lions fighting savagely; and then of a -vast black cave with an opening as high as St. Paul's and as wide as a -railway terminus is long, against which, armed with a spear and -protected with a buckler, she seemed to stand trembling. Trembling, -too, because she could not see one yard into the deep and profound -darkness before her, yet into which, as she peered furtively and with -horror, she appeared to perceive things--forms half-animal and -half-human--crawling, revolving, creeping about. Then, again, she -awoke with a start. - -But by now the room was light with the gray, mournful glimmer of the -approaching dawn; so light that she could see her wicker-basket trunks -in their American-cloth wrappers standing by the wall, with the lids -open against it; soon, too, she heard the sparrows twittering outside, -as well as other congenial suburban sounds, such as the newspaper boys -shrieking hideously to one another, and the milkman uttering piercing -yells; and--though it was her last day in England--she was glad to -spring out of bed and know herself once more a unit in the actual -world instead of a wanderer in a world of dreams. - -'I wish,' the girl muttered to herself, standing by the window and -drawing up the blind half-way, whereby she was enabled to see that the -gray dawn of a May morning gave promise of a warm, fine day later on, -'that, if I were to have such bad dreams at all, I might have been -spared them on the very day of my departure for the other side of the -globe. I am not superstitious, yet, yet--well!--I shall think of this -dream, I know, for many a day to come.' Then she slipped on her -dressing-gown, thrust her pretty little white feet into some warm, -felt bath-slippers, and, opening her door quietly, because it was -still early and she did not wish to awaken those in the house who -might be asleep, she went across the passage to her mother's room. - -Yet, ere she did so, let us regard this young girl, whose story and -adventures we are now to follow--this girl whose dreams of leering -crocodiles and dark, mystic caves, with hideous creatures gyrating in -them, will, as we shall see, be far outnumbered and outshone by the -actual realities that she will experience in her passage across the -world. For it had been resolved on by Fate, or Providence, or Destiny, -or whatever one may term that power which controls our earthly -existence, that to Bella Waldron were to come experiences, strange, -horrible, and fantastic, such as the last decade of our expiring -century rarely assaults men with, and women hardly ever. Standing -there in the now clear light of the morning, her long dressing-gown -enshrouding her tall, shapely, and _svelte_ figure, and with her -masses of hair hanging dishevelled--hair a warm brown with golden -gleams in it, such as has the ripening corn--an observer would decide -at once that she was beautiful. Beautiful, also, by the gift of clear, -hazel-gray eyes--eyes that were pure and innocent in their glance; -beautiful as well by her softly-rounded face, her rich red lips--the -upper one divinely short--and also by her colouring. If, too, one -applies to her the lines of that old poet dead and gone two hundred -years ago, the words describing Gloriana:-- - - - More fair than the red morning's dawn, - Sweeter than pearly dews that scent the lawn, - Than blue-eyed violets, or the damask rose - When in her hottest fragrancy she glows, - - -Bella Waldron may be considered as depicted. - -'Mother,' she said, going in now to the room where the poor lady whom -she addressed had herself passed a sad and tearful night, bemoaning -the fact that soon--in a few hours--indeed now--because the fateful -day had come--her child was to be torn from her. 'Oh, mother! It is -to-day--to-day! Oh, my darling! how can I part from you?' And then, -folding her mother in her arms while she sat on the bedside, the two -women wept together. - -'Yet,' said Mrs. Waldron, to whom advancing years brought the power of -philosophic resignation, if not the thorough strength to overcome that -which rendered her unhappy, 'yet, Bella, my dearest, it is so much for -you. Such a position, such a future! Oh, think of it! A position you -could scarcely ever have hoped to obtain. And the love, my child, the -love! Think how Gilbert loves you and you love him. For you do love -him, Bella. Of all men, he is the one for you.' - -'With my whole heart and soul I love him!' her daughter answered. -'Mother, if I had never met him I do not believe I could have ever -loved any other man. Ah, I am glad Juliet called Romeo the god of her -idolatry! It has taught me how to think of Gilbert.' - -'And the position, Bella. The position--think of that! In our -circumstances, even though you come of a good stock and are descended -from ladies and gentlemen on both sides from far-off years, you could -never have hoped to make such a match.' - -'The position is nothing to me, mother. I love Gilbert fondly. I long -to be his wife. Why should I think of the position?' - -'Every woman must think of it, child. When you are as old--and -worn--as I am, you--you will teach your own children to think of it. -It is everything to be the wife of a gentleman, better still the wife -of a man of rank. Everything! Short of being the wife of a -distinguished man, a man whose name is on everybody's tongue, there is -no other position so good. And, even then, that distinguished man may -not be a gentleman as well. That would be dreadful. Yet your husband -will be both. Think, Bella! He is sure to become a nobleman, and he -may become the most renowned admiral in the Navy.' - -'You dear old mother! But I love Gilbert because he is Gilbert. -Otherwise, neither the nobility which is certain, nor the renown which -is prospective, would take me across the world to him. Do you think I -would go to Bombay to marry the heir to a title or a possible admiral -if I did not love him?' - -'Heaven forbid!' Mrs. Waldron replied, as she sat up in her bed and -smoothed her hair. 'Heaven forbid! Yet,' she murmured, perhaps a -little weakly for a lady who had just delivered herself of such -admirable sentiments, 'yet I do honestly think, darling, that the love -you bear each other--yes! above all, the love--and the position--I -must think of the position, Bella!--and the certainty of a brilliant -future for you, reconcile me a little to parting with you. Some day, -when you are a mother, you will understand me.' - -'I understand you now, darling. Yet, yet--ah!' and now she sobbed on -her mother's shoulder--'yet, to think of our being parted for so -long--for three years! Gilbert must remain on the station for that -length of time.' Now it is certain that Mrs. Waldron was sobbing too, -yet, because there was something of the Spartan mother, something, -too, of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, about her, she calmed her -sobs. For she, too, had been ruthlessly torn by an all-conquering -lover, who would take no denial, from her parents, arms. Yet that -lover had had no such proud future to offer her as the Gilbert of whom -they spoke had to offer his beloved Arabella; for her there had been -nothing to flavour her existence except the glorious spice tasted by -us all--of loving and being loved. And now--now that she was what she -called old--which was not the case, since she was still short of her -forty-fifth year--now she knew--and, knowing, said--that love -accompanied by brilliant prospects and an assured future was the most -satisfactory of all loves. - -'Your father,' Mrs. Waldron said, 'remained on his station, the -Pacific, for seven years, and we were separated all that time. He -there, I here, in London. And in lodgings, Bella--oh those lodgings -and that cooking!--you remember, darling? You must remember the -lodgings and the cooking, child though you were. And he was not a -future peer, though he did once think he might become an admiral.' - -'Forgive me, mother,' Bella said, kissing her mother again and again. -'I will not repine any more. I ought not to do so, I know. For is not -my Gilbert the handsomest, bravest sailor that ever wore the Queen's -uniform? And it won't be so long after all. Only--only--I do wish -there wasn't that awful journey. Oh if there were only a bridge!' and -for the first time she smiled. 'Or a railway,' she added. - -'I am sure, Bella,' her mother said, forgetting how she would feel -that evening when her child was gone, and neither the bright voice nor -brisk footsteps would be heard any more in the house, 'I am sure you -cannot complain of the manner in which you are going out. The vessel -may not be as comfortable as they say the great liners are, but at -least your uncle is the captain, and it is his own ship. And that -cabin he showed us yesterday, when we went down to Gravesend, is far -better than anything you could get in any liner, even the best. I had -one once, when I went out to join your father at Halifax, in which -there was nowhere but the pockets of my clothes to keep things in, -while the other lady above me could open the scuttle as she lay in her -berth. And your cabin is as big as a dining-room, with a sofa----' - -'You dear, darling mother!' Bella exclaimed. 'You are an angel to -comfort me thus, when I know all the time that your heart is as sad as -mine. Oh if we had not to part!' And again the two women hugged and -kissed each other. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -STEPHEN CHARKE - - -A year before this momentous day when Arabella Waldron was to set sail -for India in her uncle's full-rigged ship, the Emperor of the Moon, -there had come to her that supreme joy which is the most sweet -experience of a young girl's life. The man she was madly in love with -had asked her to be his wife, and, so far as it was possible to -forecast the future, it seemed that before them both there stretched a -long vista of happy years to be spent together, or as many years -together as a sailor and his wife can pass during the greater part of -their lives. Yet, who can foretell the future--even so much as what -to-morrow may bring forth? To-day we are here, to-morrow we are gone. -A bicycle accident has done for us, or we have caught a fever or -pneumonia, and we are no more. How, then, was Bella to know that -events would so shape themselves that, ere she had been a year engaged -to her future husband, she would be on board the _Emperor of the -Moon_, bound for the other side of the world, and that during her -passage in the good old ship, named after an ancient play--a -representation of which one of the late owners had witnessed in his -boyhood--she would encounter such calamities and perils? But let us -not anticipate. Rather, instead, let us describe who Bella was, and -how she came to love and to be loved, to be wooed and won. - -Our English girl! The girl fairly tall, and full to the brim with -health; full, too, of a liking for all exercise which befits the -dawning woman--for boating, riding, walking, cycling: not ashamed to -acknowledge that she likes a good dance and that she has a good -appetite for a ball supper; one who is, withal, not a fool! Where in -all the world can you find anything better than that--better than the -honest girls who have been our mothers, are our wives, and, please -God, are what our daughters will be? - -Such a one was Bella Waldron. She could take a scull--and pull it, -too--as well as any of her sisters whom you shall meet 'twixt Richmond -and Windsor; she could cycle thirty miles a day, eat a good dinner -afterwards, and then go to a dance in the evening; and she thought -nothing of walking from West Kensington to Piccadilly or Regent -Street, with a glance at the Kensington High Street shops on -her way!--especially when the winter remnant sales were on and -advertised daily in glowing terms. Of riding she knew little, because -horse-exercise is a more or less expensive luxury, and also because an -income of £600 a year does not allow much in the way of luxuries, even -when there are only two people in the family and two servants (with an -odd boy) kept. And that sum represented Mrs. Waldron's income. - -Bella's mother had been a Miss Pooley, who had married the late -Commander Waldron (retired with the brevet rank of captain), and to -this lady there remained only one near relative, besides Bella, at the -time this veracious narrative opens. Now, this gentleman merits a -slight description, not only because he plays a considerable part in -those adventures and tribulations which, later on, befell the girl, -but also because he occupied a position almost unique and, -consequently, conspicuous in these modern days. Fifty--nay, thirty -years ago, there would not have been anything peculiar in the career -he followed; but now, with the twentieth century close upon us, that -career was almost a singular one. - -Captain Pooley was a sea captain--a mercantile sea captain--owning two -ships of his own, and always in command of one of them. That which he -now commanded was the very _Emperor of the Moon_ of which you have -already heard, and of which, if you follow this narrative, you will -hear a great deal more; the other was a brig called _Sophy_, which -will not figure at all in these pages. Now Captain Pooley, as he was -called by everybody, though, of course, he had no right whatever to -that distinctive appellation, had as a young man possessed an -extraordinary love for the sea, so intense a love, indeed, that he, -not being able to obtain a nomination for the Royal Navy, had induced -his father to apprentice him to the merchant service. Later in -life--one must be brief in these preliminary descriptions!--he had, -after obtaining all his certificates, purchased one after the other, -with some little money he had inherited, shares in first the one ship -and then the second, and eventually, by aid of savings and successful -trading, had become the entire owner of both. For the rest--to be -again brief--he was a gentleman in manner and in feelings, while in -his person he was a handsome, burly man, with the brightest of blue -eyes, a vast shock of remarkably white hair above a good-looking, -ruddy, tan-brown face; and was also the possessor of a smile which -appeared more often than not upon his good-humoured countenance, and -helped to make him welcome wherever he went, both at home and abroad. -He was, it should be added, a married man, but childless, and it was -not unusual for him to occasionally take his wife on the voyages he -made for the purpose of transporting the goods which he sold in -distant parts of the world, as well as for the purpose of purchasing -other goods for sale in England. Otherwise, Mrs. Pooley remained at -home in a pretty little villa at Blackheath, of which he owned a long -lease. - -It was a year before the great joy of Bella's life came to her that -the 'captain,' returned from a voyage to Calcutta, and, as was always -the case with him, he went to West Kensington to visit his sister and -niece, accompanied by his wife. These visits were invariably paid, and -also invariably returned by Mrs. and Miss Waldron, and were generally -productive of a great deal of pleasure on either side. Captain -Pooley--as we will continue to term him--was a kind-hearted, -open-handed man, who loved his own kith and kin and cherished an -old-fashioned notion--still in existence, Heaven be praised, amongst -many members of various classes of society--that people should do as -much as lay in their power to make their relatives happy. Wherefore, -on this night, he said, as he took the head of Mrs. Waldron's -table--which she always insisted on his doing whenever he stayed with -her--and while he carved a pair of most excellent fowls: - -'So I think we shall have a good time of it all round, Mary,'--Mary -being Mrs. Waldron's name. 'To-night we will go to the Lyceum, and -to-morrow--well, to-morrow--we'll see. Then, next week, Southsea. -Southsea's the place for us. Great doings there next week, Bell. The -visit of the foreign fleet now there will beat everything that has -gone before.' - -'But the expense, George!' exclaimed his sister. 'The expense will be -terrible. I saw in the paper that everything would be at famine -price.' - -The captain pooh-poohed this remark, however, saying that an old -friend of his, who had retired from the Royal Navy and was now living -at that lively watering-place, knew of a little furnished house which -could be obtained reasonably if taken for the following week, as well -as for the principal one. And he clinched the remark by saying, 'And I -have told him to secure it.' There was therefore nothing further to be -said on that score, Bella alone remarking that she had the best old -uncle and aunt that ever lived. - -'There will be,' he continued, putting a slice of the breast upon her -plate, probably as a reward for her observation, 'plenty to amuse -Bella. There is a garden-party at Whale Island; another given by the -General; and a ball given by the Navy at the Town Hall. That's the -place for you, Bella. If you don't find a husband there--and you a -sailor's daughter, too--well!----' - -But these remarks were hushed by his wife, who told him not to tease -the child, and by the beautiful rose blush which promptly rushed to -his niece's cheeks. Yet, all the same, Bella thought it very likely -that she would have a good time of it. - -They were playing _Madame Sans-Gêne_ at the Lyceum that -evening--though Pooley rather wished it had been something by -Shakespeare--and on the road to the theatre in the cab he told them -that he had taken another stall, to which he had invited a young -friend of his whom he had run against in town a day or two ago. - -'And a very good fellow, too,' he said, 'besides being a first-rate -sailor. And he has had a pretty hard struggle of it, owing to his -being cursed with a cross-grained old father, who seemed to imagine -his son was only brought into the world that he might sit upon him in -every way. All the same, though, Stephen Charke got to windward of him -somehow.' - -'Whoever is he, uncle?' Bella asked, interested in this story of the -unknown person who was to make a fifth of their party; while her -mother addressed a similar question to Mrs. Pooley. - -'He is,' said the captain, 'a young man of about thirty, who once went -to sea with me in the _Sophy_; the son of an old retired officer, who -was years ago in a West Indian regiment. After petting and spoiling -the boy, and--as Stephen Charke himself told me--almost treating him -with deference because he happened to have been born his son, he -afterwards endeavoured to exert a good deal of authority over him, -which led to disagreeables. He wanted the lad to go in for the Army, -and Stephen wanted to go to sea.' - -'And got his way, apparently,' said Bella. - -'He did,' her uncle replied, 'by absolutely running away to sea--just -like a hero in a boy's book.' - -'How lovely!' the girl exclaimed. - -'Ha! humph!' said Pooley, rather doubtfully, he being a man who -entirely disapproved of disobedience in any shape or form from a -subordinate. 'Anyhow, his experiences weren't lovely at first. -They don't take runaways in the best ships, you know. However, -he stuck to it--he had burnt his boats as far as regards his -father--and--well!--he holds a master's certificate now, and he's both -a good sailor and a good fellow. He is in the Naval Reserve, too, and -has had a year in a battleship.' - -'And his father?' Mrs. Waldron asked. 'Are they reconciled?' - -'The old man is dead, and Charke has three or four thousand or so, -which makes him more or less independent. He's a queer fish in one -way, and picks and chooses a good deal as to what kind of ship he will -serve in. For instance, he won't go in a passenger steamer, because, -he says, the mates are either treated with good-natured tolerance or -snubbed by the travellers, and he aims at being an owner. However, as -I said before, he's a good fellow.' - -By this time the cab had forced its way along the Strand amidst -hundreds of similar vehicles, many of which were disgorging -their fares at the various other theatres, and at last, after -receiving a gracious permission to pass from those autocratic -masters of the public--the police stationed at the foot of Wellington -Street--wrenched itself round and pulled up in its turn beneath the -portico of the theatre. - -'There's Charke!' said Pooley, while, as he spoke, a rather tall, -good-looking man of dark complexion, who was irreproachably attired in -evening dress, came up to them and was duly introduced. - -To Bella, whose knowledge of the world--outside the quiet, refined -circle in which she had moved--was small, this man came more as a -surprise than anything else. She knew nothing of the sea, although she -was the daughter of an officer who had been in the Royal Navy, and her -idea of what a 'mate' was like was probably derived from those she had -seen on the Jersey or Boulogne packet-boats, when her mother and she -had occasionally visited these and similar places in the out-of-town -season. Yet Stephen Charke (she supposed because he was a gentleman's -son, and also because of that year in a battleship as an officer of -the R.N.R.) was not at all what she had expected. His quiet, well-bred -tones as he addressed her--with, in their deep, ocean-acquired -strength, that subtle inflexion which marks the difference between the -gentleman and the man who is simply not bad-mannered--took her -entirely by surprise; while the courteous manner in which he spoke, -accompanied by something that proclaimed indubitably his acquaintance, -not only with the world, but its best customs, helped to contribute to -that surprise. So that, as they proceeded towards their stalls, she -found herself reflecting on what a small acquaintance she had with -things in general outside her rather limited circle of vision. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -'LET THOSE LOVE NOW WHO NEVER -LOVED BEFORE' - - -The 'captain' led the way into the five stalls he had booked, -followed, of course, by the elder ladies, and, as Stephen Charke -naturally went last, it fell out that Bella and he sat by each other. -And between the acts, the intervals of which were quite long enough -for sustained conversation to take place, the girl had time to find -her interest in him, as well as her surprise, considerably increased. -She had perused in her time a few novels dealing with the sea, and, in -these, the mates of ships of whom she had read had more or less served -to confirm her opinion, already slightly formed from real life. But, -when Charke began to talk to her about the actual source from which -the play they were witnessing was drawn, she acknowledged to herself -that, somehow, she must have conceived a wrong impression of those -seafarers. Certainly he, she thought, could not be one of the -creatures who cursed and abused the men if they objected to their -food, and threatened next to put them in irons; nor did she remember -that such individuals had ever been depicted in sea stories as knowing -much about the Revolution in France and the vulgar amusements of -Napoleon. - -Then, during the next interval, he approached the subject of the -forthcoming festivities at Portsmouth, to which Bella's uncle had told -him he was going to take his relatives, and from that he glided off -into the statement that he himself would be there. - -'I am going down next Monday,' he said, 'to see one or two of my old -mess-mates of the _Bacchus_--in which I served for a year in the -Channel Squadron--and I fancy I shall be in at most of the functions. -Have you ever been to a naval ball?' - -Bella told him she never had been to one, her mother's intimacy with -the Service having entirely ceased since Captain Waldron's death, and -he then proceeded to give her an account of what these delightful -functions were like. Indeed, so vividly did he portray them that Bella -almost wished they were going on that very night to take part in one. - -When the play was over, she--who acknowledged to herself that which -probably no power on earth would have induced her to acknowledge so -soon to any one else, namely, that Stephen Charke was an agreeable, if -not a fascinating, companion--in company with the others prepared to -return to West Kensington, bidding goodbye to him in the vestibule of -the theatre. - -'Where are you staying?' Mrs. Waldron asked him, as they stood on the -steps waiting for their cab to make its appearance in turn. 'And are -you in London for any time?' - -Charke mentioned the name of a West End caravanserai, at which he had -a room, as his abode for the next day or so, and by doing so he -administered one more shock of surprise to the girl standing hooded -and muffled by his side. For, again, in her ignorance, or perhaps -owing to her reading of nautical novels, she had always thought of the -officers of merchant vessels as living somewhere in the purlieus of -Ratcliffe Highway when ashore, and rarely penetrating farther west -than the city itself. It seemed, however, that either she had formed a -totally erroneous impression of such people, or that the above sources -of information must be wrong if all were really like Mr. Charke. But -then, suddenly, there occurred to her mind the fact that her uncle had -said this young officer was in possession of some few thousand pounds -of his own--and this, probably, would explain why he was living in a -comfortable manner when he was ashore. - -'I am at home to my friends every other Friday,' Mrs. Waldron said, as -now the cab had got to the portico, and a man was bawling out 'Mrs. -Pooley's carriage' at the top of his voice--which announcement, -nevertheless, served the purpose required--'and the day after -to-morrow happens to be one of those Fridays. If you care to -call--though I know gentlemen despise such things--we shall be glad to -see you.' - -'I do not despise them,' Charke answered, 'and I shall be delighted to -come.' - -Then he bade them all good-night, saw the cab off, and strolled down -to his hotel. In his innermost heart Charke did despise such things as -'at homes,' or 'tea fights,' as he termed them contemptuously to -himself, yet, in common with a great many other men, he was willing -enough to go to them when there was any attraction strong enough to -draw him. - -And he told himself that there was an attraction at Mrs. Waldron's -such as he had never been subjected to before. - -'What a lovely girl,' he thought to himself; 'what eyes and hair--and -a nice girl, too! Now I begin to understand why other men curse the -sea, and say they would rather earn their living on shore driving -busses than following our calling. And, also, why they nail up -photographs in their cabins and watch every chance of getting mails -off from the shore. I suppose I should have understood it earlier if I -had ever met a girl like this.' - -He did call on the following Friday, after having passed the -intervening two days in wandering about London; in going to a race -meeting one day and a cricket match at the Oval the next; in trying a -dinner at one foreign restaurant on the Wednesday, and another at a -second foreign restaurant on Thursday; but all the time he felt -restless and unsettled, and wished that four o'clock on Friday was at -hand. - -'This won't do,' he said to himself, before the cricket match on -Thursday was half over, and while he sat baking in the sun that -streamed down on to the Oval--which disturbed him not at all, and had -no power to make him any browner--'this won't do. I must go to sea at -once. By the time I have seen that girl again I shall be head over -ears in love with her. And the interest on £4000 in India Stock--by -Jove! it isn't quite £4000 since I've been loafing about on -shore!--and a chief officer's pay won't keep a wife. Not such a wife -as she would be, anyway.' - -He did not know it--or, perhaps, he did know it and would not -acknowledge it to himself--but he was very nearly head over ears in -love with Bella Waldron already. And he had only seen her once--been -by her side at a theatre for three hours--with three intervals of ten -minutes in which to talk to her! Yet the girl's beauty, her gentle -innocence, and above all, that trusting confidence with which she -seemed to look out upon all that was passing before her, and to regard -the world as what it appeared to be and to take it at its own -valuation, had captured him. Still, he should have known--he must have -known--that when a man who has never thought much of the women he has -met heretofore, and has generally forgotten what their features were -like by the next day, takes to lying awake for hours dreaming at last -of one woman with whom he has by chance come into contact, he is as -nearly in love with her as it is possible for him to be. - -So, at least, those report who have been in love, and so it has been -told to the writer of this narrative! - -He made his way to Montmorency Road, West Kensington, exactly at four -o'clock, and while he sat in the pretty drawing-room talking to Mrs. -Waldron, who was alone at present--the appearance of Bella being -promised by her mother in a few moments--he found himself wondering -what the girl did with her life here. He had seen a bicycle in the -passage as he was shown upstairs, so he supposed she rode that; while -there were some photographs of rather good-looking men standing about -on the semi-grand and on the plush-covered mantelshelf--which made him -feel horribly annoyed, until Mrs. Waldron, seeing his glance fixed on -them, informed him that they were mostly cousins who were out of the -country, and that one or two of them happened to have succumbed to -various climatic disorders abroad, for which catastrophes he did not -seem to feel as sorry as he supposed he ought to do. Then Bella came -in, looking radiantly beautiful in a summer dress (a description of -which masculine ignorance renders impossible), and Stephen Charke was -happy for ten minutes. For they all talked of the impending _fêtes_ -at Portsmouth in honour of the foreign fleet, and Charke found -himself in an Elysium when Bella promised him--without the slightest -self-consciousness or false shame--that she would undoubtedly have -some dances reserved for him. - -Yet, soon, other callers came in, and Stephen Charke found himself -deprived of the pleasure of further conversation with Bella. An -elderly dowager claimed her attention, and a middle-aged lady--of, as -he considered, menacing aspect--regaled him with the evil doings of -her domestic servants, a subject of about as much interest to this -wanderer of the seas as that of embroidery or tatting would have been. -An Irish Doctor of Divinity also disturbed his meditations on Bella's -beauty by telling funny stories, the point of which the divine had -forgotten until he refreshed his memory by reference to a little -note-book in which he had them all written down, while a young militia -subaltern who had failed for the Army--and seemed rather proud of -it!--irritated him beyond endurance. Yet, even through this fatuous -individual, there came something that was welcome to him, since he saw -Bella regarding the youth with a look of scarcely veiled contempt, and -he longed to tell the idiot that the only failure for which women have -no pity in this world is that of the intellect. - -'Goodbye,' he said to Bella, who accompanied him to the head of the -stairs, after he had made his adieux to her mother. 'Goodbye. Next -week--Portsmouth--and--my dances.' - -'I shall not forget,' she said. - -After which he wandered off by devious and intricate ways (which -reminded him of some of the narrow passages he knew of between the -islands in the China seas) and so arrived at the District Railway. - -And all the time he was telling himself that he was a fool--an -absolute fool. 'I have fallen in love with a girl I have only seen -twice,' he meditated, as the train ran through the sulphurous regions -underground, and he endeavoured to protect his lungs by smoking -cigarette after cigarette; 'a girl who is not, and never can be, -anything to me. She will make a good match some day; she must make a -good match--girls of her position and looks always do; and, a year or -two hence, I shall luff into some unearthly harbour abroad, and run -against Pooley, who will tell me that she has done so.' - -Yet, all the same, he took comfort from remembering that he had not -seen anybody at Mrs. Waldron's 'afternoon' who was likely to be the -individual to carry her off. - -But, in spite of this soothing reflection, he braced himself to a -stern resolution: he determined that, as already in his life he had -triumphed over other things, so he would triumph now. He would triumph -over this swift-flowering and still growing love; conquer it by -absence from the object which inspired it; trample it down till there -was nothing left of life in it. - -'I have no money to keep a wife,' he thought, as he walked up from -Charing Cross Station to his hotel; 'certainly no money to keep such a -wife as she would be. And, even if I had, it is not likely that she -would marry me; "a common mate," as I have heard ourselves called. -Portsmouth shall end it,' he concluded. 'I'll have one good week -there, and then to sea again on a long cruise. That ought to do it! -I'll go down to the docks to-morrow and see what's open.' - -Wherefore, full of this determinate resolution to drive from out of -him the frenzy which had taken possession of his heart and mind, he -went to the hotel and read in his bedroom for an hour or so, during -all of which time Bella Waldron's face was looking out at him from the -pages of the _Navy and Army Illustrated_, and was always before him -until he went forth to try still another foreign restaurant. Yet she -was there too, and her pure, innocent eyes were gazing at him across -the imitation flowers and the red candle-shades in the middle of the -table; and so, also, they were in the stalls of the Empire, until he -fell asleep in his seat. Nor was she absent from his mind during the -long hours of the night. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -PORTSMOUTH _EN FÊTE_ - - -The lunch at Whale Island was over, and there was a slight -breathing-space ere the garden-party, which followed it, began. -Meanwhile, from Southsea pier, from down by the pontoon at the foot of -the old Hard, and over from Gosport, picket-boats, steam pinnaces, -and launches--all belonging to Her Majesty's ships lying out at -Spithead--were coming fast, as well as shore boats and numerous other -craft that blackened the waters. And they bore in them a gaily-dressed -crowd of men and women, the ladies being adorned in all those -beauteous garments which they know so well how to assume on such an -occasion; while, among the gentlemen, frock-coats, tall hats, and -white waistcoats, as well as full dress, or 'No. 1' uniform, were the -order of the day. For all these ship's-boats, after putting off from -the battleships and cruisers to which they belonged, had, by order of -the Vice-Admiral commanding the Channel Squadron, called at the -above-named places to fetch off the visitors to the Whale Island -festivities. - -Stephen Charke, in the uniform of the R.N.R., came in the picket-boat -of the _Bacchus_, wherein he had been lunching with the wardroom -officers, and as she went alongside of Southsea pier, and afterwards -at the Old Town pier, he had eagerly scanned the ladies who were -waiting to be taken off. He was not, however, particularly -disappointed or cast down at not seeing the one girl he was looking -out for at either of them, since, in the continual departure of -similar boats, and the running backwards and forwards of these craft -between Whale Island and the landing-stages, it was, of course, hardly -to be supposed that she would happen upon the particular boat in which -he was. - -He saw her, however, directly he, with his companions, had made their -way to the lawn on which the wife of the Port-Admiral was receiving -her guests, and--in so seeing her--he recognised instantly that he was -not going to enjoy his afternoon as much as he had hoped to do. - -'Who's that?' he asked of the Staff-Commander of the _Bacchus_, with -whom he happened to be walking at the moment. 'I mean that -flag-lieutenant talking to the young lady in the white dress?' - -'That?' replied his companion, regarding the young officer indicated. -'Oh, that's Gilbert Bampfyld, flag-lieutenant to the Rear-Admiral. -He's a good chap; I'll introduce you later. A lucky fellow, too. He's -heir to his uncle, Lord D'Abernon. He's all right,' he concluded -inconsequently. - -'I know the young lady,' Stephen said. 'I've been at sea with her -uncle.' - -'Good-looking,' said the Staff-Commander, who was a single man. 'Fine -girl, too. I hope she's coming to the ball.' - -'She is,' Charke replied, and then stood observing her companion from -the little group of which they now formed part. - -Certainly the young officer was 'all right,' if good looks and a manly -figure can entitle any one to that qualification. He was undoubtedly -handsome, with the manliness which women are stated (by authorities -on such matters) to admire: his bright eyes and good complexion, as -well as his clear-cut, regular features, leaving little else to -desire. He was also fairly tall, while, if anything were required to -set off his appearance, it was furnished by his full-dress and his -flag-lieutenant's aiguillettes. He was talking now in an animated way, -as Charke could see easily enough from where he stood by the -refreshment tent; and it was not possible for him to doubt that he was -making himself very interesting to Bella. - -For a moment, Stephen stood hesitating as to whether he should go up -and present himself to the girl who had never been out of his thoughts -since he said 'goodbye' to her in West Kensington; then, while he -still debated the matter in his mind, Bella saw him and smiled and -nodded pleasantly, while she looked--as he thought--as though she -expected he should come up to her. Which of course decided him. - -There was no affectation in the manner wherewith Bella greeted him; in -truth, she was glad to see him and, honestly, as she did everything -else, she said so. - -'I have been looking for you for the last half-hour,' she remarked, as -he reached her side, 'and wondering if you were coming or not'; after -which she introduced Stephen Charke and Gilbert Bampfyld to each -other. Then, some other officers coming up at this moment, more -introductions took place, while Bampfyld said that he must move off. - -'I have escaped from my Admiral for a few moments,' he said, while he -added with a laugh: 'I am not quite sure, however, that he is not -congratulating himself on having escaped from me. I hope, Miss -Waldron,' he added, 'that you have an invitation for the ball?' - -'Yes,' Bella said; and she smiled at Lieutenant Bampfyld's request -that he might not be forgotten on that occasion, though she did not -say positively whether that calamity would occur or not. Then, when he -had moved on to join the distinguished officer to whom it was his duty -to be attached almost as tightly as a limpet to a rock, she said to -Charke, 'Come, now, and see mamma. She is in the shade behind the -tent, and she has found an old friend of father's.' - -But it was so evident that Mrs. Waldron was thoroughly enjoying -herself with that old friend, who was a retired post-captain (she was, -indeed, at the moment of their arrival engaged in reminiscences of the -North American and West Indian stations), that they strolled away -together, and, finding soon another shady seat, sat down and passed an -agreeable hour or so. Wherefore, as you may thus see, Stephen Charke -did spend a happy afternoon, notwithstanding that first apparition of -the flag-lieutenant in converse with the girl who was now never out of -his thoughts. Indeed, it would have been to him a perfect afternoon, -had he not more than once seen Bampfyld (who again appeared to have -escaped from his Admiral!) roaming about the place with a somewhat -disconsolate, as well as penetrating, look upon his face; which look -Charke construed into meaning that the other was seeking for the girl -of whom he himself had now obtained temporary possession. However, -even so, he did not think it necessary to call Bella's attention to -the fact. But we must not tarry over these soft summer beguilements to -which the old naval capital and all in her had given themselves up. -There lie other matters before us--matters which, when they afterwards -occurred, caused three people now partaking of these enjoyments to, -perhaps, cast back their memories,--memories that were not untinged by -regret. Suffice it, therefore, that we hurry on, and passing over -another garden-party which took place at the Military Commandant's, -and an 'at home' given on board the foreign visitors, flagship, as -well as entertainments at which only the male sex were present, we -come to the Naval ball at the Town Hall. - -That was a great night, a night on which, if one may judge by -subsequent events, many loving hearts were made happy; on which, too, -some saw the dawn of the first promise of future happiness--and one -man, at least, was made unhappy. It was a great night! A night no more -forgotten by three people in the days that followed it than was the -garden-party which preceded it by a day or so. - -The First Lord of the Admiralty led off the quadrille with the wife of -the Commander-in-Chief, while the Prince who was in command of the -foreign fleet danced with the First Lord's wife; there being in that -set, round which the other guests formed a vast circle, the most -prominent individuals then present in Portsmouth. And Bella, standing -close by with her hand upon the arm of Stephen Charke, while they -waited for the first dance in which all the guests could participate, -felt that, at last, she knew what a ball was. - -'It isn't quite like a State Ball,' whispered Lieutenant Bampfyld to -them as he passed by with his Admiral, he being qualified to give such -information in consequence of his duties as flag-lieutenant having -often given him the opportunity of attending those great functions, -'but it is much prettier.' Then he disappeared for a time. - -'It could scarcely be prettier than it is,' Bella said to Charke. 'How -has the room been made so beautiful?' - -'The men of the _Vernon_ have done it all,' her companion answered; -'they are good at that sort of thing.' - -As, indeed, they seemed to be, judging by the effect they had -produced. Trophies of arms, flags, devices, life-buoys white as snow, -with the names of vessels belonging both to the visitors and ourselves -painted in gold upon them, decorated the vast room; while, from the -dockyard, had been unearthed old armour and weapons, such as, in these -present days, are forgotten. Also the colour lent by various uniforms, -naval, military, and marine, as well as by flowers and the bouquets -carried by ladies, added to the brilliant scene--while the sombre -black of civilians helped to give a contrast to the bright hues. For -civilians were not forgotten: Admiralty officials, private residents, -special correspondents--with a wary eye on their watches, so that they -might be able to rush over to the Post-office with their last messages -for the great London and provincial papers--were all there. - -'Come,' said Stephen Charke, as the band of the Royal Marines struck -up the first waltz, 'come, Miss Waldron; it is our turn now.' - -And for ten minutes he realised what happiness meant. - -That he would have to resign her for the greater part of the evening, -he knew very well--her programme was already full!--his name appearing -three times on it, and Lieutenant Bampfyld's also three times--yet, -later, he did so none the less willingly for that knowledge. How could -he? He loved the girl with his whole heart and soul--madly! 'I shall -love her always, until I die,' he muttered to himself as he stood -by, seeking no other partner and watching her dancing now with -the flag-lieutenant. Then, next, he saw her dancing with the -flag-lieutenant of the other Admiral--though that did not seem to him -to be so disturbing a matter. 'Till I die!' he repeated again; and -then once more called himself a fool. - -His second dance with her arrived, and once more he was in his seventh -heaven; for the moment he was again supremely happy. - -'I hope I may have the pleasure of taking you in to supper,' he -almost whispered in her ear as they paused for a moment for breath, -and it seemed as if the light of his enjoyment--for that evening at -least--had been suddenly extinguished when she, raising those sweet, -clear eyes to his, exclaimed: - -'Oh, I am so sorry! But I have promised Lieutenant Bampfyld that he -shall do so.' - -For the remainder of the ball Charke did not let a single dance pass -by without taking part in it, and allowed his friends to introduce him -right and left to any lady who happened to require a partner, though -reserving, of course, the one for which he was engaged to Bella at -what would be almost the end of the evening. In fact, as his friend -the Staff-Commander said, 'he let himself go pretty considerably,' and -he so far exemplified that gentleman's remark that he took in to -supper one of the plainest of those middle-aged ladies who happened to -be gracing the ball with their presence. - -Yet this lady found nothing whatever to complain of to herself (to her -friends she would have uttered no complaint of her cavalier, even -though he had been as stupid as an owl and as dumb as a stone, she -being a wary old campaigner), but, instead, thought him a charming -companion. Perhaps, too, she had good reason to do so, since, from the -moment he conducted her across the temporarily constructed bridge -which led from the Town Hall proper to the supper tent erected in a -vacant plot of ground, his conversation was full of smart sayings and -pleasant, though occasionally sub-acid, remarks on things in general. -Yet, naturally, it was impossible that she should know that the -undoubtedly bright and piquant conversation with which he entertained -her was partly produced by his bitterness at seeing Gilbert Bampfyld -and Bella enjoying themselves thoroughly at a table _à-deux_ close by -where he and his partner were seated, and partly by his stoical -determination to 'let things go.' And by, also, another determination -at which he had arrived--namely, to go to sea again at the very first -moment he could find a ship. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -'SO FAREWELL, HOPE!' - -Nine months had passed since the entertainment of the foreign fleet at -Portsmouth--months that had been pregnant with events concerning the -three persons with whom this narrative deals; and Bella sat now, at -the end of a dull March afternoon, in the pretty drawing-room in West -Kensington. She sat there meditating deeply, since she happened to be -alone at the moment, owing to Mrs. Waldron having gone out to pay -several calls. - -Of all who had been at those entertainments, of all in the party -which, in the preceding June, had gathered together at Portsmouth, the -three ladies of the family, Mrs. Waldron, Mrs. Pooley, and Bella, were -alone in England; the three men--the three sailors--were all gone to -different parts of the world. Captain Pooley had sailed with his -vessel to Australia; Stephen Charke had gone to China as first officer -of a large vessel; and Gilbert Bampfyld, who, in consequence of the -Rear-Admiral's retirement, no longer wore the aiguillettes of a -flag-lieutenant, had been appointed to the _Briseus_, on the East -Indian station. - -And Bella, sitting now in her arm-chair in front of the drawing-room -fire, with a letter lying open on her lap before her, was thinking of -the writer of that letter, as well as of all that it contained. If one -glances at it as it lies there before her, much may be gleaned of what -has happened in those nine months; while perhaps, also, some idea, -some light, may be gained of that which is to come. - - -'My Darling,' it commenced (and possibly the writer, far away, may -have hoped that, as he wrote those words, they would be kissed as -often by the person to whom they were addressed as he fondly desired), -'My Darling--Your letter came to me to-day, and I must write back to -you at once--this very instant--not only because I want to put all my -thoughts on paper, but also because I can thus catch the P. and O. -mail. How good! how good you are! While, also, I do not forget how -good your mother is. I know I ought not--at least I suppose I ought -not--to ask you to do such a thing as come out to me, and I can assure -you I hesitated for weeks before daring to do so. Yet, when I -reflected that, if you could not bring yourself to come, as well as -induce your mother to give her consent to your coming, we could not -possibly be married for three years, I could not hesitate any longer. -And now--now--oh, Bella, my darling! I could dance for joy if my cabin -was big enough to allow of such a thing--you are coming! You will -come! How happy we shall be! I can think of nothing else--nothing. You -don't know how I feel, and it's useless for me to try to tell you....' - - -No more need be read of this letter, however, and, since the reader -will shortly be informed of what led to it, nothing more need be said -than that, after a good deal of explanation as to how the young lady -to whom it was addressed was to make her plans for reaching Bombay, it -was signed 'Gilbert Bampfyld.' - -So that one sees now what had been the outcome of that week of delight -at Portsmouth during the last summer; one understands all that had -been the result of those garden-parties and that ball. - -They--the festivities--were followed by a renewal of the -acquaintanceship between Mrs. Waldron and her daughter and Gilbert -Bampfyld, as, indeed, the latter had quite made up his mind should be -the case, and as--since the truth must always be spoken--Bella had -hoped would happen. They were followed, that is to say, directly the -naval man[oe]uvres were over, for which important function both -divisions of the Channel Squadron were of course utilised, while not a -week had elapsed from the time of the return of the ships to their -stations before Gilbert Bampfyld presented himself in Montmorency -Road. And that presentation of himself at this suburban retreat was, -it is surely unnecessary to say, succeeded by many other things, all -showing what was impending and what actually happened later on. -Gilbert Bampfyld told Bella that he loved her and wanted her for his -wife, and--well, one can imagine the rest. What was there to stand -between those loving hearts? What? Nothing to impede their engagement, -nothing that need have impeded their immediate marriage, except the -fact that Bella's maiden modesty could never have been brought to -consent to a union so hurriedly entered into as would have been -necessary, had she agreed to become Gilbert's wife ere he set out for -Bombay to join the _Briseus_, to which he was now appointed. - -One regrets, however, when describing such soft and glowing incidents -as these, that space is so circumscribed (owing to the canvas having -to be filled with larger events now looming near) as to leave no room -for more minute description of this love idyl. It would have been -pleasant to have dwelt upon Bella's ecstatic joy at having been asked -to be the wife of the one man--the first man--whose love she had ever -desired (ah, that is it--to be the first man or the first girl who has -ever touched the heart of him or her we worship); only it must not -be--the reader's own imagination shall be asked to fill the missing -description. Let those, therefore, who remember the earliest whispered -word of love they ever spoke or had spoken to them; who recall still -the first kiss they ever gave or took; and those who can remember, -also, all the joy that came to them when first they loved and knew -themselves beloved, fill the hiatus. That will suffice. - -'We shall be so happy, dearest,' Gilbert said, when all preliminaries -had been arranged in so far as their engagement was concerned, and -when he did not know at the time that he was about to be sent on -foreign service, but hoped that he would either be allowed to remain -in the Channel Squadron or be transferred to the Training Squadron, -or, at worst, appointed to the Mediterranean. 'We shall be so happy, -darling. I hoped from the first to win you--though--though sometimes I -feared there might be some one else.' - -'There could never have been any one else. Never, after I had once met -you,' she murmured. 'Oh, Gilbert!' and then she, too, said she was so -happy. Yet a moment later she whispered: 'But, somehow, it seems too -good to be true. All has come so easily in the way that I--well, as -we--desired, that sometimes I think there may be--that something may -arise to--to----' - -'What--prevent our marriage? Nothing can do that. Nothing could have -done that--nothing!' - -'Suppose your uncle, Lord D'Abernon, had objected?' she said, -remembering that she had heard how this nobleman was not always given -to making things quite as easy and comfortable to those by whom he was -surrounded as was considered desirable. 'Suppose that had happened?' - -'Oh, he's all right,' Gilbert replied. 'He expected his opinion to be -asked and his consent obtained, and all that sort of thing, but, -outside that, he's satisfied. And if he wasn't, it wouldn't have made -any difference to me--after I had once seen you.' For which remark he -was rewarded with one of those chaste salutes which Bella had learnt -by now to bestow without too much diffidence. As regards Mrs. -Waldron--well, she was a mother, and it was not to be supposed that -such a distinguished match as Bella was about to make could be aught -but satisfactory to her; while Captain Pooley, who had not yet -departed with the _Emperor of the Moon_ for Australia, told his niece -that she was a lucky girl. He also informed Gilbert that, as he was a -childless man, Bella would eventually fall heiress to anything he and -his wife might leave behind them. Matters looked, therefore, as though -they would all go merry as the proverbial marriage bell. All, as the -old romancists used to say, was very well. - -Then fell the first blow--the one that was to separate those two fond -hearts. Gilbert was suddenly appointed to the _Briseus_ and ordered to -proceed to Bombay to join her at once, and a fortnight later he was -gone, and poor Bella was left behind lamenting. - -She was sitting, lamenting still, before her fire on this March day, -with this newly-arrived letter on her lap--in solemn truth, she had -been lamenting his departure ever since it had taken place--when, -suddenly, there broke in upon her ears the sound of a visitor's knock -below. Then, ere she could distinguish whose voice was addressing the -servant who had answered the door, she heard a manly footstep on the -stairs, and, a moment later, the maidservant announced: 'Mr. Charke.' -Mr. Charke! the man whose memory had almost faded from her mind--as -she had reproached herself for more than once, when it did happen to -recur to her--the man whom she had learnt to like so much during all -that happy time last year. Now, as she gazed on him, and noticed how -brown he was as he came forward--more deeply browned, indeed, than she -had thought it possible for him, who was already so tanned and -sunburnt, to be--and noticed, too, the strong, self-reliant look on -his face, she reproached herself again. She acknowledged, also, that -she had liked him so much that even her new-found happiness ought not -to have driven all recollection of him entirely from her mind. - -Then she greeted him warmly, saying all the pleasant little words of -welcome that a woman whose heart goes in unison with her good breeding -knows how to say; and made him welcome. Yet, as she did so, she -observed that he was graver, more sad, it seemed to her, than she had -ever remarked before. - -'You are not ill?' she asked, as this fact became more and more -apparent to her. 'Surely, you, a sailor, have not come back from the -sea unwell? At least I hope not.' - -'No,' he said, 'no. Nor, I hope, do I seem so. Do you know that, -besides any desire to call and see you, I came for another purpose?' -and now his eyes rested on her with so strange a light--so mournful, -deep a light--that in a moment her woman's instinct told her what he -meant as plainly as though his voice had done so. - -Like a flash of lightning, that instinct revealed to her the fact that -this man loved her; that, from the moment they had parted, months ago, -she had never been absent from his mind. She knew it; she was certain -she was right--she could not be deceived! Then to herself she said: -'Heaven help him--Heaven prevent him from telling me so.' - -But aloud, her heart full of pity, she said: 'Indeed,' and smiled -bravely on him while she spoke. 'Indeed, what was that purpose?' - -'To congratulate you. To---- - -'Congratulate me!' - -'Yes. I met the _Emperor of the Moon_ at Capetown. We were both -homeward bound. And--and--your uncle told me the news. I offer my -congratulations now.' Yet, as he said the words, she saw that his face -was turned a little aside so that she could not perceive his eyes. -Congratulations! Well, they might be sincere in so far as that, -because he loved her, he wished her well and desired that she should -be happy, but--but--otherwise--no! it was not to be thought upon. - -As he said the words: 'I congratulate you,' he followed an old -custom--one more foreign than English--and held out his hand, taking -hers. And he kept it, too, fast in his own, while he said in the voice -that his struggles with the elements had made so deep and sonorous: - -'Yes, I congratulate you. I must do that. To--to--see you happy--to -know you are so, is all that I have--all--I hope for now. Yet -there is no treachery to him in what I say. Heaven help me! I mean -none--but--but--I--from the first--I have lo----' - -'No, no,' she murmured, striving to withdraw her hand, yet not doing -so angrily. 'No, no. Don't say it, Mr. Charke. Don't, pray don't.' -And, now, neither could he see her eyes nor her averted face. 'Don't -say it. You do not desire to make me unhappy?' she murmured. - -'Never, as God hears me. But--I have said it. I had to say it. -Goodbye.' - -'Goodbye,' she said--and then, as he neared the door, she turned once -and looked at him with eyes that were full of intense pity and -compassion. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -'AND BEND THE GALLANT MAST, MY BOYS' - - -Events are now drawing near to that night when Bella was to have those -distressing dreams which have been mentioned at the opening of this -narrative; all was arranged for her departure to Bombay. A little -more, and she will be on her way to India and to wedlock. - -Yet all had not been quite easy and smooth in the settlement of -affairs. At first, Mrs. Waldron, good, loving mother though she was, -and fully cognisant of the facts--namely, that Bella loved Lieutenant -Bampfyld madly and would be an unhappy woman if she did not become his -wife long ere three years had passed, and that the match which her -child was about to make was undoubtedly a brilliant one--refused to -hear of such a thing as that she should go out to him. - -'If you are worth having,' she said, when first the proposal was -submitted to her, 'you are surely worth coming for.' And, since this -was a truism, it was hardly to be gainsaid. Yet, as we know by now, -she had been won over by her daughter's pleadings and entreaties; by, -too, the plain and undeniable fact that there was not the slightest -possibility of Lieutenant Bampfyld being able to come home to -marry her, or to return to England in any way--short of being -invalided--until the _Briseus_ herself returned. - -Then, no sooner had this difficulty been surmounted than another -reared its head before mother and daughter. How was she to go out to -Bombay alone and unprotected? A young married woman, who had to -proceed to India to join her husband, might very well undertake such a -journey, but not a young single woman such as Bella was, while for -chaperon or protectress there was no one forthcoming. At first, it is -true, Mrs. Waldron had meditated accompanying Bella herself (she being -an old sailor, to whom long sea voyages were little more than railway -journeys are to some more stay-at-home ladies); only, down in the -depths of her nature, which was an extremely refined one, there was -some voice whispering to her that it would be indelicate to thus bring -her daughter out in pursuit of her affianced husband. It is true, -however, that authorities on social etiquette who have since been -consulted have averred that this was a false feeling which was in -possession of Mrs. Waldron's mind; but be that as it may, it existed. -Then, too, she still regarded the matter of her child going to her -future husband, instead of that husband coming to fetch her, as one of -particular delicacy; one of such nicety as to permit of no -elaboration; and she resolved that, come what might--even though she -should have to purchase, or hire rather, the services of an elderly -and austere travelling companion--she must not herself accompany -Bella. - -'Heaven knows what is to be done,' she said to her daughter, as they -discussed the important point, 'but I suppose it will come to that'; -the 'that' meaning the hired chaperon. Then she sighed a little, -remembering how the late Captain Waldron had encompassed thousands of -miles in a voyage which he made from the Antipodes to espouse her. - -Yet, ere many days had passed, the clouds of obstruction were -suddenly removed in a manner which seemed almost--as the fond mother -stated--providential. Captain Pooley's ship had followed home, after a -week or so of interval, that in which Stephen Charke had returned to -England, and its arrival was soon succeeded by his own in Montmorency -Road. - -'Going out to him to be married!' he exclaimed, after his sister--who -happened to be alone at the time of his visit--had made him acquainted -with what she had given her consent to some two or three months -before, on Gilbert's application backed up by Bella's supplications, -and which consent she had moaned over inwardly ever since she had so -given it. 'Going out to be married, eh? Why, she must want a husband -badly!' Yet, because he knew well enough the customs of Her Majesty's -service and the impossibility which prevailed in that service of an -officer coming home to marry his bride, he did not repeat her words, -'If she is worth having, she is worth coming for.' - -'So other people have thought, if they have not openly said so,' Mrs. -Waldron replied. 'I am sure they must have thought so. Yet,' she went -on, with determination, 'I have agreed to it, and I cannot retract my -word. It is given, and must be kept. No, it is not that which troubles -me.' - -'What, then?' - -'Why, the getting out. How is the child to go alone, in a great liner, -with two or three hundred passengers, all the way to Bombay? How?' she -repeated. - -'Bombay, eh? Bombay. Oh, well, if that's her destination, she can go -comfortably enough. There need be no trouble about that. Only she will -be more than double the time the P. and O., or any other line, would -take to carry her.' - -'What do you mean, George?' - -'Why,' he said, 'I happen to be taking the old _Emperor_ to Bombay -next month with a general cargo--calling at the Cape on the way. She -can go with me, and welcome. There's a cabin fit for a duchess which -she can have.' - - * * * * * * - - -It was a cabin fit for a duchess, as Bella and her mother acknowledged -when, a fortnight later, they went down to Gravesend to inspect the -_Emperor of the Moon_, and after it had been decided in solemn family -conclave that, by this ship, the former should make the voyage to -India. And it was more than likely that the girl would make it under -particularly pleasant circumstances, since this was one of those -occasions on which Mrs. Pooley had decided to accompany her husband, -she not having felt very well during the past winter. At present, the -cabin was empty and denuded of everything, Pooley having decided to -have it refurnished; but when he told them how that furniture would be -arranged in the great roomy place, which would have been dignified as -a 'state-room' in one of the old clippers, Bella said again, as she -had said so often before, that 'he was the best old uncle in the -world.' - -Now the _Emperor of the Moon_ was a smart, though old-fashioned, -full-rigged ship of about six hundred tons, her lines being perfect, -while leaving her full of room inside. Her saloon was a comfortable -one, well furnished with plush-covered chairs and benches--the -covering being quite new; a piano--also looking new--was lashed to the -stem of the mizzen-mast, while there were swinging vases, in which, no -doubt, fresh ferns and flowers would be placed later. On deck she was -very clean and white, with much brass and everything neat and -shipshape, while the seaman who should regard her bows and stern would -at once acknowledge that she left little to desire, old as she was. -For, in the days when she was laid, they built ships with a view to -both sea qualities and comfort, and the _Emperor of the Moon_ lacked -neither. Her sleeping-cabins were bedrooms, her saloon was a -dining-room as good as you would find in a fifty-pound-a-year suburban -residence, and her masts would have done credit to one of Her -Majesty's earlier ships. - -Altogether, Bella was pleased with everything, especially with her -cabin, which was on the port side of the saloon, and she was, besides, -pleasantly excited at the idea of so long a sailing voyage. - -'I know,' she said to her uncle, 'that we shall have a delightful time -of it, and for companionship I shall have you and auntie. That's -enough.' - -'You will have some one else, too,' Pooley said, with a smile; 'you -know I have two officers. Come'--and again he smiled--'it is our "lay -days,"' by which he meant that they were shipping their cargo. 'Come, -I will introduce them to you.' Then he led the way up the companion to -the deck. - -They met one of these officers, the second mate, a young man whom -Pooley introduced as Mr. Fagg, and then, while they were all talking -together, Bella heard a deep, low voice behind her say: 'How do you -do, Miss Waldron?' A voice that caused her to start as she turned -round to find herself face to face with Stephen Charke. - -'You!' she exclaimed involuntarily. 'You! Are you going on this -voyage?' - -'I am first officer,' he said. 'I wanted a berth, and Captain Pooley -has given me one.' And amidst her uncle's joyous laughter and his -remark that he knew this would be a pleasant surprise for Bella, and -while, too, Mrs. Waldron said that she was delighted to think he would -be in the ship to look after her daughter, that daughter had time to -think herself--to reflect. - -In her heart, she would far rather that Charke had not been here; -while she wondered, too, how he could have brought himself to accept -his present position, knowing, as he must have known, that she was -going in the ship. - -'It is so vain, so useless,' she thought; 'and can only lead to -discomfort. We shall both feel embarrassed all the way. Oh, I wish he -were not coming!' Then, although she pitied him, and although she had -always liked him, she resolved that, through the whole of the time -they were together in the ship, she would see as little of Stephen -Charke as possible. - -'You do not object to my presence, I hope?' he said a moment later, as -they both stood by the capstan alone--Pooley and his wife and sister -having moved off forward. 'I should be sorry to think that my being -here was disagreeable to you. I have to earn my living, you know.' - -'What right could I have to object, Mr. Charke?' - -'Perhaps you think I have behaved indiscreetly?' - -For a moment she let her eyes fall on him and rest upon his own; then -she said: 'I will not give any opinion. You have to earn your living, -as you say; while as for me--well, you know what I am going to India -for.' - -'Yes,' he answered. 'I do know.' After which he added: 'Do not be -under any wrong impression. I shall not annoy you. I am the chief -officer of this ship and you are a passenger. That is, I understand, -how the voyage is to be made?' - -'If you please,' Bella replied very softly, and the tones of her voice -might well have brought some comfort to him, if anything short of the -possession of her love could have done so. - -A fortnight or three weeks later the pilot had left the _Emperor of -the Moon_, the lee main braces were manned, the ship was lying over -under her canvas, the wind was well astern. Bella was on her way to -India and her lover! - -Let us pass over this parting between mother and child, the fond -embraces, the tears and sobs which accompanied that parting following -after the dawn when we first made the girl's acquaintance, and -following, too, that night of unrest and disturbing dreams. No -description of such partings is necessary; many of us, young and old, -men and women, have had to make them; to part from the loved, -gray-haired mother who has sobbed on our breast ere we went forth to -find our livelihood, if not our fortune, in a strange world; many of -us have had to let the child of our longings and our hopes and prayers -go forth from us who have sheltered and nurtured it--from us who have -perhaps prayed God night and day that, in His mercy, it might never -leave our side. We go away ourselves because we must; also they go -from us because they must; and there is nothing but the same hope left -in all our hearts--the hope that we shall not be forgotten--that, as -the years roll by, those we have left behind will keep a warm spot for -us in their memory, or that those who have left us behind will -sometimes turn their thoughts back longingly to us in our desolation. -It has to be, and it has to be borne; alas, that parting is the -penalty we all have to pay for having ever been permitted to be -together. - -And, so, across the seas, the stout old _Emperor of the Moon_ went; -buffeting with the Channel, throwing aside the rough waves with her -forefoot as though she despised them, sinking England and home behind -her with every plunge she made. - -And at the moment that she was leaving the Lizard far away astern of -her, and was running well out into the Atlantic, a telegram was -delivered in Montmorency Road addressed to Bella, which was opened by -her mother. A telegram signed 'Gilbert,' which ran: 'Don't start. -_Briseus_ appointed to East Coast Africa, slaver catching.' A telegram -that had come three days too late! A telegram that was re-forwarded to -Capetown, where it lay for forty-seven days awaiting the arrival of -the _Emperor of the Moon_, and, then,--was forgotten! - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -'AN OCEAN WAIF' - - -From the time the men had sheeted home the topsails as the _Emperor of -the Moon_ got under way until now when, having left the Cape of Good -Hope behind her, she was travelling through the water at a very fair -speed and with her head set due north, scarcely anything had occurred -much worthy of note. Soon--after the first two days had passed, during -which time Bella had lain flat in her berth in the large roomy cabin -provided for her by her uncle, while his wife had administered to her -odd glasses of champagne, little cups of rich, succulent soup, and -such like delicacies--the girl was able to reach the deck. And, once -there and under an awning stretched from the ensign staff to past the -mizzen-mast, she would sit and meditate for hours on the forthcoming -meeting with her lover which was drawing nearer and nearer with each -plunge of the Emperor's forefoot into the sapphire sea. Sometimes, -too, she would read aloud a novel to Mrs. Pooley, who, perhaps because -she was good and motherly, and fat, would listen to nothing but the -most romantic love-stories which the vivid brains of fashionable -novelists could turn out; though, when alone, and reading for her own -amusement, Bella would pore over books of adventure in wild parts of -the world, or devour some of the histories of marine voyages which her -uncle possessed in his neat mahogany bookcases below. - -Of Stephen Charke she saw, of course, a good deal, as it was natural -she should do. You cannot be in a ship, however large or small, -without seeing much of all on board; but when it comes to sitting down -every twenty-four hours to what Captain Pooley called 'four square -meals a day, with intervals between for refreshments,' you must not -only be brought into constant touch with your companions, but also -enter into much discourse with them. Yet, as the girl told herself, -Charke was behaving well, extremely well; so that, gradually, she lost -all sense of discomfort that would otherwise have arisen through being -thrown continuously into his society, and, ere long, she would observe -his approach without the slightest tremor of susceptibility. Soon, -too, she began to acknowledge to herself that Stephen was a gentleman -in his feelings, and that, no matter what his sentiments might be -towards her--if they existed still and were unchanged from what they -had once been--he at least knew how to exercise that control over them -which a gentleman should be capable of. Until now, he had never said -one word to her that any other person might not have uttered who had -found himself thrown into her society on board the _Emperor of the -Moon_, nor had he unduly sought her presence or, being in it, -endeavoured to remain there as long as it was possible. - -Nothing of much note had occurred thus far on the voyage, it has been -said; yet there had of course been some of those incidents without -which no voyage of any distance is ever made. Once through the Bay, -and, while they ran swiftly south, they had found themselves in a -dense fog--a most unusual thing in such a latitude and at such a time -of year; then, upon the top of that fog, there had sprung up a stiff -breeze which gradually developed into a gale, so that, from clewing -the main royal to furling the top-gallant sails of the mizzen and -foremasts was but the action of a moment, as was the next work of -taking in the main top-gallant sail. And thus, ere long, Bella had her -first experience of what a storm at sea was like, and, as she heard -the live stock grunting and squealing forward; the ship's furniture -more or less thundering about wherever it could get loose; the -piano--on which, only the night before, she had played the -accompaniment to her uncle's deep bass voice as he trolled out 'In -Cellar Cool'--thumping heavily against the bulkhead to which it was -usually lashed, and the cries of the sailors as they uttered words -which might not, perhaps, be properly denominated as 'cries, alone, -she began to wonder how her darling Gilbert could ever have chosen -such a calling. While, too, the streaming planks when, at last, she -ventured on deck, the dull sepia clouds and the mournful look of the -Emperor herself, under reefed topsails, foresail, fore topmast -staysail, main trysail and spanker, as she rolled and yawed about in -the troughs and hollows of the sea, and took the water first over one -bow and then over another--and then, for a change, over her stem--only -increased that wonder. - -Yet, lo! the next morning--for the sea is a great quick-change artist, -volatile and variable as a flirt, though too often as tragic as Medea -herself--when Bella looked out of her scuttle, against which the green -water now slapped boisterously but not viciously--all was changed. A -bright sun shone down from the blue heavens, the ship had still got a -roll on her, though not an unpleasant one--and the girl felt hungry. -Which was as good a sign that the storm was over as could well be -wished for. - -'It has been a rough night,' Stephen Charke said, as he rose from his -breakfast on her entrance to the saloon, helped her to her chair, and -bade the steward bring coffee and hot rolls and bacon--all of which -were already perfuming the air. 'Your uncle is now on deck. We have -been there all night.' - -'I thought,' said Bella, pouring out her coffee and smiling -pleasantly, since now all fear had departed from her mind that Charke -would misconstrue any friendly marks of intimacy she might be disposed -to graciously bestow on him, 'that I was at the end of my journey. -Indeed, that we all were; that it was brought to a sudden end; -accomplished. That----' - -'That,' said Stephen, smiling too, sadly enough, yet enhancing -wonderfully his dark, handsome looks by doing so, 'that perhaps Mr. -Bampfyld might miss his bride!' - -For a moment Bella's hazel eyes flashed at him, and he thought how -wondrously beautiful they looked as they did so--then a serious -expression came on her face. While, after pausing a moment, as though -scarcely knowing what answer to make or whether she should make one at -all, she said: 'Yes. That he might miss his bride. My death, and that -alone, could cause him to do so.' And as she spoke she looked Stephen -straight in the face, while feeling again--to her regret--that old -sentiment of doubt of him which she had come to believe she had -conquered and subdued. - -'His death would cause the same result,' he answered, speaking slowly, -hesitatingly, for in truth he felt as if he were treading on dangerous -ground. And in a moment he found such was the case. - -'Mr. Charke,' the girl said, very quietly now, 'I should be so much -obliged to you if, during the remainder of our journey together, you -will neither discuss my affairs nor those of my future husband, nor -him. It will make the voyage pleasanter to me if you will do that.' - -As she spoke, the bell struck two, and, since the watches had been -disorganised by the storm of the night, that sound meant that Captain -Pooley would now come below for his breakfast, and his place above be -taken by the mate. Therefore, he turned towards the stairs, muttering: -'I beg your pardon, I am sure. Pray forgive me. I will not offend -again.' Then he disappeared on to the deck. - -Yet an hour later he stood by her side beneath the awning, and now he -was directing her attention to something that, a mile off, was the -object of attention from every one on board. The captain and his wife -were both regarding it fixedly; so, too, were the men forward; the -only persons not present being, of course, the watch below and the -second mate, Mr. Fagg, who had now turned in. - -'What do you make it out to be?' asked Pooley of Stephen, as they -still gazed at it. 'It is not a baby nor a child; yet it is scarcely -bigger than the first. Can it be a dog?' - -'No,' said Charke authoritatively, as though his younger eyesight was -not to be disputed; 'it is either a young tiger or a panther cub -afloat on a water-cask. There has been a wreck during the night, I -expect, and it has got adrift. Perhaps,' he said, 'if we cruise around -a bit we may find some human life to save.' - -'How should it be aboard any ship?' asked the captain. 'Who takes -tigers or panthers for passengers?' - -'Plenty of people,' Charke answered quietly. 'They are brought home to -sell to the menageries and zoos. A cub like that is worth twenty -pounds--worth looking after. Guffies bring them home sometimes, -sailors often. Meanwhile,' he added, 'according to the set of the -waves, that thing will be alongside us in a quarter of an hour. I'll -bet a day's pay it strikes the ship betwixt the main and mizzen -channels.' - -'Oh,' exclaimed Mrs. Pooley and Bella together, 'do let us save it and -get it on board! It will,' said the latter, 'be such a lovely -plaything--and such a curiosity! Fancy a girl from West Kensington who -has never had a plaything or pet more stupendous than a canary, a cat, -or a fox-terrier, having a tiger. Why,' she exclaimed, with a laugh -which gave to her short upper lip an appearance of tantalising beauty, -'Una will be outdone by me--a girl of the nineteenth century!' - -Tantalising or not as that smile might be, it led to the salvation of -the cub; for, with a swift look at the captain which was meant to ask -for his assent, Charke called to one of the sailors to get over into -the channels and down on to the fourth futtock, he telling him with -wonderful accuracy the exact spot where the water-cask would strike -the stationary ship. Five minutes later, that which he had calculated -with such precision came to pass, the cask touched the vessel's side -almost immediately beneath the man's feet, and, in another moment, the -cub had been caught by its loose skin in the exact middle of its back -and hauled up, squealing, spitting and scratching, on to the deck. - -'The little beast!' exclaimed the mate, as he sucked the back of his -hand where the creature had clawed him; 'the little beast! this is a -pretty reward for our saving it from drowning!' and he administered a -sound kick to the thing as it lay on the deck. So sound and rousing a -one, indeed, that it gave a grunt of pain, and, with its claws--about -as big, or bigger, than those of a good-sized cat--endeavoured to -fasten on to his legs. While, from its yellow, scintillating eyes, it -emitted a glance of such malignant ferocity as, had it been more fully -grown, might have alarmed a braver man than he. - -'Oh, how cruel to kick that poor little half-drowned thing!' Bella -exclaimed reproachfully; 'it never meant to hurt you, only it was -frightened. Poor little thing!' she said again, and, even as she -spoke, she knelt down on the deck and stroked the wet, striped ball -that lay there. And it seemed as if her gentleness had some power to -soothe whatever ferocious instincts--still dormant and undeveloped at -present--were smouldering within it. For, instead of now using its -paws as weapons with which to strike out and attack anything near it, -it played with her as a kitten plays with a ball, tapping at her hand -and trying to catch it, and pushing and kicking against her with its -hind legs. - -'You see,' she said, looking up at Charke with a glance in which she -could not disguise her dislike of his violence, 'you see, at present, -at least, it does not try to harm those who treat it well.' - -'Yes,' he said, 'I see.' Then he added, half-bitterly, half-morosely: -'No one doubts your powers of fascination, Miss Waldron.' - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -'HIS NAME IS--WHAT?' - - -The saving of this creature, which Bella elected to call Bengalee, -because she said she was sure it came from Bengal, and also because -she had once sung a song having that name, was followed by no other -events of any importance whatever. Nor need their stay at the Cape be -dwelt upon, because it consisted simply of various visits which were -paid in the outskirts by Mr. and Mrs. Pooley, accompanied by Bella; by -the unloading of a considerable portion of the cargo of the _Emperor -of the Moon_, and by the refilling of the hold with other goods -saleable in India. - -And, now, they were once more on their way towards the Equator, going -due north instead of due south, as when they had last approached it, -and with a cool southern breeze driving the Emperor along under full -sail. Yet, so gentle was this breeze that, even if there had been any -who were not sailors in the ship--as Bella, as well as Mrs. Pooley, -might now well be considered, after the length of voyage she had -already gone through, added to a few extra days and nights of -turbulence and storm--scarcely would they have felt any inconvenience -from the motion. Thus, therefore, with occasionally a dropping of the -wind which reduced their speed a few knots, and, sometimes, with a -total drop in it, so that they did not progress a knot an hour, while -the ship swung slowly round and round the compass, they found -themselves at the time which is about to be described in about -Latitude 45.10 S., and Longitude 30.50 E., or, as near as may be, -about 250 miles to the S.W. of Mauritius. - -Wherefore, since the _Emperor of the Moon_ has arrived thus far in the -Indian Ocean there has now to be set down a series of strange events -which befell her, of so remarkable and peculiar a nature that one -wonders that those events have never been chronicled before. For, far -different from the ordinary stress and disasters which overtake ships -at sea were those which have to be described; far different from those -which the recorders of maritime calamities are in the habit of -chronicling either in romance or dry-as-dust descriptions of facts. - -All of which the writer now proceeds to relate, beginning with so -strange a coincidence as, perhaps, none but those readers who, in -their voyage through life, have recognised that truth is more strange -than the wildest fiction, will be willing to allow within the bounds -of likelihood. However, to make a beginning--since the coincidence is -true--the _Emperor of the Moon_ was in those latitudes above described -when, it being a bright hot morning with the sea already gleaming like -molten brass, with the pitch between the planks already of the -consistency of putty, and with the brasswork in such a state of heat -that it was unsafe to touch it unless one wanted to leave the skin of -his palms and fingers behind them, the look-out on the fo'c's'le head -yelled: 'Sail, right ahead!' Now, since nothing of this kind, neither -steamer nor sailing vessel, had been seen since they had northed out -of the west-wind drift, and since, also, the liners were rarely found -outside of the Equatorial current, this cry was sufficient to fill -every one on board with a considerable amount of interest and -excitement. - -'Whereaway?' called out Charke, who was on the poop at this moment, -the captain, his wife, and Bella being below at breakfast; and, ere -the man could repeat that the sail was right ahead and about five -miles off, all those others there had come on deck. - -'How pretty it looks, shining in the sun!' the girl exclaimed, as she -regarded it through a pair of marine glasses which her uncle had -placed at her disposal; 'and how the sail glistens! It looks like a -star.' - -'Humph!' said the captain, as he gazed through his binocular. 'Like a -star! True enough, so it does. And,' he said, addressing the two mates -who were standing near him, 'we have seen such stars hereabouts -before, eh? Do you think,' he went on, addressing Charke, lowering his -voice a little, 'it is one of those?' - -'Don't know,' Charke said, working his own glass a good deal. 'Can't -see how it can be; too far to the east. Bussorah, Muscat, Ras-el-Had, -Mohamrah, Oman--that's their mark. What should they be doing here?' - -'All the same,' exclaimed Pooley, 'it's the rig, and the true shape, -that of a Jargonelle pear cut in half. I do believe that's what it is. -They might have been blown out of their course, you know, or chased by -one of Her Majesty's ships. What do you think?' - -'I think,' said Charke, who always spoke of everything connected with -his calling in the most unemotional manner possible, 'I think we shall -know when we come up to her, as we must do in about half an hour. -While,' he continued, with a subdued tone in his voice, while his eye -glinted sideways towards where Bella stood, 'we are not naval officers -but only humble merchant seamen. There's no prize-money for us, -therefore it is not our business.' - -Bella had, of course, been listening attentively to all that had been -said since she had come on deck after running lightly up the poop -ladder, and now, hearing these words about 'naval officers' and -'prize-money,' her interest became more intense than before. - -'Oh, uncle!' she exclaimed, putting her hand on his sleeve, 'what does -it all mean? Naval officers and prize-money! That's not one of Her -Majesty's ships?' - -'No, my dear,' the captain replied, 'that is not one of Her Majesty's -ships; but I shall be precious surprised if she doesn't turn out to be -one of the very craft that Her Majesty's ships are always on the -look-out for hereabouts, only rather closer in towards the African -coast than this. She has all the build of an Arab slave-dhow.' - -'Ay,' exclaimed Charke, who was still using his glass freely, from -where he stood behind them. 'Ay, and something more than the build, -too. If I'm not mistaken, her hatches have open gratings. What do you -say, Fagg?' turning to his junior. - -'Seems so, sir,' said that young officer, who never wasted more words -than necessary, 'though I'm not quite sure.' - -'I am,' replied Charke. 'I can see the grating slits perfectly as we -get nearer.' - -'What does that mean?' asked Bella, to whom this conversation conveyed -nothing. - -'It means,' said Pooley, 'that there is live stock below those -gratings. Black cattle, as they used to be called on the West Coast. -Ordinary hatches, to simply cover up cargo, are not made to let the -air in. Cargo can do without breathing.' - -'How awful!' Bella exclaimed, while through her mind there ran -recollections of what she had heard or read casually of the slave -trade in the old days, and also of the horrors of the North-West -passage. 'How awful!' - -'Bad enough,' replied Pooley, 'though not as bad as the old West -African days, nor as shocking as you might think. The slave trade is a -valuable one in this ocean, and those who are carried in the dhows are -well enough fed. Rice, Indian corn, maize, and cassava is given them -for food, and they have mats and matting galore to sleep on. Persian -merchants and Arab gentlemen don't buy starved scarecrows for their -domestic servants.' - -'Whatever she is, and whatever her cargo is, there's something wrong -with her,' the chief mate suddenly exclaimed. 'She's off the wind now, -and the fellow who was at the helm has left it. It is abandoned. By -Jove!' he exclaimed, 'he is lying wriggling by it. What on earth's the -matter?' - -'And,' added the second mate, 'there's a negro woman waving a red -scarf. Something's wrong there, no doubt.' - -'We shall be up to them in ten minutes,' the master said, all bustle -and excitement now. 'Let go the foretack. Stand by to lower the -starboard-quarter boat'; while, as he spoke, the men of the watch who -had been leaning on the fife-rail rushed to the falls to be ready to -let the boat sink to the water when the proper moment came. To Bella -this seemed the most exciting moment of her life! There, in front of -her, was one of those vessels, the name of which, or class of which, -was almost unknown to her, except that, from odds and ends of -conversation with her lover, she had gathered that these were the -things in the chasing of which part of his existence might be passed -until they met once more at Bombay. Here, on this glistening, glassy -sea, the dhow lay--her one mast raking towards her bow instead of her -stern, as is the case with most vessels of the Western world, and her -long white triangle of a sail unfilled and flapping listlessly. A -dhow--perhaps a slaver! as her uncle and the mate had said--a dhow in -sore distress with, writhing by her helm, the man who had lately been -steering her, and, over her bow, that negro woman waving frantically -the red scarf. Excitement there was, indeed, in all this; excitement -which caused Bella, even as she eagerly watched the vessel they were -approaching, to wonder how the striking up of the band at a ball, or -the ring of the prompter's bell ere the curtain rose on a drama that -all London was flocking to see, could have ever stirred her pulses. -What were they, those trivialities, to the smiling, glistening face of -this Eastern sea--to the horror and the cruelties that this now -tranquil ocean's bosom had enfolded through the ages. - -Still the negress waved, not recognising, perhaps, in her blind, -besotted, dumb, animal-like ignorance that help was at hand, and -still, through their glasses, they could see that he who had steered -the dhow now lay motionless. Then, at her ear, as the _Emperor_ came -within six cable-lengths of the dhow, her uncle gave a few rapid -orders, the second mate, accompanied by the boat's crew, jumped into -the quarter-boat--the man at the wheel luffed until the vessel had not -a motion in her. Swiftly the boat was lowered, the rudder and thole -pins shipped, and she was on her way to the dhow. - -'What do you make of it?' the master roared to Fagg ten minutes later, -as, by then, the _Emperor of the Moon_ had come closer to the dhow -through the motion of the swell. 'What?' - -'I don't know what to make of it, sir,' the second mate called back. -'The man who was steering is, I think, dead. He does not move, and -there is a white film over his eyes. The woman who waved the -handkerchief seems well, but I cannot understand what she means. She -does nothing but howl and point below.' - -'Are the hatches grated?' - -'Yes, sir, and there are four negroes beneath them. It is a slave dhow -for certain. The negroes are shackled and handcuffed.' - -'Have you searched further?' - -'I am going to do so now. The ship is settling, I think. There is a -kind of poop superstructure forming cabins.' - -'Search at once; then bring all alive on board us.' - -In a moment Mr. Fagg had disappeared into what he had termed a 'kind -of poop superstructure,' and, while he was in it, all on board the -_Emperor_ were occupied in speculating on what could have brought a -slaver so far to the East and out of her ordinary course, and also in -wondering what the mate would find during his further search. - -But that wonderment was soon to be resolved, for, ere Mr. Fagg had -been out of their sight five minutes, he rushed back from the -superstructure to the deck, and bawled through his hands: - -'There is a young naval officer lying in the poop cabin, and he is -slightly wounded. His name is--is----' - -'What?' roared Pooley, astonished at the mate's hesitation. - -'It is marked on the rim of his cap--inside. It is--I--I am afraid it -is Miss Waldron's _fiancé_. The--the--name is Bampfyld.' - - - - -CHAPTER IX - - Come over, come home - Through the salt sea foam. - - -Never, perhaps, on all that old highway of the waters, that silent -road along which so many had steered their course to fabled Ormuz and -to Ind, nor amidst fierce sea-fights 'twixt Arab and Persian, or Arab -and European in later centuries, nor in the howl of storm when the -waters closed around the shipwrecked and doomed, had there arisen a -more piercing shriek than that which now issued from Bella Waldron's -blanched lips. - -'My God!' she screamed, repeating the second mate's words. '"The name -is Bampfyld!" Oh, it's Gilbert--Gilbert! There is no other in the Navy -List. Let me go to him, uncle!' - -'No, no,' the master said, while good Mrs. Pooley put her arms round -the girl as she stood there by the poop-rails and endeavoured to calm -and soothe her. 'No, no, Bella; they will bring him on board directly, -then,'--and in his desire to ease the girl's heart he raised the ghost -of a smile to his lips--'then you shall nurse him till he is well. -Yet,' he muttered to Charke, as he walked over to where the first mate -stood, 'yet, how on earth does he find himself in that infernal dhow!' - -'Heaven knows,' the other answered. 'But, perhaps, 'tis not so -strange, after all. There may have been a fight between his ship and -the slaver--though there's not much fight in them when they get a -sight of the British Flag!--or he may have been sent to board her and -got cut down, or half-a-hundred things. All of which,' he added, with -his now usual cynicism, 'are equally likely or unlikely. Anyhow, he is -here--or will be in a few moments--and we shall have him for a -passenger to Bombay. Your niece is in luck, sir,' and he turned on his -heel and went down the ladder to the deck to see to the raising of the -boat, which was now making its way back to the ship. - -To Stephen Charke, still loving the girl as madly as he did, still -raging inwardly at the knowledge that every knot which the ship made -was bringing her nearer to the man who, as he considered, had torn her -from him, this incident seemed the last and most crushing blow of all. -God knows what hopes the mate had cherished in his bosom since first -he had learnt that Bella was to be a passenger in her uncle's ship for -about four months; what ideas might have been revolving in his mind as -to whether, in those four months, something extraordinary, something -almost unheard of--not to be dreamt of nor foreseen--might happen to -give him one more chance of winning her. He was a romantically-minded -man, a man with so rich an imagination that, to him, there sometimes -came ideas that few are ever burdened with. And, in that full and -teeming imagination, there had been pictured to him visions of the -_Emperor of the Moon_ being wrecked and Bella and he alone spared--he, -of course, saving her at the peril of his own life and winning her -away from her more aristocratic lover by so doing. Or, he dreamt of -that lover being himself wrecked and lost, or pierced by an Arab spear -in some affray, or shot in a hand-to-hand fight with a particularly -bold slaver (since he knew well enough that the ships of the Bombay -station were often enough down here) or--or--or he cherished any mad -vision that first rose to his brain. - -And now--now--this very man, this successful rival, this aristocratic -naval officer, with his high birth and future peerage, was actually -being brought aboard the ship where the woman was whom they both -loved--brought on board 'slightly wounded,' and his own last chance -thus gone. Gone for ever now! Perhaps, therefore, it was no wonder he -should bite his lip and smother unholy murmurs deep down in his -throat; perhaps, too, he merits compassion. He had loved this girl -fondly since first he set eyes on her, and once, at one time, he -thought he had almost won her. Then this other had come in his way, -had swept him out of Bella's heart, or the approach to it, and his -chance was over. Yet, once again, they had met through an almost -unheard of, and scarcely to be imagined, opportunity, and--lo! here -was his successful rival once more at hand to thwart him. It was hard -on him, or, as he muttered to himself, 'devilish rough.' - -The quarter-boat was coming back to the ship now, Fagg steering her, -while, between him and the stroke oar, there lay the body of the young -naval officer, clad in his 'whites.' And again as Bella, madly -whispering 'Gilbert, Gilbert, my darling,' stood by the head of the -accommodation ladder--which had been lowered while the boat was gone -to the dhow--the men brought her lover gently up and laid him on the -deck under the awning. - -'Oh, Gilbert!' she cried again, as now she bent over him, while -stroking his hair, which, on the left side of his head, was all matted -with thick coagulated blood, 'Oh, Gilbert! to think that we should -meet thus! Sir!' she screamed to Fagg, who was about to descend again -to the boat to fetch off the others still in the dhow, 'where is he -wounded? Where? Have you had time to discover?' - -'I have looked him over, Miss Waldron, and, to tell you the truth, I -do not think there is much the matter with him.' - -'Thank God! Oh, thank God!' - -'That blood,' the second mate continued, 'comes from a heavy contusion -at the side of his head, but the skull is uninjured. Also there is no -concussion--observe the pupils of the eyes are not at all dilated.' -Then he turned away and went swiftly down the ladder again, muttering -that, if he was to save the Arabs and the negroes, there was no time -to be wasted. The dhow was filling fast, he added. There was a big -hole in her below the waterline, and a quarter of an hour would see -the end of her. - -And now Gilbert was carried to the cabin corresponding with Bella's on -the port side of the vessel, aft of the saloon, and Mrs. Pooley, with -the steward, went in to undress him, telling Bella that, as soon as he -was comfortably placed in the bunk, she should come and take her place -by his side. Whereon the girl, distracted by both her hopes and -fears--hopes that the second mate was right in his surmises as to her -lover's wounds, and fears that he was wrong--sat herself down on the -great locker that was in the gangway, and gave herself up to tearful -meditations. - -'Ah, if he should die!' she murmured; 'if he should die! Then my heart -will break.' - -Though, as you shall see, and have undoubtedly divined, Gilbert was -not to die then, at least. - -But, by this time, other things were taking place above which were -almost as startling as the discovery of Lieutenant Bampfyld in that -slave-dhow. Startling, not only because of the unexplained cause that -had brought the Arab slaver into this portion of the Indian Ocean, but -also because of the strange and mysterious behaviour of those others -who were now being conveyed on board the _Emperor of the Moon_. Ere -they came, however, Mr. Fagg had sent over information surprising -enough in itself, and sufficient to prepare all on board the ship for -what, a little later, they were to see. - -'The owner--if he is the owner,' he cried, 'the man who fell down -while steering, is dead. He is stiffening. I presume I had best leave -him to go down with the dhow?' - -'Ay,' called back Pooley. 'Ay. What about the others?' - -'I cannot make them out. The negress seems well enough, but terribly -frightened. As for the four men below, they all appear blind. We have -taken their shackles off and they grope their way about as though in -the dark. My men have to lead them up the ladders--yet their eyes look -clear enough.' - -'Have they been kept in the dark, think you, and is the sun dazzling -them now?' - -'No, sir. The open gratings have furnished the part of the hold they -were in with plenty of light.' He paused a moment, and those in the -_Emperor_ saw him gazing down steadfastly to that hold; then he called -again: 'We must come away now, sir. The water is pouring in. The dhow -will not swim much longer.' - -'Do so,' answered back Pooley; and five minutes afterwards the boat -was on her way to the ship, laden with the rescued negroes. Mr. Fagg -had proved right in his surmise as to the necessity for leaving the -slaver at once. For, ere he came on board, she was observed to heel -over a little to starboard, then to further do so with a jerk; then, -suddenly, she righted until she was on a level keel--and, next, sank -below the waves like a stone, the body of the dead man, who had fallen -down while steering, alone remaining above the heaving waters, and -being swirled round and round in the whirlpool caused by the wreck, -until it too went down. - -Creeping up the companion, their hands directed to the side-ropes by -the sailors; feeling the steps with their huge splay feet--as a mule -feels its way along the thin line of insecure path that rounds the -smooth face of a precipice--those stricken men came; huge, splendid -specimens of the swart negroes of Wyassa and Wahiyou and Wagindo, whom -the Arab slaver ships from Kilwa, below Zanzibar, and transports to -Bussorah and Mohamra, whence they often reach the more distant Turkish -harems. Now, looking at them as they stood on the deck of the _Emperor -of the Moon_, it seemed as though their course was almost run. For, -though these men would never be slaves to Arab or Persian or Turk, of -what use to himself or any one else is an unhappy blind nigger who, to -exist at all, must work like a dray-horse? - -'Poor wretches!' said Pooley to Charke as they both stood regarding -these blacks, 'see how the shackles have eaten into their ankles. Poor -brutes! They say that sometimes these fellows sell themselves -willingly into slavery; I doubt much if these have done so. Ah, well! -we must take them with us to Bombay, where, at least, they will be -free. I wish,' he added, 'we could communicate with them somehow and -learn who and what they are.' - -'Perhaps,' said Charke quietly, unemotionally as ever, 'Lieutenant -Bampfyld can tell us when he comes to. Since he was in the dhow, he -probably knows what she was and where she came from.' Then, breaking -off to cast his eye around, he said: 'Sir, there is a breeze coming -aft. Shall we not make sail?' - -'Ay,' cried Pooley, springing to the poop, 'ay, we have had little -enough wind for some days. Summon the watch.' - -A few moments later the order to square the yards thundered along the -deck; the men rushed to the braces. Far off, up from the dusky, wizard -south, the wind was coming as they fisted the canvas, and the -_Emperor_, heeling over, gathered way and sped once more towards -India. She gathered way faster and faster as outer jib and topsails -were loosed and sheeted home, fore and main top-gallant sails and -spanker yards braced sharp up, and main-sail, main-royal and mizzen -top-gallant sails set, as well as jibs and staysails. She talked, as -the sailors say, as she went through the water; she hummed and sang -beneath the breeze that came up from far down by the Antarctic -circle--a breeze whose cool breath was gone and was, instead, perfumed -now by the warm spicy odours of adjacent Mauritius and Reunion. Away, -over the vast waste of golden waters she flew, and the master, -standing on the poop, called down to his first mate joyfully to ask -him if this would not do well enough for Bombay. - -'Ay, ay, sir,' answered Charke, turning round from giving orders to -the men aloft to answer his chief. 'Ay, ay, sir.' - -While to himself he muttered: 'Bombay! India! Well, when we are there, -all is ended for me!' - - - - -CHAPTER X - -THE GROWING TERROR - - -The sailor is, as all the world knows, a light-hearted, mercurial -creature. Face to face with death in some form or other during every -hour of his life--although, often, the mere presence of death is -neither known nor suspected--he is only too elated and happy when -momentarily without anything to cause him anxiety. Such was the case -now with Captain Pooley, since his beautiful ship was rapidly picking -up all the time she had lost by lack of wind and delays, 'and since,' -as he jovially phrased it, 'all his new passengers were doing well.' - -'First and foremost,' he said that evening, as he sat at the head of -his table with Bella in the place of honour on his right hand, his -wife on the left, and Mr. Fagg opposite to him, while his honest, -sunburnt face gleamed rubicund beneath the inch of white under his -hair which his cap had preserved from the sun, 'Bella's young man is -all right. Then Bella's new plaything, the tiger, takes kindly to its -lodgings--though you will have to sell it, my child, directly we get -to Bombay, and distribute the money it fetches among the men. Then -those wretched slaves--even they will eat and drink, won't they, -Fagg?' - -'Not much of that, sir,' the second mate answered, who was eating and -drinking pretty well himself, however; 'they don't care to do much of -either. They make a good deal of moaning up in that deck-cabin forward -which you have given them. The woman, however, seems all right. I -suppose the lieutenant has not been able to tell you much about the -dhow yet, Miss Waldron?' he asked, bending forward a little as he -addressed her. - -'At present,' she replied, 'we have had little conversation. He says, -however, that he sent me a telegram from Bombay, telling me not to -start as the _Briseus_ was coming down here. He only came-to an hour -ago, however,' she went on, while a ravishing blush swept over her -face, 'and we--we--have had so much to----' - -'Spare her, Fagg,' said Pooley, with a laugh, and passing the claret -at the same time. 'Spare her. Suppose you woke up one fine afternoon -and found your sweetheart bending over you in your berth and -whispering all sorts of endearing things in your ears, as well as -kiss----' - -'Uncle!' cried Bella, while Mrs. Pooley touched her husband's arm -reprovingly with her forefinger, and Mr. Fagg hid his face behind the -vase of brilliant Cape gooseberries on the table. 'Uncle!' Whereon the -bluff, good-natured sailor desisted, and began to speculate on the -blindness with which the rescued negroes were attacked, and on that -attack being, as he imagined, a recent one. 'They capture these poor -wretches inland,' he went on musingly, 'in the big lake region as -often as not; but, as far as I have ever heard, blindness is not one -of their afflictions. Moreover, these Arab owners and captains -wouldn't buy blind slaves, either for selling farther north, or for -using as sailors in their dhows. Therefore, I take it, this blindness -must have come on them since they were shipped. That's strange, isn't -it?' while, as he spoke, he rose, and went to his neat mahogany -bookcase which was securely fastened to one of the saloon's bulkheads, -and took down the two medical works he possessed--the one dealing with -all general human complaints to which our flesh is heir, and the other -with tropical diseases more especially. Yet neither under the heading -of 'Eye,' nor 'Blindness,' nor 'Optics,' could he find aught that bore -upon the subject; nor, in his book on tropical complaints, could he -discover any information that might enlighten him as to why the four -negroes should be so stricken. - -He spoke again, however, after turning over the leaves of these -erudite volumes a second time, saying: 'Fever, I know, sometimes -produces blindness as an after-effect, yet--well, we have all seen -these fellows, and there's no fever in them, I should say. Oh, deuce -take this confusion of tongues!' he exclaimed irritably; 'if it did -not exist we could find out so much from the sufferers themselves. -Bella, our only hope is in you and your patient. If Lieutenant -Bampfyld can't tell us something, we shall never know who these men -and the woman are, where they came from, what is the matter with them, -and to whom the dhow belonged. Can he speak anything but English, -child?' - -'He knows some Hindustani,' Bella replied; 'and, I think he said, some -words of Swahili. He has taken up Eastern languages in the Service, -which was one of the reasons for his being appointed to the _Briseus_. -He may be some help. At least he can tell us how he came on board that -horrid ship.' - -As she spoke, eight-bells struck on deck, and, as the sound came -through the skylight, both she and Mr. Fagg rose, the girl doing so -because it was the hour at which she intended to visit Gilbert again, -and the latter because it was time to relieve Stephen Charke, who -would now come below to take his supper. For Bella had fixed this hour -for paying her last evening visit to her future husband because she -knew that the second mate would then descend, and she was never now -desirous of being more in his company than necessary. - -She therefore left the saloon before Fagg could have relieved Charke, -and, going to the cabin in which Gilbert Bampfyld lay, pushed back the -curtain that hung at the door and went in to him, while observing as -she did so that he was awake and gazing upwards as he lay. And she saw -that he smiled happily on perceiving her, and whispered the word -'Darling' as she advanced to his bedside. - -'You are better, dearest,' she said, bending over him and putting her -hand on his forehead, which was cool and moist. 'Much better. Aunt -will come soon with fresh bandages for your poor head, and then you -will have a good night's refreshing sleep. And to-morrow, perhaps, you -will be able to tell us how you came to be in that hideous slaver. Oh, -Bertie!'--for so she often called him--'what a mercy it was that we -found you as we did. And what a miracle that we should have met thus. -Home-keeping and narrow-minded people would say, if they read it all -in a book, that such a thing was unnatural and impossible.' - -Their first meeting, their joy at discovering that they had come -together again in this marvellous manner; their rapture when, a few -hours before, Gilbert Bampfyld had emerged from his stupor and -unconsciousness, has not been forgotten, although the description of -it has been omitted. Omitted for the simple reason that most of us -have been, or are, lovers; most of us have known in our time, or know -now--and those are the happy ones!--the sweet, unutterable joy with -which such meetings are welcomed. Who does not remember the sudden, -quickened beat of the heart at some period of their existence, as they -met again the one they loved the best of all in this world; the -creature upon whom their thoughts were for ever dwelling, and from -whom those thoughts, however wandering they had heretofore been, were, -at last, never more to roam! Picture to yourself, therefore, what -rhapsody was Bella's when, forgetting everything else but that she -held her lover to her heart, she wept over his salvation from an -awful, swift, impending death; picture also to yourself the delirious -joy which coursed through Gilbert's now unclouded mind, as he found -himself in her arms--with her--close to her. Picture this, and no -further description is needed of their meeting in that cool, darkened -cabin of the old ship. Imagine for yourself what your own ecstasy -would have been in such or kindred circumstances, and you possess the -knowledge of what theirs was. - -'Darling,' he said again now, as she held to his lips a cooling drink -that she had brought into the cabin with her, 'darling, I can tell you -in half-a-dozen sentences or less----' - -'No,' she said. 'No; not now. To-morrow, when you have slept----' - -'Yes, now. Why, dearest, I am well! I could take the middle watch -to-night if necessary, or--or--do anything that a sailor may be called -on to do. And as for finding me in that dhow, why, it's the simplest -thing on earth--or the waters. Listen. The _Briseus_, as you would -have learnt by that telegram I sent you if you had ever received it, -was suddenly ordered to join the Cape Squadron--dhow-catching. And I -can tell you we were not so very long before the game began, since by -the time we were abreast of Kilwy--which is the southern limit of the -legal slave trade--we fell in with twelve dhows, one of them being our -friend from which I was rescued by your people. And you may depend we -were after them like lightning, while beginning to ply them with shell -and shot from our little gun forward. They scattered, of course, -though some got hit and lay disabled on the water, while I went off in -the whaler with her crew to attack one that seemed badly knocked -about. The one in which I was when found by you.' - -'The horror!' exclaimed Bella, with a pretty shudder. - -'No, no; don't call her that, because, after all, I owe my life to -her.' - -'Well, the angel!' exclaimed Bella now, with sudden change. - -'Though I don't altogether know that the captain meant to save me----' - -'The wretch! I'm glad he's dead.' - -Gilbert laughed at these variations in Bella's mental temperature. -Then he continued. - -'They are artful--incredibly artful--in these dhows. They will let our -pinnaces or whalers or any other of the ship's boats come alongside, -then, all of a sudden, they cut their lee halliards, and down comes -their great sail over us, enveloping the boat and all in it, just as -if it was in a net or a bag.' - -'Ah!' gasped Bella. - -'And that's not all. When you are caught like that, they have another -pleasing little way of firing at you from above through the canvas, so -that you are being shot down while, all the time, you have no chance -of escape.' - -'Oh!' exclaimed Bella. 'To think of it! Ah, the wretches.' - -'They do, Bella. Fortunately, however, this one couldn't do it, being -disabled, and she had, therefore, come up to the wind with hardly any -way on her. This was all right for us, as I meant to board, so as we -came alongside each other we hooked on to her anchor cable, which was -hanging pretty low down, and we should have got on board, too, only at -that moment the dhow gave a lurch which sent the whaler half-seas -under, and I got a blow on the head which knocked me insensible----' - -'Oh, Gilbert! That wound on your head!' - -'I suppose so. At any rate, I knew no more about it; and I don't know -anything further, now, since I was insensible till I woke up here this -morning and found you bending over me. However, I'm all right now, or -soon shall be.' - -'But how did you come into the dhow you were found in?' Bella asked, -while pouring out, directly afterwards, one question after another. -'And when did it happen--yesterday, or a week ago? And where was the -whaler, and the sailors, and the _Briseus_? And why did they all -desert you? What a nice kind of a captain yours must be, to be sure!' - -'My opinion is now,' said Gilbert, 'that the dhow you found me in, -rescued me--picked me up. And I expect our captain--he is a rattling -good skipper, Bella, all the same--heard I was drowned and thinks I've -missed my muster. My cousin Jack will imagine for a month or so--till -we get in to Bombay--that he is the future Lord D'Abernon,' and he -laughed as he thought of how soon Cousin Jack would be undeceived. - -'But the dhow we found you in--how did she escape, and why didn't the -_Briseus_ capture her?' - -'Some must have got off in the confusion since it was only an hour -from dark. I'm certain to be reported lost when the ship goes into -either Zanzibar or Aden, and---- What's that?' he exclaimed, breaking -off suddenly. 'Surely that's your uncle's voice!' - -He recognised it because Captain Pooley had been in to see him after -he recovered his consciousness and had congratulated him on doing so, -as well as on being practically restored, while saying also that he -was delighted at being the means of rescuing him out of the sinking -slaver. - -'Yes,' Bella replied, 'that's uncle's voice; and the other is that of -Mr. Charke, the first mate.' - -'Listen! What is it he is saying?' - -It was perfectly easy to hear what he was saying, since both master -and mate were conversing in the saloon, to which Charke had descended. -And the words which reached their ears, as they fell from the latter's -lips, were: 'Oh, no doubt about it whatever, sir; not the least. The -negress is now as blind as the negroes themselves. She cannot see her -way along the deck, nor any of the signs we have made before her -eyes.' - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE TERROR INCREASES - - -The southerly wind did not hold as it should have done considering the -time of year, and the consequence was that the _Emperor of the Moon_ -was by no means making such a passage as was to be expected of her. -Indeed, by the time that the second day had passed since the rescue of -Gilbert from the slaver, and when the evening was at hand, she was -almost motionless on the water, while such sails as were still left -standing hung as listlessly as though they were suspended in a back -room. Now, this was disheartening to all on board--that is to say, to -all except one person--as is generally the case when such things -happen. The master was grieved because he looked upon the delay as an -absolute waste of valuable time, while as for Bella and Gilbert--well, -it is scarcely necessary to write down here what they were looking -forward to at the end of their journey, or what visions haunted the -mind of the latter concerning the Cathedral in Bombay and a ceremony -of marriage being performed at the altar-rails by the Bishop. Yet, -all--passengers, master, officers and men--had to swallow their -disappointment as best they might, and to recognise the fact that -Bombay was still over three thousand miles away and not likely to be -reached for very many days. - -The one person who was, however, resigned to the affliction of delay -was Stephen Charke, in whose brain there still lingered a wild and -chimerical idea that there might yet be sent by Fate some -extraordinary piece of good fortune which would, even at the last -moment, sever Gilbert and Bella, with the subsequent result of -bringing him and her together. - -It has been said that he was a dreamer, and never had he been so more -than now, since, sleeping and waking, he still mused on the -possibility of some extraordinary set of circumstances arising which -should force the girl into his arms. Yet, he had to own to himself -that nothing was more unlikely than that any such circumstances could -by any possibility arise. If anything visited these seas, this -stupendous ocean, at this period of the year, it was most likely to be -a flat calm such as that which they were now experiencing, instead of -storms; and, even if storms should come, of what avail would they be -to separate Gilbert Bampfyld and Bella Waldron? - -'I am a fool,' he would mutter to himself, as he smoked his pipe in -either the solitude of his own cabin or on the deck at night, 'a fool. -A madman! One has only to observe how they love each other, how they -never leave each other's side, to see that nothing could ever bring -her to me. Even though she and I were cast on some deserted shore, -even though I saved her from forty thousand threatened deaths--even -though Bampfyld himself were dead and buried, she would never give -herself to me. I am,' he would repeat again, 'a fool.' And this -acknowledgment would, for a time, operate wholesomely on him--a man -whose mind was not altogether that of a visionary and whose heart was -not, by nature, a perverted or warped one--and he would resolve that, -henceforth, he would think no more of this girl for whom his love was -so fierce and, to him, so disturbing. He made resolutions, therefore, -and kept them--until the next time that he saw the lovers together, -smiling, talking, happy in each other--'billing and cooing,' as he -called it, with a smothered curse. - -They were on deck together, now, on the evening of the second day of -calm as Stephen went up to take the first watch, since Gilbert had -refused to remain a prisoner in the cabin allotted to him for more -than twenty-four hours, and Pooley was also there, Fagg being below -finishing his supper. Mrs. Pooley sat on the poop in a deck-chair -engaged in some needlework she had constantly on hand, and, forward, -the men were engaged in smoking and telling yarns, while the general -idleness which pervades the forecastle when a ship is becalmed -prevailed everywhere. One man was reading a short story to his mates -out of a country paper six months old, another had a sewing-machine -between his legs with which he was mending his and his comrades, -clothes, a third was teasing and playing with 'Bengalee,' the tiger -cub, which was growing--or seemed to be growing--fast. At present, -however, it was safe to let it loose since it had no more strength -than a large-sized cat, and teeth not much bigger than those domestic -animals possess. Generally, the creature followed Bella about wherever -she went, rolling down the companion ladder after her like a striped -ball when she went below, or lying on the edge of her dress when she -sat on deck; but at night it was shut up in a locker forward and -looked after by the sailors. The hour for its temporary retirement had -not, however, yet arrived, wherefore it was still gambolling about -amongst the men. - -Altogether, the vessel presented a peaceful scene as she lay 'idle as -a painted ship upon a painted ocean,' while, from forward, there came -the droning voice of the sailor who was reading the storiette to his -mates, interrupted only by the laughter of the others at the cub's -leaps and growls; and, from the after part of the ship, the talk of -the 'quarter-deck' people arose. - -'Come,' said Pooley now, addressing Charke, 'come, let us go and look -at those unfortunate niggers. The Lord knows what is to become of -them. The woman, you say, never rises from the floor of the cabin, but -only lies there and moans. It is the strangest thing I ever heard of -in my life. I wish, Mr. Bampfyld,' turning to that gentleman as he -passed with Bella, 'that you could give us some information about that -dhow we found you in.' - -But, of course, Gilbert could tell them no more than he had already -done a dozen times, while repeating in substance all that he had said -to his _fiancée_. - -'I am sorry,' he had said on each occasion, and again said now, 'but I -know absolutely nothing. I was insensible when I was taken into the -dhow--as taken in I must have been, since I could never have got in by -myself--and, as you are well aware, I was insensible when I was -brought out. I positively know nothing.' - -'The helmsman's death was as strange as anything,' Pooley observed. -'Fagg says there was no wound about him that he could see. What, -therefore, could he have died of?' - -'Sunstroke, I imagine,' the first mate said, in his usual emphatic, -crisp manner. 'Sunstroke. It could not have been fever, otherwise -these negroes would have it, too. Yet,' he went on, in a manner more -meditative than usual with him, 'those Arabs, if he was an Arab, -rarely suffer from that. It takes a white man to get sunstroke.' - -'Well, come,' said the master again, 'let's go and see to them. The -sun is on the horizon; it will be dark in a quarter of an hour's -time.' Whereon he strode forward, accompanied by Charke, while Mr. -Fagg, who had come up from the saloon, began to keep such watch as was -necessary. And Gilbert, bidding Bella go and sit with Mrs. Pooley, -strode after them, since he was anxious to have a look at the unhappy -creatures who had been rescued at the same time as himself. - -The male blacks had been put into a deck cabin (in which was usually -kept an assortment of things such as spare lamps, a boat sail or two, -and Mr. Fagg's bicycle, on which he disported himself whenever he got -ashore anywhere), wherein some matting had been thrown down for their -accommodation. And, as now they neared this cabin, they heard sounds -proceeding from within it which were really moans, but, to their ears, -had more the semblance of the bleating of sheep. Also, it seemed as if -one of them within was chanting some sort of song or incantation. - -'We shall have to stop this noise in some way, sir,' Charke said to -the captain; 'it has been going on more or less ever since they came -on board, and the men complain that it disturbs them in the fo'c's'le. -It's a pity we can't communicate with them somehow. Perhaps Lieutenant -Bampfyld might try, as he says he knows some words of Swahili'; while -as he spoke he looked at the man who had once more, as he considered, -or chose to consider, stepped in between him and the woman he loved. -Yet, because he never forgot that he was a gentleman born, there was -nothing in his manner that was otherwise than polite when he addressed -Gilbert. - -'I have tried,' said the latter, 'more than once to-day. And either my -Swahili is defective, or that is not their language. I suspect that -it's Galla, of which I do not know a word.' - -Meanwhile, the captain had drawn back the cocoanut matting which hung -in front of the deck cabin door, though, after peering into the sombre -dusk for a moment, he started back, exclaiming: 'Good Heavens! what -has happened now? Have they murdered one of their companions, or -what?' - -It was, in truth, a weird sort of scene on which he, as well as -Gilbert and Charke, gazed, as the swiftly-failing tropical evening -light illumined the interior of the cabin. Flat on the floor of it lay -one of the negroes, undoubtedly dead, since there was on his face the -gray, slate-coloured hue which the African assumes in death. Yet his -eyes were open, only now, instead of that bright glassy look which all -their eyes had had since they were brought on board, there was a dull -filmy look, which told plainly enough that there was no life behind -them. Still, dead as the man undoubtedly was, he did not present the -most uncanny spectacle of all within! That was furnished by those who -of late had been his comrades, and by the strange grotesqueness--a -grotesqueness that was horrible in itself--of their actions. All three -of the living negroes were on their knees in the cabin, which was -roomy enough to amply admit of their being so, while, with their great -black hands, they were pawing the man all over, feeling his breast and -body, and endeavouring to bend his fingers and toes as well as his -legs and arms; while, even as they did so, from their great mouths -came that moaning incantation which resembled so much the bleating of -sheep. Doubtless they felt almost sure that their fellow-slave was -dead, and these actions were being performed as tests. Yet, also, -there was a solemn, wild unearthliness attached to the whole thing by -the manner in which, when one of the visitors standing at the door and -peering in made a remark, all turned their sightless eyes towards that -door and then held up each a hand, and emitted a hissing noise through -their great pendulous lips, as though enjoining silence and respect -for the dead. They held up those hands with the fingers stretched -enormously apart and with the palms towards the intruders. Their eyes -were bright enough as they glared at the three white men outside, whom -they could not see, yet, somehow, the gleam in them and the knowledge -that they were sightless gave so creepy a feeling to those regarding -them that they could not restrain a shudder. - -'What in God's name is it?' exclaimed Pooley, he being the first to -speak. 'What? What horrible disease that blinds them to commence with, -and then kills--and kills not only negro, but Arab--captured and -captor? Who--which--will be the next?' - -As he spoke, a thought struck each of the three as they stood there -gazing at one another in the swiftly-arrived darkness of the tropical -night--a thought to which, however, not one of them gave utterance. -_Who_ would be the next? An Arab had died from some strange, unknown -disease in the ship wherein these men had been found, and, now, one of -them, too--a negro! Had, they reflected, this insidious horror been, -therefore, brought into a ship full of white men? Would they also fall -victims to that which had killed the others? That was the thought in -their minds--in the minds of all of them, though not one gave voice to -that thought. - -'He must be got away from them--taken out of that cabin,' Pooley said, -his speech a little changed now, and more husky and less clear than -usual. 'Perhaps the woman, the negress, may be of some avail. I doubt -if they will let us remove him without difficulty--though--poor blind -things as they are--they could scarcely make any resistance. Go across -to the other cabin, Mr. Charke, and fetch her over.' - -He had been anticipated in his order, however, by the chief mate ere -he spoke, Charke having, through some idea of his own, already crossed -the deck to the opposite cabin in which the woman was placed. -Therefore, as Pooley looked round to see why the mate did not -answer him, he saw in the darkness that he was returning; while he -perceived--even in this darkness, which was not quite all darkness -yet, and by the light of the foredeck lantern--that Charke looked -pale and agitated. - -'The woman,' he said, 'is dead, too, I believe. She is lying on the -cabin floor motionless--and cold.' - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -'STRICKEN' - - -It was from this time that there began to creep over the ship a -feeling shared by all, both fore and aft, that the voyage would not -end without something untoward happening. What form, however, any -misfortune which might come to them would be likely to take, none were -bold enough to attempt to prophesy. Yet, all the same, the feeling was -there, and, since every man on board the ship was a sailor, while, for -the ladies, one was a sailor's wife and the other a sailor's future -wife (each of whom was certain to be strongly receptive of the ideas -and superstitions of her own particular sailor), it was not very -strange that such should be the case. And, there was also in the -thoughts of all that idea to which none of the men congregated outside -the cabin, when the negro had been found dead, had ventured to give -expression--the idea that the unknown, insidious disease--which had -struck him and the negress, and also, possibly, the Arab _Negoda_ -down--might eventually seize on them. There were, however, at present -at least, no symptoms of anything of the kind happening. All on board -continued well enough, and, up to the time that the man and woman had -both been buried in the sea for more than twenty-four hours, no -complaints were heard from any one of feeling at all unwell, while the -three remaining blacks seemed no worse than before. - -Yet, it was a pity, perhaps, that at this time the ship should still -have been forced to remain becalmed and almost motionless; that -neither from south nor west any breeze blew--from the north and cast -there was scarcely a possibility of wind at this season--and that, -except for the strong southern current which carried her along at a -considerable though almost imperceptible rate, she hardly stirred at -all. A pity, because it gave the sailors too many idle watches wherein -to talk and chatter, to spin yarns of old-time horrors which had -fallen upon vessels in different parts of the world, and to relate -strange visitations which they had either personally suffered under or -had 'heerd tell on,' and so forth. - -Nor aft, in the saloon, did those who used it fail to discuss the -strange circumstance of--not so much the death which had stricken the -Africans--as the blindness that had fallen upon them. And here, -Stephen Charke, better read perhaps than any of the others owing to -his studious nature, was able to discuss the matter more freely than -either the captain or those who sat at his table. - -'I do distinctly recollect reading somewhere,' the mate said one -evening, as all sat under the great after-deck awning, fanning -themselves listlessly, while Fagg worked a kind of punkah which his -ingenuity had devised, 'I do distinctly recollect reading somewhere of -all those in a ship, on board of which was a large cargo of West -African negroes bound for America, being stricken with blindness. I -wish I could recall where I read it. In that way we might be able, -also, to find out how to take some steps to avoid the same thing -happening to us in the old _Emperor_.' - -'A cheerful prospect, truly,' said the captain, 'if that is to occur'; -and as he spoke he roamed his eye around the tranquil, glassy sea, on -which there was not so much as a ripple. 'A pleasant thing, indeed, if -one-half of us get blind and a rough time comes on. How, then, is the -ship to be worked three thousand miles. How are the sails to be -attended to?' and now he directed his eyes aloft to where all the -canvas was neatly furled with the exception of the studding sails. - -'We'll hope it won't be as bad as that, sir,' said Fagg. 'Only the -black people, and those out of another ship than ours, seem to suffer. -Until one of us,'--by which he meant the Europeans on board--'gets -affected we haven't much to fear, I take it. While, you know, sir, we -can find shelter before we reach Bombay. There are the Seychelles, for -instance, from which we are not so very far off.' - -'Such a delay as that would mean a very serious loss for me,' Pooley -replied. 'As it is, I expect, one way or another, I shall miss one -voyage out of two years.' - -'I hope not,' said Gilbert Bampfyld, seriously, 'otherwise I shall -begin to think it was a pity you ever came in contact with the dhow in -which you found me.' - -Yet, as he spoke, he saw Bella's beautiful eyes fixed on his face, and -knew that no more crowning mercy had ever been vouchsafed to any two -mortals than had been accorded to his sweetheart and himself by his -rescue. - -'Well,' said Pooley, 'we won't talk about that. I am devoutly thankful -that we were enabled, by God's mercy, and also by the aid of something -which is almost a miracle, to rescue you. For the rest a sailor must -take all that comes in his way and never repine. The _Emperor_ has -been a good old tank to me; pray Heaven she continues so to the end.' -Then he suddenly stopped and peered forward under the awning towards -the forecastle, where, beneath another awning, the sailors had been -lying about, some sleeping, some chatting idly, and most of them--even -to those who had dropped off--with a pipe between their lips. - -'What's that commotion forward?' he asked, addressing himself to -Charke, who, ever on the _qui vive_ as became a chief officer, had -sprung to his feet and was gazing keenly towards the foredeck. -'What's the matter with the men, and why are those three holding Wilks -up like that?' - -'Forward there!' sang out Charke in a voice like a trumpet, as he, -too, saw that which the master had described, namely, three of the -hands standing up round the man named Wilks, and one grasping him on -either side, while he himself pushed his arms out before him in a -manner that implied a sort of doubting helplessness on his part. -'Forward there! What's the matter with that man?' - -'He says he can't see, sir,' roared back another man on the forecastle -deck, pulling his hair to Charke as he spoke. 'He was asleep just now; -and then, when he woke up, he asked what time o'night it was because -it was so dark.' - -'My God!' exclaimed Pooley, while the faces of all around him took on -a blanched, terrified look, and Bella, with the beautiful carnation of -her lips almost white now, grasped her lover's arm. 'My God!' Then he -turned to Fagg and muttered, repeating the other's words: '"Not much -to fear until one of us gets affected." Heavens! we haven't had long -to wait!' - -While, following Charke who had already gone forward, and followed by -Fagg, he went towards the forecastle. - -His mates were bringing Wilks down the ladder now, since Charke sang -out that he should be taken into the comparative darkness of their -quarters at once, thereby to escape the glare of the sun; and not one -of those who were eagerly watching his descent but observed how like -his actions were to the actions of the blind negroes when they were -brought off from the dhow, and the actions of the others to the -behaviour of the men who had assisted them to come on board. For his -companions directed his hands to the ladder's ropes even as the -blacks, hands had been directed; while in each of his motions was the -same hesitation, followed by the same careful grasping of the rail, as -there had been in the motions of the slaves. - -'Oh, Gilbert,' Bella exclaimed piteously, as she clung to him, 'what -is going to happen? What is hanging over us? Supposing--supposing----' - -'What, darling?' - -'That--oh, I don't dare to say what I dread. But if this terrible -thing should spread all through the ship. If uncle, if you, if all the -sailors were attacked. And you--you--dearest; you, my darling.' - -'Let us hope it will not come to that. Besides I, personally, matter -the least of any----' - -'Bertie!' she almost shrieked, alarmed, 'when you know that those -others--some of them at least--that those poor black creatures have -died after it. And you say that you matter the least of any; you, whom -I love so.' - -'I meant as regards the ship. I am not one of her officers, nor -concerned in the working of her; and Bella, dearest Bella, don't get -those dreadful ideas into your pretty head. Never give way to panic in -an emergency. Doubtless some more will find their eyesight leave -them--temporarily--but it can scarcely be that all will be attacked. -And as regards death following, why, those other niggers are all -right, and they are just as blind as those who have died!' - -It happened--as so often such things happen in this world--that he -spoke a little too soon. He hit upon the denial of the likelihood of a -possibility occurring which, by a strange decree of fate or chance, -was, at the very moment of that denial, to occur; since, just as the -repudiation of such probability was uttered by him, and before the men -helping Wilks had had time to get him comfortably into his berth in -the forecastle, there arose once more that strange, weird, moaning -kind of incantation from the deck-cabin in which the remaining negroes -were, that had been heard before by all. And, added to it, was -something more than any had heretofore heard, namely, a series of -wild turbulent shouts in the unknown barbaric tongue used by the -Africans--shouts that seemed to issue alone from one of their throats. -A noise, a bellowing, in which, though on board the _Emperor of the -Moon_ there was not one person who could understand the words that -voice uttered, all recognised the tones that denote fear, terror, and -misery extreme. - -Instantly, so stridently horrible were those cries, every one of the -Englishmen about rushed towards the cabin, Pooley and Charke being the -first there, while Gilbert, running forward from the afterpart and -along the waist, was soon by their sides. - -And then, looking in, they saw that the poor blind, excited savage who -was emitting those shouts had, in truth, sufficient reason for his -frenzy. He seemed--he was, indeed--demented, as, with both his great -hands, he felt all over the bodies of his comrades who were lying -lifeless on the cabin deck, and presented an awful appearance to those -who gazed on him as his great features worked in excitement, his vast -mouth, with its adornment of huge white teeth, opened and shut like a -wild beast's at bay, and his blind, but brilliant, eyes glared -hideously. That he was nearly mad with fright and terror was easily -apparent, since, while recognising without seeing that there were -others near, he snarled and bit at the space in front of him, and -struck out with his fists or clawed at the air with his enormous -hands. - -'He will spring out at us directly,' Charke said, drawing to one side -of the cabin. 'The fellow is mad with fear or grief.' Then, ready in -expedient as ever, he ran the cabin door out of its slide and shut in -the negro with his dead companions. Nor did he do so too soon, since, -a moment later, those without heard the huge form of the man leaping -towards the door; once they heard him slip, as though he had trodden -on the body or one of the limbs of those lying dead on the floor; and -then there came a beating and hammering on that door which seemed to -promise that, in a few seconds, the panels would be dashed out and the -maddened black be among them. - -'This is too awful,' muttered Pooley. 'Is he really gone mad, do you -think?' he asked, appealing to Charke, Gilbert and Fagg at one and the -same time. - -'No doubt about it,' they answered together. 'No doubt. And if he -once gets out to the deck, sir,' said Charke, 'a dozen of us will not -be able to hold him.' - -'We must capture him if he does. Better throw a rope round him -somehow. If he were not blind, we should have to shoot him. Ha! see, -he has smashed open the panel! Stand by there, some of you men, to -catch him as he leaps out.' - -While, even as he spoke, the gigantic madman, with another howl, broke -down the door and sprang amongst them. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -'SPARE HER! SPARE HER!' - - -Mrs. Pooley, Bella and Gilbert sat alone in the saloon that night, the -faces of the two women being careworn and depressed in appearance, -while on that of the young naval officer was a look, if not of -consternation, at least of doubt and anxiety. That all of them should -present this appearance of perturbation was natural enough, because by -this time it was impossible to suppose that any less than a calamity -was impending over the _Emperor of the Moon_ and all in her. Two more -men, named Burgess and Truby, had been attacked with blindness, while -the negro, who had been the last survivor amongst the slaves, was -himself now dead. - -'It was too awful,' said Gilbert, who had come below to tell the -ladies that which had happened above, since to keep silence on the -subject was useless, in consequence of the turmoil in the ship which -had accompanied the poor creature's last moments. 'He died a raving -maniac--nothing short of that. You heard his howls and yells after we -had got him safely tied up; _we_ saw a sight that I, at least--and I -should think everybody else--hope never to see again. Even roped as he -was, his leaps and convulsions were something shocking. Thank God, -they soon came to an end. I believe he died of the exhaustion caused -by his mania.' - -'What is to become of us all?' asked Mrs. Pooley sadly. 'What? The -ship moves only by the current; my husband said just now that, if -things go on and get worse, there will be none left to control her -when the wind does come.' - -'The trouble is,' said Gilbert, 'that, if they make sail when the wind -springs up, there may be no men to take it in if that wind comes on -too strong. And, at all events, it will be serious if more men are -attacked. I have offered my services in any capacity if wanted, and -will serve either as officer or man if Captain Pooley will let me.' - -Bella threw an admiring glance at her lover in approval of what she, -in her own mind, probably considered his noble disinterestedness; then -she said: - -'But surely all are not going to be attacked one after another in this -way? And if so, uncle can't possibly think of trying to get to Bombay -when the wind does come.' - -'I have suggested the same thing to him that Fagg did this -afternoon--namely, the Seychelles. They're all right, and the climate -is first-rate for the tropics. He says, however, he will see what -happens by the time we get a wind. He won't give in if no more men are -attacked.' - -Meanwhile, even as he spoke, each of the trio were occupied with -thoughts which they would not have cared to put into language. Mrs. -Pooley's were those good wifely reflections which busied themselves -only with her husband's interests, and were disturbed by -considerations of what a loss to him the delay would produce should it -be further prolonged. Yet, there was also growing upon her, if it were -not already full-grown--as was now the case with all others in the -ship--a gruesome, indefinable horror of what might be the outcome of -this strange affliction that had fallen on the vessel. Suppose, she -had asked herself a hundred times in common with all the others on -board--the sailors alone expressing their thoughts openly--suppose -everyone in the _Emperor_ succumbed to this blindness! What then would -happen, even if it were not followed by death? Would they drift about -the ocean helplessly if the calm continued, until they were seen and -rescued by some other vessel; or, if a strong gale came up, would -they--with no one capable of so much as steering the ship be -shipwrecked and sent to the bottom? While, as to the horrible idea of -death following on blindness, and the _Emperor of the Moon_ drifting -about, a floating catacomb--that was not to be thought about! It was -too fearful a thing to reflect upon and still preserve one's sanity. -Yet, all the same, not only was it thought about but talked about -among the sailors, while many ideas were propounded as to what was to -be done ere the worst came to the worst. As for Bella, her reflections -were all of one kind, and one only. Would Gilbert be spared! For -herself she cared but little, though she would scarcely have been the -brave, womanly girl she was if she had not repined at the dark cloud -which had now settled down over the existence of her lover and -herself, and which threatened, if it continued to hover over them and -their fortunes, to darken that existence still more. Further than this -she did not dare to look, and, consequently, could only pray fervently -that the cloud might be lifted ere long, even as she strove to force -herself to believe that such would undoubtedly be the case. - -Yet Gilbert's meditations were perhaps the most melancholy and bitter -of any of the three persons now assembled in the saloon--brave, -self-reliant young officer as he was, and full of hope and belief in -many happy years still to come and to be passed in the possession of a -beautiful and devoted wife, as well as in the service of a glorious -profession. For he could not disguise from, nor put away from, his -mind the recollection that, with his coming into this ship, with his -rescue, there had come also that intangible, mysterious disease which -was striking down those around him one by one at extremely short -intervals; and, although he knew that he was no more responsible for -its presence than if he had never been found in that accursed dhow, he -began to think that there were many in the _Emperor of the Moon_ who -would regard him as being more or less so. Which, in truth, was a weak -supposition, born in his usually strong, clear head by the calamities -now happening with great frequency one after the other; a supposition -shared by no one else in the ship. For--as he himself knew very well, -yet took no comfort in knowing--had he not been in the dhow her other -inhabitants would have been rescued all the same and taken off by -Pooley, and would have brought on board with them the infection which -was now supposed to be at the root of the disasters that were -happening. - -The meditations of all three were now, however, disturbed by the -descent of Stephen Charke to the saloon, he being about to eat his -evening meal before taking the first watch. As usual and, almost, it -seemed, unjustly so--since never had he said any further words to -Bella which she could construe into an approach to anything dealing -with his regard for her--his appearance was unwelcome to her. He -seemed, however, to be entirely oblivious of what her sentiments -towards him might be, and, after giving a slight bow to both ladies, -rang the bell for the steward to bring him his supper. Then, as he -seated himself at the table, he said: - -'I fancy we shall have to avail ourselves of your offer of service -after all, Lieutenant Bampfyld, and in spite of our having refused it -an hour ago. Fagg,' he went on, as he cut himself a crust from the -loaf, 'is attacked with blindness now.' - -'Great Heavens!' exclaimed Gilbert, while Bella, scarcely knowing why, -burst into tears and hid her head on Mrs. Pooley's ample shoulder. - -'Yes, it is too awful. So is Payn, the bo'sun, attacked.' - -'My God!' - -And now Mrs. Pooley's fortitude gave way too, and she sobbed quietly -to herself until, recognising that two tearful women were scarcely in -their proper place in the saloon with these young men, she rose, and, -taking Bella with her, they went off to their cabins. - -'The watch, of course,' went on Charke, 'is nothing now with the ship -at a standstill. Yet one has to keep it more or less. Fagg's turn -would have been the middle of to-night, but if you like to fall in you -can take the first, and I'll----' - -'Thank you,' said Gilbert quietly, 'but I have done plenty of -watch-keeping, both before and after I was a flag-lieutenant. The -middle watch won't hurt me. I will relieve you at midnight.' - -'As you like. Of course, the skipper and I recognise that it is a -great obligation on your part----' - -'Oh, rubbish! We are absolutely and literally "all in the same boat" -now, and we've got to make the best of it.' Then Gilbert rose and -said: 'By the way, I should like to go and see that poor chap, Fagg, -if he is in his cabin. He's a nice young fellow.' - -'He is, and a good sailor, though he doesn't make any fuss. Lord knows -what's going to be the end of it all. I hope to Heaven those who are -struck won't go the way of those niggers, and that their sight will -come back before long.' - -'I hope so, too; or else this will be one of the most awful calamities -that ever fell upon any ship on a voyage. And the worst is, no one -knows what the end is to be.' Then he turned on his heel and moved -away with the intention of going to Fagg's cabin, while Charke, who -was now half-way through his supper, went on steadily with it; yet, as -Gilbert reached the gangway outside, the other made a further remark. - -'By-the-by,' he said, 'another strange thing has happened. That -infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's--her pet!--seems going the same -way as the others. It is crawling about the foredeck in a half-blind -fashion, and evidently can't see signs made before its eyes. As far as -the little beast goes, I shouldn't mind seeing it fall through one of -the scuppers back into the sea it was dragged out of. It was rather -rubbish to save it at all!' - -The words 'that infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's' grated somewhat -on Gilbert's feelings, as did also the brutality of the remark about -its falling into the sea. Why this was so he did not know, unless it -was that he had seen the interest Bella took in the little creature, -and in feeding it and calling every one's attention to the -extraordinary manner in which it seemed to grow almost hourly. -Nevertheless, the observation did grate on him, and he began to tell -himself that he did not care much for Stephen Charke. However, like a -good many other young naval officers, he had thoroughly learnt the -excellent system of controlling his thoughts in silence, wherefore, -without making any further remark than saying that he was sorry to -hear about 'Bengalee,' he went on his way towards Mr. Fagg's cabin, -leaving the first mate to finish his supper by himself. - -He left him, also, to some strange meditations which, had they been -uttered aloud in the presence of any listener, might have caused that -person to imagine that he was the recipient of the babblings of a -visionary. Put into words those musings would have taken some such -form as this:-- - -'Supposing this malady or pestilence, or whatever it is, should be -followed by madness and death, as was the case with the negroes. -And supposing also that, among those who are struck, our friend -Lieutenant Bampfyld--the future Lord D'Abernon!--should be one. What -happens? Bella'--for so he dared to call her in his thoughts and to -himself--'Bella is deprived of him. Suppose, also, that the whole -management of the ship falls into my hands; Pooley may be attacked, -too--then--then--then----' But here his mental ramblings had to come -to a conclusion, because, wild as his riotous thoughts were, his mind -was clear enough to perceive that he was just as likely to be attacked -by the blindness as was either Pooley or Bampfyld. While he saw very -plainly that so, too, was Bella. And this pulled his meditations up -with a jerk, since he could imagine nothing more horrible that could -occur now than that the majority of all the men on board should remain -sound and unstricken, and capable of working the _Emperor of the Moon_ -safely into some port or other, while the beautiful girl whom he -worshipped and adored so much should succumb to the hateful -affliction. - -'Oh, my God!' he almost moaned aloud, 'if--if she should be the next. -If she should be taken and we left. How--how could I endure that?' And -then, because he was a man with the best of impulses beneath all the -gall which had arisen in his heart at losing the girl he had once -hoped so much to win, he moaned once more: 'Not that--not that. Spare -her, at least, Heaven! Spare her, even though I have to stand by and -see him win her after all. Spare her! Spare her!' - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -STRUCK DOWN - - -But still the days went on and no wind came--the one thing which, even -now, after they had been becalmed for nearly a week, might have saved -the ship from any fearful calamity that was at last, almost without a -doubt, in store for her. For, according to their reckonings, taken -regularly both by aid of the brilliant sun which still poured down its -vertical rays upon them, and also by the use of a cherub log which -they possessed, as well as the ordinary ones, the current had drifted -them some three hundred miles north, so that they had consequently the -northern coast of Madagascar on their port bow, as well as the Aldabra -Islands, and with Galega, Providence and Farquhar Islands almost -directly ahead of them. - -Only--the wind would not come, and the ship lay upon the water as -motionless, except for the current, as though she had been fixed upon -the solid and firm-set earth. And, meanwhile, the blindness which had -seized upon one man after another was still continuing its progress, -and more than half--indeed, three-parts--of the complement of the -_Emperor of the Moon_ were now sightless. Of seventeen sailors, eleven -were down with this terrible, paralysing affliction, as well as one -officer, Mr. Fagg; so that, if now the long-hoped-for breeze should -spring up, there were scarcely enough men in the whole vessel to set -the sails, even including Pooley--who certainly could not go aloft -with safety!--and Charke and Gilbert; while, presuming all of them -could do so and the wind should freshen much, they would undoubtedly -be far from able to take them in again. And then the result must be -swift--undoubted--deadly. The ship would rush to her destruction, -would be beyond all control; she would either go over under the force -of the elements, or be dashed to pieces on some solitary coral island -which she might encounter in her mad, ungovernable flight. -Consequently, there remained but one chance, and one only, for her, -that chance being to forgo the advantage of the wind when it came at -last, and to let her drift under bare poles until they were seen, and -perhaps rescued, by a passing vessel. But, again there arose the fear -in all hearts, as already it had done before--namely, would any other -ship which might encounter them be willing to take on board men in -such a plight as they were, and suffering from a disease that none -could venture to doubt must be contagious? - -Meantime, the life in the vessel itself was, possibly, the strangest -form of existence which has prevailed for many a long sea-voyage. For -she was subject to no stress whatever of weather, the elements were -all in favour of her safety, if not her progress; she was comfortable -and easy and well found with everything of the best--since, in the -_Emperor of the Moon_, there was neither rotten pork nor weevily -biscuits for old shellbacks to grumble and curse at and mutiny over, -as those who wish to make the sailor dissatisfied with his lot are too -often fond of representing to be the case--every one was well housed -and well provided with good, wholesome food. Yet, all the same, she -was a stricken ship--stricken, in truth, by the visitation of God; -smitten by the hand of God with a curse which none could understand or -explain. Fortunately, however--if the word Fortune may be used in -connection with those now in her!--this curse seemed to have stopped -at the blindness--though God knows that was bad enough! Death did not -seem to be following after it, nor madness, nor delirium, as had been -the case with the others--certainly as death had been. Those who were -down lay in their berths, blind, it is true; but otherwise there was -nothing else the matter with them; and, since they were ministered to -by those who, up to now, had themselves escaped the visitation, they -did not suffer in any other way. - -Bella and Mrs. Pooley were at this time more or less in charge of the -provisions, the latter dealing out the men's rations under the orders -of her husband, while Bella, arrayed in a long white apron which gave -her a charmingly strange appearance in the eyes of all who beheld her, -attended to the meals of those who used the saloon, took her place in -the cook's galley--the unfortunate man being one who was down with the -scourge--and saw to all preparations necessary for their now hastily -devised and uncomfortable meals. - -'She's a good 'un,' the six remaining healthy men muttered to -themselves, as they saw her busying herself about the ship, making -soup and broth for them as well as for the after-cabin, and working -indefatigably from morning to night on behalf of all on board, 'a real -good 'un. And this here Navy lieutenant what's to marry her is a lord, -ain't he, Bill?' - -'He ain't a lord yet, but he's a-going to be. Ah, well; if we ever all -gets safe into port, her ladyship will know summat about what her -servants ought to be like. Her cooks won't get to windward of her in a -hurry, I'll go bail!' - -'If we ever get safely into port!' That was the sentiment which -pervaded all minds on board the _Emperor of the Moon_ at that time. -'If they ever got safely into port!' For all on board began now to -doubt whether they would do so. The eighth day of their being becalmed -had come, even as those forecastle hands discussed the girl's -goodness--with also, in whispers, many an admiring remark on her -beauty and generally trim-built appearance--the eighth day had come -and, suddenly, just as the forenoon watch was over, two more men -suddenly called out together that they were 'struck'--were blind! Two -more, leaving now only four sailors and three officers--counting -Gilbert in place of Fagg--and two helpless women! - -'Well,' said the chief mate, coming up to where Gilbert and Bella were -discussing gravely this new affliction, while close by them the usual -business was going on of getting the two fresh cases into their berths -in the forecastle--which was now a lazaretto--'well, this ends it. The -wind may blow as much as it likes now, we shall never be able to make -sail. We must drift about till we are picked up or----' Then, seeing -the look of terror on Bella's face, he refrained from finishing his -sentence, saying instead: 'If we had as many hands to do one man's -work as you have in Her Majesty's service, Lieutenant Bampfyld, we -should still be all right.' - -'I don't know,' Gilbert replied coldly, and in a manner which, quite -unknown to himself, he had been gradually adopting of late towards his -unsuspected, would-be rival. 'I don't know. We may have a dozen hands -to do one man's work in our service, as you seem to suggest, and as is -often supposed, yet, all the same, I'd back four of our men and two -young officers to get a lot of sail on a ship of this size, anyhow!' - -'They might. Yet, clever as they are, you wouldn't like to back them -for much to furl those sails again if the breeze freshened into a -strong wind, would you?' - -'I think so,' said Gilbert, still more coldly. 'At any rate, I'd back -them to have a rare good try.' - -'Try!' exclaimed Charke. 'Try! Oh, we can all try! As far as that -goes, I'd have all the blind ones out to put their weight on the -braces while the rest went aloft, if the wind would only come; they -could do that without seeing. And we could try getting the sails off -again if it blew too hard--but I doubt our doing it. Any one can try.' -After which he walked forward to make inquiries about the two fresh -cases of blindness. - -'I don't like that man, Bella,' Gilbert said when the other was out of -hearing, 'although he's a smart officer and a gentleman. And I don't -think he likes me.' - -For a moment she stood there saying nothing, and with her eyes cast -down on the soft pitch of the seams, which was greasy and seething -under the fierce sun. Then she looked up at her lover and said: 'No -more do I much now, Bertie. In fact, I almost fear him.' - -'I wonder if he was ever in love with you?' Bampfyld said, while -remembering, as she spoke, how once, in those delicious days when they -had first acknowledged their own love for one another, she had -jokingly told him that he was not the first sailor who had tried to -woo her. And he recalled, too, the fact that Charke had been -introduced to her mother's house by her uncle, and had been more or -less of a frequent visitor there. 'Was he, Bella?' he continued. 'Was -he the sailor you once told me of who wanted your love?' - -'Yes,' she said, gazing up at him with her clear, truthful eyes. 'He -was. He told me so long after I met you. And I believe now--I have -thought so for some time--that he would never have applied for the -position he holds in this ship if uncle hadn't told him that I was -coming in it. He was far too ambitious for such a post when I first -knew him, and aspired to be captain in one of the great liners, and -eventually to be an owner.' - -'I'm glad you've told me, darling. Especially as it quite explains his -not liking me over much. Poor chap! I can understand that he should -not do so in the circumstances,' he added, while gazing down on his -sweetheart with such a glowing look of love as to cause her to forget -all their unfortunate surroundings and revel only in her delight at -being so much beloved by him. - -'Yet,' Gilbert continued, 'I can't understand his wanting to come into -this ship, even though it would give him three or four months more of -your society. Such a thing as that would have been maddening to -ordinary men--I know it would have been to me! If you had rejected -me--I--I--well, there! I can't say what I should have done; but, -at any rate, I couldn't have borne the torture of being in your -presence--especially if you were on your way to marry another fellow.' - -'He is a strange man,' Bella said, 'and although I never loved him, I -cannot help admiring his force of character. His father, a selfish old -man, treated him badly and baulked him of going into your service, yet -he managed to be a sailor in another way, and to enforce respect from -every one. And he is a cultivated man and wonderfully well read. -Still, I don't altogether like his force of character, or rather, the -direction it takes. He told me, on that day at Portsmouth, that he -never faltered in his purpose, and that, when once he had made up his -mind to do a thing or get a thing, he did it, or got it, somehow. I -believe, too, that he meant it as a kind of defiance to me.' - -'Did he, though!' exclaimed Gilbert, as now they sat beneath the -awning, at which they had arrived while talking. 'Did he! Well, he -won't get you, anyway, will he? Not while I'm alive, anyhow. If, -however, I were to die----' - -But this remark was promptly hushed by Bella, who would not allow her -lover to even finish it, and, as his watch commenced at six o'clock, -he now went below to get an hour or so's rest before that time -arrived, while she still sat on beneath the awning, thinking dreamily -of him alone and of their future--if any lay before them, which now -seemed doubtful, or, at least, very uncertain. Then, suddenly, as thus -she mused, there happened a thing which startled and amazed her so -that she sprang out of her Singapore chair and gazed aft, away down -towards the south. A thing which even she, a landswoman, a girl -originally unacquainted with anything connected with seafaring -matters, had, by now, come to recognise and understand as vital to all -on board that ship. She had felt the back of the straw hat she wore -lifted by a slight warm ripple of air, while, at the same moment, some -of the pages of a book she had left lying on the table were suddenly -turned over swiftly and with a loud rustle. - -'It is the breeze,' she muttered, 'the breeze! The wind at last!' - -The others on deck had perceived it as quickly as she. At once, those -who were about had sprung into action and thrown off the listlessness -which had pervaded all in the ship since they had been becalmed. In an -instant all was bustle and confusion; the four remaining men who could -see rushing about eagerly. The master came out from where he had been -talking to some of the sufferers, while Charke, running along the -waist, called out: 'Miss Waldron! Miss Waldron! Where is the -lieutenant? We want his services now, at once. Perhaps he, too, can do -as much as any of his own men could if we look alive.' - -'I will fetch him directly,' Bella cried, full of excitement, and, -swiftly, she ran down the companion to the saloon on her way to hammer -on Gilbert's cabin-door and awaken him. But, as she reached the place -she stopped, petrified almost and filled with a vague alarm at she -scarcely knew what, while, at the same time, she smothered a shriek -which rose to her lips, and exclaimed in its place: 'Bertie! Bertie! -What is the matter?' - -For she saw him standing by the saloon-table gazing at her, smiling -even as he heard her loved voice, yet holding on to the edge with one -hand while, with the other, he felt, as it seemed, cautiously before -him. And again she cried: 'Bertie, what is it? What does it mean?' - -Then she heard his voice saying: 'It means, darling, that I too am -struck down. That I too am blind.' - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -A LIGHT FROM THE PAST - - -Four seamen only left untouched by blindness now, and two officers, to -work a ship of six hundred tons! How was it to be, how could it ever -be, done? The task was hopeless, and so all recognised on board that -unhappy, ill-omened ship, even as now the wind freshened and the bosom -of the ocean became flecked with little white spits of foam, while the -breeze, hot as the breath of a panting wolf, swept up from the south. -A breeze hot now, though once it had been cool--glacial--as it left -the icebergs of the Antarctic Circle. - -What was to be done? they muttered now, as, together, the six -unstricken men took counsel while they stood in the shade of the -foredeck awning, and forgot, in their excitement, that one was the -master and owner, the other the first officer, and the four remaining -ones only poor, ignorant sailors. What! what! what! - -'I,' exclaimed Pooley, at last, after much discussion, 'can at least -steer her. Some one must do it if she is to move at all; otherwise, in -spite of my seventeen stone, I would be up those ratlins like a boy. -But, even then, of what use are five to fist all the canvas she can -carry?' - -'We can fist some of it, at any rate,' said Charke, strong, determined -as ever. 'By Heaven!' he cried, 'Lieutenant Bampfyld shall never go -back to any of Her Majesty's ships and say that half-a-dozen men under -the red ensign couldn't do something; couldn't make one stroke to save -themselves!' Then, in an instant, he asked the captain to go to the -wheel, while he sent the man, whose trick it was, forward, and, a -second later, he was issuing orders to his subordinates. - -Somehow, these orders were obeyed, and in about an hour, during which -time all worked with a will and as if their lives depended on it, the -_Emperor of the Moon_ was under close-reefed topsails, foresail and -fore-topmast staysail, when, if she had only had her full complement -of able-bodied men to do the necessary work, she might well have been -under full sail before the still increasing wind, and making a good -nine or ten knots an hour. But, now, that was impossible; even if -those five could have got all her canvas on her the thing would have -been madness. A little further increase of force in the wind, and they -would at once have to shorten sail again--which, in the circumstances, -it would be almost impossible for them to do--or to stand by and see -the masts jumped out or blown overboard. As it was, the _Emperor_, -under the combined power of the current and what wind they could avail -themselves of, was making something like five knots an hour. - -During all this time Bella had been below with Gilbert and a prey to -terrible anguish, yet endeavouring in every way to cheer and solace -him and to thrust her own fears and forebodings into the background. -Fears and forebodings of she scarcely knew what, yet fears that were, -all the same, assuming by degrees a more or less tangible shape. For -of late--indeed, long since--there had been intensifying more and more -in her mind that feeling of dislike and mistrust of Stephen Charke -which she had experienced from the first moment that she had -discovered him to be the second in command of the vessel in which she -was to make so long a voyage; for, over and over again, she had -remembered, had recalled, how he had said that he was never baulked in -the end of what he desired to obtain, and that if he wanted a thing he -generally managed to get it. And she knew that he had meant it as a -warning, if not a threat; though, certainly, since that miracle had -happened which had brought her lover into the very ship which was -taking her to India and to him, she had laughed at, had inwardly -despised, the threat, if it was one. - -But now--now! With Gilbert stricken down by her side, helpless, -crippled by blindness, unable to do aught for himself or her, and with -her uncle broken down and worn almost to equal helplessness with his -enforced labour and his despair at the ruin which threatened him -through the probable destruction of his ship, what--what might not -Charke do? _He_ was not blind yet, nor---- - -Then, as her meditations reached this point, and while Gilbert sat by -her side on the pretty plush-covered locker with his head on her -shoulder, he broke in on those meditations, and what he said could not -by any possibility be construed by her as helping to dispel them, but, -rather, indeed, to aggravate them. 'At the rate we have been going -on,' he said, 'since I came aboard, there will not be a living soul -left with their eyesight by the end of the next two or three days. Oh, -my God! Bella, what will it be like when this ship is at the mercy of -the ocean, with every person on board blind.' - -'Don't let us think about it, darling. Don't, don't! And even now some -may retain their sight. Uncle, I, Mr. Charke, the men----' - -'Ah,' he said, 'Charke; yes, Charke. Excepting you, dearest, I would -sooner Charke kept his sight than almost any one else.' - -'Why?' she asked, thinking that of all who were in the ship she, -perhaps, cared less whether Charke preserved his sight or not. - -'Think what a strong, self-confident man he is. Even if all the others -were blinded and he was not, he would devise something for keeping the -vessel afloat, though, of course, he could not work her. He would -manage to get us all taken off somehow.' - -This, the girl acknowledged, not only to him but herself, was true -enough. As regarded Charke's sailor-like self-confidence, courage and -determination, as well as how to do everything best that was necessary -in the most sudden emergency, there was nobody on board the ship, nor -ever had been, who was superior, or even equal, to him. Yet--in sole -command and possession of that ship, supposing the other inhabitants -of her should also be attacked with blindness and helplessness--what -might he not do, if his dogged resolution never to be baulked of -anything he had set his mind upon was allowed full sway? Her -imagination was not a tragic one, nor more romantic than that of most -young women who had been brought up as she had been, yet--yet--she -shuddered at fears which were almost without actual shape in her -thoughts. With all the others blind, herself included; with none to -observe what Charke did; with the opportunity of removing for ever -from his path any who had crossed it--of removing the one whom she -felt sure, whom she _divined_, he was anxious to remove; with an open -sea around him----'Oh, God!' she broke off, while exclaiming to -herself, even as her reflections shaped themselves thus, 'never--never -will I believe it. Never will I think so basely of any man, especially -since he has given me no cause to do so. And, as yet, there are plenty -left with their eyesight; plenty to see what is going on.' - -Her uncle and aunt came into the saloon now, full of a distress that -was visibly marked upon both their faces as well as their demeanour, -yet both as kindly as ever in their manner, and uttering expressions -of sympathy with Gilbert in his affliction. But, all the same, Bella -could not but observe the look of absolute illness and grief on -Captain Pooley's countenance, nor help trembling inwardly at the fear -that he might be the next one attacked. - -Nevertheless, he said cheerfully enough, after he had exhausted his -condolences with the young man: 'We are doing some good now, at any -rate. The "cherub" is marking about six knots; if the wind keeps where -and as it is we may yet fetch Mahe, or one of the other Seychelles. In -fact, we must reach them, or some other place, or----' - -'Or what?' asked Bella, looking at him with tear-laden eyes. - -'Or,' her uncle said, not, however, concluding his speech as he had -originally meant to do, 'or drift about until we fall in with another -vessel. We ought to do that, too,' he continued, 'for we are almost in -the direct track from the Red Sea to Australia; we are in the track of -the big liners.' - -'How,' asked Gilbert now, while forcing a smile to his face as he -spoke, although it was but a poor, wan substitute for the bright, -joyous one that generally lit up his countenance--and, indeed, it was -only assumed with the hope of cheering his sweetheart by his side, -wherefore, like all other substitutes for the real thing, it was but a -wretched copy--'how are my brother-sufferers? It would be cheering -news to hear that some of them were regaining their sight.' - -'At present,' Pooley replied, 'only one of your "fellow-sufferers" -seems to be doing so, and that's not a human being but no other than -Bella's _protégé_ the tiger-cub. That creature is, we all believe, -coming round. It is rambling about the deck by itself, but it -undoubtedly can see now to avoid hitting its head against the raffle -lying there. However,' he went on, 'here's a little information which -you may both be glad of, upon which he dropped his hand into his -nankeen jacket and produced from it an old, dirty, and much-thumbed -book, on which, in addition to many other unclean marks and stains, -were added droppings from candles.' It was evidently, as Bella at once -divined, one which had been pored over at night; while, had she been -well acquainted with the habits of those who dwelt in the forecastle, -she would have also understood that mercantile Jack is often in the -habit of sticking lighted bits of candle about whenever he wants to -read, and even to the sides of his bunk in which he lies, when he -sleeps in one instead of in a hammock. - -'Millett,' her uncle went on, naming one of the men who had still -retained his eyesight, 'showed me this an hour ago. It belongs to poor -Wilks, and is a book entitled _Calamities of Sailors_, it being a -collection of odds and ends accumulated from various writers by an -unknown hand. Now, here,' he went on, 'is a strange account of -blindness attacking a vessel in much the same way as those in my poor -old _Emperor_ have been attacked, and----' - -'Did they regain their sight?' exclaimed his listeners together; all -three, namely, Mrs. Pooley, Gilbert, and Bella, asking the same -question in almost the same words. - -'They did,' the master went on, 'in this case. It happened on board -the _James Simpson_, in 1803. But in another, I am sorry to say, they -did not; and also, I am sorry to say, this is a very circumstantial -account, given by M. Benjamin Constant to the French Chamber of -Deputies, in 1820, when he was speaking on the horrors of the West -African slave trade. He tells how a French ship, _Le Rôdeur_, having a -crew of twenty-two men and a hundred and sixty slaves, left Bonny in -1819, and was attacked with almost precisely the same blindness which -has now fallen on most of us. Things were worse with them than in this -ship, however. They had scarcely any water, the air below was horribly -impure, and, when the poor wretched slaves were allowed on deck, they -locked themselves in each other's arms and leaped overboard in their -agony, so that the French captain ordered some of them to be shot as a -warning.' - -'Yet,' exclaimed Gilbert, '_Le Rôdeur_ must have got safely into -harbour at last, or M. Constant would not have given his information.' - -'Yes,' said Pooley, 'that of course is so. Pray God we do, too'; -whereon he closed the book and dropped it into his pocket. - -It was well he should do so. Well, too, that Bella did not ask to be -allowed to read it for herself, for it contained a good deal more than -her uncle had thought fit to read out, and described further horrors -which it was not advisable that any in that saloon should be made -acquainted with.[1] - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -MAN OVERBOARD - - -Another day had passed and the south wind still blew gently, neither -increasing nor decreasing in force, so that the log showed that the -_Emperor of the Moon_ had progressed between a hundred and fifty and -two hundred miles farther north. Farther north, as all said now, but -not to Bombay, since they had abandoned all hope of reaching that port -in their present short-handed condition, and without obtaining fresh -assistance--but towards the Seychelles. That was the harbour of refuge -to which their thoughts and aspirations pointed at this time; the spot -where, even though they should obtain nothing else, they would at -least be in safety, and the one from which they could be taken off by -some other ship if they were not able to find the means of working -their own. - -But, even as this day was drawing towards its conclusion--a day -hotter, it seemed to all on board, than any they had previously -experienced, and when neither the awnings nor the breeze that came aft -protected them sufficiently to allow of their being on deck, unless -duty demanded that they should be there--a change was perceived to -have taken place in the condition of one or two who had been attacked -by blindness. Mr. Fagg had declared that he was regaining his sight, -and that, although he could not distinguish small objects with any -amount of clearness, he was nevertheless able to see large things, -such as the form of a man or woman, in a blurred, indistinct manner if -he or she happened to enter his cabin; while Wilks averred that his -sight was also returning rapidly to him. - -'For, see here, sir,' he said to Charke, who, learning what was -happening, or said to be happening, had gone forward to question him -on the subject, 'I can walk aft to the break of the poop without -stumbling against anything or over anything either. May I show you, -sir?' - -'Ay,' replied Charke. 'Show me. Let's see what you can really do,' -while at the same time he motioned to a sailor, who happened to be by -the mizzen-mast, to throw down gently a coil of rope he held in his -hand so that, when Wilks neared the spot where it was, they would be -able to observe whether he could see clearly enough to avoid it or -not. - -Meanwhile, Wilks, having received the necessary permission, had -started from close by the fife-rail, where the conversation had been -going on, and was making it perfectly clear that what he had stated -was undoubtedly the truth. For, independently of the coil which the -sailor had deposited abreast of the mizzen-mast, there was at this -moment a good deal of raffle lying about the deck, as well as a bucket -or so, and also a squeegee alongside the saloon skylight. But Wilks -saw them all and steered himself along, avoiding each and every object -both great and small, while, when he approached the coil of cable, he -passed round it in almost precisely the same manner that a man in -possession of his ordinary eyesight would have done. Then he looked -back--at least he turned his face back--towards where he had started -from, and, with a gratified grin on his countenance, asked Charke if -he was not all right. - -'Yes,' replied Charke, 'or getting so. If one or two more of your -mates would only recover in the same way, we might bend another sail -and, so, make a few more knots. Yet, curse it!' he muttered to -himself, 'as one gets well another gets ill.' - -This was unhappily only too true, for not an hour before he had been -called to observe that Wilks seemed to be on a fair way towards -recovery, he had learnt that Pooley was, although not stricken with -the blindness, yet rapidly becoming blind. He had himself discovered -such to be the case when, after lying down for an hour, he had been -unable to perceive anything clearly on awakening. And, in another hour -after this had been found by him to be the case, he was obliged to -acknowledge his darkness of vision was becoming more intense, and that -he feared his sight would be entirely gone by nightfall. - -This was, perhaps, the greatest blow of all to several on board the -unfortunate ship; on Bella it fell with overwhelming force. For now -she recognised that, of all others, the very man she most feared and -dreaded--though she could not have explained why that dread should -have taken possession of her--was in absolute control over the ship, -and could indeed do what he liked with it. Her uncle, she understood, -could of course still issue orders, but--how was it to be known that -those orders were being obeyed? - -Then, strong-minded as she was, and feeling more so, as well as more -self-possessed because of the presence of her lover in the ship, she -again forced herself to discard such miserable and--as she termed them -in her own mind--ridiculous fears, and set herself about the task -which had now for some time developed on her of attending to the -catering of the ship and looking after the sufferers generally. For, -from Mrs. Pooley, Bella had not at any time received much assistance, -owing to the fact of the poor lady having been quite ill since the -calamities on board began to follow each other in such frequent -succession, while, now that her husband was struck down, she appeared -to have collapsed altogether. Indeed, at this present time, she was -doing nothing except lying on the plush-covered sofa of the saloon, -while moaning feebly that they were all doomed, and that, even if the -ship was not utterly cast away and lost, there would soon not be a -living soul on board who would be able to see. - -'And then,' she sobbed, 'what can happen to a vessel--in the night, -especially--full of men and women who are all blind and cannot find -their way from one end of the deck to another?' - -'Nonsense, aunty, dear, nonsense!' Bella replied, while endeavouring -bravely to dispel her aunt's forebodings, which, in solemn truth, she -shared to the full with her, though not for worlds would she -acknowledge that she did so. 'Are not some already getting well--Mr. -Fagg, and the sailor, Wilks, and Bengalee----' - -'While at the same time others succumb to the blindness,' Mrs. Pooley -interjected, still with a moan. 'And now your poor uncle, of all -others.' - -'Well,' said Bella, still stout of heart, 'we have this comfort: it -soon passes away. Let me see. Bengalee has been blind about a -fortnight, Wilks and Mr. Fagg about twelve days--whatever is that -noise!' she exclaimed, breaking off suddenly. - -As she uttered that exclamation there had come a sudden racket above -their heads, the noise descending through the wide-open skylight. A -noise which seemed first like the yelp of a dog in pain; then another -which resembled somewhat the spitting of a cat, followed by a -shrieking kind of growl, and then the voice of Charke exclaiming -angrily: 'I'll have the infernal thing thrown overboard. Here you, -catch hold of it--make a loop and fling it over its neck. Catch it, -one of you!' - -'Oh!' cried Bella, forgetting everything else for the moment, and -rushing towards the companion, 'it's Bengalee!' Then she swiftly ran -up to the deck, and saw the tiger-cub standing close up by the frame -of the skylight and growling at Charke, whom it regarded with terribly -vicious eyes. And she noticed, too, that it held up one of its hind -legs as though it were injured. - -'What are you doing to the creature?' she cried. 'You have been -kicking it again, you----' she was going to say 'brute,' but -restrained herself. 'And you shall not have it thrown overboard, as I -heard you order the men to do!' she continued. Then she went towards -the creature perfectly fearlessly, and spoke to it, and eventually -stroked its back, so that at last its growls subsided altogether. - -The chief mate's face had presented an appearance of scowling rage as -she reached the deck, while it had on it an expression that boded ill -for any extended existence being accorded to Bengalee had she not -appeared at the moment she did. Yet, by the time she had ceased -petting the animal he had managed to control himself considerably, and -to smooth out the look of temper from his countenance. And now he -said: - -'Oh, of course I did not really mean to do that, Miss Waldron. Though -it will have to be got rid of eventually. It is impossible that it can -be kept much longer. And, you know, we have enough work to do without -attending to such an animal as this. Just think! I am the only officer -fit for duty, and I have only four able men to work with--since Wilks -cannot be called well yet.' - -Honestly, Bella felt sorry that she had spoken as hotly as she had -done, since she did indeed recognise the almost superhuman amount of -work that had fallen on Charke's shoulders just now. He seemed never -to sleep but was on deck night and day, sometimes steering, sometimes -even going aloft alone, and hardly ever snatching a quarter of an hour -for his hasty meals. She murmured, therefore, some words of regret, -and was going on to say how sorry she was for having been excited, -when he stopped her. - -'No, no, Miss Waldron. It was nothing--nothing. The thing did spring -at me angrily as I passed where it was sleeping, and I kicked it. I am -sorry, too. And you know I would not injure anything you liked,' -while, as he spoke, he bent his dark, handsome eyes on her. - -Perhaps it was a pity he uttered these last words, since in her own -heart she did not believe that they were true. She had seen his -glances more than once directed at Gilbert when he had not known that -she was observing him, and she thoroughly believed that, in them, -there was a malignant look, a look of hatred, which belied his words. -And she had seen--she _thought_ she had seen--something else in those -glances when Gilbert was first attacked with blindness which, if not -gloating, was very like it. She said, therefore, now, as she turned -towards the ladder: 'Then you won't punish it, Mr. Charke, will you? -You won't let it be thrown overboard in any circumstances, will you?' - -'It shall be as sacred to me as you are,' he replied. 'Its life as -sacred as yours.' - -But all the same, she told herself as she went back to the saloon, -that, if there was anything Charke hated in that ship, or rather, any -two things he hated more than all else, those things were her lover -and Bengalee. - -Presently, not ten minutes later, she again heard his voice, calling -out loudly to one of the men this time: 'If we could only get another -on her we could make two more knots, I believe. If only some of those -who are blind but not otherwise incapacitated would help on the braces -and get the yards round, we could do it.' - -She was not the only person who heard these words. Not a moment had -they left his lips before the curtains in front of Gilbert's and Mr. -Fagg's cabins were pushed swiftly back with a metallic jangle, as the -rings ran along the rod, and each of the young men appeared in the -saloon and began making his way guided by his hands, towards the -stairs leading up to the deck. - -'Oh!' cried Bella, not quite understanding what it was Charke wanted -done, or what assistance could be rendered by persons who were blind, -'what are you going to do? Gilbert, don't do anything rash! Nor you, -Mr. Fagg!' though she saw by their faces and the smile that came to -each that she had overrated any harm that was possible. - -'We'll get that sail on,' exclaimed Gilbert, as he felt his way up the -stairs, and Fagg said: 'We will so,' as he followed him after they had -each jostled the other at the foot in a slight collision which their -sightlessness had caused, and, a moment afterwards, Bella and Mrs. -Pooley were left alone in the cabin. Yet they could hear, plainly -enough, the words of approval bestowed on Gilbert and Fagg for their -promptness, when the meaning of it was recognised by those on deck; -and they caught, too, the orders bawled with great rapidity by Charke -the instant he had received this extra assistance. Also, they heard -him ordering one man to the starboard main braces and another to go -forward and loose the jib. - -A moment later they heard something else as well. - -The cry of two or three voices together, the roar of Charke, and then -his trumpet-tones, exclaiming: - -'My God! he's overboard!' - -And Bella, with the image of one man alone in her mind, reeled -backwards towards the sofa where Mrs. Pooley lay, and gradually slid, -fainting, on to the cabin floor by her side. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII - -'FAREWELL, MY RIVAL' - - -Had Bella known more about a ship and its intricacies she would have -understood that, notwithstanding some one had undoubtedly gone -overboard, the sailor, whoever he was, could not by any possibility -have been one of those who had gone to help in squaring the yards. -Instead, she would have been aware that such an accident could only -have happened to some seaman who had either gone aloft or out on to -the jib-boom. And, in fact, the latter was the case; the unfortunate -fellow, a man named Brown, falling off the boom while endeavouring to -set the flying jib, and being struck a moment later by the frame -timbers forward as he fell. Yet the unhappy sailor seemed still to -have some life left in him, as those who rushed to the port side could -see, since, as he was passed by the ship, he was observed to rise to -the surface--his head all shiny with blood--and to strike out -manfully. But what could that avail, since, by the time the _Emperor_ -could be brought to the wind and a life-buoy thrown overboard, he was -half a mile astern? To lower the boats in time to save him would also -have been an impossibility, even if it could have been done at all; -and, moreover, the swift-coming instantaneous darkness of the equator -was at hand, so that the man himself was, by now, almost invisible. - -'Steer her course again,' Charke called out, therefore, to the man who -was at the wheel, in a voice in which regret for the unfortunate -sailor was mingled with a tone denoting some other sentiment that, -perhaps, none would have been able to understand, even though they had -been swift to observe it, as, in their excitement, none were. Then, at -once, in a few moments, the _Emperor of the Moon_ was again heading -towards where the Seychelles lay. - -What was that other sentiment which now pervaded the breast of this -strong, masterful sailor; this man who had worked untiringly for hour -after hour on stretch, and who seemed to rise triumphant over Nature's -command that both sleep and meals should be properly partaken of? The -man who had not changed his clothes for three days, nor even had them -off his back when he sought a quarter of an hour's rest here or ten -minutes there? What was this sentiment? Nothing but a certainty that -this was the last voyage the ship was ever to make--a feeling of -intense conviction, which had been growing upon him for some time, -that all in the ship were doomed. For he, at least, could see--_he_ -was not blind yet--and, more than all else on board, perhaps, could -feel; and his sight showed him things over the water, in the density -of the atmosphere, even in the appearance of the brassy heavens above, -which told him that, ere long, the slight whispering breeze which blew -would be changed into a hurricane howling across the ocean. His -feelings, his nerves, the moisture of his skin corroborated, also, -what his sight proclaimed. - -'It will come,' he muttered to himself, as now he paced the -after-deck, with his eyes never off the light sail that the ship was -carrying. 'It will come soon, and then we are done for, even though I -get every inch of canvas off her first. This man's death leaves me and -three other sailors as the only persons to work the ship. It is -strange if, even under bare poles, we continue to swim.' - -Then, as he turned his head towards where Bella (who had soon -recovered from her faintness) was now standing talking with her uncle -and her lover, he muttered another sentence to himself--a sentence -which, should a romancist or a dramatist inspire one of his characters -with it, would, perhaps, be deemed unnatural, yet which this man of -iron will and fierce determination muttered to himself as calmly as he -would have given an order to one of his few remaining sailors. - -'If it blows, as I believe it will, twenty-four hours will see the end -of us all. She--oh, my God! she will be dead--but so will he and so -shall I. Well, there's consolation in that. If I can't have her, no -more can he. That thought makes the end mighty cheap.' - -Here he strode towards those three standing by the break of the poop, -and touching his cap to Bella--he was, as she had observed, a -gentleman, and in all that became the outward semblance of a gentleman -he never failed--he said quietly to the poor, blind captain standing -by her side with his fingers resting lightly on her arm: - -'We must get in all the sail, sir, now. There is a change coming; I -know it--feel it. The glass, too, stands very low, and since we cannot -work the ship in a storm, short-handed as we are, we had better -commence at once. It will be pitch dark in ten minutes and there is no -moon.' - -'Good God!' exclaimed Pooley, 'what is to happen next? The glass low, -you say? Well, that means a change of some sort, though not -necessarily bad weather. What are these feelings you speak of, -Charke?' - -'The feelings of a sailor,' he replied. 'You know them as well as I -do. Ha!' he exclaimed, 'there's lightning in the south. No time to be -lost.' - -Then he seized the boatswain's whistle, which he had hung round his -neck and used since the man himself had become disabled, and blew it -as a signal to his three remaining hands to be ready for his orders. - -'Now then,' he cried, 'up with you and stow the few sails that there -are. What do you say?'--to one who muttered something--'tired--been -working all day? Why, damn you! haven't I been working too.' Charke -rarely swore, but he was impelled to do so now, especially as he had -moved out of Bella's hearing. 'Do you see that lightning down there in -the south? Do you want the ship to be blown over and go to the bottom -in her? Here, you stop at the wheel,' addressing the man who was -already at it, 'we others can do it somehow. Follow me'; and away he -went to the topsail yard, selecting the most arduous part of the -business for himself. While he muttered to himself as he did so: 'Now, -if I should go, too--fall off the yard--they are doomed beyond all -help. Nothing then can save him.' Which thought caused a strange, -weird kind of smile to be on his face as he sprang up the ratlins. - -And, stirred to action by his own indomitable energy, the men did set -about the work and managed it somehow, the sails being stowed in a -very unshipshape fashion (or what would have been an unshipshape -fashion if the proper quantity of sailors had been there to do the -job) and in such a manner that the first gust of the coming tempest -would be as likely as not to blow them clean off their lashings. -Still, it was done at last, and not too soon either, since, ere they -had concluded their work, the lightning was flashing incessantly and -huge drops of rain were falling. - -'It's a south-easterly wind,' said Gilbert to Bella, turning his cheek -towards it. 'Where will it blow us to now?' - -Charke thought he knew, as he listened to the remarks, since he had -returned to their vicinity after coming down from the topsail-yard, -but he uttered never a word. Even now he loved the girl by their side -too much to frighten her more than was necessary. Yet, had he said -that he knew that, short of a miracle, it must be the bottom of the -ocean--as was the case--she would probably not have heard him, since, -at this moment, with a devilish shriek, the gale was upon them. Upon -them and almost pooping the ship as it struck her right aft, and then -driving her forward in the churned sea with a horrible, sickening -motion, while, since she was fairly deeply laden, she recovered -herself from the avalanche of water but slowly. An avalanche that, -sweeping over the poop with a roar and a swish, took Bella and Gilbert -off their feet and hurled them forward staggering, and buffeted -against each other. - -'Below--go below, all of you!' roared Charke to them, and also to -Pooley, who had himself been sent sliding along the deck and was now -hanging on to a belaying-pin, even as he called out to know where -Bella was. 'Below, I say! We must close the hatches, or she will have -the sea in her. Below, quick!' and, rushing towards Bella, he led her -to the after-companion, dragging Gilbert with his other hand and -returning for Pooley. And now the tropical lightning--that violet-hued -lightning which is so beautiful and also so sure a sign of awful -turbulence in the elements--played incessantly on the ill-starred -_Emperor of the Moon_; the seas were mountains at one moment, valleys -at another. The ship, too, was rolling so that it seemed as if -everything on her deck must be pitched off her into the sea--as was -indeed the case with many of the smaller things which went to form the -raffle lying all about--and each time that she went over to port or -starboard she took tons of water over her side. Then, a still more -gigantic wave caught her on her port-bow, and absolutely threw her up, -it rolling directly afterwards under her counter and letting her drop -directly afterwards into the trough, while over her poop, again, came -that which seemed to be not a wave but the whole Indian Ocean itself. - -Amidst it all Charke still stood at the wheel, holding on to it as -perhaps few solitary men had ever held on to a wheel in such a sea -before; his arms actually bars of iron, yet appearing to him as though -deprived of all sense and feeling. He stood there silent, determined, -resolved, awaiting death, knowing that it must come and not -dismayed--because it must come to that other, too, that man below in -the saloon who loved and was beloved by Bella. Then, suddenly, he knew -that he was not to die there alone at his post while his rival expired -in his sweetheart's arms, or she in his; he knew--he discovered that -not to him alone was to belong all the bravery and the resolution. - -Creeping up from below, thanking God that the hatch had not yet been -closed, feeling his way by his hands and gradually reaching the -wheel--buffeted here and there; knocked down once, then up -again--Gilbert Bampfyld crept to his side, and, an instant later, was -fingering and, next, gripping the spokes. - -'Let me help you!' he roared, so as to be heard, while feeling as he -did so which way the other man who already had hold of the wheel was -exerting his force. 'Blind as I am, I can do that. Who are you?' - -'Stephen Charke,' the other answered, also shrieking his name. 'Help, -if you like. But it is useless. We are going.' - -'I know it,' Gilbert answered. 'Well! we will go down standing.' - -And Charke, still endeavouring to hold up the ship, still to protract -life from one moment to another, muttering inwardly: 'Curse him! he is -a man. One worthy of her.' Then, unceasingly, he continued his work, -wrenching, striving, endeavouring in every way to save the ship from -being pooped or flung over as the waves took her and cast her up like -a ball, or hurled her down like a falling house into the gaping, -hellish troughs that lay below, yawning for their victim. - -But still the lightning played upon the doomed craft, illuminating her -from stem to stern, showing the fore top-gallant mast gone and the -jib-boom carried away, broken off short, three feet from the bowsprit -head. Also it showed something else--something that, had he had time -to think of aught but preventing the ship from falling off the course -he was endeavouring to steer, might have struck a feeling of wild -horror to his uncanny breast. - -For some of the blind, stricken men forward had crept by now out of -the forecastle and other places where they had herded, and were -crawling about the foredeck, holding on to whatever they could -clutch--belaying-pins, the fife-rail, the racks, even the ring-bolts. -Amongst them, too, was the tiger-cub, an almost unrecognisable lump, -except for the topaz gleam which his eyes emitted: a gleam that, as a -sea, which was in truth a cataract, washed it from the foremast almost -to where he stood, appeared to Charke malignant, devilish, -threatening. And he heard those unhappy men's voices, cursing, -blaspheming, praying: roaring that they feared no death which they -could see, but that they wanted to go neither to heaven nor hell -enveloped in utter darkness. - -'No Jack who ever sailed,' they screamed, 'feared a death that he -could face, but we fear this. And if we had but our sight, maybe -there'd be no death at all!' - -'Ay, but there would, though,' muttered Charke to himself--'there -would. Ha! by God, look there,' he cried aloud, forgetting that the -only man who could hear his words was blind. The ship had given -another hideous plunge--had wrenched herself as a giant might give a -wrench in endeavouring to free himself from the chains that bound -him--then down! down! down! she went into the hollows of the ocean, so -that up above her on either side were nothing but vast walls of sea. -Walls that would, that must close together, Charke understood, fifty -feet above their heads, leaving the ship beneath them. And then he -turned to the other man by his side, saying calmly: 'Now is the time! -You love Bella Waldron. So do I. And neither of us will ever set eyes -on her again. Farewell--my rival!' - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII - -'SHE WILL NEVER KNOW' - - -'How in Heaven's name has she ever done it?' muttered Charke to -himself, three minutes later, as, dripping like a dog dragged out of a -pond, he still stood by the wheel while holding on like a vice to the -spokes. And still both he and Gilbert had each got their legs twisted -in the radii to prevent them from slipping, since now the ship lay -over frightfully to starboard and did not recover herself at all. 'Ah, -well,' he continued, 'it does not matter much how. Another five -minutes and over she goes--turtle. It is a hundred to one she has six -feet of water below.' - -How had she done it? That was the wonder, the marvel; the more -especially a wonder if, as Charke thought, she had six feet of water -in her, since twice that amount would have taken her to the bottom -even though she lay in the most tranquil waters of the universe. It -was impossible she would have risen again, if overloaded thus. Yet, -water in her or not, she had accomplished a marvellous feat for any -craft that ever left the shipbuilder's yard. For, from down below in -those awful depths, with, on either side of her, and glistening all -around her in the glare of the lightning like the sides of a crevasse, -those walls of sea, she had still risen above them and had (a moment -or so after they seemed to be closing in on her and shutting her out -for ever from the world above) been once more poised on the crest of a -huge billow. She had done it, and now lay listing over on to her -starboard side, as some great wounded creature might do whose right -ribs had all been broken in by the blows of a pole-axe. But still she -travelled through the water in the darkness of the night; for now the -lightning was ceasing and, also, she carried no lighted lantern since -there were none to attend to such things--while, even though there had -been, the beating of the gale would soon have extinguished them. She -travelled swiftly, too, cutting her way through billow and wave, -taking in huge seas aft which swept her decks--yet going still. But -with some of those spectral forms, those blind groping men, departed -for ever; swept down the sloping deck by tons of water, down and over -into the ocean. And of the few, the three who had still their sight, -one lay with a broken neck at the foot of the foredeck companion-way, -having been flung down the hatch-way head foremost; the other two were -drunk. They had broken into the steward's room, where there were none -to control them, and had found some bottles of beer, as well as one of -brandy and one of rum--and this was the result! - -At that moment the wheel spun round in Gilbert's hands, dragging him -with it in its revolution, so that he thought he would have to let go -or be thrown in a somersault over into the sea; then, as he forced it -back, he heard Charke's voice bellowing at him: - -'Can you hold her up for five minutes? I can grasp the spokes no more; -I am done. I would not have let go like that, God knows I wouldn't, -but I have lost all sensation in my arms and hands. I will lead Fagg -out. Perhaps he can help.' - -'I may hold her steady,' Gilbert answered, 'but no more. What can a -blind, stricken man do?' - -'It is enough,' Charke said. 'Sight would not aid you to do more, and, -after all, it is of no use. We but prolong life for nothing. Yet, here -goes.' - -He made his way below, falling, sliding down the companion-ladder, -tumbling along in the darkness to where he judged the door of Fagg's -cabin was; he fell over things that had been hurled out of the -steward's pantry on the port side--broken dishes, plates, tin -utensils, potatoes peeled ready for cooking, and a joint of meat--he -felt all these with his feet and benumbed hands, and found a bottle, -too, which his smell told him was rum. Then he tore the cork out of it -with his teeth and drained a tumblerful of the raw spirits. That gave -him fresh life and energy; the blood coursed and danced through his -veins again, his fingers began to feel, his arms to strengthen. -Sliding back the door of Fagg's cabin he called him by name, and, -receiving no answer, felt in the berth to see if he was there, while, -even as he discovered that the bed was empty, he trod on an upturned -face, and then stooped down and felt it and the head, and found the -latter all broken. Whereby he understood what had happened to the -unfortunate young officer, and knew that he had either been hurled out -of his bed against a bulkhead, or, being out of it, had been dashed to -death. - -He would have gone back now to relieve Gilbert, and was turning to do -so when his eye caught the glimmer of a light down the narrow gangway -leading to the saloon, and he knew at once that somehow those within -had managed to get the bracket-lamp over the table lit. Whereon he -went towards that saloon, intent on seeing how those who were in -it--especially _one_ in it--were preparing to meet their end. Were -they bearing up bravely? Was she--was that girl who maddened him, that -girl, through his unrequited love for whom, he knew, he felt, that all -his better qualities had been driven out of him--preparing to meet her -death nobly, valiantly? - -The sight he saw might have struck horror to a bolder, a better man -than he. A sight more fitting to meet the eyes of one who gazed into a -catacomb or charnel-house than into what had been, not long before, a -pretty, bright saloon. Mrs. Pooley lay flat upon her back, moaning -feebly, her stout body rolling backwards and forwards with every swing -of the ship and every plunge it made. The captain was on his face, and -above him lay half the debris of the shattered, sea-wrecked cabin. - -But Bella! She frightened, startled him! - -'The others may be dead,' he whispered, 'but she, surely she is alive. -God! how her eyes stare, yet--yet how lovely she is still.' - -The girl was sitting upright upon the saloon sofa, her hands gripping -the head of it as though, all unconscious as she appeared to be, she -still knew that she must do that to save herself from being flung -down, and her lips moved faintly. Then he wrenched the bottle of rum -from out of his pocket, he having put it there with a view to -administering some to Gilbert when he regained the deck, rival though -he was, and moistened her lips with it. - -'Miss Waldron--Bella,' he whispered, allowing himself in those last -moments the luxury of calling her by the name that he had whispered so -often softly to himself. 'Bella! for God's sake, say something. Tell -me that you are not dying.' - -And she did whisper something--a word that he heard above all the roar -of the hurricane thundering aloft, above the awful concussions of the -ship's sides as again and again the tons of water struck at her, -heavily, savagely, and as, also, she struck at them in her maimed -progress; above even the rattle of ship's furniture rolling about, and -the sickening thumps of the unlashed piano as it beat against the stem -of the mizzen-mast. She whispered a word or so. - -'Gilbert,' those white, cold lips muttered; 'Gilbert, my darling, we -are dying together. Clasp me to your arms now. Hold me in them to the -end.' - -With a moan, not a curse!--a curse would not have availed or eased him -now--he started back in that dim cabin, hurling the bottle from him as -he did so. His rival! his rival! again, even now! His name the last -word on her lips, his image the last thing present to her in the hour -of death. Then he fled from the cabin back again to his post, back to -the wheel to which he swore he would lash himself, and so go down -thinking of nothing but his duty. There was, his fevered mind told -him, nothing but that--but his duty--left. As he went along he -noticed, distraught though he was, that the vessel was making a kind -of rotatory movement under him; that she seemed, indeed, to be gliding -round and round in a circle although beaten back more than once by the -awful force beneath her. - -'He has left the wheel!' he cried, his swift and accurate seaman's -knowledge and intelligence telling him at once what had happened. 'Is -he mad--or dead?' - -And clutching, grasping at everything that offered a hold to him, he -forced himself back to where the wheel stood, only to find when there -that Gilbert was lying senseless by it. Senseless but not dead, as one -thrust of Charke's hand under the other's wet clothes, towards the -region of the heart, told him very well. An instant later he had -resumed his hold on the spokes, and was endeavouring to put the ship -on her course before the howling winds, to keep her straight on into -the dark, impenetrable depth of blackness ahead of her. - -Again the marvel was that she did not go over, or did not suddenly -sink beneath the weight of water that was pouring in on all -sides--sink like a stone. And he began to tell himself now that, as -she had borne up so long, as the storm could, by no possibility, -become worse and must, at last, abate, there was still a hope. A hope -of what? That he and Bella might both be saved; be saved, and saved -alone, together. 'She is alive and I am alive. The others are dead, or -dying. Oh, God! if she and I are spared----' - -But that sentence was never finished! - -For, as he partly uttered it there came an awful crash, a crash that -hurled him back, then flung him over and over on the poop--a grinding, -horrible concussion, followed by the most terrible thumps and by the -sudden cessation of the ship's passage. And, a moment later, the -vessel heeled over, though still beating and thumping heavily, so that -now the water poured into her forwards, and, gradually, her fore-part -was entirely immersed. But still the pounding and the awful grating -continued, while growing worse and worse. - -'She has struck,' he muttered to himself. 'Struck on a reef or a rock. -The end has truly come.' - -In a moment he had picked himself up from the poop-deck, and, -difficult as it was to move with the vessel beating backwards and -forwards, had dragged himself down to the saloon--down to where Bella -was, the woman whom he would save or die with. - -The lamp had gone out with the concussion. All was in darkness, and, -above the roar of the tempest outside, he could hear the furniture -beating about the saloon as the ship swayed and wrenched. Yet he went -on towards where he had left her ten minutes before; on towards the -sofa on which she had been sitting almost unconscious. - -She was not there he found, but, instead, lying insensible at the foot -of the sofa. Insensible, he knew, because, to his words, his summons, -she returned no answer. Then, in a moment, he had seized her in his -arms, had lifted her up, and, with her head upon his shoulder, was -groping his way with unsteady, stumbling feet towards the gangway. - -Her head upon his shoulder now, her hair brushing his face now, in -this moment, in the hour of destruction--for one, for both of them! -Her head upon his shoulder! And he a mortal man! It was beyond -endurance; more than he could bear! Acknowledging this, recognising -it, he slightly moved, with the hand which was around those shoulders, -that face so close to him, that face so close, so cold and chill--and -kissed her long and passionately. - -'She will never know,' he muttered, 'never know. Yet--yet it has made -death sweeter. Death! the death that will be ours ere many more -moments have passed.' - -Yet, near as that death was, so near as to be beyond all doubt, as -much beyond all doubt as that the rocking, shivering ship was breaking -up fast, he felt his way towards where he knew the life-buoys were, -and rapidly fitted one on to each of them; while, as he did so, he -murmured again and again: - -'If any are saved it can only be she and I. Yet even of that there is -no hope.' - - - - -CHAPTER XIX - -'I ALMOST DREADED THIS MAN ONCE' - - -The Indian Ocean lay beneath the purple-scarlet rays of the setting -sun as calmly and as peacefully as though, across its treacherous -bosom, nothing more violent than a cat's-paw had ever swept. Indeed, -so calm and peaceful was the spaceless sheet of cobalt that, almost, -one might have thought he gazed upon some quiet tarn, or inland lake, -shut in and warded off from any breeze that might blow or any tempest -that could ever roar. Only--he who should stand upon the pebbly -beach of a little island upon whose white stones the surf hissed -gently as it receded slowly and faintly--as though it were asleep and -languid--would have known that, for thousands of miles ahead of him, -there was nothing to oppose the tempests of the east and south, or -prevent them from lashing that now calm and placid ocean into madness, -or from exerting their powers of awful destruction. - -A little island set in that glittering, sapphire sea, with, all around -its circumference of five miles, a belt of white bleached stone and -sand, and with, inland and running up from the belt, green grassy -slopes, in which grew tall palm trees, vast bushes or tufts of -bananas, orange and lemon trees, mangoes and yams. There, too, were -grassy dells through which limpid streams of pure cool water ran until -they mingled with the salt ocean; there the wild turtle-dove cooed -from guava and tamarind tree, the quails and guinea-fowls ran about -upon the white silvery sands; while, to complete all these natural -advantages, neither mosquito nor sandfly existed. - -A little island girt by coral reefs--the ocean's teeth, strong, -fierce, and jagged; teeth that can rip the copper sheathing off a -belated vessel as easily as a man can rip the skin from off the -island's pink and golden bananas; teeth that can thrust themselves a -dozen or twenty feet into the bowels of forlorn and castaway barks and -tear them all to pieces as the tusk of the 'must' elephant tears the -bowels of its victims. A little island, one of a thousand in that -sometimes smiling, sometimes devilish, sea--such as are in the Chagos -Archipelago, or the Seychelles, or the Cormoras, and, like so many of -those islands, untrod, unvisited by man. Unvisited because, where all -are equally and bounteously supplied by Nature, there is no need for -any ship to draw near this solitary speck that is guarded from all -approach by those belts of coral, and also because, to this small -island, there is no natural harbour should rough winds blow. - -Now--as still the setting sun went swiftly down amidst its regal -panoply of purple and violet and crimson, while, above those hues, its -rays shot forth great fleaks and flames of amber gold--it was not -uninhabited, not desolate of all human life. Upon a grassy slope a man -lay, his head bound up with linen bands; one of his hands being -swathed, too, in similar wrappings. And his eyes were closed as though -he were sleeping--or dead. To her who gazed on him it seemed almost as -if it must be the latter--the greater, the more everlasting sleep, -that had fallen on him. - -For there were two in this island now; she who thus looked down on the -prostrate man being a woman clad in a long dress, which once had been -of a soft, delicate white fabric, but, now, was stained and smeared -with many splashes and marks, and was rough and crumpled with hard -usage and by the effects of seawater. Her hair, too, was all -dishevelled, uncombed and unbrushed; tossed up in a great mass upon -her head; bound with a piece of ordinary tape. And still she was as -beautiful as she had ever been; beautiful in this negligence which was -the result of shipwreck and of battling with tempest, of cruel -buffetings from merciless waves and jagged rocks--beautiful, though on -her face and in her eyes was now the sombre beauty of a despair and -misery too deep for words. For he whom she loved, he whose wife she -was to have been, was not upon that island with them, and had no more -been heard of since, in the arms of Stephen Charke, she had been -plunged into the sea and, in those arms, borne to safety and to life. - -She gazed down on him now, in the last glimmering beams of the golden -light that shot athwart the island, while regarding him with some -expression in her glance which caused that glance to be not altogether -a reflex of her own misery and despair. An expression that seemed to -denote a supreme pity, an almost divine regret for him who lay before, -and beneath, her, in pain and suffering. - -'How brave--how strong he was!' she murmured inwardly, her lips not -moving. 'How he fought with that storm--fought with Death to save me -and himself! No!' she broke off, still uttering her meditations to her -own heart alone--'why do him such injustice even in my thoughts? It -was not to save us both, but me alone. There was but one desire in his -soul--to save me!' - -She turned and went to a small heap of fruit that she had gathered -earlier in the day, and selected one of the great pink bananas--pink -with a lustrous beauty which those who only see them when they arrive -in northern climes could never believe they have once possessed--then -she took a scooped-out cocoanut shell, and, going to a little babbling -rill that ran through the grassy defile, filled it with water. After -which she returned to where the other lay, and, kneeling by his side, -gazed on him again. - -'My God!' she whispered. 'I almost dreaded him once. Feared him for I -knew not what. Feared him! Him! And he has been my saviour.' - -He seemed to know that she was by his side and near him; for, even as -she murmured these words to herself, Stephen Charke opened his eyes--a -faint smile appearing in them--and gazed into hers. - -'You are better?' she asked, as she gave him the shell with the water -in it, which he was not too weak to be able to take and raise to his -lips, while she tore off the rind of the banana. 'Your forehead,' she -went on, while putting her hand upon it calmly, as a sister might, 'is -cooler. Are you still in pain?' - -'No,' he answered. 'No--only very weak. Are--are--any more saved from -that?' and he directed his glance to where, two hundred yards off from -the island, lay something protruding above the water which looked like -the rounded back of a whale, but was, in truth, the torn and lacerated -keel of the _Emperor of the Moon_. In her last struggles--in her last -convulsions as the gale had hurled her on to the coral reef--she had -turned almost completely over. - -'No,' she replied, her face an awful picture of despair and anguish. -'None are saved but you and I. Oh!' and she buried that face in her -hands and wept aloud, piteously, heartbrokenly. - -'God rest their souls,' he said solemnly. 'God pity them! Why I, too, -should have been spared except to save you, I do not know. I might as -well have gone down with them.' - -'No! no!' she cried. 'No, Mr. Charke. You must be spared for better -days, for greater things. Oh,' she exclaimed, 'how bravely you -battled with it all! Uncle told us,' she went on through her tears, -'when we were below and before I became insensible, that your -efforts were superhuman; that, if the ship could be saved, it would be -by you alone. And,' she continued, 'how you saved me I do not know. -Only--only--I wish I had gone with him, with Gilbert.' - -'Nay,' he said--'nay. Do not say that. And--and--I ask you to believe -that, had it been possible, I would have saved him too. But it was -impossible. Impossible to so much as slip a life-buoy over his -shoulders. The end was at hand, the ship broken in half. It was -impossible,' he repeated earnestly. - -'How,' she asked, as she sat by his side gazing out across the calm, -waveless sea through the fast-coming tropic night, and watching the -great stars--almost as big as northern moons---sparkling, incandescent -like, in the blue heavens above--'how did you do it? I remember -nothing till I found myself lying there,' and she pointed down to the -white sand, from which there came, through the sultry night, the -gentle hiss of the sea, 'and saw you lying near me, and dead, as I -thought.' - -'Nor do I remember, or only very little more than you can do. I -dragged you from the saloon, and, after fixing a life-buoy on to each -of us, leaped into the sea with you, striking out vigorously to avoid -the ship. And I can recall my battlings with the waves for a few -moments--only a few--then feeling my breath knocked out of me. And, -then, nothing more until I came to and found you looking at me here. -It was the life-buoys that saved us.' - -'In God's mercy. Under His Providence. Yet--yet--if it were -not wicked to say so--if it were not for my poor dear mother at -home--I--should----' - -'No, no!' he almost moaned. 'No, no! Not that!' Then, after a moment -or so of silence, he said: 'Do you know how long we have been here? -Can you guess?' - -'This is the second night, I suppose,' she answered. 'When I came-to -yesterday morning, I imagine it was the first one after the wreck.' - -'Possibly. And have you seen nothing pass at sea, either near or far -off?' - -'Nothing. Yet I have gazed seaward all the time it has been light on -each day. Where do you think we are?' - -'If the island is uninhabited, I think it must be one of the -Cormora group, since it can scarcely be part of the Chagos -Archipelago--they are too far to the east. And all the others in the -Indian Ocean--certainly in this part of it--are inhabited.' - -She made no reply now--she did not say what almost every other woman -in her position would undoubtedly have said--namely, that she hoped -they would in some way be taken off the island. For, in absolute fact, -she did not hope so. To be saved from this desolation, to be put on -board some ship which might be going to any part of the world, even -though that part should be England itself, meant leaving Gilbert -behind--leaving him to his ocean grave. And she would not--certainly -she would not yet--consent to believe that he had met with such a -grave. The _Emperor of the Moon_ was still there, a part of her above -the water although she was almost turned upside down, or 'turned -turtle,' as she knew the sailors called it, and--and--might not some -of those who were in her when she struck be still sheltering, clinging -to some portion of the wreck that happened to be above water? She did -not know much about ships, this awful, fateful voyage being her only -experience, wherefore she thought and hoped and prayed that such a -chance as this which she imagined in her mind might be possible. -While, too, she remembered that Gilbert and her uncle were both blind. -Therefore, if they were still alive, they could not cast themselves -into the sea to escape out of the vessel--they would not, indeed, know -that there was an island close to them, and, probably, would imagine -that the ship was wrecked upon some reef or rock, so that it would be -doubly dangerous to venture to leave her. And, again, even if they -could by any wild chance have guessed that there was an island near, -how would they in their blindness have known which way to proceed to -reach it? - -Thus, by such arguments, she had endeavoured to solace her sad, aching -heart, and now, as she rose to leave Stephen Charke for the night, she -put into words the thoughts which had been present to her mind from -almost the first moment she had discovered that they themselves were -saved. - -'Do you think,' she asked, standing there gazing down on him once -more--'do you think any who were in the ship when we escaped can be -still alive? Is there any hope of that?' - -He looked up at her swiftly as she made the suggestion, then--because -he felt that it was useless to encourage such vain longings--because, -also, he knew that such a thing was impossible--absolutely, entirely -impossible, he said: 'No, no! It cannot be. Those who were in the -cabin would be submerged as the ship went over, and those who were on -the deck would be thrown into the sea.' - -She gave a bitter sigh as he answered her--and it went to his heart to -hear that sigh, since now his pity for her was heroic, sublime, in its -self-abnegation--as great as were also his love and adoration; then -she asked: - -'And where was Gilbert--Lieutenant Bampfyld?' - -'He--he--was lying by the wheel. God pity him! He was a brave, noble -officer. Even in his blindness he had crept up to help at the wheel, -and was determined to do something towards saving the ship if -possible. Then--then--he fell down from exhaustion. He----' - -'--is dead!' she muttered, in a voice that sounded like a knell. -'Dead! oh, my God! he is dead. I wish I were dead, too!' - - - - -CHAPTER XX - -'I DO BELIEVE YOU' - - -She moved away from him now that the night was at hand, intending to -seek a little knoll that was hollowed out by Nature so that it -presented the appearance of a small cave of about six feet in depth -and the same in breadth. Above it there grew, tall, stately, and -feathery, two cocoa trees close together; around it trailed tropical -creepers and huge-leaved plants which bore upon them large white -flowers. It was into this cave she had crept the night before and had -slept, and to it she now intended to go again, it being, as she -thought, better perhaps to pass the night there than in the open air. -Yet, had she but known, it offered her no necessary shelter, since, in -truth, none was required--especially at this season. Dews scarcely -ever arose in the island, there being little, if any, of that dampness -at night for which the poisonous deadly West Coast of Africa is so -evilly renowned, and one might sleep in the open air as free from the -dangers of exhalations as in any closed place that could be devised -here. - -But, not being aware of this--as how should she who, hitherto, had -known so little of the world outside London--outside England?--she -spoke to Stephen Charke ere she left him for the night, saying: 'I -wish there was something to cover you with--something to protect you. -Yet there is nothing--not a rag.' - -'It is of no importance,' he said, looking up at her, and able to see -her face, pale and ghostlike, by the light of the stars. 'Of none -whatever. I shall be able to lie here and sleep very well. There is no -fear of damp or fever in all this locality. I know it well. And, -tomorrow, I hope to be able to get up and go about the island. -Perhaps, beyond that mountain at the back, there may be some signs of -human habitation--of human life. Do not think of me. Good-night. Sleep -well. Try to sleep well.' - -'Good-night,' she answered, 'Good-night'; and then she slowly withdrew -to the cave in the little knoll, and so left him. - -But, when she had gone, and had lain herself down upon the soft, dry -sand within that cave, sleep refused to come to her. The night before -she had slept long and soundly, perhaps because of all that she had -gone through, and because also she was battered and bruised and weak -after her immersion in the sea and the contact with the rocks. But -to-night she could not do so--her mind was now triumphant over her -body; the hour of that mind's agony was upon her. And she bent and -swayed beneath this agony, and recognised, acknowledged, all the ruin -that had fallen on her future life and hopes and dreams of happiness -to come. - -Her lover, her future husband, was gone--was dead! Her heart was -broken; there was in actual fact no future before her. She had loved -him madly, blindly, almost from the first time she had set eyes on -him, and now--now he was dead. There was nothing more. She would never -love any other man; none other could ever find his way into her heart -as Gilbert Bampfyld had done, nor set every pulse and fibre in her -body stirring, nor cause her to thank God when she awoke each morning -that another day had dawned when, even though she might not see him, -she could still pass many waking hours in thinking of him. No; no -other man would ever have the power to cause all that. Henceforth, if -she ever left this island alive, it would be to return to a joyless, -hopeless life--a woman widowed ere she had become a wife. - -Thus she thought and mused as she lay in the cave, her head supported -on one hand while she looked out on all that devilish, cruel waste of -waters which had hurled the ship to its destruction and slain almost -every soul on board her, and which now--like some wanton trampling on -the ruin and despair that she has caused--was smiling before her in -the rays of a crescent moon that was just peeping above the eastern -horizon. Indeed, the glimmer which this young moon sent shimmering -along the tropical sea was not unlike the false sad smile that a -wanton's lips might wear in the hour of her victim's ruin; the smile -that bespeaks 'the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart.' - -A little breeze sprang up now, a ripple soft as a lover's kiss; -balmy, too--as it played among all the rich tropical vegetation of -the island--as a young girl's pure breath, and she saw that her -fellow-castaway perceived it, since he turned himself so as to bring -his face towards it--doubtless to cool his heated frame and to get -relief from the warm, tepid air that hung all around--air that was -like the atmosphere of a Turkish bath. And this led her thoughts away -from her own sorrows into the direction of those griefs which must be -his--towards this brave, valiant man, who had saved her life at, as -she knew must be the case, the risk of his own. His lot was also sad, -she recognised, sad because he loved her--as it would have been the -merest affectation for her to pretend to doubt--and because she knew -that never could this love obtain that which it hungered for. Yet, all -the same, there had come into her heart a feeling of intense sorrow -for him; sorrow and pity that had welled up into her bosom and was -almost holy in its depth and purity. - -'To love and lose, as I have done,' she murmured; 'to love and never -win, as is the case with him. Oh, God! could there be aught to make -our bitterness--our lot--more terrible?' - -Suddenly, she started and raised herself higher with her elbow, her -nerves quivering, her heart beating violently, her eyes staring -intently into the shade beneath a copse, in which grew in wild -profusion a tangled mass of cocoa trees and tamarinds, of orange -bushes and lemon trees, and into which, now, the new moon's rays were -glinting. - -For she had seen something moving there--something creeping, crawling -close to the ground--stealthily, secretly--as though desirous to -approach the spot where they were both so near together, without being -heard or seen. - -What new horror was this that approached them in the night, that crept -in ambush towards them as though intent on secret murder and attack? -What! Some native of this horrid region lusting for the stranger's -blood, or some wild beast as fierce! - -Her; tongue cleaved to her mouth--she could feel that the roof of the -latter was becoming dry--she tried to scream--and failed! - -And, still, close to the earth, that thing crept--nearer--nearer--and -once, as it either pushed some underbrush aside or came more into -view, a ray of the moon glistened on a pair of eyes, illuminating the -pupils for a moment. Then she found her voice and shrieked aloud: - -'Mr. Charke! Mr. Charke! There is something creeping towards us. Save -us! Save us!' - -In a moment he was endeavouring to spring to his feet, but this he -could not do owing to his soreness and contusions; yet, nevertheless, -he staggered up a moment later and gazed around, wishing that he had -some weapon to his hand. - -That cry of Bella's--it rang along the desolate beach as, may be, no -woman's voice had ever rung there before!--brought matters to a -crisis. There was a rush, a spring from the creature that had, by now, -crawled so near to them; a spring which hurled Charke back reeling as -the thing passed him and then brought it, itself, close to Bella, -about and around whom it at once began to gambol, rudely and roughly, -as some great watch-dog might do who had found its lost mistress. - -The creature was Bengalee, the tiger-cub, and, in some way, it, if -nothing else, was saved from the wreck of the _Emperor of the Moon_. - -'Oh!' cried Bella, half fearfully at its furious bounds and leaps, -which, even in her nervousness, she could not but construe into a -wild, savage joy on its part at once more being in her presence, 'it -is Bengalee. Oh, thank God!' - -'Thank God?' Charke repeated, not understanding. 'Thank God for what?' - -'It is a sign,' she said, 'a sign that we are not the only ones who -have escaped. Think! think! If this creature could get ashore, so--so -may others have done.' - -For a moment he said nothing, contenting himself with watching the -exultation of the creature and in reflecting that it was her shriek -which had told it who those were to whom it had drawn so near--with, -perhaps, if stung by hunger and privation, a vastly different -intention from that of fondling either of them! And he did think of -what she hinted in connection with its safety and its having reached -the island alive, as well as of that safety pointing to the fact that -others, that human beings, might also have done so. Only--he knew, and -knowing, refrained from saying, that her deduction was by no means -accurate. This animal had been on the deck when the ship heeled over -on the reef; it was confined only in a locker from which it might -easily have forced its way out in its terror, or, indeed, might have -fallen out of it, but it was an animal, and its blindness had left it! -Gilbert Bampfyld had also been on the deck, Charke remembered, but was -still blind. There was no analogy between the tiger-cub and any human -soul on board. - -'You do not answer,' she said, as now Bengalee lay panting at her -feet, its rough evidences of delight having ceased for a time; 'you do -not speak. You think there is no likelihood of any others being saved -from the wreck?' - -'I cannot think so. Heaven knows that, if I could comfort you with such -hopes, I would. But----' - -And now he repeated aloud those silent thoughts and arguments of a -moment ago; while, as he did so, he saw, in the moonlight, that she -turned from him, and he heard her whisper low: 'Heaven help me!' - -Then, because her misery and woe struck like a knife to his heart, he -said: - -'To-morrow, if I am strong enough, as I think I shall be, I will make -a journey round the island and explore every spot upon it, where, -if--if any one should have, by God's mercy, been fortunate enough to -reach the land, I must light upon them. Believe me, nothing shall be -left undone that I can do.' - -'I do believe you,' she cried; 'I do, indeed. Ah, Mr. Charke,' she -almost wailed, 'how good and noble you are! Oh that such goodness, -such nobility must go for ever unrequited!' - -'That,' he answered, and she, also, could see by the aid of the -moon's rays that on his face there came a wan smile, a smile that -had not even the ghost of happiness in it, 'that is not to be thought -of--never. Let us put away for ever all thoughts of my desires; let us -think only of what we have to do. To find, first, whether, in -Providence, there should be any others who have escaped from the -wreck, and, next, how we are to escape out of this. If there are other -islands near here which are inhabited, no matter by whom or what, it -may be easy.' - -'And if not?' - -'Then we must wait until, by some signal or other which I may devise, -we can attract the attention of a passing vessel. Beyond this I can -think of nothing.' - -'Oh!' she exclaimed, 'much as I long to return home to England, -to my mother--I think only of her now, I have none other of whom to -think--yet--yet, ah, I could not go till I was sure, sure beyond all -possibility of doubt, that Gilbert was not here or somewhere near. -Think, if he should be still alive and blind and wounded! Here and -unable to help himself. Oh, it would be almost worse than to know that -he was dead.' - -'I do think,' Charke answered; 'I understand. And until we are sure, -one way or the other, we will not go: no, not even though rescue came -to-morrow.' - -Then, looking down at the tiger-cub which had now risen to its feet -again, and was pacing restlessly about with the sinuous, lithe -movements peculiar to its race, he said: 'But there is also one other -thing that must be done. That creature is now beyond control, even by -you; and these beasts are treacherous to the core. If it is to live, -and we are to live also, it must be secured--made prisoner. Otherwise -something terrible will happen. I know it; feel sure of it.' - - - - -CHAPTER XXI - -WASHED ASHORE - - -They had both slept again by the time that the morning broke with the -suddenness of the tropics, while the coming of the sun was heralded by -the pale primrose hue which all who have been between Capricorn and -Cancer know so well; that hue being followed by the vermilion and -golden shafts of light, and then by a deep blood-red tinge which -suffused all the horizon. They had slept uneasily, each in their -place; with--outside, near the opening of the little cave under the -knoll--the tiger lying tranquilly as though keeping watch and ward -over her whom, probably, it deemed its friend and mistress. Yet, ever -and again, as she, while waking to regard it more than once--because -of the fear which Stephen's words had engendered in her mind--saw very -well, its yellow eyes peered out restlessly from their closed slits of -eyelids, the pupil of each eye being itself a horizontal slit only. -And she acknowledged that Charke had spoken aright, that the time had -come for the creature to be either imprisoned or made away with. All -its evil instincts were undoubtedly being developed with its growth; -soon, they would have obtained their full force and be, perhaps, -exerted. It was time. - -But now the dawn was come, the blood-red of the Eastern sky was -plainly visible, and the birds of the island were twittering to each -other and pluming themselves; whereon the girl rose and left the cave, -and passed quietly by the creature lying so close to her as though in -fear of arousing it. In actual fear of it, indeed, since she did not -know but that it might turn and rend her at any moment. For it was big -enough and strong enough to do so now, its size being that of a large -retriever, or a year-old mastiff; and she, or he, even--that stalwart -muscular sailor--would probably have had little chance against it if -it had set upon them, since both were unarmed and both were weakened -and broken down by their struggles in the tempest-tossed waves. - -Charke, seeing the girl rise from her recumbent position, rose also, -quickly and quietly, and came towards her, while as he did so he said: -'Now, to-day is the time for me to make that search round the island -which I promised you. We will but eat a little fruit, and then I will -set out.' - -'Shall I go with you?' she asked, as, taking up the cocoanut shell, -she turned to go towards the rivulet that ran at her feet, 'or is it -better for me to remain here? Perhaps, too, it may be more than I can -do. Or, indeed,' she hastened to add, 'more than you can accomplish in -one day, and in such heat as there will be. Oh, Mr. Charke,' she -continued, 'you are not strong enough to undertake it yet!' - -'I feel strong enough this morning,' he replied, 'and, if I cannot -make the whole tour of the place in one day, I can at least do a -considerable part of it. I will begin at once, before the sun becomes -too fierce. But, as for you, perhaps it would be best if you stayed -here. The outlook from this portion of the island is, I think, the one -from which any ship that happened to pass would be most likely to be -observed. You see, we look west from here, towards where Africa lies, -and vessels use that track in preference to running more out into the -open.' - -'I will do anything you suggest,' she said. 'Anything you think will -be for the best. But'--and again there came upon her face that -stricken look which made his heart so sad for her, and which, whenever -he observed it, caused him to bury every sorrow for himself in a -more profound and unselfish one for her--'but--you know--I--I--at -present--just at present--for a day or so--do not wish to see a ship -come here to rescue us.' - -'I know, I know,' he answered, not daring to keep his eyes fixed full -upon that lovely but unhappy face. 'I know. Well, we will not look out -for rescue yet. But, still, I think you had better stay here. We do -not know for certain the size of this island; it is only guesswork on -my part. It may be too far a walk, too much of an undertaking for you. -You are not afraid--of that?' he continued, as he directed his eyes -towards Bengalee, while seeing how, as he was speaking, she, too, had -let her glance fall upon the cub, which was now pacing restlessly -about at their feet. - -'No,' she said, 'I am not. Yet what you said in the night was true. It -is growing beyond control, and, of course, I know how treacherous and -savage these animals are. It was a piece of girlish folly on my part -to beg poor uncle to save it.' - -'I scarcely know how we are to make away with it,' he replied. 'I have -nothing but this,'--and he took from his pocket a little white-handled -penknife, which he had probably bought for a shilling off a card -exposed in a London shop window. 'I could hardly kill it with that. -However, one thing is certain, it will die of starvation ere long on -this island. It cannot live on fruit as we can, nor catch birds, and -there are no signs of animals, not even rats or mice, as far as I can -see.' - -'Oh, poor thing; what a dreadful death to die!' the girl exclaimed, -her pity at once awakened for a creature which had been more or less -her pet for some few weeks. Yet she hastened to ask if starvation did -not make such animals even more fierce than usual, and if the risk to -them both would not, thereby, be increased. Then, before he could -reply, she suddenly exclaimed, as her glance fell on the sea, 'What -is that out there? Surely--surely--it is not a drowned man? Oh, not -that--not that!' - -Following the direction of that glance, he saw something drifting -about on the tranquil, almost rippleless, water over which by now the -rays of the risen sun were gleaming horizontally. Something that, -since it was end-on towards them and the island, was not easily to be -distinguished, yet was, all the same, undoubtedly no drowned man nor -human body, alive or dead. At first he thought it might be a dead -shark--his knowledge of the sea telling him at once that it was not a -living one, since they never expose aught but the dorsal fin when -swimming--then, a second later, he recognised what the object was. - -'No,' he exclaimed, anxious to appease her terrors at once--while -knowing to whom, and, above all others, to whose _dead_ body those -terrors pointed--'No, that is no body, living or dead. Instead, it is -one of our quarter-boats. Washed out of the chocks when the ship -turned on her side, no doubt, and floating about ever since.' - -'It is coming nearer,' Bella exclaimed, her eyes still on it and full -of delight at hearing that in it there was, at least, no confirmation -of one awful fear; 'do you not think so?' - -'Undoubtedly it is coming nearer. It will strike the shore just there -if the reef does not catch it'; and he pointed with sailor-like -certainty to a spot close by. 'It will be a mercy if it does.' - -'Why? We could not escape from this place in that, could we?' - -'Hundreds of sailors have escaped death in smaller boats than that; -ay, and lived for many days, too, on an open and rough sea in such -boats. But it is not for that only. If it comes ashore I can make a -visit to the poor old _Emperor_ and find out something, if not all, -that I--that we---want to know. While, though we need not put to sea -in it, we may use it to get to some other island which is inhabited, -by, perhaps, white men; but, anyhow, by some one. It will be of the -greatest assistance, especially as, since it floats, it must be -undamaged. I trust the oars, if not the sail, are in it.' - -And now, listening to his words, Bella became as eager for the -quarter-boat to come ashore as her companion was, and, together, they -went down to the spot he had indicated as that which the boat was -likely to arrive at--a spot about sixty yards from where they were. - -As Bella walked by her preserver's side she was wondering many things, -and especially if he would, indeed, be able now to discover what the -fate of the others in the _Emperor_ had been, and, above all, if, by -the aid of this boat, he would be enabled to solve for her the -question she hourly, momentarily, asked herself by day and night--the -question whether there was any hope left of a life of happiness and -bliss to be passed by her lover's side, or whether, for her, the -future could bring nothing but a joyless, heartbroken existence -henceforth. Also, she mused upon one other thing--namely, what Charke -was thinking of while, with his eyes never off the incoming boat, he -meditated deeply as, from his knit brows and fixed look, she felt sure -he was doing. The thoughts, those that actually were in his mind, he -would, undoubtedly, not have divulged, even though she had asked him -to do so, since they were such as could only have caused grief -unspeakable. For he was thinking that, since this quarter-boat had -been washed out of the chocks and off the deck into the sea, and had -then floated about for forty-eight hours in the neighbourhood previous -to being directed by some subtle current to the island, so other -things that were on deck would be subject to the same conditions. The -bodies of drowned men; the body of her lover! He knew that the sea and -its currents and tides work in calm weather with as much regularity as -the sun and the moon work in their rising and setting, and, indeed, as -the seasons themselves work; and he knew, also, that if Gilbert's -body--which was close to where the quarter-boat rested when the ship -struck--had been washed into the sea at the same time as it, then it -was most probable, nay, almost certain, that it also would come ashore -at the same spot and perhaps almost at the same time. - -What horror, what fresh horror, would that be for this poor devoted -girl to experience! For, in his own heart, he never doubted for one -moment that somewhere close at hand the body of Gilbert Bampfyld was -floating about. - -The boat was coming very close into the shore now, so close that they -could see that one oar was in it, but only one, and that there was -nothing else, while they observed, too, that the rudder was not fixed -in the braces. Yet that mattered little to Stephen Charke if he could -only once get possession of the boat itself, since with one oar on -such a glossy sheet of water as this ocean was now, he could propel -and steer it easily enough. - -'I am glad, thankful, it is coming ashore,' he said now. 'I had -thought of swimming out to the ship, only I dreaded the sharks. Little -use as one's life may be, one would scarcely care to lose it by the -jaws of those brutes.' - -And, though he did not see it, the girl by his side gave him a glance -such as would, perhaps, have cheered his heart had he done so. 'Was -not her own life, also, of little enough use,' she asked herself as he -spoke, 'to make her sympathise with his remark? Would it not be a -broken and dejected one, henceforth, if that which she dreaded, which -she had almost forced herself to feel sure must be the case, should be -proved to be so beyond all doubt before many more hours had passed?' -For every hope with which she had buoyed herself was sinking in her -breast, as moment after moment went by and the time grew longer and -longer since the wreck had taken place. - -The boat touched the white, pebbly beach now, grating on it with a -gentle scrape, and Stephen, who had gone close to the water's edge to -await its arrival, put out his hand, and, seizing first the stern and -then the painter, drew it a foot or two farther on shore. Then he got -into it, and, grasping the solitary oar which had remained in the boat -simply because the loom, or handle, had got caught beneath the stern -thwart, prepared to shove off in it. - -'You will not mind,' he said, as he did so, 'being left alone for half -an hour? This will not take me away from you for so long as when I go -round the island.' While she, in answer, shook her head to indicate -that she was not at all afraid of being left by herself. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII - -A SAILOR'S KNIFE - - -'She is perfectly sound and watertight,' he called back to her as, -with the hand which was uninjured, he threw the oar over the boat's -stern, and worked her out from the shore. 'If we want her to help us -off to another island she will do it, if I can only find another oar -floating about somewhere.' - -Then he propelled her as swiftly as he could to where the _Emperor of -the Moon_ lay outside the rock, her keel and copper bottom gleaming in -the bright morning sun. - -As he drew near to the ship he began to perceive how all hope of the -likelihood that any one should still be alive and imprisoned in the -ship must be abandoned. She had turned over even more than he had at -first imagined when regarding her from the shore of the island, so -that the keel was almost level in a manner exactly the opposite from -what sailors mean when they talk about a 'level keel.' It stuck up -now, so far as it was out of water, as some sharp mountain ridge seems -to stick up when regarded from a valley, and showed an almost -horizontal line; while, beneath the keel and above the water, for half -the length of the vessel, there was visible a portion of the outside -of the main hold, down to (or up from) her diagonal ribboned-lines. -And, here, there was a great gaping wound, a hole smashed into her -side large enough to have let the whole Indian Ocean pour into the -devoted ship directly it was made, and (although there might well be -others which were not visible) sufficient to have filled and sunk, -forthwith, the largest vessel that was ever launched. The force of the -impact was to be appreciated, too, by the manner in which her copper -sheathing was driven into her and burst, so that, where the blow had -been struck by the jagged tooth of the rock, the latter looked like a -destroyed _chevaux-de-frise_, or, for a better comparison, a paper -hoop through which an acrobat had passed. And, in this burst and -broken protection, as in other and less terrible circumstances it -might have been (though naturally it had proved useless here), the -sheathing-nails stuck out like brilliant, gleaming yellow teeth, all -broken and distorted. - -Charke brought the quarter-boat alongside the upturned or leaning -bottom, so that, by looking through this gaping wound, he could peer -into the now reversed decks and see that there lay, on what had once -been the roof of it but was now the floor, a mass of articles, such as -is usually stowed away in a ship's lower decks. A mass, composed of -cables and old and new sails, as well as some stores, consisting of -dozens of tinned-meat cans unopened, boxes of sardines, and so forth, -and several old sea chests and trunks--all lying, of course, -helter-skelter, as they had been thrown together by the ship's -reversal. - -'There are some things of use here,' Charke thought, 'and worth taking -away,' whereupon he ran the painter through a small hole in the -sheathing and tied it tightly, and then scrambled up the vessel's -inverted side until he was able to drop himself through the opening -into the deck, taking care that he tore neither his flesh nor his -clothes in doing so. Being there, he selected a small sail which he -found; it was indeed, a boat sail, and had its gear of mast and tackle -attached, while, passing it through the orifice, he dropped it -carefully into the boat, and then he took next a few of the tins of -provisions, and dropped them into her, too. And, also, he found -something which would be to him, in the utterly unprovided condition -in which Bella and he had escaped to the island, of the greatest -service. This was a long, sharp knife in its leather sheath, such as -sailors strap to their sides, and was new and in good condition, so -that he did not doubt that the last seaman who had been sent below to -this deck had dropped it there, and he was able to picture to himself -the man's annoyance, probably expressed aloud and with a good deal of -vehemence and strong language, over his loss. This done--and the doing -of it had not taken long--he prepared to leave the disordered hold, -when he remembered that there was one thing he wanted, namely, some -cable. 'That tiger has to die at once,' he muttered to himself. -'With a piece of stout rope and this knife--which would slay anything, -from a horse downwards--its death should not be difficult of -accomplishment.' - -Then, having selected two or three pieces of cable of different -strands, he got out through the hole again and into the boat. - -It is almost needless to write down that he found no sign of human -life as he rowed about and round the wrecked _Emperor of the Moon_ for -some moments afterwards. Needless, too, perhaps, to add that he had -never expected to find any. He was a sailor, accustomed to disaster at -sea and full also of much acquired knowledge pertaining to many of the -calamities which it had never been his lot to experience heretofore; -and he knew--he felt sure, and would have staked his life upon the -certainty of his convictions--that of all who had been in that doomed -ship an hour before she struck, none except Bella Waldron and himself -were now alive. Those who had been below in the cabins or saloon, -those also who were in forecastle or galley, had met, must have met, -not only with their deaths but their graves at one and the same time; -while as for the unhappy and blind young officer who had caused him so -much heartache by winning the woman whom he loved so fondly, and whom -he had once hoped to win--why, it was impossible that he should still -be alive. If he had been washed ashore, it could be only as a corpse, -and it was most improbable that even that should have happened. In -truth, he believed that, with all the others, he had been carried -below by the overturning of the ship and then pinned down, buried, -beneath the mass of the fabric. Otherwise, since the boat had floated -ashore, so, too, would he have done by now. - -'The woman he had hoped to win,' he repeated softly to himself, as -still he sculled the quarter-boat round and round while peering down -into the dark blue depths as far as he could penetrate; and while -endeavouring also to perceive some sign or memorial--even so much as a -cap or straw hat--of one of those poor drowned sailors imprisoned -below--'the woman he had hoped to win!' And as the phrase rose to his -mind, though not to his lips, he recalled as well how he had cherished -the thought of the length of voyage that had lain before her ere she -could join her lover in India; how, too, he had pondered on half a -hundred things which might happen ere the old _Emperor_ should be -anchored in Bombay harbour. Almost, now, those meditations seemed to -have been prophetic--for what had not happened! The girl's lover was -gone, removed by death, and she had none other in the world on whom to -lean but himself. And what was more, she spoke kindly to him; she -pitied him, he could well perceive; there was something between them -now, a deep sympathy, a reliance on each other in their misfortunes, -which had never existed before. - -'The woman he had hoped to win?' Well!--he scarce dared whisper the -thought to his longing heart, yet it was there!--the thought, the hope -that in days to come, in after-months, perhaps years, when her grief -for Gilbert Bampfyld was mellowed and softened by time, when she knew -him better and should fully recognise how profound his adoration for -her was, he might still win her! She could not, young as she was, and -with all the years of a long life before her, sorrow for ever--sorrow -for a memory that would at last be nothing but a shadow. - -'He _would_ win her!' he said aloud to himself now, as he worked the -boat ashore, 'he was resolved he would.' The one obstacle in his path -was removed, the brave, gallant young officer was gone, brushed aside -by Fate. He would win her yet! - -He stepped ashore now to where she was standing watching him, and it -seemed almost--if his recent thoughts had not tinged his present -fancies with a roseate hue--that there was a look of greeting and -welcome to him in her eyes, even as she saw that he had come -back--even at the ending of so short an absence as his had been! Was -she beginning now--now that she had none other in the world to watch -for--to desire to have him always near her? Ah, if that were indeed -so! Then--then he might win her at last. - -'You found,' she asked, speaking low, and in those sad tones which had -come into her voice of late, and since disaster had fallen heavily on -them, 'you found no sign of any others having been saved?' - -'No,' he said, also softly. 'No, there are no signs of that. Miss -Waldron--I am neither cruel nor hard of heart, but--oh, how can I say -it!--it is useless to hope.' - -'Useless! Ah, well, I suppose it is--it must be! And, God help me, it -must also be borne.' Then she turned away from him with the desire to -prevent the tears which had risen to her eyes from being seen by him, -and went back to the shade of the trees under which she had been -sitting until she saw the quarter-boat returning with him in it. And -he followed her, carrying the cable which he brought away from the -ship; the knife which he had found being in his pocket and the sail -with its gear left in the boat. The sun was terribly fierce now, so -fierce that to be beneath its rays for only a few moments was to risk -sunstroke or to be burnt more red than he had long since been, or she -since her exposure on the island; and, of course, he could not attempt -the projected tour of the place until that sun once more sank low in -the west. There was, therefore, nothing now to do but to sit idly -gazing out to sea and watch for signs of any ship which might pass -near enough to perceive them, when they should have erected signals. - -'After the tour round the island,' he said to her, as he sat by her -side beneath the palm trees and occupied his time in plaiting some of -the long, thick grass which grew at their feet into something that -should serve for hats, or, at least, coverings for their heads, 'after -the tour, when we have had the last sad satisfaction of knowing that -there can be none who have escaped, you will not object to my -endeavouring to arrange for our being taken off? The Mozambique -Channel is full of ships on their way to India during the time of the -southwest monsoon--you will let me make signals, will you not?' - -'I am in your hands,' she replied, her eyes on him. 'You must do all -that you think best. Ah, Mr. Charke, you do not know how grateful I -feel to you!' - -'Never say that. Not a word. I knew, I thought, I could save one -besides myself, and, naturally,' he went on simply, 'I saved you.' - -Then both sat on musing and meditating in silence. - -'Here comes the tiger,' he said now, seeing the creature stalking -towards them in the lithe, treacherous manner peculiar to its race. 'I -imagine it has been endeavouring to find food. I brought off some -tinned things from the ship; yet, cruel as it seems to be, it is not -advisable, I think, to give it anything in the shape of flesh. -Meanwhile, if it will only go to sleep we ought to secure it,' and, as -he spoke, he took up one of the pieces of cable and commenced tying -what is known to sailors as a double-diamond knot. But, previously, he -had fastened the other end securely round one of the palm trees that -grew close by him. - -'There will be one advantage in this,' he said, 'namely, that the more -it pulls against it the tighter will come the loop, so that its -intelligence will prevent it from straining at the rope and strangling -itself.' - -'Poor wretch,' Bella exclaimed, 'how gaunt and lean it is growing! I -recognise that it cannot be kept alive or even taken off with us when -we are found here; yet--yet I am sorry for it.' - -'Yes,' he answered, 'I understand that, but it has to be done--must be -done--it is imperative. In the state it is now in from hunger, and -also owing to its increasing strength, our lives are no longer safe -with it, and certainly not with it at large; while, if one of us were -to scratch our hands, or even get the slightest wound, and the -creature smelt the blood, which it would undoubtedly do--well, the -result might be terrible. Now, see, it's going to sleep; it appears -exhausted. I must drop the loop over its head.' - -'No,' she answered, 'let me do that. It is still very docile with -me,' and, as she spoke, she took the loop from his hand and, while -patting the creature's head--whereon it raised it as a dog will raise -its head when stroked by a loved hand--she dropped that hand down -until the rope was round its neck, though not without muttering some -words of regret as to what she deemed her treachery. - -'It is no treachery,' he said, 'no more treachery, indeed, than to tie -up a mastiff in its kennel. And, even though it were, it would not -matter. These creatures are themselves the incarnation of treachery. -However, the main point is that it is now secure. It is not yet strong -enough to burst this rope.' - -Such was the case, yet it was strange that to so acute a mind as -Charke's there had not occurred the idea that it would not take a -tiger very long to gnaw a ship's rope through if it desired its -release. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII - -'THE TIGER DID THAT' - - -When the sun began to drop towards where Africa lay, afar off and -invisible, and when (because of the dense foliage which crowned the -slopes of the island that rose behind the beach) that portion where -they sat was rapidly becoming shaded from its burning rays, Stephen -Charke said that the time had come for him to think of making his tour -of the place, or, at least, of accomplishing a part of it. The air, it -is true, still resembled that which one feels when they have -approached too near to a furnace, or, for a further simile, have -descended into the engine-room of a steamer. Yet, now, there would be -no danger of sunstroke, and the expedition, such as it was, might very -well be undertaken. - -'My idea is,' Charke said, 'to begin now, this afternoon, by starting -to the left and going on along the shore until I am nearly opposite -this place on the other side of the island; then I will come back -here, crossing it, and to-morrow I will do the same thing with the -other side. That way there cannot be much left unexplored by to-morrow -evening. What do you think?' - -'I think,' Bella answered, 'that you are the most unselfish, heroic -man I ever knew. Ah, Mr. Charke,' she continued, 'I know very well -why you are doing this, why you are going to make this journey round -the island. It is to satisfy me, it is for my sake. If you were alone -here you would never do it, but occupy yourself only on thoughts of -how to get away, and----' - -'No,' he said, 'no. Had I been the only person who got ashore from the -wreck I should, as a sailor, as a comrade of the others, have deemed -it my duty to make a thorough search through the island ere I took -steps to quit it. I shall have, as the survivor of the _Emperor of the -Moon_, to make a report----' - -'I understand,' she said quietly. 'I understand. Nothing that you can -say will make me feel my obligations to you any the less.' - -For Bella Waldron knew as well as Stephen Charke himself knew, that -what she had just said was the absolute fact; she knew that he was -going to undertake this fresh toil--for toil it was, after all he had -gone through, after his bruises and buffeting with the waves, and in -this terrible torrid-zone heat--for her and on her account alone. He -was going to undertake it with the desire of easing her heart and -preventing her, in after-years, from being able to reproach herself -with having left the spot while any chance remained of there being one -of those who were dear to her upon it. - -She was, too, perfectly aware that he did not for one moment -believe--alas! how could he, a trained, intelligent seaman, -believe?--that there was any other soul left alive out of all those -who had been in the ill-fated vessel when she struck on the rock. And, -being thus unable to believe, could she regard him as aught else than -that which a moment before she had termed him, 'a most unselfish, -heroic man'? - -Before he left her he asked if she would not partake of some of the -tinned meats, or sardines, which he had managed to obtain from the -upturned hold, but as the girl replied that it was far too hot to eat -anything but the wild fruit growing in such profusion all around, and -also that she was not hungry, he decided that he would not open one of -the tins for himself. He, too, could do very well on what there was to -their hands for the trouble of picking, since, here, in this tropical, -steaming atmosphere, eating scarcely seemed a necessity of life; -while, if it were, then those glorious bananas whose golden and -crimson hues merged so superbly into each other were amply sufficient. -But, also, he had another reason for not opening the preserved meat. -The odour of it would--might--arouse the cub's desires, and, once -aroused, they would possibly stir the animal almost to frenzy if -ungratified. - -He rose now and prepared to set out, there being still two full hours -of daylight left; two full hours ere the sun would be gone and the -swift, dark night had fallen at once upon all around--the outcome of a -dusky veil which the sun appears to fling behind it as it departs, and -out of which emerges black obscurity, lit only by the burning, silvery -constellations. But, ere he went, he asked if she feared to be left -alone for so long. - -'No,' she replied, 'no. Why should I? What is there to hurt me here?' - -'There may be people on the island all the same,' he replied, 'even if -they have not yet discovered our presence; although I do not think it -likely.' - -'Nor do I. If there were they would by now, in two days, have observed -that,'--and she pointed towards the wreck--'and have come down to it. -We are alone,' she concluded with a sigh. 'There is no one else here -but you and I.' And still again she sighed. - -'Yes,' he answered, understanding all that her words meant, all the -heartbrokenness that they expressed. 'Yes, we are alone; there are no -others.' After which he left her, saying that, by dark, or very -shortly afterwards, he would be back again. - -When he had departed, after looking round once to wave his hand ere a -bend of the shore hid him from her view (and she noticed that, true to -his sailor's instincts, he went towards the boat and inspected it, and -then drew it up a little more on to the white-pebbled beach and made -the painter more secure), she went down to the rivulet and cooled her -face and hands and feet in it, and made some attempt at arranging her -hair, while using the stream as a mirror. Yet it was little enough -that she could do in the way of a toilet, since she had nothing that -would serve as a comb nor any soap or towel. After which, feeling -refreshed, nevertheless, by this attempt, she returned to where she -had been sitting and gazed out seaward, meditating deeply. - -'What an end,' she murmured, as she did so, while from her eyes the -tears flowed freely now--the more so because there was none to observe -them--'what an end to all! Gilbert, who was to have been my husband, -dead! Gilbert, whom I so loved with my whole heart and soul, dead! and -lying beneath that ship. Oh, Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert, my love, come -back to me. And my poor uncle and aunt, too. Oh, God, what a disaster! -What a disaster!' - -And now she wept piteously, so piteously that, if that other man, who -had risked his own chances to save her as well as himself, could have -seen her, the sight would have gone near to break his heart. That -other man! At this moment her thoughts turned to him too. Almost -unconsciously she found herself thinking of him, speculating on what -his future would be. 'He will never marry,' she murmured. 'I know it. -Feel sure of it. It would be the idlest affectation to ignore his -sentiments for me. Yet--yet--how sad, how mournful a life must his be -henceforth; no home to go to, no wife to welcome him, none to make him -happy. Poor Mr. Charke. Poor Stephen. Our lots will be similar, we -must be friends, always friends.' - -Meanwhile, he was making his way along the beach, which was still -shaded from the sun and becoming, indeed, more and more so as he -progressed farther round the island, away from the west. And every -step which he took served only to confirm him in what he had believed, -known from the first--the unlikelihood of there being any other person -saved from the wreck. - -'Surely,' he muttered to himself, 'if he should have drifted ashore, -it would have been here. The current sets this way, and also the -monsoon blows towards this island. Living or dead, he would have come -to this neighbourhood if he had come at all. The tiger did that, and, -doubtless----' - -He paused at those words. 'The tiger did that!' and for a moment it -seemed to him that his heart stood still. 'The tiger did that!' Ay, -but did it? Was he wrong in the surmise, wrong in his deduction? Did -the cub land here or hereabouts? Reflecting, recalling the night -before, the early dawn, when Bella shrieked to him and awoke him -from a half-slumber into which he had fallen, he recollected that the -beast had sprung forth from the copse of orange and lemon trees that -was to the right of the little spot where he had waded ashore with the -girl in his arms, and where, after carrying her up far above the -waterline, he had dropped senseless. It had sprung at them from the -right side, was coming from the right; and it was not to be believed, -it was, indeed, beyond all belief, that it could previously have -passed across where they were from the other side without having been -noticed by one of them, especially by Bella, who was wide awake. It -was coming from the right; it had, doubtless, therefore, got ashore, -been cast ashore, to the right. And he was seeking for signs on--had -set out to--the left! Had he, therefore, chosen the most unlikely -place in which, if, by the most remote chance, any human being should -have been washed ashore, to discover them? - -'Shall I go back,' he mused, 'and begin again on the other side? Shall -I?' Yet, as he meditated, he reflected that there would be little use -in doing so; certainly little use in doing so to-day. An hour had now -passed, or nearly so, since he quitted Bella; the sun, he knew, since -he could no longer see it, was sinking fast--over the whole of the -rich, luxurious vegetation that stretched inland there was now the -golden hue, the amber light that, in the tropics, follows after the -dazzling, blinding, molten brilliancy of the noontide, directly the -sun is no longer vertically above the globe. And also, there was the -odour of the coming night all about him, the odour of the declining -day when, from every fruit and flower that has drooped through the -hottest hours of the earlier portions of that day, there exudes the -luscious, sickly scent that travellers know so well. - -'No,' he said to himself, 'no. It would be little use to turn back now -or to begin again to-night! And--and,' he murmured, thinking deeply as -he did so, 'even though he had been cast ashore, he could not now be -alive. Blind--unable to see his way--to find any of all the fruit that -grows here in such profusion, poor Bampfyld would succumb to -starvation, even if the life had not been beaten out of him by the -waves.' - -It was of Gilbert Bampfyld alone that he thought, of him alone about -whom he speculated, since, of all the others who had been in the -_Emperor of the Moon_, he was the only one whose body could by any -possibility have come ashore. They, those others, Pooley and his wife, -were in the submerged cabin, no power on earth could have got them out -of it; any men left in the galley and the forecastle were in as -equally bad a plight. Nothing could have saved them, or have even -released their bodies. But, as he thought of Gilbert Bampfyld, so he -felt sure that he also must have perished, even though he was not -thus below as those others had been. Still musing on all this, but -with one other image ever present to his mind--the image of the woman -he loved--dishevelled and storm-beaten, but always beautiful--the -woman of whom, now, he began to dream once more, to dream of winning -for his own in some distant day--he went on along the beach, his eyes -glancing everywhere around and near him. Glancing into the wild, -tangled vegetation, along the channels of the rivulet's courses, but -sometimes with them fixed on the beach. - -Suddenly he stopped, his heart quivering again, beating fast. - -At his feet there lay a sailor's rough jacket, and, a little farther -off, a cap--a common, blue-flannel thing, such as the mercantile -sailor buys for a few pence at a Ratcliffe Highway slop-shop. - -He stopped, regarding them--not with that agitation which the greatest -romancer who ever lived has depicted as clutching at Crusoe's heart -when he saw the footmarks, but, instead, with a feeling of -astonishment; yet a feeling of astonishment which, he told himself, -he, a sailor, ought not to experience. - -'Do not all wrecks,' he muttered, 'send forth around them countless -articles of débris, countless portions of the raffle that encumbers -their decks? What more likely than that a sailor's jacket and a cap -should have floated ashore?' - -Then he stooped, and, feeling them, found that they were thoroughly -dry, so that they must have been ashore for some hours at least, since -even the fierce sun of the now declining day could not have dried them -in less time, all soaked with water as they had been. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV - -BEATEN! DEFEATED! - - -'No,' he said to Bella some time later, and when he had returned to -her, 'no other signs than these. Nothing,' while, as he spoke, he -pointed to the jacket and cap at his feet. He had brought them with -him after the discovery, thinking that perhaps they might be useful -when the time came for them to set out in the quarter-boat, as he -fully imagined they would have to do, thereby to reach some other -island. - -'Yet,' she whispered, 'if they, if this animal, too,' indicating -Bengalee, who now, what with his being made prisoner by the rope and -also by his long fasting, displayed a horrible state of nervous -agitation, a state which frightened Bella and rendered even Charke -very uneasy, 'if they could be thrown ashore, why not others? Mr. -Charke, do you think there is any hope?' - -'I cannot buoy you up by saying that I do think so,' he answered. 'Yet -be assured of one thing--you will know soon now. To-morrow, at the -first sign of dawn, I set out to accomplish the inspection of the -other half of the island. It is smaller even than I thought; it will -not take long.' - -And at daybreak he roused himself to carry out his undertaking, -though, even as he rose from the warm, soft sand on which he had lain, -he knew, he felt sure, that he was going on a bootless task. Again and -again he had told himself, through the night, that, even though -Gilbert Bampfyld's body had reached the island, it had never done so -with life in it. Yet he would make sure for her sake and for his. - -'Heaven bless you,' she exclaimed from where she also rose as she saw -him do so, and while going towards him. 'Heaven bless you. You spare -yourself no trouble nor fatigue on my account.' - -'It is best,' he answered, though he scarcely knew what reply to make. -'It is best that there should be no chance lost. If--if----' Then he -held out his hand to her as he had not done before, and at once, after -she had taken it, set out upon the remaining portion of his search. -And, for some reason which he, perhaps, could not have explained to -himself, he cast back no last look at her in the swift-coming -daylight--nor gave any word of farewell as he had done on the previous -afternoon. - -That daylight brought a little breeze with it which was cool and -soft as it came off the ocean that, for some hours, had been free from -the burning rays of the sun; and Charke made his way along the beach -while glancing everywhere, as he had done during his search of -yesterday,--into every spot wherein, if any one, anything, had come -ashore, they would probably have been cast. But as it had been when he -proceeded towards the left or south, so it was now as he went towards -the right or north end of the island. He found nothing; not even, this -time, a rag of clothing or a spar from the ship. He observed, however, -amongst other things of which his vigilant eyes took notice, that here -the formation of the island was considerably different from what it -had been on the southern side. There, as he made his way back inland -to Bella, cutting across from the eastern to the western shore, he had -found the glades and groves almost flat, except for small knolls and -little eminences on which, as everywhere else, there grew the long, -deep-green grass, the cocoa trees and tamarinds, and the flowering -shrubs and bushes. But here, upon the side he was now following, all -was very different. Inland, he could perceive that the surface rose -until it developed into quite high hills, and that those hills, -forming into spurs as they ran down to the water's edge, created a -number of little bays or coves, some of them being scarcely more than -fifty yards in breadth. Also he perceived that on high, where the -crests or summits of these spurs were, their sides were abrupt -declivities resembling often the sheer sides of cliffs instead of -sloping gradually and being covered by the deep emerald-green, velvety -grass. And they were white as English cliffs--as those of Dover!--and, -sometimes, as precipitous. Huge masses, too, of fallen, crumbling rock -lay tumbled together at their base and in the tiny valleys which they -formed between them, and gave, thereby, signs of either a convulsion -which had some time or another taken place, or of their lack of -solidity and insecure composition. 'I shall have,' Charke thought, 'a -mountainous, up-and-down kind of return journey if I go back to her -inland. Yet it will cut off a good deal of the way and make it easier -for me.' - -He found as he progressed, however, that soon, if he wished to -continue his inspection of the whole of the coast, he would, in any -circumstances, have to continue his walk more or less inland, since -now he could observe, by looking about, that the spurs ran quite out -into the sea, so that they hid each little bay from its neighbour on -either side of it. Consequently, if he wished to inspect the space -between each, he would have to mount to their tops and thus peer down -into the recesses that they formed. At present, however, there was no -necessity for him to do this. Still looking, he saw that there were -three more bays, or coves, which he could reach by walking between the -feet of the spurs and the water, the spurs stopping some yards short -of the gentle surf which the morning breeze was raising. - -'Three,' he said, 'three. This one where I am now, the first; then two -more. And, after that, I must ascend and gaze down. There will be no -getting farther along the bank.' - -So he entered the first cove, finding it as desolate and bare as the -others into which he glanced in his journey; bare of everything, and -with its white beach so void of all else but its own stones, that it -might, that morning, have been swept clean and clear. The second was -the same, except that here, upon its beach, there lay the long iron -shank of an anchor with one arm and fluke upon it, but with the other -gone. An anchor that, he knew at a glance, had never been made in -recent days--that, by its quaint form, must be some centuries old. -And, even as he continued his journey, he wondered how it had come -there, and if, in long-forgotten and unnumbered years, some toilers of -the sea had been flung ashore in this spot, and if this was all that -had been left by time to hint at the story. - -Then he entered the third, and last, bay or cove which remained -passable by the shoreway--the last he would be able to inspect until -he ascended to the cliffs above. - -As he did so he started--knowing, feeling, that beneath his bronze and -sunburn he had turned white--recognising that he was trembling with a -faint, nervous tremor. For this cove to which he had penetrated was -different from the previous ones; it ran back between the two spurs -which formed its walls until it merged into the wooded, grassy -declivity that sloped down from above, while, at the foot of that -declivity, was more grass forming a little carpeted ravine and, -growing on it, some of the island trees--orange trees, lemon trees, -even bananas. - -And on the grass there lay a man. Dead or asleep! - -A man, fair-haired, clad in a white drill suit with brass buttons--they -glistened now in the rays of the risen sun!--the white uniform of the -Royal Navy. A man who was Gilbert Bampfyld. - -His heart like ice within his breast--all was lost now, every hope -gone that, of late, he had once again begun to cherish!--Stephen -Charke advanced to where that man lay, and, approaching noiselessly, -looked down on him. Looked down and recognised that here was no sign -of death or coming death; that the man was sleeping peacefully and -calmly; that he was rescued for the second time within the last month -from a sudden doom. - -He also saw something else--he observed that Bampfyld had recovered -his sight. This he could not doubt. Near him was some fruit which he -must have gathered recently. And he had pulled down some of the -branches of the trees which grew close by, and had shed them of their -leaves, upon which he was now lying, they making an easier pallet than -the grass alone would have done, while Charke perceived, also, that he -had been fashioning a sturdy branch of the tamarind into a stout -stick. Doubtless, he had recovered his sight through the shock of his -immersion, when the ship heeled over. - -Strong, determined, masterful as Stephen Charke had been through all -the disasters which had overwhelmed the _Emperor of the Moon_; brave -and stalwart as he had shown himself when, with none other left to -command the doomed ship but himself, he had helped to furl and unfurl -sails, to steer like any ordinary seaman at the wheel, and to -endeavour manfully to hold the vessel up and ward off instant -destruction--he was beaten now. Beaten! defeated! And he felt suddenly -feeble, so feeble that he was forced to sit down by the saved man's -side, while doing it so quietly that the other did not awaken. - -Beaten! defeated! Ay, and with nothing left of prospect in the future, -nor ever any hope. Nothing! nothing! nothing! What had he hoped? he -found himself asking: what, in these last few days? What dreamt of? A -home, a wife; perhaps, in the future, children waiting for his return, -running to meet him and to beg for stories of the sea, of tempests -surmounted, of dangers passed. Now, there would never be any home, nor -wife, nor children. Nothing! He had loved one woman fondly, madly; the -one woman in all the world for him. Until ten minutes ago he had -believed that, some day, he would win her. And, now, it was never to -be. His home would be the desolate home which the sailor ashore -inhabits; his existence a long series of toiling across the seas in -any ship wherein he could find employment, first one, then the other, -for poor wages and without one gleam of sunshine to cheer him. What a -life! And--and it had seemed, only an hour ago, that all was likely to -be so different. She, Bella Waldron--his love--no, not his! never his -now--was being drawn towards him, she relied on him, trusted in him; -but, henceforth, she would need him no more. This other had come back, -would come back into her life again, and--he would go out of it for -ever. God! it was bitter. - -His hand, as he lifted it in his agony and let it fall again, struck -against something hard in his pocket. Thrusting it into the pocket, he -felt there the sailor's knife which he had found in the hold of the -ship, and drew it forth, regarding it. It was a good knife, he found -himself reflecting, a good knife. The man who owned it had kept it in -excellent order, too; sharp and keen. How he must have railed at -losing it. And he, Stephen, had found it! A good knife, long and -stout-bladed, well pointed--a knife that would sever the stoutest -cable or----! Men had been slain with worse weapons than this. A -blow from it over the heart, under the left shoulder, and struck -downwards--yes! such blows must be struck downwards, or otherwise they -might fail--and a life could easily be taken. Easily--in a moment. - -It was a good knife, he thought again. As he opened it and ran his -finger along its tapering blade, and observed the thick, solid back -which that blade possessed, he could not but acknowledge this. The man -who had owned it and lost it had paid money for that knife. This was -no slop-shop thing bought of a thievish Whitechapel or Houndsditch Jew -who preyed on poor seamen. A good knife! He turned his head and looked -at Gilbert Bampfyld lying there, still sleeping peacefully; looked at -the man whom he had come out to seek, and--had found! Found as he had -never expected to do, as he had never believed it possible he should -do. - -He looked at him, recognising all that his being there meant, all that -this third human existence on the island, where formerly there had -been but two persons, meant to him; the ruin that it cast upon his -hopes. And again he regarded the knife, holding it by the tip, -weighing it, balancing it. It _was_ a good knife; one that would -strike hard and sure. - -And, as he so thought, he rose from his seat, went down to where the -surf was beating violently now upon the beach, and flung the thing far -off into the sea. - -Then he returned to the sleeping man, and, kneeling by his side, shook -his arm gently, saying: - -'Come, Lieutenant Bampfyld. Come! Wake up, rouse yourself.' - - - - -CHAPTER XXV - - I have loved my last, - And that love was my first. - - -'My God!' exclaimed Gilbert, as, beneath that light touch, he awoke -and saw Stephen Charke by his side, 'is it a dream! You--you here! -Saved! Thank God for all His mercies. I thought all were lost but me.' - -Then, suddenly, even as he rose to his feet (limping on one of them, -as Charke saw, and grasping the tamarind cudgel he had cut himself as -though for support), he cried, lifting his other hand to his -eyes--'But, Bella. Oh, Bella, my darling! Are,' he added hoarsely, -'any others saved besides yourself? Speak, put me out of my misery, -one way or the other.' - -He saw, he must have seen, the answer in Stephen Charke's eyes, for -now he fell down on the leaves and grass at his feet and clasped his -hands as though thanking Heaven fervently for its mercies. But he -could not speak yet, nor for some moments, or only spoke to once more -mutter incoherent words of thanksgiving for this last crowning mercy. - -'Yes,' Charke said, and it seemed to himself as though his voice was -tuneless, dead--as if it came from him with difficulty. 'Yes, she is -saved; is safe. And she hopes always to see you again.' - -'But how? How? For God's sake, tell me that. She was in the -cabin--surely she was in the cabin--I left her there when I struggled -to the wheel. How was she saved?' - -'I,' said Charke, 'was enabled to help her. We got ashore together.' - -'To help her!' Gilbert said, looking into his eyes. 'To help her! It -was more than that, I know. I am a sailor as well as you; such help is -no light thing. Should you not rather say you risked your life for -hers? You could have done it in no other way.' - -'No,' Charke said, 'I risked nothing. It was nothing. Any one could -have done it.' - -Again the other looked at him, knowing, feeling sure that the man -before him was refusing to take any credit for what he had done. Then -he said: 'Where is she? Can I see her at once, now? Soon?' - -'She is not far. Within two miles from here; she awaits, hopes for, -your coming.' - -'Two miles! Heaven help me! I can scarcely crawl. Two miles, and I -think my ankle is sprained.' - -'She can come to you,' Charke replied, and the deadness, the lack of -tone in his voice, the lifelessness of it, was apparent to the -listener now, as well as to himself. 'I can fetch her.' - -'Do! do! at once, I beseech you. Oh to see her, to see my girl again. -Yet, still I do not understand. How could she hope to ever see me in -life again, how await my coming? She could not dream, she could not -dare to dream, that I might be saved.' - -'She would not believe anything else. For myself,' Charke went on, -scorning to say that which was not the case, 'I did not believe you -could be saved. It seems to me now, as you stand before me, that a -miracle must have been worked in your behalf. And I told her so, -mincing no matters. I told her you must be dead. But she would not -believe. Instead, she bade me, besought me to search this island, -though, to be honest, I considered it useless to do so. Yesterday I -took the other side, to-day this. And she was right. I--have found -you.' - -His tone was not aggressive, crisp and incisive though his words might -be, yet there was something in the former, and, perhaps, the latter, -which told Gilbert Bampfyld that the search he spoke of had been one -of chivalrous obedience to a helpless woman's request, and not one -made at his own desire. And he remembered how Bella had told him this -man had loved her once, and had hoped for her love in return. Well, no -matter, he had saved her at what must have been peril to his own life. -He could not cavil at, nor feel hurt at, the coldness of his speech. - -'What you have done,' he said, 'is more than words can repay; and, -even though they were sufficient, now is not the time for them. Mr. -Charke, can you bring her to me?' - -'I will go at once. But--but she will, undoubtedly, be anxious, -excited to know something of how you were saved. As we return to you -she will desire to be told everything; will be impatient to hear. What -shall I tell her, over and above the greatest news of all, that you -are restored to her?' - -'There is not much to tell. As I was swept over the ship's side my -hand touched the port quarter-boat which was being thrown out at the -moment.' - -'Ah! it has come ashore too.' - -'And, naturally, I clutched at it. I would not let go; I held on like -grim death, knowing that my only chance was in it. And, do you know, I -found that I could see again; distinctly, or almost so. I could see -the waves, the surf ahead; knew that some shore or coast was near. -But, even as I recognised this, wondering, too, why at the moment when -I was doomed to be drowned I should have this gift accorded me, I lost -my hold on the boat and, a moment later, was thrown ashore or, at -least, touched bottom. And--and it was a hard fight; I never thought -to win through it. Each recoil of the waves tore me back again only to -find myself thrown forward with the next. Three times it happened. -Then--then, at last, when I knew that, on the next occasion, I should -have no breath left in my body, I was flung still farther on land -than I had been before, and, this time, I determined I would not be -dragged back alive, so I dug my foot and hands into the soft sand. I -wrestled with those waves and I beat them. They receded, leaving me -spread-eagled on the shingle, free of them for a moment, and, ere they -could return and catch me again, I had scrambled out of their reach.' - -'Was that here, on this spot where we are now?' - -'No, it was farther that way, between a mile and two miles farther.' -And, as Gilbert Bampfyld spoke, he pointed with the stick in the -direction where Bella Waldron and Stephen Charke had taken up their -quarters since they had got ashore. Therefore, her lover had been -close to them once, and they had never known it! 'I stayed there one -night,' Gilbert went on, 'then feeling sure there were islands to the -north--as there must be, you know--I came this way. Only, I slipped on -the beach and, I think, sprained my ankle, so that I could get no -farther.' - -'God has been very good to you,' Stephen said, 'and to her. Now I will -go and bring her here: it will not take long. Soon, very soon, you -will be together. You will be happy. In a couple of hours she will be -here. It would, perhaps, be in less time than that, only, you observe, -the sea is rising and the surf getting very high. We must come inland, -above, by the cliffs. Farewell till then.' - -'Farewell. God bless you. Ah, Mr. Charke, if you could only know my -gratitude to you for saving her, also what happiness you have brought -into my life again. If you could only know that!' - -But Charke was on his way back to where he had left Bella almost -before Gilbert had concluded his sentence, and, beyond a backward wave -of his hand, had made no acknowledgment of his words. - -He climbed up to the summit of the cliffs easily enough, for by now -all his strength had come back to him, and he felt as vigorous as he -had ever done in his life. Yet, when he gained the top, he noticed -that there was still something wanting, some of the spring and -elasticity which had characterised the manner in which he had returned -to Bella yesterday from the other side of the island. Why was this, he -asked himself? Why? But he could find no answer to the question. - -Yet, perhaps, his musings on what he had heard half an hour before -were sufficient to have driven all the life, all the hope, out of him. -His musings on the change that this last half-hour had brought into -his future. God! his future. - -'He was there, close to us,' he reflected, 'and we neither of us knew -nor dreamt of it. I could have sworn it was impossible he should be -saved. She--well, she did not dare to hope. And for two days! For two -days he has been close to us, and--and in those two days what have I -not pictured to myself, what dreams have I not had! What a fool's -paradise I have been imagining for myself. Now, there is nothing -before me. Nothing--now, or ever.' - -But still he forced himself to stride on, passing sometimes beneath -the cocoa trees that grew on the little upland, sometimes through open -glades in which the morning sun beat down upon his head with a -fierceness only inferior to the strength it would assume an hour or so -later--yet he heeded nothing. He felt that he must reach Bella as soon -as possible and tell her everything. There was no more joy left in -existence for him, but he was the bearer of news that would give her -joy extreme, and--he loved her. Because he did so he would not keep -that news from her one moment longer than was necessary. 'Yet,' he -whispered to himself, while thinking thus, 'she would have come to -love me in his place some day, she would--she must. I divined it, saw -it. Now, it will never be. Never. My God! it is a long word.' - -Then he braced himself up still more and went on, until he stood upon -the summit of the little elevation which rose behind the spot that -they had made their resting-place. - -Perhaps she had seen him returning; perhaps she had had some -divination of his approach, since he perceived that she was coming -towards him and was mounting the ascent to meet him, her head -protected by the cap of the drowned sailor, while, over it, she held -with one hand a great palm leaf to protect her from the sun. Then, as -they approached each other, she gave a gasp--it was almost a shriek, -and cried out: - -'Mr. Charke! Mr. Charke! What is the matter? What has happened? You -are ghastly pale beneath your bronze. And--and your face is changed. -What is it?' - -'I come,' he said,--and now she gave another gasp, for his voice was -changed too,--'as the bearer of good--of great tidings. Of----, and he -paused. For as he spoke she, too, had turned white. Then, raising both -her hands to her breast, she stood panting before him. - -'He is saved!' she said. 'He is saved! Gilbert is saved. Is that it? -Are those the tidings?' - -'Yes,' he answered. 'Yes. He is saved.' - -For a moment she stood before him, her hands still raised to her -bosom, then, suddenly, she swayed forward and would have fallen but -that he caught her in his arms, and, an instant later, had laid her on -the soft grass, while he ran down to the rivulet to fetch some water -to revive her. - -This happened directly after he had returned, but, when he had bathed -her forehead and moistened her lips with the water, she soon sat up, -saying: 'Come, let us go to him. At once. We must go at once. Yet--why -does he not come to me?' - -'He has hurt his foot. But it is nothing. Only a sprain. If you are -recovered from your swoon let us set out. It is not far. We shall be -there soon.' Whereon he gave her his hand and assisted her to rise, -repeating that it was best to set out at once. And then they did so, -he offering his arm to assist her up the slope, while explaining that, -owing to the increased roughness of the sea, it was impossible to -proceed by the beach to where her lover was. And, next, he began the -account of how he found Gilbert, and went through with it almost -uninterruptedly, she listening without saying a word beyond now and -again exclaiming, 'Poor Gilbert!' or 'Thank God!' Indeed, her silence -during his narrative was such that more than once he glanced down at -her, while wondering at that which seemed listlessness on her part. - -Yet he would have wronged her deeply had he really believed her -listless, since Bella Waldron would have been no true, honest, English -girl had she by this time become indifferent to the news that her -betrothed was saved. Indeed, in her heart she was thanking God again -and again, and far more often than she was giving outward utterance to -those thanks, for having saved her lover and preserved him to -her---only! Only what? Only, that she knew how, with their restored -happiness, there had come to this other man--to him to whom she owed -her life and, with it, the possibility of being once more united to -Gilbert--a broken heart and the destruction of every hope of happiness -that he had cherished. She could see it in his face, hear it in his -voice, discern it even by the manner in which he walked by her side. -That which she knew he hoped for could never have been, she told -herself; never, never, never! Had Gilbert died, still it could never -have been; none could ever have taken his place. - -But, she was a woman with a true woman's heart in her breast--and her -pity was womanly--sublime. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI - - "Here is my journey's end, here is my butt, - And very seamark of my utmost sail." - - -They had progressed so far towards the cliffs above the little bay or -cove, where Gilbert was, that now they had but to cross the summit of -one more spur and then they would be able to descend to him. - -'You will see him soon now,' Charke said to the girl, 'very soon. Then -you will be happy. To-night, he and I will arrange the signals that -may bring some succour to us. At any rate, it cannot be long in -coming. If we are where I think, hundreds of ships pass near here -annually. And, at the worst, one may live here very well for some -time.' - -She heard his words, she missed no tone nor inflection of his -voice--but she could not answer him. It was impossible. For, though he -spoke on subjects which were appropriate enough to their surroundings, -she knew that his speech, instead of conveying his thoughts, was only -used to hide them; and that beneath what he said lay a sadness too -deep for utterance. Therefore, she made no attempt at reply, but -contented herself with letting her eyes rest on his face now and -again, and then withdrawing them directly afterwards. - -Suddenly, however, and after having cast a glance backwards across the -little plateau which they had passed along, he exclaimed: - -'Why, Lieutenant Bampfyld will find another companion of his in the -poor old _Emperor_ here to greet him. See, there comes Bengalee, -behind us. How has he broken away from the cable? It was stout enough -to hold a small frigate,' and, as she turned to look in the direction -he had indicated, she saw the tiger-cub coming after them along the -plateau at a considerable pace. Coming swiftly, too, and always with -the lithe and hateful sinuosity which marks the progress of the -species. - -Then, as she, too, turned and saw its striped body winding in and out -beneath the tamarind and palm trees, she remembered that she had -observed it gnawing at the cable ere she set out, and told Stephen so. -And she also told him that it had seemed much excited at being left -behind, and had made considerable struggles to break loose when she -moved away. - -'It will perhaps be appeased,' he answered, 'when it finds itself -once more with you. Poor wretch! its hunger must be frightful. -Yet--yet--how else to kill it? And killed it must be.' - -'I wish,' she said again, as she had so often said before, 'that I had -never asked to have it saved. It would have been better to have let it -die in the sea.' - -'Perhaps,' he answered. 'Perhaps. We can, however, leave it here when -we get taken off, and then it must take its chance.' - -They were now upon the last ridge of the spur beneath which he had -left Gilbert, and he told her that, in another moment, she would see -him by looking down. 'Indeed,' he said, 'if you glance over now you -can see him, I imagine.' - -Then he bade her hold his hand and lean over the lip of the precipice, -and trace the run of the hill seawards. Following his instructions, -she did so, when suddenly, below, they heard a rattling, a sliding as -of a mass of earth and stones slipping, and he felt a slight -withdrawal, a sinking of the ground, beneath their feet. He felt it -and understood its significance in an instant, while recalling the -masses of fallen chalk and earth which he had observed lying at the -foot of this and other cliffs earlier in the day. - -'Back,' he cried, 'Back!' while, as he did so, he seized Bella with -his other hand as well as the one she already held, and sprang away -from the ridge, the violence of his action causing her to fall on -her knees. Yet, still knowing her danger--their danger--he dragged -her back and saved her. Though not a moment too soon--not an -instant!--for, as he clutched at her, the earth for a foot or so in -front of them--the very portion of it on which they had been standing! -the very portion, indeed, across which he had but now drawn her--gave -way. It gave way, broke off in a long line, and fell with a crash to -the depths below, leaving an abyss above the spot over which he had -drawn her. - -'My God!' she gasped, 'you have saved my life again! Again--ah!' - -That last exclamation was, in truth, a shriek of dismay, of awful -agony, of terror in the extreme. For she, whose face was towards the -way they had come, as his back was towards it, saw that which he had -no knowledge of; that which paralysed her, struck her an instant after -dumb with horror. - -She saw the tiger-cub close behind him and crouching for a spring, she -saw its devilish eyes gleaming like topazes, and she saw its body -hurled with tremendous force towards Charke as he stood looking down -on her. - -Full at him it sprang, its savage jaws open and its forelegs extended. -And it partly missed him through passing on his left side, yet not -doing so altogether. Instead, it struck his left shoulder, spinning -him round like a drunken, reeling man, and causing him to stagger -backwards towards the chasm and, with a gasp, to fall over it and -disappear. - -And Bella, left alone in that awful moment--for the tiger's leap had -carried it far over the cliff and to its own destruction--saw a man -below--her lover--shouting and gesticulating--and then she knew no -more. - - - * * * * * * - - -An hour later, Stephen Charke lay on his back below the cliff, his -eyes upturned to the sun, which was by now peeping over the hill and -illuminating all the little valley with its rays--he lay there -breathing his last and with his back broken. By his side knelt Bella -Waldron, while Gilbert Bampfyld stood near, their faces the true index -of their sorrow. - -'No,' Stephen whispered hoarsely, now, in answer to a question from -her. 'No. I feel no pain, nothing but the numbness of my back and -lower limbs. Nay, nay, do not weep.' Then he lowered the poor, feeble -voice a little more and whispered even more calmly to her--'I am -content, well content. And--it--is better so. There was no life, no -future for me.' - -'Oh!' she said, wringing her hands while the tears streamed from her -eyes and dropped upon his upturned face. 'Oh! that you should have -died in saving me. That you, whom I honour so, should die at -all--young, strong, as you are. And through the outcome of my -wilfulness, of my letting that creature be saved. Saved to slay you. -Ah! God, it is too hard!' - -'It thought,' he said, after a pause, during which she wiped the drops -from his forehead and moistened his lips, 'that I was attacking you. -Doubtless it did so. It hated me and loved you.' Then, he added to -himself, 'As all love you.' - -'Gilbert,' she shrieked now to her lover, 'Gilbert, can nothing be -done; nothing to save him? Ah! perhaps his back is not broken; it may -be but a terrible fall--he may recover yet. Can we do nothing?' - -But it was Stephen who answered, 'Nothing.' - -'Old chap,' said Gilbert, also close by him now, and kneeling down to -take his hand, 'is--is there anything you want done; any message sent -to any one at home? Only say the word. You know you can depend on me.' - -'If it can be,' the dying man said, and now his voice was very low, -almost inaudible, 'if you can have it done later, when you are found, -bury me--at--the--spot where she and I--came ashore. There, in the -little knoll. You know.' And his eyes sought hers. 'That is where I -want--to lie--until we meet again.' - -They could not answer him, their voices were no longer their own; -hardly could they see him through their tears, but still they were -able to tell him by their gestures that it should be as he desired. -After which Gilbert managed to rise to his feet and whisper in -Bella's ears, 'He is--going--now. The end is close at hand. Say--say -"goodbye" to him, and--and kiss him. He deserves it from you, and--I -shall not grudge it.' Then, in his manliness, he turned away from -them. - -Perhaps the dying man guessed what had been said; and, because he knew -his hour had come, he opened his eyes for the last time and gazed -wistfully at her. - -'Goodbye,' he said. 'Farewell.' - -'Goodbye. Oh, God! that I should have to say it to you. -Goodbye--goodbye, Stephen,' and she stooped down and kissed the -cold, white lips of the man who had loved her so. And, next, she put -her arm beneath his neck and let his head lie on it, while, amidst the -tempest of her sobs, she heard him murmur feebly: - -'I loved you--from--the first--moment. I love--you--now.' - -Then his head turned over on her arm and lay there motionless. - - - * * * * * * - - -The wedding was over, Gilbert Bampfyld and Bella were man and wife, -the marriage having taken place at Capetown. While the only difference -between the ceremony and that which had been originally intended was -that the Archbishop of Capetown joined their hands instead of the -Bishop of Bombay doing so. Therefore, at last, these two loving hearts -were made happy, and, in spite of all that had threatened both Bella -and her lover during the past few months, the future now looked bright -and cheerful. - -Not three days had elapsed since Stephen Charke's death when Gilbert -(who, with Bella, sat from sunrise to sunset beneath a clump of cocoa -trees on the highest point to which they could attain, he being soon -able to reach it quite easily by the aid of his cudgel and owing to -the rapid improvement in the sprain he had suffered from) saw a vessel -not two miles away from the island. - -'And I swear,' he exclaimed, 'one of Her Majesty's cruisers. Look at -those yellow funnels, one aft of the other. That's a cruiser right -enough. I wonder if it's the _Briseus_.' - -Then he fell to making every kind of signal which he could devise when -unprovided with the means of attracting her attention either by -pistol-shot or fire, and in about half an hour they had the joy of -seeing one of her cutters manned and lowered, and, a moment later, -making for the shore. - -The cruiser turned out to be the _Clytie_, on her way home from -Calcutta to Plymouth, and, even as the cutter fetched the shore, the -coxswain recognised Gilbert as an officer with whom he had previously -served. Then he furnished him with the intelligence that he was -reported dead. - -'Not yet,' said Gilbert; 'though, since I left the _Briseus_, when in -charge of her whaler, I have had two narrow escapes. Unfortunately, -others, with whom I have been in company, are so.' Then, briefly, he -told the man all that had happened to him, and stated that he was -going to ask the captain of the _Clytie_ for a passage for himself and -his future wife, the young lady by his side. - -First, however, there was one thing to be done--namely, to bury -Stephen Charke in the place which he had indicated. This was a thing -which would now be very easy of accomplishment, since the sea was -perfectly calm again and the body could be easily carried from the -spot where he had fallen to that where he desired to be buried. But, -to begin with, the permission of the captain had to be obtained, which -was done by signalling, and then the rest was easy. Some more men were -sent off in the second cutter, with the chaplain as well as some -spades for digging a grave, after which the sailors marched under -Gilbert's command to where he and Bella had covered up Stephen -Charke's remains with palm and other leaves that were within their -reach, and then removed the body. And very reverently was the -interment performed, all standing round the spot with the exception of -Bella, who was so overcome that she had to be led away from the grave. - -And so they laid him in it; and there, in the little solitary island, -they left him to his long sleep. - -Perhaps, nothing so much as his death--not even his heroism in the -stricken ship, nor his masterful strength in fighting the storm and -the waves, and in succeeding at the risk of his own life in saving -that of the woman whom he so tenderly loved--kept his memory green -in both their hearts. Perhaps, too, that last sacrifice which he -made--his life!--at the moment when once more he was preserving hers, -furnishes the reason which again and again prompts Gilbert to say to -his wife, in a voice always full of a tone of regret for the brave man -who lies so far away: - -'After all, Bella, I am not sure that you chose the right one. Poor -Stephen Charke was the better man of the two.' - -Yet, when he observes the glance she gives him in return, he is -comforted by knowing that, in no circumstances, could that other have -ever won her heart as he did. - - - -FOOTNOTES - -[Footnote 1: This is not fictitious. M. Constant made his speech to -the Chamber of Deputies on June 17, 1820, and it contained all -attributed to it above. It described how the crew of _Le Rôdeur_ were -themselves struck down one by one soon after the outbreak among the -slaves, how many of the slaves were flung overboard to save the cost -of supporting them, and also how, while the ship was subject to this -terrible calamity, a Spanish slaver, named the _Leon_, spoke her, -asking for assistance, as almost every one on board her was stricken -with sudden blindness. _Le Rôdeur_, the account went on to say, -eventually reached Guadaloupe with only _one_ man left who was not -smitten, and he became blind directly after he had brought the vessel -into harbour. The Spaniard was never heard of again.] - - - -THE END - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seafarers, by John Bloundelle-Burton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAFARERS *** - -***** This file should be named 52548-8.txt or 52548-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/5/4/52548/ - -Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by -Google Books (the University of California) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - diff --git a/old/52548-8.zip b/old/52548-8.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index cfab3b0..0000000 --- a/old/52548-8.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52548-h.zip b/old/52548-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 1981fca..0000000 --- a/old/52548-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/52548-h/52548-h.htm b/old/52548-h/52548-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 6dc58aa..0000000 --- a/old/52548-h/52548-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6155 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> -<html> -<head> -<title>The Seafarers</title> -<meta name="Author" content="John Bloundelle-Burton"> - -<meta name="Publisher" content="C. Arthur Pearson Limited"> -<meta name="Date" content="1900"> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> -<style type="text/css"> -body {margin-left:10%; - margin-right:10%; background-color:#FFFFFF;} - - -p.normal {text-indent:.25in; text-align: justify;} -.center {margin: auto; text-align:center; margin-top:24pt; margin-bottom:24pt} - - - -p.right {text-align:right; margin-right:20%;} - -p.continue {text-indent: 0in; margin-top:9pt;} - - -h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 {text-align: center;} - -span.sc {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:110%;} -span.sc2 {font-variant: small-caps; font-size:90%;} - -hr.W10 {width:10%; color:black; margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt} - -hr.W20 {width:20%; color:black; margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt} - -hr.W50 {width:50%; color:black;} -hr.W90 {width:90%; color:black;} - -p.hang1 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:-3em;} -p.hang2 {margin-left:3em; text-indent:0em;} - - -</style> - -</head> - -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seafarers, by John Bloundelle-Burton - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Seafarers - -Author: John Bloundelle-Burton - -Release Date: July 10, 2016 [EBook #52548] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAFARERS *** - - - - -Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by -Google Books (the University of California) - - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<p class="hang1">Transcriber's Notes:<br> -1. Page scan source:<br> -https://books.google.com/books?id=u3spAQAAIAAJ<br> -(the University of California)</p> - -<p class="center"><img src="images/frontcover.png" alt="frontcover"></p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h3>THE SEAFARERS</h3> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>BY THE SAME AUTHOR</h4> -<div style="margin-left:20%; font-variant:small-caps"> -A Bitter Heritage.<br> -Fortune's My Foe.<br> -The Scourge of God.<br> -Across the Salt Seas.<br> -The Clash of Arms.<br> -Denounced.<br> -In the Day of Adversity.<br> -The Hispaniola Plate.<br> -The Desert Ship.<br> -A Gentleman Adventurer.<br> -The Silent Shore.<br> -His Own Enemy.<br> -</div> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h3>THE SEAFARERS</h3> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h5>BY</h5> -<h4>JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON</h4> - -<h5>AUTHOR OF 'THE CLASH OF ARMS'<br> -'FORTUNE'S MY FOE,' 'ACROSS THE SALT SEAS'</h5> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>LONDON<br> -<span style="font-size:larger">C. ARTHUR PEARSON LIMITED</span><br> -HENRIETTA STREET W.C.<br> -1900</h4> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h5>TO</h5> -<h3>ALL OLD FRIENDS AND COMRADES</h3> -<h5>WHO HAVE BEEN, OR ARE STILL</h5> -<h3>SEAFARERS</h3> -<h5>EITHER IN THE ROYAL NAVY<br><br> -OR OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SEA SERVICE</h5> -<h3>I INSCRIBE THIS BOOK</h3> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> - -<h3>CONTENTS</h3> - -<table cellpadding="10" style="width:60%; margin-left:20%; font-weight:bold"> -<colgroup><col style="width:10%; text-align:right"><col style="width:90%"></colgroup> -<tr><td>CHAP.</td> -<td></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>1.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_01" href="#div1_01">'Sweeter than Blue-Eyed Violets or the -Damask Rose'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>2.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_02" href="#div1_02">Stephen Charke</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>3.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_03" href="#div1_03">'Let those love now who never loved -before'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>4.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_04" href="#div1_04">Portsmouth <i>en fête</i></a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>5.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_05" href="#div1_05">'So farewell, Hope!'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>6.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_06" href="#div1_06">'And bend the gallant Mast, my Boys'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>7.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_07" href="#div1_07">'An Ocean Waif'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>8.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_08" href="#div1_08">'His Name is--What?'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>9.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_09" href="#div1_09">'Through the Salt Sea Foam'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>10.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_10" href="#div1_10">The Growing Terror</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>11.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_11" href="#div1_11">The Terror increases</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>12.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_12" href="#div1_12">Stricken</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>13.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_13" href="#div1_13">'Spare her! Spare her!'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>14.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_14" href="#div1_14">Struck down</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>15.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_15" href="#div1_15">A Light from the Past</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>16.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_16" href="#div1_16">Man overboard</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>17.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_17" href="#div1_17">'Farewell, my Rival'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>18.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_18" href="#div1_18">'She will never know'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>19.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_19" href="#div1_19">'I almost dreaded this Man once'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>20.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_20" href="#div1_20">'I do believe you'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>21.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_21" href="#div1_21">Washed ashore</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>22.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_22" href="#div1_22">A Sailor's Knife</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>23.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_23" href="#div1_23">'The Tiger did that'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>24.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_24" href="#div1_24">Beaten! Defeated!</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>25.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_25" href="#div1_25">'I have loved my last'</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td>26.</td> -<td><a name="div1Ref_26" href="#div1_26">'Here is my Journey's End'</a></td></tr> -</table> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER I</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_01" href="#div1Ref_01">'SWEETER THAN BLUE-EYED VIOLETS OR THE -DAMASK ROSE'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">That Bella Waldron should have felt sad, and her night's rest -have been disturbed in consequence, was, in the circumstances, most natural. For -one cannot suppose that any young girl leaves her home, her mother, and her -country without much grief and perturbation; without tears and sorrow and heavy -sighs, as well as tremendous fears that she may never return to, nor see, them -again. And such is what Bella was about to do when this particular night should -have come to an end: she was about to traverse not one ocean, but two; to pass -from a life that, if not luxurious, was at least comfortable, to another which, -if more brilliant, would undoubtedly be strange, and, consequently, not easily -to be adopted at first. In fact, to go from one side of the world to the other.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, all the same, it was singular that, between her intervals -of weeping and sobbing, and when she had at last cried herself to sleep, she -should have been tormented with such frightful dreams as those which came to -her. Dreams of horrors that in their weirdness became almost ludicrous, or would -have been ludicrous to those who, knowing of them, did not happen to be -experiencing them. Thus, the idea of a crocodile regarding one with a glittering -eye from its ambush in the sand, seems for some reason, in our waking moments, -to conjure up a comical sense of terror--perhaps because of the 'glittering -eye'; yet there was nothing comical about it to the mind of Bella as she awoke -with a shriek from her sleep after the vision of the creature had had momentary -existence in the cells of her brain. And, even when she was thoroughly awakened -and knew that she had only been suffering from a bad dream, she still shuddered -at the recollection, and muttered, 'It appeared as if it was creeping towards me -to seize me with its horrid jaws! Oh, it was dreadful!'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then she slept again--only, however, to dream of other things. -Of a desolate shore at first, with, upon it, a misty creature waving its hands -mournfully above its head, those hands being enveloped in some gauzy material, -so that the figure appeared more like a skirt-dancer than aught else; then, of -two lions fighting savagely; and then of a vast black cave with an opening as -high as St. Paul's and as wide as a railway terminus is long, against which, -armed with a spear and protected with a buckler, she seemed to stand trembling. -Trembling, too, because she could not see one yard into the deep and profound -darkness before her, yet into which, as she peered furtively and with horror, -she appeared to perceive things--forms half-animal and half-human--crawling, -revolving, creeping about. Then, again, she awoke with a start.</p> - -<p class="normal">But by now the room was light with the gray, mournful glimmer -of the approaching dawn; so light that she could see her wicker-basket trunks in -their American-cloth wrappers standing by the wall, with the lids open against -it; soon, too, she heard the sparrows twittering outside, as well as other -congenial suburban sounds, such as the newspaper boys shrieking hideously to one -another, and the milkman uttering piercing yells; and--though it was her last -day in England--she was glad to spring out of bed and know herself once more a -unit in the actual world instead of a wanderer in a world of dreams.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I wish,' the girl muttered to herself, standing by the window -and drawing up the blind half-way, whereby she was enabled to see that the gray -dawn of a May morning gave promise of a warm, fine day later on, 'that, if I -were to have such bad dreams at all, I might have been spared them on the very -day of my departure for the other side of the globe. I am not superstitious, -yet, yet--well!--I shall think of this dream, I know, for many a day to come.' -Then she slipped on her dressing-gown, thrust her pretty little white feet into -some warm, felt bath-slippers, and, opening her door quietly, because it was -still early and she did not wish to awaken those in the house who might be -asleep, she went across the passage to her mother's room.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, ere she did so, let us regard this young girl, whose -story and adventures we are now to follow--this girl whose dreams of leering -crocodiles and dark, mystic caves, with hideous creatures gyrating in them, -will, as we shall see, be far outnumbered and outshone by the actual realities -that she will experience in her passage across the world. For it had been -resolved on by Fate, or Providence, or Destiny, or whatever one may term that -power which controls our earthly existence, that to Bella Waldron were to come -experiences, strange, horrible, and fantastic, such as the last decade of our -expiring century rarely assaults men with, and women hardly ever. Standing there -in the now clear light of the morning, her long dressing-gown enshrouding her -tall, shapely, and <i>svelte</i> figure, and with her masses of hair hanging -dishevelled--hair a warm brown with golden gleams in it, such as has the -ripening corn--an observer would decide at once that she was beautiful. -Beautiful, also, by the gift of clear, hazel-gray eyes--eyes that were pure and -innocent in their glance; beautiful as well by her softly-rounded face, her rich -red lips--the upper one divinely short--and also by her colouring. If, too, one -applies to her the lines of that old poet dead and gone two hundred years ago, -the words describing Gloriana:--</p> -<br> -<div style="margin-left:10%"> - -<p>More fair than the red morning's dawn,<br> -Sweeter than pearly dews that scent the lawn,<br> -Than blue-eyed violets, or the damask rose<br> -When in her hottest fragrancy she glows,</p> - -</div> -<br> -<p class="continue">Bella Waldron may be considered as depicted.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Mother,' she said, going in now to the room where the poor -lady whom she addressed had herself passed a sad and tearful night, bemoaning -the fact that soon--in a few hours--indeed now--because the fateful day had -come--her child was to be torn from her. 'Oh, mother! It is to-day--to-day! Oh, -my darling! how can I part from you?' And then, folding her mother in her arms -while she sat on the bedside, the two women wept together.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yet,' said Mrs. Waldron, to whom advancing years brought the -power of philosophic resignation, if not the thorough strength to overcome that -which rendered her unhappy, 'yet, Bella, my dearest, it is so much for you. Such -a position, such a future! Oh, think of it! A position you could scarcely ever -have hoped to obtain. And the love, my child, the love! Think how Gilbert loves -you and you love him. For you do love him, Bella. Of all men, he is the one for -you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'With my whole heart and soul I love him!' her daughter -answered. 'Mother, if I had never met him I do not believe I could have ever -loved any other man. Ah, I am glad Juliet called Romeo the god of her idolatry! -It has taught me how to think of Gilbert.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And the position, Bella. The position--think of that! In our -circumstances, even though you come of a good stock and are descended from -ladies and gentlemen on both sides from far-off years, you could never have -hoped to make such a match.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The position is nothing to me, mother. I love Gilbert fondly. -I long to be his wife. Why should I think of the position?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Every woman must think of it, child. When you are as old--and -worn--as I am, you--you will teach your own children to think of it. It is -everything to be the wife of a gentleman, better still the wife of a man of -rank. Everything! Short of being the wife of a distinguished man, a man whose -name is on everybody's tongue, there is no other position so good. And, even -then, that distinguished man may not be a gentleman as well. That would be -dreadful. Yet your husband will be both. Think, Bella! He is sure to become a -nobleman, and he may become the most renowned admiral in the Navy.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'You dear old mother! But I love Gilbert because he is -Gilbert. Otherwise, neither the nobility which is certain, nor the renown which -is prospective, would take me across the world to him. Do you think I would go -to Bombay to marry the heir to a title or a possible admiral if I did not love -him?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Heaven forbid!' Mrs. Waldron replied, as she sat up in her -bed and smoothed her hair. 'Heaven forbid! Yet,' she murmured, perhaps a little -weakly for a lady who had just delivered herself of such admirable sentiments, -'yet I do honestly think, darling, that the love you bear each other--yes! above -all, the love--and the position--I must think of the position, Bella!--and the -certainty of a brilliant future for you, reconcile me a little to parting with -you. Some day, when you are a mother, you will understand me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I understand you now, darling. Yet, yet--ah!' and now she -sobbed on her mother's shoulder--'yet, to think of our being parted for so -long--for three years! Gilbert must remain on the station for that length of -time.' Now it is certain that Mrs. Waldron was sobbing too, yet, because there -was something of the Spartan mother, something, too, of Cornelia, mother of the -Gracchi, about her, she calmed her sobs. For she, too, had been ruthlessly torn -by an all-conquering lover, who would take no denial, from her parents, arms. -Yet that lover had had no such proud future to offer her as the Gilbert of whom -they spoke had to offer his beloved Arabella; for her there had been nothing to -flavour her existence except the glorious spice tasted by us all--of loving and -being loved. And now--now that she was what she called old--which was not the -case, since she was still short of her forty-fifth year--now she knew--and, -knowing, said--that love accompanied by brilliant prospects and an assured -future was the most satisfactory of all loves.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Your father,' Mrs. Waldron said, 'remained on his station, -the Pacific, for seven years, and we were separated all that time. He there, I -here, in London. And in lodgings, Bella--oh those lodgings and that -cooking!--you remember, darling? You must remember the lodgings and the cooking, -child though you were. And he was not a future peer, though he did once think he -might become an admiral.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Forgive me, mother,' Bella said, kissing her mother again and -again. 'I will not repine any more. I ought not to do so, I know. For is not my -Gilbert the handsomest, bravest sailor that ever wore the Queen's uniform? And -it won't be so long after all. Only--only--I do wish there wasn't that awful -journey. Oh if there were only a bridge!' and for the first time she smiled. 'Or -a railway,' she added.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am sure, Bella,' her mother said, forgetting how she would -feel that evening when her child was gone, and neither the bright voice nor -brisk footsteps would be heard any more in the house, 'I am sure you cannot -complain of the manner in which you are going out. The vessel may not be as -comfortable as they say the great liners are, but at least your uncle is the -captain, and it is his own ship. And that cabin he showed us yesterday, when we -went down to Gravesend, is far better than anything you could get in any liner, -even the best. I had one once, when I went out to join your father at Halifax, -in which there was nowhere but the pockets of my clothes to keep things in, -while the other lady above me could open the scuttle as she lay in her berth. -And your cabin is as big as a dining-room, with a sofa----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'You dear, darling mother!' Bella exclaimed. 'You are an angel -to comfort me thus, when I know all the time that your heart is as sad as mine. -Oh if we had not to part!' And again the two women hugged and kissed each other.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER II</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_02" href="#div1Ref_02">STEPHEN CHARKE</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">A year before this momentous day when Arabella Waldron was to -set sail for India in her uncle's full-rigged ship, the Emperor of the Moon, -there had come to her that supreme joy which is the most sweet experience of a -young girl's life. The man she was madly in love with had asked her to be his -wife, and, so far as it was possible to forecast the future, it seemed that -before them both there stretched a long vista of happy years to be spent -together, or as many years together as a sailor and his wife can pass during the -greater part of their lives. Yet, who can foretell the future--even so much as -what to-morrow may bring forth? To-day we are here, to-morrow we are gone. A -bicycle accident has done for us, or we have caught a fever or pneumonia, and we -are no more. How, then, was Bella to know that events would so shape themselves -that, ere she had been a year engaged to her future husband, she would be on -board the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, bound for the other side of the world, and -that during her passage in the good old ship, named after an ancient play--a -representation of which one of the late owners had witnessed in his boyhood--she -would encounter such calamities and perils? But let us not anticipate. Rather, -instead, let us describe who Bella was, and how she came to love and to be -loved, to be wooed and won.</p> - -<p class="normal">Our English girl! The girl fairly tall, and full to the brim -with health; full, too, of a liking for all exercise which befits the dawning -woman--for boating, riding, walking, cycling: not ashamed to acknowledge that -she likes a good dance and that she has a good appetite for a ball supper; one -who is, withal, not a fool! Where in all the world can you find anything better -than that--better than the honest girls who have been our mothers, are our -wives, and, please God, are what our daughters will be?</p> - -<p class="normal">Such a one was Bella Waldron. She could take a scull--and pull -it, too--as well as any of her sisters whom you shall meet 'twixt Richmond and -Windsor; she could cycle thirty miles a day, eat a good dinner afterwards, and -then go to a dance in the evening; and she thought nothing of walking from West -Kensington to Piccadilly or Regent Street, with a glance at the Kensington High -Street shops on her way!--especially when the winter remnant sales were on and -advertised daily in glowing terms. Of riding she knew little, because -horse-exercise is a more or less expensive luxury, and also because an income of -£600 a year does not allow much in the way of luxuries, even when there are only -two people in the family and two servants (with an odd boy) kept. And that sum -represented Mrs. Waldron's income.</p> - -<p class="normal">Bella's mother had been a Miss Pooley, who had married the -late Commander Waldron (retired with the brevet rank of captain), and to this -lady there remained only one near relative, besides Bella, at the time this -veracious narrative opens. Now, this gentleman merits a slight description, not -only because he plays a considerable part in those adventures and tribulations -which, later on, befell the girl, but also because he occupied a position almost -unique and, consequently, conspicuous in these modern days. Fifty--nay, thirty -years ago, there would not have been anything peculiar in the career he -followed; but now, with the twentieth century close upon us, that career was -almost a singular one.</p> - -<p class="normal">Captain Pooley was a sea captain--a mercantile sea -captain--owning two ships of his own, and always in command of one of them. That -which he now commanded was the very <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> of which you have -already heard, and of which, if you follow this narrative, you will hear a great -deal more; the other was a brig called <i>Sophy</i>, which will not figure at -all in these pages. Now Captain Pooley, as he was called by everybody, though, -of course, he had no right whatever to that distinctive appellation, had as a -young man possessed an extraordinary love for the sea, so intense a love, -indeed, that he, not being able to obtain a nomination for the Royal Navy, had -induced his father to apprentice him to the merchant service. Later in life--one -must be brief in these preliminary descriptions!--he had, after obtaining all -his certificates, purchased one after the other, with some little money he had -inherited, shares in first the one ship and then the second, and eventually, by -aid of savings and successful trading, had become the entire owner of both. For -the rest--to be again brief--he was a gentleman in manner and in feelings, while -in his person he was a handsome, burly man, with the brightest of blue eyes, a -vast shock of remarkably white hair above a good-looking, ruddy, tan-brown face; -and was also the possessor of a smile which appeared more often than not upon -his good-humoured countenance, and helped to make him welcome wherever he went, -both at home and abroad. He was, it should be added, a married man, but -childless, and it was not unusual for him to occasionally take his wife on the -voyages he made for the purpose of transporting the goods which he sold in -distant parts of the world, as well as for the purpose of purchasing other goods -for sale in England. Otherwise, Mrs. Pooley remained at home in a pretty little -villa at Blackheath, of which he owned a long lease.</p> - -<p class="normal">It was a year before the great joy of Bella's life came to her -that the 'captain,' returned from a voyage to Calcutta, and, as was always the -case with him, he went to West Kensington to visit his sister and niece, -accompanied by his wife. These visits were invariably paid, and also invariably -returned by Mrs. and Miss Waldron, and were generally productive of a great deal -of pleasure on either side. Captain Pooley--as we will continue to term him--was -a kind-hearted, open-handed man, who loved his own kith and kin and cherished an -old-fashioned notion--still in existence, Heaven be praised, amongst many -members of various classes of society--that people should do as much as lay in -their power to make their relatives happy. Wherefore, on this night, he said, as -he took the head of Mrs. Waldron's table--which she always insisted on his doing -whenever he stayed with her--and while he carved a pair of most excellent fowls:</p> - -<p class="normal">'So I think we shall have a good time of it all round, -Mary,'--Mary being Mrs. Waldron's name. 'To-night we will go to the Lyceum, and -to-morrow--well, to-morrow--we'll see. Then, next week, Southsea. Southsea's the -place for us. Great doings there next week, Bell. The visit of the foreign fleet -now there will beat everything that has gone before.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'But the expense, George!' exclaimed his sister. 'The expense -will be terrible. I saw in the paper that everything would be at famine price.'</p> - -<p class="normal">The captain pooh-poohed this remark, however, saying that an -old friend of his, who had retired from the Royal Navy and was now living at -that lively watering-place, knew of a little furnished house which could be -obtained reasonably if taken for the following week, as well as for the -principal one. And he clinched the remark by saying, 'And I have told him to -secure it.' There was therefore nothing further to be said on that score, Bella -alone remarking that she had the best old uncle and aunt that ever lived.</p> - -<p class="normal">'There will be,' he continued, putting a slice of the breast -upon her plate, probably as a reward for her observation, 'plenty to amuse -Bella. There is a garden-party at Whale Island; another given by the General; -and a ball given by the Navy at the Town Hall. That's the place for you, Bella. -If you don't find a husband there--and you a sailor's daughter, too--well!----'</p> - -<p class="normal">But these remarks were hushed by his wife, who told him not to -tease the child, and by the beautiful rose blush which promptly rushed to his -niece's cheeks. Yet, all the same, Bella thought it very likely that she would -have a good time of it.</p> - -<p class="normal">They were playing <i>Madame Sans-Gêne</i> at the Lyceum that -evening--though Pooley rather wished it had been something by Shakespeare--and -on the road to the theatre in the cab he told them that he had taken another -stall, to which he had invited a young friend of his whom he had run against in -town a day or two ago.</p> - -<p class="normal">'And a very good fellow, too,' he said, 'besides being a -first-rate sailor. And he has had a pretty hard struggle of it, owing to his -being cursed with a cross-grained old father, who seemed to imagine his son was -only brought into the world that he might sit upon him in every way. All the -same, though, Stephen Charke got to windward of him somehow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Whoever is he, uncle?' Bella asked, interested in this story -of the unknown person who was to make a fifth of their party; while her mother -addressed a similar question to Mrs. Pooley.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He is,' said the captain, 'a young man of about thirty, who -once went to sea with me in the <i>Sophy</i>; the son of an old retired officer, -who was years ago in a West Indian regiment. After petting and spoiling the boy, -and--as Stephen Charke himself told me--almost treating him with deference -because he happened to have been born his son, he afterwards endeavoured to -exert a good deal of authority over him, which led to disagreeables. He wanted -the lad to go in for the Army, and Stephen wanted to go to sea.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And got his way, apparently,' said Bella.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He did,' her uncle replied, 'by absolutely running away to -sea--just like a hero in a boy's book.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'How lovely!' the girl exclaimed.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ha! humph!' said Pooley, rather doubtfully, he being a man -who entirely disapproved of disobedience in any shape or form from a -subordinate. 'Anyhow, his experiences weren't lovely at first. They don't take -runaways in the best ships, you know. However, he stuck to it--he had burnt his -boats as far as regards his father--and--well!--he holds a master's certificate -now, and he's both a good sailor and a good fellow. He is in the Naval Reserve, -too, and has had a year in a battleship.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And his father?' Mrs. Waldron asked. 'Are they reconciled?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The old man is dead, and Charke has three or four thousand or -so, which makes him more or less independent. He's a queer fish in one way, and -picks and chooses a good deal as to what kind of ship he will serve in. For -instance, he won't go in a passenger steamer, because, he says, the mates are -either treated with good-natured tolerance or snubbed by the travellers, and he -aims at being an owner. However, as I said before, he's a good fellow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">By this time the cab had forced its way along the Strand -amidst hundreds of similar vehicles, many of which were disgorging their fares -at the various other theatres, and at last, after receiving a gracious -permission to pass from those autocratic masters of the public--the police -stationed at the foot of Wellington Street--wrenched itself round and pulled up -in its turn beneath the portico of the theatre.</p> - -<p class="normal">'There's Charke!' said Pooley, while, as he spoke, a rather -tall, good-looking man of dark complexion, who was irreproachably attired in -evening dress, came up to them and was duly introduced.</p> - -<p class="normal">To Bella, whose knowledge of the world--outside the quiet, -refined circle in which she had moved--was small, this man came more as a -surprise than anything else. She knew nothing of the sea, although she was the -daughter of an officer who had been in the Royal Navy, and her idea of what a -'mate' was like was probably derived from those she had seen on the Jersey or -Boulogne packet-boats, when her mother and she had occasionally visited these -and similar places in the out-of-town season. Yet Stephen Charke (she supposed -because he was a gentleman's son, and also because of that year in a battleship -as an officer of the R.N.R.) was not at all what she had expected. His quiet, -well-bred tones as he addressed her--with, in their deep, ocean-acquired -strength, that subtle inflexion which marks the difference between the gentleman -and the man who is simply not bad-mannered--took her entirely by surprise; while -the courteous manner in which he spoke, accompanied by something that proclaimed -indubitably his acquaintance, not only with the world, but its best customs, -helped to contribute to that surprise. So that, as they proceeded towards their -stalls, she found herself reflecting on what a small acquaintance she had with -things in general outside her rather limited circle of vision.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER III</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_03" href="#div1Ref_03">'LET THOSE LOVE NOW WHO NEVER<br> -LOVED BEFORE'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The 'captain' led the way into the five stalls he had booked, -followed, of course, by the elder ladies, and, as Stephen Charke naturally went -last, it fell out that Bella and he sat by each other. And between the acts, the -intervals of which were quite long enough for sustained conversation to take -place, the girl had time to find her interest in him, as well as her surprise, -considerably increased. She had perused in her time a few novels dealing with -the sea, and, in these, the mates of ships of whom she had read had more or less -served to confirm her opinion, already slightly formed from real life. But, when -Charke began to talk to her about the actual source from which the play they -were witnessing was drawn, she acknowledged to herself that, somehow, she must -have conceived a wrong impression of those seafarers. Certainly he, she thought, -could not be one of the creatures who cursed and abused the men if they objected -to their food, and threatened next to put them in irons; nor did she remember -that such individuals had ever been depicted in sea stories as knowing much -about the Revolution in France and the vulgar amusements of Napoleon.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, during the next interval, he approached the subject of -the forthcoming festivities at Portsmouth, to which Bella's uncle had told him -he was going to take his relatives, and from that he glided off into the -statement that he himself would be there.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am going down next Monday,' he said, 'to see one or two of -my old mess-mates of the <i>Bacchus</i>--in which I served for a year in the -Channel Squadron--and I fancy I shall be in at most of the functions. Have you -ever been to a naval ball?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Bella told him she never had been to one, her mother's -intimacy with the Service having entirely ceased since Captain Waldron's death, -and he then proceeded to give her an account of what these delightful functions -were like. Indeed, so vividly did he portray them that Bella almost wished they -were going on that very night to take part in one.</p> - -<p class="normal">When the play was over, she--who acknowledged to herself that -which probably no power on earth would have induced her to acknowledge so soon -to any one else, namely, that Stephen Charke was an agreeable, if not a -fascinating, companion--in company with the others prepared to return to West -Kensington, bidding goodbye to him in the vestibule of the theatre.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Where are you staying?' Mrs. Waldron asked him, as they stood -on the steps waiting for their cab to make its appearance in turn. 'And are you -in London for any time?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Charke mentioned the name of a West End caravanserai, at which -he had a room, as his abode for the next day or so, and by doing so he -administered one more shock of surprise to the girl standing hooded and muffled -by his side. For, again, in her ignorance, or perhaps owing to her reading of -nautical novels, she had always thought of the officers of merchant vessels as -living somewhere in the purlieus of Ratcliffe Highway when ashore, and rarely -penetrating farther west than the city itself. It seemed, however, that either -she had formed a totally erroneous impression of such people, or that the above -sources of information must be wrong if all were really like Mr. Charke. But -then, suddenly, there occurred to her mind the fact that her uncle had said this -young officer was in possession of some few thousand pounds of his own--and -this, probably, would explain why he was living in a comfortable manner when he -was ashore.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am at home to my friends every other Friday,' Mrs. Waldron -said, as now the cab had got to the portico, and a man was bawling out 'Mrs. -Pooley's carriage' at the top of his voice--which announcement, nevertheless, -served the purpose required--'and the day after to-morrow happens to be one of -those Fridays. If you care to call--though I know gentlemen despise such -things--we shall be glad to see you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I do not despise them,' Charke answered, 'and I shall be -delighted to come.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he bade them all good-night, saw the cab off, and -strolled down to his hotel. In his innermost heart Charke did despise such -things as 'at homes,' or 'tea fights,' as he termed them contemptuously to -himself, yet, in common with a great many other men, he was willing enough to go -to them when there was any attraction strong enough to draw him.</p> - -<p class="normal">And he told himself that there was an attraction at Mrs. -Waldron's such as he had never been subjected to before.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What a lovely girl,' he thought to himself; 'what eyes and -hair--and a nice girl, too! Now I begin to understand why other men curse the -sea, and say they would rather earn their living on shore driving busses than -following our calling. And, also, why they nail up photographs in their cabins -and watch every chance of getting mails off from the shore. I suppose I should -have understood it earlier if I had ever met a girl like this.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He did call on the following Friday, after having passed the -intervening two days in wandering about London; in going to a race meeting one -day and a cricket match at the Oval the next; in trying a dinner at one foreign -restaurant on the Wednesday, and another at a second foreign restaurant on -Thursday; but all the time he felt restless and unsettled, and wished that four -o'clock on Friday was at hand.</p> - -<p class="normal">'This won't do,' he said to himself, before the cricket match -on Thursday was half over, and while he sat baking in the sun that streamed down -on to the Oval--which disturbed him not at all, and had no power to make him any -browner--'this won't do. I must go to sea at once. By the time I have seen that -girl again I shall be head over ears in love with her. And the interest on £4000 -in India Stock--by Jove! it isn't quite £4000 since I've been loafing about on -shore!--and a chief officer's pay won't keep a wife. Not such a wife as she -would be, anyway.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He did not know it--or, perhaps, he did know it and would not -acknowledge it to himself--but he was very nearly head over ears in love with -Bella Waldron already. And he had only seen her once--been by her side at a -theatre for three hours--with three intervals of ten minutes in which to talk to -her! Yet the girl's beauty, her gentle innocence, and above all, that trusting -confidence with which she seemed to look out upon all that was passing before -her, and to regard the world as what it appeared to be and to take it at its own -valuation, had captured him. Still, he should have known--he must have -known--that when a man who has never thought much of the women he has met -heretofore, and has generally forgotten what their features were like by the -next day, takes to lying awake for hours dreaming at last of one woman with whom -he has by chance come into contact, he is as nearly in love with her as it is -possible for him to be.</p> - -<p class="normal">So, at least, those report who have been in love, and so it -has been told to the writer of this narrative!</p> - -<p class="normal">He made his way to Montmorency Road, West Kensington, exactly -at four o'clock, and while he sat in the pretty drawing-room talking to Mrs. -Waldron, who was alone at present--the appearance of Bella being promised by her -mother in a few moments--he found himself wondering what the girl did with her -life here. He had seen a bicycle in the passage as he was shown upstairs, so he -supposed she rode that; while there were some photographs of rather good-looking -men standing about on the semi-grand and on the plush-covered mantelshelf--which -made him feel horribly annoyed, until Mrs. Waldron, seeing his glance fixed on -them, informed him that they were mostly cousins who were out of the country, -and that one or two of them happened to have succumbed to various climatic -disorders abroad, for which catastrophes he did not seem to feel as sorry as he -supposed he ought to do. Then Bella came in, looking radiantly beautiful in a -summer dress (a description of which masculine ignorance renders impossible), -and Stephen Charke was happy for ten minutes. For they all talked of the -impending <i>fêtes</i> -at Portsmouth in honour of the foreign fleet, and Charke found himself in an -Elysium when Bella promised him--without the slightest self-consciousness or -false shame--that she would undoubtedly have some dances reserved for him.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, soon, other callers came in, and Stephen Charke found -himself deprived of the pleasure of further conversation with Bella. An elderly -dowager claimed her attention, and a middle-aged lady--of, as he considered, -menacing aspect--regaled him with the evil doings of her domestic servants, a -subject of about as much interest to this wanderer of the seas as that of -embroidery or tatting would have been. An Irish Doctor of Divinity also -disturbed his meditations on Bella's beauty by telling funny stories, the point -of which the divine had forgotten until he refreshed his memory by reference to -a little note-book in which he had them all written down, while a young militia -subaltern who had failed for the Army--and seemed rather proud of it!--irritated -him beyond endurance. Yet, even through this fatuous individual, there came -something that was welcome to him, since he saw Bella regarding the youth with a -look of scarcely veiled contempt, and he longed to tell the idiot that the only -failure for which women have no pity in this world is that of the intellect.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Goodbye,' he said to Bella, who accompanied him to the head -of the stairs, after he had made his adieux to her mother. 'Goodbye. Next -week--Portsmouth--and--my dances.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I shall not forget,' she said.</p> - -<p class="normal">After which he wandered off by devious and intricate ways -(which reminded him of some of the narrow passages he knew of between the -islands in the China seas) and so arrived at the District Railway.</p> - -<p class="normal">And all the time he was telling himself that he was a fool--an -absolute fool. 'I have fallen in love with a girl I have only seen twice,' he -meditated, as the train ran through the sulphurous regions underground, and he -endeavoured to protect his lungs by smoking cigarette after cigarette; 'a girl -who is not, and never can be, anything to me. She will make a good match some -day; she must make a good match--girls of her position and looks always do; and, -a year or two hence, I shall luff into some unearthly harbour abroad, and run -against Pooley, who will tell me that she has done so.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, all the same, he took comfort from remembering that he -had not seen anybody at Mrs. Waldron's 'afternoon' who was likely to be the -individual to carry her off.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, in spite of this soothing reflection, he braced himself -to a stern resolution: he determined that, as already in his life he had -triumphed over other things, so he would triumph now. He would triumph over this -swift-flowering and still growing love; conquer it by absence from the object -which inspired it; trample it down till there was nothing left of life in it.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have no money to keep a wife,' he thought, as he walked up -from Charing Cross Station to his hotel; 'certainly no money to keep such a wife -as she would be. And, even if I had, it is not likely that she would marry me; -"a common mate," as I have heard ourselves called. Portsmouth shall end it,' he -concluded. 'I'll have one good week there, and then to sea again on a long -cruise. That ought to do it! I'll go down to the docks to-morrow and see what's -open.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Wherefore, full of this determinate resolution to drive from -out of him the frenzy which had taken possession of his heart and mind, he went -to the hotel and read in his bedroom for an hour or so, during all of which time -Bella Waldron's face was looking out at him from the pages of the <i>Navy and -Army Illustrated</i>, and was always before him until he went forth to try still -another foreign restaurant. Yet she was there too, and her pure, innocent eyes -were gazing at him across the imitation flowers and the red candle-shades in the -middle of the table; and so, also, they were in the stalls of the Empire, until -he fell asleep in his seat. Nor was she absent from his mind during the long -hours of the night.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_04" href="#div1Ref_04">PORTSMOUTH <i>EN FÊTE</i></a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The lunch at Whale Island was over, and there was a slight -breathing-space ere the garden-party, which followed it, began. Meanwhile, from -Southsea pier, from down by the pontoon at the foot of the old Hard, and over -from Gosport, picket-boats, steam pinnaces, and launches--all belonging to Her -Majesty's ships lying out at Spithead--were coming fast, as well as shore boats -and numerous other craft that blackened the waters. And they bore in them a -gaily-dressed crowd of men and women, the ladies being adorned in all those -beauteous garments which they know so well how to assume on such an occasion; -while, among the gentlemen, frock-coats, tall hats, and white waistcoats, as -well as full dress, or 'No. 1' uniform, were the order of the day. For all these -ship's-boats, after putting off from the battleships and cruisers to which they -belonged, had, by order of the Vice-Admiral commanding the Channel Squadron, -called at the above-named places to fetch off the visitors to the Whale Island -festivities.</p> - -<p class="normal">Stephen Charke, in the uniform of the R.N.R., came in the -picket-boat of the <i>Bacchus</i>, wherein he had been lunching with the -wardroom officers, and as she went alongside of Southsea pier, and afterwards at -the Old Town pier, he had eagerly scanned the ladies who were waiting to be -taken off. He was not, however, particularly disappointed or cast down at not -seeing the one girl he was looking out for at either of them, since, in the -continual departure of similar boats, and the running backwards and forwards of -these craft between Whale Island and the landing-stages, it was, of course, -hardly to be supposed that she would happen upon the particular boat in which he -was.</p> - -<p class="normal">He saw her, however, directly he, with his companions, had -made their way to the lawn on which the wife of the Port-Admiral was receiving -her guests, and--in so seeing her--he recognised instantly that he was not going -to enjoy his afternoon as much as he had hoped to do.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Who's that?' he asked of the Staff-Commander of the <i> -Bacchus</i>, with whom he happened to be walking at the moment. 'I mean that -flag-lieutenant talking to the young lady in the white dress?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'That?' replied his companion, regarding the young officer -indicated. 'Oh, that's Gilbert Bampfyld, flag-lieutenant to the Rear-Admiral. -He's a good chap; I'll introduce you later. A lucky fellow, too. He's heir to -his uncle, Lord D'Abernon. He's all right,' he concluded inconsequently.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I know the young lady,' Stephen said. 'I've been at sea with -her uncle.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Good-looking,' said the Staff-Commander, who was a single -man. 'Fine girl, too. I hope she's coming to the ball.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'She is,' Charke replied, and then stood observing her -companion from the little group of which they now formed part.</p> - -<p class="normal">Certainly the young officer was 'all right,' if good looks and -a manly figure can entitle any one to that qualification. He was undoubtedly -handsome, with the manliness which women are stated (by authorities on such -matters) to admire: his bright eyes and good complexion, as well as his -clear-cut, regular features, leaving little else to desire. He was also fairly -tall, while, if anything were required to set off his appearance, it was -furnished by his full-dress and his flag-lieutenant's aiguillettes. He was -talking now in an animated way, as Charke could see easily enough from where he -stood by the refreshment tent; and it was not possible for him to doubt that he -was making himself very interesting to Bella.</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment, Stephen stood hesitating as to whether he should -go up and present himself to the girl who had never been out of his thoughts -since he said 'goodbye' to her in West Kensington; then, while he still debated -the matter in his mind, Bella saw him and smiled and nodded pleasantly, while -she looked--as he thought--as though she expected he should come up to her. -Which of course decided him.</p> - -<p class="normal">There was no affectation in the manner wherewith Bella greeted -him; in truth, she was glad to see him and, honestly, as she did everything -else, she said so.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have been looking for you for the last half-hour,' she -remarked, as he reached her side, 'and wondering if you were coming or not'; -after which she introduced Stephen Charke and Gilbert Bampfyld to each other. -Then, some other officers coming up at this moment, more introductions took -place, while Bampfyld said that he must move off.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have escaped from my Admiral for a few moments,' he said, -while he added with a laugh: 'I am not quite sure, however, that he is not -congratulating himself on having escaped from me. I hope, Miss Waldron,' he -added, 'that you have an invitation for the ball?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' Bella said; and she smiled at Lieutenant Bampfyld's -request that he might not be forgotten on that occasion, though she did not say -positively whether that calamity would occur or not. Then, when he had moved on -to join the distinguished officer to whom it was his duty to be attached almost -as tightly as a limpet to a rock, she said to Charke, 'Come, now, and see mamma. -She is in the shade behind the tent, and she has found an old friend of -father's.'</p> - -<p class="normal">But it was so evident that Mrs. Waldron was thoroughly -enjoying herself with that old friend, who was a retired post-captain (she was, -indeed, at the moment of their arrival engaged in reminiscences of the North -American and West Indian stations), that they strolled away together, and, -finding soon another shady seat, sat down and passed an agreeable hour or so. -Wherefore, as you may thus see, Stephen Charke did spend a happy afternoon, -notwithstanding that first apparition of the flag-lieutenant in converse with -the girl who was now never out of his thoughts. Indeed, it would have been to -him a perfect afternoon, had he not more than once seen Bampfyld (who again -appeared to have escaped from his Admiral!) roaming about the place with a -somewhat disconsolate, as well as penetrating, look upon his face; which look -Charke construed into meaning that the other was seeking for the girl of whom he -himself had now obtained temporary possession. However, even so, he did not -think it necessary to call Bella's attention to the fact. But we must not tarry -over these soft summer beguilements to which the old naval capital and all in -her had given themselves up. There lie other matters before us--matters which, -when they afterwards occurred, caused three people now partaking of these -enjoyments to, perhaps, cast back their memories,--memories that were not -untinged by regret. Suffice it, therefore, that we hurry on, and passing over -another garden-party which took place at the Military Commandant's, and an 'at -home' given on board the foreign visitors, flagship, as well as entertainments -at which only the male sex were present, we come to the Naval ball at the Town -Hall.</p> - -<p class="normal">That was a great night, a night on which, if one may judge by -subsequent events, many loving hearts were made happy; on which, too, some saw -the dawn of the first promise of future happiness--and one man, at least, was -made unhappy. It was a great night! A night no more forgotten by three people in -the days that followed it than was the garden-party which preceded it by a day -or so.</p> - -<p class="normal">The First Lord of the Admiralty led off the quadrille with the -wife of the Commander-in-Chief, while the Prince who was in command of the -foreign fleet danced with the First Lord's wife; there being in that set, round -which the other guests formed a vast circle, the most prominent individuals then -present in Portsmouth. And Bella, standing close by with her hand upon the arm -of Stephen Charke, while they waited for the first dance in which all the guests -could participate, felt that, at last, she knew what a ball was.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It isn't quite like a State Ball,' whispered Lieutenant -Bampfyld to them as he passed by with his Admiral, he being qualified to give -such information in consequence of his duties as flag-lieutenant having often -given him the opportunity of attending those great functions, 'but it is much -prettier.' Then he disappeared for a time.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It could scarcely be prettier than it is,' Bella said to -Charke. 'How has the room been made so beautiful?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The men of the <i>Vernon</i> have done it all,' her companion -answered; 'they are good at that sort of thing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">As, indeed, they seemed to be, judging by the effect they had -produced. Trophies of arms, flags, devices, life-buoys white as snow, with the -names of vessels belonging both to the visitors and ourselves painted in gold -upon them, decorated the vast room; while, from the dockyard, had been unearthed -old armour and weapons, such as, in these present days, are forgotten. Also the -colour lent by various uniforms, naval, military, and marine, as well as by -flowers and the bouquets carried by ladies, added to the brilliant scene--while -the sombre black of civilians helped to give a contrast to the bright hues. For -civilians were not forgotten: Admiralty officials, private residents, special -correspondents--with a wary eye on their watches, so that they might be able to -rush over to the Post-office with their last messages for the great London and -provincial papers--were all there.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Come,' said Stephen Charke, as the band of the Royal Marines -struck up the first waltz, 'come, Miss Waldron; it is our turn now.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And for ten minutes he realised what happiness meant.</p> - -<p class="normal">That he would have to resign her for the greater part of the -evening, he knew very well--her programme was already full!--his name appearing -three times on it, and Lieutenant Bampfyld's also three times--yet, later, he -did so none the less willingly for that knowledge. How could he? He loved the -girl with his whole heart and soul--madly! 'I shall love her always, until I -die,' he muttered to himself as he stood by, seeking no other partner and -watching her dancing now with the flag-lieutenant. Then, next, he saw her -dancing with the flag-lieutenant of the other Admiral--though that did not seem -to him to be so disturbing a matter. 'Till I die!' he repeated again; and then -once more called himself a fool.</p> - -<p class="normal">His second dance with her arrived, and once more he was in his -seventh heaven; for the moment he was again supremely happy.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I hope I may have the pleasure of taking you in to supper,' -he almost whispered in her ear as they paused for a moment for breath, and it -seemed as if the light of his enjoyment--for that evening at least--had been -suddenly extinguished when she, raising those sweet, clear eyes to his, -exclaimed:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, I am so sorry! But I have promised Lieutenant Bampfyld -that he shall do so.'</p> - -<p class="normal">For the remainder of the ball Charke did not let a single -dance pass by without taking part in it, and allowed his friends to introduce -him right and left to any lady who happened to require a partner, though -reserving, of course, the one for which he was engaged to Bella at what would be -almost the end of the evening. In fact, as his friend the Staff-Commander said, -'he let himself go pretty considerably,' and he so far exemplified that -gentleman's remark that he took in to supper one of the plainest of those -middle-aged ladies who happened to be gracing the ball with their presence.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet this lady found nothing whatever to complain of to herself -(to her friends she would have uttered no complaint of her cavalier, even though -he had been as stupid as an owl and as dumb as a stone, she being a wary old -campaigner), but, instead, thought him a charming companion. Perhaps, too, she -had good reason to do so, since, from the moment he conducted her across the -temporarily constructed bridge which led from the Town Hall proper to the supper -tent erected in a vacant plot of ground, his conversation was full of smart -sayings and pleasant, though occasionally sub-acid, remarks on things in -general. Yet, naturally, it was impossible that she should know that the -undoubtedly bright and piquant conversation with which he entertained her was -partly produced by his bitterness at seeing Gilbert Bampfyld and Bella enjoying -themselves thoroughly at a table <i>à-deux</i> close by where he and his partner -were seated, and partly by his stoical determination to 'let things go.' And by, -also, another determination at which he had arrived--namely, to go to sea again -at the very first moment he could find a ship.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER V</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_05" href="#div1Ref_05">'SO FAREWELL, HOPE!'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Nine months had passed since the entertainment of the foreign -fleet at Portsmouth--months that had been pregnant with events concerning the -three persons with whom this narrative deals; and Bella sat now, at the end of a -dull March afternoon, in the pretty drawing-room in West Kensington. She sat -there meditating deeply, since she happened to be alone at the moment, owing to -Mrs. Waldron having gone out to pay several calls.</p> - -<p class="normal">Of all who had been at those entertainments, of all in the -party which, in the preceding June, had gathered together at Portsmouth, the -three ladies of the family, Mrs. Waldron, Mrs. Pooley, and Bella, were alone in -England; the three men--the three sailors--were all gone to different parts of -the world. Captain Pooley had sailed with his vessel to Australia; Stephen -Charke had gone to China as first officer of a large vessel; and Gilbert -Bampfyld, who, in consequence of the Rear-Admiral's retirement, no longer wore -the aiguillettes of a flag-lieutenant, had been appointed to the <i>Briseus</i>, -on the East Indian station.</p> - -<p class="normal">And Bella, sitting now in her arm-chair in front of the -drawing-room fire, with a letter lying open on her lap before her, was thinking -of the writer of that letter, as well as of all that it contained. If one -glances at it as it lies there before her, much may be gleaned of what has -happened in those nine months; while perhaps, also, some idea, some light, may -be gained of that which is to come.</p> -<br> - -<p class="normal">'<span class="sc">My Darling</span>,' it commenced (and -possibly the writer, far away, may have hoped that, as he wrote those words, -they would be kissed as often by the person to whom they were addressed as he -fondly desired), '<span class="sc">My Darling</span>--Your letter came to me -to-day, and I must write back to you at once--this very instant--not only -because I want to put all my thoughts on paper, but also because I can thus -catch the P. and O. mail. How good! how good you are! While, also, I do not -forget how good your mother is. I know I ought not--at least I suppose I ought -not--to ask you to do such a thing as come out to me, and I can assure you I -hesitated for weeks before daring to do so. Yet, when I reflected that, if you -could not bring yourself to come, as well as induce your mother to give her -consent to your coming, we could not possibly be married for three years, I -could not hesitate any longer. And now--now--oh, Bella, my darling! I could -dance for joy if my cabin was big enough to allow of such a thing--you are -coming! You will come! How happy we shall be! I can think of nothing -else--nothing. You don't know how I feel, and it's useless for me to try to tell -you....'</p> -<br> - -<p class="normal">No more need be read of this letter, however, and, since the -reader will shortly be informed of what led to it, nothing more need be said -than that, after a good deal of explanation as to how the young lady to whom it -was addressed was to make her plans for reaching Bombay, it was signed 'Gilbert -Bampfyld.'</p> - -<p class="normal">So that one sees now what had been the outcome of that week of -delight at Portsmouth during the last summer; one understands all that had been -the result of those garden-parties and that ball.</p> - -<p class="normal">They--the festivities--were followed by a renewal of the -acquaintanceship between Mrs. Waldron and her daughter and Gilbert Bampfyld, as, -indeed, the latter had quite made up his mind should be the case, and as--since -the truth must always be spoken--Bella had hoped would happen. They were -followed, that is to say, directly the naval man[oe]uvres were over, for which -important function both divisions of the Channel Squadron were of course -utilised, while not a week had elapsed from the time of the return of the ships -to their stations before Gilbert Bampfyld presented himself in Montmorency Road. -And that presentation of himself at this suburban retreat was, it is surely -unnecessary to say, succeeded by many other things, all showing what was -impending and what actually happened later on. Gilbert Bampfyld told Bella that -he loved her and wanted her for his wife, and--well, one can imagine the rest. -What was there to stand between those loving hearts? What? Nothing to impede -their engagement, nothing that need have impeded their immediate marriage, -except the fact that Bella's maiden modesty could never have been brought to -consent to a union so hurriedly entered into as would have been necessary, had -she agreed to become Gilbert's wife ere he set out for Bombay to join the <i> -Briseus</i>, to which he was now appointed.</p> - -<p class="normal">One regrets, however, when describing such soft and glowing -incidents as these, that space is so circumscribed (owing to the canvas having -to be filled with larger events now looming near) as to leave no room for more -minute description of this love idyl. It would have been pleasant to have dwelt -upon Bella's ecstatic joy at having been asked to be the wife of the one -man--the first man--whose love she had ever desired (ah, that is it--to be the -first man or the first girl who has ever touched the heart of him or her we -worship); only it must not be--the reader's own imagination shall be asked to -fill the missing description. Let those, therefore, who remember the earliest -whispered word of love they ever spoke or had spoken to them; who recall still -the first kiss they ever gave or took; and those who can remember, also, all the -joy that came to them when first they loved and knew themselves beloved, fill -the hiatus. That will suffice.</p> - -<p class="normal">'We shall be so happy, dearest,' Gilbert said, when all -preliminaries had been arranged in so far as their engagement was concerned, and -when he did not know at the time that he was about to be sent on foreign -service, but hoped that he would either be allowed to remain in the Channel -Squadron or be transferred to the Training Squadron, or, at worst, appointed to -the Mediterranean. 'We shall be so happy, darling. I hoped from the first to win -you--though--though sometimes I feared there might be some one else.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'There could never have been any one else. Never, after I had -once met you,' she murmured. 'Oh, Gilbert!' and then she, too, said she was so -happy. Yet a moment later she whispered: 'But, somehow, it seems too good to be -true. All has come so easily in the way that I--well, as we--desired, that -sometimes I think there may be--that something may arise to--to----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What--prevent our marriage? Nothing can do that. Nothing -could have done that--nothing!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Suppose your uncle, Lord D'Abernon, had objected?' she said, -remembering that she had heard how this nobleman was not always given to making -things quite as easy and comfortable to those by whom he was surrounded as was -considered desirable. 'Suppose that had happened?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, he's all right,' Gilbert replied. 'He expected his -opinion to be asked and his consent obtained, and all that sort of thing, but, -outside that, he's satisfied. And if he wasn't, it wouldn't have made any -difference to me--after I had once seen you.' For which remark he was rewarded -with one of those chaste salutes which Bella had learnt by now to bestow without -too much diffidence. As regards Mrs. Waldron--well, she was a mother, and it was -not to be supposed that such a distinguished match as Bella was about to make -could be aught but satisfactory to her; while Captain Pooley, who had not yet -departed with the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> for Australia, told his niece that -she was a lucky girl. He also informed Gilbert that, as he was a childless man, -Bella would eventually fall heiress to anything he and his wife might leave -behind them. Matters looked, therefore, as though they would all go merry as the -proverbial marriage bell. All, as the old romancists used to say, was very well.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then fell the first blow--the one that was to separate those -two fond hearts. Gilbert was suddenly appointed to the <i>Briseus</i> and -ordered to proceed to Bombay to join her at once, and a fortnight later he was -gone, and poor Bella was left behind lamenting.</p> - -<p class="normal">She was sitting, lamenting still, before her fire on this -March day, with this newly-arrived letter on her lap--in solemn truth, she had -been lamenting his departure ever since it had taken place--when, suddenly, -there broke in upon her ears the sound of a visitor's knock below. Then, ere she -could distinguish whose voice was addressing the servant who had answered the -door, she heard a manly footstep on the stairs, and, a moment later, the -maidservant announced: 'Mr. Charke.' Mr. Charke! the man whose memory had almost -faded from her mind--as she had reproached herself for more than once, when it -did happen to recur to her--the man whom she had learnt to like so much during -all that happy time last year. Now, as she gazed on him, and noticed how brown -he was as he came forward--more deeply browned, indeed, than she had thought it -possible for him, who was already so tanned and sunburnt, to be--and noticed, -too, the strong, self-reliant look on his face, she reproached herself again. -She acknowledged, also, that she had liked him so much that even her new-found -happiness ought not to have driven all recollection of him entirely from her -mind.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then she greeted him warmly, saying all the pleasant little -words of welcome that a woman whose heart goes in unison with her good breeding -knows how to say; and made him welcome. Yet, as she did so, she observed that he -was graver, more sad, it seemed to her, than she had ever remarked before.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You are not ill?' she asked, as this fact became more and -more apparent to her. 'Surely, you, a sailor, have not come back from the sea -unwell? At least I hope not.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he said, 'no. Nor, I hope, do I seem so. Do you know -that, besides any desire to call and see you, I came for another purpose?' and -now his eyes rested on her with so strange a light--so mournful, deep a -light--that in a moment her woman's instinct told her what he meant as plainly -as though his voice had done so.</p> - -<p class="normal">Like a flash of lightning, that instinct revealed to her the -fact that this man loved her; that, from the moment they had parted, months ago, -she had never been absent from his mind. She knew it; she was certain she was -right--she could not be deceived! Then to herself she said: 'Heaven help -him--Heaven prevent him from telling me so.'</p> - -<p class="normal">But aloud, her heart full of pity, she said: 'Indeed,' and -smiled bravely on him while she spoke. 'Indeed, what was that purpose?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'To congratulate you. To----</p> - -<p class="normal">'Congratulate me!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes. I met the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> at Capetown. We -were both homeward bound. And--and--your uncle told me the news. I offer my -congratulations now.' Yet, as he said the words, she saw that his face was -turned a little aside so that she could not perceive his eyes. Congratulations! -Well, they might be sincere in so far as that, because he loved her, he wished -her well and desired that she should be happy, but--but--otherwise--no! it was -not to be thought upon.</p> - -<p class="normal">As he said the words: 'I congratulate you,' he followed an old -custom--one more foreign than English--and held out his hand, taking hers. And -he kept it, too, fast in his own, while he said in the voice that his struggles -with the elements had made so deep and sonorous:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes, I congratulate you. I must do that. To--to--see you -happy--to know you are so, is all that I have--all--I hope for now. Yet there is -no treachery to him in what I say. Heaven help me! I mean -none--but--but--I--from the first--I have lo----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, no,' she murmured, striving to withdraw her hand, yet not -doing so angrily. 'No, no. Don't say it, Mr. Charke. Don't, pray don't.' And, -now, neither could he see her eyes nor her averted face. 'Don't say it. You do -not desire to make me unhappy?' she murmured.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Never, as God hears me. But--I have said it. I had to say it. -Goodbye.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Goodbye,' she said--and then, as he neared the door, she -turned once and looked at him with eyes that were full of intense pity and -compassion.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_06" href="#div1Ref_06">'AND BEND THE GALLANT MAST, MY BOYS'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Events are now drawing near to that night when Bella was to -have those distressing dreams which have been mentioned at the opening of this -narrative; all was arranged for her departure to Bombay. A little more, and she -will be on her way to India and to wedlock.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet all had not been quite easy and smooth in the settlement -of affairs. At first, Mrs. Waldron, good, loving mother though she was, and -fully cognisant of the facts--namely, that Bella loved Lieutenant Bampfyld madly -and would be an unhappy woman if she did not become his wife long ere three -years had passed, and that the match which her child was about to make was -undoubtedly a brilliant one--refused to hear of such a thing as that she should -go out to him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'If you are worth having,' she said, when first the proposal -was submitted to her, 'you are surely worth coming for.' And, since this was a -truism, it was hardly to be gainsaid. Yet, as we know by now, she had been won -over by her daughter's pleadings and entreaties; by, too, the plain and -undeniable fact that there was not the slightest possibility of Lieutenant -Bampfyld being able to come home to marry her, or to return to England in any -way--short of being invalided--until the <i>Briseus</i> herself returned.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, no sooner had this difficulty been surmounted than -another reared its head before mother and daughter. How was she to go out to -Bombay alone and unprotected? A young married woman, who had to proceed to India -to join her husband, might very well undertake such a journey, but not a young -single woman such as Bella was, while for chaperon or protectress there was no -one forthcoming. At first, it is true, Mrs. Waldron had meditated accompanying -Bella herself (she being an old sailor, to whom long sea voyages were little -more than railway journeys are to some more stay-at-home ladies); only, down in -the depths of her nature, which was an extremely refined one, there was some -voice whispering to her that it would be indelicate to thus bring her daughter -out in pursuit of her affianced husband. It is true, however, that authorities -on social etiquette who have since been consulted have averred that this was a -false feeling which was in possession of Mrs. Waldron's mind; but be that as it -may, it existed. Then, too, she still regarded the matter of her child going to -her future husband, instead of that husband coming to fetch her, as one of -particular delicacy; one of such nicety as to permit of no elaboration; and she -resolved that, come what might--even though she should have to purchase, or hire -rather, the services of an elderly and austere travelling companion--she must -not herself accompany Bella.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Heaven knows what is to be done,' she said to her daughter, -as they discussed the important point, 'but I suppose it will come to that'; the -'that' meaning the hired chaperon. Then she sighed a little, remembering how the -late Captain Waldron had encompassed thousands of miles in a voyage which he -made from the Antipodes to espouse her.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, ere many days had passed, the clouds of obstruction were -suddenly removed in a manner which seemed almost--as the fond mother -stated--providential. Captain Pooley's ship had followed home, after a week or -so of interval, that in which Stephen Charke had returned to England, and its -arrival was soon succeeded by his own in Montmorency Road.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Going out to him to be married!' he exclaimed, after his -sister--who happened to be alone at the time of his visit--had made him -acquainted with what she had given her consent to some two or three months -before, on Gilbert's application backed up by Bella's supplications, and which -consent she had moaned over inwardly ever since she had so given it. 'Going out -to be married, eh? Why, she must want a husband badly!' Yet, because he knew -well enough the customs of Her Majesty's service and the impossibility which -prevailed in that service of an officer coming home to marry his bride, he did -not repeat her words, 'If she is worth having, she is worth coming for.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'So other people have thought, if they have not openly said -so,' Mrs. Waldron replied. 'I am sure they must have thought so. Yet,' she went -on, with determination, 'I have agreed to it, and I cannot retract my word. It -is given, and must be kept. No, it is not that which troubles me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What, then?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Why, the getting out. How is the child to go alone, in a -great liner, with two or three hundred passengers, all the way to Bombay? How?' -she repeated.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Bombay, eh? Bombay. Oh, well, if that's her destination, she -can go comfortably enough. There need be no trouble about that. Only she will be -more than double the time the P. and O., or any other line, would take to carry -her.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What do you mean, George?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Why,' he said, 'I happen to be taking the old <i>Emperor</i> -to Bombay next month with a general cargo--calling at the Cape on the way. She -can go with me, and welcome. There's a cabin fit for a duchess which she can -have.'</p> - -<p style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * * *</p> - -<p class="normal">It was a cabin fit for a duchess, as Bella and her mother -acknowledged when, a fortnight later, they went down to Gravesend to inspect the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, and after it had been decided in solemn family -conclave that, by this ship, the former should make the voyage to India. And it -was more than likely that the girl would make it under particularly pleasant -circumstances, since this was one of those occasions on which Mrs. Pooley had -decided to accompany her husband, she not having felt very well during the past -winter. At present, the cabin was empty and denuded of everything, Pooley having -decided to have it refurnished; but when he told them how that furniture would -be arranged in the great roomy place, which would have been dignified as a -'state-room' in one of the old clippers, Bella said again, as she had said so -often before, that 'he was the best old uncle in the world.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Now the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> was a smart, though -old-fashioned, full-rigged ship of about six hundred tons, her lines being -perfect, while leaving her full of room inside. Her saloon was a comfortable -one, well furnished with plush-covered chairs and benches--the covering being -quite new; a piano--also looking new--was lashed to the stem of the mizzen-mast, -while there were swinging vases, in which, no doubt, fresh ferns and flowers -would be placed later. On deck she was very clean and white, with much brass and -everything neat and shipshape, while the seaman who should regard her bows and -stern would at once acknowledge that she left little to desire, old as she was. -For, in the days when she was laid, they built ships with a view to both sea -qualities and comfort, and the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> lacked neither. Her -sleeping-cabins were bedrooms, her saloon was a dining-room as good as you would -find in a fifty-pound-a-year suburban residence, and her masts would have done -credit to one of Her Majesty's earlier ships.</p> - -<p class="normal">Altogether, Bella was pleased with everything, especially with -her cabin, which was on the port side of the saloon, and she was, besides, -pleasantly excited at the idea of so long a sailing voyage.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I know,' she said to her uncle, 'that we shall have a -delightful time of it, and for companionship I shall have you and auntie. That's -enough.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'You will have some one else, too,' Pooley said, with a smile; -'you know I have two officers. Come'--and again he smiled--'it is our "lay -days,"' by which he meant that they were shipping their cargo. 'Come, I will -introduce them to you.' Then he led the way up the companion to the deck.</p> - -<p class="normal">They met one of these officers, the second mate, a young man -whom Pooley introduced as Mr. Fagg, and then, while they were all talking -together, Bella heard a deep, low voice behind her say: 'How do you do, Miss -Waldron?' A voice that caused her to start as she turned round to find herself -face to face with Stephen Charke.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You!' she exclaimed involuntarily. 'You! Are you going on -this voyage?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am first officer,' he said. 'I wanted a berth, and Captain -Pooley has given me one.' And amidst her uncle's joyous laughter and his remark -that he knew this would be a pleasant surprise for Bella, and while, too, Mrs. -Waldron said that she was delighted to think he would be in the ship to look -after her daughter, that daughter had time to think herself--to reflect.</p> - -<p class="normal">In her heart, she would far rather that Charke had not been -here; while she wondered, too, how he could have brought himself to accept his -present position, knowing, as he must have known, that she was going in the -ship.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is so vain, so useless,' she thought; 'and can only lead -to discomfort. We shall both feel embarrassed all the way. Oh, I wish he were -not coming!' Then, although she pitied him, and although she had always liked -him, she resolved that, through the whole of the time they were together in the -ship, she would see as little of Stephen Charke as possible.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You do not object to my presence, I hope?' he said a moment -later, as they both stood by the capstan alone--Pooley and his wife and sister -having moved off forward. 'I should be sorry to think that my being here was -disagreeable to you. I have to earn my living, you know.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What right could I have to object, Mr. Charke?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Perhaps you think I have behaved indiscreetly?'</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment she let her eyes fall on him and rest upon his -own; then she said: 'I will not give any opinion. You have to earn your living, -as you say; while as for me--well, you know what I am going to India for.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered. 'I do know.' After which he added: 'Do not -be under any wrong impression. I shall not annoy you. I am the chief officer of -this ship and you are a passenger. That is, I understand, how the voyage is to -be made?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'If you please,' Bella replied very softly, and the tones of -her voice might well have brought some comfort to him, if anything short of the -possession of her love could have done so.</p> - -<p class="normal">A fortnight or three weeks later the pilot had left the <i> -Emperor of the Moon</i>, the lee main braces were manned, the ship was lying -over under her canvas, the wind was well astern. Bella was on her way to India -and her lover!</p> - -<p class="normal">Let us pass over this parting between mother and child, the -fond embraces, the tears and sobs which accompanied that parting following after -the dawn when we first made the girl's acquaintance, and following, too, that -night of unrest and disturbing dreams. No description of such partings is -necessary; many of us, young and old, men and women, have had to make them; to -part from the loved, gray-haired mother who has sobbed on our breast ere we went -forth to find our livelihood, if not our fortune, in a strange world; many of us -have had to let the child of our longings and our hopes and prayers go forth -from us who have sheltered and nurtured it--from us who have perhaps prayed God -night and day that, in His mercy, it might never leave our side. We go away -ourselves because we must; also they go from us because they must; and there is -nothing but the same hope left in all our hearts--the hope that we shall not be -forgotten--that, as the years roll by, those we have left behind will keep a -warm spot for us in their memory, or that those who have left us behind will -sometimes turn their thoughts back longingly to us in our desolation. It has to -be, and it has to be borne; alas, that parting is the penalty we all have to pay -for having ever been permitted to be together.</p> - -<p class="normal">And, so, across the seas, the stout old <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> -went; buffeting with the Channel, throwing aside the rough waves with her -forefoot as though she despised them, sinking England and home behind her with -every plunge she made.</p> - -<p class="normal">And at the moment that she was leaving the Lizard far away -astern of her, and was running well out into the Atlantic, a telegram was -delivered in Montmorency Road addressed to Bella, which was opened by her -mother. A telegram signed 'Gilbert,' which ran: 'Don't start. -<i>Briseus</i> appointed to East Coast Africa, slaver catching.' A telegram that -had come three days too late! A telegram that was re-forwarded to Capetown, -where it lay for forty-seven days awaiting the arrival of the <i>Emperor of the -Moon</i>, and, then,--was forgotten!</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_07" href="#div1Ref_07">'AN OCEAN WAIF'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">From the time the men had sheeted home the topsails as the <i> -Emperor of the Moon</i> got under way until now when, having left the Cape of -Good Hope behind her, she was travelling through the water at a very fair speed -and with her head set due north, scarcely anything had occurred much worthy of -note. Soon--after the first two days had passed, during which time Bella had -lain flat in her berth in the large roomy cabin provided for her by her uncle, -while his wife had administered to her odd glasses of champagne, little cups of -rich, succulent soup, and such like delicacies--the girl was able to reach the -deck. And, once there and under an awning stretched from the ensign staff to -past the mizzen-mast, she would sit and meditate for hours on the forthcoming -meeting with her lover which was drawing nearer and nearer with each plunge of -the Emperor's forefoot into the sapphire sea. Sometimes, too, she would read -aloud a novel to Mrs. Pooley, who, perhaps because she was good and motherly, -and fat, would listen to nothing but the most romantic love-stories which the -vivid brains of fashionable novelists could turn out; though, when alone, and -reading for her own amusement, Bella would pore over books of adventure in wild -parts of the world, or devour some of the histories of marine voyages which her -uncle possessed in his neat mahogany bookcases below.</p> - -<p class="normal">Of Stephen Charke she saw, of course, a good deal, as it was -natural she should do. You cannot be in a ship, however large or small, without -seeing much of all on board; but when it comes to sitting down every twenty-four -hours to what Captain Pooley called 'four square meals a day, with intervals -between for refreshments,' you must not only be brought into constant touch with -your companions, but also enter into much discourse with them. Yet, as the girl -told herself, Charke was behaving well, extremely well; so that, gradually, she -lost all sense of discomfort that would otherwise have arisen through being -thrown continuously into his society, and, ere long, she would observe his -approach without the slightest tremor of susceptibility. Soon, too, she began to -acknowledge to herself that Stephen was a gentleman in his feelings, and that, -no matter what his sentiments might be towards her--if they existed still and -were unchanged from what they had once been--he at least knew how to exercise -that control over them which a gentleman should be capable of. Until now, he had -never said one word to her that any other person might not have uttered who had -found himself thrown into her society on board the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, -nor had he unduly sought her presence or, being in it, endeavoured to remain -there as long as it was possible.</p> - -<p class="normal">Nothing of much note had occurred thus far on the voyage, it -has been said; yet there had of course been some of those incidents without -which no voyage of any distance is ever made. Once through the Bay, and, while -they ran swiftly south, they had found themselves in a dense fog--a most unusual -thing in such a latitude and at such a time of year; then, upon the top of that -fog, there had sprung up a stiff breeze which gradually developed into a gale, -so that, from clewing the main royal to furling the top-gallant sails of the -mizzen and foremasts was but the action of a moment, as was the next work of -taking in the main top-gallant sail. And thus, ere long, Bella had her first -experience of what a storm at sea was like, and, as she heard the live stock -grunting and squealing forward; the ship's furniture more or less thundering -about wherever it could get loose; the piano--on which, only the night before, -she had played the accompaniment to her uncle's deep bass voice as he trolled -out 'In Cellar Cool'--thumping heavily against the bulkhead to which it was -usually lashed, and the cries of the sailors as they uttered words which might -not, perhaps, be properly denominated as 'cries, alone, she began to wonder how -her darling Gilbert could ever have chosen such a calling. While, too, the -streaming planks when, at last, she ventured on deck, the dull sepia clouds and -the mournful look of the Emperor herself, under reefed topsails, foresail, fore -topmast staysail, main trysail and spanker, as she rolled and yawed about in the -troughs and hollows of the sea, and took the water first over one bow and then -over another--and then, for a change, over her stem--only increased that wonder.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, lo! the next morning--for the sea is a great quick-change -artist, volatile and variable as a flirt, though too often as tragic as Medea -herself--when Bella looked out of her scuttle, against which the green water now -slapped boisterously but not viciously--all was changed. A bright sun shone down -from the blue heavens, the ship had still got a roll on her, though not an -unpleasant one--and the girl felt hungry. Which was as good a sign that the -storm was over as could well be wished for.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It has been a rough night,' Stephen Charke said, as he rose -from his breakfast on her entrance to the saloon, helped her to her chair, and -bade the steward bring coffee and hot rolls and bacon--all of which were already -perfuming the air. 'Your uncle is now on deck. We have been there all night.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I thought,' said Bella, pouring out her coffee and smiling -pleasantly, since now all fear had departed from her mind that Charke would -misconstrue any friendly marks of intimacy she might be disposed to graciously -bestow on him, 'that I was at the end of my journey. Indeed, that we all were; -that it was brought to a sudden end; accomplished. That----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'That,' said Stephen, smiling too, sadly enough, yet enhancing -wonderfully his dark, handsome looks by doing so, 'that perhaps Mr. Bampfyld -might miss his bride!'</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment Bella's hazel eyes flashed at him, and he thought -how wondrously beautiful they looked as they did so--then a serious expression -came on her face. While, after pausing a moment, as though scarcely knowing what -answer to make or whether she should make one at all, she said: 'Yes. That he -might miss his bride. My death, and that alone, could cause him to do so.' And -as she spoke she looked Stephen straight in the face, while feeling again--to -her regret--that old sentiment of doubt of him which she had come to believe she -had conquered and subdued.</p> - -<p class="normal">'His death would cause the same result,' he answered, speaking -slowly, hesitatingly, for in truth he felt as if he were treading on dangerous -ground. And in a moment he found such was the case.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Mr. Charke,' the girl said, very quietly now, 'I should be so -much obliged to you if, during the remainder of our journey together, you will -neither discuss my affairs nor those of my future husband, nor him. It will make -the voyage pleasanter to me if you will do that.'</p> - -<p class="normal">As she spoke, the bell struck two, and, since the watches had -been disorganised by the storm of the night, that sound meant that Captain -Pooley would now come below for his breakfast, and his place above be taken by -the mate. Therefore, he turned towards the stairs, muttering: 'I beg your -pardon, I am sure. Pray forgive me. I will not offend again.' Then he -disappeared on to the deck.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet an hour later he stood by her side beneath the awning, and -now he was directing her attention to something that, a mile off, was the object -of attention from every one on board. The captain and his wife were both -regarding it fixedly; so, too, were the men forward; the only persons not -present being, of course, the watch below and the second mate, Mr. Fagg, who had -now turned in.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What do you make it out to be?' asked Pooley of Stephen, as -they still gazed at it. 'It is not a baby nor a child; yet it is scarcely bigger -than the first. Can it be a dog?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' said Charke authoritatively, as though his younger -eyesight was not to be disputed; 'it is either a young tiger or a panther cub -afloat on a water-cask. There has been a wreck during the night, I expect, and -it has got adrift. Perhaps,' he said, 'if we cruise around a bit we may find -some human life to save.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'How should it be aboard any ship?' asked the captain. 'Who -takes tigers or panthers for passengers?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Plenty of people,' Charke answered quietly. 'They are brought -home to sell to the menageries and zoos. A cub like that is worth twenty -pounds--worth looking after. Guffies bring them home sometimes, sailors often. -Meanwhile,' he added, 'according to the set of the waves, that thing will be -alongside us in a quarter of an hour. I'll bet a day's pay it strikes the ship -betwixt the main and mizzen channels.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh,' exclaimed Mrs. Pooley and Bella together, 'do let us -save it and get it on board! It will,' said the latter, 'be such a lovely -plaything--and such a curiosity! Fancy a girl from West Kensington who has never -had a plaything or pet more stupendous than a canary, a cat, or a fox-terrier, -having a tiger. Why,' she exclaimed, with a laugh which gave to her short upper -lip an appearance of tantalising beauty, 'Una will be outdone by me--a girl of -the nineteenth century!'</p> - -<p class="normal">Tantalising or not as that smile might be, it led to the -salvation of the cub; for, with a swift look at the captain which was meant to -ask for his assent, Charke called to one of the sailors to get over into the -channels and down on to the fourth futtock, he telling him with wonderful -accuracy the exact spot where the water-cask would strike the stationary ship. -Five minutes later, that which he had calculated with such precision came to -pass, the cask touched the vessel's side almost immediately beneath the man's -feet, and, in another moment, the cub had been caught by its loose skin in the -exact middle of its back and hauled up, squealing, spitting and scratching, on -to the deck.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The little beast!' exclaimed the mate, as he sucked the back -of his hand where the creature had clawed him; 'the little beast! this is a -pretty reward for our saving it from drowning!' and he administered a sound kick -to the thing as it lay on the deck. So sound and rousing a one, indeed, that it -gave a grunt of pain, and, with its claws--about as big, or bigger, than those -of a good-sized cat--endeavoured to fasten on to his legs. While, from its -yellow, scintillating eyes, it emitted a glance of such malignant ferocity as, -had it been more fully grown, might have alarmed a braver man than he.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, how cruel to kick that poor little half-drowned thing!' -Bella exclaimed reproachfully; 'it never meant to hurt you, only it was -frightened. Poor little thing!' she said again, and, even as she spoke, she -knelt down on the deck and stroked the wet, striped ball that lay there. And it -seemed as if her gentleness had some power to soothe whatever ferocious -instincts--still dormant and undeveloped at present--were smouldering within it. -For, instead of now using its paws as weapons with which to strike out and -attack anything near it, it played with her as a kitten plays with a ball, -tapping at her hand and trying to catch it, and pushing and kicking against her -with its hind legs.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You see,' she said, looking up at Charke with a glance in -which she could not disguise her dislike of his violence, 'you see, at present, -at least, it does not try to harm those who treat it well.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' he said, 'I see.' Then he added, half-bitterly, -half-morosely: 'No one doubts your powers of fascination, Miss Waldron.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_08" href="#div1Ref_08">'HIS NAME IS--WHAT?'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The saving of this creature, which Bella elected to call -Bengalee, because she said she was sure it came from Bengal, and also because -she had once sung a song having that name, was followed by no other events of -any importance whatever. Nor need their stay at the Cape be dwelt upon, because -it consisted simply of various visits which were paid in the outskirts by Mr. -and Mrs. Pooley, accompanied by Bella; by the unloading of a considerable -portion of the cargo of the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, and by the refilling of -the hold with other goods saleable in India.</p> - -<p class="normal">And, now, they were once more on their way towards the -Equator, going due north instead of due south, as when they had last approached -it, and with a cool southern breeze driving the Emperor along under full sail. -Yet, so gentle was this breeze that, even if there had been any who were not -sailors in the ship--as Bella, as well as Mrs. Pooley, might now well be -considered, after the length of voyage she had already gone through, added to a -few extra days and nights of turbulence and storm--scarcely would they have felt -any inconvenience from the motion. Thus, therefore, with occasionally a dropping -of the wind which reduced their speed a few knots, and, sometimes, with a total -drop in it, so that they did not progress a knot an hour, while the ship swung -slowly round and round the compass, they found themselves at the time which is -about to be described in about Latitude 45.10 S., and Longitude 30.50 E., or, as -near as may be, about 250 miles to the S.W. of Mauritius.</p> - -<p class="normal">Wherefore, since the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> has arrived -thus far in the Indian Ocean there has now to be set down a series of strange -events which befell her, of so remarkable and peculiar a nature that one wonders -that those events have never been chronicled before. For, far different from the -ordinary stress and disasters which overtake ships at sea were those which have -to be described; far different from those which the recorders of maritime -calamities are in the habit of chronicling either in romance or dry-as-dust -descriptions of facts.</p> - -<p class="normal">All of which the writer now proceeds to relate, beginning with -so strange a coincidence as, perhaps, none but those readers who, in their -voyage through life, have recognised that truth is more strange than the wildest -fiction, will be willing to allow within the bounds of likelihood. However, to -make a beginning--since the coincidence is true--the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> -was in those latitudes above described when, it being a bright hot morning with -the sea already gleaming like molten brass, with the pitch between the planks -already of the consistency of putty, and with the brasswork in such a state of -heat that it was unsafe to touch it unless one wanted to leave the skin of his -palms and fingers behind them, the look-out on the fo'c's'le head yelled: 'Sail, -right ahead!' Now, since nothing of this kind, neither steamer nor sailing -vessel, had been seen since they had northed out of the west-wind drift, and -since, also, the liners were rarely found outside of the Equatorial current, -this cry was sufficient to fill every one on board with a considerable amount of -interest and excitement.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Whereaway?' called out Charke, who was on the poop at this -moment, the captain, his wife, and Bella being below at breakfast; and, ere the -man could repeat that the sail was right ahead and about five miles off, all -those others there had come on deck.</p> - -<p class="normal">'How pretty it looks, shining in the sun!' the girl exclaimed, -as she regarded it through a pair of marine glasses which her uncle had placed -at her disposal; 'and how the sail glistens! It looks like a star.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Humph!' said the captain, as he gazed through his binocular. -'Like a star! True enough, so it does. And,' he said, addressing the two mates -who were standing near him, 'we have seen such stars hereabouts before, eh? Do -you think,' he went on, addressing Charke, lowering his voice a little, 'it is -one of those?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Don't know,' Charke said, working his own glass a good deal. -'Can't see how it can be; too far to the east. Bussorah, Muscat, Ras-el-Had, -Mohamrah, Oman--that's their mark. What should they be doing here?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'All the same,' exclaimed Pooley, 'it's the rig, and the true -shape, that of a Jargonelle pear cut in half. I do believe that's what it is. -They might have been blown out of their course, you know, or chased by one of -Her Majesty's ships. What do you think?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I think,' said Charke, who always spoke of everything -connected with his calling in the most unemotional manner possible, 'I think we -shall know when we come up to her, as we must do in about half an hour. While,' -he continued, with a subdued tone in his voice, while his eye glinted sideways -towards where Bella stood, 'we are not naval officers but only humble merchant -seamen. There's no prize-money for us, therefore it is not our business.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Bella had, of course, been listening attentively to all that -had been said since she had come on deck after running lightly up the poop -ladder, and now, hearing these words about 'naval officers' and 'prize-money,' -her interest became more intense than before.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, uncle!' she exclaimed, putting her hand on his sleeve, -'what does it all mean? Naval officers and prize-money! That's not one of Her -Majesty's ships?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, my dear,' the captain replied, 'that is not one of Her -Majesty's ships; but I shall be precious surprised if she doesn't turn out to be -one of the very craft that Her Majesty's ships are always on the look-out for -hereabouts, only rather closer in towards the African coast than this. She has -all the build of an Arab slave-dhow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay,' exclaimed Charke, who was still using his glass freely, -from where he stood behind them. 'Ay, and something more than the build, too. If -I'm not mistaken, her hatches have open gratings. What do you say, Fagg?' -turning to his junior.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Seems so, sir,' said that young officer, who never wasted -more words than necessary, 'though I'm not quite sure.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am,' replied Charke. 'I can see the grating slits perfectly -as we get nearer.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What does that mean?' asked Bella, to whom this conversation -conveyed nothing.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It means,' said Pooley, 'that there is live stock below those -gratings. Black cattle, as they used to be called on the West Coast. Ordinary -hatches, to simply cover up cargo, are not made to let the air in. Cargo can do -without breathing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'How awful!' Bella exclaimed, while through her mind there ran -recollections of what she had heard or read casually of the slave trade in the -old days, and also of the horrors of the North-West passage. 'How awful!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Bad enough,' replied Pooley, 'though not as bad as the old -West African days, nor as shocking as you might think. The slave trade is a -valuable one in this ocean, and those who are carried in the dhows are well -enough fed. Rice, Indian corn, maize, and cassava is given them for food, and -they have mats and matting galore to sleep on. Persian merchants and Arab -gentlemen don't buy starved scarecrows for their domestic servants.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Whatever she is, and whatever her cargo is, there's something -wrong with her,' the chief mate suddenly exclaimed. 'She's off the wind now, and -the fellow who was at the helm has left it. It is abandoned. By Jove!' he -exclaimed, 'he is lying wriggling by it. What on earth's the matter?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And,' added the second mate, 'there's a negro woman waving a -red scarf. Something's wrong there, no doubt.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'We shall be up to them in ten minutes,' the master said, all -bustle and excitement now. 'Let go the foretack. Stand by to lower the -starboard-quarter boat'; while, as he spoke, the men of the watch who had been -leaning on the fife-rail rushed to the falls to be ready to let the boat sink to -the water when the proper moment came. To Bella this seemed the most exciting -moment of her life! There, in front of her, was one of those vessels, the name -of which, or class of which, was almost unknown to her, except that, from odds -and ends of conversation with her lover, she had gathered that these were the -things in the chasing of which part of his existence might be passed until they -met once more at Bombay. Here, on this glistening, glassy sea, the dhow lay--her -one mast raking towards her bow instead of her stern, as is the case with most -vessels of the Western world, and her long white triangle of a sail unfilled and -flapping listlessly. A dhow--perhaps a slaver! as her uncle and the mate had -said--a dhow in sore distress with, writhing by her helm, the man who had lately -been steering her, and, over her bow, that negro woman waving frantically the -red scarf. Excitement there was, indeed, in all this; excitement which caused -Bella, even as she eagerly watched the vessel they were approaching, to wonder -how the striking up of the band at a ball, or the ring of the prompter's bell -ere the curtain rose on a drama that all London was flocking to see, could have -ever stirred her pulses. What were they, those trivialities, to the smiling, -glistening face of this Eastern sea--to the horror and the cruelties that this -now tranquil ocean's bosom had enfolded through the ages.</p> - -<p class="normal">Still the negress waved, not recognising, perhaps, in her -blind, besotted, dumb, animal-like ignorance that help was at hand, and still, -through their glasses, they could see that he who had steered the dhow now lay -motionless. Then, at her ear, as the <i>Emperor</i> came within six -cable-lengths of the dhow, her uncle gave a few rapid orders, the second mate, -accompanied by the boat's crew, jumped into the quarter-boat--the man at the -wheel luffed until the vessel had not a motion in her. Swiftly the boat was -lowered, the rudder and thole pins shipped, and she was on her way to the dhow.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What do you make of it?' the master roared to Fagg ten -minutes later, as, by then, the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> had come closer to -the dhow through the motion of the swell. 'What?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I don't know what to make of it, sir,' the second mate called -back. 'The man who was steering is, I think, dead. He does not move, and there -is a white film over his eyes. The woman who waved the handkerchief seems well, -but I cannot understand what she means. She does nothing but howl and point -below.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Are the hatches grated?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes, sir, and there are four negroes beneath them. It is a -slave dhow for certain. The negroes are shackled and handcuffed.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Have you searched further?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am going to do so now. The ship is settling, I think. There -is a kind of poop superstructure forming cabins.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Search at once; then bring all alive on board us.'</p> - -<p class="normal">In a moment Mr. Fagg had disappeared into what he had termed a -'kind of poop superstructure,' and, while he was in it, all on board the -<i>Emperor</i> were occupied in speculating on what could have brought a slaver -so far to the East and out of her ordinary course, and also in wondering what -the mate would find during his further search.</p> - -<p class="normal">But that wonderment was soon to be resolved, for, ere Mr. Fagg -had been out of their sight five minutes, he rushed back from the superstructure -to the deck, and bawled through his hands:</p> - -<p class="normal">'There is a young naval officer lying in the poop cabin, and -he is slightly wounded. His name is--is----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What?' roared Pooley, astonished at the mate's hesitation.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is marked on the rim of his cap--inside. It is--I--I am -afraid it is Miss Waldron's <i>fiancé</i>. The--the--name is Bampfyld.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER IX</h4> -<br> -<p style="margin-left:25%; font-size:smaller"><a name="div1_09" href="#div1Ref_09"> -Come over, come home<br> -Through the salt sea foam.</a></p> -<br> - -<p class="normal">Never, perhaps, on all that old highway of the waters, that -silent road along which so many had steered their course to fabled Ormuz and to -Ind, nor amidst fierce sea-fights 'twixt Arab and Persian, or Arab and European -in later centuries, nor in the howl of storm when the waters closed around the -shipwrecked and doomed, had there arisen a more piercing shriek than that which -now issued from Bella Waldron's blanched lips.</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God!' she screamed, repeating the second mate's words. -'"The name is Bampfyld!" Oh, it's Gilbert--Gilbert! There is no other in the -Navy List. Let me go to him, uncle!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, no,' the master said, while good Mrs. Pooley put her arms -round the girl as she stood there by the poop-rails and endeavoured to calm and -soothe her. 'No, no, Bella; they will bring him on board directly, then,'--and -in his desire to ease the girl's heart he raised the ghost of a smile to his -lips--'then you shall nurse him till he is well. Yet,' he muttered to Charke, as -he walked over to where the first mate stood, 'yet, how on earth does he find -himself in that infernal dhow!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Heaven knows,' the other answered. 'But, perhaps, 'tis not so -strange, after all. There may have been a fight between his ship and the -slaver--though there's not much fight in them when they get a sight of the -British Flag!--or he may have been sent to board her and got cut down, or -half-a-hundred things. All of which,' he added, with his now usual cynicism, -'are equally likely or unlikely. Anyhow, he is here--or will be in a few -moments--and we shall have him for a passenger to Bombay. Your niece is in luck, -sir,' and he turned on his heel and went down the ladder to the deck to see to -the raising of the boat, which was now making its way back to the ship.</p> - -<p class="normal">To Stephen Charke, still loving the girl as madly as he did, -still raging inwardly at the knowledge that every knot which the ship made was -bringing her nearer to the man who, as he considered, had torn her from him, -this incident seemed the last and most crushing blow of all. God knows what -hopes the mate had cherished in his bosom since first he had learnt that Bella -was to be a passenger in her uncle's ship for about four months; what ideas -might have been revolving in his mind as to whether, in those four months, -something extraordinary, something almost unheard of--not to be dreamt of nor -foreseen--might happen to give him one more chance of winning her. He was a -romantically-minded man, a man with so rich an imagination that, to him, there -sometimes came ideas that few are ever burdened with. And, in that full and -teeming imagination, there had been pictured to him visions of the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i> being wrecked and Bella and he alone spared--he, of -course, saving her at the peril of his own life and winning her away from her -more aristocratic lover by so doing. Or, he dreamt of that lover being himself -wrecked and lost, or pierced by an Arab spear in some affray, or shot in a -hand-to-hand fight with a particularly bold slaver (since he knew well enough -that the ships of the Bombay station were often enough down here) or--or--or he -cherished any mad vision that first rose to his brain.</p> - -<p class="normal">And now--now--this very man, this successful rival, this -aristocratic naval officer, with his high birth and future peerage, was actually -being brought aboard the ship where the woman was whom they both loved--brought -on board 'slightly wounded,' and his own last chance thus gone. Gone for ever -now! Perhaps, therefore, it was no wonder he should bite his lip and smother -unholy murmurs deep down in his throat; perhaps, too, he merits compassion. He -had loved this girl fondly since first he set eyes on her, and once, at one -time, he thought he had almost won her. Then this other had come in his way, had -swept him out of Bella's heart, or the approach to it, and his chance was over. -Yet, once again, they had met through an almost unheard of, and scarcely to be -imagined, opportunity, and--lo! here was his successful rival once more at hand -to thwart him. It was hard on him, or, as he muttered to himself, 'devilish -rough.'</p> - -<p class="normal">The quarter-boat was coming back to the ship now, Fagg -steering her, while, between him and the stroke oar, there lay the body of the -young naval officer, clad in his 'whites.' And again as Bella, madly whispering -'Gilbert, Gilbert, my darling,' stood by the head of the accommodation -ladder--which had been lowered while the boat was gone to the dhow--the men -brought her lover gently up and laid him on the deck under the awning.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, Gilbert!' she cried again, as now she bent over him, -while stroking his hair, which, on the left side of his head, was all matted -with thick coagulated blood, 'Oh, Gilbert! to think that we should meet thus! -Sir!' she screamed to Fagg, who was about to descend again to the boat to fetch -off the others still in the dhow, 'where is he wounded? Where? Have you had time -to discover?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have looked him over, Miss Waldron, and, to tell you the -truth, I do not think there is much the matter with him.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Thank God! Oh, thank God!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'That blood,' the second mate continued, 'comes from a heavy -contusion at the side of his head, but the skull is uninjured. Also there is no -concussion--observe the pupils of the eyes are not at all dilated.' Then he -turned away and went swiftly down the ladder again, muttering that, if he was to -save the Arabs and the negroes, there was no time to be wasted. The dhow was -filling fast, he added. There was a big hole in her below the waterline, and a -quarter of an hour would see the end of her.</p> - -<p class="normal">And now Gilbert was carried to the cabin corresponding with -Bella's on the port side of the vessel, aft of the saloon, and Mrs. Pooley, with -the steward, went in to undress him, telling Bella that, as soon as he was -comfortably placed in the bunk, she should come and take her place by his side. -Whereon the girl, distracted by both her hopes and fears--hopes that the second -mate was right in his surmises as to her lover's wounds, and fears that he was -wrong--sat herself down on the great locker that was in the gangway, and gave -herself up to tearful meditations.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ah, if he should die!' she murmured; 'if he should die! Then -my heart will break.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Though, as you shall see, and have undoubtedly divined, -Gilbert was not to die then, at least.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, by this time, other things were taking place above which -were almost as startling as the discovery of Lieutenant Bampfyld in that -slave-dhow. Startling, not only because of the unexplained cause that had -brought the Arab slaver into this portion of the Indian Ocean, but also because -of the strange and mysterious behaviour of those others who were now being -conveyed on board the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>. Ere they came, however, Mr. -Fagg had sent over information surprising enough in itself, and sufficient to -prepare all on board the ship for what, a little later, they were to see.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The owner--if he is the owner,' he cried, 'the man who fell -down while steering, is dead. He is stiffening. I presume I had best leave him -to go down with the dhow?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay,' called back Pooley. 'Ay. What about the others?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I cannot make them out. The negress seems well enough, but -terribly frightened. As for the four men below, they all appear blind. We have -taken their shackles off and they grope their way about as though in the dark. -My men have to lead them up the ladders--yet their eyes look clear enough.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Have they been kept in the dark, think you, and is the sun -dazzling them now?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, sir. The open gratings have furnished the part of the -hold they were in with plenty of light.' He paused a moment, and those in the -<i>Emperor</i> saw him gazing down steadfastly to that hold; then he called -again: 'We must come away now, sir. The water is pouring in. The dhow will not -swim much longer.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Do so,' answered back Pooley; and five minutes afterwards the -boat was on her way to the ship, laden with the rescued negroes. Mr. Fagg had -proved right in his surmise as to the necessity for leaving the slaver at once. -For, ere he came on board, she was observed to heel over a little to starboard, -then to further do so with a jerk; then, suddenly, she righted until she was on -a level keel--and, next, sank below the waves like a stone, the body of the dead -man, who had fallen down while steering, alone remaining above the heaving -waters, and being swirled round and round in the whirlpool caused by the wreck, -until it too went down.</p> - -<p class="normal">Creeping up the companion, their hands directed to the -side-ropes by the sailors; feeling the steps with their huge splay feet--as a -mule feels its way along the thin line of insecure path that rounds the smooth -face of a precipice--those stricken men came; huge, splendid specimens of the -swart negroes of Wyassa and Wahiyou and Wagindo, whom the Arab slaver ships from -Kilwa, below Zanzibar, and transports to Bussorah and Mohamra, whence they often -reach the more distant Turkish harems. Now, looking at them as they stood on the -deck of the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, it seemed as though their course was -almost run. For, though these men would never be slaves to Arab or Persian or -Turk, of what use to himself or any one else is an unhappy blind nigger who, to -exist at all, must work like a dray-horse?</p> - -<p class="normal">'Poor wretches!' said Pooley to Charke as they both stood -regarding these blacks, 'see how the shackles have eaten into their ankles. Poor -brutes! They say that sometimes these fellows sell themselves willingly into -slavery; I doubt much if these have done so. Ah, well! we must take them with us -to Bombay, where, at least, they will be free. I wish,' he added, 'we could -communicate with them somehow and learn who and what they are.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Perhaps,' said Charke quietly, unemotionally as ever, -'Lieutenant Bampfyld can tell us when he comes to. Since he was in the dhow, he -probably knows what she was and where she came from.' Then, breaking off to cast -his eye around, he said: 'Sir, there is a breeze coming aft. Shall we not make -sail?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay,' cried Pooley, springing to the poop, 'ay, we have had -little enough wind for some days. Summon the watch.'</p> - -<p class="normal">A few moments later the order to square the yards thundered -along the deck; the men rushed to the braces. Far off, up from the dusky, wizard -south, the wind was coming as they fisted the canvas, and the -<i>Emperor</i>, heeling over, gathered way and sped once more towards India. She -gathered way faster and faster as outer jib and topsails were loosed and sheeted -home, fore and main top-gallant sails and spanker yards braced sharp up, and -main-sail, main-royal and mizzen top-gallant sails set, as well as jibs and -staysails. She talked, as the sailors say, as she went through the water; she -hummed and sang beneath the breeze that came up from far down by the Antarctic -circle--a breeze whose cool breath was gone and was, instead, perfumed now by -the warm spicy odours of adjacent Mauritius and Reunion. Away, over the vast -waste of golden waters she flew, and the master, standing on the poop, called -down to his first mate joyfully to ask him if this would not do well enough for -Bombay.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay, ay, sir,' answered Charke, turning round from giving -orders to the men aloft to answer his chief. 'Ay, ay, sir.'</p> - -<p class="normal">While to himself he muttered: 'Bombay! India! Well, when we -are there, all is ended for me!'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER X</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_10" href="#div1Ref_10">THE GROWING TERROR</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The sailor is, as all the world knows, a light-hearted, -mercurial creature. Face to face with death in some form or other during every -hour of his life--although, often, the mere presence of death is neither known -nor suspected--he is only too elated and happy when momentarily without anything -to cause him anxiety. Such was the case now with Captain Pooley, since his -beautiful ship was rapidly picking up all the time she had lost by lack of wind -and delays, 'and since,' as he jovially phrased it, 'all his new passengers were -doing well.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'First and foremost,' he said that evening, as he sat at the -head of his table with Bella in the place of honour on his right hand, his wife -on the left, and Mr. Fagg opposite to him, while his honest, sunburnt face -gleamed rubicund beneath the inch of white under his hair which his cap had -preserved from the sun, 'Bella's young man is all right. Then Bella's new -plaything, the tiger, takes kindly to its lodgings--though you will have to sell -it, my child, directly we get to Bombay, and distribute the money it fetches -among the men. Then those wretched slaves--even they will eat and drink, won't -they, Fagg?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Not much of that, sir,' the second mate answered, who was -eating and drinking pretty well himself, however; 'they don't care to do much of -either. They make a good deal of moaning up in that deck-cabin forward which you -have given them. The woman, however, seems all right. I suppose the lieutenant -has not been able to tell you much about the dhow yet, Miss Waldron?' he asked, -bending forward a little as he addressed her.</p> - -<p class="normal">'At present,' she replied, 'we have had little conversation. -He says, however, that he sent me a telegram from Bombay, telling me not to -start as the <i>Briseus</i> was coming down here. He only came-to an hour ago, -however,' she went on, while a ravishing blush swept over her face, 'and -we--we--have had so much to----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Spare her, Fagg,' said Pooley, with a laugh, and passing the -claret at the same time. 'Spare her. Suppose you woke up one fine afternoon and -found your sweetheart bending over you in your berth and whispering all sorts of -endearing things in your ears, as well as kiss----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Uncle!' cried Bella, while Mrs. Pooley touched her husband's -arm reprovingly with her forefinger, and Mr. Fagg hid his face behind the vase -of brilliant Cape gooseberries on the table. 'Uncle!' Whereon the bluff, -good-natured sailor desisted, and began to speculate on the blindness with which -the rescued negroes were attacked, and on that attack being, as he imagined, a -recent one. 'They capture these poor wretches inland,' he went on musingly, 'in -the big lake region as often as not; but, as far as I have ever heard, blindness -is not one of their afflictions. Moreover, these Arab owners and captains -wouldn't buy blind slaves, either for selling farther north, or for using as -sailors in their dhows. Therefore, I take it, this blindness must have come on -them since they were shipped. That's strange, isn't it?' while, as he spoke, he -rose, and went to his neat mahogany bookcase which was securely fastened to one -of the saloon's bulkheads, and took down the two medical works he possessed--the -one dealing with all general human complaints to which our flesh is heir, and -the other with tropical diseases more especially. Yet neither under the heading -of 'Eye,' nor 'Blindness,' nor 'Optics,' could he find aught that bore upon the -subject; nor, in his book on tropical complaints, could he discover any -information that might enlighten him as to why the four negroes should be so -stricken.</p> - -<p class="normal">He spoke again, however, after turning over the leaves of -these erudite volumes a second time, saying: 'Fever, I know, sometimes produces -blindness as an after-effect, yet--well, we have all seen these fellows, and -there's no fever in them, I should say. Oh, deuce take this confusion of -tongues!' he exclaimed irritably; 'if it did not exist we could find out so much -from the sufferers themselves. Bella, our only hope is in you and your patient. -If Lieutenant Bampfyld can't tell us something, we shall never know who these -men and the woman are, where they came from, what is the matter with them, and -to whom the dhow belonged. Can he speak anything but English, child?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He knows some Hindustani,' Bella replied; 'and, I think he -said, some words of Swahili. He has taken up Eastern languages in the Service, -which was one of the reasons for his being appointed to the <i>Briseus</i>. He -may be some help. At least he can tell us how he came on board that horrid -ship.'</p> - -<p class="normal">As she spoke, eight-bells struck on deck, and, as the sound -came through the skylight, both she and Mr. Fagg rose, the girl doing so because -it was the hour at which she intended to visit Gilbert again, and the latter -because it was time to relieve Stephen Charke, who would now come below to take -his supper. For Bella had fixed this hour for paying her last evening visit to -her future husband because she knew that the second mate would then descend, and -she was never now desirous of being more in his company than necessary.</p> - -<p class="normal">She therefore left the saloon before Fagg could have relieved -Charke, and, going to the cabin in which Gilbert Bampfyld lay, pushed back the -curtain that hung at the door and went in to him, while observing as she did so -that he was awake and gazing upwards as he lay. And she saw that he smiled -happily on perceiving her, and whispered the word 'Darling' as she advanced to -his bedside.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You are better, dearest,' she said, bending over him and -putting her hand on his forehead, which was cool and moist. 'Much better. Aunt -will come soon with fresh bandages for your poor head, and then you will have a -good night's refreshing sleep. And to-morrow, perhaps, you will be able to tell -us how you came to be in that hideous slaver. Oh, Bertie!'--for so she often -called him--'what a mercy it was that we found you as we did. And what a miracle -that we should have met thus. Home-keeping and narrow-minded people would say, -if they read it all in a book, that such a thing was unnatural and impossible.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Their first meeting, their joy at discovering that they had -come together again in this marvellous manner; their rapture when, a few hours -before, Gilbert Bampfyld had emerged from his stupor and unconsciousness, has -not been forgotten, although the description of it has been omitted. Omitted for -the simple reason that most of us have been, or are, lovers; most of us have -known in our time, or know now--and those are the happy ones!--the sweet, -unutterable joy with which such meetings are welcomed. Who does not remember the -sudden, quickened beat of the heart at some period of their existence, as they -met again the one they loved the best of all in this world; the creature upon -whom their thoughts were for ever dwelling, and from whom those thoughts, -however wandering they had heretofore been, were, at last, never more to roam! -Picture to yourself, therefore, what rhapsody was Bella's when, forgetting -everything else but that she held her lover to her heart, she wept over his -salvation from an awful, swift, impending death; picture also to yourself the -delirious joy which coursed through Gilbert's now unclouded mind, as he found -himself in her arms--with her--close to her. Picture this, and no further -description is needed of their meeting in that cool, darkened cabin of the old -ship. Imagine for yourself what your own ecstasy would have been in such or -kindred circumstances, and you possess the knowledge of what theirs was.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Darling,' he said again now, as she held to his lips a -cooling drink that she had brought into the cabin with her, 'darling, I can tell -you in half-a-dozen sentences or less----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' she said. 'No; not now. To-morrow, when you have -slept----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes, now. Why, dearest, I am well! I could take the middle -watch to-night if necessary, or--or--do anything that a sailor may be called on -to do. And as for finding me in that dhow, why, it's the simplest thing on -earth--or the waters. Listen. The <i>Briseus</i>, as you would have learnt by -that telegram I sent you if you had ever received it, was suddenly ordered to -join the Cape Squadron--dhow-catching. And I can tell you we were not so very -long before the game began, since by the time we were abreast of Kilwy--which is -the southern limit of the legal slave trade--we fell in with twelve dhows, one -of them being our friend from which I was rescued by your people. And you may -depend we were after them like lightning, while beginning to ply them with shell -and shot from our little gun forward. They scattered, of course, though some got -hit and lay disabled on the water, while I went off in the whaler with her crew -to attack one that seemed badly knocked about. The one in which I was when found -by you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The horror!' exclaimed Bella, with a pretty shudder.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, no; don't call her that, because, after all, I owe my -life to her.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Well, the angel!' exclaimed Bella now, with sudden change.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Though I don't altogether know that the captain meant to save -me----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The wretch! I'm glad he's dead.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Gilbert laughed at these variations in Bella's mental -temperature. Then he continued.</p> - -<p class="normal">'They are artful--incredibly artful--in these dhows. They will -let our pinnaces or whalers or any other of the ship's boats come alongside, -then, all of a sudden, they cut their lee halliards, and down comes their great -sail over us, enveloping the boat and all in it, just as if it was in a net or a -bag.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ah!' gasped Bella.</p> - -<p class="normal">'And that's not all. When you are caught like that, they have -another pleasing little way of firing at you from above through the canvas, so -that you are being shot down while, all the time, you have no chance of escape.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' exclaimed Bella. 'To think of it! Ah, the wretches.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'They do, Bella. Fortunately, however, this one couldn't do -it, being disabled, and she had, therefore, come up to the wind with hardly any -way on her. This was all right for us, as I meant to board, so as we came -alongside each other we hooked on to her anchor cable, which was hanging pretty -low down, and we should have got on board, too, only at that moment the dhow -gave a lurch which sent the whaler half-seas under, and I got a blow on the head -which knocked me insensible----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, Gilbert! That wound on your head!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I suppose so. At any rate, I knew no more about it; and I -don't know anything further, now, since I was insensible till I woke up here -this morning and found you bending over me. However, I'm all right now, or soon -shall be.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'But how did you come into the dhow you were found in?' Bella -asked, while pouring out, directly afterwards, one question after another. 'And -when did it happen--yesterday, or a week ago? And where was the whaler, and the -sailors, and the <i>Briseus</i>? And why did they all desert you? What a nice -kind of a captain yours must be, to be sure!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'My opinion is now,' said Gilbert, 'that the dhow you found me -in, rescued me--picked me up. And I expect our captain--he is a rattling good -skipper, Bella, all the same--heard I was drowned and thinks I've missed my -muster. My cousin Jack will imagine for a month or so--till we get in to -Bombay--that he is the future Lord D'Abernon,' and he laughed as he thought of -how soon Cousin Jack would be undeceived.</p> - -<p class="normal">'But the dhow we found you in--how did she escape, and why -didn't the -<i>Briseus</i> capture her?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Some must have got off in the confusion since it was only an -hour from dark. I'm certain to be reported lost when the ship goes into either -Zanzibar or Aden, and---- What's that?' he exclaimed, breaking off suddenly. -'Surely that's your uncle's voice!'</p> - -<p class="normal">He recognised it because Captain Pooley had been in to see him -after he recovered his consciousness and had congratulated him on doing so, as -well as on being practically restored, while saying also that he was delighted -at being the means of rescuing him out of the sinking slaver.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' Bella replied, 'that's uncle's voice; and the other is -that of Mr. Charke, the first mate.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Listen! What is it he is saying?'</p> - -<p class="normal">It was perfectly easy to hear what he was saying, since both -master and mate were conversing in the saloon, to which Charke had descended. -And the words which reached their ears, as they fell from the latter's lips, -were: 'Oh, no doubt about it whatever, sir; not the least. The negress is now as -blind as the negroes themselves. She cannot see her way along the deck, nor any -of the signs we have made before her eyes.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XI</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_11" href="#div1Ref_11">THE TERROR INCREASES</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The southerly wind did not hold as it should have done -considering the time of year, and the consequence was that the <i>Emperor of the -Moon</i> -was by no means making such a passage as was to be expected of her. Indeed, by -the time that the second day had passed since the rescue of Gilbert from the -slaver, and when the evening was at hand, she was almost motionless on the -water, while such sails as were still left standing hung as listlessly as though -they were suspended in a back room. Now, this was disheartening to all on -board--that is to say, to all except one person--as is generally the case when -such things happen. The master was grieved because he looked upon the delay as -an absolute waste of valuable time, while as for Bella and Gilbert--well, it is -scarcely necessary to write down here what they were looking forward to at the -end of their journey, or what visions haunted the mind of the latter concerning -the Cathedral in Bombay and a ceremony of marriage being performed at the -altar-rails by the Bishop. Yet, all--passengers, master, officers and men--had -to swallow their disappointment as best they might, and to recognise the fact -that Bombay was still over three thousand miles away and not likely to be -reached for very many days.</p> - -<p class="normal">The one person who was, however, resigned to the affliction of -delay was Stephen Charke, in whose brain there still lingered a wild and -chimerical idea that there might yet be sent by Fate some extraordinary piece of -good fortune which would, even at the last moment, sever Gilbert and Bella, with -the subsequent result of bringing him and her together.</p> - -<p class="normal">It has been said that he was a dreamer, and never had he been -so more than now, since, sleeping and waking, he still mused on the possibility -of some extraordinary set of circumstances arising which should force the girl -into his arms. Yet, he had to own to himself that nothing was more unlikely than -that any such circumstances could by any possibility arise. If anything visited -these seas, this stupendous ocean, at this period of the year, it was most -likely to be a flat calm such as that which they were now experiencing, instead -of storms; and, even if storms should come, of what avail would they be to -separate Gilbert Bampfyld and Bella Waldron?</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am a fool,' he would mutter to himself, as he smoked his -pipe in either the solitude of his own cabin or on the deck at night, 'a fool. A -madman! One has only to observe how they love each other, how they never leave -each other's side, to see that nothing could ever bring her to me. Even though -she and I were cast on some deserted shore, even though I saved her from forty -thousand threatened deaths--even though Bampfyld himself were dead and buried, -she would never give herself to me. I am,' he would repeat again, 'a fool.' And -this acknowledgment would, for a time, operate wholesomely on him--a man whose -mind was not altogether that of a visionary and whose heart was not, by nature, -a perverted or warped one--and he would resolve that, henceforth, he would think -no more of this girl for whom his love was so fierce and, to him, so disturbing. -He made resolutions, therefore, and kept them--until the next time that he saw -the lovers together, smiling, talking, happy in each other--'billing and -cooing,' as he called it, with a smothered curse.</p> - -<p class="normal">They were on deck together, now, on the evening of the second -day of calm as Stephen went up to take the first watch, since Gilbert had -refused to remain a prisoner in the cabin allotted to him for more than -twenty-four hours, and Pooley was also there, Fagg being below finishing his -supper. Mrs. Pooley sat on the poop in a deck-chair engaged in some needlework -she had constantly on hand, and, forward, the men were engaged in smoking and -telling yarns, while the general idleness which pervades the forecastle when a -ship is becalmed prevailed everywhere. One man was reading a short story to his -mates out of a country paper six months old, another had a sewing-machine -between his legs with which he was mending his and his comrades, clothes, a -third was teasing and playing with 'Bengalee,' the tiger cub, which was -growing--or seemed to be growing--fast. At present, however, it was safe to let -it loose since it had no more strength than a large-sized cat, and teeth not -much bigger than those domestic animals possess. Generally, the creature -followed Bella about wherever she went, rolling down the companion ladder after -her like a striped ball when she went below, or lying on the edge of her dress -when she sat on deck; but at night it was shut up in a locker forward and looked -after by the sailors. The hour for its temporary retirement had not, however, -yet arrived, wherefore it was still gambolling about amongst the men.</p> - -<p class="normal">Altogether, the vessel presented a peaceful scene as she lay -'idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean,' while, from forward, there came -the droning voice of the sailor who was reading the storiette to his mates, -interrupted only by the laughter of the others at the cub's leaps and growls; -and, from the after part of the ship, the talk of the 'quarter-deck' people -arose.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Come,' said Pooley now, addressing Charke, 'come, let us go -and look at those unfortunate niggers. The Lord knows what is to become of them. -The woman, you say, never rises from the floor of the cabin, but only lies there -and moans. It is the strangest thing I ever heard of in my life. I wish, Mr. -Bampfyld,' turning to that gentleman as he passed with Bella, 'that you could -give us some information about that dhow we found you in.'</p> - -<p class="normal">But, of course, Gilbert could tell them no more than he had -already done a dozen times, while repeating in substance all that he had said to -his <i>fiancée</i>.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am sorry,' he had said on each occasion, and again said -now, 'but I know absolutely nothing. I was insensible when I was taken into the -dhow--as taken in I must have been, since I could never have got in by -myself--and, as you are well aware, I was insensible when I was brought out. I -positively know nothing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The helmsman's death was as strange as anything,' Pooley -observed. 'Fagg says there was no wound about him that he could see. What, -therefore, could he have died of?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Sunstroke, I imagine,' the first mate said, in his usual -emphatic, crisp manner. 'Sunstroke. It could not have been fever, otherwise -these negroes would have it, too. Yet,' he went on, in a manner more meditative -than usual with him, 'those Arabs, if he was an Arab, rarely suffer from that. -It takes a white man to get sunstroke.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Well, come,' said the master again, 'let's go and see to -them. The sun is on the horizon; it will be dark in a quarter of an hour's -time.' Whereon he strode forward, accompanied by Charke, while Mr. Fagg, who had -come up from the saloon, began to keep such watch as was necessary. And Gilbert, -bidding Bella go and sit with Mrs. Pooley, strode after them, since he was -anxious to have a look at the unhappy creatures who had been rescued at the same -time as himself.</p> - -<p class="normal">The male blacks had been put into a deck cabin (in which was -usually kept an assortment of things such as spare lamps, a boat sail or two, -and Mr. Fagg's bicycle, on which he disported himself whenever he got ashore -anywhere), wherein some matting had been thrown down for their accommodation. -And, as now they neared this cabin, they heard sounds proceeding from within it -which were really moans, but, to their ears, had more the semblance of the -bleating of sheep. Also, it seemed as if one of them within was chanting some -sort of song or incantation.</p> - -<p class="normal">'We shall have to stop this noise in some way, sir,' Charke -said to the captain; 'it has been going on more or less ever since they came on -board, and the men complain that it disturbs them in the fo'c's'le. It's a pity -we can't communicate with them somehow. Perhaps Lieutenant Bampfyld might try, -as he says he knows some words of Swahili'; while as he spoke he looked at the -man who had once more, as he considered, or chose to consider, stepped in -between him and the woman he loved. Yet, because he never forgot that he was a -gentleman born, there was nothing in his manner that was otherwise than polite -when he addressed Gilbert.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have tried,' said the latter, 'more than once to-day. And -either my Swahili is defective, or that is not their language. I suspect that -it's Galla, of which I do not know a word.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Meanwhile, the captain had drawn back the cocoanut matting -which hung in front of the deck cabin door, though, after peering into the -sombre dusk for a moment, he started back, exclaiming: 'Good Heavens! what has -happened now? Have they murdered one of their companions, or what?'</p> - -<p class="normal">It was, in truth, a weird sort of scene on which he, as well -as Gilbert and Charke, gazed, as the swiftly-failing tropical evening light -illumined the interior of the cabin. Flat on the floor of it lay one of the -negroes, undoubtedly dead, since there was on his face the gray, slate-coloured -hue which the African assumes in death. Yet his eyes were open, only now, -instead of that bright glassy look which all their eyes had had since they were -brought on board, there was a dull filmy look, which told plainly enough that -there was no life behind them. Still, dead as the man undoubtedly was, he did -not present the most uncanny spectacle of all within! That was furnished by -those who of late had been his comrades, and by the strange grotesqueness--a -grotesqueness that was horrible in itself--of their actions. All three of the -living negroes were on their knees in the cabin, which was roomy enough to amply -admit of their being so, while, with their great black hands, they were pawing -the man all over, feeling his breast and body, and endeavouring to bend his -fingers and toes as well as his legs and arms; while, even as they did so, from -their great mouths came that moaning incantation which resembled so much the -bleating of sheep. Doubtless they felt almost sure that their fellow-slave was -dead, and these actions were being performed as tests. Yet, also, there was a -solemn, wild unearthliness attached to the whole thing by the manner in which, -when one of the visitors standing at the door and peering in made a remark, all -turned their sightless eyes towards that door and then held up each a hand, and -emitted a hissing noise through their great pendulous lips, as though enjoining -silence and respect for the dead. They held up those hands with the fingers -stretched enormously apart and with the palms towards the intruders. Their eyes -were bright enough as they glared at the three white men outside, whom they -could not see, yet, somehow, the gleam in them and the knowledge that they were -sightless gave so creepy a feeling to those regarding them that they could not -restrain a shudder.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What in God's name is it?' exclaimed Pooley, he being the -first to speak. 'What? What horrible disease that blinds them to commence with, -and then kills--and kills not only negro, but Arab--captured and captor? -Who--which--will be the next?'</p> - -<p class="normal">As he spoke, a thought struck each of the three as they stood -there gazing at one another in the swiftly-arrived darkness of the tropical -night--a thought to which, however, not one of them gave utterance. -<i>Who</i> would be the next? An Arab had died from some strange, unknown -disease in the ship wherein these men had been found, and, now, one of them, -too--a negro! Had, they reflected, this insidious horror been, therefore, -brought into a ship full of white men? Would they also fall victims to that -which had killed the others? That was the thought in their minds--in the minds -of all of them, though not one gave voice to that thought.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He must be got away from them--taken out of that cabin,' -Pooley said, his speech a little changed now, and more husky and less clear than -usual. 'Perhaps the woman, the negress, may be of some avail. I doubt if they -will let us remove him without difficulty--though--poor blind things as they -are--they could scarcely make any resistance. Go across to the other cabin, Mr. -Charke, and fetch her over.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He had been anticipated in his order, however, by the chief -mate ere he spoke, Charke having, through some idea of his own, already crossed -the deck to the opposite cabin in which the woman was placed. Therefore, as -Pooley looked round to see why the mate did not answer him, he saw in the -darkness that he was returning; while he perceived--even in this darkness, which -was not quite all darkness yet, and by the light of the foredeck lantern--that -Charke looked pale and agitated.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The woman,' he said, 'is dead, too, I believe. She is lying -on the cabin floor motionless--and cold.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_12" href="#div1Ref_12">'STRICKEN'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">It was from this time that there began to creep over the ship -a feeling shared by all, both fore and aft, that the voyage would not end -without something untoward happening. What form, however, any misfortune which -might come to them would be likely to take, none were bold enough to attempt to -prophesy. Yet, all the same, the feeling was there, and, since every man on -board the ship was a sailor, while, for the ladies, one was a sailor's wife and -the other a sailor's future wife (each of whom was certain to be strongly -receptive of the ideas and superstitions of her own particular sailor), it was -not very strange that such should be the case. And, there was also in the -thoughts of all that idea to which none of the men congregated outside the -cabin, when the negro had been found dead, had ventured to give expression--the -idea that the unknown, insidious disease--which had struck him and the negress, -and also, possibly, the Arab <i>Negoda</i> -down--might eventually seize on them. There were, however, at present at least, -no symptoms of anything of the kind happening. All on board continued well -enough, and, up to the time that the man and woman had both been buried in the -sea for more than twenty-four hours, no complaints were heard from any one of -feeling at all unwell, while the three remaining blacks seemed no worse than -before.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, it was a pity, perhaps, that at this time the ship should -still have been forced to remain becalmed and almost motionless; that neither -from south nor west any breeze blew--from the north and cast there was scarcely -a possibility of wind at this season--and that, except for the strong southern -current which carried her along at a considerable though almost imperceptible -rate, she hardly stirred at all. A pity, because it gave the sailors too many -idle watches wherein to talk and chatter, to spin yarns of old-time horrors -which had fallen upon vessels in different parts of the world, and to relate -strange visitations which they had either personally suffered under or had -'heerd tell on,' and so forth.</p> - -<p class="normal">Nor aft, in the saloon, did those who used it fail to discuss -the strange circumstance of--not so much the death which had stricken the -Africans--as the blindness that had fallen upon them. And here, Stephen Charke, -better read perhaps than any of the others owing to his studious nature, was -able to discuss the matter more freely than either the captain or those who sat -at his table.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I do distinctly recollect reading somewhere,' the mate said -one evening, as all sat under the great after-deck awning, fanning themselves -listlessly, while Fagg worked a kind of punkah which his ingenuity had devised, -'I do distinctly recollect reading somewhere of all those in a ship, on board of -which was a large cargo of West African negroes bound for America, being -stricken with blindness. I wish I could recall where I read it. In that way we -might be able, also, to find out how to take some steps to avoid the same thing -happening to us in the old <i>Emperor</i>.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'A cheerful prospect, truly,' said the captain, 'if that is to -occur'; and as he spoke he roamed his eye around the tranquil, glassy sea, on -which there was not so much as a ripple. 'A pleasant thing, indeed, if one-half -of us get blind and a rough time comes on. How, then, is the ship to be worked -three thousand miles. How are the sails to be attended to?' and now he directed -his eyes aloft to where all the canvas was neatly furled with the exception of -the studding sails.</p> - -<p class="normal">'We'll hope it won't be as bad as that, sir,' said Fagg. 'Only -the black people, and those out of another ship than ours, seem to suffer. Until -one of us,'--by which he meant the Europeans on board--'gets affected we haven't -much to fear, I take it. While, you know, sir, we can find shelter before we -reach Bombay. There are the Seychelles, for instance, from which we are not so -very far off.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Such a delay as that would mean a very serious loss for me,' -Pooley replied. 'As it is, I expect, one way or another, I shall miss one voyage -out of two years.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I hope not,' said Gilbert Bampfyld, seriously, 'otherwise I -shall begin to think it was a pity you ever came in contact with the dhow in -which you found me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, as he spoke, he saw Bella's beautiful eyes fixed on his -face, and knew that no more crowning mercy had ever been vouchsafed to any two -mortals than had been accorded to his sweetheart and himself by his rescue.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Well,' said Pooley, 'we won't talk about that. I am devoutly -thankful that we were enabled, by God's mercy, and also by the aid of something -which is almost a miracle, to rescue you. For the rest a sailor must take all -that comes in his way and never repine. The <i>Emperor</i> has been a good old -tank to me; pray Heaven she continues so to the end.' Then he suddenly stopped -and peered forward under the awning towards the forecastle, where, beneath -another awning, the sailors had been lying about, some sleeping, some chatting -idly, and most of them--even to those who had dropped off--with a pipe between -their lips.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What's that commotion forward?' he asked, addressing himself -to Charke, who, ever on the <i>qui vive</i> as became a chief officer, had -sprung to his feet and was gazing keenly towards the foredeck. 'What's the -matter with the men, and why are those three holding Wilks up like that?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Forward there!' sang out Charke in a voice like a trumpet, as -he, too, saw that which the master had described, namely, three of the hands -standing up round the man named Wilks, and one grasping him on either side, -while he himself pushed his arms out before him in a manner that implied a sort -of doubting helplessness on his part. 'Forward there! What's the matter with -that man?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He says he can't see, sir,' roared back another man on the -forecastle deck, pulling his hair to Charke as he spoke. 'He was asleep just -now; and then, when he woke up, he asked what time o'night it was because it was -so dark.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God!' exclaimed Pooley, while the faces of all around him -took on a blanched, terrified look, and Bella, with the beautiful carnation of -her lips almost white now, grasped her lover's arm. 'My God!' Then he turned to -Fagg and muttered, repeating the other's words: '"Not much to fear until one of -us gets affected." Heavens! we haven't had long to wait!'</p> - -<p class="normal">While, following Charke who had already gone forward, and -followed by Fagg, he went towards the forecastle.</p> - -<p class="normal">His mates were bringing Wilks down the ladder now, since -Charke sang out that he should be taken into the comparative darkness of their -quarters at once, thereby to escape the glare of the sun; and not one of those -who were eagerly watching his descent but observed how like his actions were to -the actions of the blind negroes when they were brought off from the dhow, and -the actions of the others to the behaviour of the men who had assisted them to -come on board. For his companions directed his hands to the ladder's ropes even -as the blacks, hands had been directed; while in each of his motions was the -same hesitation, followed by the same careful grasping of the rail, as there had -been in the motions of the slaves.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, Gilbert,' Bella exclaimed piteously, as she clung to him, -'what is going to happen? What is hanging over us? Supposing--supposing----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What, darling?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'That--oh, I don't dare to say what I dread. But if this -terrible thing should spread all through the ship. If uncle, if you, if all the -sailors were attacked. And you--you--dearest; you, my darling.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Let us hope it will not come to that. Besides I, personally, -matter the least of any----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Bertie!' she almost shrieked, alarmed, 'when you know that -those others--some of them at least--that those poor black creatures have died -after it. And you say that you matter the least of any; you, whom I love so.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I meant as regards the ship. I am not one of her officers, -nor concerned in the working of her; and Bella, dearest Bella, don't get those -dreadful ideas into your pretty head. Never give way to panic in an emergency. -Doubtless some more will find their eyesight leave them--temporarily--but it can -scarcely be that all will be attacked. And as regards death following, why, -those other niggers are all right, and they are just as blind as those who have -died!'</p> - -<p class="normal">It happened--as so often such things happen in this -world--that he spoke a little too soon. He hit upon the denial of the likelihood -of a possibility occurring which, by a strange decree of fate or chance, was, at -the very moment of that denial, to occur; since, just as the repudiation of such -probability was uttered by him, and before the men helping Wilks had had time to -get him comfortably into his berth in the forecastle, there arose once more that -strange, weird, moaning kind of incantation from the deck-cabin in which the -remaining negroes were, that had been heard before by all. And, added to it, was -something more than any had heretofore heard, namely, a series of wild turbulent -shouts in the unknown barbaric tongue used by the Africans--shouts that seemed -to issue alone from one of their throats. A noise, a bellowing, in which, though -on board the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> there was not one person who could -understand the words that voice uttered, all recognised the tones that denote -fear, terror, and misery extreme.</p> - -<p class="normal">Instantly, so stridently horrible were those cries, every one -of the Englishmen about rushed towards the cabin, Pooley and Charke being the -first there, while Gilbert, running forward from the afterpart and along the -waist, was soon by their sides.</p> - -<p class="normal">And then, looking in, they saw that the poor blind, excited -savage who was emitting those shouts had, in truth, sufficient reason for his -frenzy. He seemed--he was, indeed--demented, as, with both his great hands, he -felt all over the bodies of his comrades who were lying lifeless on the cabin -deck, and presented an awful appearance to those who gazed on him as his great -features worked in excitement, his vast mouth, with its adornment of huge white -teeth, opened and shut like a wild beast's at bay, and his blind, but brilliant, -eyes glared hideously. That he was nearly mad with fright and terror was easily -apparent, since, while recognising without seeing that there were others near, -he snarled and bit at the space in front of him, and struck out with his fists -or clawed at the air with his enormous hands.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He will spring out at us directly,' Charke said, drawing to -one side of the cabin. 'The fellow is mad with fear or grief.' Then, ready in -expedient as ever, he ran the cabin door out of its slide and shut in the negro -with his dead companions. Nor did he do so too soon, since, a moment later, -those without heard the huge form of the man leaping towards the door; once they -heard him slip, as though he had trodden on the body or one of the limbs of -those lying dead on the floor; and then there came a beating and hammering on -that door which seemed to promise that, in a few seconds, the panels would be -dashed out and the maddened black be among them.</p> - -<p class="normal">'This is too awful,' muttered Pooley. 'Is he really gone mad, -do you think?' he asked, appealing to Charke, Gilbert and Fagg at one and the -same time.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No doubt about it,' they answered together. 'No doubt. And if -he once gets out to the deck, sir,' said Charke, 'a dozen of us will not be able -to hold him.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'We must capture him if he does. Better throw a rope round him -somehow. If he were not blind, we should have to shoot him. Ha! see, he has -smashed open the panel! Stand by there, some of you men, to catch him as he -leaps out.'</p> - -<p class="normal">While, even as he spoke, the gigantic madman, with another -howl, broke down the door and sprang amongst them.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XIII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_13" href="#div1Ref_13">'SPARE HER! SPARE HER!'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Mrs. Pooley, Bella and Gilbert sat alone in the saloon that -night, the faces of the two women being careworn and depressed in appearance, -while on that of the young naval officer was a look, if not of consternation, at -least of doubt and anxiety. That all of them should present this appearance of -perturbation was natural enough, because by this time it was impossible to -suppose that any less than a calamity was impending over the <i>Emperor of the -Moon</i> and all in her. Two more men, named Burgess and Truby, had been -attacked with blindness, while the negro, who had been the last survivor amongst -the slaves, was himself now dead.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It was too awful,' said Gilbert, who had come below to tell -the ladies that which had happened above, since to keep silence on the subject -was useless, in consequence of the turmoil in the ship which had accompanied the -poor creature's last moments. 'He died a raving maniac--nothing short of that. -You heard his howls and yells after we had got him safely tied up; <i>we</i> saw -a sight that I, at least--and I should think everybody else--hope never to see -again. Even roped as he was, his leaps and convulsions were something shocking. -Thank God, they soon came to an end. I believe he died of the exhaustion caused -by his mania.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'What is to become of us all?' asked Mrs. Pooley sadly. 'What? -The ship moves only by the current; my husband said just now that, if things go -on and get worse, there will be none left to control her when the wind does -come.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The trouble is,' said Gilbert, 'that, if they make sail when -the wind springs up, there may be no men to take it in if that wind comes on too -strong. And, at all events, it will be serious if more men are attacked. I have -offered my services in any capacity if wanted, and will serve either as officer -or man if Captain Pooley will let me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Bella threw an admiring glance at her lover in approval of -what she, in her own mind, probably considered his noble disinterestedness; then -she said:</p> - -<p class="normal">'But surely all are not going to be attacked one after another -in this way? And if so, uncle can't possibly think of trying to get to Bombay -when the wind does come.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I have suggested the same thing to him that Fagg did this -afternoon--namely, the Seychelles. They're all right, and the climate is -first-rate for the tropics. He says, however, he will see what happens by the -time we get a wind. He won't give in if no more men are attacked.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Meanwhile, even as he spoke, each of the trio were occupied -with thoughts which they would not have cared to put into language. Mrs. -Pooley's were those good wifely reflections which busied themselves only with -her husband's interests, and were disturbed by considerations of what a loss to -him the delay would produce should it be further prolonged. Yet, there was also -growing upon her, if it were not already full-grown--as was now the case with -all others in the ship--a gruesome, indefinable horror of what might be the -outcome of this strange affliction that had fallen on the vessel. Suppose, she -had asked herself a hundred times in common with all the others on board--the -sailors alone expressing their thoughts openly--suppose everyone in the <i> -Emperor</i> succumbed to this blindness! What then would happen, even if it were -not followed by death? Would they drift about the ocean helplessly if the calm -continued, until they were seen and rescued by some other vessel; or, if a -strong gale came up, would they--with no one capable of so much as steering the -ship be shipwrecked and sent to the bottom? While, as to the horrible idea of -death following on blindness, and the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> drifting about, -a floating catacomb--that was not to be thought about! It was too fearful a -thing to reflect upon and still preserve one's sanity. Yet, all the same, not -only was it thought about but talked about among the sailors, while many ideas -were propounded as to what was to be done ere the worst came to the worst. As -for Bella, her reflections were all of one kind, and one only. Would Gilbert be -spared! For herself she cared but little, though she would scarcely have been -the brave, womanly girl she was if she had not repined at the dark cloud which -had now settled down over the existence of her lover and herself, and which -threatened, if it continued to hover over them and their fortunes, to darken -that existence still more. Further than this she did not dare to look, and, -consequently, could only pray fervently that the cloud might be lifted ere long, -even as she strove to force herself to believe that such would undoubtedly be -the case.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet Gilbert's meditations were perhaps the most melancholy and -bitter of any of the three persons now assembled in the saloon--brave, -self-reliant young officer as he was, and full of hope and belief in many happy -years still to come and to be passed in the possession of a beautiful and -devoted wife, as well as in the service of a glorious profession. For he could -not disguise from, nor put away from, his mind the recollection that, with his -coming into this ship, with his rescue, there had come also that intangible, -mysterious disease which was striking down those around him one by one at -extremely short intervals; and, although he knew that he was no more responsible -for its presence than if he had never been found in that accursed dhow, he began -to think that there were many in the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> who would regard -him as being more or less so. Which, in truth, was a weak supposition, born in -his usually strong, clear head by the calamities now happening with great -frequency one after the other; a supposition shared by no one else in the ship. -For--as he himself knew very well, yet took no comfort in knowing--had he not -been in the dhow her other inhabitants would have been rescued all the same and -taken off by Pooley, and would have brought on board with them the infection -which was now supposed to be at the root of the disasters that were happening.</p> - -<p class="normal">The meditations of all three were now, however, disturbed by -the descent of Stephen Charke to the saloon, he being about to eat his evening -meal before taking the first watch. As usual and, almost, it seemed, unjustly -so--since never had he said any further words to Bella which she could construe -into an approach to anything dealing with his regard for her--his appearance was -unwelcome to her. He seemed, however, to be entirely oblivious of what her -sentiments towards him might be, and, after giving a slight bow to both ladies, -rang the bell for the steward to bring him his supper. Then, as he seated -himself at the table, he said:</p> - -<p class="normal">'I fancy we shall have to avail ourselves of your offer of -service after all, Lieutenant Bampfyld, and in spite of our having refused it an -hour ago. Fagg,' he went on, as he cut himself a crust from the loaf, 'is -attacked with blindness now.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Great Heavens!' exclaimed Gilbert, while Bella, scarcely -knowing why, burst into tears and hid her head on Mrs. Pooley's ample shoulder.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes, it is too awful. So is Payn, the bo'sun, attacked.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God!'</p> - -<p class="normal">And now Mrs. Pooley's fortitude gave way too, and she sobbed -quietly to herself until, recognising that two tearful women were scarcely in -their proper place in the saloon with these young men, she rose, and, taking -Bella with her, they went off to their cabins.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The watch, of course,' went on Charke, 'is nothing now with -the ship at a standstill. Yet one has to keep it more or less. Fagg's turn would -have been the middle of to-night, but if you like to fall in you can take the -first, and I'll----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Thank you,' said Gilbert quietly, 'but I have done plenty of -watch-keeping, both before and after I was a flag-lieutenant. The middle watch -won't hurt me. I will relieve you at midnight.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'As you like. Of course, the skipper and I recognise that it -is a great obligation on your part----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, rubbish! We are absolutely and literally "all in the same -boat" now, and we've got to make the best of it.' Then Gilbert rose and said: -'By the way, I should like to go and see that poor chap, Fagg, if he is in his -cabin. He's a nice young fellow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He is, and a good sailor, though he doesn't make any fuss. -Lord knows what's going to be the end of it all. I hope to Heaven those who are -struck won't go the way of those niggers, and that their sight will come back -before long.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I hope so, too; or else this will be one of the most awful -calamities that ever fell upon any ship on a voyage. And the worst is, no one -knows what the end is to be.' Then he turned on his heel and moved away with the -intention of going to Fagg's cabin, while Charke, who was now half-way through -his supper, went on steadily with it; yet, as Gilbert reached the gangway -outside, the other made a further remark.</p> - -<p class="normal">'By-the-by,' he said, 'another strange thing has happened. -That infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's--her pet!--seems going the same way as -the others. It is crawling about the foredeck in a half-blind fashion, and -evidently can't see signs made before its eyes. As far as the little beast goes, -I shouldn't mind seeing it fall through one of the scuppers back into the sea it -was dragged out of. It was rather rubbish to save it at all!'</p> - -<p class="normal">The words 'that infernal tiger-cub of Miss Waldron's' grated -somewhat on Gilbert's feelings, as did also the brutality of the remark about -its falling into the sea. Why this was so he did not know, unless it was that he -had seen the interest Bella took in the little creature, and in feeding it and -calling every one's attention to the extraordinary manner in which it seemed to -grow almost hourly. Nevertheless, the observation did grate on him, and he began -to tell himself that he did not care much for Stephen Charke. However, like a -good many other young naval officers, he had thoroughly learnt the excellent -system of controlling his thoughts in silence, wherefore, without making any -further remark than saying that he was sorry to hear about 'Bengalee,' he went -on his way towards Mr. Fagg's cabin, leaving the first mate to finish his supper -by himself.</p> - -<p class="normal">He left him, also, to some strange meditations which, had they -been uttered aloud in the presence of any listener, might have caused that -person to imagine that he was the recipient of the babblings of a visionary. Put -into words those musings would have taken some such form as this:--</p> - -<p class="normal">'Supposing this malady or pestilence, or whatever it is, -should be followed by madness and death, as was the case with the negroes. And -supposing also that, among those who are struck, our friend Lieutenant -Bampfyld--the future Lord D'Abernon!--should be one. What happens? Bella'--for -so he dared to call her in his thoughts and to himself--'Bella is deprived of -him. Suppose, also, that the whole management of the ship falls into my hands; -Pooley may be attacked, too--then--then--then----' But here his mental ramblings -had to come to a conclusion, because, wild as his riotous thoughts were, his -mind was clear enough to perceive that he was just as likely to be attacked by -the blindness as was either Pooley or Bampfyld. While he saw very plainly that -so, too, was Bella. And this pulled his meditations up with a jerk, since he -could imagine nothing more horrible that could occur now than that the majority -of all the men on board should remain sound and unstricken, and capable of -working the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> -safely into some port or other, while the beautiful girl whom he worshipped and -adored so much should succumb to the hateful affliction.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, my God!' he almost moaned aloud, 'if--if she should be -the next. If she should be taken and we left. How--how could I endure that?' And -then, because he was a man with the best of impulses beneath all the gall which -had arisen in his heart at losing the girl he had once hoped so much to win, he -moaned once more: 'Not that--not that. Spare her, at least, Heaven! Spare her, -even though I have to stand by and see him win her after all. Spare her! Spare -her!'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XIV</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_14" href="#div1Ref_14">STRUCK DOWN</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">But still the days went on and no wind came--the one thing -which, even now, after they had been becalmed for nearly a week, might have -saved the ship from any fearful calamity that was at last, almost without a -doubt, in store for her. For, according to their reckonings, taken regularly -both by aid of the brilliant sun which still poured down its vertical rays upon -them, and also by the use of a cherub log which they possessed, as well as the -ordinary ones, the current had drifted them some three hundred miles north, so -that they had consequently the northern coast of Madagascar on their port bow, -as well as the Aldabra Islands, and with Galega, Providence and Farquhar Islands -almost directly ahead of them.</p> - -<p class="normal">Only--the wind would not come, and the ship lay upon the water -as motionless, except for the current, as though she had been fixed upon the -solid and firm-set earth. And, meanwhile, the blindness which had seized upon -one man after another was still continuing its progress, and more than -half--indeed, three-parts--of the complement of the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i> were now sightless. Of seventeen sailors, eleven were -down with this terrible, paralysing affliction, as well as one officer, Mr. -Fagg; so that, if now the long-hoped-for breeze should spring up, there were -scarcely enough men in the whole vessel to set the sails, even including -Pooley--who certainly could not go aloft with safety!--and Charke and Gilbert; -while, presuming all of them could do so and the wind should freshen much, they -would undoubtedly be far from able to take them in again. And then the result -must be swift--undoubted--deadly. The ship would rush to her destruction, would -be beyond all control; she would either go over under the force of the elements, -or be dashed to pieces on some solitary coral island which she might encounter -in her mad, ungovernable flight. Consequently, there remained but one chance, -and one only, for her, that chance being to forgo the advantage of the wind when -it came at last, and to let her drift under bare poles until they were seen, and -perhaps rescued, by a passing vessel. But, again there arose the fear in all -hearts, as already it had done before--namely, would any other ship which might -encounter them be willing to take on board men in such a plight as they were, -and suffering from a disease that none could venture to doubt must be -contagious?</p> - -<p class="normal">Meantime, the life in the vessel itself was, possibly, the -strangest form of existence which has prevailed for many a long sea-voyage. For -she was subject to no stress whatever of weather, the elements were all in -favour of her safety, if not her progress; she was comfortable and easy and well -found with everything of the best--since, in the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, there was neither rotten pork nor weevily biscuits -for old shellbacks to grumble and curse at and mutiny over, as those who wish to -make the sailor dissatisfied with his lot are too often fond of representing to -be the case--every one was well housed and well provided with good, wholesome -food. Yet, all the same, she was a stricken ship--stricken, in truth, by the -visitation of God; smitten by the hand of God with a curse which none could -understand or explain. Fortunately, however--if the word Fortune may be used in -connection with those now in her!--this curse seemed to have stopped at the -blindness--though God knows that was bad enough! Death did not seem to be -following after it, nor madness, nor delirium, as had been the case with the -others--certainly as death had been. Those who were down lay in their berths, -blind, it is true; but otherwise there was nothing else the matter with them; -and, since they were ministered to by those who, up to now, had themselves -escaped the visitation, they did not suffer in any other way.</p> - -<p class="normal">Bella and Mrs. Pooley were at this time more or less in charge -of the provisions, the latter dealing out the men's rations under the orders of -her husband, while Bella, arrayed in a long white apron which gave her a -charmingly strange appearance in the eyes of all who beheld her, attended to the -meals of those who used the saloon, took her place in the cook's galley--the -unfortunate man being one who was down with the scourge--and saw to all -preparations necessary for their now hastily devised and uncomfortable meals.</p> - -<p class="normal">'She's a good 'un,' the six remaining healthy men muttered to -themselves, as they saw her busying herself about the ship, making soup and -broth for them as well as for the after-cabin, and working indefatigably from -morning to night on behalf of all on board, 'a real good 'un. And this here Navy -lieutenant what's to marry her is a lord, ain't he, Bill?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He ain't a lord yet, but he's a-going to be. Ah, well; if we -ever all gets safe into port, her ladyship will know summat about what her -servants ought to be like. Her cooks won't get to windward of her in a hurry, -I'll go bail!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'If we ever get safely into port!' That was the sentiment -which pervaded all minds on board the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> at that time. -'If they ever got safely into port!' For all on board began now to doubt whether -they would do so. The eighth day of their being becalmed had come, even as those -forecastle hands discussed the girl's goodness--with also, in whispers, many an -admiring remark on her beauty and generally trim-built appearance--the eighth -day had come and, suddenly, just as the forenoon watch was over, two more men -suddenly called out together that they were 'struck'--were blind! Two more, -leaving now only four sailors and three officers--counting Gilbert in place of -Fagg--and two helpless women!</p> - -<p class="normal">'Well,' said the chief mate, coming up to where Gilbert and -Bella were discussing gravely this new affliction, while close by them the usual -business was going on of getting the two fresh cases into their berths in the -forecastle--which was now a lazaretto--'well, this ends it. The wind may blow as -much as it likes now, we shall never be able to make sail. We must drift about -till we are picked up or----' Then, seeing the look of terror on Bella's face, -he refrained from finishing his sentence, saying instead: 'If we had as many -hands to do one man's work as you have in Her Majesty's service, Lieutenant -Bampfyld, we should still be all right.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I don't know,' Gilbert replied coldly, and in a manner which, -quite unknown to himself, he had been gradually adopting of late towards his -unsuspected, would-be rival. 'I don't know. We may have a dozen hands to do one -man's work in our service, as you seem to suggest, and as is often supposed, -yet, all the same, I'd back four of our men and two young officers to get a lot -of sail on a ship of this size, anyhow!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'They might. Yet, clever as they are, you wouldn't like to -back them for much to furl those sails again if the breeze freshened into a -strong wind, would you?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I think so,' said Gilbert, still more coldly. 'At any rate, -I'd back them to have a rare good try.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Try!' exclaimed Charke. 'Try! Oh, we can all try! As far as -that goes, I'd have all the blind ones out to put their weight on the braces -while the rest went aloft, if the wind would only come; they could do that -without seeing. And we could try getting the sails off again if it blew too -hard--but I doubt our doing it. Any one can try.' After which he walked forward -to make inquiries about the two fresh cases of blindness.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I don't like that man, Bella,' Gilbert said when the other -was out of hearing, 'although he's a smart officer and a gentleman. And I don't -think he likes me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment she stood there saying nothing, and with her eyes -cast down on the soft pitch of the seams, which was greasy and seething under -the fierce sun. Then she looked up at her lover and said: 'No more do I much -now, Bertie. In fact, I almost fear him.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I wonder if he was ever in love with you?' Bampfyld said, -while remembering, as she spoke, how once, in those delicious days when they had -first acknowledged their own love for one another, she had jokingly told him -that he was not the first sailor who had tried to woo her. And he recalled, too, -the fact that Charke had been introduced to her mother's house by her uncle, and -had been more or less of a frequent visitor there. 'Was he, Bella?' he -continued. 'Was he the sailor you once told me of who wanted your love?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' she said, gazing up at him with her clear, truthful -eyes. 'He was. He told me so long after I met you. And I believe now--I have -thought so for some time--that he would never have applied for the position he -holds in this ship if uncle hadn't told him that I was coming in it. He was far -too ambitious for such a post when I first knew him, and aspired to be captain -in one of the great liners, and eventually to be an owner.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I'm glad you've told me, darling. Especially as it quite -explains his not liking me over much. Poor chap! I can understand that he should -not do so in the circumstances,' he added, while gazing down on his sweetheart -with such a glowing look of love as to cause her to forget all their unfortunate -surroundings and revel only in her delight at being so much beloved by him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yet,' Gilbert continued, 'I can't understand his wanting to -come into this ship, even though it would give him three or four months more of -your society. Such a thing as that would have been maddening to ordinary men--I -know it would have been to me! If you had rejected me--I--I--well, there! I -can't say what I should have done; but, at any rate, I couldn't have borne the -torture of being in your presence--especially if you were on your way to marry -another fellow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He is a strange man,' Bella said, 'and although I never loved -him, I cannot help admiring his force of character. His father, a selfish old -man, treated him badly and baulked him of going into your service, yet he -managed to be a sailor in another way, and to enforce respect from every one. -And he is a cultivated man and wonderfully well read. Still, I don't altogether -like his force of character, or rather, the direction it takes. He told me, on -that day at Portsmouth, that he never faltered in his purpose, and that, when -once he had made up his mind to do a thing or get a thing, he did it, or got it, -somehow. I believe, too, that he meant it as a kind of defiance to me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Did he, though!' exclaimed Gilbert, as now they sat beneath -the awning, at which they had arrived while talking. 'Did he! Well, he won't get -you, anyway, will he? Not while I'm alive, anyhow. If, however, I were to -die----'</p> - -<p class="normal">But this remark was promptly hushed by Bella, who would not -allow her lover to even finish it, and, as his watch commenced at six o'clock, -he now went below to get an hour or so's rest before that time arrived, while -she still sat on beneath the awning, thinking dreamily of him alone and of their -future--if any lay before them, which now seemed doubtful, or, at least, very -uncertain. Then, suddenly, as thus she mused, there happened a thing which -startled and amazed her so that she sprang out of her Singapore chair and gazed -aft, away down towards the south. A thing which even she, a landswoman, a girl -originally unacquainted with anything connected with seafaring matters, had, by -now, come to recognise and understand as vital to all on board that ship. She -had felt the back of the straw hat she wore lifted by a slight warm ripple of -air, while, at the same moment, some of the pages of a book she had left lying -on the table were suddenly turned over swiftly and with a loud rustle.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is the breeze,' she muttered, 'the breeze! The wind at -last!'</p> - -<p class="normal">The others on deck had perceived it as quickly as she. At -once, those who were about had sprung into action and thrown off the -listlessness which had pervaded all in the ship since they had been becalmed. In -an instant all was bustle and confusion; the four remaining men who could see -rushing about eagerly. The master came out from where he had been talking to -some of the sufferers, while Charke, running along the waist, called out: 'Miss -Waldron! Miss Waldron! Where is the lieutenant? We want his services now, at -once. Perhaps he, too, can do as much as any of his own men could if we look -alive.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I will fetch him directly,' Bella cried, full of excitement, -and, swiftly, she ran down the companion to the saloon on her way to hammer on -Gilbert's cabin-door and awaken him. But, as she reached the place she stopped, -petrified almost and filled with a vague alarm at she scarcely knew what, while, -at the same time, she smothered a shriek which rose to her lips, and exclaimed -in its place: 'Bertie! Bertie! What is the matter?'</p> - -<p class="normal">For she saw him standing by the saloon-table gazing at her, -smiling even as he heard her loved voice, yet holding on to the edge with one -hand while, with the other, he felt, as it seemed, cautiously before him. And -again she cried: 'Bertie, what is it? What does it mean?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then she heard his voice saying: 'It means, darling, that I -too am struck down. That I too am blind.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XV</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_15" href="#div1Ref_15">A LIGHT FROM THE PAST</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Four seamen only left untouched by blindness now, and two -officers, to work a ship of six hundred tons! How was it to be, how could it -ever be, done? The task was hopeless, and so all recognised on board that -unhappy, ill-omened ship, even as now the wind freshened and the bosom of the -ocean became flecked with little white spits of foam, while the breeze, hot as -the breath of a panting wolf, swept up from the south. A breeze hot now, though -once it had been cool--glacial--as it left the icebergs of the Antarctic Circle.</p> - -<p class="normal">What was to be done? they muttered now, as, together, the six -unstricken men took counsel while they stood in the shade of the foredeck -awning, and forgot, in their excitement, that one was the master and owner, the -other the first officer, and the four remaining ones only poor, ignorant -sailors. What! what! what!</p> - -<p class="normal">'I,' exclaimed Pooley, at last, after much discussion, 'can at -least steer her. Some one must do it if she is to move at all; otherwise, in -spite of my seventeen stone, I would be up those ratlins like a boy. But, even -then, of what use are five to fist all the canvas she can carry?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'We can fist some of it, at any rate,' said Charke, strong, -determined as ever. 'By Heaven!' he cried, 'Lieutenant Bampfyld shall never go -back to any of Her Majesty's ships and say that half-a-dozen men under the red -ensign couldn't do something; couldn't make one stroke to save themselves!' -Then, in an instant, he asked the captain to go to the wheel, while he sent the -man, whose trick it was, forward, and, a second later, he was issuing orders to -his subordinates.</p> - -<p class="normal">Somehow, these orders were obeyed, and in about an hour, -during which time all worked with a will and as if their lives depended on it, -the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i> was under close-reefed topsails, foresail and -fore-topmast staysail, when, if she had only had her full complement of -able-bodied men to do the necessary work, she might well have been under full -sail before the still increasing wind, and making a good nine or ten knots an -hour. But, now, that was impossible; even if those five could have got all her -canvas on her the thing would have been madness. A little further increase of -force in the wind, and they would at once have to shorten sail again--which, in -the circumstances, it would be almost impossible for them to do--or to stand by -and see the masts jumped out or blown overboard. As it was, the <i>Emperor</i>, -under the combined power of the current and what wind they could avail -themselves of, was making something like five knots an hour.</p> - -<p class="normal">During all this time Bella had been below with Gilbert and a -prey to terrible anguish, yet endeavouring in every way to cheer and solace him -and to thrust her own fears and forebodings into the background. Fears and -forebodings of she scarcely knew what, yet fears that were, all the same, -assuming by degrees a more or less tangible shape. For of late--indeed, long -since--there had been intensifying more and more in her mind that feeling of -dislike and mistrust of Stephen Charke which she had experienced from the first -moment that she had discovered him to be the second in command of the vessel in -which she was to make so long a voyage; for, over and over again, she had -remembered, had recalled, how he had said that he was never baulked in the end -of what he desired to obtain, and that if he wanted a thing he generally managed -to get it. And she knew that he had meant it as a warning, if not a threat; -though, certainly, since that miracle had happened which had brought her lover -into the very ship which was taking her to India and to him, she had laughed at, -had inwardly despised, the threat, if it was one.</p> - -<p class="normal">But now--now! With Gilbert stricken down by her side, -helpless, crippled by blindness, unable to do aught for himself or her, and with -her uncle broken down and worn almost to equal helplessness with his enforced -labour and his despair at the ruin which threatened him through the probable -destruction of his ship, what--what might not Charke do? <i>He</i> was not blind -yet, nor----</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, as her meditations reached this point, and while Gilbert -sat by her side on the pretty plush-covered locker with his head on her -shoulder, he broke in on those meditations, and what he said could not by any -possibility be construed by her as helping to dispel them, but, rather, indeed, -to aggravate them. 'At the rate we have been going on,' he said, 'since I came -aboard, there will not be a living soul left with their eyesight by the end of -the next two or three days. Oh, my God! Bella, what will it be like when this -ship is at the mercy of the ocean, with every person on board blind.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Don't let us think about it, darling. Don't, don't! And even -now some may retain their sight. Uncle, I, Mr. Charke, the men----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ah,' he said, 'Charke; yes, Charke. Excepting you, dearest, I -would sooner Charke kept his sight than almost any one else.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Why?' she asked, thinking that of all who were in the ship -she, perhaps, cared less whether Charke preserved his sight or not.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Think what a strong, self-confident man he is. Even if all -the others were blinded and he was not, he would devise something for keeping -the vessel afloat, though, of course, he could not work her. He would manage to -get us all taken off somehow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">This, the girl acknowledged, not only to him but herself, was -true enough. As regarded Charke's sailor-like self-confidence, courage and -determination, as well as how to do everything best that was necessary in the -most sudden emergency, there was nobody on board the ship, nor ever had been, -who was superior, or even equal, to him. Yet--in sole command and possession of -that ship, supposing the other inhabitants of her should also be attacked with -blindness and helplessness--what might he not do, if his dogged resolution never -to be baulked of anything he had set his mind upon was allowed full sway? Her -imagination was not a tragic one, nor more romantic than that of most young -women who had been brought up as she had been, yet--yet--she shuddered at fears -which were almost without actual shape in her thoughts. With all the others -blind, herself included; with none to observe what Charke did; with the -opportunity of removing for ever from his path any who had crossed it--of -removing the one whom she felt sure, whom she <i>divined</i>, he was anxious to -remove; with an open sea around him----'Oh, God!' she broke off, while -exclaiming to herself, even as her reflections shaped themselves thus, -'never--never will I believe it. Never will I think so basely of any man, -especially since he has given me no cause to do so. And, as yet, there are -plenty left with their eyesight; plenty to see what is going on.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Her uncle and aunt came into the saloon now, full of a -distress that was visibly marked upon both their faces as well as their -demeanour, yet both as kindly as ever in their manner, and uttering expressions -of sympathy with Gilbert in his affliction. But, all the same, Bella could not -but observe the look of absolute illness and grief on Captain Pooley's -countenance, nor help trembling inwardly at the fear that he might be the next -one attacked.</p> - -<p class="normal">Nevertheless, he said cheerfully enough, after he had -exhausted his condolences with the young man: 'We are doing some good now, at -any rate. The "cherub" is marking about six knots; if the wind keeps where and -as it is we may yet fetch Mahe, or one of the other Seychelles. In fact, we must -reach them, or some other place, or----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Or what?' asked Bella, looking at him with tear-laden eyes.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Or,' her uncle said, not, however, concluding his speech as -he had originally meant to do, 'or drift about until we fall in with another -vessel. We ought to do that, too,' he continued, 'for we are almost in the -direct track from the Red Sea to Australia; we are in the track of the big -liners.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'How,' asked Gilbert now, while forcing a smile to his face as -he spoke, although it was but a poor, wan substitute for the bright, joyous one -that generally lit up his countenance--and, indeed, it was only assumed with the -hope of cheering his sweetheart by his side, wherefore, like all other -substitutes for the real thing, it was but a wretched copy--'how are my -brother-sufferers? It would be cheering news to hear that some of them were -regaining their sight.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'At present,' Pooley replied, 'only one of your -"fellow-sufferers" seems to be doing so, and that's not a human being but no -other than Bella's <i>protégé</i> the tiger-cub. That creature is, we all -believe, coming round. It is rambling about the deck by itself, but it -undoubtedly can see now to avoid hitting its head against the raffle lying -there. However,' he went on, 'here's a little information which you may both be -glad of, upon which he dropped his hand into his nankeen jacket and produced -from it an old, dirty, and much-thumbed book, on which, in addition to many -other unclean marks and stains, were added droppings from candles.' It was -evidently, as Bella at once divined, one which had been pored over at night; -while, had she been well acquainted with the habits of those who dwelt in the -forecastle, she would have also understood that mercantile Jack is often in the -habit of sticking lighted bits of candle about whenever he wants to read, and -even to the sides of his bunk in which he lies, when he sleeps in one instead of -in a hammock.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Millett,' her uncle went on, naming one of the men who had -still retained his eyesight, 'showed me this an hour ago. It belongs to poor -Wilks, and is a book entitled <i>Calamities of Sailors</i>, it being a -collection of odds and ends accumulated from various writers by an unknown hand. -Now, here,' he went on, 'is a strange account of blindness attacking a vessel in -much the same way as those in my poor old <i>Emperor</i> have been attacked, -and----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Did they regain their sight?' exclaimed his listeners -together; all three, namely, Mrs. Pooley, Gilbert, and Bella, asking the same -question in almost the same words.</p> - -<p class="normal">'They did,' the master went on, 'in this case. It happened on -board the <i>James Simpson</i>, in 1803. But in another, I am sorry to say, they -did not; and also, I am sorry to say, this is a very circumstantial account, -given by M. Benjamin Constant to the French Chamber of Deputies, in 1820, when -he was speaking on the horrors of the West African slave trade. He tells how a -French ship, <i>Le Rôdeur</i>, having a crew of twenty-two men and a hundred and -sixty slaves, left Bonny in 1819, and was attacked with almost precisely the -same blindness which has now fallen on most of us. Things were worse with them -than in this ship, however. They had scarcely any water, the air below was -horribly impure, and, when the poor wretched slaves were allowed on deck, they -locked themselves in each other's arms and leaped overboard in their agony, so -that the French captain ordered some of them to be shot as a warning.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yet,' exclaimed Gilbert, '<i>Le Rôdeur</i> must have got -safely into harbour at last, or M. Constant would not have given his -information.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' said Pooley, 'that of course is so. Pray God we do, -too'; whereon he closed the book and dropped it into his pocket.</p> - -<p class="normal">It was well he should do so. Well, too, that Bella did not ask -to be allowed to read it for herself, for it contained a good deal more than her -uncle had thought fit to read out, and described further horrors which it was -not advisable that any in that saloon should be made acquainted with.<a name="div4Ref_01" href="#div4_01"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XVI</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_16" href="#div1Ref_16">MAN OVERBOARD</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Another day had passed and the south wind still blew gently, -neither increasing nor decreasing in force, so that the log showed that the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i> had progressed between a hundred and fifty and two -hundred miles farther north. Farther north, as all said now, but not to Bombay, -since they had abandoned all hope of reaching that port in their present -short-handed condition, and without obtaining fresh assistance--but towards the -Seychelles. That was the harbour of refuge to which their thoughts and -aspirations pointed at this time; the spot where, even though they should obtain -nothing else, they would at least be in safety, and the one from which they -could be taken off by some other ship if they were not able to find the means of -working their own.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, even as this day was drawing towards its conclusion--a -day hotter, it seemed to all on board, than any they had previously experienced, -and when neither the awnings nor the breeze that came aft protected them -sufficiently to allow of their being on deck, unless duty demanded that they -should be there--a change was perceived to have taken place in the condition of -one or two who had been attacked by blindness. Mr. Fagg had declared that he was -regaining his sight, and that, although he could not distinguish small objects -with any amount of clearness, he was nevertheless able to see large things, such -as the form of a man or woman, in a blurred, indistinct manner if he or she -happened to enter his cabin; while Wilks averred that his sight was also -returning rapidly to him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'For, see here, sir,' he said to Charke, who, learning what -was happening, or said to be happening, had gone forward to question him on the -subject, 'I can walk aft to the break of the poop without stumbling against -anything or over anything either. May I show you, sir?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay,' replied Charke. 'Show me. Let's see what you can really -do,' while at the same time he motioned to a sailor, who happened to be by the -mizzen-mast, to throw down gently a coil of rope he held in his hand so that, -when Wilks neared the spot where it was, they would be able to observe whether -he could see clearly enough to avoid it or not.</p> - -<p class="normal">Meanwhile, Wilks, having received the necessary permission, -had started from close by the fife-rail, where the conversation had been going -on, and was making it perfectly clear that what he had stated was undoubtedly -the truth. For, independently of the coil which the sailor had deposited abreast -of the mizzen-mast, there was at this moment a good deal of raffle lying about -the deck, as well as a bucket or so, and also a squeegee alongside the saloon -skylight. But Wilks saw them all and steered himself along, avoiding each and -every object both great and small, while, when he approached the coil of cable, -he passed round it in almost precisely the same manner that a man in possession -of his ordinary eyesight would have done. Then he looked back--at least he -turned his face back--towards where he had started from, and, with a gratified -grin on his countenance, asked Charke if he was not all right.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' replied Charke, 'or getting so. If one or two more of -your mates would only recover in the same way, we might bend another sail and, -so, make a few more knots. Yet, curse it!' he muttered to himself, 'as one gets -well another gets ill.'</p> - -<p class="normal">This was unhappily only too true, for not an hour before he -had been called to observe that Wilks seemed to be on a fair way towards -recovery, he had learnt that Pooley was, although not stricken with the -blindness, yet rapidly becoming blind. He had himself discovered such to be the -case when, after lying down for an hour, he had been unable to perceive anything -clearly on awakening. And, in another hour after this had been found by him to -be the case, he was obliged to acknowledge his darkness of vision was becoming -more intense, and that he feared his sight would be entirely gone by nightfall.</p> - -<p class="normal">This was, perhaps, the greatest blow of all to several on -board the unfortunate ship; on Bella it fell with overwhelming force. For now -she recognised that, of all others, the very man she most feared and -dreaded--though she could not have explained why that dread should have taken -possession of her--was in absolute control over the ship, and could indeed do -what he liked with it. Her uncle, she understood, could of course still issue -orders, but--how was it to be known that those orders were being obeyed?</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, strong-minded as she was, and feeling more so, as well -as more self-possessed because of the presence of her lover in the ship, she -again forced herself to discard such miserable and--as she termed them in her -own mind--ridiculous fears, and set herself about the task which had now for -some time developed on her of attending to the catering of the ship and looking -after the sufferers generally. For, from Mrs. Pooley, Bella had not at any time -received much assistance, owing to the fact of the poor lady having been quite -ill since the calamities on board began to follow each other in such frequent -succession, while, now that her husband was struck down, she appeared to have -collapsed altogether. Indeed, at this present time, she was doing nothing except -lying on the plush-covered sofa of the saloon, while moaning feebly that they -were all doomed, and that, even if the ship was not utterly cast away and lost, -there would soon not be a living soul on board who would be able to see.</p> - -<p class="normal">'And then,' she sobbed, 'what can happen to a vessel--in the -night, especially--full of men and women who are all blind and cannot find their -way from one end of the deck to another?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Nonsense, aunty, dear, nonsense!' Bella replied, while -endeavouring bravely to dispel her aunt's forebodings, which, in solemn truth, -she shared to the full with her, though not for worlds would she acknowledge -that she did so. 'Are not some already getting well--Mr. Fagg, and the sailor, -Wilks, and Bengalee----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'While at the same time others succumb to the blindness,' Mrs. -Pooley interjected, still with a moan. 'And now your poor uncle, of all others.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Well,' said Bella, still stout of heart, 'we have this -comfort: it soon passes away. Let me see. Bengalee has been blind about a -fortnight, Wilks and Mr. Fagg about twelve days--whatever is that noise!' she -exclaimed, breaking off suddenly.</p> - -<p class="normal">As she uttered that exclamation there had come a sudden racket -above their heads, the noise descending through the wide-open skylight. A noise -which seemed first like the yelp of a dog in pain; then another which resembled -somewhat the spitting of a cat, followed by a shrieking kind of growl, and then -the voice of Charke exclaiming angrily: 'I'll have the infernal thing thrown -overboard. Here you, catch hold of it--make a loop and fling it over its neck. -Catch it, one of you!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' cried Bella, forgetting everything else for the moment, -and rushing towards the companion, 'it's Bengalee!' Then she swiftly ran up to -the deck, and saw the tiger-cub standing close up by the frame of the skylight -and growling at Charke, whom it regarded with terribly vicious eyes. And she -noticed, too, that it held up one of its hind legs as though it were injured.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What are you doing to the creature?' she cried. 'You have -been kicking it again, you----' she was going to say 'brute,' but restrained -herself. 'And you shall not have it thrown overboard, as I heard you order the -men to do!' she continued. Then she went towards the creature perfectly -fearlessly, and spoke to it, and eventually stroked its back, so that at last -its growls subsided altogether.</p> - -<p class="normal">The chief mate's face had presented an appearance of scowling -rage as she reached the deck, while it had on it an expression that boded ill -for any extended existence being accorded to Bengalee had she not appeared at -the moment she did. Yet, by the time she had ceased petting the animal he had -managed to control himself considerably, and to smooth out the look of temper -from his countenance. And now he said:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, of course I did not really mean to do that, Miss Waldron. -Though it will have to be got rid of eventually. It is impossible that it can be -kept much longer. And, you know, we have enough work to do without attending to -such an animal as this. Just think! I am the only officer fit for duty, and I -have only four able men to work with--since Wilks cannot be called well yet.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Honestly, Bella felt sorry that she had spoken as hotly as she -had done, since she did indeed recognise the almost superhuman amount of work -that had fallen on Charke's shoulders just now. He seemed never to sleep but was -on deck night and day, sometimes steering, sometimes even going aloft alone, and -hardly ever snatching a quarter of an hour for his hasty meals. She murmured, -therefore, some words of regret, and was going on to say how sorry she was for -having been excited, when he stopped her.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, no, Miss Waldron. It was nothing--nothing. The thing did -spring at me angrily as I passed where it was sleeping, and I kicked it. I am -sorry, too. And you know I would not injure anything you liked,' while, as he -spoke, he bent his dark, handsome eyes on her.</p> - -<p class="normal">Perhaps it was a pity he uttered these last words, since in -her own heart she did not believe that they were true. She had seen his glances -more than once directed at Gilbert when he had not known that she was observing -him, and she thoroughly believed that, in them, there was a malignant look, a -look of hatred, which belied his words. And she had seen--she <i>thought</i> she -had seen--something else in those glances when Gilbert was first attacked with -blindness which, if not gloating, was very like it. She said, therefore, now, as -she turned towards the ladder: 'Then you won't punish it, Mr. Charke, will you? -You won't let it be thrown overboard in any circumstances, will you?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It shall be as sacred to me as you are,' he replied. 'Its -life as sacred as yours.'</p> - -<p class="normal">But all the same, she told herself as she went back to the -saloon, that, if there was anything Charke hated in that ship, or rather, any -two things he hated more than all else, those things were her lover and -Bengalee.</p> - -<p class="normal">Presently, not ten minutes later, she again heard his voice, -calling out loudly to one of the men this time: 'If we could only get another on -her we could make two more knots, I believe. If only some of those who are blind -but not otherwise incapacitated would help on the braces and get the yards -round, we could do it.'</p> - -<p class="normal">She was not the only person who heard these words. Not a -moment had they left his lips before the curtains in front of Gilbert's and Mr. -Fagg's cabins were pushed swiftly back with a metallic jangle, as the rings ran -along the rod, and each of the young men appeared in the saloon and began making -his way guided by his hands, towards the stairs leading up to the deck.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' cried Bella, not quite understanding what it was Charke -wanted done, or what assistance could be rendered by persons who were blind, -'what are you going to do? Gilbert, don't do anything rash! Nor you, Mr. Fagg!' -though she saw by their faces and the smile that came to each that she had -overrated any harm that was possible.</p> - -<p class="normal">'We'll get that sail on,' exclaimed Gilbert, as he felt his -way up the stairs, and Fagg said: 'We will so,' as he followed him after they -had each jostled the other at the foot in a slight collision which their -sightlessness had caused, and, a moment afterwards, Bella and Mrs. Pooley were -left alone in the cabin. Yet they could hear, plainly enough, the words of -approval bestowed on Gilbert and Fagg for their promptness, when the meaning of -it was recognised by those on deck; and they caught, too, the orders bawled with -great rapidity by Charke the instant he had received this extra assistance. -Also, they heard him ordering one man to the starboard main braces and another -to go forward and loose the jib.</p> - -<p class="normal">A moment later they heard something else as well.</p> - -<p class="normal">The cry of two or three voices together, the roar of Charke, -and then his trumpet-tones, exclaiming:</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God! he's overboard!'</p> - -<p class="normal">And Bella, with the image of one man alone in her mind, reeled -backwards towards the sofa where Mrs. Pooley lay, and gradually slid, fainting, -on to the cabin floor by her side.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XVII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_17" href="#div1Ref_17">'FAREWELL, MY RIVAL'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">Had Bella known more about a ship and its intricacies she -would have understood that, notwithstanding some one had undoubtedly gone -overboard, the sailor, whoever he was, could not by any possibility have been -one of those who had gone to help in squaring the yards. Instead, she would have -been aware that such an accident could only have happened to some seaman who had -either gone aloft or out on to the jib-boom. And, in fact, the latter was the -case; the unfortunate fellow, a man named Brown, falling off the boom while -endeavouring to set the flying jib, and being struck a moment later by the frame -timbers forward as he fell. Yet the unhappy sailor seemed still to have some -life left in him, as those who rushed to the port side could see, since, as he -was passed by the ship, he was observed to rise to the surface--his head all -shiny with blood--and to strike out manfully. But what could that avail, since, -by the time the <i>Emperor</i> -could be brought to the wind and a life-buoy thrown overboard, he was half a -mile astern? To lower the boats in time to save him would also have been an -impossibility, even if it could have been done at all; and, moreover, the -swift-coming instantaneous darkness of the equator was at hand, so that the man -himself was, by now, almost invisible.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Steer her course again,' Charke called out, therefore, to the -man who was at the wheel, in a voice in which regret for the unfortunate sailor -was mingled with a tone denoting some other sentiment that, perhaps, none would -have been able to understand, even though they had been swift to observe it, as, -in their excitement, none were. Then, at once, in a few moments, the <i>Emperor -of the Moon</i> was again heading towards where the Seychelles lay.</p> - -<p class="normal">What was that other sentiment which now pervaded the breast of -this strong, masterful sailor; this man who had worked untiringly for hour after -hour on stretch, and who seemed to rise triumphant over Nature's command that -both sleep and meals should be properly partaken of? The man who had not changed -his clothes for three days, nor even had them off his back when he sought a -quarter of an hour's rest here or ten minutes there? What was this sentiment? -Nothing but a certainty that this was the last voyage the ship was ever to -make--a feeling of intense conviction, which had been growing upon him for some -time, that all in the ship were doomed. For he, at least, could see--<i>he</i> -was not blind yet--and, more than all else on board, perhaps, could feel; and -his sight showed him things over the water, in the density of the atmosphere, -even in the appearance of the brassy heavens above, which told him that, ere -long, the slight whispering breeze which blew would be changed into a hurricane -howling across the ocean. His feelings, his nerves, the moisture of his skin -corroborated, also, what his sight proclaimed.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It will come,' he muttered to himself, as now he paced the -after-deck, with his eyes never off the light sail that the ship was carrying. -'It will come soon, and then we are done for, even though I get every inch of -canvas off her first. This man's death leaves me and three other sailors as the -only persons to work the ship. It is strange if, even under bare poles, we -continue to swim.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, as he turned his head towards where Bella (who had soon -recovered from her faintness) was now standing talking with her uncle and her -lover, he muttered another sentence to himself--a sentence which, should a -romancist or a dramatist inspire one of his characters with it, would, perhaps, -be deemed unnatural, yet which this man of iron will and fierce determination -muttered to himself as calmly as he would have given an order to one of his few -remaining sailors.</p> - -<p class="normal">'If it blows, as I believe it will, twenty-four hours will see -the end of us all. She--oh, my God! she will be dead--but so will he and so -shall I. Well, there's consolation in that. If I can't have her, no more can he. -That thought makes the end mighty cheap.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Here he strode towards those three standing by the break of -the poop, and touching his cap to Bella--he was, as she had observed, a -gentleman, and in all that became the outward semblance of a gentleman he never -failed--he said quietly to the poor, blind captain standing by her side with his -fingers resting lightly on her arm:</p> - -<p class="normal">'We must get in all the sail, sir, now. There is a change -coming; I know it--feel it. The glass, too, stands very low, and since we cannot -work the ship in a storm, short-handed as we are, we had better commence at -once. It will be pitch dark in ten minutes and there is no moon.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Good God!' exclaimed Pooley, 'what is to happen next? The -glass low, you say? Well, that means a change of some sort, though not -necessarily bad weather. What are these feelings you speak of, Charke?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'The feelings of a sailor,' he replied. 'You know them as well -as I do. Ha!' he exclaimed, 'there's lightning in the south. No time to be -lost.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he seized the boatswain's whistle, which he had hung -round his neck and used since the man himself had become disabled, and blew it -as a signal to his three remaining hands to be ready for his orders.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Now then,' he cried, 'up with you and stow the few sails that -there are. What do you say?'--to one who muttered something--'tired--been -working all day? Why, damn you! haven't I been working too.' Charke rarely -swore, but he was impelled to do so now, especially as he had moved out of -Bella's hearing. 'Do you see that lightning down there in the south? Do you want -the ship to be blown over and go to the bottom in her? Here, you stop at the -wheel,' addressing the man who was already at it, 'we others can do it somehow. -Follow me'; and away he went to the topsail yard, selecting the most arduous -part of the business for himself. While he muttered to himself as he did so: -'Now, if I should go, too--fall off the yard--they are doomed beyond all help. -Nothing then can save him.' Which thought caused a strange, weird kind of smile -to be on his face as he sprang up the ratlins.</p> - -<p class="normal">And, stirred to action by his own indomitable energy, the men -did set about the work and managed it somehow, the sails being stowed in a very -unshipshape fashion (or what would have been an unshipshape fashion if the -proper quantity of sailors had been there to do the job) and in such a manner -that the first gust of the coming tempest would be as likely as not to blow them -clean off their lashings. Still, it was done at last, and not too soon either, -since, ere they had concluded their work, the lightning was flashing incessantly -and huge drops of rain were falling.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It's a south-easterly wind,' said Gilbert to Bella, turning -his cheek towards it. 'Where will it blow us to now?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Charke thought he knew, as he listened to the remarks, since -he had returned to their vicinity after coming down from the topsail-yard, but -he uttered never a word. Even now he loved the girl by their side too much to -frighten her more than was necessary. Yet, had he said that he knew that, short -of a miracle, it must be the bottom of the ocean--as was the case--she would -probably not have heard him, since, at this moment, with a devilish shriek, the -gale was upon them. Upon them and almost pooping the ship as it struck her right -aft, and then driving her forward in the churned sea with a horrible, sickening -motion, while, since she was fairly deeply laden, she recovered herself from the -avalanche of water but slowly. An avalanche that, sweeping over the poop with a -roar and a swish, took Bella and Gilbert off their feet and hurled them forward -staggering, and buffeted against each other.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Below--go below, all of you!' roared Charke to them, and also -to Pooley, who had himself been sent sliding along the deck and was now hanging -on to a belaying-pin, even as he called out to know where Bella was. 'Below, I -say! We must close the hatches, or she will have the sea in her. Below, quick!' -and, rushing towards Bella, he led her to the after-companion, dragging Gilbert -with his other hand and returning for Pooley. And now the tropical -lightning--that violet-hued lightning which is so beautiful and also so sure a -sign of awful turbulence in the elements--played incessantly on the ill-starred -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i>; the seas were mountains at one moment, valleys at -another. The ship, too, was rolling so that it seemed as if everything on her -deck must be pitched off her into the sea--as was indeed the case with many of -the smaller things which went to form the raffle lying all about--and each time -that she went over to port or starboard she took tons of water over her side. -Then, a still more gigantic wave caught her on her port-bow, and absolutely -threw her up, it rolling directly afterwards under her counter and letting her -drop directly afterwards into the trough, while over her poop, again, came that -which seemed to be not a wave but the whole Indian Ocean itself.</p> - -<p class="normal">Amidst it all Charke still stood at the wheel, holding on to -it as perhaps few solitary men had ever held on to a wheel in such a sea before; -his arms actually bars of iron, yet appearing to him as though deprived of all -sense and feeling. He stood there silent, determined, resolved, awaiting death, -knowing that it must come and not dismayed--because it must come to that other, -too, that man below in the saloon who loved and was beloved by Bella. Then, -suddenly, he knew that he was not to die there alone at his post while his rival -expired in his sweetheart's arms, or she in his; he knew--he discovered that not -to him alone was to belong all the bravery and the resolution.</p> - -<p class="normal">Creeping up from below, thanking God that the hatch had not -yet been closed, feeling his way by his hands and gradually reaching the -wheel--buffeted here and there; knocked down once, then up again--Gilbert -Bampfyld crept to his side, and, an instant later, was fingering and, next, -gripping the spokes.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Let me help you!' he roared, so as to be heard, while feeling -as he did so which way the other man who already had hold of the wheel was -exerting his force. 'Blind as I am, I can do that. Who are you?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Stephen Charke,' the other answered, also shrieking his name. -'Help, if you like. But it is useless. We are going.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I know it,' Gilbert answered. 'Well! we will go down -standing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And Charke, still endeavouring to hold up the ship, still to -protract life from one moment to another, muttering inwardly: 'Curse him! he is -a man. One worthy of her.' Then, unceasingly, he continued his work, wrenching, -striving, endeavouring in every way to save the ship from being pooped or flung -over as the waves took her and cast her up like a ball, or hurled her down like -a falling house into the gaping, hellish troughs that lay below, yawning for -their victim.</p> - -<p class="normal">But still the lightning played upon the doomed craft, -illuminating her from stem to stern, showing the fore top-gallant mast gone and -the jib-boom carried away, broken off short, three feet from the bowsprit head. -Also it showed something else--something that, had he had time to think of aught -but preventing the ship from falling off the course he was endeavouring to -steer, might have struck a feeling of wild horror to his uncanny breast.</p> - -<p class="normal">For some of the blind, stricken men forward had crept by now -out of the forecastle and other places where they had herded, and were crawling -about the foredeck, holding on to whatever they could clutch--belaying-pins, the -fife-rail, the racks, even the ring-bolts. Amongst them, too, was the tiger-cub, -an almost unrecognisable lump, except for the topaz gleam which his eyes -emitted: a gleam that, as a sea, which was in truth a cataract, washed it from -the foremast almost to where he stood, appeared to Charke malignant, devilish, -threatening. And he heard those unhappy men's voices, cursing, blaspheming, -praying: roaring that they feared no death which they could see, but that they -wanted to go neither to heaven nor hell enveloped in utter darkness.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No Jack who ever sailed,' they screamed, 'feared a death that -he could face, but we fear this. And if we had but our sight, maybe there'd be -no death at all!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ay, but there would, though,' muttered Charke to -himself--'there would. Ha! by God, look there,' he cried aloud, forgetting that -the only man who could hear his words was blind. The ship had given another -hideous plunge--had wrenched herself as a giant might give a wrench in -endeavouring to free himself from the chains that bound him--then down! down! -down! she went into the hollows of the ocean, so that up above her on either -side were nothing but vast walls of sea. Walls that would, that must close -together, Charke understood, fifty feet above their heads, leaving the ship -beneath them. And then he turned to the other man by his side, saying calmly: -'Now is the time! You love Bella Waldron. So do I. And neither of us will ever -set eyes on her again. Farewell--my rival!'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XVIII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_18" href="#div1Ref_18">'SHE WILL NEVER KNOW'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">'How in Heaven's name has she ever done it?' muttered Charke -to himself, three minutes later, as, dripping like a dog dragged out of a pond, -he still stood by the wheel while holding on like a vice to the spokes. And -still both he and Gilbert had each got their legs twisted in the radii to -prevent them from slipping, since now the ship lay over frightfully to starboard -and did not recover herself at all. 'Ah, well,' he continued, 'it does not -matter much how. Another five minutes and over she goes--turtle. It is a hundred -to one she has six feet of water below.'</p> - -<p class="normal">How had she done it? That was the wonder, the marvel; the more -especially a wonder if, as Charke thought, she had six feet of water in her, -since twice that amount would have taken her to the bottom even though she lay -in the most tranquil waters of the universe. It was impossible she would have -risen again, if overloaded thus. Yet, water in her or not, she had accomplished -a marvellous feat for any craft that ever left the shipbuilder's yard. For, from -down below in those awful depths, with, on either side of her, and glistening -all around her in the glare of the lightning like the sides of a crevasse, those -walls of sea, she had still risen above them and had (a moment or so after they -seemed to be closing in on her and shutting her out for ever from the world -above) been once more poised on the crest of a huge billow. She had done it, and -now lay listing over on to her starboard side, as some great wounded creature -might do whose right ribs had all been broken in by the blows of a pole-axe. But -still she travelled through the water in the darkness of the night; for now the -lightning was ceasing and, also, she carried no lighted lantern since there were -none to attend to such things--while, even though there had been, the beating of -the gale would soon have extinguished them. She travelled swiftly, too, cutting -her way through billow and wave, taking in huge seas aft which swept her -decks--yet going still. But with some of those spectral forms, those blind -groping men, departed for ever; swept down the sloping deck by tons of water, -down and over into the ocean. And of the few, the three who had still their -sight, one lay with a broken neck at the foot of the foredeck companion-way, -having been flung down the hatch-way head foremost; the other two were drunk. -They had broken into the steward's room, where there were none to control them, -and had found some bottles of beer, as well as one of brandy and one of rum--and -this was the result!</p> - -<p class="normal">At that moment the wheel spun round in Gilbert's hands, -dragging him with it in its revolution, so that he thought he would have to let -go or be thrown in a somersault over into the sea; then, as he forced it back, -he heard Charke's voice bellowing at him:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Can you hold her up for five minutes? I can grasp the spokes -no more; I am done. I would not have let go like that, God knows I wouldn't, but -I have lost all sensation in my arms and hands. I will lead Fagg out. Perhaps he -can help.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I may hold her steady,' Gilbert answered, 'but no more. What -can a blind, stricken man do?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is enough,' Charke said. 'Sight would not aid you to do -more, and, after all, it is of no use. We but prolong life for nothing. Yet, -here goes.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He made his way below, falling, sliding down the -companion-ladder, tumbling along in the darkness to where he judged the door of -Fagg's cabin was; he fell over things that had been hurled out of the steward's -pantry on the port side--broken dishes, plates, tin utensils, potatoes peeled -ready for cooking, and a joint of meat--he felt all these with his feet and -benumbed hands, and found a bottle, too, which his smell told him was rum. Then -he tore the cork out of it with his teeth and drained a tumblerful of the raw -spirits. That gave him fresh life and energy; the blood coursed and danced -through his veins again, his fingers began to feel, his arms to strengthen. -Sliding back the door of Fagg's cabin he called him by name, and, receiving no -answer, felt in the berth to see if he was there, while, even as he discovered -that the bed was empty, he trod on an upturned face, and then stooped down and -felt it and the head, and found the latter all broken. Whereby he understood -what had happened to the unfortunate young officer, and knew that he had either -been hurled out of his bed against a bulkhead, or, being out of it, had been -dashed to death.</p> - -<p class="normal">He would have gone back now to relieve Gilbert, and was -turning to do so when his eye caught the glimmer of a light down the narrow -gangway leading to the saloon, and he knew at once that somehow those within had -managed to get the bracket-lamp over the table lit. Whereon he went towards that -saloon, intent on seeing how those who were in it--especially <i>one</i> in -it--were preparing to meet their end. Were they bearing up bravely? Was she--was -that girl who maddened him, that girl, through his unrequited love for whom, he -knew, he felt, that all his better qualities had been driven out of -him--preparing to meet her death nobly, valiantly?</p> - -<p class="normal">The sight he saw might have struck horror to a bolder, a -better man than he. A sight more fitting to meet the eyes of one who gazed into -a catacomb or charnel-house than into what had been, not long before, a pretty, -bright saloon. Mrs. Pooley lay flat upon her back, moaning feebly, her stout -body rolling backwards and forwards with every swing of the ship and every -plunge it made. The captain was on his face, and above him lay half the debris -of the shattered, sea-wrecked cabin.</p> - -<p class="normal">But Bella! She frightened, startled him!</p> - -<p class="normal">'The others may be dead,' he whispered, 'but she, surely she -is alive. God! how her eyes stare, yet--yet how lovely she is still.'</p> - -<p class="normal">The girl was sitting upright upon the saloon sofa, her hands -gripping the head of it as though, all unconscious as she appeared to be, she -still knew that she must do that to save herself from being flung down, and her -lips moved faintly. Then he wrenched the bottle of rum from out of his pocket, -he having put it there with a view to administering some to Gilbert when he -regained the deck, rival though he was, and moistened her lips with it.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Miss Waldron--Bella,' he whispered, allowing himself in those -last moments the luxury of calling her by the name that he had whispered so -often softly to himself. 'Bella! for God's sake, say something. Tell me that you -are not dying.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And she did whisper something--a word that he heard above all -the roar of the hurricane thundering aloft, above the awful concussions of the -ship's sides as again and again the tons of water struck at her, heavily, -savagely, and as, also, she struck at them in her maimed progress; above even -the rattle of ship's furniture rolling about, and the sickening thumps of the -unlashed piano as it beat against the stem of the mizzen-mast. She whispered a -word or so.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Gilbert,' those white, cold lips muttered; 'Gilbert, my -darling, we are dying together. Clasp me to your arms now. Hold me in them to -the end.'</p> - -<p class="normal">With a moan, not a curse!--a curse would not have availed or -eased him now--he started back in that dim cabin, hurling the bottle from him as -he did so. His rival! his rival! again, even now! His name the last word on her -lips, his image the last thing present to her in the hour of death. Then he fled -from the cabin back again to his post, back to the wheel to which he swore he -would lash himself, and so go down thinking of nothing but his duty. There was, -his fevered mind told him, nothing but that--but his duty--left. As he went -along he noticed, distraught though he was, that the vessel was making a kind of -rotatory movement under him; that she seemed, indeed, to be gliding round and -round in a circle although beaten back more than once by the awful force beneath -her.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He has left the wheel!' he cried, his swift and accurate -seaman's knowledge and intelligence telling him at once what had happened. 'Is -he mad--or dead?'</p> - -<p class="normal">And clutching, grasping at everything that offered a hold to -him, he forced himself back to where the wheel stood, only to find when there -that Gilbert was lying senseless by it. Senseless but not dead, as one thrust of -Charke's hand under the other's wet clothes, towards the region of the heart, -told him very well. An instant later he had resumed his hold on the spokes, and -was endeavouring to put the ship on her course before the howling winds, to keep -her straight on into the dark, impenetrable depth of blackness ahead of her.</p> - -<p class="normal">Again the marvel was that she did not go over, or did not -suddenly sink beneath the weight of water that was pouring in on all sides--sink -like a stone. And he began to tell himself now that, as she had borne up so -long, as the storm could, by no possibility, become worse and must, at last, -abate, there was still a hope. A hope of what? That he and Bella might both be -saved; be saved, and saved alone, together. 'She is alive and I am alive. The -others are dead, or dying. Oh, God! if she and I are spared----'</p> - -<p class="normal">But that sentence was never finished!</p> - -<p class="normal">For, as he partly uttered it there came an awful crash, a -crash that hurled him back, then flung him over and over on the poop--a -grinding, horrible concussion, followed by the most terrible thumps and by the -sudden cessation of the ship's passage. And, a moment later, the vessel heeled -over, though still beating and thumping heavily, so that now the water poured -into her forwards, and, gradually, her fore-part was entirely immersed. But -still the pounding and the awful grating continued, while growing worse and -worse.</p> - -<p class="normal">'She has struck,' he muttered to himself. 'Struck on a reef or -a rock. The end has truly come.'</p> - -<p class="normal">In a moment he had picked himself up from the poop-deck, and, -difficult as it was to move with the vessel beating backwards and forwards, had -dragged himself down to the saloon--down to where Bella was, the woman whom he -would save or die with.</p> - -<p class="normal">The lamp had gone out with the concussion. All was in -darkness, and, above the roar of the tempest outside, he could hear the -furniture beating about the saloon as the ship swayed and wrenched. Yet he went -on towards where he had left her ten minutes before; on towards the sofa on -which she had been sitting almost unconscious.</p> - -<p class="normal">She was not there he found, but, instead, lying insensible at -the foot of the sofa. Insensible, he knew, because, to his words, his summons, -she returned no answer. Then, in a moment, he had seized her in his arms, had -lifted her up, and, with her head upon his shoulder, was groping his way with -unsteady, stumbling feet towards the gangway.</p> - -<p class="normal">Her head upon his shoulder now, her hair brushing his face -now, in this moment, in the hour of destruction--for one, for both of them! Her -head upon his shoulder! And he a mortal man! It was beyond endurance; more than -he could bear! Acknowledging this, recognising it, he slightly moved, with the -hand which was around those shoulders, that face so close to him, that face so -close, so cold and chill--and kissed her long and passionately.</p> - -<p class="normal">'She will never know,' he muttered, 'never know. Yet--yet it -has made death sweeter. Death! the death that will be ours ere many more moments -have passed.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, near as that death was, so near as to be beyond all -doubt, as much beyond all doubt as that the rocking, shivering ship was breaking -up fast, he felt his way towards where he knew the life-buoys were, and rapidly -fitted one on to each of them; while, as he did so, he murmured again and again:</p> - -<p class="normal">'If any are saved it can only be she and I. Yet even of that -there is no hope.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XIX</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_19" href="#div1Ref_19">'I ALMOST DREADED THIS MAN ONCE'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">The Indian Ocean lay beneath the purple-scarlet rays of the -setting sun as calmly and as peacefully as though, across its treacherous bosom, -nothing more violent than a cat's-paw had ever swept. Indeed, so calm and -peaceful was the spaceless sheet of cobalt that, almost, one might have thought -he gazed upon some quiet tarn, or inland lake, shut in and warded off from any -breeze that might blow or any tempest that could ever roar. Only--he who should -stand upon the pebbly beach of a little island upon whose white stones the surf -hissed gently as it receded slowly and faintly--as though it were asleep and -languid--would have known that, for thousands of miles ahead of him, there was -nothing to oppose the tempests of the east and south, or prevent them from -lashing that now calm and placid ocean into madness, or from exerting their -powers of awful destruction.</p> - -<p class="normal">A little island set in that glittering, sapphire sea, with, -all around its circumference of five miles, a belt of white bleached stone and -sand, and with, inland and running up from the belt, green grassy slopes, in -which grew tall palm trees, vast bushes or tufts of bananas, orange and lemon -trees, mangoes and yams. There, too, were grassy dells through which limpid -streams of pure cool water ran until they mingled with the salt ocean; there the -wild turtle-dove cooed from guava and tamarind tree, the quails and guinea-fowls -ran about upon the white silvery sands; while, to complete all these natural -advantages, neither mosquito nor sandfly existed.</p> - -<p class="normal">A little island girt by coral reefs--the ocean's teeth, -strong, fierce, and jagged; teeth that can rip the copper sheathing off a -belated vessel as easily as a man can rip the skin from off the island's pink -and golden bananas; teeth that can thrust themselves a dozen or twenty feet into -the bowels of forlorn and castaway barks and tear them all to pieces as the tusk -of the 'must' elephant tears the bowels of its victims. A little island, one of -a thousand in that sometimes smiling, sometimes devilish, sea--such as are in -the Chagos Archipelago, or the Seychelles, or the Cormoras, and, like so many of -those islands, untrod, unvisited by man. Unvisited because, where all are -equally and bounteously supplied by Nature, there is no need for any ship to -draw near this solitary speck that is guarded from all approach by those belts -of coral, and also because, to this small island, there is no natural harbour -should rough winds blow.</p> - -<p class="normal">Now--as still the setting sun went swiftly down amidst its -regal panoply of purple and violet and crimson, while, above those hues, its -rays shot forth great fleaks and flames of amber gold--it was not uninhabited, -not desolate of all human life. Upon a grassy slope a man lay, his head bound up -with linen bands; one of his hands being swathed, too, in similar wrappings. And -his eyes were closed as though he were sleeping--or dead. To her who gazed on -him it seemed almost as if it must be the latter--the greater, the more -everlasting sleep, that had fallen on him.</p> - -<p class="normal">For there were two in this island now; she who thus looked -down on the prostrate man being a woman clad in a long dress, which once had -been of a soft, delicate white fabric, but, now, was stained and smeared with -many splashes and marks, and was rough and crumpled with hard usage and by the -effects of seawater. Her hair, too, was all dishevelled, uncombed and unbrushed; -tossed up in a great mass upon her head; bound with a piece of ordinary tape. -And still she was as beautiful as she had ever been; beautiful in this -negligence which was the result of shipwreck and of battling with tempest, of -cruel buffetings from merciless waves and jagged rocks--beautiful, though on her -face and in her eyes was now the sombre beauty of a despair and misery too deep -for words. For he whom she loved, he whose wife she was to have been, was not -upon that island with them, and had no more been heard of since, in the arms of -Stephen Charke, she had been plunged into the sea and, in those arms, borne to -safety and to life.</p> - -<p class="normal">She gazed down on him now, in the last glimmering beams of the -golden light that shot athwart the island, while regarding him with some -expression in her glance which caused that glance to be not altogether a reflex -of her own misery and despair. An expression that seemed to denote a supreme -pity, an almost divine regret for him who lay before, and beneath, her, in pain -and suffering.</p> - -<p class="normal">'How brave--how strong he was!' she murmured inwardly, her -lips not moving. 'How he fought with that storm--fought with Death to save me -and himself! No!' she broke off, still uttering her meditations to her own heart -alone--'why do him such injustice even in my thoughts? It was not to save us -both, but me alone. There was but one desire in his soul--to save me!'</p> - -<p class="normal">She turned and went to a small heap of fruit that she had -gathered earlier in the day, and selected one of the great pink bananas--pink -with a lustrous beauty which those who only see them when they arrive in -northern climes could never believe they have once possessed--then she took a -scooped-out cocoanut shell, and, going to a little babbling rill that ran -through the grassy defile, filled it with water. After which she returned to -where the other lay, and, kneeling by his side, gazed on him again.</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God!' she whispered. 'I almost dreaded him once. Feared -him for I knew not what. Feared him! Him! And he has been my saviour.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He seemed to know that she was by his side and near him; for, -even as she murmured these words to herself, Stephen Charke opened his eyes--a -faint smile appearing in them--and gazed into hers.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You are better?' she asked, as she gave him the shell with -the water in it, which he was not too weak to be able to take and raise to his -lips, while she tore off the rind of the banana. 'Your forehead,' she went on, -while putting her hand upon it calmly, as a sister might, 'is cooler. Are you -still in pain?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he answered. 'No--only very weak. Are--are--any more -saved from that?' and he directed his glance to where, two hundred yards off -from the island, lay something protruding above the water which looked like the -rounded back of a whale, but was, in truth, the torn and lacerated keel of the <i> -Emperor of the Moon</i>. In her last struggles--in her last convulsions as the -gale had hurled her on to the coral reef--she had turned almost completely over.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' she replied, her face an awful picture of despair and -anguish. 'None are saved but you and I. Oh!' and she buried that face in her -hands and wept aloud, piteously, heartbrokenly.</p> - -<p class="normal">'God rest their souls,' he said solemnly. 'God pity them! Why -I, too, should have been spared except to save you, I do not know. I might as -well have gone down with them.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No! no!' she cried. 'No, Mr. Charke. You must be spared for -better days, for greater things. Oh,' she exclaimed, 'how bravely you battled -with it all! Uncle told us,' she went on through her tears, 'when we were below -and before I became insensible, that your efforts were superhuman; that, if the -ship could be saved, it would be by you alone. And,' she continued, 'how you -saved me I do not know. Only--only--I wish I had gone with him, with Gilbert.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Nay,' he said--'nay. Do not say that. And--and--I ask you to -believe that, had it been possible, I would have saved him too. But it was -impossible. Impossible to so much as slip a life-buoy over his shoulders. The -end was at hand, the ship broken in half. It was impossible,' he repeated -earnestly.</p> - -<p class="normal">'How,' she asked, as she sat by his side gazing out across the -calm, waveless sea through the fast-coming tropic night, and watching the great -stars--almost as big as northern moons---sparkling, incandescent like, in the -blue heavens above--'how did you do it? I remember nothing till I found myself -lying there,' and she pointed down to the white sand, from which there came, -through the sultry night, the gentle hiss of the sea, 'and saw you lying near -me, and dead, as I thought.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Nor do I remember, or only very little more than you can do. -I dragged you from the saloon, and, after fixing a life-buoy on to each of us, -leaped into the sea with you, striking out vigorously to avoid the ship. And I -can recall my battlings with the waves for a few moments--only a few--then -feeling my breath knocked out of me. And, then, nothing more until I came to and -found you looking at me here. It was the life-buoys that saved us.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'In God's mercy. Under His Providence. Yet--yet--if it were -not wicked to say so--if it were not for my poor dear mother at -home--I--should----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, no!' he almost moaned. 'No, no! Not that!' Then, after a -moment or so of silence, he said: 'Do you know how long we have been here? Can -you guess?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'This is the second night, I suppose,' she answered. 'When I -came-to yesterday morning, I imagine it was the first one after the wreck.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Possibly. And have you seen nothing pass at sea, either near -or far off?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Nothing. Yet I have gazed seaward all the time it has been -light on each day. Where do you think we are?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'If the island is uninhabited, I think it must be one of the -Cormora group, since it can scarcely be part of the Chagos Archipelago--they are -too far to the east. And all the others in the Indian Ocean--certainly in this -part of it--are inhabited.'</p> - -<p class="normal">She made no reply now--she did not say what almost every other -woman in her position would undoubtedly have said--namely, that she hoped they -would in some way be taken off the island. For, in absolute fact, she did not -hope so. To be saved from this desolation, to be put on board some ship which -might be going to any part of the world, even though that part should be England -itself, meant leaving Gilbert behind--leaving him to his ocean grave. And she -would not--certainly she would not yet--consent to believe that he had met with -such a grave. The <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> was still there, a part of her -above the water although she was almost turned upside down, or 'turned turtle,' -as she knew the sailors called it, and--and--might not some of those who were in -her when she struck be still sheltering, clinging to some portion of the wreck -that happened to be above water? She did not know much about ships, this awful, -fateful voyage being her only experience, wherefore she thought and hoped and -prayed that such a chance as this which she imagined in her mind might be -possible. While, too, she remembered that Gilbert and her uncle were both blind. -Therefore, if they were still alive, they could not cast themselves into the sea -to escape out of the vessel--they would not, indeed, know that there was an -island close to them, and, probably, would imagine that the ship was wrecked -upon some reef or rock, so that it would be doubly dangerous to venture to leave -her. And, again, even if they could by any wild chance have guessed that there -was an island near, how would they in their blindness have known which way to -proceed to reach it?</p> - -<p class="normal">Thus, by such arguments, she had endeavoured to solace her -sad, aching heart, and now, as she rose to leave Stephen Charke for the night, -she put into words the thoughts which had been present to her mind from almost -the first moment she had discovered that they themselves were saved.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Do you think,' she asked, standing there gazing down on him -once more--'do you think any who were in the ship when we escaped can be still -alive? Is there any hope of that?'</p> - -<p class="normal">He looked up at her swiftly as she made the suggestion, -then--because he felt that it was useless to encourage such vain -longings--because, also, he knew that such a thing was impossible--absolutely, -entirely impossible, he said: 'No, no! It cannot be. Those who were in the cabin -would be submerged as the ship went over, and those who were on the deck would -be thrown into the sea.'</p> - -<p class="normal">She gave a bitter sigh as he answered her--and it went to his -heart to hear that sigh, since now his pity for her was heroic, sublime, in its -self-abnegation--as great as were also his love and adoration; then she asked:</p> - -<p class="normal">'And where was Gilbert--Lieutenant Bampfyld?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He--he--was lying by the wheel. God pity him! He was a brave, -noble officer. Even in his blindness he had crept up to help at the wheel, and -was determined to do something towards saving the ship if possible. -Then--then--he fell down from exhaustion. He----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'--is dead!' she muttered, in a voice that sounded like a -knell. 'Dead! oh, my God! he is dead. I wish I were dead, too!'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XX</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_20" href="#div1Ref_20">'I DO BELIEVE YOU'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">She moved away from him now that the night was at hand, -intending to seek a little knoll that was hollowed out by Nature so that it -presented the appearance of a small cave of about six feet in depth and the same -in breadth. Above it there grew, tall, stately, and feathery, two cocoa trees -close together; around it trailed tropical creepers and huge-leaved plants which -bore upon them large white flowers. It was into this cave she had crept the -night before and had slept, and to it she now intended to go again, it being, as -she thought, better perhaps to pass the night there than in the open air. Yet, -had she but known, it offered her no necessary shelter, since, in truth, none -was required--especially at this season. Dews scarcely ever arose in the island, -there being little, if any, of that dampness at night for which the poisonous -deadly West Coast of Africa is so evilly renowned, and one might sleep in the -open air as free from the dangers of exhalations as in any closed place that -could be devised here.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, not being aware of this--as how should she who, hitherto, -had known so little of the world outside London--outside England?--she spoke to -Stephen Charke ere she left him for the night, saying: 'I wish there was -something to cover you with--something to protect you. Yet there is nothing--not -a rag.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is of no importance,' he said, looking up at her, and able -to see her face, pale and ghostlike, by the light of the stars. 'Of none -whatever. I shall be able to lie here and sleep very well. There is no fear of -damp or fever in all this locality. I know it well. And, tomorrow, I hope to be -able to get up and go about the island. Perhaps, beyond that mountain at the -back, there may be some signs of human habitation--of human life. Do not think -of me. Good-night. Sleep well. Try to sleep well.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Good-night,' she answered, 'Good-night'; and then she slowly -withdrew to the cave in the little knoll, and so left him.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, when she had gone, and had lain herself down upon the -soft, dry sand within that cave, sleep refused to come to her. The night before -she had slept long and soundly, perhaps because of all that she had gone -through, and because also she was battered and bruised and weak after her -immersion in the sea and the contact with the rocks. But to-night she could not -do so--her mind was now triumphant over her body; the hour of that mind's agony -was upon her. And she bent and swayed beneath this agony, and recognised, -acknowledged, all the ruin that had fallen on her future life and hopes and -dreams of happiness to come.</p> - -<p class="normal">Her lover, her future husband, was gone--was dead! Her heart -was broken; there was in actual fact no future before her. She had loved him -madly, blindly, almost from the first time she had set eyes on him, and now--now -he was dead. There was nothing more. She would never love any other man; none -other could ever find his way into her heart as Gilbert Bampfyld had done, nor -set every pulse and fibre in her body stirring, nor cause her to thank God when -she awoke each morning that another day had dawned when, even though she might -not see him, she could still pass many waking hours in thinking of him. No; no -other man would ever have the power to cause all that. Henceforth, if she ever -left this island alive, it would be to return to a joyless, hopeless life--a -woman widowed ere she had become a wife.</p> - -<p class="normal">Thus she thought and mused as she lay in the cave, her head -supported on one hand while she looked out on all that devilish, cruel waste of -waters which had hurled the ship to its destruction and slain almost every soul -on board her, and which now--like some wanton trampling on the ruin and despair -that she has caused--was smiling before her in the rays of a crescent moon that -was just peeping above the eastern horizon. Indeed, the glimmer which this young -moon sent shimmering along the tropical sea was not unlike the false sad smile -that a wanton's lips might wear in the hour of her victim's ruin; the smile that -bespeaks 'the painting of a sorrow, a face without a heart.'</p> - -<p class="normal">A little breeze sprang up now, a ripple soft as a lover's -kiss; balmy, too--as it played among all the rich tropical vegetation of the -island--as a young girl's pure breath, and she saw that her fellow-castaway -perceived it, since he turned himself so as to bring his face towards -it--doubtless to cool his heated frame and to get relief from the warm, tepid -air that hung all around--air that was like the atmosphere of a Turkish bath. -And this led her thoughts away from her own sorrows into the direction of those -griefs which must be his--towards this brave, valiant man, who had saved her -life at, as she knew must be the case, the risk of his own. His lot was also -sad, she recognised, sad because he loved her--as it would have been the merest -affectation for her to pretend to doubt--and because she knew that never could -this love obtain that which it hungered for. Yet, all the same, there had come -into her heart a feeling of intense sorrow for him; sorrow and pity that had -welled up into her bosom and was almost holy in its depth and purity.</p> - -<p class="normal">'To love and lose, as I have done,' she murmured; 'to love and -never win, as is the case with him. Oh, God! could there be aught to make our -bitterness--our lot--more terrible?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Suddenly, she started and raised herself higher with her -elbow, her nerves quivering, her heart beating violently, her eyes staring -intently into the shade beneath a copse, in which grew in wild profusion a -tangled mass of cocoa trees and tamarinds, of orange bushes and lemon trees, and -into which, now, the new moon's rays were glinting.</p> - -<p class="normal">For she had seen something moving there--something creeping, -crawling close to the ground--stealthily, secretly--as though desirous to -approach the spot where they were both so near together, without being heard or -seen.</p> - -<p class="normal">What new horror was this that approached them in the night, -that crept in ambush towards them as though intent on secret murder and attack? -What! Some native of this horrid region lusting for the stranger's blood, or -some wild beast as fierce!</p> - -<p class="normal">Her; tongue cleaved to her mouth--she could feel that the roof -of the latter was becoming dry--she tried to scream--and failed!</p> - -<p class="normal">And, still, close to the earth, that thing -crept--nearer--nearer--and once, as it either pushed some underbrush aside or -came more into view, a ray of the moon glistened on a pair of eyes, illuminating -the pupils for a moment. Then she found her voice and shrieked aloud:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Mr. Charke! Mr. Charke! There is something creeping towards -us. Save us! Save us!'</p> - -<p class="normal">In a moment he was endeavouring to spring to his feet, but -this he could not do owing to his soreness and contusions; yet, nevertheless, he -staggered up a moment later and gazed around, wishing that he had some weapon to -his hand.</p> - -<p class="normal">That cry of Bella's--it rang along the desolate beach as, may -be, no woman's voice had ever rung there before!--brought matters to a crisis. -There was a rush, a spring from the creature that had, by now, crawled so near -to them; a spring which hurled Charke back reeling as the thing passed him and -then brought it, itself, close to Bella, about and around whom it at once began -to gambol, rudely and roughly, as some great watch-dog might do who had found -its lost mistress.</p> - -<p class="normal">The creature was Bengalee, the tiger-cub, and, in some way, -it, if nothing else, was saved from the wreck of the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' cried Bella, half fearfully at its furious bounds and -leaps, which, even in her nervousness, she could not but construe into a wild, -savage joy on its part at once more being in her presence, 'it is Bengalee. Oh, -thank God!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Thank God?' Charke repeated, not understanding. 'Thank God -for what?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is a sign,' she said, 'a sign that we are not the only -ones who have escaped. Think! think! If this creature could get ashore, so--so -may others have done.'</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment he said nothing, contenting himself with watching -the exultation of the creature and in reflecting that it was her shriek which -had told it who those were to whom it had drawn so near--with, perhaps, if stung -by hunger and privation, a vastly different intention from that of fondling -either of them! And he did think of what she hinted in connection with its -safety and its having reached the island alive, as well as of that safety -pointing to the fact that others, that human beings, might also have done so. -Only--he knew, and knowing, refrained from saying, that her deduction was by no -means accurate. This animal had been on the deck when the ship heeled over on -the reef; it was confined only in a locker from which it might easily have -forced its way out in its terror, or, indeed, might have fallen out of it, but -it was an animal, and its blindness had left it! Gilbert Bampfyld had also been -on the deck, Charke remembered, but was still blind. There was no analogy -between the tiger-cub and any human soul on board.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You do not answer,' she said, as now Bengalee lay panting at -her feet, its rough evidences of delight having ceased for a time; 'you do not -speak. You think there is no likelihood of any others being saved from the -wreck?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I cannot think so. Heaven knows that, if I could comfort you -with such hopes, I would. But----'</p> - -<p class="normal">And now he repeated aloud those silent thoughts and arguments -of a moment ago; while, as he did so, he saw, in the moonlight, that she turned -from him, and he heard her whisper low: 'Heaven help me!'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, because her misery and woe struck like a knife to his -heart, he said:</p> - -<p class="normal">'To-morrow, if I am strong enough, as I think I shall be, I -will make a journey round the island and explore every spot upon it, where, -if--if any one should have, by God's mercy, been fortunate enough to reach the -land, I must light upon them. Believe me, nothing shall be left undone that I -can do.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I do believe you,' she cried; 'I do, indeed. Ah, Mr. Charke,' -she almost wailed, 'how good and noble you are! Oh that such goodness, such -nobility must go for ever unrequited!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'That,' he answered, and she, also, could see by the aid of -the moon's rays that on his face there came a wan smile, a smile that had not -even the ghost of happiness in it, 'that is not to be thought of--never. Let us -put away for ever all thoughts of my desires; let us think only of what we have -to do. To find, first, whether, in Providence, there should be any others who -have escaped from the wreck, and, next, how we are to escape out of this. If -there are other islands near here which are inhabited, no matter by whom or -what, it may be easy.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And if not?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Then we must wait until, by some signal or other which I may -devise, we can attract the attention of a passing vessel. Beyond this I can -think of nothing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' she exclaimed, 'much as I long to return home to -England, to my mother--I think only of her now, I have none other of whom to -think--yet--yet, ah, I could not go till I was sure, sure beyond all possibility -of doubt, that Gilbert was not here or somewhere near. Think, if he should be -still alive and blind and wounded! Here and unable to help himself. Oh, it would -be almost worse than to know that he was dead.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I do think,' Charke answered; 'I understand. And until we are -sure, one way or the other, we will not go: no, not even though rescue came -to-morrow.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, looking down at the tiger-cub which had now risen to its -feet again, and was pacing restlessly about with the sinuous, lithe movements -peculiar to its race, he said: 'But there is also one other thing that must be -done. That creature is now beyond control, even by you; and these beasts are -treacherous to the core. If it is to live, and we are to live also, it must be -secured--made prisoner. Otherwise something terrible will happen. I know it; -feel sure of it.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXI</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_21" href="#div1Ref_21">WASHED ASHORE</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">They had both slept again by the time that the morning broke -with the suddenness of the tropics, while the coming of the sun was heralded by -the pale primrose hue which all who have been between Capricorn and Cancer know -so well; that hue being followed by the vermilion and golden shafts of light, -and then by a deep blood-red tinge which suffused all the horizon. They had -slept uneasily, each in their place; with--outside, near the opening of the -little cave under the knoll--the tiger lying tranquilly as though keeping watch -and ward over her whom, probably, it deemed its friend and mistress. Yet, ever -and again, as she, while waking to regard it more than once--because of the fear -which Stephen's words had engendered in her mind--saw very well, its yellow eyes -peered out restlessly from their closed slits of eyelids, the pupil of each eye -being itself a horizontal slit only. And she acknowledged that Charke had spoken -aright, that the time had come for the creature to be either imprisoned or made -away with. All its evil instincts were undoubtedly being developed with its -growth; soon, they would have obtained their full force and be, perhaps, -exerted. It was time.</p> - -<p class="normal">But now the dawn was come, the blood-red of the Eastern sky -was plainly visible, and the birds of the island were twittering to each other -and pluming themselves; whereon the girl rose and left the cave, and passed -quietly by the creature lying so close to her as though in fear of arousing it. -In actual fear of it, indeed, since she did not know but that it might turn and -rend her at any moment. For it was big enough and strong enough to do so now, -its size being that of a large retriever, or a year-old mastiff; and she, or he, -even--that stalwart muscular sailor--would probably have had little chance -against it if it had set upon them, since both were unarmed and both were -weakened and broken down by their struggles in the tempest-tossed waves.</p> - -<p class="normal">Charke, seeing the girl rise from her recumbent position, rose -also, quickly and quietly, and came towards her, while as he did so he said: -'Now, to-day is the time for me to make that search round the island which I -promised you. We will but eat a little fruit, and then I will set out.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Shall I go with you?' she asked, as, taking up the cocoanut -shell, she turned to go towards the rivulet that ran at her feet, 'or is it -better for me to remain here? Perhaps, too, it may be more than I can do. Or, -indeed,' she hastened to add, 'more than you can accomplish in one day, and in -such heat as there will be. Oh, Mr. Charke,' she continued, 'you are not strong -enough to undertake it yet!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I feel strong enough this morning,' he replied, 'and, if I -cannot make the whole tour of the place in one day, I can at least do a -considerable part of it. I will begin at once, before the sun becomes too -fierce. But, as for you, perhaps it would be best if you stayed here. The -outlook from this portion of the island is, I think, the one from which any ship -that happened to pass would be most likely to be observed. You see, we look west -from here, towards where Africa lies, and vessels use that track in preference -to running more out into the open.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I will do anything you suggest,' she said. 'Anything you -think will be for the best. But'--and again there came upon her face that -stricken look which made his heart so sad for her, and which, whenever he -observed it, caused him to bury every sorrow for himself in a more profound and -unselfish one for her--'but--you know--I--I--at present--just at present--for a -day or so--do not wish to see a ship come here to rescue us.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I know, I know,' he answered, not daring to keep his eyes -fixed full upon that lovely but unhappy face. 'I know. Well, we will not look -out for rescue yet. But, still, I think you had better stay here. We do not know -for certain the size of this island; it is only guesswork on my part. It may be -too far a walk, too much of an undertaking for you. You are not afraid--of -that?' he continued, as he directed his eyes towards Bengalee, while seeing how, -as he was speaking, she, too, had let her glance fall upon the cub, which was -now pacing restlessly about at their feet.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' she said, 'I am not. Yet what you said in the night was -true. It is growing beyond control, and, of course, I know how treacherous and -savage these animals are. It was a piece of girlish folly on my part to beg poor -uncle to save it.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I scarcely know how we are to make away with it,' he replied. -'I have nothing but this,'--and he took from his pocket a little white-handled -penknife, which he had probably bought for a shilling off a card exposed in a -London shop window. 'I could hardly kill it with that. However, one thing is -certain, it will die of starvation ere long on this island. It cannot live on -fruit as we can, nor catch birds, and there are no signs of animals, not even -rats or mice, as far as I can see.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh, poor thing; what a dreadful death to die!' the girl -exclaimed, her pity at once awakened for a creature which had been more or less -her pet for some few weeks. Yet she hastened to ask if starvation did not make -such animals even more fierce than usual, and if the risk to them both would -not, thereby, be increased. Then, before he could reply, she suddenly exclaimed, -as her glance fell on the sea, 'What is that out there? Surely--surely--it is -not a drowned man? Oh, not that--not that!'</p> - -<p class="normal">Following the direction of that glance, he saw something -drifting about on the tranquil, almost rippleless, water over which by now the -rays of the risen sun were gleaming horizontally. Something that, since it was -end-on towards them and the island, was not easily to be distinguished, yet was, -all the same, undoubtedly no drowned man nor human body, alive or dead. At first -he thought it might be a dead shark--his knowledge of the sea telling him at -once that it was not a living one, since they never expose aught but the dorsal -fin when swimming--then, a second later, he recognised what the object was.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he exclaimed, anxious to appease her terrors at -once--while knowing to whom, and, above all others, to whose <i>dead</i> body -those terrors pointed--'No, that is no body, living or dead. Instead, it is one -of our quarter-boats. Washed out of the chocks when the ship turned on her side, -no doubt, and floating about ever since.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is coming nearer,' Bella exclaimed, her eyes still on it -and full of delight at hearing that in it there was, at least, no confirmation -of one awful fear; 'do you not think so?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Undoubtedly it is coming nearer. It will strike the shore -just there if the reef does not catch it'; and he pointed with sailor-like -certainty to a spot close by. 'It will be a mercy if it does.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Why? We could not escape from this place in that, could we?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Hundreds of sailors have escaped death in smaller boats than -that; ay, and lived for many days, too, on an open and rough sea in such boats. -But it is not for that only. If it comes ashore I can make a visit to the poor -old <i>Emperor</i> and find out something, if not all, that I--that we---want to -know. While, though we need not put to sea in it, we may use it to get to some -other island which is inhabited, by, perhaps, white men; but, anyhow, by some -one. It will be of the greatest assistance, especially as, since it floats, it -must be undamaged. I trust the oars, if not the sail, are in it.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And now, listening to his words, Bella became as eager for the -quarter-boat to come ashore as her companion was, and, together, they went down -to the spot he had indicated as that which the boat was likely to arrive at--a -spot about sixty yards from where they were.</p> - -<p class="normal">As Bella walked by her preserver's side she was wondering many -things, and especially if he would, indeed, be able now to discover what the -fate of the others in the <i>Emperor</i> had been, and, above all, if, by the -aid of this boat, he would be enabled to solve for her the question she hourly, -momentarily, asked herself by day and night--the question whether there was any -hope left of a life of happiness and bliss to be passed by her lover's side, or -whether, for her, the future could bring nothing but a joyless, heartbroken -existence henceforth. Also, she mused upon one other thing--namely, what Charke -was thinking of while, with his eyes never off the incoming boat, he meditated -deeply as, from his knit brows and fixed look, she felt sure he was doing. The -thoughts, those that actually were in his mind, he would, undoubtedly, not have -divulged, even though she had asked him to do so, since they were such as could -only have caused grief unspeakable. For he was thinking that, since this -quarter-boat had been washed out of the chocks and off the deck into the sea, -and had then floated about for forty-eight hours in the neighbourhood previous -to being directed by some subtle current to the island, so other things that -were on deck would be subject to the same conditions. The bodies of drowned men; -the body of her lover! He knew that the sea and its currents and tides work in -calm weather with as much regularity as the sun and the moon work in their -rising and setting, and, indeed, as the seasons themselves work; and he knew, -also, that if Gilbert's body--which was close to where the quarter-boat rested -when the ship struck--had been washed into the sea at the same time as it, then -it was most probable, nay, almost certain, that it also would come ashore at the -same spot and perhaps almost at the same time.</p> - -<p class="normal">What horror, what fresh horror, would that be for this poor -devoted girl to experience! For, in his own heart, he never doubted for one -moment that somewhere close at hand the body of Gilbert Bampfyld was floating -about.</p> - -<p class="normal">The boat was coming very close into the shore now, so close -that they could see that one oar was in it, but only one, and that there was -nothing else, while they observed, too, that the rudder was not fixed in the -braces. Yet that mattered little to Stephen Charke if he could only once get -possession of the boat itself, since with one oar on such a glossy sheet of -water as this ocean was now, he could propel and steer it easily enough.</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am glad, thankful, it is coming ashore,' he said now. 'I -had thought of swimming out to the ship, only I dreaded the sharks. Little use -as one's life may be, one would scarcely care to lose it by the jaws of those -brutes.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And, though he did not see it, the girl by his side gave him a -glance such as would, perhaps, have cheered his heart had he done so. 'Was not -her own life, also, of little enough use,' she asked herself as he spoke, 'to -make her sympathise with his remark? Would it not be a broken and dejected one, -henceforth, if that which she dreaded, which she had almost forced herself to -feel sure must be the case, should be proved to be so beyond all doubt before -many more hours had passed?' For every hope with which she had buoyed herself -was sinking in her breast, as moment after moment went by and the time grew -longer and longer since the wreck had taken place.</p> - -<p class="normal">The boat touched the white, pebbly beach now, grating on it -with a gentle scrape, and Stephen, who had gone close to the water's edge to -await its arrival, put out his hand, and, seizing first the stern and then the -painter, drew it a foot or two farther on shore. Then he got into it, and, -grasping the solitary oar which had remained in the boat simply because the -loom, or handle, had got caught beneath the stern thwart, prepared to shove off -in it.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You will not mind,' he said, as he did so, 'being left alone -for half an hour? This will not take me away from you for so long as when I go -round the island.' While she, in answer, shook her head to indicate that she was -not at all afraid of being left by herself.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_22" href="#div1Ref_22">A SAILOR'S KNIFE</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">'She is perfectly sound and watertight,' he called back to her -as, with the hand which was uninjured, he threw the oar over the boat's stern, -and worked her out from the shore. 'If we want her to help us off to another -island she will do it, if I can only find another oar floating about somewhere.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he propelled her as swiftly as he could to where the <i> -Emperor of the Moon</i> lay outside the rock, her keel and copper bottom -gleaming in the bright morning sun.</p> - -<p class="normal">As he drew near to the ship he began to perceive how all hope -of the likelihood that any one should still be alive and imprisoned in the ship -must be abandoned. She had turned over even more than he had at first imagined -when regarding her from the shore of the island, so that the keel was almost -level in a manner exactly the opposite from what sailors mean when they talk -about a 'level keel.' It stuck up now, so far as it was out of water, as some -sharp mountain ridge seems to stick up when regarded from a valley, and showed -an almost horizontal line; while, beneath the keel and above the water, for half -the length of the vessel, there was visible a portion of the outside of the main -hold, down to (or up from) her diagonal ribboned-lines. And, here, there was a -great gaping wound, a hole smashed into her side large enough to have let the -whole Indian Ocean pour into the devoted ship directly it was made, and -(although there might well be others which were not visible) sufficient to have -filled and sunk, forthwith, the largest vessel that was ever launched. The force -of the impact was to be appreciated, too, by the manner in which her copper -sheathing was driven into her and burst, so that, where the blow had been struck -by the jagged tooth of the rock, the latter looked like a destroyed <i> -chevaux-de-frise</i>, or, for a better comparison, a paper hoop through which an -acrobat had passed. And, in this burst and broken protection, as in other and -less terrible circumstances it might have been (though naturally it had proved -useless here), the sheathing-nails stuck out like brilliant, gleaming yellow -teeth, all broken and distorted.</p> - -<p class="normal">Charke brought the quarter-boat alongside the upturned or -leaning bottom, so that, by looking through this gaping wound, he could peer -into the now reversed decks and see that there lay, on what had once been the -roof of it but was now the floor, a mass of articles, such as is usually stowed -away in a ship's lower decks. A mass, composed of cables and old and new sails, -as well as some stores, consisting of dozens of tinned-meat cans unopened, boxes -of sardines, and so forth, and several old sea chests and trunks--all lying, of -course, helter-skelter, as they had been thrown together by the ship's reversal.</p> - -<p class="normal">'There are some things of use here,' Charke thought, 'and -worth taking away,' whereupon he ran the painter through a small hole in the -sheathing and tied it tightly, and then scrambled up the vessel's inverted side -until he was able to drop himself through the opening into the deck, taking care -that he tore neither his flesh nor his clothes in doing so. Being there, he -selected a small sail which he found; it was indeed, a boat sail, and had its -gear of mast and tackle attached, while, passing it through the orifice, he -dropped it carefully into the boat, and then he took next a few of the tins of -provisions, and dropped them into her, too. And, also, he found something which -would be to him, in the utterly unprovided condition in which Bella and he had -escaped to the island, of the greatest service. This was a long, sharp knife in -its leather sheath, such as sailors strap to their sides, and was new and in -good condition, so that he did not doubt that the last seaman who had been sent -below to this deck had dropped it there, and he was able to picture to himself -the man's annoyance, probably expressed aloud and with a good deal of vehemence -and strong language, over his loss. This done--and the doing of it had not taken -long--he prepared to leave the disordered hold, when he remembered that there -was one thing he wanted, namely, some cable. 'That tiger has to die at once,' he -muttered to himself. 'With a piece of stout rope and this knife--which would -slay anything, from a horse downwards--its death should not be difficult of -accomplishment.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, having selected two or three pieces of cable of -different strands, he got out through the hole again and into the boat.</p> - -<p class="normal">It is almost needless to write down that he found no sign of -human life as he rowed about and round the wrecked <i>Emperor of the Moon</i> -for some moments afterwards. Needless, too, perhaps, to add that he had never -expected to find any. He was a sailor, accustomed to disaster at sea and full -also of much acquired knowledge pertaining to many of the calamities which it -had never been his lot to experience heretofore; and he knew--he felt sure, and -would have staked his life upon the certainty of his convictions--that of all -who had been in that doomed ship an hour before she struck, none except Bella -Waldron and himself were now alive. Those who had been below in the cabins or -saloon, those also who were in forecastle or galley, had met, must have met, not -only with their deaths but their graves at one and the same time; while as for -the unhappy and blind young officer who had caused him so much heartache by -winning the woman whom he loved so fondly, and whom he had once hoped to -win--why, it was impossible that he should still be alive. If he had been washed -ashore, it could be only as a corpse, and it was most improbable that even that -should have happened. In truth, he believed that, with all the others, he had -been carried below by the overturning of the ship and then pinned down, buried, -beneath the mass of the fabric. Otherwise, since the boat had floated ashore, -so, too, would he have done by now.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The woman he had hoped to win,' he repeated softly to -himself, as still he sculled the quarter-boat round and round while peering down -into the dark blue depths as far as he could penetrate; and while endeavouring -also to perceive some sign or memorial--even so much as a cap or straw hat--of -one of those poor drowned sailors imprisoned below--'the woman he had hoped to -win!' And as the phrase rose to his mind, though not to his lips, he recalled as -well how he had cherished the thought of the length of voyage that had lain -before her ere she could join her lover in India; how, too, he had pondered on -half a hundred things which might happen ere the old <i>Emperor</i> should be -anchored in Bombay harbour. Almost, now, those meditations seemed to have been -prophetic--for what had not happened! The girl's lover was gone, removed by -death, and she had none other in the world on whom to lean but himself. And what -was more, she spoke kindly to him; she pitied him, he could well perceive; there -was something between them now, a deep sympathy, a reliance on each other in -their misfortunes, which had never existed before.</p> - -<p class="normal">'The woman he had hoped to win?' Well!--he scarce dared -whisper the thought to his longing heart, yet it was there!--the thought, the -hope that in days to come, in after-months, perhaps years, when her grief for -Gilbert Bampfyld was mellowed and softened by time, when she knew him better and -should fully recognise how profound his adoration for her was, he might still -win her! She could not, young as she was, and with all the years of a long life -before her, sorrow for ever--sorrow for a memory that would at last be nothing -but a shadow.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He <i>would</i> win her!' he said aloud to himself now, as he -worked the boat ashore, 'he was resolved he would.' The one obstacle in his path -was removed, the brave, gallant young officer was gone, brushed aside by Fate. -He would win her yet!</p> - -<p class="normal">He stepped ashore now to where she was standing watching him, -and it seemed almost--if his recent thoughts had not tinged his present fancies -with a roseate hue--that there was a look of greeting and welcome to him in her -eyes, even as she saw that he had come back--even at the ending of so short an -absence as his had been! Was she beginning now--now that she had none other in -the world to watch for--to desire to have him always near her? Ah, if that were -indeed so! Then--then he might win her at last.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You found,' she asked, speaking low, and in those sad tones -which had come into her voice of late, and since disaster had fallen heavily on -them, 'you found no sign of any others having been saved?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he said, also softly. 'No, there are no signs of that. -Miss Waldron--I am neither cruel nor hard of heart, but--oh, how can I say -it!--it is useless to hope.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Useless! Ah, well, I suppose it is--it must be! And, God help -me, it must also be borne.' Then she turned away from him with the desire to -prevent the tears which had risen to her eyes from being seen by him, and went -back to the shade of the trees under which she had been sitting until she saw -the quarter-boat returning with him in it. And he followed her, carrying the -cable which he brought away from the ship; the knife which he had found being in -his pocket and the sail with its gear left in the boat. The sun was terribly -fierce now, so fierce that to be beneath its rays for only a few moments was to -risk sunstroke or to be burnt more red than he had long since been, or she since -her exposure on the island; and, of course, he could not attempt the projected -tour of the place until that sun once more sank low in the west. There was, -therefore, nothing now to do but to sit idly gazing out to sea and watch for -signs of any ship which might pass near enough to perceive them, when they -should have erected signals.</p> - -<p class="normal">'After the tour round the island,' he said to her, as he sat -by her side beneath the palm trees and occupied his time in plaiting some of the -long, thick grass which grew at their feet into something that should serve for -hats, or, at least, coverings for their heads, 'after the tour, when we have had -the last sad satisfaction of knowing that there can be none who have escaped, -you will not object to my endeavouring to arrange for our being taken off? The -Mozambique Channel is full of ships on their way to India during the time of the -southwest monsoon--you will let me make signals, will you not?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I am in your hands,' she replied, her eyes on him. 'You must -do all that you think best. Ah, Mr. Charke, you do not know how grateful I feel -to you!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Never say that. Not a word. I knew, I thought, I could save -one besides myself, and, naturally,' he went on simply, 'I saved you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then both sat on musing and meditating in silence.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Here comes the tiger,' he said now, seeing the creature -stalking towards them in the lithe, treacherous manner peculiar to its race. 'I -imagine it has been endeavouring to find food. I brought off some tinned things -from the ship; yet, cruel as it seems to be, it is not advisable, I think, to -give it anything in the shape of flesh. Meanwhile, if it will only go to sleep -we ought to secure it,' and, as he spoke, he took up one of the pieces of cable -and commenced tying what is known to sailors as a double-diamond knot. But, -previously, he had fastened the other end securely round one of the palm trees -that grew close by him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'There will be one advantage in this,' he said, 'namely, that -the more it pulls against it the tighter will come the loop, so that its -intelligence will prevent it from straining at the rope and strangling itself.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Poor wretch,' Bella exclaimed, 'how gaunt and lean it is -growing! I recognise that it cannot be kept alive or even taken off with us when -we are found here; yet--yet I am sorry for it.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered, 'I understand that, but it has to be -done--must be done--it is imperative. In the state it is now in from hunger, and -also owing to its increasing strength, our lives are no longer safe with it, and -certainly not with it at large; while, if one of us were to scratch our hands, -or even get the slightest wound, and the creature smelt the blood, which it -would undoubtedly do--well, the result might be terrible. Now, see, it's going -to sleep; it appears exhausted. I must drop the loop over its head.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' she answered, 'let me do that. It is still very docile -with me,' and, as she spoke, she took the loop from his hand and, while patting -the creature's head--whereon it raised it as a dog will raise its head when -stroked by a loved hand--she dropped that hand down until the rope was round its -neck, though not without muttering some words of regret as to what she deemed -her treachery.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is no treachery,' he said, 'no more treachery, indeed, -than to tie up a mastiff in its kennel. And, even though it were, it would not -matter. These creatures are themselves the incarnation of treachery. However, -the main point is that it is now secure. It is not yet strong enough to burst -this rope.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Such was the case, yet it was strange that to so acute a mind -as Charke's there had not occurred the idea that it would not take a tiger very -long to gnaw a ship's rope through if it desired its release.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXIII</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_23" href="#div1Ref_23">'THE TIGER DID THAT'</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">When the sun began to drop towards where Africa lay, afar off -and invisible, and when (because of the dense foliage which crowned the slopes -of the island that rose behind the beach) that portion where they sat was -rapidly becoming shaded from its burning rays, Stephen Charke said that the time -had come for him to think of making his tour of the place, or, at least, of -accomplishing a part of it. The air, it is true, still resembled that which one -feels when they have approached too near to a furnace, or, for a further simile, -have descended into the engine-room of a steamer. Yet, now, there would be no -danger of sunstroke, and the expedition, such as it was, might very well be -undertaken.</p> - -<p class="normal">'My idea is,' Charke said, 'to begin now, this afternoon, by -starting to the left and going on along the shore until I am nearly opposite -this place on the other side of the island; then I will come back here, crossing -it, and to-morrow I will do the same thing with the other side. That way there -cannot be much left unexplored by to-morrow evening. What do you think?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I think,' Bella answered, 'that you are the most unselfish, -heroic man I ever knew. Ah, Mr. Charke,' she continued, 'I know very well why -you are doing this, why you are going to make this journey round the island. It -is to satisfy me, it is for my sake. If you were alone here you would never do -it, but occupy yourself only on thoughts of how to get away, and----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he said, 'no. Had I been the only person who got ashore -from the wreck I should, as a sailor, as a comrade of the others, have deemed it -my duty to make a thorough search through the island ere I took steps to quit -it. I shall have, as the survivor of the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, to make a -report----'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I understand,' she said quietly. 'I understand. Nothing that -you can say will make me feel my obligations to you any the less.'</p> - -<p class="normal">For Bella Waldron knew as well as Stephen Charke himself knew, -that what she had just said was the absolute fact; she knew that he was going to -undertake this fresh toil--for toil it was, after all he had gone through, after -his bruises and buffeting with the waves, and in this terrible torrid-zone -heat--for her and on her account alone. He was going to undertake it with the -desire of easing her heart and preventing her, in after-years, from being able -to reproach herself with having left the spot while any chance remained of there -being one of those who were dear to her upon it.</p> - -<p class="normal">She was, too, perfectly aware that he did not for one moment -believe--alas! how could he, a trained, intelligent seaman, believe?--that there -was any other soul left alive out of all those who had been in the ill-fated -vessel when she struck on the rock. And, being thus unable to believe, could she -regard him as aught else than that which a moment before she had termed him, 'a -most unselfish, heroic man'?</p> - -<p class="normal">Before he left her he asked if she would not partake of some -of the tinned meats, or sardines, which he had managed to obtain from the -upturned hold, but as the girl replied that it was far too hot to eat anything -but the wild fruit growing in such profusion all around, and also that she was -not hungry, he decided that he would not open one of the tins for himself. He, -too, could do very well on what there was to their hands for the trouble of -picking, since, here, in this tropical, steaming atmosphere, eating scarcely -seemed a necessity of life; while, if it were, then those glorious bananas whose -golden and crimson hues merged so superbly into each other were amply -sufficient. But, also, he had another reason for not opening the preserved meat. -The odour of it would--might--arouse the cub's desires, and, once aroused, they -would possibly stir the animal almost to frenzy if ungratified.</p> - -<p class="normal">He rose now and prepared to set out, there being still two -full hours of daylight left; two full hours ere the sun would be gone and the -swift, dark night had fallen at once upon all around--the outcome of a dusky -veil which the sun appears to fling behind it as it departs, and out of which -emerges black obscurity, lit only by the burning, silvery constellations. But, -ere he went, he asked if she feared to be left alone for so long.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' she replied, 'no. Why should I? What is there to hurt me -here?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'There may be people on the island all the same,' he replied, -'even if they have not yet discovered our presence; although I do not think it -likely.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Nor do I. If there were they would by now, in two days, have -observed that,'--and she pointed towards the wreck--'and have come down to it. -We are alone,' she concluded with a sigh. 'There is no one else here but you and -I.' And still again she sighed.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered, understanding all that her words meant, -all the heartbrokenness that they expressed. 'Yes, we are alone; there are no -others.' After which he left her, saying that, by dark, or very shortly -afterwards, he would be back again.</p> - -<p class="normal">When he had departed, after looking round once to wave his -hand ere a bend of the shore hid him from her view (and she noticed that, true -to his sailor's instincts, he went towards the boat and inspected it, and then -drew it up a little more on to the white-pebbled beach and made the painter more -secure), she went down to the rivulet and cooled her face and hands and feet in -it, and made some attempt at arranging her hair, while using the stream as a -mirror. Yet it was little enough that she could do in the way of a toilet, since -she had nothing that would serve as a comb nor any soap or towel. After which, -feeling refreshed, nevertheless, by this attempt, she returned to where she had -been sitting and gazed out seaward, meditating deeply.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What an end,' she murmured, as she did so, while from her -eyes the tears flowed freely now--the more so because there was none to observe -them--'what an end to all! Gilbert, who was to have been my husband, dead! -Gilbert, whom I so loved with my whole heart and soul, dead! and lying beneath -that ship. Oh, Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert, my love, come back to me. And my poor -uncle and aunt, too. Oh, God, what a disaster! What a disaster!'</p> - -<p class="normal">And now she wept piteously, so piteously that, if that other -man, who had risked his own chances to save her as well as himself, could have -seen her, the sight would have gone near to break his heart. That other man! At -this moment her thoughts turned to him too. Almost unconsciously she found -herself thinking of him, speculating on what his future would be. 'He will never -marry,' she murmured. 'I know it. Feel sure of it. It would be the idlest -affectation to ignore his sentiments for me. Yet--yet--how sad, how mournful a -life must his be henceforth; no home to go to, no wife to welcome him, none to -make him happy. Poor Mr. Charke. Poor Stephen. Our lots will be similar, we must -be friends, always friends.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Meanwhile, he was making his way along the beach, which was -still shaded from the sun and becoming, indeed, more and more so as he -progressed farther round the island, away from the west. And every step which he -took served only to confirm him in what he had believed, known from the -first--the unlikelihood of there being any other person saved from the wreck.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Surely,' he muttered to himself, 'if he should have drifted -ashore, it would have been here. The current sets this way, and also the monsoon -blows towards this island. Living or dead, he would have come to this -neighbourhood if he had come at all. The tiger did that, and, doubtless----'</p> - -<p class="normal">He paused at those words. 'The tiger did that!' and for a -moment it seemed to him that his heart stood still. 'The tiger did that!' Ay, -but did it? Was he wrong in the surmise, wrong in his deduction? Did the cub -land here or hereabouts? Reflecting, recalling the night before, the early dawn, -when Bella shrieked to him and awoke him from a half-slumber into which he had -fallen, he recollected that the beast had sprung forth from the copse of orange -and lemon trees that was to the right of the little spot where he had waded -ashore with the girl in his arms, and where, after carrying her up far above the -waterline, he had dropped senseless. It had sprung at them from the right side, -was coming from the right; and it was not to be believed, it was, indeed, beyond -all belief, that it could previously have passed across where they were from the -other side without having been noticed by one of them, especially by Bella, who -was wide awake. It was coming from the right; it had, doubtless, therefore, got -ashore, been cast ashore, to the right. And he was seeking for signs on--had set -out to--the left! Had he, therefore, chosen the most unlikely place in which, -if, by the most remote chance, any human being should have been washed ashore, -to discover them?</p> - -<p class="normal">'Shall I go back,' he mused, 'and begin again on the other -side? Shall I?' Yet, as he meditated, he reflected that there would be little -use in doing so; certainly little use in doing so to-day. An hour had now -passed, or nearly so, since he quitted Bella; the sun, he knew, since he could -no longer see it, was sinking fast--over the whole of the rich, luxurious -vegetation that stretched inland there was now the golden hue, the amber light -that, in the tropics, follows after the dazzling, blinding, molten brilliancy of -the noontide, directly the sun is no longer vertically above the globe. And -also, there was the odour of the coming night all about him, the odour of the -declining day when, from every fruit and flower that has drooped through the -hottest hours of the earlier portions of that day, there exudes the luscious, -sickly scent that travellers know so well.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he said to himself, 'no. It would be little use to turn -back now or to begin again to-night! And--and,' he murmured, thinking deeply as -he did so, 'even though he had been cast ashore, he could not now be alive. -Blind--unable to see his way--to find any of all the fruit that grows here in -such profusion, poor Bampfyld would succumb to starvation, even if the life had -not been beaten out of him by the waves.'</p> - -<p class="normal">It was of Gilbert Bampfyld alone that he thought, of him alone -about whom he speculated, since, of all the others who had been in the -<i>Emperor of the Moon</i>, he was the only one whose body could by any -possibility have come ashore. They, those others, Pooley and his wife, were in -the submerged cabin, no power on earth could have got them out of it; any men -left in the galley and the forecastle were in as equally bad a plight. Nothing -could have saved them, or have even released their bodies. But, as he thought of -Gilbert Bampfyld, so he felt sure that he also must have perished, even though -he was not thus below as those others had been. Still musing on all this, but -with one other image ever present to his mind--the image of the woman he -loved--dishevelled and storm-beaten, but always beautiful--the woman of whom, -now, he began to dream once more, to dream of winning for his own in some -distant day--he went on along the beach, his eyes glancing everywhere around and -near him. Glancing into the wild, tangled vegetation, along the channels of the -rivulet's courses, but sometimes with them fixed on the beach.</p> - -<p class="normal">Suddenly he stopped, his heart quivering again, beating fast.</p> - -<p class="normal">At his feet there lay a sailor's rough jacket, and, a little -farther off, a cap--a common, blue-flannel thing, such as the mercantile sailor -buys for a few pence at a Ratcliffe Highway slop-shop.</p> - -<p class="normal">He stopped, regarding them--not with that agitation which the -greatest romancer who ever lived has depicted as clutching at Crusoe's heart -when he saw the footmarks, but, instead, with a feeling of astonishment; yet a -feeling of astonishment which, he told himself, he, a sailor, ought not to -experience.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Do not all wrecks,' he muttered, 'send forth around them -countless articles of débris, countless portions of the raffle that encumbers -their decks? What more likely than that a sailor's jacket and a cap should have -floated ashore?'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he stooped, and, feeling them, found that they were -thoroughly dry, so that they must have been ashore for some hours at least, -since even the fierce sun of the now declining day could not have dried them in -less time, all soaked with water as they had been.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXIV</h4> - -<h4><a name="div1_24" href="#div1Ref_24">BEATEN! DEFEATED!</a></h4> - -<p class="normal">'No,' he said to Bella some time later, and when he had -returned to her, 'no other signs than these. Nothing,' while, as he spoke, he -pointed to the jacket and cap at his feet. He had brought them with him after -the discovery, thinking that perhaps they might be useful when the time came for -them to set out in the quarter-boat, as he fully imagined they would have to do, -thereby to reach some other island.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yet,' she whispered, 'if they, if this animal, too,' -indicating Bengalee, who now, what with his being made prisoner by the rope and -also by his long fasting, displayed a horrible state of nervous agitation, a -state which frightened Bella and rendered even Charke very uneasy, 'if they -could be thrown ashore, why not others? Mr. Charke, do you think there is any -hope?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I cannot buoy you up by saying that I do think so,' he -answered. 'Yet be assured of one thing--you will know soon now. To-morrow, at -the first sign of dawn, I set out to accomplish the inspection of the other half -of the island. It is smaller even than I thought; it will not take long.'</p> - -<p class="normal">And at daybreak he roused himself to carry out his -undertaking, though, even as he rose from the warm, soft sand on which he had -lain, he knew, he felt sure, that he was going on a bootless task. Again and -again he had told himself, through the night, that, even though Gilbert -Bampfyld's body had reached the island, it had never done so with life in it. -Yet he would make sure for her sake and for his.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Heaven bless you,' she exclaimed from where she also rose as -she saw him do so, and while going towards him. 'Heaven bless you. You spare -yourself no trouble nor fatigue on my account.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It is best,' he answered, though he scarcely knew what reply -to make. 'It is best that there should be no chance lost. If--if----' Then he -held out his hand to her as he had not done before, and at once, after she had -taken it, set out upon the remaining portion of his search. And, for some reason -which he, perhaps, could not have explained to himself, he cast back no last -look at her in the swift-coming daylight--nor gave any word of farewell as he -had done on the previous afternoon.</p> - -<p class="normal">That daylight brought a little breeze with it which was cool -and soft as it came off the ocean that, for some hours, had been free from the -burning rays of the sun; and Charke made his way along the beach while glancing -everywhere, as he had done during his search of yesterday,--into every spot -wherein, if any one, anything, had come ashore, they would probably have been -cast. But as it had been when he proceeded towards the left or south, so it was -now as he went towards the right or north end of the island. He found nothing; -not even, this time, a rag of clothing or a spar from the ship. He observed, -however, amongst other things of which his vigilant eyes took notice, that here -the formation of the island was considerably different from what it had been on -the southern side. There, as he made his way back inland to Bella, cutting -across from the eastern to the western shore, he had found the glades and groves -almost flat, except for small knolls and little eminences on which, as -everywhere else, there grew the long, deep-green grass, the cocoa trees and -tamarinds, and the flowering shrubs and bushes. But here, upon the side he was -now following, all was very different. Inland, he could perceive that the -surface rose until it developed into quite high hills, and that those hills, -forming into spurs as they ran down to the water's edge, created a number of -little bays or coves, some of them being scarcely more than fifty yards in -breadth. Also he perceived that on high, where the crests or summits of these -spurs were, their sides were abrupt declivities resembling often the sheer sides -of cliffs instead of sloping gradually and being covered by the deep -emerald-green, velvety grass. And they were white as English cliffs--as those of -Dover!--and, sometimes, as precipitous. Huge masses, too, of fallen, crumbling -rock lay tumbled together at their base and in the tiny valleys which they -formed between them, and gave, thereby, signs of either a convulsion which had -some time or another taken place, or of their lack of solidity and insecure -composition. 'I shall have,' Charke thought, 'a mountainous, up-and-down kind of -return journey if I go back to her inland. Yet it will cut off a good deal of -the way and make it easier for me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He found as he progressed, however, that soon, if he wished to -continue his inspection of the whole of the coast, he would, in any -circumstances, have to continue his walk more or less inland, since now he could -observe, by looking about, that the spurs ran quite out into the sea, so that -they hid each little bay from its neighbour on either side of it. Consequently, -if he wished to inspect the space between each, he would have to mount to their -tops and thus peer down into the recesses that they formed. At present, however, -there was no necessity for him to do this. Still looking, he saw that there were -three more bays, or coves, which he could reach by walking between the feet of -the spurs and the water, the spurs stopping some yards short of the gentle surf -which the morning breeze was raising.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Three,' he said, 'three. This one where I am now, the first; -then two more. And, after that, I must ascend and gaze down. There will be no -getting farther along the bank.'</p> - -<p class="normal">So he entered the first cove, finding it as desolate and bare -as the others into which he glanced in his journey; bare of everything, and with -its white beach so void of all else but its own stones, that it might, that -morning, have been swept clean and clear. The second was the same, except that -here, upon its beach, there lay the long iron shank of an anchor with one arm -and fluke upon it, but with the other gone. An anchor that, he knew at a glance, -had never been made in recent days--that, by its quaint form, must be some -centuries old. And, even as he continued his journey, he wondered how it had -come there, and if, in long-forgotten and unnumbered years, some toilers of the -sea had been flung ashore in this spot, and if this was all that had been left -by time to hint at the story.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he entered the third, and last, bay or cove which -remained passable by the shoreway--the last he would be able to inspect until he -ascended to the cliffs above.</p> - -<p class="normal">As he did so he started--knowing, feeling, that beneath his -bronze and sunburn he had turned white--recognising that he was trembling with a -faint, nervous tremor. For this cove to which he had penetrated was different -from the previous ones; it ran back between the two spurs which formed its walls -until it merged into the wooded, grassy declivity that sloped down from above, -while, at the foot of that declivity, was more grass forming a little carpeted -ravine and, growing on it, some of the island trees--orange trees, lemon trees, -even bananas.</p> - -<p class="normal">And on the grass there lay a man. Dead or asleep!</p> - -<p class="normal">A man, fair-haired, clad in a white drill suit with brass -buttons--they glistened now in the rays of the risen sun!--the white uniform of -the Royal Navy. A man who was Gilbert Bampfyld.</p> - -<p class="normal">His heart like ice within his breast--all was lost now, every -hope gone that, of late, he had once again begun to cherish!--Stephen Charke -advanced to where that man lay, and, approaching noiselessly, looked down on -him. Looked down and recognised that here was no sign of death or coming death; -that the man was sleeping peacefully and calmly; that he was rescued for the -second time within the last month from a sudden doom.</p> - -<p class="normal">He also saw something else--he observed that Bampfyld had -recovered his sight. This he could not doubt. Near him was some fruit which he -must have gathered recently. And he had pulled down some of the branches of the -trees which grew close by, and had shed them of their leaves, upon which he was -now lying, they making an easier pallet than the grass alone would have done, -while Charke perceived, also, that he had been fashioning a sturdy branch of the -tamarind into a stout stick. Doubtless, he had recovered his sight through the -shock of his immersion, when the ship heeled over.</p> - -<p class="normal">Strong, determined, masterful as Stephen Charke had been -through all the disasters which had overwhelmed the <i>Emperor of the Moon</i>; -brave and stalwart as he had shown himself when, with none other left to command -the doomed ship but himself, he had helped to furl and unfurl sails, to steer -like any ordinary seaman at the wheel, and to endeavour manfully to hold the -vessel up and ward off instant destruction--he was beaten now. Beaten! defeated! -And he felt suddenly feeble, so feeble that he was forced to sit down by the -saved man's side, while doing it so quietly that the other did not awaken.</p> - -<p class="normal">Beaten! defeated! Ay, and with nothing left of prospect in the -future, nor ever any hope. Nothing! nothing! nothing! What had he hoped? he -found himself asking: what, in these last few days? What dreamt of? A home, a -wife; perhaps, in the future, children waiting for his return, running to meet -him and to beg for stories of the sea, of tempests surmounted, of dangers -passed. Now, there would never be any home, nor wife, nor children. Nothing! He -had loved one woman fondly, madly; the one woman in all the world for him. Until -ten minutes ago he had believed that, some day, he would win her. And, now, it -was never to be. His home would be the desolate home which the sailor ashore -inhabits; his existence a long series of toiling across the seas in any ship -wherein he could find employment, first one, then the other, for poor wages and -without one gleam of sunshine to cheer him. What a life! And--and it had seemed, -only an hour ago, that all was likely to be so different. She, Bella -Waldron--his love--no, not his! never his now--was being drawn towards him, she -relied on him, trusted in him; but, henceforth, she would need him no more. This -other had come back, would come back into her life again, and--he would go out -of it for ever. God! it was bitter.</p> - -<p class="normal">His hand, as he lifted it in his agony and let it fall again, -struck against something hard in his pocket. Thrusting it into the pocket, he -felt there the sailor's knife which he had found in the hold of the ship, and -drew it forth, regarding it. It was a good knife, he found himself reflecting, a -good knife. The man who owned it had kept it in excellent order, too; sharp and -keen. How he must have railed at losing it. And he, Stephen, had found it! A -good knife, long and stout-bladed, well pointed--a knife that would sever the -stoutest cable or----! Men had been slain with worse weapons than this. A blow -from it over the heart, under the left shoulder, and struck downwards--yes! such -blows must be struck downwards, or otherwise they might fail--and a life could -easily be taken. Easily--in a moment.</p> - -<p class="normal">It was a good knife, he thought again. As he opened it and ran -his finger along its tapering blade, and observed the thick, solid back which -that blade possessed, he could not but acknowledge this. The man who had owned -it and lost it had paid money for that knife. This was no slop-shop thing bought -of a thievish Whitechapel or Houndsditch Jew who preyed on poor seamen. A good -knife! He turned his head and looked at Gilbert Bampfyld lying there, still -sleeping peacefully; looked at the man whom he had come out to seek, and--had -found! Found as he had never expected to do, as he had never believed it -possible he should do.</p> - -<p class="normal">He looked at him, recognising all that his being there meant, -all that this third human existence on the island, where formerly there had been -but two persons, meant to him; the ruin that it cast upon his hopes. And again -he regarded the knife, holding it by the tip, weighing it, balancing it. It <i> -was</i> a good knife; one that would strike hard and sure.</p> - -<p class="normal">And, as he so thought, he rose from his seat, went down to -where the surf was beating violently now upon the beach, and flung the thing far -off into the sea.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he returned to the sleeping man, and, kneeling by his -side, shook his arm gently, saying:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Come, Lieutenant Bampfyld. Come! Wake up, rouse yourself.'</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXV</h4> -<br> -<p style="margin-left:20%;; font-size:smaller"><a name="div1_25" href="#div1Ref_25"> -I have loved my last,<br> -And that love was my first.</a></p> -<br> - -<p class="normal">'My God!' exclaimed Gilbert, as, beneath that light touch, he -awoke and saw Stephen Charke by his side, 'is it a dream! You--you here! Saved! -Thank God for all His mercies. I thought all were lost but me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, suddenly, even as he rose to his feet (limping on one of -them, as Charke saw, and grasping the tamarind cudgel he had cut himself as -though for support), he cried, lifting his other hand to his eyes--'But, Bella. -Oh, Bella, my darling! Are,' he added hoarsely, 'any others saved besides -yourself? Speak, put me out of my misery, one way or the other.'</p> - -<p class="normal">He saw, he must have seen, the answer in Stephen Charke's -eyes, for now he fell down on the leaves and grass at his feet and clasped his -hands as though thanking Heaven fervently for its mercies. But he could not -speak yet, nor for some moments, or only spoke to once more mutter incoherent -words of thanksgiving for this last crowning mercy.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' Charke said, and it seemed to himself as though his -voice was tuneless, dead--as if it came from him with difficulty. 'Yes, she is -saved; is safe. And she hopes always to see you again.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'But how? How? For God's sake, tell me that. She was in the -cabin--surely she was in the cabin--I left her there when I struggled to the -wheel. How was she saved?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I,' said Charke, 'was enabled to help her. We got ashore -together.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'To help her!' Gilbert said, looking into his eyes. 'To help -her! It was more than that, I know. I am a sailor as well as you; such help is -no light thing. Should you not rather say you risked your life for hers? You -could have done it in no other way.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' Charke said, 'I risked nothing. It was nothing. Any one -could have done it.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Again the other looked at him, knowing, feeling sure that the -man before him was refusing to take any credit for what he had done. Then he -said: 'Where is she? Can I see her at once, now? Soon?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'She is not far. Within two miles from here; she awaits, hopes -for, your coming.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Two miles! Heaven help me! I can scarcely crawl. Two miles, -and I think my ankle is sprained.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'She can come to you,' Charke replied, and the deadness, the -lack of tone in his voice, the lifelessness of it, was apparent to the listener -now, as well as to himself. 'I can fetch her.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Do! do! at once, I beseech you. Oh to see her, to see my girl -again. Yet, still I do not understand. How could she hope to ever see me in life -again, how await my coming? She could not dream, she could not dare to dream, -that I might be saved.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'She would not believe anything else. For myself,' Charke went -on, scorning to say that which was not the case, 'I did not believe you could be -saved. It seems to me now, as you stand before me, that a miracle must have been -worked in your behalf. And I told her so, mincing no matters. I told her you -must be dead. But she would not believe. Instead, she bade me, besought me to -search this island, though, to be honest, I considered it useless to do so. -Yesterday I took the other side, to-day this. And she was right. I--have found -you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">His tone was not aggressive, crisp and incisive though his -words might be, yet there was something in the former, and, perhaps, the latter, -which told Gilbert Bampfyld that the search he spoke of had been one of -chivalrous obedience to a helpless woman's request, and not one made at his own -desire. And he remembered how Bella had told him this man had loved her once, -and had hoped for her love in return. Well, no matter, he had saved her at what -must have been peril to his own life. He could not cavil at, nor feel hurt at, -the coldness of his speech.</p> - -<p class="normal">'What you have done,' he said, 'is more than words can repay; -and, even though they were sufficient, now is not the time for them. Mr. Charke, -can you bring her to me?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I will go at once. But--but she will, undoubtedly, be -anxious, excited to know something of how you were saved. As we return to you -she will desire to be told everything; will be impatient to hear. What shall I -tell her, over and above the greatest news of all, that you are restored to -her?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'There is not much to tell. As I was swept over the ship's -side my hand touched the port quarter-boat which was being thrown out at the -moment.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Ah! it has come ashore too.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'And, naturally, I clutched at it. I would not let go; I held -on like grim death, knowing that my only chance was in it. And, do you know, I -found that I could see again; distinctly, or almost so. I could see the waves, -the surf ahead; knew that some shore or coast was near. But, even as I -recognised this, wondering, too, why at the moment when I was doomed to be -drowned I should have this gift accorded me, I lost my hold on the boat and, a -moment later, was thrown ashore or, at least, touched bottom. And--and it was a -hard fight; I never thought to win through it. Each recoil of the waves tore me -back again only to find myself thrown forward with the next. Three times it -happened. Then--then, at last, when I knew that, on the next occasion, I should -have no breath left in my body, I was flung still farther on land than I had -been before, and, this time, I determined I would not be dragged back alive, so -I dug my foot and hands into the soft sand. I wrestled with those waves and I -beat them. They receded, leaving me spread-eagled on the shingle, free of them -for a moment, and, ere they could return and catch me again, I had scrambled out -of their reach.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Was that here, on this spot where we are now?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'No, it was farther that way, between a mile and two miles -farther.' And, as Gilbert Bampfyld spoke, he pointed with the stick in the -direction where Bella Waldron and Stephen Charke had taken up their quarters -since they had got ashore. Therefore, her lover had been close to them once, and -they had never known it! 'I stayed there one night,' Gilbert went on, 'then -feeling sure there were islands to the north--as there must be, you know--I came -this way. Only, I slipped on the beach and, I think, sprained my ankle, so that -I could get no farther.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'God has been very good to you,' Stephen said, 'and to her. -Now I will go and bring her here: it will not take long. Soon, very soon, you -will be together. You will be happy. In a couple of hours she will be here. It -would, perhaps, be in less time than that, only, you observe, the sea is rising -and the surf getting very high. We must come inland, above, by the cliffs. -Farewell till then.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Farewell. God bless you. Ah, Mr. Charke, if you could only -know my gratitude to you for saving her, also what happiness you have brought -into my life again. If you could only know that!'</p> - -<p class="normal">But Charke was on his way back to where he had left Bella -almost before Gilbert had concluded his sentence, and, beyond a backward wave of -his hand, had made no acknowledgment of his words.</p> - -<p class="normal">He climbed up to the summit of the cliffs easily enough, for -by now all his strength had come back to him, and he felt as vigorous as he had -ever done in his life. Yet, when he gained the top, he noticed that there was -still something wanting, some of the spring and elasticity which had -characterised the manner in which he had returned to Bella yesterday from the -other side of the island. Why was this, he asked himself? Why? But he could find -no answer to the question.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, perhaps, his musings on what he had heard half an hour -before were sufficient to have driven all the life, all the hope, out of him. -His musings on the change that this last half-hour had brought into his future. -God! his future.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He was there, close to us,' he reflected, 'and we neither of -us knew nor dreamt of it. I could have sworn it was impossible he should be -saved. She--well, she did not dare to hope. And for two days! For two days he -has been close to us, and--and in those two days what have I not pictured to -myself, what dreams have I not had! What a fool's paradise I have been imagining -for myself. Now, there is nothing before me. Nothing--now, or ever.'</p> - -<p class="normal">But still he forced himself to stride on, passing sometimes -beneath the cocoa trees that grew on the little upland, sometimes through open -glades in which the morning sun beat down upon his head with a fierceness only -inferior to the strength it would assume an hour or so later--yet he heeded -nothing. He felt that he must reach Bella as soon as possible and tell her -everything. There was no more joy left in existence for him, but he was the -bearer of news that would give her joy extreme, and--he loved her. Because he -did so he would not keep that news from her one moment longer than was -necessary. 'Yet,' he whispered to himself, while thinking thus, 'she would have -come to love me in his place some day, she would--she must. I divined it, saw -it. Now, it will never be. Never. My God! it is a long word.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he braced himself up still more and went on, until he -stood upon the summit of the little elevation which rose behind the spot that -they had made their resting-place.</p> - -<p class="normal">Perhaps she had seen him returning; perhaps she had had some -divination of his approach, since he perceived that she was coming towards him -and was mounting the ascent to meet him, her head protected by the cap of the -drowned sailor, while, over it, she held with one hand a great palm leaf to -protect her from the sun. Then, as they approached each other, she gave a -gasp--it was almost a shriek, and cried out:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Mr. Charke! Mr. Charke! What is the matter? What has -happened? You are ghastly pale beneath your bronze. And--and your face is -changed. What is it?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I come,' he said,--and now she gave another gasp, for his -voice was changed too,--'as the bearer of good--of great tidings. Of----, and he -paused. For as he spoke she, too, had turned white. Then, raising both her hands -to her breast, she stood panting before him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'He is saved!' she said. 'He is saved! Gilbert is saved. Is -that it? Are those the tidings?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Yes,' he answered. 'Yes. He is saved.'</p> - -<p class="normal">For a moment she stood before him, her hands still raised to -her bosom, then, suddenly, she swayed forward and would have fallen but that he -caught her in his arms, and, an instant later, had laid her on the soft grass, -while he ran down to the rivulet to fetch some water to revive her.</p> - -<p class="normal">This happened directly after he had returned, but, when he had -bathed her forehead and moistened her lips with the water, she soon sat up, -saying: 'Come, let us go to him. At once. We must go at once. Yet--why does he -not come to me?'</p> - -<p class="normal">'He has hurt his foot. But it is nothing. Only a sprain. If -you are recovered from your swoon let us set out. It is not far. We shall be -there soon.' Whereon he gave her his hand and assisted her to rise, repeating -that it was best to set out at once. And then they did so, he offering his arm -to assist her up the slope, while explaining that, owing to the increased -roughness of the sea, it was impossible to proceed by the beach to where her -lover was. And, next, he began the account of how he found Gilbert, and went -through with it almost uninterruptedly, she listening without saying a word -beyond now and again exclaiming, 'Poor Gilbert!' or 'Thank God!' Indeed, her -silence during his narrative was such that more than once he glanced down at -her, while wondering at that which seemed listlessness on her part.</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet he would have wronged her deeply had he really believed -her listless, since Bella Waldron would have been no true, honest, English girl -had she by this time become indifferent to the news that her betrothed was -saved. Indeed, in her heart she was thanking God again and again, and far more -often than she was giving outward utterance to those thanks, for having saved -her lover and preserved him to her---only! Only what? Only, that she knew how, -with their restored happiness, there had come to this other man--to him to whom -she owed her life and, with it, the possibility of being once more united to -Gilbert--a broken heart and the destruction of every hope of happiness that he -had cherished. She could see it in his face, hear it in his voice, discern it -even by the manner in which he walked by her side. That which she knew he hoped -for could never have been, she told herself; never, never, never! Had Gilbert -died, still it could never have been; none could ever have taken his place.</p> - -<p class="normal">But, she was a woman with a true woman's heart in her -breast--and her pity was womanly--sublime.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>CHAPTER XXVI</h4> -<br> -<p style="margin-left:20%; text-indent:-3%; font-size:smaller"><a name="div1_26" href="#div1Ref_26"> -"Here is my journey's end, here is my butt,<br> -And very seamark of my utmost sail."</a></p> -<br> - -<p class="normal">They had progressed so far towards the cliffs above the little -bay or cove, where Gilbert was, that now they had but to cross the summit of one -more spur and then they would be able to descend to him.</p> - -<p class="normal">'You will see him soon now,' Charke said to the girl, 'very -soon. Then you will be happy. To-night, he and I will arrange the signals that -may bring some succour to us. At any rate, it cannot be long in coming. If we -are where I think, hundreds of ships pass near here annually. And, at the worst, -one may live here very well for some time.'</p> - -<p class="normal">She heard his words, she missed no tone nor inflection of his -voice--but she could not answer him. It was impossible. For, though he spoke on -subjects which were appropriate enough to their surroundings, she knew that his -speech, instead of conveying his thoughts, was only used to hide them; and that -beneath what he said lay a sadness too deep for utterance. Therefore, she made -no attempt at reply, but contented herself with letting her eyes rest on his -face now and again, and then withdrawing them directly afterwards.</p> - -<p class="normal">Suddenly, however, and after having cast a glance backwards -across the little plateau which they had passed along, he exclaimed:</p> - -<p class="normal">'Why, Lieutenant Bampfyld will find another companion of his -in the poor old <i>Emperor</i> here to greet him. See, there comes Bengalee, -behind us. How has he broken away from the cable? It was stout enough to hold a -small frigate,' and, as she turned to look in the direction he had indicated, -she saw the tiger-cub coming after them along the plateau at a considerable -pace. Coming swiftly, too, and always with the lithe and hateful sinuosity which -marks the progress of the species.</p> - -<p class="normal">Then, as she, too, turned and saw its striped body winding in -and out beneath the tamarind and palm trees, she remembered that she had -observed it gnawing at the cable ere she set out, and told Stephen so. And she -also told him that it had seemed much excited at being left behind, and had made -considerable struggles to break loose when she moved away.</p> - -<p class="normal">'It will perhaps be appeased,' he answered, 'when it finds -itself once more with you. Poor wretch! its hunger must be frightful. -Yet--yet--how else to kill it? And killed it must be.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'I wish,' she said again, as she had so often said before, -'that I had never asked to have it saved. It would have been better to have let -it die in the sea.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Perhaps,' he answered. 'Perhaps. We can, however, leave it -here when we get taken off, and then it must take its chance.'</p> - -<p class="normal">They were now upon the last ridge of the spur beneath which he -had left Gilbert, and he told her that, in another moment, she would see him by -looking down. 'Indeed,' he said, 'if you glance over now you can see him, I -imagine.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he bade her hold his hand and lean over the lip of the -precipice, and trace the run of the hill seawards. Following his instructions, -she did so, when suddenly, below, they heard a rattling, a sliding as of a mass -of earth and stones slipping, and he felt a slight withdrawal, a sinking of the -ground, beneath their feet. He felt it and understood its significance in an -instant, while recalling the masses of fallen chalk and earth which he had -observed lying at the foot of this and other cliffs earlier in the day.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Back,' he cried, 'Back!' while, as he did so, he seized Bella -with his other hand as well as the one she already held, and sprang away from -the ridge, the violence of his action causing her to fall on her knees. Yet, -still knowing her danger--their danger--he dragged her back and saved her. -Though not a moment too soon--not an instant!--for, as he clutched at her, the -earth for a foot or so in front of them--the very portion of it on which they -had been standing! the very portion, indeed, across which he had but now drawn -her--gave way. It gave way, broke off in a long line, and fell with a crash to -the depths below, leaving an abyss above the spot over which he had drawn her.</p> - -<p class="normal">'My God!' she gasped, 'you have saved my life again! -Again--ah!'</p> - -<p class="normal">That last exclamation was, in truth, a shriek of dismay, of -awful agony, of terror in the extreme. For she, whose face was towards the way -they had come, as his back was towards it, saw that which he had no knowledge -of; that which paralysed her, struck her an instant after dumb with horror.</p> - -<p class="normal">She saw the tiger-cub close behind him and crouching for a -spring, she saw its devilish eyes gleaming like topazes, and she saw its body -hurled with tremendous force towards Charke as he stood looking down on her.</p> - -<p class="normal">Full at him it sprang, its savage jaws open and its forelegs -extended. And it partly missed him through passing on his left side, yet not -doing so altogether. Instead, it struck his left shoulder, spinning him round -like a drunken, reeling man, and causing him to stagger backwards towards the -chasm and, with a gasp, to fall over it and disappear.</p> - -<p class="normal">And Bella, left alone in that awful moment--for the tiger's -leap had carried it far over the cliff and to its own destruction--saw a man -below--her lover--shouting and gesticulating--and then she knew no more.</p> - -<p style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * * *</p> - -<p class="normal">An hour later, Stephen Charke lay on his back below the cliff, -his eyes upturned to the sun, which was by now peeping over the hill and -illuminating all the little valley with its rays--he lay there breathing his -last and with his back broken. By his side knelt Bella Waldron, while Gilbert -Bampfyld stood near, their faces the true index of their sorrow.</p> - -<p class="normal">'No,' Stephen whispered hoarsely, now, in answer to a question -from her. 'No. I feel no pain, nothing but the numbness of my back and lower -limbs. Nay, nay, do not weep.' Then he lowered the poor, feeble voice a little -more and whispered even more calmly to her--'I am content, well content. -And--it--is better so. There was no life, no future for me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Oh!' she said, wringing her hands while the tears streamed -from her eyes and dropped upon his upturned face. 'Oh! that you should have died -in saving me. That you, whom I honour so, should die at all--young, strong, as -you are. And through the outcome of my wilfulness, of my letting that creature -be saved. Saved to slay you. Ah! God, it is too hard!'</p> - -<p class="normal">'It thought,' he said, after a pause, during which she wiped -the drops from his forehead and moistened his lips, 'that I was attacking you. -Doubtless it did so. It hated me and loved you.' Then, he added to himself, 'As -all love you.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Gilbert,' she shrieked now to her lover, 'Gilbert, can -nothing be done; nothing to save him? Ah! perhaps his back is not broken; it may -be but a terrible fall--he may recover yet. Can we do nothing?'</p> - -<p class="normal">But it was Stephen who answered, 'Nothing.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Old chap,' said Gilbert, also close by him now, and kneeling -down to take his hand, 'is--is there anything you want done; any message sent to -any one at home? Only say the word. You know you can depend on me.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'If it can be,' the dying man said, and now his voice was very -low, almost inaudible, 'if you can have it done later, when you are found, bury -me--at--the--spot where she and I--came ashore. There, in the little knoll. You -know.' And his eyes sought hers. 'That is where I want--to lie--until we meet -again.'</p> - -<p class="normal">They could not answer him, their voices were no longer their -own; hardly could they see him through their tears, but still they were able to -tell him by their gestures that it should be as he desired. After which Gilbert -managed to rise to his feet and whisper in Bella's ears, 'He is--going--now. The -end is close at hand. Say--say "goodbye" to him, and--and kiss him. He deserves -it from you, and--I shall not grudge it.' Then, in his manliness, he turned away -from them.</p> - -<p class="normal">Perhaps the dying man guessed what had been said; and, because -he knew his hour had come, he opened his eyes for the last time and gazed -wistfully at her.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Goodbye,' he said. 'Farewell.'</p> - -<p class="normal">'Goodbye. Oh, God! that I should have to say it to you. -Goodbye--goodbye, Stephen,' and she stooped down and kissed the cold, white lips -of the man who had loved her so. And, next, she put her arm beneath his neck and -let his head lie on it, while, amidst the tempest of her sobs, she heard him -murmur feebly:</p> - -<p class="normal">'I loved you--from--the first--moment. I love--you--now.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then his head turned over on her arm and lay there motionless.</p> - -<p style="letter-spacing:1em">* * * * * *</p> - -<p class="normal">The wedding was over, Gilbert Bampfyld and Bella were man and -wife, the marriage having taken place at Capetown. While the only difference -between the ceremony and that which had been originally intended was that the -Archbishop of Capetown joined their hands instead of the Bishop of Bombay doing -so. Therefore, at last, these two loving hearts were made happy, and, in spite -of all that had threatened both Bella and her lover during the past few months, -the future now looked bright and cheerful.</p> - -<p class="normal">Not three days had elapsed since Stephen Charke's death when -Gilbert (who, with Bella, sat from sunrise to sunset beneath a clump of cocoa -trees on the highest point to which they could attain, he being soon able to -reach it quite easily by the aid of his cudgel and owing to the rapid -improvement in the sprain he had suffered from) saw a vessel not two miles away -from the island.</p> - -<p class="normal">'And I swear,' he exclaimed, 'one of Her Majesty's cruisers. -Look at those yellow funnels, one aft of the other. That's a cruiser right -enough. I wonder if it's the <i>Briseus</i>.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Then he fell to making every kind of signal which he could -devise when unprovided with the means of attracting her attention either by -pistol-shot or fire, and in about half an hour they had the joy of seeing one of -her cutters manned and lowered, and, a moment later, making for the shore.</p> - -<p class="normal">The cruiser turned out to be the <i>Clytie</i>, on her way -home from Calcutta to Plymouth, and, even as the cutter fetched the shore, the -coxswain recognised Gilbert as an officer with whom he had previously served. -Then he furnished him with the intelligence that he was reported dead.</p> - -<p class="normal">'Not yet,' said Gilbert; 'though, since I left the <i>Briseus</i>, -when in charge of her whaler, I have had two narrow escapes. Unfortunately, -others, with whom I have been in company, are so.' Then, briefly, he told the -man all that had happened to him, and stated that he was going to ask the -captain of the <i>Clytie</i> for a passage for himself and his future wife, the -young lady by his side.</p> - -<p class="normal">First, however, there was one thing to be done--namely, to -bury Stephen Charke in the place which he had indicated. This was a thing which -would now be very easy of accomplishment, since the sea was perfectly calm again -and the body could be easily carried from the spot where he had fallen to that -where he desired to be buried. But, to begin with, the permission of the captain -had to be obtained, which was done by signalling, and then the rest was easy. -Some more men were sent off in the second cutter, with the chaplain as well as -some spades for digging a grave, after which the sailors marched under Gilbert's -command to where he and Bella had covered up Stephen Charke's remains with palm -and other leaves that were within their reach, and then removed the body. And -very reverently was the interment performed, all standing round the spot with -the exception of Bella, who was so overcome that she had to be led away from the -grave.</p> - -<p class="normal">And so they laid him in it; and there, in the little solitary -island, they left him to his long sleep.</p> - -<p class="normal">Perhaps, nothing so much as his death--not even his heroism in -the stricken ship, nor his masterful strength in fighting the storm and the -waves, and in succeeding at the risk of his own life in saving that of the woman -whom he so tenderly loved--kept his memory green in both their hearts. Perhaps, -too, that last sacrifice which he made--his life!--at the moment when once more -he was preserving hers, furnishes the reason which again and again prompts -Gilbert to say to his wife, in a voice always full of a tone of regret for the -brave man who lies so far away:</p> - -<p class="normal">'After all, Bella, I am not sure that you chose the right one. -Poor Stephen Charke was the better man of the two.'</p> - -<p class="normal">Yet, when he observes the glance she gives him in return, he -is comforted by knowing that, in no circumstances, could that other have ever -won her heart as he did.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>FOOTNOTES</h4> - -<p class="hang1"><a name="div4_01" href="#div4Ref_01">Footnote 1</a>: This is -not fictitious. M. Constant made his speech to the Chamber of Deputies on June -17, 1820, and it contained all attributed to it above. It described how the crew -of <i>Le Rôdeur</i> were themselves struck down one by one soon after the -outbreak among the slaves, how many of the slaves were flung overboard to save -the cost of supporting them, and also how, while the ship was subject to this -terrible calamity, a Spanish slaver, named the <i>Leon</i>, spoke her, asking -for assistance, as almost every one on board her was stricken with sudden -blindness. <i>Le Rôdeur</i>, the account went on to say, eventually reached -Guadaloupe with only <i>one</i> man left who was not smitten, and he became -blind directly after he had brought the vessel into harbour. The Spaniard was -never heard of again.</p> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<h4>>THE END</h4> -<br> -<br> -<br> -<br> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seafarers, by John Bloundelle-Burton - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEAFARERS *** - -***** This file should be named 52548-h.htm or 52548-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/5/4/52548/ - -Produced by Charles Bowen from page scans provided by -Google Books (the University of California) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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