CHAPTER XXIV.
"Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth, ere It should the good ship so have swallowed." _Tempest_.
The arms of Dillon were released from their confinement by thecockswain, as a measure of humane caution against accidents, whenthey entered the surf; and the captive now availed himself of thecircumstance to bury his features in the folds of his attire, whenhe brooded over the events of the last few hours with that mixture ofmalignant passion and pusillanimous dread of the future, that formed thechief ingredients in his character. From this state of apparent quietudeneither Barnstable nor Tom seemed disposed to rouse him by theirremarks, for both were too much engaged with their own gloomyforebodings, to indulge in any unnecessary words. An occasionalejaculation from the former, as if to propitiate the spirit of thestorm, as he gazed on the troubled appearance of the elements, or acheering cry from the latter to animate his crew, alone were heard amidthe sullen roaring of the waters, and the mournful whistling of thewinds that swept heavily across the broad waste of the German Ocean.There might have been an hour consumed thus, in a vigorous strugglebetween the seamen and the growing billows, when the boat doubled thenorthern headland of the desired haven, and shot, at once, from itsboisterous passage along the margin of the breakers into the placidwaters of the sequestered bay, The passing blasts were still heardrushing above the high lands that surrounded, and, in fact, formed, theestuary; but the profound stillness of deep night pervaded the secretrecesses, along the unruffled surface of its waters. The shadows of thehills seemed to have accumulated, like a mass of gloom, in the centre ofthe basin, and though every eye involuntarily turned to search, it wasin vain that the anxious seamen endeavored to discover their littlevessel through its density. While the boat glided into this quiet scene,Barnstable anxiously observed:
"Everything is as still as death."
"God send it is not the stillness of death!" ejaculated the cockswain."Here, here," he continued, speaking in a lower tone, as if fearful ofbeing overheard, "here she lies, sir, more to port; look into the streakof clear sky above the marsh, on the starboard hand of the wood, there;that long black line is her maintopmast; I know it by the rake; andthere is her night-pennant fluttering about that bright star; ay, ay,sir, there go our own stars aloft yet, dancing among the stars in theheavens! God bless her! God bless her! she rides as easy and as quiet asa gull asleep!"
"I believe all in her sleep too," returned his commander. "Ha! byheaven, we have arrived in good time: the soldiers are moving!"
The quick eye of Barnstable had detected the glimmering of passinglanterns, as they flitted across the embrasures of the battery, and atthe next moment the guarded but distinct sounds of an active bustleon the decks of the schooner were plainly audible. The lieutenant wasrubbing his hands together, with a sort of ecstasy, that probably willnot be understood by the great majority of our readers, while long Tomwas actually indulging in a paroxysm of his low spiritless laughter,as these certain intimations of the safety of the Ariel, and of thevigilance of her crew, were conveyed to their ears; when the whole hulland taper spars of their floating home became unexpectedly visible, andthe sky, the placid basin, and the adjacent hills, were illuminated bya flash as sudden and as vivid as the keenest lightning. Both Barnstableand his cockswain seemed instinctively to strain their eyes towards theschooner, with an effort to surpass human vision; but ere the rollingreverberations of the report of a heavy piece of ordnance from theheights had commenced, the dull, whistling rush of the shot swept overtheir heads, like the moaning of a hurricane, and was succeeded by theplash of the waters, which was followed, in a breath, by the rattlingof the mass of iron, as it bounded with violent fury from rock to rock,shivering and tearing the fragments that lined the margin of the bay.
"A bad aim with the first gun generally leaves your enemy clean decks,"said the cockswain, with his deliberate sort of philosophy; "smoke makesbut dim spectacles; besides, the night always grows darkest as you calloff the morning watch."
"That boy is a miracle for his years!" rejoined the delightedlieutenant. "See, Tom, the younker has shifted his berth in the dark,and the Englishmen have fired by the day-range they must have taken, forwe left him in a direct line between the battery and yon hummock! Whatwould have become of us, if that heavy fellow had plunged upon ourdecks, and gone out below the water-line?"
"We should have sunk into English mud, for eternity, as sure as ourmetal and kentledge would have taken us down," responded Tom; "such apoint-blanker would have torn off a streak of our wales, outboard, andnot even left the marines time to say a prayer!--tend bow there!"
It is not to be supposed that the crew of the whale-boat continuedidle during this interchange of opinions between the lieutenant and hiscockswain; on the contrary, the sight of their vessel acted on them likea charm, and, believing that all necessity for caution was now over,they had expended their utmost strength in efforts that had alreadybrought them, as the last words of Tom indicated, to the side ofthe Ariel. Though every nerve of Barnstable was thrilling with theexcitement produced by his feelings passing from a state of the mostdoubtful apprehension to that of a revived and almost confident hope ofeffecting his escape, he assumed the command of his vessel with all thatstern but calm authority, that seamen find is most necessary to exertin the moments of extremest danger. Any one of the heavy shot that theirenemies continued to hurl from their heights into the darkness of thehaven he well knew must prove fatal to them, as it would, unavoidably,pass through the slight fabric of the Ariel, and open a passage tothe water that no means he possessed could remedy.--His mandates were,therefore, issued with a full perception of the critical nature of theemergency, but with that collectedness of manner, and intonation ofvoice, that were best adapted to enforce a ready and animated obedience.Under this impulse, the crew of the schooner soon got their anchor freedfrom the bottom, and, seizing their sweeps, they forced her by theirunited efforts directly in the face of the battery, under that shorewhose summit was now crowned with a canopy of smoke, that everydischarge of the ordnance tinged with dim colors, like the faintesttints that are reflected from the clouds towards a setting sun. So longas the seamen were enabled to keep their little bark under the cover ofthe hill, they were, of course, safe; but Barnstable perceived, as theyemerged from its shadow, and were drawing nigh the passage which ledinto the ocean, that the action of his sweeps would no longer avail themagainst the currents of air they encountered, neither would the darknessconceal their movements from his enemy, who had already employed men onthe shore to discern the position of the schooner. Throwing off at once,therefore, all appearance of disguise, he gave forth the word to spreadthe canvas of his vessel, in his ordinary cheerful manner.
"Let them do their worst now, Merry," he added; "we have brought them toa distance that I think will keep their iron above water, and we have nododge about us, younker!"
"It must be keener marksmen than the militia, or volunteers, orfencibles, or whatever they call themselves, behind yon grass-bank, tofrighten the saucy Ariel from the wind," returned the reckless boy;"but why have you brought Jonah aboard us again, sir? Look at him by thelight of the cabin lamp; he winks at every gun, as if he expected theshot would hull his own ugly yellow physiognomy. And what tidings havewe, sir, from Mr. Griffith and the marine?"
"Name him not," said Barnstable, pressing the shoulder on which helightly leaned, with a convulsive grasp, that caused the boy to yieldwith pain; "name him not, Merry; I want my temper and my faculties atthis moment undisturbed, and thinking of the wretch unfits me for myduty. But, there will come a time! Go forward, sir; we feel the wind,and have a narrow passage to work through."
The boy obeyed a mandate which was given in the usual prompt mannerof their profession, and which, he well understood, was intended tointimate that the distance which years and rank had created betweenthem, but which Barnstable often chose to forget while communing withMerry, was now to be resumed. The sails had been loosened and
set; and,as the vessel approached the throat of the passage, the gale, whichwas blowing with increasing violence, began to make a very sensibleimpression on the light bark. The cockswain, who, in the absence of mostof the inferior officers, had been acting, on the forecastle, the partof one who felt, from his years and experience, that he had some rightto advise, if not to command, at such a juncture, now walked to thestation which his commander had taken, near the helmsman, as if willingto place himself in the way of being seen.
"Well, Master Coffin," said Barnstable, who well understood thepropensity his old shipmate had to commune with him on all importantoccasions, "what think you of the cruise now? Those gentlemen on thehill make a great noise, but I have lost even the whistling of theirshot; one would think they could see our sails against the broad band oflight which is opening to seaward."
"Ay, ay, sir, they see us, and mean to hit us too; but we are runningacross their fire, and that with a ten-knot breeze; but, when we heavein stays, and get in a line with their guns, we shall see, and it maybe feel, more of their work than we do now; a thirty-two an't trained aseasily as a fowling-piece or a ducking-gun."
Barnstable was struck with the truth of this observation; but as thereexisted an immediate necessity for placing the schooner in the verysituation to which the other alluded, he gave his orders at once, andthe vessel came about, and ran with her head pointing towards the sea,in as short a time as we have taken to record it.
"There, they have us now, or never," cried the lieutenant, when theevolution was completed. "If we fetch to windward off the northernpoint, we shall lay out into the offing, and in ten minutes we mightlaugh at Queen Anne's pocket-piece, which, you know, old boy, sent aball from Dover to Calais."
"Ay, sir, I've heard of the gun," returned the grave seaman, "and alively piece it must have been, if the straits were always of the samewidth they are now. But I see that, Captain Barnstable, which is moredangerous than a dozen of the heaviest cannon that were ever cast canbe, at half a league's distance. The water is bubbling through our leescuppers, already, sir."
"And what of that? hav'n't I buried her guns often, and yet kept everyspar in her without crack or splinter?"
"Ay, ay, sir, you have done it, and can do it again, where there issea-room, which is all that a man wants for comfort in this life.But when we are out of these chops, we shall be embayed, with a heavynortheaster setting dead into the bight; it is that which I fear,Captain Barnstable, more than all the powder and ball in the wholeisland."
"And yet, Tom, the balls are not to be despised, either; those fellowshave found out their range, and send their iron within hail again: wewalk pretty fast, Mr. Coffin; but a thirty-two can cut-travel us, withthe best wind that ever blew."
Tom threw a cursory glance towards the battery, which had renewed itsfire with a spirit that denoted they saw their object, as he answered:
"It is never worth a man's while to strive to dodge a shot; for they areall commissioned to do their work, the same as a ship is commissioned tocruise in certain latitudes: but for the winds and the weather, theyare given for a seafaring man to guard against, by making or shorteningsail, as the case may be. Now, the headland to the southward stretchesfull three leagues to windward, and the shoals lie to the north; amongwhich God keep us from ever running this craft again!"
"We will beat her out of the bight, old fellow," cried the lieutenant;"we shall have a leg of three leagues in length to do it in."
"I have known longer legs too short," returned the cockswain, shakinghis head; "a tumbling sea, with a lee-tide, on a lee-shore, makes a sadlee-way."
The lieutenant was in the act of replying to this saying with a cheerfullaugh, when the whistling of a passing shot was instantly succeeded bya crash of splintered wood; and at the next moment the head of themainmast, after tottering for an instant in the gale, fell towards thedeck, bringing with it the mainsail, and the long line of topmast, thathad been bearing the emblems of America, as the cockswain had expressedit, among the stars of the heavens.
"That was a most unlucky hit!" Barnstable suffered to escape him in theconcern of the moment; but, instantly resuming all his collectedness ofmanner and voice, he gave his orders to clear the wreck, and secure thefluttering canvas.
The mournful forebodings of Tom seemed to vanish with the appearanceof a necessity for his exertions, and he was foremost among the crew inexecuting the orders of their commander. The loss of all the sail onthe mainmast forced the Ariel so much from her course, as to render itdifficult to weather the point, that jutted, under her lee, for somedistance into the ocean. This desirable object was, however, effectedby the skill of Barnstable, aided by the excellent properties of hisvessel; and the schooner, borne down by the power of the gale, fromwhose fury she had now no protection, passed heavily along the land,heading as far as possible from the breakers, while the seamen wereengaged in making their preparations to display as much of theirmainsail as the stump of the mast would allow them to spread. The firingfrom the battery ceased, as the Ariel rounded the little promontory;but Barnstable, whose gaze was now bent intently on the ocean, soonperceived that, as his cockswain had predicted, he had a much morethreatening danger to encounter, in the elements. When their damageswere repaired, so far as circumstances would permit, the cockswainreturned to his wonted station near the lieutenant; and after amomentary pause, during which his eyes roved over the rigging with aseaman's scrutiny, he resumed the discourse.
"It would have been better for us that the best man in the schoonershould have been dubb'd of a limb, by that shot, than that the Arielshould have lost her best leg; a mainsail close-reefed may be prudentcanvas as the wind blows, but it holds a poor luff to keep a craft towindward."
"What would you have, Tom Coffin?" retorted his commander. "You see shedraws ahead, and off-shore; do you expect a vessel to fly in the veryteeth of the gale? or would you have me ware and beach her at once?"
"I would have nothing, nothing, Captain Barnstable," returned the oldseaman, sensibly touched at his commander's displeasure; "you are asable as any man that ever trod a plank to work her into an offing; but,sir, when that soldier-officer told me of the scheme to sink the Arielat her anchor, there were such feelings come athwart my philosophy asnever crossed it afore. I thought I saw her a wrack, as plainly, ay, asplainly as you may see the stump of that mast; and, I will own it, forit's as natural to love the craft you sail in as it is to love one'sself, I will own that my manhood fetched a heavy lee-lurch at thesight."
"Away with ye, ye old sea-croaker! forward with ye, and see that thehead-sheets are trimmed flat. But hold! Come hither, Tom; if you havesights of wrecks, and sharks, and other beautiful objects, keepthem stowed in your own silly brain; don't make a ghost-parlor of myforecastle. The lads begin to look to leeward, now, oftener than Iwould have them. Go, sirrah, go, and take example from Mr. Merry, who isseated on your namesake there, and is singing as if he were a choristerin his father's church."
"Ah, Captain Barnstable, Mr. Merry is a boy, and knows nothing, so fearsnothing. But I shall obey your orders, sir; and if the men fall astarnthis gale, it sha'n't be for anything they'll hear from old Tom Coffin."
The cockswain lingered a moment, notwithstanding his promised obedience,and then ventured to request that:
"Captain Barnstable would please call Mr. Merry from the gun; for Iknow, from having followed the seas my natural life, that singing in agale is sure to bring the wind down upon a vessel the heavier; for Hewho rules the tempests is displeased that man's voice shall be heardwhen he chooses to send his own breath on the water."
Barnstable was at a loss whether to laugh at his cockswain's infirmity,or to yield to the impression which his earnest and solemn manner had apowerful tendency to produce, amid such a scene. But making an effortto shake off the superstitious awe that he felt creeping around his ownheart, the lieutenant relieved the mind of the worthy old seaman sofar as to call the careless boy from his perch, to his own side; whererespect for the sacred charact
er of the quarter-deck instantly put anend to the lively air he had been humming. Tom walked slowly forward,apparently much relieved by the reflection that he had effected soimportant an object.
The Ariel continued to struggle against the winds and ocean for severalhours longer, before the day broke on the tempestuous scene, and theanxious mariners were enabled to form a more accurate estimate of theirreal danger. As the violence of the gale increased, the canvas of theschooner had been gradually reduced, until she was unable to show morethan was absolutely necessary to prevent her driving helplessly on theland. Barnstable watched the appearance of the weather, as the lightslowly opened upon them, with an intense anxiety, which denoted that thepresentiments of the cockswain were no longer deemed idle. On lookingto windward, he beheld the green masses of water that were rolling intowards the land, with a violence that seemed irresistible, crowned withridges of foam; and there were moments when the air appeared filled withsparkling gems, as the rays of the rising sun fell upon the spray thatwas swept from wave to wave. Towards the land the view was still moreappalling. The cliffs, but a short half-league under the lee of theschooner, were, at all times, nearly hid from the eye by the pyramidsof water, which the furious element, so suddenly restrained in itsviolence, cast high into the air, as if seeking to overleap theboundaries that nature had fixed to its dominion. The whole coast,from the distant headland at the south to the well-known shoals thatstretched far beyond their course in the opposite direction, displayeda broad belt of foam, into which it would have been certain destructionfor the proudest ship that ever swam to enter. Still the Ariel floatedon the billows, lightly and in safety, though yielding to the impulsesof the waters, and, at times, appearing to be engulfed in the yawningchasm which apparently opened beneath her to receive the little fabric.The low rumor of acknowledged danger had found its way through theschooner, and the seamen, after fastening their hopeless looks on thesmall spot of canvas that they were still able to show to the tempest,would turn to view the dreary line of coast, that seemed to offer sogloomy an alternative. Even Dillon, to whom the report of their dangerhad found its way, crept from his place of concealment in the cabin,and moved about the decks unheeded, devouring, with greedy ears, suchopinions as fell from the lips of the sullen mariners.
At this moment of appalling apprehension, the cockswain exhibited thecalmest resignation. He knew all had been done that lay in the powerof man, to urge their little vessel from the land, and it was now tooevident to his experienced eyes that it had been done in vain; but,considering himself as a sort of fixture in the schooner, he was quiteprepared to abide her fate, be it for better or for worse. The settledlook of gloom that gathered around the frank brow of Barnstable was inno degree connected with any considerations of himself; but proceededfrom that sort of parental responsibility, from which the sea-commanderis never exempt. The discipline of the crew, however, still continuedperfect and unyielding. There had, it is true, been a slight movementmade by one or two of the older seamen, which indicated an intention todrown the apprehensions of death in ebriety; but Barnstable had calledfor his pistols, in a tone that checked the procedure instantly, and,although the fatal weapons were, untouched by him, left to lie exposedon the capstan, where they had been placed by his servant, not anothersymptom of insubordination appeared among the devoted crew. There waseven what to a landsman might seem an appalling affectation of attentionto the most trifling duties of the vessel; and the men who, it shouldseem, ought to be devoting the brief moments of their existence to themighty business of the hour, were constantly called to attend to themost trivial details of their profession. Ropes were coiled, and theslightest damages occasioned by the waves, which, at short intervals,swept across the low decks of the Ariel, were repaired, with the sameprecision and order as if she yet lay embayed in the haven from whichshe had just been driven. In this manner the arm of authority was keptextended over the silent crew, not with the vain desire to preserve alingering though useless exercise of power, but with a view to maintainthat unity of action that now could alone afford them even a ray ofhope.
"She can make no head against this sea, under that rag of canvas," saidBarnstable, gloomily, addressing the cockswain, who, with folded armsand an air of cool resignation, was balancing his body on the verge ofthe quarter-deck, while the schooner was plunging madly into waves thatnearly buried her in their bosom: "the poor little thing trembles like afrightened child, as she meets the water."
Tom sighed heavily, and shook his head, before he answered:
"If we could have kept the head of the mainmast an hour longer, we mighthave got an offing, and fetched to windward of the shoals; but as it is,sir, mortal man can't drive a craft to windward--she sets bodily in toland, and will be in the breakers in less than an hour, unless God willsthat the wind shall cease to blow."
"We have no hope left us, but to anchor; our ground tackle may yet bringher up."
Tom turned to his commander, and replied, solemnly, and with thatassurance of manner that long experience only can give a man in momentsof great danger:
"If our sheet-cable was bent to our heaviest anchor, this sea wouldbring it home, though nothing but her launch was riding by it. Anortheaster in the German Ocean must and will blow itself out; nor shallwe get the crown of the gale until the sun falls over the land. Then,indeed, it may lull; for the winds do often seem to reverence the gloryof the heavens too much to blow their might in its very face!"
"We must do our duty to ourselves and the country," returned Barnstable."Go, get the two bowers spliced, and have a kedge bent to a hawser:we'll back our two anchors together, and veer to the better end of twohundred and forty fathoms; it may yet bring her up. See all clear therefor anchoring and cutting away the mast! we'll leave the wind nothingbut a naked hull to whistle over."
"Ay, if there was nothing but the wind, we might yet live to see the sunsink behind them hills," said the cockswain; "but what hemp can standthe strain of a craft that is buried, half the time, to her foremast inthe water?"
The order was, however, executed by the crew, with a sort of desperatesubmission to the will of their commander; and when the preparationswere completed, the anchors and kedge were dropped to the bottom, andthe instant that the Ariel tended to the wind, the axe was applied tothe little that was left of her long, raking masts. The crash of thefalling spars, as they came, in succession, across the decks of thevessel, appeared to produce no sensation amid that scene of complicateddanger; but the seamen proceeded in silence to their hopeless duty ofclearing the wrecks. Every eye followed the floating timbers, asthe waves swept them away from the vessel, with a sort of feverishcuriosity, to witness the effect produced by their collision with thoserocks that lay so fearfully near them; but long before the spars enteredthe wide border of foam, they were hid from view by the furious elementin which they floated. It was now felt by the whole crew of the Ariel,that their last means of safety had been adopted; and, at each desperateand headlong plunge the vessel took into the bosom of the seas thatrolled upon her forecastle, the anxious seamen thought that they couldperceive the yielding of the iron that yet clung to the bottom, or couldhear the violent surge of the parting strands of the cable, that stillheld them to their anchors. While the minds of the sailors were agitatedwith the faint hopes that had been excited by the movements of theirschooner, Dillon had been permitted to wander about the deck unnoticed:his rolling eyes, hard breathing, and clenched hands excited noobservation among the men, whose thoughts were yet dwelling on the meansof safety. But now, when, with a sort of frenzied desperation, he wouldfollow the retiring waters along the decks, and venture his person nighthe group that had collected around and on the gun of the cockswain,glances of fierce or of sullen vengeance were cast at him, that conveyedthreats of a nature that he was too much agitated to understand.
"If ye are tired of this world, though your time, like my own, isprobably but short in it," said Tom to him, as he passed the cockswainin one of his turns, "you can go forward among the men;
but if ye haveneed of the moments to foot up the reck'ning of your doings among men,afore ye're brought to face your Maker, and hear the log-book of Heaven,I would advise you to keep as nigh as possible to Captain Barnstable ormyself."
"Will you promise to save me if the vessel is wrecked?" exclaimedDillon, catching at the first sounds of friendly interest that hadreached his ears since he had been recaptured; "Oh! If you will, I cansecure your future ease, yes, wealth, for the remainder of your days!"
"Your promises have been too ill kept afore this, for the peace of yoursoul," returned the cockswain, without bitterness, though sternly; "butit is not in me to strike even a whale that is already spouting blood."
The intercessions of Dillon were interrupted by a dreadful cry, thatarose among the men forward, and which sounded with increased horror,amid the roarings of the tempest. The schooner rose on the breast ofa wave at the same instant, and, falling off with her broadside to thesea, she drove in towards the cliffs, like a bubble on the rapids of acataract.
"Our ground-tackle has parted," said Tom, with his resigned patience ofmanner undisturbed; "she shall die as easy as man can make her!"--Whilehe yet spoke, he seized the tiller, and gave to the vessel such adirection as would be most likely to cause her to strike the rocks withher bows foremost.
There was, for one moment, an expression of exquisite anguish betrayedin the dark countenance of Barnstable; but, at the next, it passed away,and he spoke cheerfully to his men:
"Be steady, my lads, be calm; there is yet a hope of life for _you_--ourlight draught will let us run in close to the cliffs, and it is stillfalling water--see your boats clear, and be steady."
The crew of the whale-boat, aroused by this speech from a sort ofstupor, sprang into their light vessel, which was quickly loweredinto the sea, and kept riding on the foam, free from the sides ofthe schooner, by the powerful exertions of the men. The cry for thecockswain was earnest and repeated, but Tom shook his head, withoutreplying, still grasping the tiller, and keeping his eyes steadily benton the chaos of waters into which they were driving. The launch, thelargest boat of the two, was cut loose from the "gripes," and the bustleand exertion of the moment rendered the crew insensible to the horrorof the scene that surrounded them. But the loud hoarse call of thecockswain, to "look out--secure yourselves!" suspended even theirefforts, and at that instant the Ariel settled on a wave that meltedfrom under her, heavily on the rocks. The shock was so violent, asto throw all who disregarded the warning cry from their feet, and theuniversal quiver that pervaded the vessel was like the last shudderof animated nature. For a time long enough to breathe, the leastexperienced among the men supposed the danger to be past; but a wave ofgreat height followed the one that had deserted them, and raising thevessel again, threw her roughly still farther on the bed of rocks, andat the same time its crest broke over her quarter, sweeping the lengthof her decks with a fury that was almost resistless. The shudderingseamen beheld their loosened boat driven from their grasp, and dashedagainst the base of the cliffs, where no fragment of her wreck could betraced, at the receding of the waters. But the passing billow had thrownthe vessel into a position which, in some measure, protected her decksfrom the violence of those that succeeded it.
"Go, my boys, go," said Barnstable, as the moment of dreadfuluncertainty passed; "you have still the whale-boat, and she, at least,will take you nigh the shore. Go into her, my boys. God bless you, Godbless you all! You have been faithful and honest fellows, and I believehe will not yet desert you; go, my friends, while there is a lull."
The seamen threw themselves, in a mass, into the light vessel, whichnearly sank under the unusual burden; but when they looked around them,Barnstable and Merry, Dillon and the cockswain, were yet to be seenon the decks of the Ariel. The former was pacing, in deep and perhapsbitter melancholy, the wet planks of the schooner, while the boy hung,unheeded, on his arm, uttering disregarded petitions to his commander todesert the wreck. Dillon approached the side where the boat lay, againand again, but the threatening countenances of the seamen as often drovehim back in despair. Tom had seated himself on the heel of the bowsprit,where he continued, in an attitude of quiet resignation, returning noother answers to the loud and repeated calls of his shipmates, than bywaving his hand towards the shore.
"Now hear me," said the boy, urging his request, to tears; "if not formy sake, or for your own sake, Mr. Barnstable, or for the hope of God'smercy, go into the boat, for the love of my cousin Katherine."
The young lieutenant paused in his troubled walk, and for a moment hecast a glance of hesitation at the cliffs; but, at the next instant, hiseyes fell on the ruin of his vessel, and he answered:
"Never, boy, never; if my hour has come, I will not shrink from myfate."
"Listen to the men, dear sir; the boat will be swamped, alongside thewreck, and their cry is, that without you they will not let her go."
Barnstable motioned to the boat, to bid the boy enter it, and turnedaway in silence.
"Well," said Merry, with firmness, "if it be right that a lieutenantshall stay by the wreck, it must also be right for a midshipman; shoveoff; neither Mr. Barnstable nor myself will quit the vessel."
"Boy, your life has been entrusted to my keeping, and at my hands willit be required," said his commander, lifting the struggling youth, andtossing him into the arms of the seamen. "Away with ye, and God be withyou; there is more weight in you now than can go safe to land."
Still the seamen hesitated, for they perceived the cockswain moving,with a steady tread, along the deck, and they hoped he had relented, andwould yet persuade the lieutenant to join his crew. But Tom, imitatingthe example of his commander, seized the latter suddenly in his powerfulgrasp, and threw him over the bulwarks with an irresistible force. Atthe same moment he cast the fast of the boat from the pin that held it,and, lifting his broad hands high into the air, his voice was heard inthe tempest:
"God's will be done with me," he cried. "I saw the first timber of theAriel laid, and shall live just long enough to see it turn out of herbottom; after which I wish to live no longer."
But his shipmates were swept far beyond the sounds of his voice, beforehalf these words were uttered. All command of the boat was renderedimpossible, by the numbers it contained, as well as the raging of thesurf; and, as it rose on the white crest of a wave, Tom saw his belovedlittle craft for the last time. It fell into a trough of the sea, andin a few moments more its fragments were ground into splinters on theadjacent rocks. The cockswain still remained where he had cast off therope, and beheld the numerous heads and arms that appeared rising, atshort intervals, on the waves; some making powerful and well-directedefforts to gain the sands, that were becoming visible as the tide fell,and others wildly tossed in the frantic movements of helpless despair.The honest old seaman gave a cry of joy, as he saw Barnstable issue fromthe surf, bearing the form of Merry in safety to the sands, where, oneby one, several seamen soon appeared also, dripping and exhausted.Many others of the crew were carried, in a similar manner, to places ofsafety; though, as Tom returned to his seat on the bowsprit, he couldnot conceal from his reluctant eyes the lifeless forms that were, inother spots, driven against the rocks with a fury that soon left thembut few of the outward vestiges of humanity.
Dillon and the cockswain were now the sole occupants of their dreadfulstation. The former stood in a kind of stupid despair, a witness of thescene we have related; but as his curdled blood began again to flow morewarmly through his heart, he crept close to the side of Tom, with thatsort of selfish feeling that makes even hopeless misery more tolerable,when endured in participation with another.
"When the tide falls," he said, in a voice that betrayed the agony offear, though his words expressed the renewal of hope, "we shall be ableto walk to land."
"There was One and only One to whose feet the waters were the same as adry dock," returned the cockswain; "and none but such as have his powerwill ever be able to walk from these rocks to the sands." The old seamanpaused, and tur
ning his eyes, which exhibited a mingled expression ofdisgust and compassion, on his companion, he added, with reverence: "Hadyou thought more of Him in fair weather, your case would be less to bepitied in this tempest."
"Do you still think there is much danger?" asked Dillon.
"To them that have reason to fear death. Listen! do you hear that hollownoise beneath ye?"
"'Tis the wind driving by the vessel!"
"'Tis the poor thing herself," said the affected cockswain, "giving herlast groans. The water is breaking up her decks, and, in a few minutesmore, the handsomest model that ever cut a wave will be like the chipsthat fell from her timbers in framing!"
"Why then did you remain here!" cried Dillon, wildly.
"To die in my coffin, if it should be the will of God," returned Tom."These waves, to me, are what the land is to you; I was born on them,and I have always meant that they should be my grave."
"But I--I," shrieked Dillon, "I am not ready to die!--I cannot die!--Iwill not die!"
"Poor wretch!" muttered his companion; "you must go, like the rest ofus; when the death-watch is called, none can skulk from the muster."
"I can swim," Dillon continued, rushing with frantic eagerness to theside of the wreck. "Is there no billet of wood, no rope, that I can takewith me?"
"None; everything has been cut away, or carried off by the sea. If yeare about to strive for your life, take with ye a stout heart and aclean conscience, and trust the rest to God!"
"God!" echoed Dillon, in the madness of his frenzy; "I know no God!there is no God that knows me!"
"Peace!" said the deep tones of the cockswain, in a voice that seemed tospeak in the elements; "blasphemer, peace!"
The heavy groaning, produced by the water in the timbers of the Ariel,at that moment added its impulse to the raging feelings of Dillon, andhe cast himself headlong into the sea.
The water, thrown by the rolling of the surf on the beach, wasnecessarily returned to the ocean, in eddies, in different placesfavorable to such an action of the element. Into the edge of one ofthese countercurrents, that was produced by the very rocks on which theschooner lay, and which the watermen call the "undertow," Dillon had,unknowingly, thrown his person; and when the waves had driven him ashort distance from the wreck, he was met by a stream that his mostdesperate efforts could not overcome. He was a light and powerfulswimmer, and the struggle was hard and protracted. With the shoreimmediately before his eyes, and at no great distance, he was led, as bya false phantom, to continue his efforts, although they did not advancehim a foot. The old seaman, who at first had watched his motions withcareless indifference, understood the danger of his situation at aglance; and, forgetful of his own fate, he shouted aloud, in a voicethat was driven over the struggling victim to the ears of his shipmateson the sands:
"Sheer to port, and clear the undertow! Sheer to the southward!"
Dillon heard the sounds, but his faculties were too much obscured byterror to distinguish their object; he, however, blindly yielded to thecall, and gradually changed his direction, until his face was oncemore turned towards the vessel. The current swept him diagonally by therocks, and he was forced into an eddy, where he had nothing to contendagainst but the waves, whose violence was much broken by the wreck. Inthis state, he continued still to struggle, but with a force that wastoo much weakened to overcome the resistance he met. Tom looked aroundhim for a rope, but all had gone over with the spars, or been swept awayby the waves. At this moment of disappointment, his eyes met those ofthe desperate Dillon. Calm and inured to horrors as was the veteranseaman, he involuntarily passed his hand before his brow, to excludethe look of despair he encountered; and when, a moment afterwards, heremoved the rigid member, he beheld the sinking form of the victim asit gradually settled in the ocean, still struggling, with regularbut impotent strokes of the arms and feet, to gain the wreck, andto preserve an existence that had been so much abused in its hour ofallotted probation.
"He will soon know his God, and learn that his God knows him!" murmuredthe cockswain to himself. As he yet spoke, the wreck of the Arielyielded to an overwhelming sea, and, after an universal shudder, hertimbers and planks gave way, and were swept towards the cliffs, bearingthe body of the simple-hearted cockswain among the ruins.