CHAPTER FOUR.
THE CATASTROPHE.
My next sensation was that of pain--burning, stabbing, racking pain, ofso excruciating a character that I incontinently groaned aloud. Then,as though in response to my groan, I heard--vaguely, and without anyimmediate comprehension of the meaning of the words--a voice say:
"There, I think that will do, General; he is in pain, now, thank God!--which means that he is coming round--and there is every reason to hopethat he will pull through. Thanks for your valuable assistance. I canmanage single-handed, now. You might make it known that Mr Conyersshows signs of returning consciousness, and that I have every hope ofsaving him. I fancy the intelligence will be not altogether unwelcometo at least one of the cuddy party."
"By Gad! yes; I think I know who you mean. I'll make a point of tellingthe news in her hearing," was the reply. "Are you sure there is nothingelse that I can do, doctor?"
"Nothing more, thank you--except, perhaps, that you might suggest thevalue of quietness of movement on the part of anyone coming below. Noslamming of cabin-doors, or anything of that sort, you know," answeredthe first voice, which I now recognised as that of the ship's doctor onboard the _City of Cawnpore_.
"All right; I'll see to it," replied the other voice, now quite familiarto me as that of General O'Brien. A gentle click of the cabin-doorlatch succeeded; and I opened my eyes languidly, to see Scudamore'ssharp-cut features bending close to mine, with an earnest, intent lookin his kindly eyes.
"Well," he exclaimed heartily, as our eyes met, "how do you feel now?"
"In horrible pain," I answered, with another involuntary groan. "Whatis the matter with me, doctor? What has happened?"
"Only that you have been drowned; and that you have kept the general andmyself busy, for two mortal hours and more, practising artificialrespiration, before you would consent to come back to life. That isall!"
Then I remembered everything, and began to wonder by what means I hadbeen recovered from those profound depths wherein my last consciousmoments had been spent. I put the question to Scudamore, and heanswered:
"Oh, as to that, we had no difficulty. There was a light heaving-lineattached by one end to the hawser, and in the other end you had knotteda bowline which you passed over your shoulders and under your armpits.We simply hauled you aboard by means of that."
"And how long did the barque live after I left her?" I asked.
"How long?" repeated the doctor, in surprise. "Why, not ten seconds!She was in the very act of foundering, stern first, when you jumped; andit was undoubtedly her suction that did the mischief. You must havebeen dragged fathoms deep by her; and but for the line round you, youwould probably never have come to the surface again."
"And what of the French people? Are they all right?" I demanded.
"Yes; thanks to you, they are," answered Scudamore. "The man you jumpedoverboard after was the worst case; but, luckily, I had succeeded inresuscitating him before you were hauled aboard. You have saved fifteenhuman lives to-day! That is something to be proud of, is it not? Andnow, no more talking at present; what you require is sleep; and if youdo not mind being left alone a minute or two I will go to my cabin andmix you a draught that will give you a good long nap, from which I haveno doubt you will awake feeling as well as ever."
So saying, the medico softly withdrew, quietly closing the cabin-doorbehind him, only to return a few minutes later with a draught ofdecidedly pungent taste, which, at his command, I tossed off instanter.Whether it was due to the potency of the draught, or to exhaustion, orto both combined, I know not, but certain it is that as I sank back uponthe pillow my eyes closed, and almost instantly I went drifting off intothe land of dreams.
When I next awoke it was well on toward evening, for the light had grownso dim that I could only indistinctly discern the various objects aboutthe cabin. But there seemed to have been no abatement of the gale, forthe ship was rolling and plunging as wildly as ever; the scuttle wasfrequently being dimmed by the dash of seas against the ship's side; andthe screaming of the gale through the rigging still rose high aboveevery other sound.
My body seemed to be bruised and aching all over; but, with thisexception, I felt little or none the worse for my morning's adventure; Iwas very comfortable, but distinctly hungry; and I was lazilyendeavouring to make up my mind whether I would go to the trouble ofdressing, and hunting up a steward to find me something to eat, orwhether I would remain where I was until somebody came to me, when theproblem was solved by the opening of my cabin-door, and the entrance ofthe doctor. He advanced on tiptoe to the side of my bunk, and bentclose over me, peering into my face to see whether I happened to beawake.
"What is the time, doctor?" I asked.
"Oh, so you _are_ awake, eh?" he responded. "Well, how do you feel?"
"Sore and aching from head to foot, but otherwise all right--exceptingthat I am uncommonly hungry," I answered.
"Hungry, eh?" said Scudamore. "Let me feel your pulse."
He laid his fingers upon my wrist for a few seconds, and then said:
"Well, there doesn't seem to be very much the matter with you now; youhave had a good, long, sound sleep--I have been in and out from time totime, just to see that you were going on all right--and a good dinnerwill not hurt you. Will you have it brought to you here, or would yourather turn out and dress?"
"Oh, I will turn out, of course!" I exclaimed.
"Very well, then," said the doctor, "I will send a steward to help youto dress--you will need a little assistance, with the ship cutting thesewild capers--and if you do not dawdle too long over your toilet you willbe just in good time for dinner. There goes the first bell," he added,as the strident clamour suddenly pealed out from somewhere on the deckabove.
He left me, and presently my berth-room steward appeared with myshaving-water, and I scrambled--rather more feebly than I had expected--out of my bunk. The operation of dressing proved to be a considerablymore lengthy one than I had anticipated, for I found that I wasdecidedly shaky on my legs, and I had to sit on the sofa and take ashort rest at frequent intervals, with the result that the second dinnerbell rang before I was ready to leave my cabin. I was not very late,however, arriving in the cuddy last, it is true, but in time to see myimmediate predecessors just taking their seats. As I crossed thethreshold of the brilliantly-lighted apartment, leaning upon the arm ofthe steward, the entire company rose to their feet; every eye was turnedupon me; and suddenly General O'Brien shouted, in great excitement:
"Three cheers for our gallant friend Conyers! Hip, hip, hip, hurrah!"
The three cheers thus unexpectedly called for were enthusiasticallygiven--even the ladies joining in--to my great confusion, and as Ipassed aft between the two tables everybody within reach must needsshake hands with me, and say something complimentary, until I felt souncomfortable that I began to wish I had remained below. I noticed thatMiss Onslow was on her feet, like the rest; but she appeared to haverisen rather to avoid any appearance of singularity than with theintention of paying me a compliment; while the rest were almostboisterously enthusiastic she remained absolutely calm and devoid of theslightest sign of emotion, except that her cheeks and lips werecolourless; a slight curl in her beautiful upper lip seemed to indicatea feeling of contempt for such an outburst of enthusiasm, and shesteadfastly kept her gaze turned away from me, except for one brieffraction of a second, as I drew near to take my place beside her. Then,for the space of a lightning-flash, our glances met; and, if anything soinconceivable as a display of emotion on her part could be credited aswithin the range of possibility, I would almost have sworn that I caughtin her eyes the flash of tears. But, the little ovation over, we allsat down; and as she at once began talking to the skipper about the gunmounted as a trophy in front of Government House, Calcutta, I had not anopportunity to verify my suspicion.
As we seated ourselves I gave vent to a sigh of relief, believing that--my fellow-travellers having expressed their approval of my behav
iour ofthe morning--the affair was now at an end. But scarcely were we settledin our places when the French skipper's wife--a very charming littlewoman, who, with her husband, had been received into the cuddy by Dacreas his guests, and who had apparently failed to recognise me upon myentrance--learning from her neighbour what all the hubbub was about,must needs add to my confusion by rushing to me and throwing herselfupon her knees, as she poured forth her expressions of gratitude with amingled fervour and grace that I found particularly discomposing. Thenher husband followed suit, thanking me with manly earnestness andheartiness for what I had done. This further act of homage, so publiclyperformed, disconcerted me to such an extent that I hastened to dismissthe embarrassingly grateful pair by assuring them that they were makingaltogether too much of what I had done, which was no more than any otherman, confident of his swimming powers, would have unhesitatinglyundertaken, had I not happened to have seized the initiative; that I wasof course very glad it had fallen to me to be the means of saving theirlives; but that I most earnestly begged them to say no more about it.
When dinner was over, General O'Brien joined me on deck, as I wassmoking my pipe; and I seized the opportunity to thank him for theassistance he had rendered in the operation of securing myresuscitation. And I added:
"As I was recovering consciousness I heard the doctor make a remark toyou to the effect that someone--I gathered that a lady was beingreferred to--seemed to be more than ordinarily concerned in the questionof my recovery; and I understood from your reply that you perfectlyunderstood to whom Scudamore alluded. Have you any objection tofavouring me with the name of the individual?"
"Oh, so you heard that, did you?" remarked the general. "Well, my dearboy, it was not intended for you to hear, I am quite certain; Scudamorewould not have made the remark had he been aware that you weresufficiently recovered to hear and understand it. As to my giving youthe lady's name--well, I do not think I should be justified in doing so.The matter stands thus, you see. When Scudamore spoke, he and I wereof opinion that we had accidentally discovered the entirely unsuspectedexistence of a more than ordinary interest in you on the part of acertain lady; but since then I have come to the conclusion that wemistook overpowering excitement for a more tender feeling; hence I donot consider that I ought to enlighten you at all. If any tenderfeeling exists, why, it is the girl's own secret, for her to retain ornot as she pleases; and if she has such a feeling, and is willing thatyou should know it, depend upon it she will discover a method ofenlightening you; while if she has no such feeling it would be theheight of bad taste on my part to suggest that possibly she has. Soplease ask me no more about it, there's a good fellow."
Of course I at once and finally let the subject drop, but somehow Icould not help thinking about it, and wondering which of myfellow-passengers was referred to, and for the next day or two I watchedto see whether any one of them exhibited more than ordinary cordialityto me; but it was quite unavailing; _all_ were alike exceedingly cordialand friendly--except Miss Onslow, who still maintained her formerattitude of frigid reserve--so, as it was, after all, a matter that onlyvery slightly interested me, I soon forgot all about it.
From this time forward, for a full month and more, life was absolutelyuneventful on board the _City of Cawnpore_: the gale blew itself outthat same night, and we got a breeze that carried us right into thenorth-east trades; then we lost five days on the Line parallels ere wecaught the south-east trades; and when they left us we were baffled fortwo days more before getting a wind that would permit us to make anyeasting.
We caught this fair wind early one morning in the second week ofDecember; and by noon it was blowing over the larboard quarter quite asstrong as we wanted it, with studding-sails abroad on both sides, fromthe royals down, and every other inch of canvas that would draw. As theafternoon waned the breeze freshened; but Murgatroyd had by this timegot preventer backstays rigged, fore and aft, with the avoweddetermination of carrying on and making the very utmost of so splendid abreeze. And making the most of it, he was, with a vengeance, for theship was sweeping along like a mist wreath, reeling off her seventeenknots by the log, when the latter was hove at the end of the firstdog-watch.
When I went on deck after dinner that night the sky had banked up towindward and astern of us, and heavy masses of cloud were sweepingrapidly athwart the firmament, permitting an occasional brief and hastyglimpse of the young moon and a few misty stars. It was then blowingstrong, with every promise of a windy night before us; and it seemed tome that, with so dim and uncertain a light, it was scarcely prudent todrive the ship at such headlong speed through the night. Indeed Iventured to suggest as much to Dacre, but he only laughed at me.
"It is all very well for you navy men, when you are cruising, to shortensail at sunset, so that your people may be reasonably sure of anundisturbed night," he said. "But with us of the red ensign it isdifferent; our owners expect us to pile up the profits for them; and theonly way in which we can do that is by making quick passages. But ofcourse, while doing our best to accomplish this, we exercise everypossible precaution. For instance, you seem to think that I am ratherreckless in driving my ship at this speed through the night; but whathave I to fear? We have all the sea-room we want; there are no rocks orshoals in our road for us to fetch up on; and if we should happen tofall in with any other vessels, they will be going the same way asourselves, so we shall see them in ample time to avoid running overthem. And, in addition to all this, we maintain a first-rate lookout,one on each bow, two in the waist, and the officer of the watch up hereon the poop; so we need have no fear of collision. Take my word for it,Mr Conyers; you are every bit as safe aboard here, sir, as if you wereunder the pennant!"
After this, of course, there was nothing more to be said, especially asI was well aware that, in mentioning such a matter at all to theskipper, I had committed an almost unpardonable breach of nauticaletiquette.
Notwithstanding the strong breeze the night was quite warm, for we werenot very far south of the tropic of Capricorn, and, moreover, it wasclose upon the midsummer of the Southern Hemisphere; consequently whentwo bells of the first watch struck, a good many of the passengers wereon deck, most of them listening to the miners, who were congregated onthe main deck, singing. As for me, I was right aft, on the wheelgrating, smoking, and staring skyward at the racing cloud masses as theyswept scurrying athwart the face of the moon.
Suddenly a loud yell of dismay and warning arose from the topgallantforecastle, the only words I caught being, "--_under our bows_!"
The next instant, with a shock that shot me off the grating on to thepoop, the ship was brought up all standing--not stopped dead as thoughshe had run into a cliff, but rather as a horse stops when pulled up andthrown on his haunches--and then, as I lay on my back, half stunned bythe shock of my fall, and still gazing skyward, I saw the three mastsbow forward, bending like fishing-rods, when, with a dreadful rendingcrash, the entire complicated mechanism of sails, spars, and riggingwent by the board, and lay fore and aft along the deck.
There was a moment's pause of utter silence, broken only by the hissingsplash and rush of water alongside, and the moaning of the wind over thesea; and then arose the most terrific hubbub to which I had ever beendoomed to listen--shrieks, groans, and curses from those injured by thefall of, or buried under, the wreckage from aloft; cries of "We'resinking! we're sinking! God help us!" people calling each other'snames; and the voices of Captain Dacre and Mr Murgatroyd shoutingorders. Then, all in a moment there arose among the miners a cry of"The boats! the boats! Let's launch the boats!" instantly followed by arush of the whole crowd of them on to the poop, where as many as couldswarmed into the two quarter boats hanging at the davits. These twoboats would not hold much more than a quarter of their number, and themoment that this was discovered there arose a sanguinary fight for thepossession of the two frail craft, those who were crowded out drawingtheir knives and attacking the other party. Then Murgatroyd suddenlyappeared on the poop with a brace o
f revolvers in his hands, which helevelled at the fighting, surging mob.
"Come out of those boats, you cowardly blackguards; come out, I say, andstand by to obey orders! D'ye hear, there, what I say? You there withthe red head, I'm talking to you: come out of that boat, or by God I'llshoot! You won't? Then take that,"--his pistol flashed as he spoke."I'll soon see who is master here!"
The next instant the brave fellow was down on the deck, stabbed in adozen places from behind, and the life kicked and trampled out of him bythe fighting, panic-stricken crowd of miners, who were now simply besidethemselves with terror, and practically as irresponsible as so many wildbeasts.
At this juncture the skipper, with some half a dozen seamen to supporthim, arrived upon the scene from forward--where he had apparentlyrushed, at the first alarm, to investigate the condition of the ship;and, pressing his way into the heart of the howling, struggling mob,endeavoured to bring them to their senses by assuring them that therewere boats enough for all, but that their only chance of being saved layin allowing the sailors access to the tackles so that the boats might beproperly launched. But before the poor fellow could get any further,he, too, went down and disappeared, amid shouts of "Our lives is as goodas yours! We've got the boats, and we mean to keep 'em!" and so on.And, in the height of the confusion, someone cut the bow tackle of thelarboard quarter boat, with the result that her bow suddenly droppedinto the water while her stern still hung suspended from the davit, andevery man of the crowd who had scrambled into her was instantlyprecipitated into the water.
While this was going on upon the poop, the entire crowd of cuddypassengers appeared to be huddled together about the companion, utterlyhelpless and bewildered, while a party of seamen were workingdesperately down on the main deck to get the four boats off the gallows.I could not see that anyone was doing anything to clear away the longboat; but that was probably because she had been destroyed by the fallof the mainmast, which appeared to have crashed right down on the top ofher.
As for me, I did nothing; for the simple reason that there was nothingto be done; the ship was sinking fast--so fast, indeed, that she wouldprobably plunge head first to the bottom in less than five minutes,which--taking into consideration the state of absolute panic thatprevailed, and the inextricable raffle of wreckage that cumbered andfilled the decks--would leave no time in which to construct even therudest kind of raft. No, there seemed to be nothing for it but for allhands to go down with the ship, thanks to the terror-strickenselfishness of the 'tween-decks passengers, who were too ignorant to doanything useful themselves, and too obstinate and distrustful to allowanyone else to do anything. For myself, I had made up my mind not togive in and die so long as I could do anything to help myself; I was agood swimmer, and when the ship went down I should look out for a pieceof wreckage, and cling to it until I was picked up by some passing ship,or perished of hunger and thirst.
Suddenly, as I was standing close to the binnacle, watching the franticmob of fighting miners, a woman emerged from the after companion, closebeside me. She glanced round for a moment, in terror at the conflictthat was raging about the boats, and then, stepping quickly to my side,laid her hand upon my arm--I could see the gleam and glitter of gemsupon it in the dim starlight--and said, in a voice which I at oncerecognised as that of Miss Onslow:
"Oh, Mr Conyers, what does all this mean? What has happened? Is theship sinking? For pity's sake tell me?"
"Miss Onslow," said I, "summon all your courage to your aid, I beg you,for you will need it. I have the worst possible news to tell you. Theship is sinking fast--she will probably go down in another two or threeminutes; and I think it doubtful in the extreme whether any one of uswill survive to tell the tale!"
"O God!" she gasped. "My father--I am his only child--and this willkill him! Well, if it _must_ be so, God's will be done!"
Not a word about herself, no outcry of natural fear at the near approachof the King of Terrors! It was of her father, and the heart-breakingsorrow that he would feel at her loss, that she thought at this dreadmoment! As this idea presented itself to me a world of admiration forsuch marvellous courage and unselfishness leapt into being within me,and, turning to her, I grasped the hand that still unconsciously restedupon my arm, and said:
"Miss Onslow, I have no hope to offer you; but if you are willing totrust yourself to me I will do my utmost to save you. At the worst weshall be no worse off than we are now."
"I _will_ trust you," she said simply. "I will do whatever you tellme!"
There was no time to lose, for I could tell, by the feel of the ship,that her course was all but run; so, taking my companion by the hand, Iled her right aft to the wheel grating, which we both mounted; and thenI peered over the stern at the black water. Merciful Heaven, how nearit was! it looked as though one could lean over the rail and dabbleone's hand in it. But it was clear; there was no wreckage or anythingelse--so far as I could see--to hurt us, should we leap. A lifebuoy washanging over the taffrail, suspended by a stout lanyard; and this buoy Ihurriedly cut adrift, passing it over Miss Onslow's shoulders and upunder her armpits. Then, having thus equipped her, I assisted her tomount the rail, and at once sprang up beside her, taking her hand inmine as I did so.
"Now, are you ready?" I asked.
"Quite!" she answered, as steadily as though I had been about to assisther to step ashore, instead of urging her to leap overboard in themiddle of the South Atlantic, on a dark and windy night, with scarcely ahope that she would survive to see the next morning.
"Then jump!" I said; and at the word we both leapt together.