CHAPTER VII.
FIRE!
'Well, and if this here ain't been a right-down sort of proper cajolin'job tew! Strike me bald, Mr. Tregarthen, if the hexecution of this heretrepanning ain't vurth a gold medal, let alone the planning of it!'shouted Jacob.
I rose from my knees with my hand upon my heart, breathing short. Thereaction from the intense mental strain of the preceding twenty minutesran a feeling of swooning through my brain, but the fresh air and senseof safety speedily rallied me. Helga stood at the wheel, steering thebarque. I flourished my arm to her, and she kissed her hand to me. Closeagainst the securely covered hatch stood the two boatmen, and at eitherman's feet lay a heavy belaying-pin, which, as I knew by what had beenpreconcerted, had been gripped by their powerful fists ready for thefirst black head that might have followed me as I emerged.
'Never should ha' believed you could have compassed it!' exclaimedAbraham. 'Never could ha' supposed that such artful chaps as themdarkies was so easy to be took in! A hay wan piece of acting, Mr.Tregarthen! No theayter show that e'er I've heard of or sat at ever cameup to it!'
All was silent below. I had thought, on the hatch being thrust to, thatthe imprisoned devils would have fallen to beating and bawling. Not asound! Were they accepting their fate with the resignation of theMussulman? The scantling of the hatch-cover that secured them was ofunusual thickness. When opened, the foremost lid slid back on top of theother, and when closed, as it now was, it was held fast to the coamingby a strong iron-hinged bar fitting to a staple in which lay a padlock.The after-lid was kept down by an iron batten, so that, once secured,the hatch-cover was in all respects as impenetrable from above or belowas the deck itself. Nor were we under any apprehension that the immuredmen could find other means of escaping. The bulkhead of the forecastlewas a massive wall of wood. There was, indeed, a little hatch rightforward, by which the forepeak might be entered, but this forepeak wasalso stoutly bulkheaded, with the cargo in the hold coming hard againstthe division; and though the men should contrive to break through intothe hold, the secured after-hatches would still as effectually bar thedeck to them as though every mother's son lay helplessly manacled in thebottom of the ship.
'Now,' said I, 'the poor wretches must not suppose we mean to starvethem. Murderers though they be, Heaven knows one can't but pity them,seeing what the wrong was that drove them into crime. Hush, that I maycatch their answer!'
I stepped over to the forecastle chimney, which, as I have already toldyou, pierced the planks close against the opening under the top-gallantdeck. It stood as high as a man; my mouth was on a level with theorifice, and the zigzag funnel provided as excellent a speaking-tube asthough designed for that and no other purpose.
'Below, there!' I cried through it, and thrice did I utter this summonsbefore I received a response.
'What you wantchee?' floated up a reply--thin, reed-like, unreal, a tonenot to be distinguished.
'I am hailing to let you know that we shall keep you liberally suppliedwith food and fresh water,' I shouted. 'Plenty of fresh air will blowdown to you through this chimney. Take notice: you are securelyimprisoned. There is no possibility of your escaping. At the same time,if you make the least effort to release yourselves we will leave you tostarve below and to perish miserably with thirst.'
'What do you mean to do with us?' was the faint cry that followed myspeech.
'That is our business,' I roared back. 'Keep you quiet, and you shall bewell used!'
I waited for the voice to speak again, but all remained hushed, and Icame away very well satisfied to know that Nakier, at all events, wouldunderstand my language and translate it to the others.
This plot had been so carefully prepared that we knew exactly what todo. Our first business was to shift the barque's helm and trim sail forthe Canaries--the land that lay nearest to us--where, at Santa Cruz, wemight count upon getting all the help we required. We briefly arrangedthat Jacob should keep watch at the hatch. At the first sound ofdisturbance below he was to call us. There was small need for suchsentinelling, yet our fears seemed to find it necessary, at the outsetat all events, for they were eleven to three, and we could not forget_that_, securely imprisoned as we knew them to be.
I went aft with Abraham. My brave little Helga, on my approach, let gothe wheel, and extended her hands. My love for her, that had been heldsilent in my heart by the troubles, the worries, the anxieties, theperils which had been pressing heavily upon us for many days, now leaptin me, a full and abounding emotion, and, taking her in my arms, I heldher to me, and kissed her once, and yet again. Abraham, grasping a spokeof the wheel, swung off from it, giving us, with 'longshore modesty, hisback, as he gazed steadfastly over the stern. She struggled for amoment, and was then quiet, trying to hide her blushing face against myshoulder.
'It must have come to this,' I whispered, 'sooner or later; and what issoonest is always best, my love, in such matters. You are mine by rightof the poor old _Anine_; you are mine, Helga, by right of your father'scommands to me.'
I kissed her again, released her, and she went to the rail and overhungit for a few minutes, while I waited, watching her.
'Now, dear heart,' said I, 'let us get the ship round, and you shalltell us what course to steer for Santa Cruz.'
From this moment we were too busy for a long while to think ofsentiment. The barque was under all plain sail, and we were but threemen to get the yards braced round. The wind was a very light breeze, thesea smooth and delicately crisped, the sky a pure azure, unblurredanywhere by so much as a feather-tip of cloud. Helga, still wearing arosy face, but with the very spirit of happiness and hope radiant in hereyes--and no better sign of how it was with her heart could I have askedof her--fetched the chart, and, having determined the course, took thewheel from Abraham, and the three of us went to work with the braces.We sprang about in red-hot haste, since none of us liked the notion ofleaving the hatch unwatched for even a few minutes. But two pairs ofhands only could not have dealt without tedious toil with those yards.
According to Captain Bunting's reckoning, we had been in the latitude ofMadeira on Tuesday the 31st of October, but, spite of our having beenhove to during the fierce weather of November the 1st and 2nd, we haddriven heavily to the southward, so that now on this afternoon ofFriday, November 3rd, we computed our distance from the Canaries to besome hundred miles: I can but speak as my memory serves me, but thesefigures I believe fairly represent the distance. The light wind softlyhumming in our rigging out of the north-east would not suffer the barqueto lie her course for the islands by a point or two, but this was amatter of little moment. We might surely count from one hour to anothernow on heaving some sort of sail into sight, and in expectation of thiswe took the English ensign out of the locker and bent it on to the peakhalliards with the jack down ready for hoisting when the momentarrived. Not that we expected that any merchantman we might fall in withwould greatly help us. It was hardly to be supposed that a shipmasterwould consent to receive a mutinous, murderous crew of eleven colouredmen into his vessel. The utmost we could hope from a ship homeward boundlike ourselves was the loan of a couple of men to assist us innavigating the barque to Funchal.
Indeed, the sense of our necessity in this way grew very strong in meafter we had come to a pause in our labour of bracing the yards up, andwere standing near the forecastle hatch pale with heat and wet withperspiration, and panting heavily: I say I grew mighty sensible of theslenderness of our little crew of three men and a girl--who, to be sure,in her boy's clothes would have been the nimblest of us all aloft, butwho could do no service in that way in her woman's dress--when I sent mygaze up at the quiet breasts of sail softly swelling one upon another,and rising spire-like, and thought of how it must be with us shouldheavy weather set in, such a gale as we might be able to show no morethan a close-reefed topsail to, unless the whole fabric of masts andcanvas was to go overboard.
I said to Abraham: 'Don't you think we could safely trust a couple ofthose poor devils below--Punmeamoo
tty, for example, and that tawnyfellow, Mow Lauree? We're terribly short-handed.'
'Ay,' he answered, 'short-handed we are, as you say, sir; but trust e'era one of 'em, arter the trick they've been sarved! Lord love 'ee! thefirst thing them two men 'ud do whensoever our backs should be tarnedfor a moment 'ud be to lift that hatch there. And then stand by!'
''Soides,' exclaimed Jacob, 'this ere's to be a salwage job, and, aspoor old Tommy 'ud ha' said, we don't want to make no more shares thanthe diwisions what's already represented.'
I was not to have been influenced by Jacob's talk about shares; butAbraham's remark was to the point; it convinced me, and I dropped thesubject, making up my mind to this--that, if the wind should freshen,there was nothing for it but to shorten sail as best we could, and leavewhat we could not deal with to blow away.
When our work of trimming yards was ended, I told Jacob to boil aquantity of salt beef for the fellows below, that they might haverations to last them several days. We found a breaker stowed away in thelong-boat, and this we filled with fresh water from the scuttle-butt,ready to hand through the hatch. I was very earnest in this work. It waseasily imagined that the interior in which the men lay imprisoned wouldbe desperately hot, with no more air to get to them than such as sulkilysank out of the listless breeze through the zigzag chimney, and with theplanks of the deck above their heads like the top of an oven with theday-long pouring of the sun. And, miscreants as they were, villains as Ihave no doubt they would have ultimately proved themselves to us, Icould not endure to think of them as athirst, and also tormented withfears that we intended to leave them to perish of that most horribleform of suffering.
Yet it would not do to make separate parcels of the provisions weintended for them. We must open the hatch at our peril while we loweredthe food; and this was to be done once, and once only.
It was past five by the time that all was ready. Twice had we heard asound of knocking in the hatchway; but I guessed that it signified ademand for water, and dared take no notice of it until we were prepared.The three of us--Helga being at the wheel--armed ourselves with a heavyiron belaying-pin apiece, and, stationing the boatmen at the hatch, Iput my face against the mouth of the funnel and hailed the men throughit. I was instantly answered:
'Yaas, yaas, sah! In the name of Allah, water!'
It was such another thin, reed-like voice as had before sounded, yet notthe same. This time it might have been Nakier who spoke.
'We are going to give you water and food now!' I shouted. 'We will openthe hatch; but only one man must show himself to receive the things. Ifmore than one of you shows himself we will close the hatch instantly,and you will get no water. Do you understand me?'
'Yaas, yaas,' responded the voice, sounding in my ear as though it werehalf a mile distant. 'We swear by Allah only one man he show hisself.'
'Let that man be Punmeamootty!' I bawled.
I then returned to the hatch. Jacob, putting the belaying-pin into hiscoat pocket, stood abaft ready to rush the lid of the hatch to at a cryfrom me, while Abraham, on the left, hung, with poised weapon, preparedfor the first hint of a scramble up from below. I remember the look inhis face: it was as though he were already fighting for his life. Islipped the padlock, withdrew the bar, and pushed the cover back somethree or four inches. The glare on the deck blinded me when I peereddown: the interior seemed as black as midnight to my eyes.
'Are you there, Punmeamootty?' I cried.
I heard a faint 'Yaas,' pronounced in a subdued, terrified tone.
'Come up till your hands show,' cried I, for I feared that he might havehis knife drawn and would stab me if I put my arms down.
His hands, with extended fingers, rose through the mere slice of openinglike those of a drowning man above water, and then I could see theglimmer of his eyes as he looked up.
'Are the rest of you well away?'
'Allee standing back! Allee standing back!' he exclaimed piteously.
On this I pulled the hatch open a little wider, Abraham bending over itwith the belaying-pin lifted; and, the interstice being now wide enough,I fell to work as quickly as possible to hand down the provisions. Theseconsisted of three or four bags of ship's biscuit and a number of largepieces of boiled salt horse. But the water-cask, or breaker rather, gaveme some trouble. What its capacity was I do not know. It was too heavyfor me to deal with single-handed. I called Jacob, and together we slungit in a couple of bights of rope, and, rolling it over the coaming,lowered away. It effectually blocked the hatch while it hung in it, andPunmeamootty had to back away to receive it.
This done, I threw down a few pannikins, not knowing but that they mightbe without a drinking-vessel in the forecastle, then closed the hatch,catching a loud cry from below as I did so; but I dared not pause to askwhat it was, and a moment later the cover was securely bolted, withJacob sitting upon it, leisurely pulling out his pipe, and Abraham andI walking aft.
Some time later than this, bringing the hour to about six o'clock, Helgaand I were eating some supper--I give the black tea, the biscuit, andbeef of this meal the name they carry at sea--one or the other of usholding the wheel that Abraham might obtain some sleep in the cabin,when the man Jacob, who was trudging a little space of the deck forward,suddenly called to me. I left the wheel in Helga's hands, and made myway to the boatman.
'Oi fear them chaps is a-suffocating below,' said he; 'they'rea-knocking desperate hard against the hatch, and their voices has beena-pouring through that there chimney as though their language wor smoke.Hark! and ye'll hear 'em.'
The sound of beating was distinct. I went to the mouth of the funnel,and heard a noise of wailing.
'What is it?' I cried. 'What is wrong with you below?'
'Oh, give us air, sah! give us air!' was the response. 'Some men die; noman he live long downee here.'
God knows to whom that weak, sick voice belonged. It struck a horrorinto me.
'We must give them air, Jacob,' I cried, 'or they're all dead men. Whatis to be done?'
'There's nowt for it but to open the hatch,' he answered.
'Yes,' cried I; 'we can lay bare a little space of the hatchway--enoughto freely ventilate the forecastle. But how to contrive that they shallnot slip the cover far enough back to enable them to get out?'
He thought a moment, then, with the promptitude that is part of theeducation of the seafaring life, he cried, 'I have it!'
Next moment he was speeding aft. I saw him spring into the starboardquarter-boat with an energy that proved his heart an honest and humaneone, and in a trice he was coming forward holding a couple of boatstretchers--that is to say, pieces of wood which are placed in thebottom of a boat for the oarsman to strain his legs against.
'These'll fit, I allow,' cried he, 'and save half an hour of sawing andcutting and planing.'
He placed them parallel upon the after-lid, and their foremostextremities suffered the lid which travelled to be opened to a widththat gave plenty of scope for air, but through which it would have beenimpossible for the slenderest human figure to squeeze. Between us webound these stretchers so that there was no possibility of theirshifting, and then I tried the sliding cover, and found it as hard-setas though wholly closed and padlocked.
'How is it now with you?' I cried, through this interstice.
The reply came in the form of a near chorus of murmurs, which gave me toknow that all the poor wretches had drawn together under the hatch tobreathe. I desired to be satisfied that there was air enough for them,and called again, 'How is it with you now, men?'
This time I could distinctly recognise the melodious voice of Nakier:'It is allee right now. Oh, how sweet is dis breeving! Why you wantcheekeep us here?'
He was proceeding, but I cut him short; the liberation of the wretchedcreatures was not to be entertained for an instant, and it could merelygrieve my heart to the quick, without staggering my resolution, tolisten to the protests and appeals of them as they stood directly underthe hatch in that small, black, oppressive hole of a for
ecastle.
After this all remained quiet among them. I was happy to believe thatthey were free from suffering; but, though I knew the hatch to be secureas though it was shut tight and the hinged bar bolted, yet it wasimpossible not to feel uneasy at the thought of its lying even a littleway open. Of all the nights that Helga and I had as yet passed, this oneof Friday, November the 3rd, was the fullest of anxiety, the mosthorribly trying. The wind held very light; the darkness was richlyburthened with stars, there was much fire in the sea too, and the moon,that was drawing on to her half, rode in brilliance over the dark worldof waters which mirrored her light in a wedge of rippling silver thatseemed to sink a hundred miles deep. We dared not leave the hatchunwatched a minute, and our little company of four we divided intowatches, thus: one man to sentinel the Malays, two resting, the fourthat the wheel. But there was to be no rest for me, nor could Helgasleep, and for the greater space of the night we kept the deck together.
Yet there were times when anxiety would yield to a quiet, pure emotionof happiness, when I had my little sweetheart's hand under my arm, andwhen by the clear light of the moon I gazed upon her face and thought ofher as my own, as my first love, to be my wife presently, as I mighthope--a gift of sweetness and of gentleness and of heroism, as it mightwell seem to me, from old Ocean himself. That she loved me fondly I didtruly believe and, indeed, know. It might be that the memory of herfather's words to me had directed, and now consecrated, her affection.She loved me, too, as one who had adventured his life to save hers, whohad suffered grievously in that attempt--as one, moreover, whombereavement, whom distress, privation, all that we had endured, inshort, had rendered intimate to her heart as a friend, and, as it mightbe, now that her father was gone and she was a girl destitute of means,her only friend. All had happened since October the 21st: it was now the3rd of November. A little less than a fortnight had sufficed for theholding of this wild, adventurous, tragical, yet sweet passage of ourlives. But how much may happen in fourteen days! Seeds sown in thespirit have time to shoot, to bud, and to blossom--ay, and often towither--in a shorter compass of time. Was my dear mother living? Oh! Imight hope that, seeing that, if ever Captain Bunting's message about mehad been delivered, she would before this be knowing that I was safe, oralive, at least. What would she think of Helga? What of me, coming backwith a sweetheart, and eager for marriage?--coming back with a younggirl of whom I could tell her no more than this: that she was brave andgood and gentle; an heroic daughter; all that was lovely and fair ingirlhood meeting in her Danish and English blood.
The morning broke. All through the night there had been silence in theforecastle; but daylight showed how the extreme vigilance of those longhours had worked in my face, as I might tell by no other mirror thanHelga's eyes, whose gaze was full of concern as we viewed each other bythe spreading light of the dawn. There was the dim gleam of a ship'scanvas right abreast of us to starboard, and that was all to be seenthe whole horizon round.
After we had got breakfast, the three of us went forward and receivedthe empty breaker from the fellows below, contriving on our removing thestretchers so to pose ourselves as to be ready to beat down the first ofthem if a rush should be attempted, and instantly close the hatch. Thebreaker came empty to our hands. We filled and lowered it as on theprevious evening, then left the hatch a little open as before; and now,so far as the provisioning of the fellows was concerned, our work forthe day was ended, seeing that they had beef and biscuit enough to lastthem for several days. They made no complaint as to the heat or want ofair; but after we had lowered the little cask, and were fixing thestretchers, several of them shouted out to know what we meant to do withthem, and I heard Nakier vowing that if we released them they would behonest, that they had sworn by the Koran and would go to hell if theydeceived us; but we went on securing the hatch with deaf ears, and thenJacob and I went aft, leaving Abraham to watch.
The sun was hanging about two hours and a half high over the westernsea-line that afternoon, when the light air that had been little morethan a crawling wind all day freshened into a pleasant breeze withweight enough slightly to incline the broad-beamed barque. This pleasantwarm blowing was a refreshment to every sense: it poured cool upon ourheated faces; it raised a brook-like murmur, a sound as of some shallowfretting stream on either hand the vessel; and, above all, it soothed uswith a sense and reality of motion, for to it the barque broke thesmooth waters bravely, and the wake of her, polished and iridescent asoil, went away astern to the scope of two or three cables. A fewwool-white clouds floated along the slowly darkening blue like puffs ofsteam from the funnel of a newly started locomotive; but they had notthe look of the trade cloud, Helga said. She had taken sights at noon,had worked out the vessel's reckoning, and had made me see that it wouldnot need very many hours of sailing to heave the high land of Teneriffeinto sight over the bow, if only wind enough would hold to give the oldbucket that floated under us headway.
I was holding the wheel at this hour I am speaking of, and Helga wasabreast of me, leaning against the rail, sending her soft blue glancesround the sea as she talked. Abraham, with a pipe in his mouth, his armsfolded, and his head depressed, was slowly marching up and down besidethe forecastle hatch. Jacob lay sound asleep upon a locker in the cuddywithin easy reach of a shout down the companionway or through theskylight.
On a sudden my attention was taken from what Helga was saying, and Ifound myself staring at the mainmast, which was what is called at sea a'bright' mast--that is to say, unpainted, so that the slowly crimsoningsun found a reflection in it, and the western splendour lay in a line ofpinkish radiance upon the surface of the wood. This line, along with aportion of the spar, to the height, perhaps, of eighteen or twenty feet,seemed to be slowly revolving, as though, in fact, it were part of agigantic corkscrew, quietly turned from the depth of the hold. At firstI believed it might be the heat of the atmosphere. Helga observing thatI stared, looked too, and instantly cried out:
'The vessel is on fire!'
'Why, yes!' I exclaimed; 'that bluish haze is smoke!'
I had scarcely pronounced these words when Abraham, with his face turnedour way, came to a dead halt, peered, and then roared out:
'Mr. Tregarthen, there's smoke a-filtering up out of the main hatch!'
'Take this wheel!' said I to Helga; then, in a bound, I gained theskylight, into which I roared with all my lungs for Jacob to come ondeck. As I ran forward I saw smoke thinly rising in bluish wreaths andeddies round about the sides of the main-hatch, and from under themast-coat at the foot of the mainmast.
'They're a-shouting like demons in the fok'sle, sir,' cried Abraham,throwing his pipe overboard in his excitement.
'They have set fire to the ship!' I cried. 'Does smoke rise from thefok'sle?'
'Yes! ye may see it now!--ye may see it now!' he bawled.
In the moment or two's pause that followed I heard the half-muffledshouts of the dark-skinned crew, with one or two clearer voices, asthough a couple of the fellows had got their mouths close against thenarrow opening in the hatch. I rushed forward from abreast of themainmast, where I had come to a stand.
'What is wrong?' I cried. 'Where is this smoke coming from?'
A voice answered--it was Nakier's--but his dark skin blended with thegloom out of which he spoke, and I could not see him.
'Some man hab taken de fok'sle lamp into de forepeak, and hab byhaccident set fire to de cargo by putting de lamp troo a hole in debulkhead. For your God's sake let we out or we burn!'
'Is this a trick?' cried I to Abraham.
'Test it, sir!--test it by opening the main hatch!' he shouted.
Jacob had by this time joined us. In a few moments we had removed thebattens and torn off the tarpaulin, but at the first rise of theafter-hatch cover that we laid our hands upon up belched a volume ofsmoke, with so much more following that each man of us started back tocatch his breath. Now could be plainly heard a noise of shriekingforward.
'My God! men, what shall we do?' I cried, almost p
aralyzed by thissudden confrontment of the direst peril that can befall humanity at sea,but rendered in our case inexpressibly more horrible yet, to my mind, bythe existence of the pent-up wretches whom I felt, even in that momentof stupefying consternation, we dared not liberate while we remained onboard.
'What's to be done?' cried Jacob, whose wits seemed less abroad thanAbraham's. 'Ask yourself the question. The wessel's on fire, and we mustleave if we ain't to be burnt.'
'What! leave the Malays to perish?' I exclaimed.
'Let's smother this smoke down first, anyways,' cried Abraham; and heand his mate put the hatch on.
'Helga,' I shouted, 'drop the wheel! Come to us here! The ship is onfire!'
She came running along the poop.
'See this!' cried Abraham extending his arms, which trembled with thehurry and agitation of his mind; 'if them fellows forward are not to beburnt--and oh, my Gord! listen to them a-singing out!--we mustprovision a quarter-boat and get away, and, afore casting off, one of usmust pull them stretchers off that the men may get out. Who's to be thatlast man? _I_ will!'
'No, ye can't swim, Abey! That must be moy job,' shouted Jacob.
'I can lay hold of a buoy, an' jump overboard.'
'It'll be moy job, I tell ye!' passionately cried Jacob.
'Oh, hark to those poor creatures!' exclaimed Helga.
'Quick!' cried I. 'Abraham has told us what to do. There would be noneed for this horrible haste but for those imprisoned men! Hear them!Hear them!'
It was a wild and dreadful chorus of lamentation, mingled with suchwailings as might rise in the stillness following a scene of battle. Thenoise was scarcely human. It seemed to proceed from famished or woundedjackals and hyenas. But to liberate them--every man armed as he was witha sheath-knife deadly as a creese in those dingy fists--every maninfuriate--it was not to be dreamt of!
As swiftly as we could ply our legs and arms, we victualled thestarboard quarter-boat. Provisions were to our hands; we threw them inplentifully--remains of cooked meat, biscuit, cheese, and the like; wetook from each boat the breaker that belonged to her, filled them bothwith water, and stowed them. The sail belonging to the boat lay snuggedin a yellow waterproof cover along the mast; there were oars in her--allother furniture, indeed, that properly belonged to her--rowlocks,rudder, yoke; and the boatmen, old hands at such work as this, nimblybut carefully saw that the plug was in its place.
All the time that we worked there was rising out of the forecastle hatchthe dreadful noise of lamentation, of cries, of entreaties. It was asound to goad us into red-hot haste, and we laboured as though we wereeight instead of four.
'Now, Mr. Tregarthen,' cried Abraham, 'if we ain't to be pursued by themsavages on our liberating of 'em, we must cut them there falls.' And hepointed to the tackles which suspended the other boat at the portdavits.
'Do so!' said I.
He sprang on to the rail, and passed his knife through the ends of thefalls. This effectually put an end to all chance of the fellows chasingus in _that_ boat.
'There'll be plenty o' time for them to get the long-boat out,' shoutedAbraham, running across the deck to us. 'They're seamen, and there'sNakier to tell 'em what to do.'
'Rot 'em for firing the ship!' cried Jacob. 'I don't believe she _is_ onfire. They've made a smoke to scare us out of her!'
'Is everything ready?' I exclaimed.
'Hugh!' cried Helga, clasping her hands, 'I have forgotten my littleparcel--the picture and the Bible!'
She was about to fetch them.
'I can be quicker than you,' I cried, and, rushing to the hatch, jumpeddown it, gained the cabin she had occupied in Captain Bunting's time,and snatched up the little parcel that lay in the bunk. There was nosmoke down here. I sniffed shrewdly, but could catch not the leastsavour of burning. 'It is the fore part of the ship that is on fire,' Ithought. As I ran to regain the hatch, it somehow entered my mind torecollect that while looking for a lead-pencil in the chief mate'sberth, on the previous day, I had found a small bag of sovereigns andshillings, the unhappy man's savings--all, perhaps, that he possessed inthe world--the noble fruits of Heaven knows how many years of hardsuffering and bitter labour! I was without a halfpenny in my pocket, andentered the cabin to take this money, which I might hope to be able torepay to some next-of-kin of the poor fellow, should I ever get to hearof such a person, and which in any case would be more serviceable in mypocket than at the bottom of the sea, whither it was now tending. Havingsecured the money, which would be very useful to Helga and me, should welive to reach a port, I hastened on to the poop, heart-sickened by thedull noise of the ceaseless crying forward.
'Now,' said I, 'let us lower away, in the name of mercy, if only to freethose wretches, half of whom may be already suffocated.'
Helga and I got into the boat, and Abraham and his mate smartlyslackened away the tackles. In a few moments we were water-borne, withthe blocks released--for there was little left for me to learn in thosedays of the handling and management of a boat--and myself standing inthe bow, holding on by the end of the painter, which I had passedthrough a mizzen-channel plate. Abraham came down hand over hand by oneof the tackles, and dropped into the boat, instantly falling to work tostep the mast and clear away the sail.
'Below there!' roared Jacob; 'look out for these duds!' and down camefirst his boots, then his cap, then his coat, and then his waistcoat.'I'll jump overboard from this 'ere quarter!' he bawled. 'Stand by topick me up!'
The released helm had suffered the barque to come up into the wind, andshe lay aback with a very slow leewardly trend. The breeze held thewater briskly rippling, but the plain of the ocean was wonderfullysmooth, with a faint, scarce noticeable swell lightly breathing in it.
'Mr. Tregarthen,' exclaimed Abraham, 'you'll pull a stouter oar thanMiss Nielsen. Supposin' the lady stands by that there painter?'
'Right!' I exclaimed, and on the girl entering the bows Abraham and Iseized an oar apiece in readiness for Jacob's leap.
We lay close alongside, so that nothing was visible save the length ofthe ship's black side and her overhanging yardarms, and the thick linesof her shrouds rising to the lower mastheads. It was a breathless time.I had no fear for Jacob; I guessed that the imprisoned wretches would betoo dazed by the glaring sunshine and by the fresh air and by theirdeliverance from the stifling, smoke-thickened gloom of the forecastleto catch him even should they pursue him ere he jumped. Nevertheless,those moments of waiting, of expectation, of suspense, strung the nervesto the tension of fiddle-strings, and sensation was sharpened intoanguish.
Not more than three minutes elapsed--yet it seemed an hour. Then in ahoarse roar right over our heads sounded a shout:
'Look out, now!'
'Let go!' shrieked Abraham.
Helga dropped the line that held the boat.
'Back astarn, now!'
The fellow poled the boat off, while I put my whole strength into theoar I gripped. I caught a glimpse of Jacob poising and stooping with hisarms outstretched and his finger-ends together; his body whizzed throughthe air, his arms and head striking the water as clean as a knife; thenuprose his purple face at a distance of three boat's lengths. A thrustof the oar brought us alongside of him, and, while I grabbed him by theneck to help him inboard, Abraham was hoisting the sail, with Helga atthe yoke-lines, quietly waiting for the sheet to be hauled aft.
'Bravely done, Jacob!' cried I. 'There's a bottle of brandy in thestern-sheets. Take a pull at it! The sun will speedily dry you.'
'Where's the Malays?' exclaimed Abraham.
'Didn't stop to see,' answered Jacob. 'I chucked the stretchers off andsung down "Ye can come up," and then bolted.'
'There's Nakier!' cried Helga.
'And there's Punmeamootty!' I called.
I was astounded by observing the figures of these two fellows quietlygazing at us from the forecastle. Almost immediately after they hadappeared others joined them, and before our boat had fairly got wayupon her I counted the whole eleven of them
. They stood in a body withNakier in the thick of them surveying us as coolly as though their shipwere at anchor, and all were well, and we were objects of curiositymerely.
'Why, what's the matter with 'em?' cried Abraham. 'Are they waiting forus to sing out to tell 'em what to do?'
He had scarcely spoken the words when a loud shout of laughter brokefrom the dingy little mob, accompanied by much ironical flourishing ofhands, while Nakier, springing on to the rail, pulled his hat off andrepeatedly bowed to us. We were too much astounded to do more than gapeat them. A minute later Nakier sprang back again on to the forecastleand piped out some orders in his melodious voice, in which, assuredly,the most attentive ear could have detected nothing of the weakness thatI had noticed in his cries to us through the half-closed hatch.Instantly the men distributed themselves, one of them running to thewheel; and while we continued to gaze, mute with amazement, theforetopsail-yard was swung, the barque's head slowly fell off, theyards were then again braced up, and, behold! the little vessel, withher head at about south, was softly breaking the waters, with theafter-yards swinging as they were squared by the braces to thenorth-east wind.
There was small need to go on staring and gaping for any length of timeto discover that we were the victims of an out-and-away shrewder,cleverer, subtler stratagem than we had practised upon those dark-skins.I could not perceive any smoke rising from the forecastle. The fellowshad been much too clever to accept the risk of suffocation as acondition of their escape. Abraham had assured me that the bulkheadwhich divided the forepeak from the main hold was as strong as anytimber wall could well be; but there was either some damage, some rent,some imperfection in the bulkhead, which provided access to the hold, orthe crew, jobbing with Asiatic patience at the plank with their sharpknives, had penetrated it, having had all last night and all this day todo the work in.
A very little thing will make a very great deal of smoke. The burningof a small blanket might suffice to fill the hold of a much bigger shipthan that barque with a smell of fire strong enough and rolls of vapourdense enough to fill her crew with consternation and drive them to theboats. While the fellows kept the hatch of the forepeak closed the smokecould hardly filter through into the forecastle. I can but conjecturehow they managed; but the triumphant evidence of their cleverness layclear to our gaze in the spectacle of the barque slowly drawing awayinto the morning blue of the south and west.
When the two boatmen saw how it was, I thought they would have jumpedoverboard in their passion. Abraham, as usual, flung his cap into thebottom of the boat and roared at the receding figure of the ship asthough she were hard by, and the men aboard attentively listening tohim. Jacob, soaking wet, his black hair plastered upon his brow, and hisface as purple now with temper as it had before been when he rose halfstrangled out of the water, chimed in, and together they shouted.
Then turning upon me, Abraham bawled out that he would follow them.
'This here's a fast boat,' he vociferated. 'Here be oars to help hercanvas. Think them coloured scaramouches is agoing to rob me of mysalwage? Is it to be _all_ bad luck?--fust the _Airly Marn_, and now,'cried he, wildly pointing at the barque, 'a job that might ha' beenworth three or four hundred pound a man? And to be tricked by suchcreatures! to be made to feel sorry by their howling and wailing! towatch 'em a-sailing away with what's properly moine and Jacob's, andyourn! Whoy, there's money enough for a fust-class marriage and theloife of a gentleman afterwards, in a single share of the salwage thatthem beasts has robbed us of!'
And so he went on; and when he paused for breath Jacob fell a-shoutingin a like strain.
Meanwhile Helga, at the helm with a composed face, was making the boathug the wind, and the little fabric, bowed down by the spread of lugtill the line of her gunwale was within a hand's-breadth of the water,was buzzing along at a speed that was fast dwindling the heap of squarecanvas astern into a toy-like space of white. At last Abraham and hismate fell silent; they seated themselves, looking with dogged facesover their folded arms at the diminishing barque.
For my part, long before the two honest fellows had made an end of theirtemper I had ceased to think of the Malays and the trick they had putupon us. Here we were now in a little open boat--three men and agirl--in the heart of a spacious field of sea, with nothing in sight,and no land nearer to us than the Great Canary, which lay many leaguesdistant, and for which the north-east wind would not suffer us to headon a direct course. Here was a situation heavy and significant enough tofill the mind, and leave no room for other thoughts. And yet I do notknow that I was in the least degree apprehensive. The having thebarque's forecastle filled with a crew of fellows whose first businesswould have been to slaughter us three men on their breaking out hadweighed intolerably upon my spirits. It was a dreadful danger, ahorrible obligation now passed, and my heart felt comparatively light,forlorn and perilous as our situation still was. Then, again, I found asort of support in the experiences I had passed through on the raft andin the lugger. The mind is always sensible of a shock on leaving thesecure high deck of a ship, and looking abroad upon the vast, pitilessbreast of old Ocean from the low elevation of a boat's side. I haveheard of this sort of transition paralyzing the stoutest-hearted of ashipwrecked crew; for in no other situation does death seem to comenearer to one, floating close alongside, as it were, and chilling thehottest air of the tropics to the taste and quality of a frosty blast;and in no other situation does human helplessness find a likeaccentuation, so illimitable are the reaches of the materializedeternity upon which the tiny structure rests, the very stars by nightlooking wan and faintly glittering, as though the foundered gaze hadrendered their familiar and noted distances measureless compared totheir height from a ship's deck or from solid earth.
But, as I have it in my mind to say, our experiences on the raft and theopen lugger were so recent that it was impossible to feel all thisvastness and nearness of the deep and the unutterable solitude of ourtiny speck of fabric in the midst of it, as though one came fresh fromdays of bulwarked heights and broad white decks to the situation. Helgasurrendered the helm to Abraham, and the boat blew nimbly along overthat summer stretch of sea; Abraham steering with a mortified face;Jacob leaning upon the weather gunwale with his chin upon his arms,sullenly gazing into vacancy; and Helga and I a little way forward,talking in a low voice over the past. What new adventure was this we hadentered upon? Should we come off with our lives, after all? The tigressocean had shown herself in many moods since I had found myself withinreach of her claws. She was slumbering now. The dusky lid of night wasclosing upon the huge open trembling blue eye. Should we have escapedher before she roused in wrath?
The sun was now low upon the horizon, and the sky was a flashing scarletto the zenith, and of a violet dimness eastward, where a streak or twoof delicate cloud caught the western glory, and lay like some bits ofchiselling in bronze in those tender depths.
'There ain't nothing in sight,' said Jacob, resuming his seat after along look round; 'we shall have to go through the night.'
'Well, I've been out in worse weather than this,' exclaimed Abraham.
'Pity the breeze doesn't draw more north or south,' said I. 'The boatsails finely. A straight course for Teneriffe would soon be giving us asight of the Peak.'
'Ye and the lady'll ha' seen enough, I allow, by this toime to make yeboth want to get home,' said Abraham. 'Is there e'er a seafaring man whocould tell of such a procession of smothering jobs all atreading oneach other's heels? Fust, the loss of the _Hayneen_' [meaning the_Anine_], 'then the raft, then the foundering of the _Airly Marn_, thenthe feeding of Mussulmen with pork, then the skipper--as was a propergentleman, tew--afalling in love, and afterwards being murdered; thenthat there fire, and now this here boat--and all for what? Not ablooming penny to come out of the whole boiling!' And his temper givingway, down went his cap again, and he jumped to his feet with a thirstylook astern; but fortunately by this time the barque was out of sight,otherwise there is no doubt we should have been regaled with anoth
erhalf-hour of 'longshore lamentation and invective.
The breeze held steady, and the boat swept through it as though shewere in tow of a steamer. The sun sank, the western hectic perished, andover our heads was spread the high night of hovering silver with muchmeteoric dust sailing amid the luminaries; and in the south-east stoodthe moon, in whose light the fabric of the boat and her canvas looked asthough formed of ivory. We had brought a bull's-eye lamp with us, andthis we lighted that we might tell how to steer by a small compass whichAbraham had taken from the Captain's cabin. We made as fair a meal asour little stock of provisions would yield, sitting in the moonshineeating and talking, dwelling much upon the incidents of the day,especially on the subtlety of the Malays, with occasional speculation onwhat yet lay before us; and again and again one after another of uswould rise to see if there was anything in sight in the pale hazyblending of the ocean-rim with the sky, which the moon as it soaredflooded with her light.
To recount the passage of those hours would be merely to retrace oursteps in this narrative. It was a tedious course of dozing, of watching,of whispering. At times I would start with the conviction that it was aship's light my eyes had fastened upon out in the silvery obscure; butnever did it prove more than a star or some phosphorescent sparkling inthe eye itself, as often happens in a gaze that is much strained andlong vigilant.
It was some time before five o'clock in the morning that I was startledfrom what was more a trance of weariness than of restful slumber, by ashout.
'Here's something coming at last!' cried the hoarse voice of Abraham.
The moon was gone, but the starlight made the dark very clear and fine,and no sooner had I directed my eyes astern than I spied a steamer'slights. The triangle of red, green, and white seemed directly in ourwake, and so light was the breeze, and so still the surface of theocean, that the pulsing of the engines, with the respiratory splashingof the water from the exhaust-pipe, penetrated the ear as distinctly asthe tick of a watch held close.
'Flash the bull's-eye, Jacob,' shouted Abraham, 'or she'll be a-cuttingof us down.'
The fellow sprang into the stern-sheets and flourished the light.
'Now sing out altogether, when I count three,' cried Abraham again.'Ship ahoy!--to make one word of it. Now then!--wan, tew, _three_!' Weunited our voices in a hurricane yell of 'Ship ahoy!'
'Again!'
Once more we delivered the shout with such a note in it as could onlycome from lungs made tempestuous by fear and desire of preservation. Sixor seven times did we thus hail that approaching lump of shadow, definedby its triangle of sparks, and in the intervals of our cries Jacobvehemently flourished the bull's-eye lamp.
Suddenly the green light disappeared.
'Ha! She sees us!' exclaimed Abraham.
The sound of pulsing ceased, and then, with a swiftness due to theatmospheric illusion of the gloom, but that, nevertheless, seemedincredible in a vessel whose engines had stopped, the great mass ofshadow came shaping and forming itself out within her own length of usinto the aspect of a large brig-rigged steamer, dark as the tomb alongthe length of her hull, but with a stream of lamplight touching herbridge, from which came a clear strong hail:
'Boat ahoy! What is wrong with you?'
'We're adrift, and want ye to pick us up!' roared Abraham. 'Stand by togive us the end of a line!'
Within five minutes the boat, with sail down and mast unstepped, wasalongside the motionless steamer, and ten minutes later she was veeringastern and the four of us, with such few articles as we had to hand up,safe aboard, the engines champing, the bow-wave seething, and thecommander of the vessel asking us for our story.
CHAPTER VIII.
HOME.
On the morning of Saturday, the 18th of November, the brig-riggedsteamer _Mosquito_, from the west coast of Africa for London, stoppedher engines and came to a stand off the port of Falmouth, to put Helgaand me ashore at that town, by the aid of a little West-country smackwhich had been spoken and now lay alongside.
The English coast should have been abreast of us days earlier than this;but very shortly after the _Mosquito_ had picked us up something wentwrong in the engine-room; our passage to Madeira was so slow as to belittle more than a dull and tedious crawling over the waters; and wewere delayed for some considerable time at Funchal, while the chiefengineer and his assistants got the engines into a condition to drivethe great metal hull to her destination.
But now the two bold headlands of the fair coast of Falmouth--thetenderest, most gem-like bit of scenery, I do honestly believe, not thatEngland only, but that this whole great world of rich and variedpictures has to show--lay plain in our eyes. Streaks of snow upon theheights shone like virgin silver in the crisp brilliant November sun ofthat wintry Channel morning, and betwixt the headlands the hills beyondshowed in masses of a milk-white softness poised cloud-like in the keenblue distance, as though by watching you would see them soar.
I thanked the captain heartily for his kindness, and then, standing inthe gangway with my sweetheart at my side, I asked for Abraham andJacob, that we might bid them farewell. The worthy fellows, endeared tome by the association of peril bravely met and happily passed, promptlyarrived. I pulled out the money that I had taken from Mr. Jones's berth,and said: 'Here are thirteen pounds and some shillings, Abraham, whichbelonged to that poor mate whom the Malays killed. Here is half theamount for you and Jacob; the other half will carry Miss Nielsen and meto Tintrenale. I will make inquiries if the poor creature had anyrelatives, and, if I can hear of them, the money will be repaid. And nowyou will, both of you, remember a promise I made to you aboard the_Early Morn_. Let me have your addresses at Deal!'--for they wereproceeding to the Downs in the steamer.
They told me where they lived. I then extended my hand.
'God bless you both!' I said. 'I shall never forget you!' And, indeed,more than that I could not have said at the moment, for my throattightened when I looked into their honest faces and thought how Helgaand I owed our lives to them.
It was a hearty farewell among the four of us; much hand-shaking andGod-blessing of one and another; and when we had entered the smack andshoved off, the two poor fellows got upon the bulwark-rail and cheeredus again and again with such contortions of form and violence of gesturethat I feared to see them fall overboard. But the steamer was now inmotion, and in a very little while the two figures wereindistinguishable. I have never seen them since; yet, as I write thesewords and think of them, my heart is full; if they be living, Iearnestly hope they are well and doing well; and if these lines meettheir eyes they will know that the heartiest of hearty welcomes awaitsthem whenever they shall find themselves near my little Cornish home.
The 18th was a Saturday, and I made up my mind to stay throughout Sundayat Falmouth, that I might have time to receive a line from Mr. Trembath,to whom my first business must be to send news of my safe return, thathe might deliver it with all caution to my mother; for it was not to beforeseen how a sudden shock of joy might serve her. So we were no soonerashore than I wrote to Mr. Trembath, and then Helga and I quitted thehotel to make some purchases, taking care to reserve enough to pay ourtravelling expenses home.
Next morning we went to church, and kneeling side by side, we offered upthe thanks of our deeply grateful hearts for our preservation from themany dark and deadly perils we had encountered, and for ourrestoration, sound in health and limb, to a land we had often talked ofand had as often feared we should never again behold.
It was a quiet holiday with us afterwards: a brief passage of hourswhose happiness was alloyed only by anxiety to get news of my mother.Our love for each other was true and deep--how true and deep I am betterable to know now than I did then, before time had tested the metal ofour hearts. I was proud of my Danish sweetheart, of her heroic nature,of her many endearing qualities of tenderness, goodness, simple piety,of her girlish gentleness of character, which, in the hour of trial andof danger, could harden into the courage of the lioness, without loss,as I knew, of the sweetness
and the bloom of her maidenhood. I felt,too, she was mine in a sense novel indeed in the experiences oflove-making; I mean, by the right of having saved her life, of pluckingher, as it were, out of the fury of the sea; for we were both veryconscious that, but for my having been aboard the _Anine_, she must haveperished, incapable of leaving her dying father even had she been ablewith her girl's hands alone to save herself, as between us we had savedourselves.
But not to dwell upon this, nor to recount our walks on that quietNovember Sabbath day, our exquisite and impassioned enjoyment of thescenes and sights and aromas of this favoured space of land after ourmany privations and after the sickening iteration of the ocean girdle,flawless for days and making our sight ache with gazing and withexpectation: not to dwell upon this and much more that memory loves torecall, Monday morning's post brought me a letter from Mr. Trembath. Mymother was well--he had told her I was at Falmouth--I was to come to herwithout delay. It was a long letter, full of congratulations, ofastonishment, but--my mother was well! She knew I was at Falmouth! Allthe rest was idle words to my happiness, full of news as the letter was,too. Helga laughed and cried and kissed me, and an hour later we were ina railway carriage on our way to Tintrenale.
On our arrival we immediately proceeded to the house of Mr. Trembath. Wewere on foot, and on our way from the railway station, as we turned thecorner of the hilly road that led to the town, the whole view of thespacious bay opened upon our eyes. We instantly stopped, and I graspedHelga's hand while we stood looking. It was a keen bright blue morning,the air of a frosty, of an almost prismatic brilliance of purity owingto the shining ranges of snow upon the slopes and downs of the headlandsof the cliffs. The Twins and the Deadlow Rock showed their black fangswith a recurrent flash of light as the sun smote them while wet from thelift of the swell that was rolling into the bay.
'Yonder is where the _Anine_ brought up. Do you remember?'
White gulls were hovering off the pier. To the right was the lifeboathouse out of which we had launched on that dark and desperate night ofOctober 21. The weather-cock crowning the tall spire of St. Saviour'swas glowing like fire in the blue. Far off, at the foot of HurricanePoint, was the cloudy glimmer of boiling water, the seething of theAtlantic fold recoiling from the giant base. A smart little schooner layhalf a mile out on a line with the pier, and, as she rolled, her copperglistened ruddily upon the dark-blue surface. Sounds of life arose fromthe town: the ringing of bells, the rattling of vehicles, the cries ofthe hawker.
'Come, my darling!' said I, and we proceeded.
I shall never forget the look of astonishment with which Mr. Trembathreceived us. We were shown into his study--his servant was a new handand did not know me; she admitted us as a brace of parishioners, I daresay. 'Great Heaven! it is Hugh Tregarthen!' he cried, starting out ofhis chair as though a red-hot iron had been applied to him. He wrungboth my hands, overwhelming me with exclamations. I could not speak. Hegave me no opportunity to introduce Helga. Indeed, he did not seemsensible of her presence.
'Alive, after all! A resurrection, in good faith! What a night it was,d'ye remember? Ha! ha!' he cried, clinging to my hands and staring, withthe wildest earnestness of expression, into my face, while his eyesdanced with congratulation and gratification. 'We gave you up. You oughtto be dead--not a doubt of it! No young fellow should return to lifewho has been mourned for as you were!' Thus he rattled on.
'But my mother--my mother, Mr. Trembath! How is my mother?'
'Well, well, _perfectly_ well--looking out for you. Why are you not withher instead of with me? But to whom am I talking? To Hugh Tregarthen'sghost?'
Here his eyes went to Helga, and his face underwent a change.
'This young lady is a friend of yours?' and he gave her an odd sort ofpuzzling, inquisitive bow.
'If you will give me leave, Mr. Trembath. I have not yet had a chance.First let me introduce you to Miss Helga Nielsen, my betrothed--theyoung lady who before long will be Mrs. Hugh Tregarthen, so named byyour friendly offices.'
He peered at me to see if I was joking, then stepped up to her, extendedhis hand, and courteously greeted her. Sweet the dear heart looked asshe stood with her hand in his, smiling and blushing, her blue eyesfilled with emotion, that darkened them to the very complexion of tears,and that made them the prettier for the contrast of their expressionwith her smile.
'My dear mother being well,' said I, 'the delay of a quarter of an hourcan signify nothing. Let us seat ourselves that I may briefly tell youmy story and explain how it happens that Helga and I are here instead ofgoing straight to my home.'
He composed himself to listen, and I began. I gave him our adventuresfrom the hour of my boarding the _Anine_, and I observed that as Italked he incessantly glanced at Helga with looks of growing respect,satisfaction, and pleasure.
'Now,' said I, when I had brought my narrative down to the time of ourbeing picked up by the _Mosquito_, never suffering his repeatedexclamations of amazement, his frequent starts and questions, to throwme off the straight course of my recital, 'my wish is to see my motheralone, and when I have had about an hour with her I want you to bringHelga to our home.'
'I quite understand,' he exclaimed: 'a complication of surprises wouldcertainly be undesirable. You will prepare the way. I shall know how tocongratulate her. I shall be able to speak from my heart,' said he,smiling at Helga.
'One question, Mr. Trembath. What of my poor lifeboat's crew?'
'Three of them were drowned,' he answered; 'the rest came ashore alivein their belts. It was a very astonishing preservation. The gale shiftedand blew in a hurricane off the land, as of course you remember; yet thedrive of the seas stranded the survivors down upon the southern end ofthe esplanade. They were all washed in together--a most extraordinaryoccurrence, as though they had been secured by short lengths of line.'
'And _they_ are all well?'
'All. Poor Bobby Tucker and Lance Hudson were almost spent, almost gone;but there was a Preventive man standing close by the spot to which thesea washed them: he rushed away for help; they were carried to theirhomes--and what a story they had to tell! The poor Danes who had jumpedinto the boat were drowned to a man.'
Helga clasped her hands, and whispered some exclamation to herself inDanish.
I sat for another five minutes, and then rose with a significant look atthe clock, that Mr. Trembath might remember my sweetheart was not to beabsent from me for more than an hour. I then kissed her and left thehouse, and made my way to my mother's home.
It was but a short step, yet it took me a long while to reach the door.I believe I was stopped at least ten times. Tintrenale is a littleplace; the ripple of a bit of news dropped into that small pool swiftlyspreads to the narrow boundaries of it, and, though Mr. Trembath hadonly heard from me on the preceding day, the whole town knew that I wasalive, that I was at Falmouth, that I was on my way home. But for this Imight have been stared at as a ghost, and have nimbly stepped past facesturned in dumb astonishment upon me. Now I had to shake hands; now I hadto answer questions, breaking away with what grace I could.
When I reached my home there was no need to knock. My dear mother was atthe window, and, to judge from the celerity with which the door flewopen, she had stationed a servant in the hall ready to admit me at herfirst cry.
'Dear mother!'
'My darling child!'
She strained me to her heart in silence. My throat swelled, and shecould not speak for weeping. But tears of rejoicing are soon dried, andin a few minutes I was on the sofa, at her side, our hands locked.
In the first hurry and joy of such a meeting as this much will be saidthat the memory cannot carry. There was a score of questions to answerand put, none of which had any reference whatever to my strangeexperiences. She was looking somewhat thin and worn, as though frettinghad grown into a habit which she could not easily shake off. Hersnow-white hair, her dear old face, her dim eyes, in which lay aheart-light of holy, reverent exultation, the trembling fingers withwhich she caressed my h
air--the homely little parlour, too, with thedance of the fire-play in the shady corners of the room, its twentydetails of pictures, sideboard--I know not what else--all my lifefamiliar to me, upon which, indeed, the eyes of my boyhood firstopened----I found it as hard to believe that I was in my old home againat last, that my mother's voice was sounding in my ear, that it was herbeloved hand which toyed with my hair, as at times I had found it hardto believe that I was at sea, floating helplessly aboard a tiny raftunder the stars.
'Mother, did you receive the message that was written upon a board, andread by the people of the Cape steamer homeward bound?'
'Yes, four days ago; but only four days ago, Hugh! I believed I shouldnever see you again, my child!'
'Well, thank God! it is well with us both--ay, well with three of us,'said I: 'the third presently to be as precious in this little home,mother, as ever a one of us that has slept beneath its roof.'
'What is this you are saying?' she exclaimed.
'Be composed, and give me your ear and follow me in the adventures I amgoing to relate to you,' said I, pulling out my watch and looking at it.
My words would readily account for her perceiving something in my mindof a significance quite outside that of my adventures; but the instinctsof the mother went further than that; I seemed to catch a look in heras though she half guessed at what I must later on tell her. It was anexpression of mingled alarm and remonstrance, almost as anticipative asthough she had spoken. God knows why it was she should thus suggest thatshe had lighted upon what was still a secret to her, seeing, as onemight suppose, that the very last notion which would occur to her wasthat I had found a sweetheart out upon the ocean in these few weeks ofmy absence from home. But there is a subtle quality in the blood ofthose closely related which will interpret to the instincts as thoughthe eye had the power of exploring the recesses of the heart.
I began my story. As briefly as I might, for there was no longer an hourbefore me, I related my adventures step by step. I had only to pronouncethe girl's name to witness the little movement of jealousy and suspicionhardening in the compressed lips and graver attention of the dear oldsoul. I had much to say of Helga. In truth, my story was nearly allabout Helga: her devotion to her father, her marvellous spirit in thedirest extremity, her pious resignation to the stroke that had made heran orphan. I put before my mother a picture of the raft, the star-litgloom of the night, the dying man with his wife's portrait in his hand.I told her of Helga's heroic struggle with her anguish of bereavement,her posture of prayer as I launched the corpse, her prayer again in thelittle forepeak of the lugger, where the dim lantern faintly disclosedthe picture of her mother, before which the sweet heart knelt. My lovefor her, my pride in her, were in my face as I spoke; I felt the warmblood in my cheek, and emotion made my poor words eloquent.
Sometimes my mother would break out with an exclamation of wonder or ofadmiration, sometimes she would give a sigh of sympathy; tears stood inher eyes while I was telling her of the poor Danish captain's death andof Helga kneeling in prayer in the little forepeak. When I had made anend, she gazed earnestly at me for some moments in silence, and thensaid:
'Hugh, where is she?'
'At Mr. Trembath's.'
'She is in Tintrenale?'
'At Mr. Trembath's, mother.'
'Why did you not bring her here?'
'I wished to break the news.'
'But she is your friend, Hugh. She was a good daughter, and she is agood girl. I must love her for that.'
I kissed her. 'You will love her when you see her. You will love hermore and more as you know her better and better. She is to be my wife.Oh, mother, you will welcome her--you will take her to your heart, sofriendless as she is and so poor; so tender too, so gentle, soaffectionate?'
She sat musing awhile, playing with her fingers. That colouring ofsuspicion, of a mother's jealousy, which I have spoken of, had yieldedto my tale. She was thinking earnestly, and with an expression ofkindness.
'You are young to marry, Hugh.'
'No, no, mother!'
'She is very young too. We are poor, dear; and she has nothing, you tellme.'
'She is one of those girls, mother, who, having nothing, yet have all.'
She smiled, and stroked my hand, and then turned her head as though ina reverie, and fixed her eyes for a little space upon my father'spicture.
'We know nothing of her parents,' said she.
'She has her mother's portrait. It tells its own story. We know who andwhat her father was. But you shall question her, mother. I see herkneeling at your side telling you her little life-history.'
At this moment the house-door knocker was set clattering by a hand thatI very well knew could belong to no other man than Mr. Trembath. I wastoo impatient to await the attendance of a servant, and, rushing to thedoor, brought Helga into the parlour. The clergyman followed, and asHelga stood in the doorway he peered over her shoulder at my mother. Thedear girl was pale and nervous, yet sweet and fresh and fair beyondwords did she look, and my heart leapt up in my breast to the instantthought that my mother could not see her without being won.
The pause was but for a moment; my mother rose and looked at the girl.It was a swift, penetrating gaze, that vanished in a fine warm cordialsmile.
'Welcome to our little home, Helga!' said she, and, stepping up to her,she took her by the hands, kissed her on both cheeks, and drew her tothe sofa.
'Well, good-bye for the present, Hugh,' exclaimed Mr. Trembath.
'I will accompany you,' said I.
'No,' cried my mother, 'stay here, Hugh! This is your proper place,' andshe motioned for me to sit beside her.
Mr. Trembath, with a friendly nod, disappeared.
* * * * *
My story comes to an end as the worthy little clergyman closes the doorupon the three of us. When I sat down to this work, I designed no morethan the recital of the adventures of a month; and now I put down my penvery well satisfied that I leave you who have followed me in no doubt asto the issue of Helga's introduction to my mother, though it would gobeyond my scheme to say more on that head. I found a sweetheart at sea,and made her my wife ashore, and a time came when my mother was as proudof her Danish daughter as I was of my Danish bride.
There had been much talk between Helga and me, when we were on theocean, of our going to Kolding; but down to the present time we have notvisited that place. Her friends there are few, and the journey a longone; yet we are constantly talking of making an excursion to Copenhagen:the mere fancy, perhaps, gives us as much pleasure as the trip itselfwould. Through the friendly offices of the Danish Vice-Consul atFalmouth, we were enabled to realize upon the few poor effects whichCaptain Nielsen had left behind him in his little house at Kolding, andwe also obtained payment of the money for which he had insured his ownventure in the freight that had foundered.
There were moments when I would think with regret of the _Light of theWorld_. No doubt, could we have brought her to England or to a port, ourshare of the salvage would have made a little dowry for Helga, for,though I had not seen the vessel's papers, I might reasonably supposethe value of the cargo, added to that of the barque herself, amounted toseveral thousands of pounds, and as there were but four to share,Helga's and my division would not have failed to yield us a good roundsum.
And what was the end of that ship? I have heard the story: it found itsway into the newspapers, but in brief, insufficient paragraphs only. Thewhole narrative of her adventures after we had been tricked out of herby her coloured crew is one of the strangest romances of the sea that myexperience has encountered, student as I am of maritime affairs. Some ofthese days I may hope to tell the story; but for the present you willconsider that I have said enough.
THE END.
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