Chapter Twenty.The End of the Adventure.Our situation, now, was everything that could be desired for the execution of the delicate manoeuvre that I contemplated, and only a few minutes elapsed from the time of my stationing myself in the fore-rigging when the critical moment arrived for us to attempt it. I accordingly signed to Forbes to put the helm down; which he instantly did, lashing it fast; when he and I sprang simultaneously to the weather main-braces, to assist Sir Edgar and Joe in backing the main-topsail. This proved to be a tough drag for four men; but we managed to get the yards round far enough to lay the sail aback, when I once more darted forward into the fore-rigging to superintend the remainder of the work; Forbes returning to his station at the wheel, while Sir Edgar and Joe stood by the warp, in readiness to pay it out quickly, and to throw the life-buoys over clear of the rail.Everything now depended upon the strength and skill of San Domingo.The wreck, when I reached my post of observation in the rigging, was on our weather-bow, not more than twice our own length from us; and the barque, with her way already somewhat retarded by the backing of the main-topsail and the putting down of the helm, was slowly forging up to it, with her bows inclining toward the exact spot where the nine men were still huddled together in the main rigging, anxiously watching our approach and wondering what we were about to do. They saw that San Domingo was preparing to heave them a rope’s-end; but that did not very greatly enlighten them until Joe and Sir Edgar each raised a life-buoy to the rail, and prepared to throw it overboard. Then they got an inkling of our intent; and a feeble shout went up from among them.Slowly, and more slowly still, the barque continued to forge ahead; and I began to fear that, in my anxiety to avoid an actual collision with the wreck, I had backed my topsail a second or two too soon, and that we should not, after all, get near enough to her to accomplish the rescue. Still, we had not wholly lost our way; and foot by foot—or rather, inch by inch—we continued to creep nearer and nearer to the wreck, until the negro, on the end of his spar, was soaring and swooping wildly within some fifty feet of the group of half-drowned men; and then our way stopped. This was the moment that San Domingo had been waiting for. Watching his opportunity, he seized upon the instant when the wreck and ourselves were both sunk in the trough of a sea, and therefore comparatively sheltered from the wind, when, with a single powerful swing of the coil round his head, he sent it whizzing straight and fair in among the group who were anxiously waiting for it.“Get as far aft as you can, and then haul away upon the line!” I shouted.One of them waved his hand to signify that he understood what I wanted; and then they all took hold of the line, and, with it grasped firmly in their hands, made their way cautiously in toward the hull, we watching their movements, meanwhile, in a state of the most intense anxiety and suspense. For now that we were within a biscuit-toss of them the appalling precariousness and peril of their situation became fully apparent to us; more completely so, indeed, than it probably was to the unfortunate fellows themselves. For, huddled together as they were in the rigging, they were sheltered to some extent by the hull of the brig, and were thus unable to clearly see and measure the stupendous proportions of the vast roaring mountains of foam-capped water that came hissing and swooping down upon them from to windward, each huge comber seemingly sentient with a full determination to overwhelm and engulf the already stricken and helpless fabric that lay prone and waterlogged at their mercy; while we, from the superior elevation of our buoyant deck, could look over and beyond the nearly submerged hull, and watch with breathless anxiety the swoop of every giant wave as it surged down upon the wreck and buried her in a blinding smother of seething, milk-white foam. But, beaten down, inert, and waterlogged as was the brig, her cargo was evidently of such a character as to impart a considerable measure of buoyancy to her; for though every sea that broke over her completely buried her for the moment, she invariably reappeared on the hinder slope of the baffled comber, apparently little or none the worse for her momentary submergence. Her triumphant survival, indeed, of these continuous and overwhelming onslaughts soon convinced me that her crew had little to fear from the prospect of her speedy foundering; their danger lay not in any such probability, but consisted in the likelihood of their being torn from their precarious hold in the rigging by every sea that swept and raged over them.This danger was, of course, greatly increased when the men began to move inward toward the hull, thus more fully exposing themselves to the fury of every surge that swept over it. And of this fact we soon had a most painful and melancholy illustration; for as the group, after waiting for two or three minutes for a favourable opportunity, essayed to scramble out of the rigging, and make their way aft along the brig’s upturned side to her quarter—where they would be clear of the gear and rigging when they took to the water—a small and comparatively innocuous sea broke over the hull, which, harmless as it was compared with most of its predecessors, had still enough of weight and spite in it to sweep one of the poor fellows from his precarious foothold into the seething, hissing swirl to leeward. The man tossed his arms over his head, with a wild shriek for help, as the smother carried him along in its suffocating embrace, and Joe promptly made a spring for a sparelife-buoythat we had provided for such an emergency; but before it could be thrown the unfortunate wretch was hurled over the brig’s mainyard as it lifted out of the water, and the next instant he disappeared beneath the foot of the main-topsail, the wide spaces of which immediately shut down upon and buried him as the roll of the hull once more submerged her spars. We never saw the poor fellow again, and there is no doubt that, caught and entangled beneath the cloths of the topsail, he was drowned there.Meanwhile, we were drifting rapidly away to leeward, and the full length of our warps was almost paid out; it was therefore imperative that the men on the wreck should act quickly. I shouted to them to this effect, and, awaking from the momentary stupefaction produced by the painfully sudden loss of their comrade, the remaining eight men made a dash for the brig’s quarter, and succeeded in reaching it just as the vessel was uphove upon the crest of another tremendous sea. We saw them slip the string of life-buoys over their heads, and the next instant they were buried in the vast volume of water that broke, roaring and hissing, over the fabric that they stood upon. To our anxious minds it seemed an endless time before they reappeared; but at length we saw the string of life-buoys floating in the midst of the lacework of foam, some ten fathoms to leeward of the wreck, well clear of the heaving spars and snake-like coils of loose and unrove gear, eight out of the nine buoys having each a man in it.“Hurrah!” I shouted, swinging myself on deck out of the rigging. “We have them! Haul away gently upon the line, and let us get them alongside.”As I spoke I saw that San Domingo was laying in from the jib-boom end, he having, like myself, seen that we had got hold of the men; and presently he ranged up alongside me and, following my example, industriously set to work to throw the coils of braces, halliards, clewlines, and so on off the pins, and bend the ends of them into bowlines in readiness for hauling the rescued men up the side.The task of getting the poor fellows safely inboard was soon accomplished, when, administering to each man a pannikin of scalding hot coffee that had meanwhile been prepared in the galley, I sent them below into the forecastle with instructions to strip, rub each other well down, and turn in until a good meal could be prepared for them; when, the rescued crew being thus temporarily disposed of, we filled upon the ship and resumed our voyage.A good substantial meal of beef, potatoes, and ship’s bread, backed up with a few hours’ sleep, and a shift into dry clothes, sufficed to set the rescued men upon their pins again, little or nothing the worse for the hardship and exposure they had so recently undergone; and that same evening I obtained from the mate of the brig, a man named Cooper, the particulars of their adventure.From this man’s story it appeared that the brig, a vessel of one hundred and seventy-four tons register, named theGolden Gate, hailed from San Francisco, from which port she had sailed in search of a cargo of sandal-wood. The quest had been successful, a full cargo had been obtained, and all had gone well with the craft up to the afternoon of the preceding day, when her crew, like us, had found themselves becalmed. Unlike myself, however, the skipper of theGolden Gate—who proved to be the man who had unfortunately been swept away and lost during the process of rescue—had obstinately refused to believe that the threatening aspect of the weather meant anything worse than a sharp thunderstorm, and had declined to accede to the suggestion of his mate that sail should be shortened, averring that all the wind they were likely to get they would need to help them out of the region of the equatorial calms. The result had been that when the hurricane burst upon them the ship was hove over upon her beam-ends, with her sails flat upon the water, in which position she had gradually filled, her cargo only preventing the waterlogged hull from sinking under the feet of her crew. Fortunately for all hands, they had entertained sufficiently serious doubts of their skipper’s judgment to determine them to remain on deck and see the matter out; hence, when the brig went over, they were in a measure prepared for the catastrophe, and lost no time in clambering on to the vessel’s upturned side. From this position the sea, breaking heavily over the hull, soon drove them into the rigging, where they had remained, constantly drenched with spray and frequently submerged beneath the vast volumes of water that poured over the wreck, until rescued by us.In exchange for his story I briefly informed the rescued mate that I had sailed from Sydney, in ballast, for the Canton river, intending to cut a cargo of sandal-wood on the way; but that the bulk of my crew, a gang of desperadoes from the gold-diggings, had frustrated my purpose by attempting to take my ship away from me, and that I had therefore been compelled to leave them on an island; and further, that when I sighted theGolden Gate, we were on our way to the Sandwich Islands, hoping to there obtain men enough to navigate the barque to China. I said that, if he and his men wished it, I would still go on to Honolulu, and land them there, from whence they would doubtless soon find an opportunity to return to San Francisco; or, if they preferred it, I would ship them all, at the current rate of wages, for the voyage to China, and, if they gave me satisfaction, thence home to England. He said he would lay my offer before the men, and acquaint me with their decision forthwith; and at once retired to the forecastle. Whereupon I at once called Joe and San Domingo to me, and laid the strictest injunctions upon them both that under no circumstances whatever were they to make the slightest allusion to the treasure in the hold; hinting pretty strongly that, if they did, their own share of it would probably fall very far short of what it would be should the secret be well kept. The caution I believed to be quite needless, so far as Joe was concerned; but its necessity, as regarded the negro, was made quite apparent by his remark when I had finished speaking—“Golly, sar; it just as well you tole me dat in time, odderwise I dead sure to hab said someting about it de fust time I had a chance. But now dat you has warned me, sar, you may depend abs’lutely upon my discresshun. I wants all de dollars I can git; and I doan’ feel inclined to share dem wid men dat has had no hand in de saving of dem.”The mate soon returned to the deck with the decision of his crew. He informed me that the men were quite unanimous in their desire to leave the ship at Honolulu, and make the best of their way back to San Francisco with as little delay as possible, if such an arrangement would accord with my convenience; but that, in the mean time, they would gladly turn to and assist me to work the ship so far, without pay, in acknowledgment of my having saved their lives.The weather, meanwhile, was fast moderating; so much so that during the second dog-watch we took a good drag upon the topsail halliards, and set the foresail and mizzen; the wind gradually hauling round further from the northward and breaking us off until we headed north-east by compass. The mercury was rising almost as rapidly as it had fallen, and there was every prospect of a fine night. Cooper, the late mate of theGolden Gate, offered to do duty as second mate, while the cook of the craft expressed his desire to continue the functions of his office; the remainder of the men declared their readiness to go to work forthwith; and that night, accordingly, we once more kept two watches, each consisting of an officer and four men, while I, who had been on deck almost continuously for thirty hours, turned in and, with a mind intensely relieved by the acquisition of so much valuable help, slept like a log until seven o’clock the next morning.I awoke of my own accord, and had no sooner opened my eyes than I knew, without any need of telling, exactly how we were situated. The ship was rolling, with a long, steady, even swing, from side to side, with an occasional heave and settlement of her quarter as the swell took her; the canvas was alternately flapping out with rifle-like reports, and thundering against her masts as she rolled; the bulkheads were creaking and groaning; the cabin-doors were rattling upon their hooks; the wheel-chains were clanking as the rudder kicked to the wash and swirl under the counter; and there was a gurgling, dripping wash of water along the bends, without any seething sound in it, that told me, apart from the other noises of the ship, that we were again becalmed. The sun was streaming brilliantly in through the porthole of my cabin, flooding the little apartment with warmth and golden light; and the swishing and scrubbing sounds overhead told me that the hands were busy at the job of washing decks. It was a welcome, joyous sound, as evidence of the fact that we once more had a crew on board us; and I thrust my feet into my slippers and went on deck to get my morning bath with a feeling of gaiety and blithesomeness that taught me, for the first time, how heavy had been the load of anxiety that I had lately borne, and that had slipped from my shoulders with the arrival of theGolden Gatescrew on board.It was a glorious morning, with a clear, brilliantly blue, cloudless sky overhead, out of which the sun, though only an hour high, already blazed with an ardour that gave promise of a scorching day; the sea was oil-smooth, with a glittering sheen like that of quicksilver in the wake of the sun, while away to the westward of us it flashed and gleamed in hues of the softest, purest, opalescent blue to the side of the ship with the running of the swell. There was not a breath of wind, nor the remotest sign of any; so I ordered the lighter canvas and the courses to be hauled down and clewed up, to save them from thrashing themselves to rags; and, having revelled in the luxury of a shower-bath of cool, sparkling brine from the hose, left the ship under the topsails and fore-topmast staysail, and went below to dress for breakfast.The calm that had now fallen upon us lasted unbroken for five full days, during which we sweltered, day and night, in the melting heat of the tropics, with the blazing sun right overhead every day at noon, and a waning moon soaring into the heavens later and still later each night to render the hours of darkness magical with the witchery of her beauty and mystery. And during the whole of this time we never shifted our position by so much as a single mile a day. At length, however, on the sixth day, a few cat’s-paws came playing at intervals over the surface of the glass-smooth water, momentarily ruffling it into little evanescent patches of tender blue, and causing a transient ripple to play over the stagnant cloths of our canvas. As the day wore on the cat’s-paws increased in frequency, in area, and in strength; and shortly before sundown a gentle, dainty little air of wind came stealing softly up from the eastward, to woo which we joyfully spread every rag of canvas we could show to it: and oh! how ineffably pleasant and delightful was the sound of the first faint liquid tinkling ripple that broke from our cutwater, and gushed gently past the bends in a stream of tiny bursting air-bells, as the beautifully moulded hull yielded to the faint impulse of the soft breathing and began to move under it with the languorous motion of a sleeping swan! Then, as the soft, warm, star-spangled darkness of the tropics closed down upon us and wrapped us within its impalpable folds, the breeze gathered strength and weight by imperceptible degrees, until the scarcely audible tinkle under the bows merged into the sound of a knife shearing through a tautly stretched silken web, with a musical fountain-like plashing at the cutwater and a crisp, gushing curl of the glassy wave under the lee bow as it broke and hurried past into our wake in a lacework of creamy swirling froth, gemmed with countless glittering foam-bubbles; while the log told us that the ship was slipping her way through the small wrinklings of the brine at a speed of fully six knots in the hour.By-and-by the moon—her orb now reduced to less than half its full dimensions—stole ghostlike above the horizon; and by her wan light we saw that a host of soft, fleecy clouds—shaped like the smoke belched from the mouth of a cannon upon a windless day—were mustering their squadrons in the eastern quarter; and we knew them for the welcome trade-cloud, the sure indication that the breeze we now had would be a lasting one.And so it proved; for the fleecy masses soared upward until they overspread the whole of the visible sky; and as they soared so the breeze hardened, until at length, by the time that the middle watch drew toward its close, the saucyEsmeralda, with the wind well over her starboard quarter, and everything packed upon her, from the royal studding-sails down, was storming through it at a pace nearer to sixteen than to fifteen knots in the hour, while the wild weird melody of a hundred harps singing through the taut mazes of her rigging aloft mingled with the roar of the wind out of the great spaces of her straining canvas, and the deep, continuous thunder of the bow wave, raising a concert of such mad, soul-stirring harmony as causes the sailor’s heart to leap and bound within him in ecstatic exultation to the swift, buoyant leaps and plunges of the good ship beneath him.This truly royal breeze continued to blow with scarcely diminished strength, enabling us to reel off our fifteen knots per hour for hours at a time, while our speed seldom sank below twelve; the result of which was that a little before midnight of the fifth day from its first reaching us we glided into the roadstead of Honolulu, and came to an anchor.On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, I went ashore, taking with me my passengers and Cooper, the mate of theGolden Gate; and while Sir Edgar with his party made their way to the best hotel in the place, preparatory to the planning of an expedition which would permit of their seeing as much as possible of the beauties of the island during our stay there, Cooper and I sought out our respective consuls. Neither of them were difficult to find; and while I partook of a second breakfast with our hospitable British representative, I learnt from him—after telling him as much of my story as I deemed needful—that an Aberdeen ship had unfortunately driven ashore and gone to pieces there only a fortnight previously, and that her crew were then awaiting an opportunity to work their way home, the master and chief mate having already left for EnglandviaSan Francisco, in a steamer. Upon further inquiry I found that there were thirteen of the crew in all, namely, the second mate, steward, cook, and ten seamen. This suited me exactly; for, although there were more men than I really needed, we had accommodation for an even greater number in theEsmeralda’sroomy forecastle and deck-house. Moreover, I had had all that I wanted of such an unpleasant experience as that of being short-handed. I therefore determined to ship them all, if they were willing, and recompense myself for my recent hardships by enjoying the luxury of a fully manned ship. The men were easily found—were indeed on the lookout for me, having learned early in the morning that an English barque had arrived in the roadstead some time during the night—and upon interviewing them I learned that they were, one and all, most anxious to make a start for home. They were as quiet, sober, and steady-looking a crew as I could possibly desire to meet with, or have under me; I therefore shipped the whole of them, on the spot, and directed them to hold themselves in readiness to join the ship as soon as they should receive instructions from me to that effect.Meanwhile, Cooper had had an interview with his consul, the result of which was an arrangement that the crew of theGolden Gateshould land forthwith, as there were several American vessels in the port, and, consequently, ample facilities for despatching the men home. As a consequence of this the Americans left theEsmeraldathat same afternoon, while the new crew went on board and took up their quarters on the following morning.The luncheon hour had arrived by the time that all these arrangements were completed, and I therefore hastened away to Sir Edgar’s hotel for the double purpose of satisfying a certain inward craving that had already begun to make itself felt, and of acquainting the baronet with the character of the business upon which I had been engaged during the morning. The several members of the party were, naturally enough, much pleased to learn that there was to be no undue detention among the lovely Sandwich Islands; but, on the other hand, they expressed so earnest a desire to see something of Oahu, now that they were actually upon it, that I cheerfully consented to delay my departure until the evening of the third day. A tour of the island was thereupon arranged, in which I was very cordially invited to join, and a most delightful excursion was the result; but as this is not a guide-book, and nothing out of the ordinary way occurred during its progress, I will not inflict the details of it upon the indulgent reader. Upon our return to the ship we found that Forbes, following my instructions, had re-watered her, and laid in a generous supply of fruit, pigs, poultry, and other necessaries; our crew were all on board, and there was nothing to detain us longer in this Pacific paradise; we therefore got our anchor forthwith, and stood out of the roadstead in the crimson wake of the setting sun just as that luminary sank magnificently beneath the horizon, painting the whole western sky with the flaming hues of his dying effulgence.There is but little more to tell, for the rescue of theGolden Gatescrew proved to be the last adventure that befell us on this extraordinarily eventful voyage. We made a very rapid run across to the China coast, and were detained but a short time in the Canton river, freights happening to be rather high and tonnage somewhat scarce—for a wonder—about the time of our arrival; I therefore met with no difficulty in obtaining a freight, with quick despatch, and within three weeks of our arrival we were once more at sea, this time Homeward-Bound! I must not forget to mention, by the way, that almost my first act, upon arriving at Hong Kong, was to write home two somewhat lengthy letters—one to my mother, acquainting her with the successful result of my quest, together with a full and detailed narrative of my adventures since leaving Sydney; and the other to my old and trusty friend, Mr Richards, acquainting him also with my success, and requesting him to undertake certain rather delicate negotiations for me, as well as to make certain preparations against the time of theEsmeralda’sarrival in the English Channel. Our homeward passage was as prosperous as it was uneventful. We were no sooner clear of our moorings than we caught a favourable breeze that followed us all the way until we had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and had caught the south-east trades, which in their turn carried us right up to, and indeed a few miles to the north of, the Line. Here we met with the usual light baffling airs, with plenty of rain and perhaps rather more than the average allowance of thunder and lightning. But this weather lasted only a trifle over forty-eight hours, when a small easterly air came to our rescue and fanned us along to the northward until we finally fell in with the north-east trades, the beneficent influence of which carried us as far north as the parallel of twenty-eight degrees. Here again kind Fortune favoured us; for when at length the trade-winds failed us, the wind gradually hauled round from the southward, and thence from the westward and north-west, hardening all the time, until at length it blew quite a fresh gale, which sent us bowling and staggering away to the northward and eastward under single-reefed topsails with topgallant sails over them, reeling off our fourteen knots hour after hour, and enabling us to hold our own for a whole day with one of the West Indian mail-boats, homeward-bound, much, no doubt, to the chagrin and astonishment of her officers. The breeze continued to freshen, however, and the sea to rise, necessitating first the handing of our topgallant sails, and, a little later on, the further reefing down of our topsails, when the great steamer gradually drew away from us, and by next morning was out of sight. This slant lasted us for four days, when the wind gradually softened into a moderate sailing breeze, veering all the time until it finally worked round from the southward once more, bringing with it mild, genial, sunshiny weather, that carried us right up the Channel to Portland Roads, which we entered on a lovely summer evening, nine months, almost to a day, from the date upon which we had quitted it, at the commencement of the voyage.I was of course careful to have the ship’s number and burgee conspicuously displayed as we entered the roadstead, and I also observed the precaution of standing far enough over towards the Weymouth side of the bay to permit of the flags being distinctly made out before bringing the ship to an anchor; the result of which was that, before the canvas was well clewed up, a small steam launch emerged from Weymouth Harbour, and in due time deposited my dear mother and my very good friend Mr Richards upon theEsmeralda’sdeck.Of the joyous meeting that ensued—of my dear mother’s smiles and tears and caresses and ejaculations of gratitude at my safe return—and of Mr Richards’ hearty congratulations at my successful achievement—I will say nothing; the picture may very well be left to the vivid imagination of the reader. I need only state that, after the first bustle and excitement of the meeting had passed over, Mr Richards drew me carefully aside and remarked—“It is all right, my dear boy; everything is arranged. I have put the whole affair into the hands of Tom White—a man whom I would trust with my very life—and he will come off to you with half a dozen ‘lerrets’ and a strong gang of thoroughly reliable men at two o’clock to-morrow morning. Hand over your cases of treasure to him without hesitation, and he will take care of them for you. He knows exactly how to manage the business, trust him, for he was a smuggler in his youth, when smuggling was still a paying business, as were his forbears for generations before him; so it is in the man’s blood, you see.”And as Mr Richards had said, so it proved. The night was, luckily,verydark, and therefore exactly suited to our purpose; and promptly at two o’clock, the man White, with his fleet of “lerrets,” came gliding noiselessly alongside out of the darkness, and in less than half an hour every ounce of the treasure was out of the ship, with nobody a bit the wiser. The next morning a man came alongside offering crabs for sale, and before leaving the ship, he slipped a crumpled, dirty piece of note-paper, smelling strongly of fish, into my hand; upon opening which I, with some difficulty, deciphered the following communication:—“Deer Sur the boxis be awl rite yours to command T. White.”Is there anything else to tell? Well, yes; there is just one further item of information that may interest some at least of my readers. I remember remarking, in the course of my narrative, that toward the latter part of my acquaintance with Miss Merrivale—dating particularly from the capture and recapture of the ship at the treasure island—that very charming young lady’s demeanour toward me underwent a certain subtle, indefinable, puzzling, but exceedingly agreeable change; and after we had left China and were on our homeward voyage—when, in short, I had leisure to give a proper amount of thought and attention to so important a matter—I determined to ascertain what it meant.Now, this is not a love story, so I will not enter into the particulars of how I first of all fell to questioning myself as towhythis change of manner should have proved so agreeable to me; nor will I describe the mental process by which I quickly arrived at the conclusion that it was because Agnes Merrivale was, beyond all question, the sweetest and most lovable, as well as the most charming and lovely woman it had ever been my good fortune to encounter. Nor will I attempt to describe the devious methods and the complicated stratagems by which—having arrived at this conclusion—I painfully sought to obtain some slight inkling or clue to the sweet girl’s sentiments toward myself. Let it suffice to say that they were all signally,miserably, unsuccessful.You, my dear reader, would of course have managed infinitely better; I am well aware of that. But remember, if you please, that I was only a plain, unpolished sailor; a man who, maybe, could handle a ship fairly well, take care of her in a gale of wind, and navigate her successfully from port to port, but who had until now had no experience of women and their ways. Moreover, I would have cut off my right hand rather than have said or done anything to offend one of the sex worthy the name of woman. So, for the first time in my life, I was fairly nonplussed and unhappy; knowing full well what I wanted, but not knowing what steps I ought to take in order to insure to myself a fair chance of obtaining it. Such a state of mind, however, is not likely to be long tolerated by a sailor; my good sense came to my aid, and whispered that if my love loved me, I had only to give her the opportunity to say so, and all would be well. So one night—how well I remember it! it was pitch-dark, and we were just clear of the Straits of Sunda, rolling merrily along before a fresh easterly breeze under every rag that we could pack upon the ship—I got the dear girl to myself for a while upon the poop, and told her in simple, sailorly language exactly what were my feelings and hopes. We were promenading the poop together, arm in arm, while I spoke, and she heard me to the end without a word. Then she stopped, and placing both her hands in mine, said, with an unmistakable quiver of emotion in her voice—“Thank you, Jack, for the most priceless gift a man can offer a woman—the gift of a loyal, loving heart. I accept it gratefully, dear, and will do my best to make you happy; for I believe I have loved you from the very first, my darling.”The End.
Our situation, now, was everything that could be desired for the execution of the delicate manoeuvre that I contemplated, and only a few minutes elapsed from the time of my stationing myself in the fore-rigging when the critical moment arrived for us to attempt it. I accordingly signed to Forbes to put the helm down; which he instantly did, lashing it fast; when he and I sprang simultaneously to the weather main-braces, to assist Sir Edgar and Joe in backing the main-topsail. This proved to be a tough drag for four men; but we managed to get the yards round far enough to lay the sail aback, when I once more darted forward into the fore-rigging to superintend the remainder of the work; Forbes returning to his station at the wheel, while Sir Edgar and Joe stood by the warp, in readiness to pay it out quickly, and to throw the life-buoys over clear of the rail.
Everything now depended upon the strength and skill of San Domingo.
The wreck, when I reached my post of observation in the rigging, was on our weather-bow, not more than twice our own length from us; and the barque, with her way already somewhat retarded by the backing of the main-topsail and the putting down of the helm, was slowly forging up to it, with her bows inclining toward the exact spot where the nine men were still huddled together in the main rigging, anxiously watching our approach and wondering what we were about to do. They saw that San Domingo was preparing to heave them a rope’s-end; but that did not very greatly enlighten them until Joe and Sir Edgar each raised a life-buoy to the rail, and prepared to throw it overboard. Then they got an inkling of our intent; and a feeble shout went up from among them.
Slowly, and more slowly still, the barque continued to forge ahead; and I began to fear that, in my anxiety to avoid an actual collision with the wreck, I had backed my topsail a second or two too soon, and that we should not, after all, get near enough to her to accomplish the rescue. Still, we had not wholly lost our way; and foot by foot—or rather, inch by inch—we continued to creep nearer and nearer to the wreck, until the negro, on the end of his spar, was soaring and swooping wildly within some fifty feet of the group of half-drowned men; and then our way stopped. This was the moment that San Domingo had been waiting for. Watching his opportunity, he seized upon the instant when the wreck and ourselves were both sunk in the trough of a sea, and therefore comparatively sheltered from the wind, when, with a single powerful swing of the coil round his head, he sent it whizzing straight and fair in among the group who were anxiously waiting for it.
“Get as far aft as you can, and then haul away upon the line!” I shouted.
One of them waved his hand to signify that he understood what I wanted; and then they all took hold of the line, and, with it grasped firmly in their hands, made their way cautiously in toward the hull, we watching their movements, meanwhile, in a state of the most intense anxiety and suspense. For now that we were within a biscuit-toss of them the appalling precariousness and peril of their situation became fully apparent to us; more completely so, indeed, than it probably was to the unfortunate fellows themselves. For, huddled together as they were in the rigging, they were sheltered to some extent by the hull of the brig, and were thus unable to clearly see and measure the stupendous proportions of the vast roaring mountains of foam-capped water that came hissing and swooping down upon them from to windward, each huge comber seemingly sentient with a full determination to overwhelm and engulf the already stricken and helpless fabric that lay prone and waterlogged at their mercy; while we, from the superior elevation of our buoyant deck, could look over and beyond the nearly submerged hull, and watch with breathless anxiety the swoop of every giant wave as it surged down upon the wreck and buried her in a blinding smother of seething, milk-white foam. But, beaten down, inert, and waterlogged as was the brig, her cargo was evidently of such a character as to impart a considerable measure of buoyancy to her; for though every sea that broke over her completely buried her for the moment, she invariably reappeared on the hinder slope of the baffled comber, apparently little or none the worse for her momentary submergence. Her triumphant survival, indeed, of these continuous and overwhelming onslaughts soon convinced me that her crew had little to fear from the prospect of her speedy foundering; their danger lay not in any such probability, but consisted in the likelihood of their being torn from their precarious hold in the rigging by every sea that swept and raged over them.
This danger was, of course, greatly increased when the men began to move inward toward the hull, thus more fully exposing themselves to the fury of every surge that swept over it. And of this fact we soon had a most painful and melancholy illustration; for as the group, after waiting for two or three minutes for a favourable opportunity, essayed to scramble out of the rigging, and make their way aft along the brig’s upturned side to her quarter—where they would be clear of the gear and rigging when they took to the water—a small and comparatively innocuous sea broke over the hull, which, harmless as it was compared with most of its predecessors, had still enough of weight and spite in it to sweep one of the poor fellows from his precarious foothold into the seething, hissing swirl to leeward. The man tossed his arms over his head, with a wild shriek for help, as the smother carried him along in its suffocating embrace, and Joe promptly made a spring for a sparelife-buoythat we had provided for such an emergency; but before it could be thrown the unfortunate wretch was hurled over the brig’s mainyard as it lifted out of the water, and the next instant he disappeared beneath the foot of the main-topsail, the wide spaces of which immediately shut down upon and buried him as the roll of the hull once more submerged her spars. We never saw the poor fellow again, and there is no doubt that, caught and entangled beneath the cloths of the topsail, he was drowned there.
Meanwhile, we were drifting rapidly away to leeward, and the full length of our warps was almost paid out; it was therefore imperative that the men on the wreck should act quickly. I shouted to them to this effect, and, awaking from the momentary stupefaction produced by the painfully sudden loss of their comrade, the remaining eight men made a dash for the brig’s quarter, and succeeded in reaching it just as the vessel was uphove upon the crest of another tremendous sea. We saw them slip the string of life-buoys over their heads, and the next instant they were buried in the vast volume of water that broke, roaring and hissing, over the fabric that they stood upon. To our anxious minds it seemed an endless time before they reappeared; but at length we saw the string of life-buoys floating in the midst of the lacework of foam, some ten fathoms to leeward of the wreck, well clear of the heaving spars and snake-like coils of loose and unrove gear, eight out of the nine buoys having each a man in it.
“Hurrah!” I shouted, swinging myself on deck out of the rigging. “We have them! Haul away gently upon the line, and let us get them alongside.”
As I spoke I saw that San Domingo was laying in from the jib-boom end, he having, like myself, seen that we had got hold of the men; and presently he ranged up alongside me and, following my example, industriously set to work to throw the coils of braces, halliards, clewlines, and so on off the pins, and bend the ends of them into bowlines in readiness for hauling the rescued men up the side.
The task of getting the poor fellows safely inboard was soon accomplished, when, administering to each man a pannikin of scalding hot coffee that had meanwhile been prepared in the galley, I sent them below into the forecastle with instructions to strip, rub each other well down, and turn in until a good meal could be prepared for them; when, the rescued crew being thus temporarily disposed of, we filled upon the ship and resumed our voyage.
A good substantial meal of beef, potatoes, and ship’s bread, backed up with a few hours’ sleep, and a shift into dry clothes, sufficed to set the rescued men upon their pins again, little or nothing the worse for the hardship and exposure they had so recently undergone; and that same evening I obtained from the mate of the brig, a man named Cooper, the particulars of their adventure.
From this man’s story it appeared that the brig, a vessel of one hundred and seventy-four tons register, named theGolden Gate, hailed from San Francisco, from which port she had sailed in search of a cargo of sandal-wood. The quest had been successful, a full cargo had been obtained, and all had gone well with the craft up to the afternoon of the preceding day, when her crew, like us, had found themselves becalmed. Unlike myself, however, the skipper of theGolden Gate—who proved to be the man who had unfortunately been swept away and lost during the process of rescue—had obstinately refused to believe that the threatening aspect of the weather meant anything worse than a sharp thunderstorm, and had declined to accede to the suggestion of his mate that sail should be shortened, averring that all the wind they were likely to get they would need to help them out of the region of the equatorial calms. The result had been that when the hurricane burst upon them the ship was hove over upon her beam-ends, with her sails flat upon the water, in which position she had gradually filled, her cargo only preventing the waterlogged hull from sinking under the feet of her crew. Fortunately for all hands, they had entertained sufficiently serious doubts of their skipper’s judgment to determine them to remain on deck and see the matter out; hence, when the brig went over, they were in a measure prepared for the catastrophe, and lost no time in clambering on to the vessel’s upturned side. From this position the sea, breaking heavily over the hull, soon drove them into the rigging, where they had remained, constantly drenched with spray and frequently submerged beneath the vast volumes of water that poured over the wreck, until rescued by us.
In exchange for his story I briefly informed the rescued mate that I had sailed from Sydney, in ballast, for the Canton river, intending to cut a cargo of sandal-wood on the way; but that the bulk of my crew, a gang of desperadoes from the gold-diggings, had frustrated my purpose by attempting to take my ship away from me, and that I had therefore been compelled to leave them on an island; and further, that when I sighted theGolden Gate, we were on our way to the Sandwich Islands, hoping to there obtain men enough to navigate the barque to China. I said that, if he and his men wished it, I would still go on to Honolulu, and land them there, from whence they would doubtless soon find an opportunity to return to San Francisco; or, if they preferred it, I would ship them all, at the current rate of wages, for the voyage to China, and, if they gave me satisfaction, thence home to England. He said he would lay my offer before the men, and acquaint me with their decision forthwith; and at once retired to the forecastle. Whereupon I at once called Joe and San Domingo to me, and laid the strictest injunctions upon them both that under no circumstances whatever were they to make the slightest allusion to the treasure in the hold; hinting pretty strongly that, if they did, their own share of it would probably fall very far short of what it would be should the secret be well kept. The caution I believed to be quite needless, so far as Joe was concerned; but its necessity, as regarded the negro, was made quite apparent by his remark when I had finished speaking—
“Golly, sar; it just as well you tole me dat in time, odderwise I dead sure to hab said someting about it de fust time I had a chance. But now dat you has warned me, sar, you may depend abs’lutely upon my discresshun. I wants all de dollars I can git; and I doan’ feel inclined to share dem wid men dat has had no hand in de saving of dem.”
The mate soon returned to the deck with the decision of his crew. He informed me that the men were quite unanimous in their desire to leave the ship at Honolulu, and make the best of their way back to San Francisco with as little delay as possible, if such an arrangement would accord with my convenience; but that, in the mean time, they would gladly turn to and assist me to work the ship so far, without pay, in acknowledgment of my having saved their lives.
The weather, meanwhile, was fast moderating; so much so that during the second dog-watch we took a good drag upon the topsail halliards, and set the foresail and mizzen; the wind gradually hauling round further from the northward and breaking us off until we headed north-east by compass. The mercury was rising almost as rapidly as it had fallen, and there was every prospect of a fine night. Cooper, the late mate of theGolden Gate, offered to do duty as second mate, while the cook of the craft expressed his desire to continue the functions of his office; the remainder of the men declared their readiness to go to work forthwith; and that night, accordingly, we once more kept two watches, each consisting of an officer and four men, while I, who had been on deck almost continuously for thirty hours, turned in and, with a mind intensely relieved by the acquisition of so much valuable help, slept like a log until seven o’clock the next morning.
I awoke of my own accord, and had no sooner opened my eyes than I knew, without any need of telling, exactly how we were situated. The ship was rolling, with a long, steady, even swing, from side to side, with an occasional heave and settlement of her quarter as the swell took her; the canvas was alternately flapping out with rifle-like reports, and thundering against her masts as she rolled; the bulkheads were creaking and groaning; the cabin-doors were rattling upon their hooks; the wheel-chains were clanking as the rudder kicked to the wash and swirl under the counter; and there was a gurgling, dripping wash of water along the bends, without any seething sound in it, that told me, apart from the other noises of the ship, that we were again becalmed. The sun was streaming brilliantly in through the porthole of my cabin, flooding the little apartment with warmth and golden light; and the swishing and scrubbing sounds overhead told me that the hands were busy at the job of washing decks. It was a welcome, joyous sound, as evidence of the fact that we once more had a crew on board us; and I thrust my feet into my slippers and went on deck to get my morning bath with a feeling of gaiety and blithesomeness that taught me, for the first time, how heavy had been the load of anxiety that I had lately borne, and that had slipped from my shoulders with the arrival of theGolden Gatescrew on board.
It was a glorious morning, with a clear, brilliantly blue, cloudless sky overhead, out of which the sun, though only an hour high, already blazed with an ardour that gave promise of a scorching day; the sea was oil-smooth, with a glittering sheen like that of quicksilver in the wake of the sun, while away to the westward of us it flashed and gleamed in hues of the softest, purest, opalescent blue to the side of the ship with the running of the swell. There was not a breath of wind, nor the remotest sign of any; so I ordered the lighter canvas and the courses to be hauled down and clewed up, to save them from thrashing themselves to rags; and, having revelled in the luxury of a shower-bath of cool, sparkling brine from the hose, left the ship under the topsails and fore-topmast staysail, and went below to dress for breakfast.
The calm that had now fallen upon us lasted unbroken for five full days, during which we sweltered, day and night, in the melting heat of the tropics, with the blazing sun right overhead every day at noon, and a waning moon soaring into the heavens later and still later each night to render the hours of darkness magical with the witchery of her beauty and mystery. And during the whole of this time we never shifted our position by so much as a single mile a day. At length, however, on the sixth day, a few cat’s-paws came playing at intervals over the surface of the glass-smooth water, momentarily ruffling it into little evanescent patches of tender blue, and causing a transient ripple to play over the stagnant cloths of our canvas. As the day wore on the cat’s-paws increased in frequency, in area, and in strength; and shortly before sundown a gentle, dainty little air of wind came stealing softly up from the eastward, to woo which we joyfully spread every rag of canvas we could show to it: and oh! how ineffably pleasant and delightful was the sound of the first faint liquid tinkling ripple that broke from our cutwater, and gushed gently past the bends in a stream of tiny bursting air-bells, as the beautifully moulded hull yielded to the faint impulse of the soft breathing and began to move under it with the languorous motion of a sleeping swan! Then, as the soft, warm, star-spangled darkness of the tropics closed down upon us and wrapped us within its impalpable folds, the breeze gathered strength and weight by imperceptible degrees, until the scarcely audible tinkle under the bows merged into the sound of a knife shearing through a tautly stretched silken web, with a musical fountain-like plashing at the cutwater and a crisp, gushing curl of the glassy wave under the lee bow as it broke and hurried past into our wake in a lacework of creamy swirling froth, gemmed with countless glittering foam-bubbles; while the log told us that the ship was slipping her way through the small wrinklings of the brine at a speed of fully six knots in the hour.
By-and-by the moon—her orb now reduced to less than half its full dimensions—stole ghostlike above the horizon; and by her wan light we saw that a host of soft, fleecy clouds—shaped like the smoke belched from the mouth of a cannon upon a windless day—were mustering their squadrons in the eastern quarter; and we knew them for the welcome trade-cloud, the sure indication that the breeze we now had would be a lasting one.
And so it proved; for the fleecy masses soared upward until they overspread the whole of the visible sky; and as they soared so the breeze hardened, until at length, by the time that the middle watch drew toward its close, the saucyEsmeralda, with the wind well over her starboard quarter, and everything packed upon her, from the royal studding-sails down, was storming through it at a pace nearer to sixteen than to fifteen knots in the hour, while the wild weird melody of a hundred harps singing through the taut mazes of her rigging aloft mingled with the roar of the wind out of the great spaces of her straining canvas, and the deep, continuous thunder of the bow wave, raising a concert of such mad, soul-stirring harmony as causes the sailor’s heart to leap and bound within him in ecstatic exultation to the swift, buoyant leaps and plunges of the good ship beneath him.
This truly royal breeze continued to blow with scarcely diminished strength, enabling us to reel off our fifteen knots per hour for hours at a time, while our speed seldom sank below twelve; the result of which was that a little before midnight of the fifth day from its first reaching us we glided into the roadstead of Honolulu, and came to an anchor.
On the following morning, immediately after breakfast, I went ashore, taking with me my passengers and Cooper, the mate of theGolden Gate; and while Sir Edgar with his party made their way to the best hotel in the place, preparatory to the planning of an expedition which would permit of their seeing as much as possible of the beauties of the island during our stay there, Cooper and I sought out our respective consuls. Neither of them were difficult to find; and while I partook of a second breakfast with our hospitable British representative, I learnt from him—after telling him as much of my story as I deemed needful—that an Aberdeen ship had unfortunately driven ashore and gone to pieces there only a fortnight previously, and that her crew were then awaiting an opportunity to work their way home, the master and chief mate having already left for EnglandviaSan Francisco, in a steamer. Upon further inquiry I found that there were thirteen of the crew in all, namely, the second mate, steward, cook, and ten seamen. This suited me exactly; for, although there were more men than I really needed, we had accommodation for an even greater number in theEsmeralda’sroomy forecastle and deck-house. Moreover, I had had all that I wanted of such an unpleasant experience as that of being short-handed. I therefore determined to ship them all, if they were willing, and recompense myself for my recent hardships by enjoying the luxury of a fully manned ship. The men were easily found—were indeed on the lookout for me, having learned early in the morning that an English barque had arrived in the roadstead some time during the night—and upon interviewing them I learned that they were, one and all, most anxious to make a start for home. They were as quiet, sober, and steady-looking a crew as I could possibly desire to meet with, or have under me; I therefore shipped the whole of them, on the spot, and directed them to hold themselves in readiness to join the ship as soon as they should receive instructions from me to that effect.
Meanwhile, Cooper had had an interview with his consul, the result of which was an arrangement that the crew of theGolden Gateshould land forthwith, as there were several American vessels in the port, and, consequently, ample facilities for despatching the men home. As a consequence of this the Americans left theEsmeraldathat same afternoon, while the new crew went on board and took up their quarters on the following morning.
The luncheon hour had arrived by the time that all these arrangements were completed, and I therefore hastened away to Sir Edgar’s hotel for the double purpose of satisfying a certain inward craving that had already begun to make itself felt, and of acquainting the baronet with the character of the business upon which I had been engaged during the morning. The several members of the party were, naturally enough, much pleased to learn that there was to be no undue detention among the lovely Sandwich Islands; but, on the other hand, they expressed so earnest a desire to see something of Oahu, now that they were actually upon it, that I cheerfully consented to delay my departure until the evening of the third day. A tour of the island was thereupon arranged, in which I was very cordially invited to join, and a most delightful excursion was the result; but as this is not a guide-book, and nothing out of the ordinary way occurred during its progress, I will not inflict the details of it upon the indulgent reader. Upon our return to the ship we found that Forbes, following my instructions, had re-watered her, and laid in a generous supply of fruit, pigs, poultry, and other necessaries; our crew were all on board, and there was nothing to detain us longer in this Pacific paradise; we therefore got our anchor forthwith, and stood out of the roadstead in the crimson wake of the setting sun just as that luminary sank magnificently beneath the horizon, painting the whole western sky with the flaming hues of his dying effulgence.
There is but little more to tell, for the rescue of theGolden Gatescrew proved to be the last adventure that befell us on this extraordinarily eventful voyage. We made a very rapid run across to the China coast, and were detained but a short time in the Canton river, freights happening to be rather high and tonnage somewhat scarce—for a wonder—about the time of our arrival; I therefore met with no difficulty in obtaining a freight, with quick despatch, and within three weeks of our arrival we were once more at sea, this time Homeward-Bound! I must not forget to mention, by the way, that almost my first act, upon arriving at Hong Kong, was to write home two somewhat lengthy letters—one to my mother, acquainting her with the successful result of my quest, together with a full and detailed narrative of my adventures since leaving Sydney; and the other to my old and trusty friend, Mr Richards, acquainting him also with my success, and requesting him to undertake certain rather delicate negotiations for me, as well as to make certain preparations against the time of theEsmeralda’sarrival in the English Channel. Our homeward passage was as prosperous as it was uneventful. We were no sooner clear of our moorings than we caught a favourable breeze that followed us all the way until we had rounded the Cape of Good Hope and had caught the south-east trades, which in their turn carried us right up to, and indeed a few miles to the north of, the Line. Here we met with the usual light baffling airs, with plenty of rain and perhaps rather more than the average allowance of thunder and lightning. But this weather lasted only a trifle over forty-eight hours, when a small easterly air came to our rescue and fanned us along to the northward until we finally fell in with the north-east trades, the beneficent influence of which carried us as far north as the parallel of twenty-eight degrees. Here again kind Fortune favoured us; for when at length the trade-winds failed us, the wind gradually hauled round from the southward, and thence from the westward and north-west, hardening all the time, until at length it blew quite a fresh gale, which sent us bowling and staggering away to the northward and eastward under single-reefed topsails with topgallant sails over them, reeling off our fourteen knots hour after hour, and enabling us to hold our own for a whole day with one of the West Indian mail-boats, homeward-bound, much, no doubt, to the chagrin and astonishment of her officers. The breeze continued to freshen, however, and the sea to rise, necessitating first the handing of our topgallant sails, and, a little later on, the further reefing down of our topsails, when the great steamer gradually drew away from us, and by next morning was out of sight. This slant lasted us for four days, when the wind gradually softened into a moderate sailing breeze, veering all the time until it finally worked round from the southward once more, bringing with it mild, genial, sunshiny weather, that carried us right up the Channel to Portland Roads, which we entered on a lovely summer evening, nine months, almost to a day, from the date upon which we had quitted it, at the commencement of the voyage.
I was of course careful to have the ship’s number and burgee conspicuously displayed as we entered the roadstead, and I also observed the precaution of standing far enough over towards the Weymouth side of the bay to permit of the flags being distinctly made out before bringing the ship to an anchor; the result of which was that, before the canvas was well clewed up, a small steam launch emerged from Weymouth Harbour, and in due time deposited my dear mother and my very good friend Mr Richards upon theEsmeralda’sdeck.
Of the joyous meeting that ensued—of my dear mother’s smiles and tears and caresses and ejaculations of gratitude at my safe return—and of Mr Richards’ hearty congratulations at my successful achievement—I will say nothing; the picture may very well be left to the vivid imagination of the reader. I need only state that, after the first bustle and excitement of the meeting had passed over, Mr Richards drew me carefully aside and remarked—
“It is all right, my dear boy; everything is arranged. I have put the whole affair into the hands of Tom White—a man whom I would trust with my very life—and he will come off to you with half a dozen ‘lerrets’ and a strong gang of thoroughly reliable men at two o’clock to-morrow morning. Hand over your cases of treasure to him without hesitation, and he will take care of them for you. He knows exactly how to manage the business, trust him, for he was a smuggler in his youth, when smuggling was still a paying business, as were his forbears for generations before him; so it is in the man’s blood, you see.”
And as Mr Richards had said, so it proved. The night was, luckily,verydark, and therefore exactly suited to our purpose; and promptly at two o’clock, the man White, with his fleet of “lerrets,” came gliding noiselessly alongside out of the darkness, and in less than half an hour every ounce of the treasure was out of the ship, with nobody a bit the wiser. The next morning a man came alongside offering crabs for sale, and before leaving the ship, he slipped a crumpled, dirty piece of note-paper, smelling strongly of fish, into my hand; upon opening which I, with some difficulty, deciphered the following communication:—
“Deer Sur the boxis be awl rite yours to command T. White.”
Is there anything else to tell? Well, yes; there is just one further item of information that may interest some at least of my readers. I remember remarking, in the course of my narrative, that toward the latter part of my acquaintance with Miss Merrivale—dating particularly from the capture and recapture of the ship at the treasure island—that very charming young lady’s demeanour toward me underwent a certain subtle, indefinable, puzzling, but exceedingly agreeable change; and after we had left China and were on our homeward voyage—when, in short, I had leisure to give a proper amount of thought and attention to so important a matter—I determined to ascertain what it meant.
Now, this is not a love story, so I will not enter into the particulars of how I first of all fell to questioning myself as towhythis change of manner should have proved so agreeable to me; nor will I describe the mental process by which I quickly arrived at the conclusion that it was because Agnes Merrivale was, beyond all question, the sweetest and most lovable, as well as the most charming and lovely woman it had ever been my good fortune to encounter. Nor will I attempt to describe the devious methods and the complicated stratagems by which—having arrived at this conclusion—I painfully sought to obtain some slight inkling or clue to the sweet girl’s sentiments toward myself. Let it suffice to say that they were all signally,miserably, unsuccessful.You, my dear reader, would of course have managed infinitely better; I am well aware of that. But remember, if you please, that I was only a plain, unpolished sailor; a man who, maybe, could handle a ship fairly well, take care of her in a gale of wind, and navigate her successfully from port to port, but who had until now had no experience of women and their ways. Moreover, I would have cut off my right hand rather than have said or done anything to offend one of the sex worthy the name of woman. So, for the first time in my life, I was fairly nonplussed and unhappy; knowing full well what I wanted, but not knowing what steps I ought to take in order to insure to myself a fair chance of obtaining it. Such a state of mind, however, is not likely to be long tolerated by a sailor; my good sense came to my aid, and whispered that if my love loved me, I had only to give her the opportunity to say so, and all would be well. So one night—how well I remember it! it was pitch-dark, and we were just clear of the Straits of Sunda, rolling merrily along before a fresh easterly breeze under every rag that we could pack upon the ship—I got the dear girl to myself for a while upon the poop, and told her in simple, sailorly language exactly what were my feelings and hopes. We were promenading the poop together, arm in arm, while I spoke, and she heard me to the end without a word. Then she stopped, and placing both her hands in mine, said, with an unmistakable quiver of emotion in her voice—
“Thank you, Jack, for the most priceless gift a man can offer a woman—the gift of a loyal, loving heart. I accept it gratefully, dear, and will do my best to make you happy; for I believe I have loved you from the very first, my darling.”
|Chapter 1| |Chapter 2| |Chapter 3| |Chapter 4| |Chapter 5| |Chapter 6| |Chapter 7| |Chapter 8| |Chapter 9| |Chapter 10| |Chapter 11| |Chapter 12| |Chapter 13| |Chapter 14| |Chapter 15| |Chapter 16| |Chapter 17| |Chapter 18| |Chapter 19| |Chapter 20|