"In the meantime I had exchanged a word or two with Westwood's friend; after which, lifting a second pistol which lay on the sand, I went up to the captain. 'Sir,' said I, 'you used the freedom, a little ago, of forcing me into your concerns, and I have seen the end of it. I have now got to tell you, having watched your conduct, that either you must submit to be made fast here for a bit, else, by the God that made me, I'll shoot you through the head.' The captain looked at me, his surgeon sidled up to him; and being a man near my own size, he suddenly tried to wrench the pistol out of my hands. However, I had him the next moment under my knee, while Westwood's second secured the little surgeon, and took a few round sea-turns about his wrists and ankles with a neckerchief. My companion then gave me a hand to do the same with his superior officer—the medico all the time singing out like a bull, and the captain threatening—while the dead body lay stark and stiff behind us, the eyes wide, the head down, and the breast up, the hand clenching a pistol, just as he had fallen. Westwood stood quite unconscious of everything we did, only he seemed to be watching the knees drawn up as they stiffened, and the sand-flies gathering about the mouth. 'Shall we clap a stopper between their teeth?' said the second to me—he had been at sea, but who he was I never knew—'the surgeon will be heard on the walls, he bellows so!' 'Never mind,' said I, 'we'll just drop them beyond tide-mark—the lee of the stones yonder.' In fact, from the noise the tide was making, I question if the shots could have been heard even by the watermen, who had prudently sheered out of sight round a point. I couldn't help looking, when we had done this, from the captain's body to his own frigate, as she was sluing round head on to us, at single anchor, to the turn of tide, with her buoy dancing on the brisk blue sweep of water, and her figure-head shining in the sunlight. As soon as we had covered over the corpse with tangle, Westwood started as if we had taken something away from him, or freed him of a spell. 'Westwood!' said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, 'youmustcome along withme.' He said nothing, but followed us quietly round to the wherries, where I told the watermen that the other party had gone a different way to keep clear, and we wanted them to pull for Gosport. At Gosport we had Westwood rigged out in black clothes, his hair cropped, and whiskers shaved off—as I thought it the fittest thing for his case, and what he could best carry out, to go aboard of the Indiaman with me as if he were a missionary. Poor fellow! he didn't well knowwhathe was. So, having waited till dusk, to let the watermen lose our track, and his friend having posted off for Dover, he and I both got safe over to theSeringapatam, where I had him stowed in the first convenient state-room I could find. I had actually forgot, through the excitement, all about having missed my first chase; from one hour to another I kept watching the tide-marks ashore, and the dog-vane on the ship's quarter, all impatience to hear the word given for 'all hands up anchor,' and hoping our worthy friends on Southsea Beach were still lying within hearing of the Channel flood. At last the order did come; round went the capstan merrily enough, till she had hove short and up with fore-topsail set; the anchor was catted, and off went the lumbering old craft through the Solent about midnight, before a fine rattling breeze, in company with six or seven others, all running for the Needles. They were loosing the Indiaman's royals when I heard a gun from the guard-ship in harbour; and a little after up went a rocket, signalling to some frigate or other at Spithead; away they kept at it, with lights from the telegraph to her mast-head, for several minutes. 'All's up!' thought I, 'and both Westwood and myself are in for it!'
"Next morning at daybreak, accordingly, no sooner did the dawn serve to show us Portland Light going out on the weather quarter, with a whole fleet of Channel craft and Mediterranean brigs about us, we surging through it as fast as the Indiaman could go—thantherewas a fine forty-four standing off and on right in our course, in fact the very identicalOrestesherself! She picked us out in a moment—bore up, stood across our weather-bow, and hailed. 'What ship's that?' said the first luff in her mizzen rigging.
"'TheSeringapatam, Honourable Company's ship, Captain Williamson!' sung out our first officer, with his cap off. 'Heave to, till I send a boat aboard of you,' hailed the navalman, and there we bobbed to each other with mainyards backed. In a few minutes a master's mate with gig's crew was under our lee-quarter, and the mate came on deck. 'Sir,' said he, 'the Port Admiral will thank you to deliver these despatches for Sir Charles Hyde, who I believe is aboard.' 'Certainly, sir,' said the first officer, 'they shall be given to him in an hour's time.'
"'Good morning, and a fine voyage,' said the master's mate politely; and I took the occasion of asking if Captain Duncombe were on board theOrestes. 'No, sir,' answered the midshipman, 'he happens to be ashore at present.' I have seldom felt so relieved as when I saw the frigate haul round her main-yard, and go sweeping off to leeward, while we resumed our course. By noon we had sunk the land about Start Point, with a breeze which it was no use wasting at that season to take 'departures'; and as the afternoon set in hazy, we were soon out of sight of old England for good. For my part, I was bound eastward at last with a witness, and, like a young bear again, 'all my troubles before me.'
"There is two bells though," interrupted the narrator, starting. "Let us see what sort of night it is before the ladies retire."
The evening after that on which the commander of theGloucesterIndiaman introduced his adventures, nearly the same party met on the poop to hear them continued.
"Well then," began Captain Collins, leaning back against a stanchion of the quarter-rail, with folded arms, legs crossed, and his eyes fixed on the weather-leech of the mizzen-topsail to collect his thoughts; "well then, try to fancy theSeringapatamin chase of theGloucester; and if Idouse a few extra seaterms, I consider the ladies good enough sailors for them already. At any rate, just throw a glance aloft now and then, and our good old lady will explain herself; to her own sex, she ought to be as good as a dictionary, with signs for the hard words!
"The second day out we had the wind more from seaward,which broke up the haze into bales of cloud, and away they went rolling in for the Bay of Biscay; with a longer wave and darker water, and the big old Indiaman surged over it as easily as might be, the blue breeze gushing right into her main-tack through the heave of the following seas, and the tail of the trade-wind flying high above her trucks in shreds and patches. Things got more ship-shape on deck; anchor-flukes brought in-board on the head-rail, and cables stowed away—the very best sign you can have of being clear of the land. The first officer, as they called him, was a good-looking fellow, that thought no small-beer of himself, with his glossy blue jacket and Company's buttons, white trousers, and a gold thread round his cap; he had it stuck askew to show how his hair was brushed; and changed his boots every time he came on deck. Still he looked like a sailor, if but for the East-India brown on his face, and there was no mistake about his knowing how to set a sail, trim yards, or put the ship about; so that the stiff old skipper left a great deal to him, besides trusting him for a first-rate navigator that had learned head-work at a naval school. The crew were to be seen all mustering before tea-time in the dog-watch, with their feet just seen under the foot mat of the fore-course, like actors behind a playhouse curtain—men that I warrant you had seen every country under heaven amongst them—as private as possible, and ready to enjoy their pots of tea upon the forecastle, as well as their talk.
"However, all this was nothing to me, as I saw no sign of the passengers I had counted on. I could do little for poor Westwood but leave him to mope below, over his own thoughts.
"If the Indian judge really chanced to be on board after all, he evidently fought shy of company, and perhaps meant to have his own mess-table under the poop as long as the voyage lasted; scarcely any of the ladies had apparently got their sea-qualms over yet, and, for all I knew,shemight not be with him, even if he were there; or, if she were, her father seemed quite Turk enough to keep her boxed up with jalousie-blinds, Calcutta fashion, and give her a walk in the middle watch, with the poop tabooed till morning. The jolly, red-faced indigo-planter was the only one that tried to get up anything like spirit at the table; indeed, he would havescraped acquaintance with me, if I had been in a mood for it; all I did was to say 'Yes' and 'No,' and to take wine with him. 'Poor fellow!' said he, turning to three or four of the cadets, that stuck by him like pilot-fish to an old shark, 'he's thinking of his mother at home, I daresay.' The fools thought this was meant for a joke, and began to laugh. 'Why, you unfledged griffins you,' said the planter, 'what d'ye see to nicker at, like so many jackals in a trap? D'ye suppose one thinks the less of a man for having a heart to be sick in, as well as a stomach—eh?' 'Oh, don't speak of it, Mr Rollock!' said one. 'Come, come, old boy,' said another, with a white moustache on his lip, ''twon't do for you to go the sentimental, you know.' 'Capsize my main-spanker, 'tis too funny, though,' put in a fellow who wore a glazed hat on deck, and put down all the ropes with numbers on paper, as soon as he had done being sick. The planter leant back in his chair, looked at them coolly, and burst out a-laughing. 'Catch me ever "going home" again,' said he. 'Of all the absurd occasions for impudence with the egg-shell on its head coming out, hang me if these fifteen thousand miles of infernal sea-water ain't the worst. India for ever!—that's the place totrya man. He's either sobered or gets room to work there; and just wait, my fine fellows, till I seeyouon the Custom-houseBundaat Bombay, or setting off up country—you're all of you the very food forsircarsandcoolies. That quiet lad there, now, soft as he looks'—meaning me—'I can tell by his eye he won't be long a griff—he'll do something. I tell you what, as soon as he's tasted his first mango-fish, he'llunderstandthe country. Why, sir,' said he again, smacking his lips, ''tis worth the voyage of itself—you begin a new existence so to speak. I'll be bound all this lot o' water don't contain one single mango-fish. Remember, boys, I promised you all a regular blow-out of mango-fish, andfloricanwith bread-sauce, whenever you can get across to Chuckbully Factory.' 'Blow, good breeze, then; blow away the main jib!' said the nautical young gentleman; 'I'll join you, old fellow!' 'Not the best way to bring it about, though,' said the indigo-planter, good-naturedly, not knowing but therewassuch a sail on the ship.
"The yellow setting sun was striking over the starboard quarter-boat, and the Bay of Biscay lay broad down to leewardfor a view—a couple of large craft, with all studding-sails set before the wind, making for land, far enough off to bring their canvas in a piece, and begin to look blue with the air—one like a milk-woman with pitchers and a hoop; the other like a girl carrying a big bucketful of water, and leaning the opposite way to steady herself. There was one far to north-east, too, no more than a white speck in the grey sky; and the land-cloud went up over it into so many sea-lions' heads, all looking out of their manes. The children clapped their hands and laughed; and the ladies talked about the vessels, and thought they saw land—Spain or the Pyrenees, perhaps. However, it wasn't long before my American friend Snout caught sight of me in the midst of his meditations, as he turned bolt round on his toes to hurry aft again. 'The fact is, mister,' said he, 'I'mriled a little atthetarnation pride of you Britishers. There now,' said he, pointing at the blaze of the sun to westward, with his chin, 'there'saconsolation. I calculate the sun's just over Noo-York, which I expect to give you old country folks considerable pain.'
"'No doubt,' said I, with a sigh; 'one can't help thinking of a banker run off with ever so much English gold.' 'You're a sensible chap, you are. It'saright-down asylumforoppressed Europains—that can't be denied.' 'And Africans, too,' I put in. 'Indy, now,' said he; 'I reckon there's a sight of dollars made in that country—you don't s'pose I'm goin' out there fornothing? We'll just take it out o' your hands yet, mister. I don't ought to let you into the schim till I know you better, you see; but I expect to want a sort o' company got up before we land. There's one of your nabobs now came into the ship at Possmouth, with a whole tail of niggurs dressed up——' 'And a lady with him, I think?' said I, as coolly as I could. 'I'll somehow open on that chap about British tyranny, I guess, after gettin' a little knowledge out of him. We'd justrisethe niggurs, if they hadnotsuch a right-down cur'ousmythullogy—but I tell you now, mister, that's one of the very p'ints I expect to meet. Miss'naries won't do it so slick off in two thousand years, I kinder think, as this identical specoolation will inten—besides payin' like Peruvain mines, which the miss'nary line don't. I'm a regoolar down-easter, ye see—kinder piercin' into a subject, like our nation in gin'ral—and the whull schim hangs togethera little, I calculate, mister?' 'So I should think, Mr Snout, indeed,' I said. Here the American gave another chuckle, and turned to again on his walk, double quick, till you'd have thought the whole length of the poop shook, when who should I see with the tail of my eye but my friend thekitmagarsalaaming to Mr Snout by the break of the quarter-deck. The Yankee seemed rather taken aback at first, and didn't know what to make of him. 'S'laam sah'b,' said the dark servant with an impudent look, and loud enough for me to hear, as I stepped from aft. 'Judge sahib i-send genteeman salaam—say too much hivvy boot he get—all same asillimphant. S'pose master not so much loud walkthisside?' 'Well!' broke out the American, looking at the Bengalee's flat turban and moustache, as if he were too great a curiosity to be angry with, then turning on his heel to proceed with his walk. 'Now, mister,' said he to me, 'that's what I call an incalculable impudent black; but he's the first I ever saw with hair on his lip, it's a fact.' 'Master notmind?' said thekitmagar, raising his key next time Mr Snout wheeled round. 'Judge sahib burra burra buhadoorkea!—ver' great man!' 'Low niggur!' said Mr Snout, tramping away aft; 'there's your British regoolations, I say, young man—niggurs bààing on the quarter-deck, and free-born citizens put off it!' 'Bhote khoob, mistree!' squeaked out the native again; 'burra judge sahib not to i-sleep apter he dine, eh? Veri well; I tell the sahib, passiger mistree moor stamp-i-stamp all the moor I can say!' So off he went to report in the poop-cabin. A little after up shot a head wrapped in a yellow bandana, just on the level of the poop-deck, looking through the breast-rail; and the next thing I saw was the great East-Indian himself, with a broad-flapped Manilla hat over his topgear, and a red-flowered dressing-gown, standing beside the binnacle with Captain Williamson. 'What the deuce, Captain Williamson,' said the judge, with an angry glance up to the poop,' cannot I close my eyelids after dinner for one instant—in my own private apartments, sir—for his hideous noise? Who the deuceisthat person there—eh, eh?' 'He's an American gentleman, I believe, Sir Charles,' replied the captain. 'Believe, sir,' said the judge; 'you ought toknowevery individual, I think, Captain Williamson, whom you admitted into this vessel. I expressly stipulated for quiet,sir—I understood that no suspicious or exceptionable persons should travel in the same conveyance withmysuwarry. I'd have taken the whole ship, sir!' 'I've no more to do than tell him the regulations aboard, Sir Charles,' said the captain, 'and the annoyance will cease.' 'Tellhim, indeed!' said the judge, a little more good-humouredly. 'Why, captain, the man looks like a sea-pirate. You should have taken only such raw griffins as that young lad on the other side. Ho,kitmagar!' 'Maharaj?' said the footman, bowing down to the deck. 'Slippers lao!' 'Jee khodabund,' answered the native, and immediately after he reappeared from the round-house door, with a pair of turned-up yellow slippers. 'Take them up with my salaam to that gentleman there,' said Sir Charles, in Hindoostanee, 'and ask him to use them.' 'Hullo!' sung out Mr Snout, on being hove-to by thekitmagar, with one hand on his breast, and the other holding the slippers, 'this won't do! You'd better notrileme again, you cussed niggur you. Out o' my way!' There they went at it along the poop together, Mr Snout striding right forward with his long legs, and thekitmagarhopping backward out of his way, as he tried to make himself understood; till, all at once, the poor darkey lost his balance at the ladderhead, and over he went with a smash fit to have broken his neck, if the captain's broad back hadn't fortunately been there to receive it. The rage of Sir Charles at this was quite beyond joking; nothing else would satisfy him but the unlucky Yankee's being shoved off the poop by main force, and taken below—the one stamping and roaring like an old buffalo, and the other testifying against all 'aristocratycal tyranny.'
"At eight bells again I found it a fine, breezy night, the two upper mates walking the weather quarter-deck in blue-water style, six steps and a look to windward, then a wheel round, and, now and then, a glance into the binnacle. I went aft and leant over theSeringapatam'slee quarter, looking at the white back-wash running aft from her bows, in green sparks, into the smooth alongside, and the surge coming round her counter to meet it. Everything was set aloft that could draw, even to a starboard main-topmast stunsail; the high Indiaman being lighter than if homeward-bound, and the breeze strong abeam, she had a good heel-over to port;but she went easily through the water, and it was only at the other side you heard it rattling both ways along the bends. The shadow of her went far to leeward, except where a gleam came on the top of a wave or two between the sails and under their foot. Just below the sheer of the hull, aft, it was as dark as night, though now and then the light from a port struck on it and went in again; but every time she sank, the bight of her wake from astern swelled up away round the counter, with its black side as smooth as a looking-glass. I kept peering into it, and expecting to see my own face, while all the time I was very naturally thinking of one quite different, and felt uneasy till I should actually see her. 'Confound it,' I thought, 'were it only a house, one might walk round and round it till he found out the window.' I fancied her bewitching face through the garden-door, as clearly as if I saw it in the dark head of the swell; but I'd have given more only to hear that imp of a cockatoo scream once—whereas there was nothing but the water working up into the rudder-case; the pintles creaking, and the tiller-ropes cheeping as they traversed; and the long welter of the sea when the ship eased down, with the surgeon and his friends walking about and laughing up to windward. From that again, I ran on putting things together, till, in fact, Jacobs' notion of a shipwreck seemed by far the best. No doubt Jacobs and Westwood, with a few others, would be saved, while I didn't even object much to the old nabob himself, for respectability's sake, and to spare crape. But, by Jove, wouldn't one bring him to his bearings soon enough there? Every sailor gets hold of this notion some night-watch or other, leaning over the side, with pretty creatures aboard he can scarce speak to otherwise; and I was coiling it down so fast myself, at the moment, that I had just begun to pitch into the nabob about our all being Adam's sons and daughters, under a knot of green palm-trees, at the door of a wooden house, half thatched with leaves, when I was brought up with a round turn by seeing a light shining through the hazy bull's-eye in the deck where I stood. No doubt the sweet girl I had been thinking of was actually there, and going to bed; I stretched over the quarter, but the heavy mouldings were in the way against seeing more than the green bars of the after window—all turned edgeways to the water,where the gallery hung out like a corner turret from the ship's side. Now and then, however, when she careened a little more than ordinary, and the smooth lee swell went heaping up opposite, I could notice the light through the venetians from the state-room come out upon the dark water in broad bright lines, like the grate across a fire, then disappearing in a ripple, till it was gone again, or somebody's shadow moved inside. It was the only lighted window in the gallery, and I looked every time it came as if I could see in; when at last, you may fancy my satisfaction, as, all of a sudden, one long slow heave over of the ship showed me the whole bright opening of the port, squared out of her shadow, where it shone upon the glassy round of the swell. 'Twas as plain as from a mirror in a closet—the lighted gallery window with its frame swung in, a bit of the deck-roof I was standing on, and two female figures at the window—mere dark shapes against the lamp. I almost started back at the notion of their seeing me, but away lengthened the light on the breast of the swell, and it sank slowly down into a black hollow, as the Indiaman eased up to windward. Minute by minute, quite breathless, did I watch for such another chance; but next time she leant over as much, the port had been closed, and all was dark; although those few moments were enough to send the heart into my mouth with sheer delight. The figure I had seen, holding with one hand by the port-sill, and apparently keeping up her dress with the other, as if she were looking down steadily on the heave of the sea below—it couldn't be mistaken. The line of her head, neck, and shoulders, came out more certain than if they hadn't been filled up with nothing but a black shadow; it was just Lota Hyde's, as she sat in the ball-room amongst the crowd, I'd have bet theVictoryto a bumboat on it; only her hair hung loose on one side, while the girl behind seemed to be dressing the other, for it was turned back, so that I saw clear past her cheek and neck to where the lamp was, and her ear gleamed to the light. For one moment nothing could be plainer than the glimpse old Davy Jones gave me by one of his tricks; but the old fellow was quite as decorous in his way as a chamber-blind, and swallowed his pretty little bit of blab as quickly as if it had been a mermaid caught at her morning toilet. Whenever I found there was to be no more of it for the night, the best thing to calm one's feelings was to light a cigar andwalk out the watch; but I took care it should rather be over the nabob's head than his daughter's, and went up to the weather side, where there was nobody else by this time, wishing her the sweetest of dreams, and not doubting I should see her next day.
"I daresay I should have walked out the first watch, and the second too, if Westwood hadn't come up beside me before he turned in.
"'Why, you look like the officer of the watch, Ned!' said my friend, after taking a glance round at the night. 'Yes—what?—a—a—I don't think so,' stammered I, not knowing what he said, or at least the meaning of it, though certainly it was not so deep. 'I hope not though, Tom!' said I again; ''tis the very thing I don't want to look like!' 'You seem bent on keeping it up, and coming the innocent, at any rate,' said he; 'I really didn't know you the first time I saw you in the cuddy.' 'Why, man, you never saw our theatricals in the dear oldIris, on the African station! I was our best female actor of tragedy there, anddidDesdemona so well that the black cook, who stood for Othello, actually cried. He said, "Nobody but 'ee dibble umself go for smudder Missee Dasdemoner!"' 'I daresay,' said Westwood; 'but what is the need for itnow, even ifyoucould serve as a blind for me?' 'My dear fellow,' said I, 'not at all—you've kept it up very well so far—just go on.' 'Keep it up, Ned?' inquired he—'what do you mean? I've done nothing except keep quiet from mere want of spirits.' 'So much the better,' I said; 'I never saw a man look more like a prophet in the wilderness; it doesn't cost you the least trouble—why you'd have done for Hamlet in theIris, if for nothing else! After all, though, a missionary don't wear blue pilot cloth trousers, nor tie his neckerchief as you do, Tom. You must bend a white neck-cloth to-morrow morning! I'm quite serious, Westwood, I assure you,' continued I. 'Just think of the suspicious look of two navy men being aboard an Indiaman, nobody knows how! Why, the first frigate we speak, or port we touch at, they'd hand one or both of us over at once—which I, for my part, shouldn't at all like!' 'Indeed, Collins,' said Tom, turning round, 'I really cannot understandwhyyou went out in her! It distresses me to think that here you've got yourself into this scrape on my account! At least you'll put back in the first home-bound ship we——'
"'Oh!' exclaimed I, blushing a little in the dark though, both at Westwood's simplicity, and my not wishing to tell him my secret yet—'I'm tired of shore—Iwantto see India again—I'm thinking of going into thearmy!' 'Thearmy, indeed!' said Westwood, laughing for the first time, 'and you still midshipman all over. No, no—that won't do! I see your drift, you can't deceiveme! You're a true friend, Ned, to stand by an old schoolmate so!' 'No, Tom!' said I; ''tis you yourself that has too kind a heart, and more of a sailor's, all fair and above-board, than I can manage! Iwon'thumbugyou, at any rate—I tell you I've got a scheme of my own, and you'll know more of it soon.' Tom whistled; however I went on to tell him, 'The long and the short of it is, Westwood, you'll bring both of us down by the head if you don't keep up the missionary.' 'Missionary!' repeated he; 'you don't mean to say you and Neville intended all that long toggery you supplied my kit with, for me to sail undermissionarycolours? I tell you what, Ned, it's not a character I like to cut jokes upon, much less to sham.' 'Jokes!' said I; 'there's no joking about it; 'tis serious enough.' 'Why,' said Westwood, 'nowI know the reason of a person like a clergyman sighting me through his spectacles for half an hour together, these two evenings below! This very afternoon he called me his brother, and began asking me all manner of questions, which I could no more answer than the cook's mate.' 'Clergyman be hanged!' said I, 'you must steer clear of him, Tom—take care you don't bowse up your jib too much within hail of him! Mind, I gave your name, both to the head-steward and the skipper, as the Reverend Mr Thomas, going back to Bombay. There was nothing else for it, Westwood,' I said, 'when you were beyond thinking for yourself. All you've got to do with that solemn dissenting chap in the spectacles is just to look as wise as possible, and let him know you belong to theChurch. And as for shamming, you needn't sham a bit—take to it, my dear fellow, if that will do you good.' I said this in joke, but Westwood seemed to ponder on it for a minute or two. 'Indeed, Collins,' said he gravely, 'Idothink you're right. What do we sailors do but give up everything in life for a mere schoolboy notion, and keep turning up salt water for years together like the old monks did the ground; only they grew corn and apples for theirpains, and we have nothing but ever so many dull watches and wild cruises ashore to remember! How many sailors have turned preachers and missionaries, just because something, by accident, as it were, taught them to put to account what you can't help feeling now and then in the verylookof the sea. What does it mean in the Scriptures, Ned, about "seeing the wonders of the Lord in the deep?"' As Westwood said this, both of us stopped on the taffrail, and, somehow or other, a touch of I didn't well knowwhatwent through me. I held my breath, with his hand on my arm, just at the sight I had seen a thousand times—the white wake running broad away astern, with a mark in the middle as if it had been torn, on to the green yeast of the waves, then right to their black crests plunging in the dark. It was midnight ahead, and the clouds risen aloft over where I had been looking half-an-hour before; but the long ragged split to westward was opened up, and a clear glaring glance of the sky, as pale as death, shot through it on the horizon. 'Ican't be sorry for having gone to sea,' said Westwood again; 'but isn't it a better thing to leave home and friends, as those men do for the sake of carrying the Gospel to the heathen?' As soon as we wheeled round, with the ship before us, leaning over and mounting to the heave, and her spread of canvas looming out on the dark, my thoughts righted. 'Well,' said I, 'it may be all very well for some—everyone to his rope; but, for my part, I think if man hadn't been made for the sea, he couldn't have built a ship, and where would your missionaries bethen? You're older than I am, Westwood, or I'd say you let some of your notions run away with you, like a Yankee ship with her short-handed crew!' 'Oh, Ned,' said he, 'of all places in the world for one's actions coming back on him the sea is the worst, especially when you're an idler, and have nothing to do but count the sails or listen to the passengers' feet on deck. These two days, now, I've thought more than I ever did in my life. I can't get that man's death out of my head; every time the sea flashes round me as I come from below, I think of him—it seems to me he is lying yet by the side of the Channel. I can't help having the notion he perhapsfired in the air!' ''Twas a base lie!' said I; 'ifheweren'tthere, you wouldn't be here, I can tell you, Westwood.' 'I don't know how I shall ever drag throughthis voyage,' continued he. 'If there were a French gunboat to cut out to-morrow morning, or if we were only to have a calm some day in sight of a Spanish slaver—'tis nothing but a jogging old Indiaman though! I shall never more see the flag over my head with pride—every respect I had was in the service!'
"Next morning was fine, and promised to be hot; the ship still with a side-wind from near south-west, which 'twas easy to see had slackened since midnight with a pour of rain, the sails being all wet, and coats hung to dry in the fore-rigging; she was going little more than five or six knots headway. The water was bluer, lifting in long waves, scarce a speck of foam except about the ship; but instead of having broke up with the sun, or sunk below the level, the long white clouds were risen high to leeward, wandering away at the top, and facing us steady below out of the sky, a pretty sure sign they had more to do. However, the Indiaman was all alive from stem to stern; decks drying as clean as a table; hens and ducks clucking in the coops at their food; pigs grunting; stewards and cabin-boys going fore and aft, below and above, and the men from aloft coming slowly down for breakfast, with an eye into the galley funnel. Most of the passengers were upon deck, in knots all along the poop-nettings, to look out for Corvo and Flores, the western-most of the Azores, which we had passed before daybreak.
"'I say, Fawd!' said the warlike cadet with the moustache, all of a sudden yawning and stretching himself, as if he'd been struck with the thing himself, 'cussed dull this vessel already, ain't it?' 'No,' said Ford, the nautical man; 'that's because you're not interested in the ocean—the sea—as I am! You should study thecraft, Bob, my boy! I'll teach you to go aloft. I only wish it would blow harder—not a mere capful of wind, you know, but a tempest!' 'By Jove! Fawd,' said the other, 'howweshallenjoy India—even that breakfast with old Rollock! By-the-by, ain't breakfast ready yet?' These two fellows, for my part, Itook for a joint-model, just trying to hit a mid-helm betwixt them, else I couldn't have got through it; accordingly they both patronised me. 'Haw, Cawlins!' said one, nodding to me. 'Is that you, my boy?' said the other; 'now, you're a fellowneverwould make a sailor!' 'I daresay not,' I said gravely, 'if they have all to commence as horse-marines.' 'Now, such ignorance!' said Ford; 'marines don't ride horses, Collins, you fellow!—how d'you think they could befedat sea, eh?' 'Well—now—that didn't occur to me!' said I, in the cadet key. 'Fawd, my boy, you know too much—you're quite a sea-cook!' 'Oh, now! But I'm afraid, Winterton, I never shall land ashore in India—Iamtempted to go into the navy, instead.' 'I say, Mr Ford,' put in a fat unlicked cub of a tea-middy, grinning as he listened, 'I've put you up to a fewrisesaboard, but I don't think I told you we've got a dozen or so ofdonkeys11below in the steerage?' 'Donkeys!—no?' said the griffin. 'Yes,' replied the midshipman; 'they kick like mad, though, if they get loose in a gale: why mine, now, would knock a hole through the side in no time—I'll show you them for a glass of grog, Mr Ford.'
"'Done!' and away they went. 'That fool, Fawd, you know, Cawlins, makes one sick with his stuff; I declare he chews little bits of tobacco in our room till he vomits as much as before,' said Winterton. 'I tell you what, Cawlins, you're a sensible man—I'll let you into a secret! What do you think—there's the deucedest pretty girl in the vessel, we've none of us seen except myself; I caught a sight of her this very mawning. She don't visit the cuddy at all; papa's proud, you pusseeve—a nabob, in short!' 'Oh dear!' said I. 'Yes, I do assure you, quite a bew-ty! What's to be done?—we absolutely must meet her, eh, Cawlins?' Here I mused a bit. 'Oh!' said I, looking up again, 'shall we send a deputation, do you think?' 'Or get up a ball, Cawlins? Hallo, what's this?' said he, leaning over the breast-rail to look at a stout lady who was lugging a chubby little boy of three or four, half dressed, up the poop-stair, while her careful husband and a couple of daughters blocked it up above. 'See, Tommy, dear!' said she, 'look at theland—the nice land, you know, Tommy.''Come away, my love,' said her spouse, 'else you won't see it.' Tommy, however, hung back manfully. 'Tommy don't want wook atyand,' sang out he, kicking the deck; 'it all such 'mell of a sheep, ma; me wook at 'at man wisgate feel. Fare otherfeel, man? Oh, fat a ugwy man!' The honest tar at the wheel pulled up his shirt, and looked terribly cut at this plain remark on his phiz, which certainly wasn't the most beautiful; meanwhile he had the leech of the mainto'gallant-sail shaking. 'Mind your helm, there,' sung out the second mate from the capstan. 'My good man,' said the lady, 'will you be so kind as to show us the land?' 'Ay, ay, sir,' growled he, putting up his weather spokes; 'sorry I carn't, ma'am—please not to speak to the man at the wheel.' Jacobs was coiling down the ropes on a carronade close by, and stepped forward: 'Beg your ladyship's pardon,' said he, 'but if ye'll give me charge o' the youngster till you goes on the poop—why, I've got a babby at home myself.' The stout lady handed him over, and Jacobs managed the little chap wonderfully. This was the first time Tommy had been on deck since leaving home, and he couldn't see over the high bulwarks, so he fancied it was a house he was in. 'Oh, suts bigtees, man,' shouted he, clapping his hands as soon as he noticed the sails and rigging aloft; 'suts warge birds in atees.' 'Ay, ay, my little man,' answered Jacobs, 'that's the wonderfultree. Did ye ever hear Jack and the Bean-stalk, Tommy?' 'Oh, 'ess, to be soo,man,' said Tommy, scornfully, as if he should think he had.
"'Well, little un,' said Jacobs, 'that's it, ye see. It grows up every night afore Jack's door—and them's Jack an' his brothers a-comin' down out on the wonderfowl country aloft, with fruits in their hands.' The little fellow was delighted, and for going aloft at once. 'Ye must wait a bit, Tommy, my lad, till you're bigger,' said Jacobs; 'here, I'll show you the country, though'; so he lifted the boy up to let him see the bright blue sea lying high away round the sky. In place of crying, as he would have done otherwise, Tommy stared with pleasure, and finished by vowing to get as soon big as possible, Jacobs advising him to eat always as hard as he had been doing hitherto.
"That morning the breakfast party was in high spirits; Mr Finch, the chief officer, rigged up to the nines in whitetrousers and Company's jacket, laying himself out to please the young ladies, with whom he began to be a regular hero. He was as blustering as a young lion, and as salt-tongued as a Channel pilot to the men; but with the ladies, on the poop or in the cabin, he was always twisting his sea-talk into fine language, like what you see in books, as if the real thing weren't good enough. He rubbed his hands at hearing the mate on deck singing out over the skylight to trim yards, and gave a look along to the captain. 'You must understand, ladies,' said the mate, 'this is what we mariners call the "ladies' wind"!' 'Oh, delightful!' 'Oh,sonice!' 'You sailorsareso polite!' exclaimed the young ladies—'then does it actuallybelongto us?' 'Why it's aTradewind, Miss Fortescue!' said Ford, the nautical cadet, venturing to put in a word; but the ladies paid no attention to him, and the chief mate gave him a look of contempt. 'You see, ladies, the reason is,' said the mate, in a flourishing way, 'because it's so regular, and as gentle as—as—why it wafts your bark into the region of, you see—the——' 'The "Doldrums,"' put in the third mate, who was a brinier individual by far, and a true seaman, but wished to pay his compliments, too, between his mouthfuls. 'At any rate,' Finch went on, 'it's congenial, I may say, to the feelings of the fair—you need never touch her braces from one day to another. I just wish, Miss Fortescue, you'd allow me the felicity of letting you see how to put the ship about.' 'Asoldiermight put her in stays, miss,' said the third mate again, encouragingly, 'and out of 'em again; she's a remarkably easy craft, owing to her——' 'Confound it, Mr Rickett,' said the first mate, turning round to his unlucky inferior, 'you're a sight too coarse for talking to ladies. Well the captain didn't hear you!' Rickett looked dumfoundered, not knowing what was wrong; the old ladies frowned; the young ones either blushed or put their handkerchiefs to their mouths, and some took the occasion for walking off.
"The weather began to have a different turn already by the time we got up—the clouds banking to leeward, the sea dusky under them, and the air-line between rather bluish. Two or three lazy gulls in our wake began to look alive and show themselves, and a whole black shoal of porpoises went tumbling and rolling across the bows for half an hour, tilldown they dived of a sudden, head-foremost, one after another in the same spot, like so many sheep through a gap.
"My gentleman-mate was to be seen everywhere about the decks, and active enough, I must say; the next minute he was amongst two or three young ladies aft, as polite as a dancing-master, showing them everything in board and out, as if nobody knew it except himself. Here a young girl, one of Master Tommy's sisters, came skipping aft, half in a fright. 'Oh, Miss Fortescue!' cried she, 'just think!—I peeped over into a nasty black hole there, with a ladder in it, and saw ever so many common sailors hung up in bags from the ceiling. Oh, what do you think, one of them actually kissed his hand to me.' 'Only one of the watch below awake, miss,' said the mate; 'impertinent swab—I only wish I knew which it was.' 'Poor fellows,' said the young ladies, 'pray don't be harsh to them; but what have they been doing?' 'Oh, nothing,' said he, with a laugh, 'but swing in their hammocks since eight bells.' 'Then are they so lazy as to dislike getting up to such delightful-looking occupations?' 'Why, ma'am,' said the mate, staring a little, 'they've been on deck last night two watches, of four hours each, I must say that for them.' 'Dear me!' broke out the ladies; and on this the chief officer took occasion to launch out again concerning 'the weary vigils,' as he called them, 'which we mariners have to keep, far distant from land, without a smile from the eyes of the fair to bless us. But, however, the very thought of it gives courage to the sailor's manly heart, to disregard the billows' fearful rage, and reef topsails in the tempest's angry height!' Thought I, 'He'd much better do it before.' However, the young ladies didn't seem to see that, evidently looking upon the mate as the very pink of seamen! and he actually set a second lower stud-sail, to show them how fast she could walk.
"'D'ye know, sir,' put in the third mate, coming from forward, 'I'm in doubt it's going to be rather a sneezer, sir, if ye look round the larboard stun-s'ls.' Sure enough, if our fine gentleman had had time, amidst his politeness, just to cast an eye beyond his spread of cloth, he would have noticed the clouds gathered all in a lump to north-eastward, one shooting into another—the breast of them lowering down to the horizon, and getting the same colour as the waves, till itbulked out bodily in the middle. You'd have fancied the belly of it scarce half-a-mile off from the white yard-arms, and the hollow of it twenty—coming as stealthily as a ghost, that walks without feet after you, its face to yours, and the skirt of its winding-sheet in 'kingdom-come' all the while. I went up on the poop, and away behind the spanker I could see the sun gleam for one minute right on the eye of a stray cloud risen to nor'-west, with two short streaks of red, purple, and yellow together—what is called a 'wind-gall'; then it was gone. The American was talking away with jovial old Rollock and Ford, who began to look wise, and think there was mischief brewing in the weather. 'Mind your helm there, sirrah!' sung out the mate, walking aft to the wheel, as everything aloft fluttered. 'She won't lie her course, sir,' said the man. 'All aback, for'ud!' hailed the men at work on the bowsprit; and hard at it went all hands, trimming yards over and over again; the wind freshening fast, stu'nsails flapping, booms bending, and the whole spread of canvas in a cumber, to teach the mate not to be in such a hurry with his absurd merchantman's side-wings next time. The last stu'nsail he hauled down caught full aback before the wheel could keep her away quick enough; the sheet of it hitched foul at the boom-end, and crack through went the boom itself, with a smash that made the ladies think it a case of shipwreck commencing. The loose scud was flying fast out from behind the top of the clouds, and spreading away overhead, as if it would catch us on the other side; while the clouds themselves broke up slowly to both hands, and the north-east breeze came sweeping along right into the three topsails, the wind one way and the sea another. As she rounded away steadying before it, you felt the masts shake in her till the topsails blew out full; she gave one sudden bolt up with her stern, like an old jackass striking behind, which capsized three or four passengers in a heap, and next minute she was surging along through the wide heave of the water as gallantly as heart could wish, driving a wave under her bows that swung back under the fore-chains on both sides, with two boys running up the rigging far aloft on each mast to stow the royals. The next thing I looked at was poor Ford's nautical hat lifting alongside on the top of a wave, as if it were being handed up to him; but no sooner seen, thanit was down in the hollow a quarter of a mile off, a couple of white gulls making snatches at it and one another, and hanging over it again with a doubtful sort of scream. Still the wind was as yet nothing to speak of when once aft; the sea was getting up slowly, and the Indiaman's easy roll over it made everyone cheerful, in spite of the shifts they were put to for getting below. When the bell struck for dinner, the sun was pretty clear, away on our starboard bow; the waves to south-westward glittered as they rose; one side of the ship shone bright to the leech of the mainto'gallant-sail, and we left the second mate hauling down the jibs for want of use for them.
"The splendid pace she went at was plain, below in the cuddy, to everybody; you felt her shoving the long seas aside with the force of a thousand horses in one, then sweep they came after her, her stern lifted, she rolled round, and made a floating rush ahead. In the middle of it, something darkened the half-open skylight, where I perceived the Scotch second mate's twisted nose and red whiskers, as he squinted down with one eye aloft, and disappeared again; after which I heard them clue up to'gallant-sails. Still she was driving through it rather too bodily to let the seas rise under her; youheardthe wind hum off the main-topsail, and sing through betwixt it and the main-course, the scud flying over the skysail-mast truck, which I could see from below. The second mate looked in once more, caught the first officer's eye with a glance aloft, and the gallant mate left attending to the ladies to go on deck. Down went the skylight frame, and somebody carefully threw a tarpaulin over it, so that there was only the light from the port windows, by which a dozen faces turned still whiter.
"The moment I shoved my head out of the booby-hatch, I saw it was like to turn out a regular gale from nor'-east. Both courses brailed close up, and blowing out like rows of big bladders; the three topsail-yards down on the caps to reef, their canvas swelling and thundering on the stays like so many mad elephants breaking loose; the wild sky ahead of us staring right through in triumph, as it were, and the wind roaring from aft in her bare rigging; while a crowd of men in each top were laying out along the foot-ropes to both yard-arms. Below, they were singing out at the reef-tackles, theidlers tailing on behind from the cook to the cabin-boys, a mate to each gang, and the first officer, with his hands to his mouth, before the wheel, shouting, 'Bear a hand!—d'ye hear!——two reefs.' It did one's heart good, and I entered into the spirit of it, almost forgiving Finch his fine puppy lingo, when I saw him take it so coolly, standing like a seaman, and sending his bull's voice right up with the wind into the bellies of the topsails—so I e'en fell to myself, and dragged with the steward upon the mizzen reef-tackle till it was chock up. There we were, running dead before it, the huge waves swelling long and dark after us out of the mist, then the tops of them scattered into spray; the glaring white yards swayed slowly over aloft, each dotted with ten or a dozen sturdy figures, that leant over, with the reef-points in their hands, waiting till the men at theearingsgave the word; and Jacobs' face, as he turned round to do so—hanging on heaven knows what at one of the ends—was as distinct as possible against the gray scud miles off, and sixty feet above water. A middy, without his cap, and his hair blowing out, stood holding on in the maintop to quicken them; the first mate waved his hand for the helmsman to 'luff a little.' The ship's head was rounded slowly up as she rose on a big blue swell, that caught a wild gleam on it from westward, when I happened to glance towards the wheel. I could scarcely trust my eyes—in fact it had never been less in my mind since coming aboard than at that very point—but outside one of the round-house doors, which was half open, a few feet from the bulwark I leant over—of all moments in the day,therestood Lota Hyde herself at last. Speak of faces!—why I hadn't even power to turn farther round, and if I was half out of breath before, what with the wind and with pulling my share, I was breathless now—all my notions of her never came up to the look of her face at that instant. She just half stopped, as it were, at sight of the state of things, her hands letting go of the large shawl, and her hair streaming from under a straw hat tied down with a ribbon—her lips parted betwixt dread and bewilderment, and her eyes wandering round till they settled to gazing straight at the scene ahead in pure delight. I actually looked away aloft from her again, to catch what it was she seemed to see that could be so beautiful!—the second reef just made fast, men crowding in to run down and hoistaway with the rest, till, as they tailed along decks, the three shortened topsails rose faster up against the scud, and their hearty roaring chorus was as loud as the gale. 'Keep her away, my lad,' said the mate, with another wave of his hand; the topsails swelled fair before it, and the Indiaman gave a plunge right through the next sea, rising easily to it, heave after heave. The setting sun struck two or three misty spokes of his wheel through a cloud, that made a big wave here and there glitter; the ship's white yards caught some of it, and a row of broad backs, with their feet stretching the foot-rope as they stowed the foresail, shone bright out, red, blue, and striped, upon the hollow of the yellow fore-topsail, in the midst of the gale; while just under the bowsprit you saw her black figure-head, with his white turban, and his hand to his breast, giving a cool salaam now and then to the spray from her bows. At that moment, though, Lota Hyde's eye was the brightest thing I could find—all the blue gone out of the waves was in it. As for her seeing myself, I hadn't had space to think of it yet, when all of a sudden I noticed her glance light for the first time, as it were, on the mate, who was standing all the while with his back to her on the same plank of the quarter-deck. 'Down main-course!' he sung out, putting one hand in his jacket-pocket; 'down both tacks—that's it, my men—down with it!'—and out it flapped, slapping fiercely as they dragged it by main force into the bulwark-cleets, till it swelled steady above the main-stay, and the old ship sprang forward faster than before, with a wild wash of the Atlantic past her sides.
"'Another hand to the wheel, here!' said the first officer. He took a look aloft, leaning to the rise of her bows, then to windward as she rolled; everything looked trim and weatherly, so he stepped to the binnacle, where the lamp was ready lighted; and it just struck me what a smart, good-looking fellow the mate was, with his sunburnt face; and when he went to work, straightforward, no notion of showing off.
"'Confound it, though,' thought I of a sudden, seeinghereyes fixed on him again, and then to seaward. 'Mr Macleod,' said he to the second mate, 'send below the watch, if you please. This breeze is first-rate, though!'
"When he turned round he noticed Miss Hyde, started,and took off his cap with a fine bow. 'I beg pardon, ma'am,' said he, 'a trifle of wind we have. I hope, Miss Hyde, it hasn't troubled you in the round-house?' What Miss Hyde might have said I don't know, but her shawl caught a gust out of the spanker, though she was in the lee of the high poop; it blew over her head, and then loose—I sprang forward—but the mate had hold of it, and put it over her again. The young lady smiled politely to the mate, and gave a cold glance of surprise, as I thought, at me. I felt that moment I could have knocked the mate down and died happy. 'Why, sir,' said he, with a cool half-sneer, 'I fancied none of you gentlemen would have favoured us this capful of wind—plenty of air there is on deck, though.'
"It just flashed through my mind what sort of rig I was in—I looked over my infernal longshore toggery, and no wonder she didn't recollect me at all. 'Cursethis confounded folly!' muttered I, and made a dart to run up the poop-steps, where the breeze took me slap aback, just as the judge himself opened the larboard door. 'Why, Violet,' exclaimed he, surprised at seeing his daughter, 'are you exposing yourself to this disagreeable—I declare a perfectstorm.' 'But see, papa!' said she, taking hold of his arm, 'how changed the sea is!—and the ship!—just look where the sun was!' 'Get in—get in, do!' kept on her father; 'you can see all that again in some finer place; you should have had a servant with you, at least, Violet.' 'I shall come out oftener than I thought, papa, I can tell you!' said she, in an arch sort of way, before she disappeared.
"The mate touched his cap to the judge, who asked where the captain was. ''Gad, sir,' said the judge crossly, 'the floor resembles an earthquake—every piece of furniture swings, sir; 'tis well enough for sleeping, but my family find it impossible to dine. If thisoolta-pooltacontinues in my apartments, I must speak to Captain Williamson about it. He must manage to get into some other part of the sea, where it is less rough,' saying which, he swayed himself in and shut the door.
"I still kept thinking and picturingherface—Lota Hyde's—when she noticed the mate. After all, any one that knew tack from bowline might reef topsails in a fair wind; but a girl likethatwould make more count of a man knowing howto manage wind and sea than of the Duke on his horse at Waterloo beating Bonaparte; and as for talk, he would jaw away the whole voyage, no doubt, about moonlight and the ocean, and your genteel fancy mariners. 'By George, though!' thought I, 'if the mate's a better man than me, hang me—it's all right; but burn my wig if I don't go and turn a Hindoo fakeer, with my one arm stuck up in the air till I die. Go it, old lady,' said I, as I glanced over the side before going below for the night, 'roll away, only shake something or other todoout of the pace you're going at.'
"The next morning, when Westwood and I went on deck, there was still a long sea running after us. However, by noon the sun came sifting through aloft, the breeze got warm, the decks were dry as a bone, and one just saw the large dark-blue swells lift up alongside with a shower of spray, between the seams of the bulwarks. By six o'clock, again, it was got pretty dusk ahead, and I strolled forward right to the heel of the bowsprit with Westwood, looking down through her head-boards into the heap of white foam that washed up among the woodwork every time she plunged. One knot of the men were sitting with their legs over the break of the top-gallant forecastle, swinging as she rolled—laughing, roaring, and singing as loud as they could bawl, since the wind carried it all forward out of the officers' hearing. I was rather surprised to see and hear that Jacobs' friends, Bill Dykes and Tom, were there; the rogues were taking back their savage to the Andaman Isles again, I suppose.
"'Well, my lads,' said Tom, a regular sample of the man-o'-war's-man, 'this is what I calls balling it off. That mate knows how to make her go, anyhow.' 'We'll soon be into tropical regents, I consider,' remarked Bill, who made a point of never using sea-phrases except ashore, when he came out double salt, to make up for his gentility afloat. 'Hum,' grumbled a big ugly fellow, the same so flattered at the wheelby little Tommy, 'I doesn't like your fair winds. I'll tell you what, mates, we'll be havin' it puff more from east'ard ere third watch.' 'What's the odds, Harry, old ship?' said Tom, 'a fair wind still.' 'I say, my lads,' exclaimed Tom again, looking along toward the poop, 'yonder's the ould naboob squinting out of the round-house doors!—what's he after now, I wonder?'
"On stooping down, accordingly, I could see the judge's face with the binnacle light shining on it, as he swayed to and fro in the doorway, seemingly in a passion at something or other. 'Why,' said Bill, 'I consider he can't altogether circumstand the shindy as this here roll kicks up inside of his blessed paliss.' 'Nabob, does ye call him,' said Harry, sulkily; 'I'll tell you what, mates, he ben't nothin' but a reg'lar ould tyrant. T'other mornin' there, I just chances to brush against him as I kiles up a rope; says he, "Fellow" an' says he to the skipper, "I'd take it kind," says he, "if ye'd horder them common sailors for to pay more contention alongside o'mylegs, Captain Williamson." Why, do the old beggar not think as a feller ben't amanas well as hisself, with hiscomming sailors, an' be blowed to him.' 'Well, though, Harry, old ship,' said Tom, 'ain't that daurter of his'n a jewel! I say, mates, she's all rounded into the head, and a clear run from aft, like a corvette model. My eye, that hair of hers is worth gold; I'd go down on the deck to please her, d'ye see.' 'No doubt,' says Bill, 'she's what I call a exact sparkler.' 'Well, I doesn't know,' said Harry, 'last vy'ge but one we'd got one aboard, a'most beautifuller—half as high again, an' twice her beam—I'm not sure butshe——' 'All my eye, messmates,' broke in Tom; 'that one were built forstowing, ye see, bo', like yer cargo lumpers. No, this here young gal 'minds me o' no other blessed thing but theNymphcorvette's figure-head—and that warn't her match, neither. She don't look down upon a sailor, I can tell ye; there, I see her t'other morning-watch a-talkin' to Jacobs yonder, as pleasant and cheery as——Hullo, there's the captain comed out of the naboob's cabin, and speaking with the mate by the compass—blest if they ain't a-goin' to alter her course.'
"'Send aft here to the braces!' sung out the first officer to the boatswain. 'Blow me, shipmates, that's yeer naboobnow, I'll bet a week's grog,' growled Harry; 'ship's course as fair as a handspike through a grummit; couldn't bring the wind more aft; my eyes, the sea's comin' to be bought and sold.' Whatever it might be for, in came the starboard yard-arms till she lay over a little; down studding and topgallant-sails, as neither of them could stand it except from aft; and off went the old ship rising high athwart the seas, her head sou'-south-east, and one streak of broken yellow light, low down to westward on her lee quarter. It was beginning to blow harder, too, and by eight bells it was 'Reef topsails, single reef.' The waves played slap on her weather side, the heavy sprays came showering over her bulwarks forward, and the forecastle planks were far from being so comfortable for a snooze as the night before.
"As soon as the wheel was relieved, and the other watch below, 'the ugly man' and his companions returned. 'Mates,' said he, solemnly, planting his back against the bitts, 'I've sailed this five-and-twenty year before the mast, an' I never yet seed the likes o'that! Take my say for it, we'reona wind now, but afore next mornin' we'll be close-hauled, beating up against it.' 'Well,' said another, 'she leaks a deal in the eyes of her below; in that case, Harry,yourwatch as slings in the fore-peak 'll be all afloat by that time.' 'What day did this craft sail on, I asks?' said the sailmaker gravely. 'Why, a Thursday night, old ship,' replied several eagerly. 'No,' went on the sailmaker; 'you counts sea-fashion, shipmates; but till ye're clear o' the pilot, ye know, it's land-fashion ye ought for to go by. 'Twas aFridayby that 'ere said reckoning, shipmates.' 'No! so it was though,' said the rest; 'it don'tlookwell.' 'Howsomedever I'm not goin' to come for to go and be a croaker,' continued the sailmaker, in a voice like a ghost's. 'Well, luck or no luck, mates,' grumbled big Harry, 'if so be them larboard bowlines is hauled taut by the morning watch, blow me if I don't be upsides with that 'ere ould naboob—that's all.'
"Next morning, after all, it was easy to feel the ship had really been hauled close on a wind. When we went up the weather was clearing, though with a strongish gale from eastward, a heavy sea running, on which the Indiaman strained and creaked as she rose, rolling slowly to windward with her three double-reefed topsails strained full, then pitched headinto it as a cloud of foam and spray flew over her weather-bow. It was quite early, the decks lately washed down, and the Indian judge walking the weather quarter-deck as grave and comfortable as if it was all right. The captain was with him, and two mates to leeward. 'Sail ho!' hailed a man on the foreyard. 'Whereaway?' sang out the mate of the watch. 'Broad abeam!'
"The captain went up to the poop, and I stood on the foremost carronade near the main rigging, where I could just see her now and then white against the blue haze between the hollows of the waves, as the Indiaman lifted. 'There she is!' said I, thinking it was Westwood that stopped behind me; it was the judge, however, and as soon as I got down he stepped up, holding on with one hand to a back-stay. The ship was rising after a pitch, every bulkhead and timber in her creaking, when all of a sudden I felt by my feet what all sailors feel the same way—she was coming up in the wind too fast to mount with the next wave, and a regularcomberit was going to be. I looked to the wheel—there was big Harry himself with a grin on his face, and his eye on Sir Charles, as he coolly gave her half a weather-spoke more, and then whirled it back again to meet her. 'For heaven's sake, look out, sir!' exclaimed I. 'Why, so I do,' said the judge, rather good-naturedly. 'Zounds! what's——' You felt the whole ship stop creaking for a moment, as she hung with the last wave—'Hold on!' shouted a mid—she gave a dull quiver from stem to stern, and I fairly pulled the judge close into the bulwark, just as smash, like thunder, came a tremendous green sea over us, three in one, washing down into the lee scuppers. The old gentleman staggered up, dripping like a poodle, and unable to see—one heard the water trickling through the skylights, and stepping away downstairs like a fellow with iron heels; while there was the sailor at the wheel grinding down his spokes in right earnest, looking aloft at the shaking fore-topsail, and the Indiaman seemingly doubtful whether to fall off or broach-to. Up she rose again, however, and drove round with her Turkhead in the air, then dip through the spray as gallantly as ever.
"'Send that lubber from the wheel, Mr Macleod!' said the captain angrily, when he came down, 'he nearly broached the ship to just now!' The 'ugly man' put on a double-gloomyface, and grumbled something about her 'steering wild'; but the knowing squint he gave Jacobs, who relieved him, was enough to show me he was one of the best helmsmen aboard. As for the judge, he hadn't the least notion that it was anything more than a natural mischance, owing to exposing himself. He eyed the bulwark as if he couldn't understand how any wave was able to rise over it, while the captain was apologising, and hoping he wouldn't be the worse. 'Eh, young gentleman!' said Sir Charles of a sudden, turning round to me, after a glance from the weather side to the lee one, 'now I observe the circumstances, the probability is I should have had myself severely injured on the opposite side there, had it not been for your presence of mind, sir—eh?' Here I made a bow, and looked as modest as I could. 'I perceive you are wet, young gentleman,' said he again; 'you'd better change your dress—eh?' 'Thank you, sir!' I said; and as he walked off quite drenched to his cabin with the captain, I heard him remark it was 'wonderfully intelligent in a mere griffin.'
"However, the wind soon got down to a fine top-gallant breeze; less of a sea on, the clouds sunk in a long grey bank to leeward, and the strange sail plain abeam of us—a large ship steering seemingly more off the wind than theSeringapatam, with topgallant-sails set—you could just see the heads of her courses, and her black lower-yards, when both of us rose together. Our first officer was all alive at the sight; the reefs were out of our topsails already, and he soon had us ploughing along under ordinary canvas, though still hugging the wind. In a short time the stranger appeared to take the challenge, for he slanted his yards, clapped on royals and hauled down a stu'nsail, heading our course, till he was one body of white cloth on the horizon. For awhile we seemed to gain on her; but after dinner, there was the other ship's hull up on our lee-bow, rising her white streak out of the water steadily, and just lifting at times on the long blue seas; she was fore-reaching on us as plain as could be. The mate gave a stamp on the deck, and kept her away a little to set a stu'nsail. 'Why,' said I to Westwood, 'he'll fall to leeward of himself!' 'She's too muchby the head, Collins,' said Westwood; 'that's it!' 'Hasn't he the sense to take the fore-course off her?' said I, 'instead of packing more on!Why that craft weathers on us like a schooner—I wish you and I had the Indiaman for an hour or two, Tom!'
"It wasn't an hour before we could see the very waves splashing up under her black weather-side, and over her high bows, as she slanted right through it and rose to windward again, standing up to cross our course—a fine frigate-built Indiaman, sharper stemmed than her kind in ordinary, and square in her spread; one yard-arm just looking over the other as they ranged aloft, and all signs of a weatherly craft. 'That's theDuke o' Bedford!' said a sailor at the braces to his companions, 'all oak planks, and not a splinter of teak inher! No chance!' Out flew the British colours from her mizzen-peak, and next the Company's striped ensign at her fore-royal mast-head, as a signal to speak. However, theSeringapatamonly answered by showing her colours, and held on. All of a sudden the other Indiaman was seen slowly falling off before the wind, as if in scorn at such rude manners, and sure of passing us if she chose. For a moment the red sunset glanced through betwixt all three of her masts, every rope as fine as wire! then the canvas swung broad against it, blood-red from the sun, and she showed us her quarter-gallery, with a glimpse of her stern-windows glittering—you even made out the crowd of passengers and soldiers on her poop, and a man or two going up her rigging. The sea beyond her lay as blue as blue could be, what with the crimson streak that came zigzag on both sides of her shadow, and gleamed along the smooth troughs, taking a crest or two to dance on by the way; and what with the rough of it near hand, where the tops of the dark waves ran hither and thither in broad white flakes, we surging heavily over them.
"In a few minutes more the sun was not only down, but the clouds banked up to westward of a deep purple; and almost at once you saw nothing of the other ship except when a stray streak somehow or other caught her rising, or her mast-heads came across a pale line in the clouds. The breeze got pleasanter as the night went on, and theSeringapatamrattled away in fine style, careening to it by herself.
"Well, you know, nothing could be better for a good understanding and high spirits amongst us than a fast course, fineweather, and entering the tropics. As for the tropics, if you have only a roomy ship and a good run of wind, as we had, in those latitudes, everything outside of you seems almost to have double the stuff in it that air and water have in other places; whileinsideof one, again, one felt twice the life he had before, and everybody else came outnewera good deal than on the parlour-rug at home. As the days got each hotter than the last, and the sea bluer and bluer, we began to think better of the heavy oldSeringapatam'space, teak though she was, and her sole good point right before the wind. Every night she lighted her binnacle sooner, till deuce the bit of twilight there was, and the dark sky came down on us like the extinguisher over a candle. However, the look of things round and aloft made full amends for it, as long as we held the "Trades"; old Neptune shifting his scenes there so quickly, that nobody missed getting weather and air, more than he could help, were it only a sight how the Indiaman got on, without trouble to any living soul save the man at the wheel, as one long, big, bright wave shoved her to another, and the slower they rose the more business she seemed to do of herself. By the time they had furbished her up at their leisure, theSeringapatamhad a queer Eastern style, too, throughout; with her grass mattings and huskycoirchafing-gear, the yellow varnish about her, and her three topsails of country canvas, cut narrow towards the head—bamboo stu'nsail booms, and spare bits of bamboo always ready for everything; besides the bilious-like gold-coloured patches here and there in the rest of her sails, and the outlandish figure-head, that made you sometimes think there might be twenty thousand of them under the bows, dancing away with her like Juggernaut's travelling pagoda.
"The decks were lively enough to look at; the men working quietly by twos and threes about the bulwarks all day long, and pairs of them to be made out at different points aloft, yarning away comfortably together, as the one passed the ball for the other's serving-mallet, with now a glance at the horizon, and now a grin at the passengers below, or a cautious squint at the top of the mate's cap. White awnings triced over poop and quarter-deck, the cover of the waist hammock-netting clean scrubbed, and the big shady main-course half brailed-up, rustling and bulging above the boatsand booms amidships; every hatchway and door with a round funnel of a wind-sail swelling into it, and their bellies moving like so many boa-constrictors come down from aloft, and going in to catch cadets. You saw the bright white sky dazzling along under the awning-cheeks, that glared on it like snow; and the open quarter-deck ports let in so many squares of shifting blue light, with a draught of air into the hot carronade muzzles, that seem to gasp for it, with their red tompions stuck out like tongues. The very look of the lifting blue water on the shady side was refreshing, and the brighter the light got,itgrew the darker blue. You listened for every cool splash of it on the bends, and every rustle of the canvas aloft; and instead of thinking, as the landsmen did, of green leaves and a lazy nook for shelter, why to my fancy there's a great deal more satisfaction in gooddark blue, with a spray over the cathead to show you're going, and with somewhat to go for! For want of better, one would have given his ears to jump in head-foremost, and have a first-rate bathe—the very sea itself kept rising up alongside, to make an easy dive for one, and sinking into little round troughs again, where the surges would have sprinkled over your head. Now and then a bigger wave than ordinary would go swelling up, and out sprang a whole glittering shower of flying-fish, freckling the dark side with drops, and went flittering over into the next, or skimming the crests out of sight into a hollow.
"The writers and cadets were in high feather at knowing they were in the same latitude as India, and appeared in all sorts of straw hats, white trousers, and white jackets. Ford had left off talking of going aloft for awhile, to flourish about his swimming—when he looked over with the surgeon into the smooth of a hollow, and saw something big and green, like an immense cucumber, floating along within a fathom or two of the ship, deep down in the blue water. While the griffin asked what it was, a little ripple broke above, a wet black horn came right out of it, and two fiendish round eyes glared up at us ahead of it, as we leant over the quarter, set wide in a broad black snout, shaped like a gravedigger's shovel; then it sank away into the next wave. Ford shivered, in spite of the heat. 'The devil?' inquired one of the writers, coolly, to the surgeon. 'Not just him,' said the Scotchman; 'it's only the firstshark!'
"The young ladies, in their white dresses, now made you think of angels gliding about: as to the only one I had an eye for, by this time it wasn't of not seeing her often enough I had to complain, as she seemed to delight in nothing else but being somewhere or other upon deck, first one part of the ship, then another, as if to see how different the look-out could be made, or to watch something in the waves or the horizon. Instead of sitting with a needle or a book, like the rest, with the corner of one eye toward the gentlemen, or talking and giggling away at no allowance, she would be noticing a man aloft as if she were there herself, or trying to see past a sail, as if she fancied there was something strange on the other side of it. The rest of the girls appeared shy of her at first, no doubt on account of the judge's separate quarters and his grandee style; next, they made acquaintance, she speaking and smiling just as if she had known them before; then again most of them seemingly got jealous because the cadets squinted after her, while old Rollock said Miss Hyde would be the beauty on Chowringee Course, and the first officer was eternally pointing out things to her, like a showman at a fair.
"However, she seemed not to mind it at all, either way; those that did talk to her would scarce hear her answer ere they lost her, and there she was, looking quietly down by herself into the ripples alongside; a minute after she would be half-playing with little Tommy, and making companions of Tommy's young sisters, to see the sheep, the pigs, and the cow, or feed the poultry. As for the handsome 'first officer,' when he caught occasion for his politeness, she took it graciously enough, and listened to all he said, till, of a sudden, a smile would break over her face, and she seemed to me to put him off as easy as a duchess—on the score, it might be, of the judge's looking for her off the poop, or something else of the kind. 'Twas the more curious how much at home she seemed amongst the men at work, when she chanced to go 'forward' with Tommy and his sisters, as they skipped hither and thither: the rough blue-shirted fellows took the quids out of their cheeks as soon as they saw the party coming from aft, and began to smirk, shoving the tar-buckets and ropes aside.