"'Well, next day, the black king had the blue-devils with drinking rum, an' he couldn't sleep nohow, 'cause, as I made out, he'd killed his uncle, they said—I doesn't know but he'd eaten him, too—anyhow, I see'd him eat as much of a fat hog, raw, as ud sarve out half the watch—so the fittish-man tells him there's nought for it but to please the fittish. What that wor, blowed if I knew; but no sooner sundown nor they hauls me out o' my hut, claps me in a stinking hole as dark as pitch, and leaves me till mornin', as I thought. Jist about the end o' the mid-watch, there kicks up a rumpus like close-reef taups'ls in a hurricane—smash goes the sticks over me; I seed the stars, and a whole lot o' strange blacks with long spears, a-fightin', yellin', tramplin', an' twistin' in the midst of the huts—and off I'm hoisted in the gang, on some feller's back or other, at five knots the hour, through the woods—till down we all comes in a drove, plash amongst the very swamps close by the river, where, lo an' behold! I makes out a schooner afloat at her anchor. The next thing I feels a red-hot iron come hiss across my shoulders, so I jumped up and sang out like blazes, in course. But, my flippers bein' all fast, 'twas no use; I got one shove as sent me head-foremost into a long canoe, with thirty or forty niggers stowed away like cattle, and out the men pulls for the schooner. A big bright fire there was ashore, astarn of us, I mind, where they heated the irons, with a chap in a straw hat sarvin' out rum to the wild blacks from a cask; and ye saw the pitch-black woods behind, with the branches shoved out red in the light on it, and a bloody-like patch on the water under a clump o' sooty mangroves. An', Jack, if I didn't feel the life sick in me, that time—for, d' ye see, I hears nothin' spoke round me but cussed French, Portingeese, an' nigger tongue—'specially when it jist lighthens on me what sort on a case I were in; an' thinks I, "I'm took for aslave, arter all!—an' be hanged, but I left that 'ere 'farnal mushroom a-lying under that there tree yonder!" I begins for to think o' matters an' things, an' about Bristol quay, an' my old mother, an' my sister as was at school—mind ye, mate, all atwixt shovin' off the mangroves an' coming bump agen the schooner's side—an' blow me if I doesn't turn to, an' nigh-hand commences for to blubber—when jist then what does I catch sight on, by the lantern over the side, but that 'ere villain of a fittish-man, an' what's more,King Chimbey hisself, both hauled in the net. And with that I gives a chuckle, as ye may suppose, an' no mistake; for thinks I, so far as consarns myself, this here can't last long, blow me, for sooner or later I'll find some un to speak to, even an I nivver gets rid o' this here outer darkness—be blowed if I han't got a white mind, any ways, an' free I'll be, my boy! But I laughs, in course, when I see'd the fittish-man grin at me—for thinks I, "My cocks, you're logged down for a pretty long spell of it!"
"'Well, bo,' somehow I knows no more about it till such time as I sort o' wakes up in pitch-dark, all choke and sweat, an' a feller's dirty big toe in my mouth, with mine in some un else's eye; so out I spits it, an' makes a scramble for my life. By the roll and the splash I knowed I wor down in the schooner's hold; an' be hanged if there warn't twenty or thirty holding on like bees to a open weather-port, where the fresh wind and the spray come a-blowing through—but there, my boy, 'twere no go for to get so much as the tip o' yer nose. Accordently, up I prizes myself with my feet on another poor devil's wool—for d' ye see, by that time I minds a man's face no more nor so much timber—an' I feels for the hatch over me, where by good luck, as I thought, there I finds it not battened down yet, so I shoved my head through on deck like a blacksmith's hammer.
"'Well, mate, there was the schooner's deck wet, a swell of a sea on round her, well off the land, no trifle of a morning gale, and the craft heeling to it; a lot o' hands up on her yards, a-reefing at the boom mains'l and fo'taups'l, an' if my heart doesn't jump into my mouth with the sight, for I feels it for all the world like a good glass o' grog, settin' all to rights. Two or three there was walkin' aft the quarter-deck, so out I sings, "Hullo! hullo there, shipmates, give us a hand out o' this!" Two on 'em comes for'ard, one lifts a handspike, but both gives a grin, as much as to say it's some nigger tongue or other in place o' good English—for, d' ye see, they'd half their faces black-beard, and rings i' their ears—when up walks another chap like the skipper, an' more the looks of a countryman. "I'm a free-born Briton!" roars I again; with that he lends me a squint, looks to the men, and gives some sort of a sign, when they jams-to the hatch and nips me fast by the neck. "Devil of a deep beggar, this 'ere!" says he; "jistgive him the gag, my lads," says he; "the planters often thinks more of a dumby, 'cause he works the more, and a stout piece o' goods thisis!" says he. Well, mate, what does they do but one pulls out a knife, an' be blowed if they warn't a-goin' for to cut out my tongue; but the men aloft sung out to hoist away the yards; so they left me ready clinched till they'd belay the ropes. Next a hand for'ard, by good luck, hailed "Sail ho!" and they'd some'at else to think o' besides me; for there, my boy, little more nor three miles to wind'ard, I see'd theIrishas she come driving bodily out o' the mist, shakin' out her three to'gallant-sails, an' a white spray flying with her off one surge to another. Rather bad it was, mind ye, for my windpipe, for every time the schooner pitched, away swings my feet clear o' the nigger's heads—'cause, d' ye see, we chanced for to be stowed on the 'tween-decks, an' another tier there was, stuffed in her lower hold—an' there I stuck, mate, so as I couldn't help watchin' the whole chase, till at last the hatch slacks nip a bit, and down I plumps into the dark again.
"'Well, bo', the breeze got lighter, an' to all seemin' the cursed schooner held her own; but hows'ever, the sloop-o'-war kept it up all day, and once or twice she tips us a long shot; till by sunset, as I reckoned, we hears no more on her. The whole night long, again, there we stews as thick as peas—I keeps harknin' to the sighs and groans, an' the wash along the side, in a sort of a doze; an' s'help me Bob, I fancies for a moment I'm swinging in my hammock in the foc'sle, an it's no more but the bulkheads and timbers creakin'. Then I thinks it's some un else I dreams on, as is oneasy, like to choke for heat and thirst; and I'm a-chucklin' at him—when up I wakes with the cockroaches swarming over my face. Another groan runs from that end to this, the whole lot on us tries hard, and kicks their neighbours to turn, an' be blowed if I knowed but I was buried in a churchyard, with the horrid worms all a-crawl about me. All on a suddent, nigh-hand to daybreak it was, I hears a gun to wind'ard, so with that I contrives for to scramble up with my eye to the scuttle-port. 'Twas a stiffish breeze, an' I see'd some'at lift on a sea like a albatross's wing, as one may say—though what wor this but theIrish'sbit of a tender, standing right across our bows—for the schooner, ye see, changed her course i' the night-time,rig'lar slaver's dodge, thinkin' for to drop the sloop-o'-war, sure enough. But as for the little f'lucca, why they hadn't bargained for her at all, lying-to as she did, with a rag o' sail up, in the troughs of the sea, till the schooner was close on her.
"'Well, no sooner does they go about, my boy, but the muskeety of a cruiser lets drive at her off the top of a sea, as we hung broadside to them in stays. Blessed if I ever see sich a mark!—the shot jist takes our fore top fair slap—for the next minute I seed the fore-topmast come over the lee-side, an' astarn we begins to go directly. What's more, mate, I never see a small craft yet handled better in a sea, as that 'ere chap did—nor the same thing done, cleaner at any rate—for they jist comes nigh-hand tip on our bowsprit-end, as the schooner lifted—then up in the wind they went like clockwork, with a starnway on as carried the f'lucca right alongside on us, like a coachman backing up a lane, andgrindwe both heaved on the swell, with the topmast hamper an' its canvas for a fender atwixt us. Aboard jumps the man-o'-war's-men, in course, cutlash in hand, an' for five minutes some tough work there was on deck, by the tramp, the shots, an' the curses over our heads—when off they shoved the hatches, and I seed a tall young feller in a gold-banded cap look below. Be blowed if I wasn't goin' to sing out again, for, d' ye see, I'm blessed if I took mind on the chap at all, as much by reason o' the blood an' the smoke he'd got on his face as aught else. Hows'ever, I holds a bit meantime, on account o' Job Price an' that 'ere piratecy consarn—till what does I think, a hour or two arter, when I finds as this here were the very leftenant as chased us weeks on end in the Camaroons. So a close stopper, sure enough, I keeps on my jaw; an' as for scentin' me out amongst a couple o' hundred blacks in the hold, why, 'twere fit to 'ppal my own mother herself.
"'Well, Jack, by this time bein' near Serry Loney, next day or so we got in—where, what does they do but theylubberratesus all, as they calls it, into a barracoon ashore, till sich time as the slaver ud be condemned—an' off goes the tender down coast again. Arter that, they treats us well enough, but still I dursn't say a word; for one day, as we goed to work makin' our huts, there I twigs a printed bill upon the church-wall, holdin' out a reward, d' ye see, consarnin' thepiratecy, with my oun name and my very build logged down—ownly, be hanged if they doesn't tack on to it all, by way of a topgallant ink-jury to a man, these here words—"He's a very ugly feller—looks like a furriner." Well, mate, I ain't a young maiden, sure enough, but, thinks I, afore I fell foul o' that blasted fittish-man an' his nut, cuss me if I looks jist so bad as that 'ere! So ye know this goes more to my heart nor aught else, till there I spells out another confounded lie in the bill, as how Captin Price's men had mutinied again him, and murdered the brig's crew—when, in course, I sees the villain's whole traverse at once. So sayin', I watched my chance one night an' went aboard a Yankee brig as were to sail next day; an' I tells the skipper part o' the story, offerin' for to work my passage across for nothing; which, says he, "It's a hinterestin' narritif"—them was his words; and, says he, "It's a land o' freedom is the States, an' no mistake—ain't there no more on ye in the like case?" he says. "Not as I knows on, sir," I answers; an' says he, "Plenty o' coloured gen'lmen there is yonder, all in silks an' satins; an' I hear," says he, "there's one on 'em has a chance o' bein' President next time—anyhow I'm your friend," says he, quite hearty.
"'Well, the long an' short of it was, I stays aboard the brig, works my spell in her, an' takes my trick at the hellum—but I'm blowed, Jack, if the men 'ud let me sleep in the foc'sle, 'cause I was a black, so I slung my hammock aft with the nigger stoord. D' ye see, I misgived myself a bit when we sank the coast, for, thinks I, it's in Africay as that 'ere blessed mushroom are to be found, to take the colour off me—hows'ever, I thinks it carn't but wear out in time, now I've got out o' that 'ere confounded mess, where, sure enough, things was against me. So at last the v'yage were up, an' the brig got in to New Orleans. There I walks aft to the skipper for to take leave, when says he, wonderfly friendly like, "Now, my lad," says he, "I'm goin' up river a bit for to see a friend as takes a interest in your kind—an' if ye likes, why I'll pay yer passage that far?" In course I agrees, and up river we goes, till we lands at a fine house, where I'm left in a far-handy, ye know, while the skipper an' his friend has their dinner. All at once the gen'lman shoves his head out of a doure, takes a look at me, an' in again—arter that I hears the chink o' dollars—then the skipper walks out, shuts thedoure, and says he to me, "Now," he says, "that's a 'cute sort o' tale ye tould me, my lad, but it's a lie, I guess!" "Lie, sir!" says I, "what d' ye mean?" for ye see that 'ere matter o' the iv'ry brig made me sing small at first. "No slack, Pumpey," says he, liftin' his forefinger like a schoolmaster; "ain't yer name Pumpey?" says he. "Pumpey!" says I, "my name's Jack Brown," for that wor the name I'd gived him afore. "Oh!" says he, "jest say it's Gin'ral Washington, right off. Come," says he, "I guess I'd jest tell ye what tripe you belongs to—you're a Mandigy nigger," says he. "It's all very well," he says, "that 'ere yarn, but that's wot they'd all say when they comes, they've been dyed black! Why," says he, "doesn't I see that 'ere brand one night on yer back—there's yer arms all over pagan tattooin'——" "Bless ye, captin," I says, a-holdin' up my arm, "it's crowns an' anchors!" "Crowns!" says he, turnin' up his nose, "what does we know o' crowns hereaway—weain't barbers yet, I guess"—of what he meant bybarbershere, mate, I'm hanged if I knowed. "'Sides," says he, "you speaks broken Aimerricane!" "'Merricain?" I says, "why, I speaks good English! an' good reason, bein' a free-born Briton—as white's yerself, if so be I could ownly clap hands for a minnet on some o' them mushrooms I tould ye on!" "Where does they grow, then?" axes he, screwin' one eye up. "In Africay yonder, sir," I says, "more's the pity I hadn't the chance to lay hands on them again!" "Phoo!" says he, "glad they ain'there! An' does you think we 're a-goin' for to send all the way over to Africay for them mushrooms you talks on? Tell ye what, yer free papers 'ud do ye a sight more goodhere!" says he; "it's no use with a black skin for to claim white laws; an' what's more, ye're too tarnation ugly-faced for it, let alone colour, Pumpey, my man," he says. "I tell ye what it is, Captin Edwards," says I, "my frontispiece ain't neither here nor there, but if you calls me Pumpey again, blowed an' I don't pitch inty ye!"—so with that I handles my bones in a way as makes him hop inside the doure—an' says the skipper houldin' it half-shut, "Harkee, lad," he says, "it's no go your tryin' for to run, or they'll make ye think angels o' bo'sun's-mates. But what's more," says he, "nivver you whisper a word o' what ye tells me, about nuts an' mushrooms, or sich like trash—no more will I; for d' ye see, my lad, in that casethey'd jesthush ye upfor good!" "Who d' ye mean?" I says, all abroad, an' of a shiver like—mindin' on the slave-schooner again. "Why, the planter's people," says he, "as I've sold ye to." An' with that he pints into his mouth, and shuts the doure.
"'Well, mate, ye may fancy how I feels! Here I stands, givin' a look round for a fair offing; but there was bulwarks two fadom high all round the house, a big bloodhound lyin' chained, with his muzzle on his two paws, an' nobody seem'd for to mind me. So, I see'd it were all up wonst more; an' at the thou't of a knife in my tongue, I sits right down in the far-handy, rig'lar flabbergasted, when out that 'ere blasted skipper snoots his head again, an' says he, "Pumpey, my lad, good-day," says he; "you knows some'at o' the water, an' as they've boat-work at times hereaway, I don't know but, if you behaves yerself, they'll trust you with an oar now an' then: for I tould yer master jist now," says he, "as how you carn't speak no English!" Well, I gives him a hoath, 'cause by that time I hadn't a word to throw at a dog; and shortly arter, up comes the overseer with his black mate, walks me off to a shed, strips me, and gives me a pair o' cotton drawers and a broad hat—so out I goes the next mornin' for to hoe sugarcane with a gang o' niggers.
"'Well, mate, arter that I kept close enough—says no more, but mumbles a lot o' no-man's jargon, as makes 'em all log me down for a sort o' double-Guinea savitch—'cause why, I were hanged afeard for my tongue, seein', if so be I lost it, I'd be a nigger for ever, sure enough. So the blacks, for most part being country-bred, they talks nothin' but a blessed jumble, for all the world like babbies at home; an' what does they do but they fancies me a rig'lar African nigger, as proud as Tommy, an' a'most ready for to washup me they wor—why, the poor divvles 'ud bring me yams and fish; they kisses my flippers an' toes as I'd been the Pope; an' as for the young girls, I'm blowed if I warn't all the go amongst 'em—though I carn't say the same where both's white, ye know! What with the sun an' the cocoa-nut ile, to my thinkin', I gets blacker an' blacker—blessed if I didn't fancy a feller's very mind turned nigger. I larns their confounded lingo, an' I answers to the name o' Pumpey, blast it, till I right-down forgets that I'd ever another.As for runnin', look ye, I knowed 'twas no use thereaway, as long as my skin tould against me, an' as long as Africay wor where it wor. So, my boy, I see'd pretty clear, ye know, as this here world 'ud turn a man into a rig'lar built slave-nigger in the long run if he was an angel out o' heaven!
"'Well, mate, one day I'm in the woods amongst a gang, chopping firewood for the sugar-mill, when, what does I light on betwixt some big ground-leaves and sich like, but a lot o' them very same red mushrooms as the fittish-man shows me in Africay!—blowed if there warn't a whole sight o' them round about, too! So I pulls enough for ten, ye may be sure, stuffs 'em in my hat, an' that same night, as soon as all's dark, off I goes into the woods, right by the stars, for the nearest town 'twixt there and New Orleans. As soon as I got nigh-hand it, there I sits down below a tree amongst the bushes, hauls off my slops, an' I turns to for to rub myself all over, from heel to truck, till daybreak. So, in course, I watches for the light angshis enough, as ye may suppose, to know what colour I were. Well, strike me lucky, Jack, if I didn't jump near a fadom i' the air, when at last I sees I'mwhitewonst more!—blessed if I didn't feel myself a new man from stem to starn! I makes right for a creek near by, looks at my face in the water, then up I comes again, an' every yarn o' them cussed slave-togs I pulls to bits, when I shoves 'em under the leaves. Arter that I took fair to the water for about a mile, jist to smooth out my wake, like; then I shins aloft up a tree, where I stowed myself away till noon—'cause, d'ye see, I knowed pretty well what to look for next. An' by this time, mind ye, all them queer haps made a fellow wonderful sharp, so I'd scheme out the whole chart aforehand how to weather on them cussed Yankees.
"'Accordently, about noon, what does I hear but that 'ere savitch bloodhound comin' along up creek, with a set o' slave-catchers astarn, for to smell out my track. With that, down I went in the water again, rounds a point into the big river, where I gets abreast of a landin' place, near the town, with craft laying out-stream, boats plyin', an' all alive. D' ye see, bo', I'd got no clothes at all, an' how for to rig myself again, 'blowed if I knows—seein' as how by this time I'd turned as white as the day I were born, an' a naked whiteman in a town arn't no better than a black nigger. So in I swims like a porpus afore a breeze, an' up an' down I ducks in the shallow, for all the world like a chap a-takin' a bath; an' out I hollers to all an' sundry, with a Yankee twang i' my nose, for to know if they had seen my clothes, till a whole lot on 'em crowds on the quay. Hows'ever, I bethinks me on that 'ere blasted brand atwixt my shoulders, an' I makes myself out as modest as a lady, kicks out my legs, and splashes like a whale aground, an' sticks out my starn to 'em for to let 'em see it's white. "Hullo!" I sings out, "han't ye seen my clothes?" "No, stranger," says they, "someun's runned off with 'em, we cal'clates!" With that I tells 'em I'm a Boston skipper new comed up from New Orleans; an' not being used to the heat, why I'd took a bath the first thing; an' I 'scribes the whole o' my togs as if I'd made 'em—"split new," says I, "an' a beaver hat, more by token there's my name inside it; an'," says I, "there's notes for a hundred dollars in my trousers!"
"'By this time down comes the slave-catchers, an' says they, hearin' on it, "That 'ere tarnation nigger's gone off with 'em, we'll know 'un by them marks well enough," says they, an' off they goes across river. "Hullo!" I sings out to the folks, "I'm a-gettin' cold here, so I guess I'll come ashore again, slick off!" I twangs out. "Guess ye can't, straunger!" they hails; "not till we gets ye some kiverin's!—we 're considerable proper here, we are!" "Ain't this a free country, then?" I says, givin' a divvle of a splash; an' with that they begs an' axes me for to hould on, an' they'd fix me, as they calls it, in no time. "Well, mate, what does they do but one an' another brings me somethin' as like what I 'scribed as could be, hands 'em along on a pole, an' I puts 'em on then an' there. Arter that, the ladies o' the place bein' blessed modest, an' all of a fright leest I'd a comed out an' gone through the town—why, out o' grannytude, as they says, they gets up a supperscription on a hundred dollars to make up my loss—has a public meetin' logged down for the evenin', when I'm for to indress the citizens, as they says, all about freedom an' top-gallantry, an' sich-like. Hows'ever, I jist sticks my tongue in my cheek, eats a blessed good dinner in a hot-ell, watches my chance, an' off by a track-boat at sundown toNew Orleans, where I shipped aboard a English barque, an' gets safe out to sea wonst more.
"'Lord love ye, Harry!' exclaimed Jack hereupon, 'the likes o' that now! But I've heerd say, them fittish-men you talks on has wonderful knowledge—why, mayhap it's them as keeps all the niggers black, now?' 'Well, bo',' said Harry, 'I don't doubt but if them 'Merricain slaves jist knowed o' that 'ere red mushroom, why they'd show the Yankees more stripes nor stars! D' ye see, if a Yankee knowed as his own father were a-hoein' his sugar-canes, blowed if he wouldn't make him work up his liberty in dollars! All the stripes, d' ye see, mate, is for the blacks, an' all the stars is for the whites, in them Yankee colours as they brags so much about! But what I says is, it's cussed hard to get through this 'ere world, shipmate, if ye doesn't keep well to the wind'ard of it!'
"I was the more amused with this account of the ugly rascal's adventures that I remembered two or three of the occasions he mentioned, and he told them pretty exactly so far as I had to do with them. As for the fetish-man's curious nut, and that extraordinary mushroom of his, why 'ten to one,' thought I, 'but all the while the fellow never once touched a piece ofsoap!' which, no doubt, had as much to do with it as anything besides. Somehow or other, notwithstanding, I had taken almost a fancy to the villain—such a rough sample of mankind he was, with his uncouth grumpy voice, and his huge black beard; and he gave the story in a cool, scornful sort of way that was laughable in itself. 'So, my lad,' I thought, 'it seems you and I have met twice before; but if you play any of your tricks this time, Master Harry, I hope you've found your match'; and certainly, if I had fancied my gentleman was in the slaver's hold that time off the African coast, I'd have 'lubberrated' him with a vengeance.
"'I say, mates,' said he again, with a sulky kind of importance, to those of the watch who had gathered round during the last half of his yarn, 'there's three things I hates—an' good reason!' 'What be's they, Harry?' asked the rest. 'One's a Yankee,' said he, 'an' be blowed to him; the second's a slaver; and the third is—I carn't abide a nigger, nohow. But d' ye see, there's one thing Ilikes——'Here eight bells struck out, and up tumbled the watch below, with Jacobs' hearty face amongst them: so I made my way aft, and, of course, missed hearing what that said delightful thing might be, which this tarry Æsop approved of so much.
"While I was listening, I had scarcely noticed, that within the last few minutes a light air had begun to play aloft among the higher canvas, a faint cat's-paw came ruffling here and there a patch of the water, till by this time the Indiaman was answering her wheel again, and moving slowly ahead, as the breeze came down and crept out to the leeches of her sails, with a sluggish lifting of her heavy fore-course. The men were all below at breakfast, forward, and, of course, at that hour the poop above me was quite a Babel of idlers' voices; while I looked into the compass and watched the ship's head falling gradually off from north-east-by-north, near which it had stuck pretty close since daybreak. The sun was brought before her opposite beam, and such a perfect gush of hazy white light shot from that quarter over the larboard bulwarks, that thereaway, in fact, there might have been a fleet of ships, or a knot of islands, and we none the wiser, as you couldn't look into it at all.
"The chief mate came handing a wonderfully timid young lady down the poop-ladder with great care, and as soon as they were safe on the quarter-deck, she asked, with a confiding sort of lisp, 'And where are we goingnowthen, Mr Finch?' 'Well, miss,' simpered he, 'whereveryouplease, I'll be glad to conduct you!' 'Oh, but the ship I mean,' replied she, giggling prettily. 'Why,' said Finch, stooping down to the binnacle, 'she heads due south-east at present, miss.' 'Iamso glad you are going on again!' said the young lady; 'but oh! when shall we see dearlandonce more, Mr Finch?' 'Not for more than a week, I fear,' answered the mate, 'when we arrive at the Cape of Good Hope. But there, miss, your poetic feelings will be gratified, I assure you. The hills there, I might say, Miss Brodie,' he went on, 'not to speak of the woods, are quite dramatic! You mustn't suppose the roughmariner, rude as he seems, Miss Brodie, is entirely devoid of romance in his sentiments, I hope!' and he looked down for the twentieth time that morning at his boots as he handed her down the cabin hatchway, longing to see the Cape, no doubt. 'Much romance, as you call it, there is in ugly Harry yonder!' thought I; and comparing this sort of stuff, aft, with the matter-of-fact notions before the mast, made me the more anxious for what might turn up in a few hours, with this gallant first officer left in full charge, and the captain, as I understood, unable to leave his cot. A good enough seaman the fellow was, so far as your regular deep-sea work went, which those India voyagers had chiefly to do with then; but for aught out of the way, or a sudden pinch, why, the peace had just newly set them free of their leading-strings, and here this young mate brought his new-fangled school navigation, forsooth, to run theSeringapataminto some mess or other; whereas, in a case of the kind, I had no doubt he would prove as helpless as a child.
"By this time, for my part, all my wishes for some ticklish adventure were almost gone, when I thought of our feelings at the loss of the boat, as well as the number of innocent young creatures on board, with Lota Hyde herself amongst them; while here had I got myself fairly set down for a raw griffin. Yet neither Westwood nor I, unless it came to the very worst, could venture to make himself openly useful! I was puzzled both what to think of our exact case, and what to do; whereas a pretty short time in these latitudes, as the foremast-man had said, might finish our business altogether; indeed, the whole look of things, somehow or other, at that moment, had a strange unsettled touch about it, out of which one unaccustomed to those parts might be sure some change would come. The air, a little ago, was quite suffocating, the heat got greater; and the breeze, though it seemed to strengthen aloft, at times sank quietly out of her lower canvas like a breath drawn in, and caught it again as quietly ere it fell to the masts. What with the slow huge heave of the water, as it washed glittering past, and what with the blue tropical sky overhead, getting paler and paler at the horizon astern, from fair heat—while the sunlight and the white haze on our larboard beam, made it a complete puzzle to behold—why, I felt just like some fellow in one of those stupid dreams after a heavy supper,with nothing at all in them, when you don't know how long or how often you've dreamt it before. Deuce the hand or foot you can stir, and yet you've a notion of something horrid that's sure to come upon you.
"We couldn't be much more than a hundred miles or so to south'ard of St Helena; but we might be two thousand miles off the land, or we might be fifty. I had only been once in my life near the coast thereaway, and certainly my recollections of it weren't the most pleasant. As for the charts, so little was known of it that we couldn't depend upon them; yet there was no doubt the ship had been all night long in a strong set of water toward north-east, right across her course. For my own part, I was as anxious as anyone else to reach the Cape, and get rid of all this cursed nonsense; for since last night, I saw quite well by her look that Violet Hyde would never favour me, if I kept in her wake to the day of judgment. There was I, too, every time I came on deck and saw those round-house doors, my heart leapt into my throat, and I didn't know port from starboard! But what was the odds, that I'd have kissed the very pitch she walked upon, whenshewasn't forme!—being deep in love don't sharpen the faculties neither, and the more I thought of matters the stupider I seemed to get. 'Green Hand!' thought I, 'as Jacobs and the larboard watch call me, it appears—why, they're right enough! A green hand I came afloat nine years ago, and, by Jove! though I know the sea and what belongs to it, from sheer liking to them, as 'twere—it seems a green hand I'm to stick—seeing I know so blessed little of womankind, not to speak of that whole confounded world ashore! With all one's schemes and one's weather-eye, something new always keeps turning up to show one what an ass he is; and hang me, if I don't begin to suppose I'm only fit for working small traverses upon slavers and jack-nasty-faces, after all! There's Westwood, without troubling himself, seems to weather upon me, with her, like a Baltimore clipper on a Dutch schuyt!' In short, I wanted to leave theSeringapatamas soon as I could, wish them all a good voyage together away for Bombay, sit down under Table Mountain, and then perhaps go and travel amongst the Hottentots by way of a change.
"The chief officer came aft towards the binnacle again, with a strut in his gait, and more full of importance than ever,of course. 'This breeze'll hold, I think, Macleod?' said he to the second mate, who was shuffling about in a lounging, unseamanlike way he had, as if he felt uncomfortable on the quarter-deck, and both hands in his jacket pockets. 'Well,' said the Scotchman, 'do ye not think it's too early begun, sir?' and he looked about like an old owl, winking against the glare of light past the mainsheet to larboard; 'I'll not say but it will, though,' continued he, 'but 'odsake, sir, it's terrible warm!' 'Can't be long ere we get into Cape Town now,' said the mate, 'so you'll turn the men on deck as soon as breakfast's over, Mr Macleod, and commence giving her a coat of paint outside, sir.' 'Exactly, Mr Finch,' said the other, 'all hands it'll be, sir? For any sake, Mr Finch, give they lazy scoundrels something to do!' 'Yes, all hands,' said Finch; and he was going below, when the second mate sidled up to him again, as if he had something particular to say. 'The captain'll be quite better by this time, no doubt, Mr Finch?' asked he. 'Well—d' ye mean?' inquired the mate, rather shortly; 'why no, sir, when the surgeon saw him in the morning watch, he said it was a fever, and the sooner we saw the Cape the better for him.' 'No doubt, no doubt, sir,' said the second mate, thoughtfully, putting his forefinger up his twisted nose, which I noticed he did in such cases, as if the twist had to do with his memory—'no doubt, sir, that's just it! The doctor's a sharp Edinbro' lad—did he see aucht by common about the captain, sir?' 'No,' said Finch, 'except that he wanted to go on deck this morning, and the surgeon took away his clothes and left the door locked.' 'Did he, though?' asked Macleod, shaking his head, and looking a little anxious; 'didna he ask for aucht in particular, sir?' 'Not that I heard of, Mr Macleod,' replied the mate; 'what do you mean?' 'Did he not ask for a green leaf?' replied the second mate. 'Pooh,' said Finch, 'what if he did?' 'Well, sir,' said Macleod, 'neither you nor the doctor's sailed five voyages with the captain, like me. He's a quiet man, Captain Weelumson, an' well he knows his calling; but sometimes warm weather doesn't do with him, more especial siccan warm weather as this, when the moon's full, as it is the night, ye know, Mr Finch. There's something else besides that, though, when he's taken that way.' 'Well, what is it?' asked the mate, carelessly. 'Oo!' said Macleod, 'it can't bethatthis time, of course, sir—it's when he's near theland! The captain knows the smell of it, these times, Mr Finch, as well as a cockroach does—an' it's then he asks for a green leaf, and wants to go straight ashore—I mind he did it the voy'ge before last, sir. He's a quiet man, the captain, as I said, for ord'nar'—but when he's roused, he's a——' 'Why, what was the matter with him?' said Finch, more attentive than before; 'you don't mean to say?—go on, Mr Macleod.' The second mate, however, looked cautious, closed his lips firmly, and twirled his red whiskers, as he glanced with one eye aloft again. 'Hoo!' said he, carelessly, 'hoo, it's nothing, nothing—just, I'm thinking, sir, what they call disgestion ashore—all frae the stommach, Mr Finch. We used just for to lock the state-room door, an' never let on we heard—but at any rate, sir,thisis no the thing at all, ye know! Mester Semm,' continued he to the fat midshipman, who came slowly up from the steerage, picking his teeth with a pocket-knife, 'go forrid and get the bo'sun to turn up all hands.'
"'Sir,' said I, stepping up to the mate next moment, before the round-house, 'might I use the freedom of asking whereabouts we are at present?' Finch gave me a look of cool indifference, without stirring head or hand; which I saw, however, was put on, as, ever since our boating affair, the man evidently detested me, with all his pretended scorn. 'Oh certainly, sir!' said he, 'of course!—sorry I haven't the ship's log here to show you—but it's two hundred miles or so below St Helena, eight hundred miles odd off the south-west African coast, with a light westerly breeze bound for the Cape of Good Hope—so after that you can look about you, sir!' 'Are yousureof all that, sir?' asked I, seriously. 'Oh no, of course not!' said he, still standing as before, 'not in the least, sir! It's nothing but quadrant, sextant, and chronometer work, after all—which every young gentleman don't believe in!' Then he muttered aloud, as if to himself, 'Well, if the captainshouldchance to ask for agreenleaf, I know where to find it for him!'
"I was just on the point of giving him some angry answer or other, and perhaps spoiling all, when I felt a tap on my shoulder, and on turning round saw the Indian judge, who had found me in the way either of his passage or his prospect, on stepping out of the starboard door. 'Eh!' said he,jocularly, as I begged his pardon, 'eh, young sir—I've nothing to do with pardons—always leave that to the governor-general and councillors! Been doing anything wrong, then? Ah, what's this—still calm, or some of your wind again, Mr Officer?' 'A fine breeze like to hold, Sir Charles,' answered the mate, all bows and politeness. 'So!' said Sir Charles; 'but I don't see Captain Williamson at all this morning—where is he?' 'I am sorry to say he is very unwell, Sir Charles,' said Finch. 'Indeed!' exclaimed the judge, with whom the captain stood for all the seamanship aboard, and looking round again rather dissatisfied. 'Don't like that, though. I hope he won't be long unable to attend to things, sir—let me know as soon as he is recovered, if you please.' 'Certainly, Sir Charles,' said the chief officer, touching his cap with some appearance of pique; 'but I hope, sir, I understand my duties in command, Sir Charles.' 'Daresay, sir,' said the judge, 'asofficer, probably. Commander absent—horrible accidents already,' he muttered, crossly, changing his usual high sharp key to a harsh croak, like a saw going through a heavy spar, 'something sure to go wrong—wish we'd done with this deuced tiresome voyage. Ha, young gentleman,' exclaimed he, turning as he went in, 'd'ye play chess—suppose not—eh?' 'Why yes, sir,' said I, 'I do.' 'Well,' continued he, overhauling me more carefully than he had done before, though latterly I had begun to be somewhat in his good graces when we met by chance, 'after all, you've achesseye, if you know the game at all. Come in, then, for God's sake, and let's begin. Ever since the poor brigadierwent, I've had only myself or a girl to play against. 'Gad, sir, there is something, I can't express how horrible to my mind, in being matched againstnobody—or, what's worse, against awoman! But recollect, young gentleman, I can not bear a tyro'; and he glanced at me as we walked into the large poop-cabin as sharply and as cold as a nor'-wester, ere it breaks to windward.
"Now I happened to know the game, and to be particularly fond of it; so, restless as I felt otherwise, I gave the old nabob a quiet nod, laid down my griffin-looking straw hat on the sofa, and in two minutes there we were, sitting opposite over a splendid China-made chess-board, with elephants, emperors, mandarins, and Chinamen, all square and ataunto,as if they'd been set ready for days. The darkkitmagarcommenced fanning over his master's head with a bright feather punka, the other native servant handed him his twisted hookah and lighted it, after which he folded his arms and stood looking down on the board like a pundit at some campaign of the Great Mogul; while the judge himself waited for my first move, as if it had been some of our plain English fellows in Hindostan commencing against your whole big India hubbub and finery, to get hold of it all in the end. For my part I sat at first all of a tingle and tremble, thinking how near his lovely daughter might be; and there were the breakfast-cups laid out on a round table at the other side, behind me.
"However, I made my move, Sir Charles made his, and pitched into the game in a half-impatient, half long-headed sort of way, anxious to get to the thick of it, as it were, once more. Not a word was said, and you only heard the suck of the smoke bubbling through the water-bottle of his pipe, after each move the judge made; till I set myself to the play in right earnest, and, owing to the old gentleman's haste at the beginning, or his over-sharpness, I hooked him into a mess with which I used to catch the old hands at chess in the cockpit, just by fancying whattheymeant to be at. The judge lifted his head, looked at me, and went on again. 'Your queen is in check, Sir Charles!' said I, next time, by way of a polite hint. 'Check, though, young gentleman!' said he, chuckling, as he dropped one of his outlandish knights, which I wasn't yet up to the looks of, close to the windward of my blessed old Turk of a king; so the skirmish was just getting to be a fair set-to, when I chanced to lift my eyes, and saw the door from the after-cabin open, with Miss Hyde coming through. 'Now, papa,' exclaimed she on the moment, 'you must come to breakfast'—when all of a sudden, at seeing another man in the cabin, she stopped short. Being not so loud and griffin-like in my toggery that morning, and my hat off, the young lady didn't recognise me at first—though the next minute, I saw by her colour and her astonished look, she not only did that, but something else—no doubt remembering at last where she had seen me ashore. 'Well, child,' said the judge, 'make haste with it, then!—Recollect where we are, now, young gentleman—and come to breakfast.' She had a pink muslinmorning-dress on, with her brown hair done up like the Virgin Mary in a picture, and the sea had taken almost all the paleness off her cheek that it had in the ball-room at Epsom, a month or two ago—and, by Jove! when I saw her begin to pour out the tea out of the silver teapot, I didn't knowwhereI was! 'Oh, I forgot,' said the judge, waving his hand from me to her, in a hurry, 'Mr Robins, Violet! ho,kitmagar, curry l'ao!' 'Oh,' said she, stiffly, with a cold turn of her pretty lip, 'I have met Mr—Mr——' 'Collins, ma'am,' said I. 'I have met this gentleman by accidentbefore.' 'So you have—so you have,' said her father; 'but you play chess well, Mr—a—a—what's his name?—ah! Colly. Gad, you playwell, sir—we must have it out!'
"The young lady glanced at me again with a sort of astonishment; at last she said, no doubt for form's sake, though as indifferently as possible: 'You have known your friend the missionary gentleman long, I believe, sir?—the Reverend Mr Thomas—I think that is his name?' 'Oh no, ma'am!' said I hastily, for the judge was the last man I wished should join Westwood and me together, 'only since we crossed the Line, or so.' 'Why, I thought he said you were at school together!' said she, in surprise. 'Why—hem—certainly not, ma'am—a—a—I—a—a—I don't remember the gentleman there,' I blundered out. 'Eh, what?—check to your queen, young gentleman, surely?' asked Sir Charles. 'What's this, though! Always like to hear a mystery explained, so'—and he gave me one of his sharp glances. 'Why, why—surely, young man, now I think of it in that way, I've seen you before in some peculiar circumstances or other—on land, too. Why, where was it—let me see now?' putting his finger to his forehead to think; while I sat pretty uneasy, like a small pawn that had been trying to get to the head of the board, and turn into a knight or a bishop, when it falls foul of a grand figured-out king and queen. However, the queen is the only piece you need mind at a distance, and blessed hard it is to escape fromher, of course. Accordingly, I cared little enough for the old nabob finding out I had gone in chase of them; but there sat his charming little daughter, with her eyes on her tea-cup; and whether the turn of her face meant coolness, or malice, or amusement, I didn't know—though sheseemed a little anxious too, I thought, lest her father should recollect me.
"'It wasn'tbeforeme, young man?' asked he, looking up of a sudden: 'no, that must have been in India—musthave been in England, when I was last there—let me see.' And I couldn't help fancying what a man's feelings must be, tried for his life, as I caught a side-view of his temples working, dead in my wake, as it were. The thing was laughable enough, and for a moment I met Lota's eye as he mentioned England—'twas too short a glimpse, though, to make out; and, thought I, 'he'll be down on Surrey directly, and then Croydon—last of all, the back of his garden-wall, I suppose!' 'Check' it was, and what I was going to say I couldn't exactly conceive, unless I patched up some false place or other, with matters to match, and mentioned it to the old fellow, though small chance of its answering with such a devil of a lawyer—when all at once I thought I heard a hail from aloft; then the second mate's voice roared close outside, 'Hullo!—aloft there!' The next moment I started up, and looked at Miss Hyde, as I heard plainly enough the cry, 'On deck there—land O!' I turned round at once, and walked out of the round-house to the quarter-deck, where, two minutes after, the whole of the passengers were crowding from below, the judge and his daughter already on the poop. Far aloft, upon the fore-to'-gallant-yard, in the hot glare of the sun, a sailor was standing with his hand over his eyes, and looking to the horizon, as the Indiaman stood quietly before the light breeze. 'Where-away-ay?' was the next hail from the deck. 'Broad on our larboard bow, sir,' was the answer."
"Well, ma'am," continued the naval man, on again resuming his narrative, "as I told you, the sudden hail of 'Land!' brought us all on deck in a twinkling, in the midst of my ticklish conversation with the judge. 'Hallo! you aloft!' shouted the chief officer himself, 'd'ye hear, sirrah! use your eyes before hailing the deck!' 'Land, sir!' came falling down again out of the sunlight; 'land it is, sir—broad away on our larboard bow, sir.'
"By this time it was about half-past nine, or ten o'clock, of the morning. Heading nearly due south-east, as we now were, the Indiaman's bowsprit ran up into the full white blaze of light, in which her flying jib-boom seemed to quiver and writhe far away from her like an eel in water; while the spread of her sails against it loomed twice as large as ordinary from the sort of hazy double-edged look they had, with a twinkling thread of sun drawing all round them like a frame, as if one saw through a wrong-screwed glass. You'd have thought by the glance under the fore-course, over the ship's head-gratings, she was travelling off quietly into some no-man's-land or other, where it would be so bright we should have to wear blue spectacles: the light breeze being almost direct from nor'-west, and so fairly in her favour, with the help of her studding-sails she was making wonderful progress for such a mere breath—about four knots to the hour, as I reckoned. The air aloft appeared in the meantime to be steadying andsuckingthough the water kept smooth, and her bows scarce made a noise in it: the wide soft swells of the sea just floated up of a pale blue, and lifted her on, till she went seething gently down into it again; only, if you put your head over the starboard side, and listened, you thought you heard a sort of dull poppling ripple coming along the bends from round her counter. As for the line of horizon on one bow or the other, 'twas hardly to be made out at all, with a streaky white haze overlying it, up in the sky as it were, on both sides, behind the dazzle of light. However, the passengers were fancying all kinds of fine tropical matters lay hidden thereaway; and in fact, what with the notion of land after a long voyage, and what with the faint specks of bright cloud that seemed to be melting far off in the glare—to anyone last from Gravesend, that had never seen anything stranger than Richmond Hill of a Sunday, the whole thing ahead of the ship would have rather an enchanted sort of a look. At length the third mate was seen to shove his spy-glass together in the top-gallant cross-trees, and came slowly down the rigging. 'Well, Mr Rickett,' said the chief officer, meeting him, as he landed on deck. 'Well, sir,' said Rickett, 'it is land after all, Mr Finch!' The mate rapped out an oath, and took another turn: Macleod screwed his mouth as if he were going to whistle, then pulled his red whiskers instead, and looked queer at Rickett; whileRickett stood peering into his spy-glass as he would have done into his hat, had he still been a foremast-man. The mate's eye met his, then turned to the passengers leaning over the poop-railing; and they all three walked to the capstan, where they began to overhaul the charts, and laid their heads together out of earshot.
"Now, whether this said land just made out on the north-east trended away back to south-east, as the clearer look of the horizon to starboard made one think, it was hard to say—though inthatway of it, there wereseeminglytwo plans for widening her distance. Either Finch might think it better to keep hold of a fair wind, and just edge her off enough to drop the point on her weather quarter—when, of course, if things stood as they were, we should soon set a good stretch of water betwixt us and the coast; or else they might brace direct round on the other tack, and head right south-west'ard, out to sea again; though if we were still in it, the current would set us every bit as much in its own direction as ever. Accordingly, I sidled nearer to the capstan, and watched anxiously for what the third mate had to propose, after humming and hawing a little, and scratching his head under his cap for half a minute. 'At any rate, Mr Finch, sir,' said he, 'more especially the captain being off charge, I may say, why, I'd advise ye, sir, to——' Here he dropped his voice; but Finch apparently agreed to what he said.
"'Ready about ship, there!' said the second mate aloud to the boatswain forward; and in ten minutes afterwards theSeringapatamwas fairly round, as I had expected, heading at a right-angle to her former course, with the breeze before her starboard beam, and the sun blazing on the other. I walked forward to the bows, and actually started to hear how loud and clear the ripple had got under them of a sudden; meeting her with a plash, as if she were making six or seven knots headway, while the canvas seemed to draw so much stiffer aloft, you'd have supposed the breeze had freshened as soon as the helm was put down. The mates looked over the side and aloft, rubbing their hands and smiling to each other, as much as to say how fast she was hauling off the bad neighbourhood she was in, though the heat was as great as ever, and you didn't feel a breath more air below, nor see the water ruffle. Tomynotion, in fact, it was just the set of the current againsther that seemingly freshened her way, the ship being now direct in its teeth; so that, of course, it would keep bearing her up all the time away north-eastward, withherown leeway to help it; and the less could anyone notice the difference betwixt the water going past her side, and her passing the water. This tack of hers, which Rickett, no doubt, thought such a safe plan, might be the very one to put her in a really dangerous way yet: for when they did discover this under-tow, how were they to take her out of it, after all? Probably by trying to stand fair across the stream of it to southward, which, without three times the wind we had, would at best take us out many miles nearer the land it set upon, or leave us perhaps becalmed in the midst of it.
"The truth was, that although I hadn't seen what like the land was, and couldn't have said, by the chart,wherewe were, I began to have a faint notion of whereabouts we possibly soon might be, from what I remembered hearing an old quartermaster in theIrissay, a couple of years before, regarding a particular spot on the south-west coast, where the currents at some seasons, as he phrased it, made a regular racecourse meeting. The old fellow gave me also, at the time, some bearings of the nearest coast, with the landmarks at the mouth of a river a little farther north—which, he said, he would know if you set him down there of a dark night, though he had been in his bed at Gosport the minute before, if there was just a bright streak of sky to the eastward—namely, a big black rock like two steps, and a block at the foot of them, somewhat the shape of a chipped holystone, running down on one side out of a high headland, like an admiral's cocked hat, with six mop-headed trees upon the root of the rock, for all the world like hairs on a wart. Here I recollected how my worthy authority pointed modestly for example to a case of the kind on his own nose. The opposite shore of its mouth was flat, with a heavy white surf; but it shut in so far upon the other, he said, that, steering from the south'ard, one would never know there was a river there at all. The Bambar he called it; but if he meant the Bembarooghe, we could scarcely be nearit, or that much toward being abreast of St Helena. For all I saw, indeed, we might have nothing to eastward of us save a hard coast, or else the sandy coast farther down, shoaling out of sight of land. At any rate, I knew we must have got intothe tail of the great sea-stream from round the Cape of Good Hope, which would, no doubt, split out at sea on Viana's Bank, and turn partly to north-eastward thereabouts; so that it wasn't a very bad guess to suppose we were getting up somewhere near Cape Frio, the likeliest place in the world to find old Bob Martin's 'Maze,' which we used to joke about so in theIris.
"What was done, though, required to be done quickly, and I looked about for Tom Westwood, till I saw him on the poop amongst the rest, talking again to Miss Hyde, as they all crowded towards the lee-quarter to watch the land-haze seemingly dropping astern. My heart swelled as it were into my throat, however, at such an appearance of good understanding betwixt the two—whereas there wasshe, an hour ago that very morning, would scarce favour me with a look or a word!—and, for the life of me, I couldn't have spoken to Westwood at the time, much less gone hand in hand; for that matter he didn't seem to be suspecting aught wrong to trouble himself about. What to say or do, either, I couldn't think; since the more he cut me out, and the less friendly I felt to him, the less could I risk the chance of showing us both up for what wewere—which, of course, would bring him in for the worst of it; as ifI, by Jove, were going to serve him some low trick for the sake of shovinghimout with the young lady.
"Meantime I kept fidgeting about, as if the deck were too hot for me, snatching a glance now and then, in spite of myself, at Violet Hyde's fairy-like figure; so different from the rest of them, as she stretched eagerly from below the awning over the ship's quarter-gallery, trying to make out where the land lay—now putting her little hand over her eyes to see better, then covering them altogether from the dazzle, as she drew in her head again and shook her bright brown hair in the shadow, answering Westwood—confound him! The Indian servant each time carefully poking out the red and yellow punkah-fringe for a cover over her, while the passengers were one and all ready to cry at not seeing the land, and leaving it behind. The judge himself was the only man that seemed to have a dim notion of something queer in the whole case; for every few minutes he walked quietly to the break of the poop,where I noticed him cast a doubtful look down upon the 'chief officer'; and when the surgeon came up, he asked anxiously how Captain Williamson was, and if he couldn't be seen below. However, the surgeon told him the captain had just fallen for the first time into a good sleep, and there was no admittance, but he was likely to be much better soon.
"By this time there was no standing out from under the awnings, and the quarter-deck and poop had to be well swabbed to keep them at all cool, the steam of it rising inside with a pitchy, hempen sort of smell you never feel save in the Tropics; theSeringapatamstill feeling the breeze aloft, and lifting on the water with a ripple forward, although her big courses went lapping fore and aft every time she swung. The long white haze on the horizon began to melt as the sun heightened, clearing from under the wake of the light, till now you could fairly see the sky to eastward. Near noon, in fact, we had almost dropped the haze altogether on the ship's quarter; and at first I was glad to see how much way she had made in the two hours, when on second thoughts, and by noticing some marks in the loom of it, I had no doubt but though she might be farther off, why it was only while she set more up to north-eastward, so that we were actually, so to speak, leaving it by getting nearer! However, as the men were at dinner, and most of the passengers gone off the poop, down to 'tiffin,' I made up my mind to try what I could do in a quiet way, towards making the mate think of it more seriously.
"'Ah,' said I, in a would-be brisk and confidential kind of way, 'glad we're leaving that—a—you know, that land, Mr Finch.' 'Indeed, sir,' said he indifferently. 'Oh, you know,' said I, 'it's all very well for thepassengersthere to talk fine about land—land—but you and I, Mr Finch, don't need to be told that it's always dangerous at sea, you know.' The mate lifted his head and eyed me for a moment or two between the disgust a sailor feels at seeing a fellow pretend to aught like seamanship, and a particular sort of spite toward me which I'd noticed growing in him for the last few days—though I daresay my breakfasting that morning in Sir Charles's cabin might have brought it to a height.
"'Land dangerous, sir!' answered he carelessly, as hewent on wiping his quadrant again; 'who putthatinto your head?' 'Oh, well,' returned I, just as carelessly, 'if it's to leeward of course—or with a current taking you towards it—only then. But I've no doubt, Mr Finch, if this windwereto—ah—you know, heave more abaft, that's to say get stronger, the craft would at least stand still, till you got her.' 'What on earthareyou talking about, Mr Ford—Collins, I mean?' asked he sharply. 'Really, sir, I've got something more to attend to at present, than such trash about a current, and the devil knows what else!' 'How, why, Mr Finch,' said I, seemingly surprised in my turn, 'arewe not in a current just now, then?' 'Current!' replied Finch, almost laughing outright, 'whatdoesthe man mean?' 'Why, every one thinks so, in the cuddy,' said I, as if rather taken aback, and venturing what you fair ladies call a 'fib,' 'ever since we picked up the bottle last night.' This, by-the-by, had got spread through some of the men to the passengers, though, of course, nobody knew what had been in it yet. 'There, I declare now,' continued I, pointing to our lee-bow, where I'd had my eyes fixed during the five minutes we spoke, 'we can try it again. Do you see that bird yonder on the water?' The mate turned his head impatiently, and 'Look, watch him, sir,' said I.
"This was a tired man-o'-war bird afloat about twenty fathoms off, with its sharp white wings stretched just clear of the water, and its black eye sparkling in the sunlight, as it came dipping on the long, smooth, hot-blue swell into the lee of the ship's lofty hull, till you saw its very shadow in the glitter below it. The Indiaman seemed to pass him as if he rode there at anchor; only the curious thing was, that the bird apparently neared her up from leeward, crossing her larboard quarter within a fathom or two, when all of a sudden he got becalmed, as it were, in the wake right astern, and by the time either of us could walk to the ship's taffrail, she was close over him; as if, whenever her hull was end-on, it took his surface-drift away from him, and, what was more, as if theshipkept hold of it—her eighteen feet or so to his little inch of a draught—for it couldn't be owing to the wind.
"However, the man-o'-war bird took offer of the next swell to get air in his wings, and rose off the heave of it with asharp bit of a scream, away after some black boobies diving for fish, which no doubt he would catch, as they dropped them at sight of him.
"The mate upon this started and looked round, then aloft. 'Confound it!' said he to himself, 'if this breeze would only freshen! Thereisa sort of set on the surface just now,' continued he to me, coolly enough, 'though how you idlers happened to have an idea of it puzzles me, unless because you've nothing else to do but watch the water. Currents are pretty frequent hereabouts, however.' 'Dear me!' said I, 'but if we should——' 'Stuff, sir!' said he, quickly, 'the coast here must be steep-to enough, I should think, since if it weren't for the haze, we'd have sighted it thirty miles off! What we want is wind—wind, to let's cross it.' 'But then a calm, Mr Finch,' I said; 'I'm hanged afraid of those calms!' 'Well, well, sir,' said he, not liking just to shake me off at once, after my proving less of a ninny in sea matters than he had supposed, 'these long currents never set right ashore; even if we lose the wind, as we may soon, why, she'll take off into the eddy seaward, sir, if youmustknow—the dead-water in-shore, and the ebb-tide, always give it a safe turn!'
"All this, of course, was as much to satisfy himself as me. 'Well, that's delightful,' said I, as if quite contented, and Mr Finch walked away hastily down one of the poop-ladders, no doubt glad to get rid of me in a decent manner, though I saw him next minute glancing in at the compass-boxes.
"'Keep her up to her course, sirrah; luff, d'ye hear,' said he to Jacobs, who was, perhaps, the best helmsman aboard. 'She falls off tremendous bad, sir,' answered Jacobs, with another whirl of the spokes; her want of actual headway making the Indiamansagdead away to leeward, as she shoved into the force of the sea-stream, running more and more direct upon her starboard bow. One minute the courses would sink in with a long sighing fall to the lower-masts, the next her topsails would flutter almost aback, and the heat even in the shadow of her awnings was extreme, yet she still seemed to have a breeze through the white glare aloft. I was determined to bring things to a point somehow or other, so I followed the mate down the steps. 'Oh, by-the-by, Mr Finch!' said I eagerly, 'suppose one of those dreadful—whatdo you call 'em?—ah, tornadoes—were to come on! I understand this is just the way, near Africa—baffling breeze—heat suffocating—hazy atmosphere—long swell—and current rising to the surface!'
"At this Finch stood up in a perfect fury. 'What the devil d'ye mean, sir,' said he, 'by dodging me about the decks in this fashion, with these infernally foolish questions of yours?' 'Oh, my fine fellow,' thought I, 'you shall settle with me for that.' 'Tornadoes never blow hereabouts, except off-shore, if youmustknow, sir!' he rapped out, sticking his hands in his jacket-pockets as he said so, and taking a turn on the quarter-deck. 'That's quite a mistake, I assure you, sir!' said I, carried away with the spirit of the thing; 'I've seen the contrary fifty times over, and, from the look of the sky aloft just now, I'd bet——' Here I stopped, recollected myself, put the top of my cane in my mouth, and peered under the awning at the sea with my eyes half-shut, as sleepily as usual with my messmates the cadets. The chief officer, however, stepped back in surprise, eyed me sharply, and seemed struck with a sudden thought. 'Why, sir,' said he, rather anxiously, 'who may—what canyouknow of the matter?' 'Pooh!' replied I, seeing some of the passengers were coming on deck, 'I'm only of an inquiring turn of mind! You seafaring persons, Mr Finch, think we can't get any of that kind of knowledge on land; but if you look into Johnson's Dictionary, why, you'll find the whole thing under the word Tornado: 'twas one of the pieces I'd to get by heart before they'd admit me into our yacht-club—along with Falconer'sShipwreck, you know!' 'Indeed!' said the mate, slowly, with a curl of his lip, and overhauling me from head to foot and up again; 'ah, indeed! That was the way, was it, sir?' I saw 'twas no use. I daresay he caught the twinkle in my eye; while Jacobs' face, behind him, was like the knocker on a door with trying to screw it tight over his quid, and stuffing the knot of his neckerchief in his mouth.
"'Of course, sir,' answered I, letting my voice fall; 'and the long and the short of it is, Mr Finch, the sooner you get your ship out of this current the better! And what's more, sir, I daresay I could tell youhow!'
"Whether he was waiting for what I'd to say, or thinking of something just occurred to him, was doubtful: he still gazedsteadily at me, without saying a word; so I went on. 'You must know I had an old uncle who was long in His Majesty's Royal Navy, and if there was one point he was crazy upon, 'twas just this very matter of currents—though, for my part, Mr Finch, I really never understood what he meant till I made a voyage. He used to tell my mother, poor woman—who always fancied they had somewhat to do with puddings—that he'd seen no less than half-a-dozen ships go on shore, owing to currents. Now, Jane, he'd say, when you're fairly in a current, never you try to cross out of it, as folks often do,againstthe run of it, for in that case, unless the wind's strong enough, why, instead of striking the eddy to take your craft right off-shore, it'll just set you over and over to theinside. You'll cross, in the end, no doubt—but ten to one it's exactly where the water begins to shoal; whereas, the right plan's as simple as daylight, and that's why so few know it! Look ye, he'd say, always you crosswiththe stream—no matter though your head seems to make landward; why, the fact is, it'll just set you outside of itself, clear into its own bight, when you can run off to seaward with the eddy, if ye choose.That'sthe way to cross a current, my uncle used to say, provided you've but a light wind for handling her with! Now, Mr Finch,' added I, coolly, and still mouthing my stick as before—for I couldn't help wishing to give the conceited fellow a rub, while I lent him a hint—'for my own part, I can't know much of these things, but itdoesseem to me as if my uncle's notions pretty well suited the case in hand!'
"Finch was too much of a fair seaman not to catch my drift at once, but in too great a passion to own it at the time. 'D'ye think, sir,' said he, with a face like fire, 'so much sense as there is in this long rigmarole of yours, that I'm such a—that's to say, that I didn't know it before, sir? But what I've got to do withyou, Mr Collinson, or whatever your name may be—you may have been at sea twenty years, for aught I care—but I'd like to knowwhyyou come aboard here, and give yourself out for as raw a greenhorn as ever touched ropes with a kid glove?' 'Well, Mr Finch,' said I, 'and what's that to you, if I choose to be as green as the North Sea whaling-ground?' 'Why, sir,' said Finch, working himself up, 'you're devilish cunning, no doubt, but perhaps you'renot aware that a passenger under a false rig, in an Indiaman, may be clapped in limbo, if the captain thinks fit? Who and what are you, I ask?—some runaway master's mate, I suppose, unless you've got something deeper in hand! Perhaps,' ended he, with a sneer, 'a pickpocket in disguise?' 'Sir,' said I, getting up off the bulwark I'd been leaning upon, 'atpresentI choose to be a cadet, but at any rate, you shall make an apology for what you said just now, sir!' 'Apology!' said the mate turning on his heel, 'I shan't do anything of the sort! You may be thankful, in the meantime, if I don't have you locked up below, that's all! Perhaps, by-the-by, sir, all you wanted was to show off your seamanship before the young lady in the round-house there?' Here the glance the fellow gave me was enough to show he knew pretty well, all the while, what we were matched against each other for.
"I could stand this no longer, of course; but, seeing that one or two of the passengers were noticing us from the poop, I looked as polite as is possible to do when you've lost your temper; and, in fact, the whole disappointment of this hair-brained cruise of mine—not to speak of a few things one had to stand—carried me away at the moment. There was no scheme I wouldn't rather have been suspected of, by this time, than the real one—namely, having gone in chase of Violet Hyde. I took a card out of my pocket and handed it quietly to Mr Finch. 'You don't seem able to name me, sir,' said I. 'However, I give you my word, you may trust that bit of pasteboard for it; and as I take you to be a gentleman by your place in this ship, why, I shall expect the satisfaction one gentleman should give another, the first time we get ashore, although itshouldbe to-morrow morning! And, by Jove!' thought I, 'I hope I'm done with the most foolish trick ever a fellow played himself! The man that ventures to call megreenagain, or look at me as if he wanted to cool his eyes, hang me if he shan't answer for it! As for a woman,' thought I, but, oh, those two blue eyes yonder—confound it! as I caught sight of a white muslin skirt in the shade of the poop-awning above.
"I must say, for Finch, he took my last move coolly enough, turning round to give me another look, after glancing at the card. 'Indeed!' said he, as if rather surprised; 'well, sir, I'm your man forthat, though it can't be just as soon asto-morrow morning! A Company's officer may meet a lieutenant in the Navy any time—ay, and take his ship off the land too, I hope, sir!' and with that he walked off forward. 'Lieutenant!' said I to myself; 'how did he give me my commission so pat, I wonder?' and I pulled out another card, when I found, to my great annoyance, that in my hurry that morning I had happened to put on a coat of Westwood's by mistake, and instead of plain 'Mr Collins,' they were all 'Lieutenant Westwood, R.N.' 'Here's another confounded mess!' thought I, 'and all will be blown in the end!' However, on second thoughts, the notion struck me, that, by sticking to the name, as I must donowat any rate, why, I should keep Westwood clear of all scrapes, which, inhiscase, might be disagreeable enough; whereas, at present, he was known only as the Reverend Mr Thomas—and, as forhiseither shamming the griffin, or giving hints how to work the ship, he was one of those men you'd scarce know for a sailor, by aught in his manner, at least: and, indeed, Tom Westwood always seemed to need a whole frigate's ways about him, with perhaps somewhat of a stir, to show what he really was.
"Five minutes or so after this, it didn't certainly surprise me much to see the Indiaman laid on the opposite tack, with her head actually north-by-east, or within a few points of where the light haze faded into the sky: the mate seeming by this time to see the matter clearly, and quietly making his own of it. The ship began to stand over towards the outer set of the current, which could now be seen rippling along here and there to the surface, as the breeze fell slowly: you heard nothing save the faint plash of it astern under one counter, the wafting and rustling of her large main-course above the awnings, for she was covered over like a caravan—the slight flap of her jibs far ahead on the bowsprit startled you now and then as distinctly as if you got a fillip on your own nose; the stunsail, high up beside the weather-leech of her fore-topsail, hung slack over the boom, and one felt each useless jolt of the wheel like a foot-slip in loose sand when you want to run—all betwixt the lazy, listless voices of the passengers, dropping and dropping as separate as the last sands in an hour-glass. Still, every minute of air aloft helped her nearer to where you saw the water winding about the horizon in long swathes, as it were, bluer than the rest, and swellingbrimful, so to speak, out of a line of light; with the long dents and bits of ripple here and there creeping towards it, till the whole round of the surface, as far as you could see, came out into the smooth, like the wrinkles on a nutmeg.
"Four bells of the afternoon watch had struck—two o'clock, that is—when Rickett, the third mate, and one or two men, went out to the arm of the spritsail-yard across the bowsprit, where they lowered away a heavy pitch-pot with a long strip of yellow bunting made fast to it, and weighted a little at the loose end, to mark thesetof the current; and as the pot sank away out on her larboard bow, one could see the bright-coloured rag deep down through the clear blue water, streaming almost fairlynorth. She appeared to be nearing the turn of the eddy, and the chief officer's spirits began to rise. Rickett screwed one eye close, and looked out under his horny palm with the other, doubtful, as he said, that we should 'sight the land off-deck before that. As for this trifle of an air aloft, sir,' said he, 'I'm afraid we won't——' 'Hoot, Mr Reckett,' put in Macleod, stepping one of his long trouserlegs down from over the quarter-deck awning, like an ostrich that had been aloft, 'ye're aye afraid; but it's not easy to see aloft, Mr Fench, sir.' 'How does the land lienow, Mr Macleod?' asked the first officer. 'Well, I wouldn't wonder but we soon dropped it, sir—that's toeast'ard, I mean,' replied he; 'though it's what we call a bit mountainous, in Scotland—not that unlike the Grampians, Mr Fench, ye know!' 'Hang your Grampians, man!—what'saheadof us, eh?' said the mate hastily. 'Why, sir,' said the Scotchman, 'thereissome more of it on the nor'-east, lower a good deal—its just flush with the water from here, at present, Mr Fench—with a peak or two, trending away too'ard north; but the light yonder on our starboard bow makes them hard for to see, I may say.'
"In fact, some of the men forward were making it out already on the starboard bow, where you could see the faint ragged shape of a headland coming out, as it were, of the dazzle beyond the water, which lay nickering and heaving between, from deep-blue far away into pale; while almost at the same time, on her starboard quarter, where there was less of the light, another outline was to be seen looming like pretty high land, though still fainter than the first. As forthe space betwixt them, for aught one could distinguish as yet, there might be nothingthereexcept air and water over against the ship's side.
"'Well,' said the mate briskly, after a little, 'we're pretty sure,now, to have the land-breeze to give us sea-room, before two or three hours are over—by which time, I hope we'll be in the eddy of this infernal current, at any rate!' However, I was scarce sure he didn't begin to doubt the plan I'd given him; whereas had he known the whole case in time, and done the thingthen, it was certain enough—and the best thing he could do, even as it was: but what troubled me now, why, suppose anything happened to the ship, mightn't he turn the tables on me after all, and say I had some bad design in it? I loitered about with my arms folded, saying never a word, but watching the whole affair keener than I ever did one of Shakspeare's plays in the theatre after a dull cruise; not a thing in sea, sky, or Indiaman, from the ripples far off on the water to ugly Harry hauling taut the jib-sheet with his chums, but somehow or other they seemed all to sinkintome at the time, as if they'd all got to comeoutagain strong. You hardly knewwhenthe ship lost the last breath of air aloft, till, from stealing through the smooth water, she came apparently to a standstill, everything spread broad out, not even a flap in the canvas almost, it had fallen a dead calm so gradually.