"After breakfast-time the breeze freshened again, and the ship had evidently perceived us, as well as the fact of our having hauled on a wind to make up with her course; for we could see her hoisting out one stunsail after another to the lee-side, and keeping off in order to give them full play. This was what I was afraid of, in fact, that our looking her way in the circumstances would make her show her heels; and being hull down, almost dead to windward of us, with her spread of sail to such a breeze as the present, it was like to be a troublesome matter ere we got within signalling distance; especially if she had kept hold of her wind a little more, instead of falling off before it as she did, which tended the schooner always steadily to weather upon her, the sharper we kept her nose to the sun in the spray. Indeed, the wind during the forenoon came gradually round more in our favour, till it stood south-east by east or so; by which time, however, we had dropped her topsails from the deck, then her to'gallant-sails, to a white speck far down on the lee-bow. We weathered fast upon her, and I fancied I made out the yellow India patches in her canvas; when, on turning about, I caught Jones's glance at me, as if he couldn't understand my eagerness, or else had got curious what the schooner wanted with the ship at all. 'She loses, I think, sir,' said he looking off to her again. 'Little doubt of that, Mr Jones,' said I. 'I know that Indiaman's sailing to a tee—but we shan't overhaul her at this rate an hour too soon, before she might have a chance of dropping us in the dark, or our running to leeward of her again.' 'Why, yes,' said Jones, carelessly, 'if they knew how to do it, sir.' 'By George! Mr Collins,' exclaimed Snelling, 'I see her stern-gallery sparkling in the run of the surges.'
"In a little while we could notice her canvas darken slowly from the courses to the to'gallant-sails, leaving the royals and studding-sails whiter than before: they were wetting her sails. 'She must take us for something bad, Lieutenant Collins!' remarked Jones, as if the thing were at all doubtful. 'A pirate, in fact,' added the reefer, with a grin. 'Why, sir,' said he, 'these Company's men seem to think the sea swarmswith pirates, though I'm blessed if we've been so lucky as to sight even the tail-feather of one—my eye! though, how the griffins must be skipping about just now!'
"The truth was, the nearer we got, the more it struck me that, altered as the schooner was aloft, our red streak and lead-coloured sides were just as the first time I saw them; which wouldn't do much toward settling the Indiaman's doubts of us, for they couldn't fail to remember her the moment our hull came in sight; and as for my own character all along aboard theSeringapatam, why, neither first nor last did it seem to stand in good odour. 'Mr Jones,' said I, as we slipped quietly through the water, 'have you got any old canvas at hand, sir?—be so good as have it ripped up in lengths, and fast clapped outside from stem to stern along that red streak of ours, up as far as the plank sheer, missing the ports—give her a good broad white stripe, sir, instead!' 'Ay, ay, sir!' answered he, with a gleam in his eye as he turned off, half knowing, half in surprise. 'And, Mr Snelling,' continued I, 'hark ye, see all the hammocks stowed over the bulwarks in her waist—and run both those long-guns forward, chock in to the eyes of her, to bring her down by the head a little—keep the men on the foc'sle too—she looks rather rakish at present, I must confess!'
"All this the young gentleman seemed to do with as rueful a look as if he were putting knee-breeches and gaiters in place of white ducks, on his own lower timbers; and presently he came aft to ask if he mightn't stick a shot into each of the guns. 'What for?' said I. 'Oh,' said the midshipman, 'won't she show fight at all, sir, then?' Just then the white range of the Indiaman's heavy quarter-gallery came into view, then the bulge of her big hulking body half on to us, with a port-lid or two raised in the white band: we were to windward of her already, stealing up on her quarter. 'My eye!' said Snelling, 'she could blow us out of water, if she choose, Mr Collins, and only had pluck enough.' 'Why, that's all you know about it, Mr Snelling,' said I, with a laugh, 'since she don't carry long muzzles in her side, and in a light breeze like this we could—however, as we happen to be friends, that's of no moment, Mr Snelling.' 'After all, though,' I added, 'youmayload once, and stand by to fire across her course, if required; but, for the life of you,Snelling,' said I, seriously, 'in any case, if I give the word to fire, don't let anything in the shape of iron go near that ship's hull! By Jove! sir, I'd let her blow us out of the water first, or else show her our heels, myself!'
"Well, about four in the afternoon, there we were coming down actually on the ship's quarter, from windward; when we took in our flying-kites, clued up gaff and fore-topsails, and to'gallant-sail, leaving St George's flag fluttering bright at the main-peak, and our long coach-whip streaming from the mast-head, while she kept gliding easily ahead under nothing but the two boom-sails and large jib. Still the Indiaman gave no other sign except showing the British ensign, then her striped Company's flag under it, at the mizzen-peak: she went jogging steadily on, as I was afraid she would, like a fellow giving you the go-by in the street. 'Nothing else for it, after all, Mr Snelling,' said I, walking forward, as we got within long range. 'The confounded fools!' I couldn't help saying, 'do they think a piratical craft would give herself the trouble of hoisting all the flags in Christendom one after the other, and she, of course, with a long-Tom on a pivot amidships? Mr Jones, oblige me by pitching a shot right across her forefoot?' Jones stepped forward, had the gun slued, and blew the match. 'Are you ready?' said I—'now mind your eye—fire!' and the ball went spinning from the top of one swell to another beyond the Indiaman's bows, rather wide of the mark, as I thought: when, all at once, the smoke had scarce cleared away betwixt us ere I saw her jib-sheets fly, and the Indiaman luffing up in the wind. Jones started, as almost next moment we could see the spritsail-yard hanging in two across the spars—I must say, rather to my own surprise, in spite of a good deal of old cruising practice.
"'A good aim, sir!' remarked he, turning round. 'There goes her main-yard, now!' said Snelling; and she seemed to be heaving-to, when the mainsail filled again, and on she stood as before; then actually broached-to, all aback, and gathering stern-way with her bows fairly facing us; while the black figure-head under the bowsprit showed me his turban again once more, like a fellow leaning over a horse he couldn't manage. 'What the mischiefarethe lubbers about!' I said, 'can't they heave-to at once and be done with it, now that I fancy they see their mistake?'
"Here Jones, who had got aft and stood up on the taffrail, jumped down again all at once, and met me at the capstan. 'Lieutenant Collins,' said he in a low voice, and looking me straight in the face with a very queer expression, 'the ship hasstruck!' 'Struck!' repeated I, starting; and he, Snelling, and I sprang to the taffrail together. There was the Indiaman, in fact, at length heaving into the wind, about three-quarters of a mile off our lee-beam, with her two ensigns hauled down, and something flying instead of them at the gaff-end, which I couldn't make out. Our helm was put up, and the schooner edged swiftly down to her, slipping along in sight of her stretch of bulwarks till we had hove-to abreast of her starboard bow.
'What ship is that?' hailed I from abaft, as we ran past in the shadow of her sails; and I saw my gentleman 'first officer,' Finch, standing up in her mizzen-chains with the trumpet, more dashing than ever, as he had poor Captain Williamson's uniform coat and hat on, apparently, and a sword by his side: her whole quarter-bulwark bristling with spy-glasses and gun-barrels turned upon the schooner, though not another head could be seen. 'The Honourable East In——' began Finch; but that moment there was a perfect hubbub of cries and cheers, as a dozen faces I knew well showed themselves popping up from the quarter-deck: Old Rollock in a huge straw hat and his shirt-sleeves, with a ship's musket in his fists; Ford, Winterton, and the cadets—the long-faced Scotch surgeon, and Macleod's screwed nose and red whiskers—every eye fixed on me, as I fancied, not to say three or four rusty barrels. Their confusion and bewilderment was rare to witness; and being forty hands of us—the Lascars' outlandish physiognomies and all—why, the schooner must have looked rather respectable as she still slid ahead.
"In the meantime, the look of our smartHebe'smen, with the frigate's name shining in front of their regular-built hats, and everything about us, not to say the reefer's naval uniform and mine, seemed to have set the Indiaman's people more at their ease; till, when our gig's crew was ready to lower away, there was even a glimpse of ladies to be seen along toward her poop. Every moment I expected the sight of a certain face to flash on me from over the black rail, as the ship rolled and plunged in the heave of water opposite us, showing herbroad white band, with the drips of rust across it from her chain-plates. 'We made somewhat of an awkward mistake, sir!' hailed Finch, eyeing me queerly enough, and trying to appear at his ease. 'So I supposed, sir,' said I; 'I shall send a boat aboard of you directly'; and I turned to the midshipman, who stood surveying the ship from stem to stern with his nose turned away from her, and his hands in the tails of his coat, speaking all the time to Mr Jones, though the latter was apparently the least interested of the two, for he had his eye seaward.
"'Mr Snelling,' said I, 'd'ye see that gentleman yonder near the main-rigging, with the black hat on? You'll go aboard in the gig, sir, give your commanding-officer's compliments to the captain of the Indiaman, and mention to him that that gentleman is wanted here—Westwood his name is.'
"To tell you the truth, my head was in a perfect whirl at knowing that, if I chose, five minutes could set me within speaking distance of Violet—yet you'd scarce believe I actually almost made up my mind not to go on deck again till our sheets were hauled aft, and we leaving the ship astern. Bless your heart! I wasn't aware till that minutewhatI felt for her; everything about the voyage from Portsmouth came back so fresh on me, at sight of the different parts about the oldSeringapatam'sbulwarks, to the very odds-and-ends of ropes hanging alongside that blessed lumbering coach-house of hers amidships, and the live-stock cackling and bleating in it between times! And there was I glancing aft into our little stern-cabins, which I fancied two or three days ago might serve fortheirpassage. But now, though I had a pretty sharp guess these same cabins were meant originally for neither more nor less than an emperor himself, why, I saw the very notion was too ridiculous to mention! 'Mr Jones,' said I, speaking up the skylight, 'as soon as you see that passenger is in the boat, have the head sheets hauled aft, sir, and the helm put up to make sail.' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said he; but directly after, he added in a low voice, 'I believe though, sir, we are not likely to part company from this ship so soon!' 'How, sir!' exclaimed I sharply, and starting up off the chair to see him, for something in the cool, collected tone of his voice jarred on me the more on account of the state I was in myself—'what do you mean by that?' I had merelyto catch sight of my mate's broad throat and hairy chin, however, as he stood with his full chest thrown back, and one hand in his waistcoat, looking aloft by the skylight, when, following his eye to our main-gaff, it was easy to know the last fanning of the wind; which, taken together with the schooner's yerking motion abaft, was sufficient to give you word of a calm. 'We have lost the breeze for to-night, at any rate, sir,' said Jones, letting his eyes suddenly fall upon me, and meeting the flicker of pleasure I couldn't help showing on my face. 'Confound the thing! you don't say so, Mr Jones!' rejoined I quickly. 'Then as long as she has a foot's steerage-way, sir, let her slip off the Indiaman's bow at once—else the two of us will be grinding together ere daylight like a couple of mill-stones without corn!'
"On deck there were twenty things worth noticing, that struck one at the same time. The schooner's light spars and white canvas seen sharp against the white glare of light in the west, as she settled round on the ship's other bow; while the light air high aloft in the Indiaman's royals still kept steadying her with her lee-side to the sunset, where it made a red trough along the horizon down through a golden cloud or two, that looked like bright-winged things whirling off and about the sun.
"Our gig was holding off by the boat-hook from her lee-quarter, the oars up-ended, and two or three sailors, with their heads shoved out under a port-lid on the main deck, talking to the boat's crew, while a few of the men hung over the high black top-sides, peering aft at the gig; the rest being gathered in the ship's bows, with their eyes fixed on the schooner. The huge round of the sun went down astern like the mouth of a furnace, sending a broad stream of red light across the face of the water with every wet streak and wrinkle shown heaving in it, right up to the Indiaman's white band and her pitch-black bulwarks. Her quarter-galleries lashed out, and you saw the passengers' heads aft through the red arch under the wide mainsail-foot, till every face shone crimson-bright out of the awning below; and I could see the midshipman's gold band glisten as he took his cap off to some ladies coming down the poop-stair, amidst a hubbub of cadets turning round to eye the schooner. For half-a-minute the smooth sea all astern of the ship seemed to wash to her water-line in a flood oflight and blood almost, as if the horizon vanished; then the tip of the sun went down like a burning ruby, the blue heave of water sank away from the copper at the Indiaman's bows, giving us an easy lift at the other side of the swell, and the whole compass of the sea appeared to slide round cool and clear against the soft flush of all possible tints in the west; till the deep indigo hue of the calm spread melting off from both of us.
"What I gave most heed to was the knots of men's faces on theSeringapatam'sforecastle, as the golden gleam of light and the red glare struck across them with all sorts of queer touches, that brought back every one of them clearly to mind at once; and, stepping forward where Mr Jones's figure was to be seen dark against the pale glow in the west, I could easily make out ugly Harry's big buffalo head, as he leant his chin on his two hands, and surveyed us up and down, with his dirty tarpaulin on the back of his head as usual, and his shaggy black hair like thatch over his forehead, almost down to the meeting of his thick eyebrows. The moment I appeared, Mister Harry Foster shifted himself with a start, looked aloft to his own ship, and began to whistle as if for wind; the same moment Jones turned and noticed me, too, and the difference of the two men's faces struck me the more, that I couldn't help thinking extremes met. 'That fellow there seems to like us so well, Mr Jones,' said I, laughing, 'that I've half a mind to bring him aboard, as Icould!' 'Who—which, sir?' said the mate, looking to every part of the Indiaman but the right one. 'Why, that misbegotten-like rascal you were looking at,' said I; 'I know a little of him, and a more thorough blackguard doesn't walk planks!' 'There's the boat, though, Lieutenant Collins!' said Jones suddenly: the boat-hook struck our mizzen-chains on the other side in the dusk, and next minute Tom Westwood swung himself on board, with the midshipman and Old Rollock the planter following in his wake; the last, to my surprise, carrying two hat-boxes and an umbrella.
"'Why, Ned Collins!' broke out Westwood, 'what is the meaning of all this—what wind has blown you here?' 'Mydearfellow!' shouted the planter, almost jumping on top of me, 'I never in my life saw the like of you—the very same infernal schooner, too! Come, let's hear—have you taken 'em all then, head and tail—have you——'
"'For Heaven's sake, Mr Rollock,' said I, sheering out of his way as well as I could, 'come below, sir, if I must answer all these questions!' 'So you are actually in command?' said Westwood; and hereupon I gave him the bearings of his own affair, with the fact of my falling in with Lord Frederick Bury, of course; and of all men in the world, I believe, the 'Honourable Bury' was the one Westwood could feel comfortable under, as his face showed at the time. 'Whether Iloseyou or not in the Hooghly, Tom,' said I, 'I daresay you'll find yourself in the end aboard theHebe, in some shape or other! and meantime I shall be glad of you here for a first mate.' 'Well, well,' put in the planter again, impatiently, after having kept questioning me every now and then for the last ten minutes, which I answered without well knowing what he said—'then you hung him, of course?' 'Hung whom?' asked I, obliged to attend by Mr Rollock's perseverance. 'Why, El Americano, to be sure—the Yankee—Snout!' said he, trying to lengthen his face for the news. 'Hung him—no!' said I, laughing; 'when I saw him on deck there, last, he was lively enough, and anxious to get those images of his out of theSeringapatam.' The planter's rosy gills turned a shade or two paler, and he started off his seat. 'God bless me!' said he, in a low voice, and looking over his shoulder, 'you don't mean to say you've brought the man back on me. I declare to you I lost a few pounds of my weight here before, by his actually conceiving a friendship for me!' Old Rollock's dismay was so comical that I could scarce find in my heart to ease his mind, as I did.
"'Why, my dear fellow,' said Westwood, with a smile, 'I assure you that disappearance of yours took me by surprise. Indeed, I only guessed, from something Captain Finch let drop afterwards, how it came about; and till the very moment the brig-of-war got under way, I fancied you had some other plan in view, or else you never would have carried it out. The fact was, Ned, if your heart was bound for India, mine was ashore in old England, and I'd rather have run the risk to go back!' Here Tom caught my glance, and looked shyly into one waistcoat pocket, then into another, fidgeting on his chair, poor fellow! in a way that brought my sister Jane's grey eyes, and her demure little arch face, distinctly before me, thousands of miles as there were between us and Croydon.The thought of theSeringapatambeing so near, on the other hand, somehow rushed on me at the same time, and I felt wonderfully mild toward Tom. 'Hang it, Tom!' said I, 'never mind thinking of it—mix your grog, man, and confound all care to the bottom of the sea. You're well off! For my part,' said I, 'I had no notion at all howthatcase stood, so I made a cursed mistake in the matter—but here's luck!'
"'However,' said he, 'I sawyourdrift by that time; and the young lady herself was in the fore-cabin when I told her father the whole story, not long after you went off. 'Twas no use with Sir Charles, though, to say you were only carrying out the joke to screen me, and amuse yourself at the same time—he was sure you were after some scheme; and all the while Miss Hyde sat sewing on the sofa behind us, as quiet and careless as if she didn't hear a word, or trouble herself about the matter. When I came upon your vanishing so suddenly in the brig, however, and said I was sure, by that time, you did so in order to let me clear off, I had my eye on the looking-glass opposite the young lady; and whatever you may make of it, Ned, I can tell you she started and glanced up at that point.' 'Well, and what of that?' I asked. But Westwood went on—'It was all one to Sir Charles, nevertheless, whatever way I turned it. According to him, this was just of a piece with the rest of your doings, which showed the bad effects of the naval service. 'Twas no use my standing up for you, saying how fast you had risen, and would rise, if you had the right thing to do—for the old gentleman allowed everything, adding it was so much the worse for such fellows to be set loose. "I tell you what, Mr Westwood," said he, looking round sharply, as if he were speakingatsomebody else, "there is a soul of mischief in that young man that nothing will root out, unfitting him for everything else, however admirably it may be suited to maritime pursuits or to savage warfare. In short," added the judge, drawing himself up, "it is my conviction he will either be drowned or knocked on the head——"' 'The precious old curmudgeon!' I rapped out, betwixt laughter and rage at the thought ofherhearing all this pretty character of me. '"And I must say, my young friend," said the judge, "I felt much relieved at finding Councillor Westwood's nephew so different an individual—exceedinglyrelieved! Besides that, you cannot, of course, continue in the navy!" Just at this moment,' continued Westwood, 'I saw the young lady gather up her work behind us with a sparkle in her eye, rise off the sofa, and walk straight aft through the cabin-door.'
"'Wasthatall?' said I, biting my lip. 'All, you heathen!' answered Tom, laughing. 'Why, what would you have? I'll be bound the judge didn't mean all that for my use, my dear fellow. But the worst of it was, that next day, when I met her with the Brigadier's lady on the poop, the young beauty passed me with as scornful an air as possible; and for a week or so, whenever the judge happened to ask me into the round-house cabins, either she wasn't there, or took an opportunity of walking out—the most I got was a bow or a "good-morning"; so you see the real Simon Pure didn't prosper half so well as the false one!' 'Pooh!' said I, gloomily, thinking of the little ground I had made myself, 'all contradiction—the fact is, you're too simple for women's ways, Westwood.' Westwood looked down and gave a queer smile—as much as to say, I suppose, the case stood just the contrary; and I must own, it struck mehemust be rather a knowing fellow that could fathom my sister, seeing that, for my part, I understood her no more than my mother's housemaid did, with her high-flown music and poetry, and all that sort of thing.
"'However,' said Westwood, 'I contrived by degrees to get over all this, and for the last week or two we were as good acquaintances as before—in fact, the judge was evidently bent on it. And I tell you what it is, Ned, as charming a girl, in her way, as Violet Hyde I can't well fancy—but one more hopeless to deal with, for a fellow that hasn't got hold of her heart, I believe doesn't breathe! Why, young as she is, you'd feel her playing you round her pretty forefinger as a woman would, looking at you all the time under her soft eyelids with those bright eyes of hers, as if you could fancy her falling in love in a moment with someone else, but never with yourself!' 'By Jove, yes!' said I, feeling as dismal as I daresay I looked. 'Do you know,' Westwood went on, 'her figure and walk always remind me of a Hindoo girl's, all over English as her face and hair are, with a touch of the tropical, you can't say where, about it—owing to her being born inIndia, as I believe she was; and altogether, Ned, I'm glad to——' Here Westwood shrugged his shoulders, and I poured myself out another glass of grog in pure despair.
"'The truth is,' said I, 'I wish I had neverseenthat confoundedSeringapatam! Didn't she say any—didn't you—in fact, Tom, what do you think of the matter, plump and plain, stem and stern?' said I manfully. 'Why,' said Tom, in a thoughtful way, 'not to set you at all wrong on either side, the thing that strikes me is, I don't think she ever once mentioned you, Ned, except in passing. But to my mind, in the circumstances, that's not so much against you. The young lady can say little when she pleases, I assure you; for only last night, in that fine moonlight, we happened to touch on that affair in the river—you know?' 'Yes,' I said, for it wasn't easy to forget. 'Now I always thought that night a turning-point with you,' Westwood said; 'and it was the last night you were aboard; so I spoke of you a good deal, and never a word did Miss Violet utter, save "Yes" and "No," while her face being in the shadow, I couldn't see it. Oh, by-the-by, though,' continued he, 'shedidsay one thing!'
"'For Heaven's sake, what was it?' I broke out eagerly. 'Well, then, Ned,' answered he, leaning back on the two back legs of his chair, and eyeing me with a comical air, which surprised me a little; 'do you consider yourself good-looking?' I started up. 'What do you mean by that, Tom?' said I; but next moment I sat down again with a sulky 'No, I'll be hanged if I do! so——' 'No more does your lady-love, then,' said Westwood, 'for she made the remark very coolly, and even without my asking her—but don't be down-hearted at that, my dear Ned, for I think more of that little sentence, in the way it was said, than of all she didnotsay!' 'The greater the difference between us, I suppose,' said I savagely. 'Why,' replied Tom, ''tis my conviction you never hear a woman say the man she likes is handsome—and from a perverse young gipsy like——' 'Well, by Jove! Westwood,' said I, losing my temper altogether, and giving the table a slap with my fist that sent my glass crash to the deck, 'you beat everything! I suppose if she'd called me a fool and a blessed lubber, you'd turn it to my favour. But the truth is, I don't understand your niceties—I want something broad and above-board, that a fellow can lay hold of—and the shortand the long of it is——' With that I laid my face on my arms down in the spilt grog on the table, and fairly groaned. My head reeled till I scarce knew it was myself that was sitting there, as all of a sudden one thought after another crowded on me. Somehow I seemed for a single moment to be out and out in the open sea, the different faces I'd seen along the ship's bulwarks rushing past me, with Jones's face, and the look of the Indiaman in the sunset; through all sorts of weather, too, in that confounded moment.
"Then, I can't say why, but my hair crept as I came back to the thought of the Indiaman and the schooner in the calm at the time, and I almost fancied I heard a whisper at my ear. I looked up, and saw Tom Westwood sitting opposite me, with a musing air, and rather melancholy. The sight of my wild stare, with the grog I suppose trickling down my forehead, and dripping off my nose, appeared to startle him, and our eyes met queerly enough for half-a-minute—till all at once the notion seemed to strike both of us, of the absurdity of two fellows hobnobbing and lackadaisying away this fashion in a hole of a schooner's cabin, thousands of miles from land; and I'm blessed if we didn't both burst at the same moment into regular roars of laughter—first one broadside, then 'bout ship, as it were, to deliver the other, gun after gun. By George! though, I felt it do me good, as if something deadly went off with it. 'Hallo!' sung out the planter, blocking up the moonlight that shone misty-white down the steps of the companion, to a blue glimmer at the foot of them; 'both survivingyet, I declare'; and we felt the scent of his cheroot in the hot calm as he walked aft again.
"'Well, Ned,' said Westwood, still laughing, 'there's one thing more Ididcontrive to get out, and it is certainly broad enough to lay hold of, as you say. Do you know, from some hints the judge let drop in course of the passage, after he got to know me, I have a rather sharp suspicion he has someone in view for his daughter already!' At this I gasped once more. 'Whether she knows it herself or not, I'm not sure,' added Tom; 'but, very naturally, the gentleman I mean was often enough mentioned in Sir Charles's cabins—for who do you imagine, of all persons in the world, it is?'
"I made no trial at a guess, but sat eyeing Westwood in perfect silence, and he went on—'Who but—don't look sofierce, my dear fellow—just this—this said nabob of an uncle of mine, the Bengal Councillor! Why, you've no conception,' said Westwood, 'what presents of pearl necklaces, fans, cashmere shawls, and China ivory work-boxes, and so on, the Councillor must have sent home to her at different times, for theSeringapatamto bring back again. I didn't see her wear any of them; but every now and then Sir Charles would point to something that lay about, telling me it came from my uncle! He is a bachelor, you know, not so old as Sir Charles himself, who isn't so old as he looks, and they seem to be sworn friends!' 'Tuts, man!' said I, brightening a bit, 'can't you see he wants to adopt her?' 'So I should have imagined,' answered Westwood; 'but the fact is, two or three times, as I told you, Sir Charles Hyde hinted as much as that it was an idea of long standing between himself and his friend the Councillor, so——' 'The old villain!' I roared. 'Begging your pardon, Westwood—but I must say you are the pattern of a Job's comforter, and no mistake!' 'Well,' answered he, 'if you had heard the way in which the young lady mentioned my uncle to me, you wouldn't be much afraid of your rival, Ned. Why, she said she thought she remembered him when she was a little girl, bringing her Indian sweetmeats from the bazaar in his carriage—she actually supposed he must be older than her father, when the judge set her right eagerly enough—but, you must know, he no more seems able to say a sharp word toher, than Jacobs yonder would. So what did she say next, after apparently thinking a little, but that, now she recollected, my uncle used to have gray hair and white whiskers, like Mr Rollock, which for my part I knew no more about than the table, when her father broke out describing him as warmly as possible; and suddenly Miss Hyde looked at him with a little turn of her pretty lip, and a twinkle in her eye, that sent the old gentleman fiddling about his coffee-cup, and stopped him in a moment as if she had been a little witch!'
"'What's to be done, Tom?' I faltered out, after a long stop. 'I'm sure I don't know, Ned,' said he gravely; 'let's go on deck at any rate, for it's too hot here to sleep.' The moment the sight of the calm burst upon us, however, with the two vessels together in the midst of it, in the hazy sort of moonlight, the same notion seemed to strike both of us in adifferent way. 'I'll tell you what, Collins,' said Westwood, half-jokingly, half in earnest, 'uncle though he be, if you can contrive to cut out the Councillor anyhow, I'll forgive you, for one!' 'How, though—how, by Jove!' replied I—'if they go to Bombay in the Indiaman, by the time they reach Calcutta, I shall be in the Pacific!' ''Tis a difficult case,' said Westwood, 'no doubt. And even suppose you had the opportunity, 'twould be hard to manage an elopement ashore in India, travelling "dauk" in two palanquins. Seriously speaking, Ned, I see nothing for it but to wait till you comebackfrom the Pacific.'
"I looked hopelessly round: the calm and heat together gave one a helpless feeling, and every notion of an active sort appeared desperate. A perfect calm it was, too: there was some filmy scum of a haze aloft, that served to spread the moonlight all over, shutting out the shape of the sky, and softening off the horizon; with the moon standing slant up in it, like a brighter spot, and a few stars low down in the east. But for the long wide tremble of the water, in fact, as it glanced up with a blue flicker, you'd have fancied we mightn't be far from land; while the big Indiaman lay off the schooner's bow, without the least motion one could see; the moonshine edging round her spars and ropes from the other side, and her sails hanging shadowy against it, except below, under her brailed-up courses, where the masts, the thick of the rigging, and the tops of her deck-lumber, glistened as if they were newly wet. Half of her watch were on the bowsprit, sending out a 'fished' spritsail-yard, the same we had set dangling about their ears that afternoon, and we could hear them speaking plain enough; every time they sang out at a haul, it went far away on all sides—ho-ho-ho-he-ho-ho-o—till you lost it in the dead calm, as if somebody had gone there. Now and then theSeringapatammade a slight plunge by the head, as the wide soft swell floated up with her; and the glossy black shadow, that seemingly gave her hull the height of a tower, came wavering in quicksilver circles to our very cutwater, while the lights from her after-windows went twisting away round her heavy counter to the moonshine, like yellow snakes; the schooner all the time lying as quiet as if she were on a pond, except that by little and little she kept shifting her bearings to the Indiaman, and things wereconfoundedly like our both sticking together in course of the morning, if the calm held. I went forward to the forecastle and desired Jones to get all hands down into the boats, and have her towed off to safe distance, seeing that the worst of it would be sure to fall to our share.
"This was doing, and we drew slowly off the ship's bow, where her men coolly knocked off working to watch ours, and pass jokes on our gang of Lascars, as they handled the oars in awkward style; in fact, by the way the Indiaman's watch carried on, most of them seemed to have passed the grog-can pretty freely, being Saturday night, which we could hear they were still keeping up below in the forecastle, when our quarter came abreast of her larboard bow. 'Hurrah!' said one, waving his tarpaulin; and 'Pull, you beggars!' roared another; when my old customer, ugly Harry, all at once leant out of her fore-chains, and sung out to Jones, who was next him in the stern-sheets of our gig: 'I say, mate, so ye're clearing off, are ye? The better for that 'ere nutshell of a schooner o' yours, I reckon!' Jones made no answer, and the fellow added; 'Come aboard when you've got a safe berth, anyhow, and drink "sweethearts and wives," will ye?' I saw Jones start, and turn his face fiercely into the shadow of the ship's main-course on the water, rising half-up with one fist clenched, but he said nothing. 'Oh, you're blasted proud!' Foster called out: 'you forgets a man, blow me! D'ye think I doesn't know a fellow I got glorious with myself, in old Van Stinkoff's, at Cape Town? Sink me, mates,' said he, as loud as before, turning round on the rail of the bulwarks to the rest, 'I picked him out o' the street scuppers, under the sign of the Flying Dutchman, an' I'm blowed if I didn't think it beneath me at the time!' Here the end of our main-boom opened us in sight of the ugly ruffian, and he was sinking down in-board, when I hailed the Indiaman's quarter-deck, where the Scotch mate was to be seen. 'Ay, ay, the schooner ahoay!' sung out he, coming to the gangway. 'Did you hear that man's impertinence, sir,' said I sternly, 'to my officer on duty there? I expect you to see him punished, sir.' The Scotchman said he'd inquire into it; but shortly after he came back, saying he 'doubted' he couldn't be sure of the man; and, at any rate, he could have 'meant no ill.' The boats had towed us by this time almost out of fair hearing,but Harry Foster was to be seen coolly eyeing us from the midst of his watchmates, as he slung a couple of blocks over his shoulder; when he turned away with as much indifference as if we had been a Thames collier, growling some two or three words or other that brought a loud laugh from the Indiaman's forecastle to her bowsprit, where the men were turning lazily to their business again.
"Being now clear off the ship, with the rake of her hull in our command if I chose, and free of her broadside at the same time, I hailed the boats to leave off towing and come aboard. As Jones came on deck, I saw that in his face to make me think he took the thing to heart, seeing he met my first look with his lips set together and a steady gleam of his eyes. The truth was, I never in my life came across a man that struck me so much with the notion of his having a devil in him, seeking to get the better of what was good.
"'I think we shall do, Mr Jones?' I said. 'Quite safe, sir,' said he, quietly; at that moment, standing as we did out of earshot, with the setting moon in sight past the Indiaman, shining in a rusty yellow glare to her hanging sails, 'twas strange how the odds of our different stations passed off. We were foot to foot, in fact; I was fully aware, if never before, what an enemy Jones would make—he had great daring and knowingness in him, and all on the wrong side of the hedge for me at the time, seeing I had such a ticklish part to play with the Indiaman. I caught myself, on the instant, measuring youth and activity, not to say regular breeding to the service, and a clear conscience besides, against him and his thews and sinews; but as for turning and twisting with the man before me, I saw it was the tack likely to throw him to windward of me. My voice changed, and I lowered it as I said: 'Mr Jones, I happened to sail half the voyage as a passenger in that ship, and I've no common reason to be anxious about her getting safe into port. There's one single being in her at this moment I'd willingly lose my life to save from anything like what one could fancy—ay, so help me God, suppose I'd no chance of ever setting eyes on her again!' Jones never stirred a feature, but looked past me into the gleam of the moon over my shoulder.
"'Well, Mr Jones,' I said, 'I'll acknowledge to you frankly, as from one seaman to another, the question is, Are you forme—ornot?' 'We speak as man with man, it seems, Mr Collins!' said Jones quietly; 'then I am—foryou!' and he struck his hand all at once into mine; 'here's a hand that never lied, whatever the tongue may have done—bad or good; I am for you, sir, and no more of it! I knew as well as if you'd told me, Mr Collins, by the looks of the passengers, that you had sailed aboard that ship in some way or other—and what's more, sir, Isaw——' here he stopped, looking at me with his back to the sinking gleam of light beyond the ship's hull, from the moon as she touched the water, and I saw nothing but the shape of his head under the straw hat, with a shadow blurring his face together, though I felt him eyeing me out of it all the time—'what some would think more worth while than if you were a Spanish plate-ship,' he went on; and he lowered his voice nearly to a whisper as he added, 'I tell you what, Mr Collins, 'tis my conviction that,if you chose, you might do what you liked in the end with that Indiaman andallaboard her!' I stepped back with a shiver through me, as the sudden setting of the moon blended everything black in with Jones's shoulders, leaving his head instead of her against a glimmer of light, till for a moment it seemed peering at me off the horizon with the whole lump of shadow betwixt the two craft for a body; and I must say I thought of old stories about the Tempter in human form. 'Devil!' said I hoarsely, while the last gleam to westward went out, and it got so dark I could have fancied Jones had vanished from the bulwarks without stirring a foot; in fact, on my moving to the place I touched the cool planks with my hand—he was actually gone! Nothing was visible beyond our own decks, save a slight glimmer such as one would make in sculling with a single oar; and I saw at once he had taken the small boat alongside to go aboard the Indiaman! All the rest was that thick heavy darkness only to be found in a calm in the Indian Ocean, towards morning: you may not only say you see it, but could stir it, as it were, with a stick.
"A horrid notion of Jones's purpose crept through my mind at first; but on second thoughts I easily saw this wasn't the occasion for him to choose, if he had really meant ill, and accordingly there was more the reason to trust him. Indeed, as I stood listening and watching, after Westwood and the planter went below, the Indiaman's binnacle lamp seemed togo slowly out, while at the same time the sound of her watch speaking on the forecastle apparently got distincter, till I could hear them clear of the ship's hull and rigging, like low voices muttering in the air betwixt her and us. 'Twas only her having sheered gradually bow-on to the schooner again, however, as a calm near the equator has always something like apulsein it—but it struck me there were men out on her jib-boom, which being of course the very privatest part of any in a ship for talk—why, to find more than one going out there, of a dark night, and with no work to do, never looks otherwise than suspicious. Nothing of this kind surprised me at present in theSeringapatam, with the opinion I had of her; but the curious thing was, that the fellows must have supposed it the farthest point they could get out of sight of us, as well as from their own decks, she having had her beam to the schooner when the moon set.
"The desperate feelings that steal upon a man in such a case, and the fearful notions that breed in his head, with the quickness of his senses and the way he holds on by a single rope, you can scarcely conceive, though if a cry had come from the Indiaman at that moment I daresay I should have sprung in head foremost to get to her, when all at once, from up in the air again, I thought I heard the smart click of a flint and steel; at any rate, I saw the sparks showering from it in the midst of the black space before me—even the pair of fists as they knocked together, then a mouth blowing the match, till there was a light in a lantern between four heads leaning towards each other over the spar. Queer enough it would have been to see, in ordinary circumstances, but you'll readily fancy what a thing it looked all of a sudden, right out in the midst of the pitch-black night, one didn't know how or where—in fact, two of them faced each other in the stream of light from one side of the lantern, like the two edges of a rent in the dark, and another was like a sprawling blot in the centre—you just saw they were faces and heads, with a foot or two of the thick round boom slanting up betwixt them; but as for their bodies, they were all of a piece with the perfect blackness beyond. I could see one of them hold up the lantern and pass it round the three others' faces, bringing out their chins and noses, as if to be sure who they were—a piece of caution which served almost equally well for me, forI remembered each of them by headmark amongst the crew, only I didn't see the said fellow himself, even when he drew out some paper or other in one hand, seemingly unfolded it with the help of his teeth, and spread it over the jib-boom under the lantern, whereupon the whole four of the heads drew close together in a black lump round the light, peering down upon the paper, and muttering away as much at their ease, no doubt, as if they'd been in a tap-room. All I wished for was a good rifle-barrel in my hand at the time, to have knocked the light out from the midst of them, and sent the bullet by accident through the tarpaulin hat behind it—especially when a glaring red flipper was shoved out on the white paper, and the thumb planted steadily on a particular spot. All at once, however, the light was put out in the lantern, and I heard them going in-board, as the noise of the morning watch being called, at four o'clock, got up round the forehatchway.
"In about half-an-hour the faint glimmer of Jones's oar in the water showed how hard it was to find the schooner again; however, he managed to get aboard at last, by which time I was walking carelessly past the binnacle in the dark, and as soon as he sought me out and began to speak, I saw it was all right. Mr Snelling came on deck to his watch, blowing up the men for letting out the only light aboard, as he didn't know fore-and-aft from 'thwart-ships, nor north from south. The cabin lamp under the skylight had gone out too for want of oil, without being noticed as long as the moon shone, and not even the planter's cheroot was to be seen. From the snatches of their conversation he had time to gather, I agreed with Jones that, whatever the four fellows on the jib-boom might have intended beforehand, their present cue wasn't at all to try seizing the ship; in fact, the schooner's sudden appearance in this latitude, with what they knew of her before, had naturally enough brought out a number of the crew in different colours to what they'd stick to after getting a fright and finding their mistake—though by this time I had no doubt in my own mind that the villain who bent on his silkneckerchief to the signal halliards in that hurry the afternoon before actually meant it for theblack flag, while the absurdity of an Indiamanstrikingat all to a cruiser that wanted her just to heave-to, was a sign how most of the crew's minds went, as long as they fancied us pirates. However, Jones had seen sufficient of the lantern affair on the boom to explain it to my great relief; the ringleader of them, no other I was sure than ugly Harry himself, seemed to scrub trousers ordinarily for one of the quarter-deck officers, and had got hold of an old chart in his berth that same evening, which the four had come out there to get a private overhaul of. All Jones could get room to see was that it was a chart of some islands, with a particular mark at one of them, on which the fellow with the lantern put his thumb, when another asked if there weren't any trees on it. 'Trees, ay, trees enough to hang all the blasted lubbers afloat!' said the first, as Jones listened. 'I'd as soon think of sailing in a craft without spars as aboard a dazart ileyand without trees!' One was tired of the Indiaman, another sick of the world, and a third, with Jack down on the bowsprit, wanted to chase buffaloes and shoot birds. As for the rest, the head of the gang assured his mates there were plenty of other islands not far off, and natives in them; whereupon the light was put out, and, in short, they made it up amongst them to take one of the ship's boats quietly some night as soon as she got in the latitude of the Maldives, and steer for this said island; although, in case of their being dogged about by the schooner, of which the chief scoundrel seemed, by Jones's account, to have a wholesome fear, it wouldn't be so easy a matter. Indeed the last words he was heard to say, as they crept inward down the boom, were to the effect that he thought there weresome aboardas anxious to drop the cruiser as they were. ''Faith, Mr Jones,' said I, glad to find this was what they wanted, 'if that's all, I shan't stand in their way—so as soon as the breeze springs up, we'd better clear off altogether. The smoothest way is to let them take themselves quietly off and I've no fear of the ship—only, before fairly shaping our own course for Bengal, we must manage to have another sight of her under full sail for Bombay!'
"Neither of us thought of turning in, for by the next half-hour,in fact, the Indiaman's hull and canvas began to blacken out of the gloom on one side—the blue of the water spread round till it glittered against the ring of light kindling and kindling on the horizon, till it rose seemingly in a perfect fire at one spot in the rim of it, blazing up toward the cool blue aloft; then the sun was out. As long as we had to stick to your niceties and fine manners, in fact, I felt as much afraid of meeting Violet herself as a country booby would—I'll be hanged if I wasn't in doubt of her cutting me dead, suppose I met her, and I shouldn't have had a word to say; whereas with a spice of the rough work I thought of all night, or even a chance of something desperate behind, why, a fellow needn't to mind much how he went about it—seeing that in the midst of a hubbub the words come into your mouth of themselves, and you're not expected to stand upon ceremony.
"The Scotch mate, being now first officer, had the side-ropes handed us civilly enough, having just seen the decks washed down in his own thorough manner, carronades, ropes, and all; but as the captain wasn't turned out yet, I went up the poop, where a couple of boys were still swabbing up the wet. The moment I reached it, the sight of the only two passengers that were out so early, rather took me aback, one of them being the last I cared to meet—namely, the Irish Brigadier's lady, who was walking the deck in pattens, the boys evidently keeping clear of her with their swabs; and the stout red-faced Brigadier himself, buttoned up to the throat, while he stalked dismally fore-and-aft with her on his arm. At the first glimpse of me, General Brady stopped short and stared—I daresay he was doubtful whether to call me out or not. 'Glad tosayyou again, sir!' said he. 'Well, now,' said his lady, 'you're the very man I wanted to see!' I still looked at her, unable to say the like of herself, but terrified to speak a wrong word, with the knowledge of her confounded temper: the Brigadier had planted himself betwixt me and the poop-stairs, and never having fairly come across her since the affair about her dog and the shark, why, absurd as it was, I didn't know what the woman might make of my connection with the same craft that carried her off so soon after.
"'Yes, indeed, and 'twas foolish of me not to see it in ye at first!' she went on, shaking her parasol at me in a knowing way, and eyeing the schooner again. 'Howiver,I heardofyou!' said she, with another look that set me all alive, 'and a mighty bold sort of admirer you are!' 'Faith, sir,' said the Brigadier, 'if I'd commanded the batthery down there last night, I'd have waited till ye got nearer, and blown you out of the wather.' ''Tis only a lieutenant you are?' said his lady, speaking without scruple in the midst of his words, and frowning him quiet. 'Nothing more, ma'am,' I said. 'Well, now, Mister Lieutenant,' said the lady suddenly, 'what d'ye mean to do? You didn't find us out here, I suppose, and actually take these cowardly ship-people of ours bysayge-like a bold fellow, for nothing?' After a few words more, Mrs Brady all of a sudden vanished down the little quarter-gallery stair near the ship's taffrail; though I had scarce missed her ere she appeared again, making me a signal. 'Hush, now!' said she in a whisper out of the stairway, 'and step after me like a cat amongst broken bhottles, for he's shaving yonder just now on the opposite side—I saw his kitmagar taking in the hot water.' Next moment I had followed her into the small state-room in the larboard quarter, where she opened an inner door and left me. By Jove! I could have hugged that Irishwoman on the spot, vixen as she was—no matter though the very ship might be out of sight in a few hours, and I never set eyes on her again; I thought no more of it at the moment than I did of her skipper waiting for me—everything was lost in the notion of seeing Violet Hyde's face come out of that door. All the time there was a whispering, a rustling, and a confusion in the berth, as if she were taken by surprise, naturally enough—then I caught a word or two of the young lady's own, that made me think it was all up.
"The door-handle turned, and the door half opened, then it shut to again, and I heard Mrs Brady's voice in a coaxing sort of strain, till at last she opened the door wide and said: 'Then you won't, my dear? So Mister Lieutenant what's-his-name,' added she, 'you may be off to your vessel, and——' Suddenly I saw Violet's figure shrinking back, as it were, behind the Brigadier's lady, into the berth; but all at once she walked straight out to the state-room, half frowning and half laughing, with an angry kind of blush all over her face. Her hair was only looped up on the side, and braided on the other, as if it weren't rightly ship-shape yet for the day; while as forher dress, I remember nothing except its being some brown cloak or other wrapped so close about her that one couldn't even see her hands, like the picture of a nun. 'Mrs Brady seems so astonished to see you here again, Mr Collins,' said she, rather sharply, as I thought, 'that she cannot rest without all the passengers meeting you, I suppose, before you go?' With that she looked back, but Mrs Brady had walked out, though I heard the young lady's waiting-girl moving about inside the berth yet. ''Twas all an accident, my happening to come on board just now, Miss Hyde,' said I, anxiously, 'or, indeed, my having orders to speak the Indiaman at all!' 'Ah!' she answered—'and it was so strange of Mrs Brady to—to persist!' The lovely girl had scarce condescended to look at me yet, but here she glanced past me through the quarter-gallery window at the schooner, where there was nothing betwixt her and the gay little state-room save the blue heaving water and the light—then her eye seemed to pass from the epaulet on my shoulder to the other that had none, till it lighted for the first time on my face, with a smile.
"'How beautiful your schooner looks just now, Mr Collins!' said she, turning hastily again; 'it is the—the same that—that we saw before?' Now there was something in those blue eyes of hers, with the dark lashes over them and under them, that made me lose sight at the moment of everything in the way of my success, fear and all—a sort of a flying glance it was, that I couldn't help turning to my favour. 'For God's sake, Miss Hyde,' said I, 'let me have something one way or other to know my fate by—it's no use telling my mind after all that's come and gone; but as I mayn't see you again—and the breeze will be up directly—why——' Violet stood all the while gazing down on the state-room carpet, making no answer: there was a dead stop, and I heard the first ripple of the breeze work against the ship's rudder below—by Jove! I could have hanged myself at that moment—when I saw her shoulder tremble as she looked down, her soft eyelids just lifted till I caught the blue of her eye, and the smile came over her lip. How I got hold of her hand—for that confounded cloak, or whatever it was, I really don't know; but so it was, and out I came with the words, 'Violet—I love you to the last drop of my blood, that's all!' I said; 'and I only wish I had the chance of showing it!' Violet Hyde drewher hand gently out of mine, and looked me straight in the face for a moment with a merry sort of a quizzical air, as if I meant some other adventure—and 'Oh no! I hope not!' added she, with a shudder, and then a blush, no doubt thinking of the African river.
'But Violet, Violet!' said I, eagerly, as she made a move toward the nearest door, 'won't you say, then—something, for Heaven's sake, to keep one in hope?' 'Why, what would you have, sir?' said she, quickly, still turning away—but bless me! I don't exactly remember what followed, in the desperation I felt—nor how near she was to me when I heard her begging me to 'go, go, if I really loved her!' 'Dearest girl!' I said, 'I shall be far enough off in a short time!' 'Do you actually sail so soon, then?' said Violet, in a low voice. 'Why, they're bracing round the ship's yards already, I hear,' answered I; 'but indeed I think the schooner might keep near for a few days, too——' 'No—no!' said she anxiously, 'go altogether, else my father will be still more set against—against——Perhaps,' she added, 'we may see you in Calcutta, when—you are'—and her eye glanced from one shoulder of my uniform to the other. 'When I've got my epaulet shifted to the right shoulder?'26asked I, eagerly; 'thenmay I see you?' 'See—yes,' was the whisper I caught—and 'Dearest,dearestViolet,' said I, almost going down on the deck before her, 'suppose I manage to ship them onboth, in this confounded peace, will you——' Hush!' said Violet, listening, and all in a flutter, 'indeed you must go, elseImust!' 'For God's sake, Violet,' I went on, keeping hold of her hand as she tried to get away, 'will you wait a year or two and give me the chance of a war in China—or up the Mediterranean—or——' But here the wild notions I had for a moment left me.
"Somehow or other at that instant a terrible glimpse, as it were, of Bonaparte standing up on the crag in St Helena flashed across me; and as the folly of the thing, let alone the impudence of it, struck me, I nigh-hand groaned, while Violet Hyde's fingers slipped out of mine. Just then she turned full round with a soft look of her eyes, and was going to saysomething, as I thought; but the handle of the aftermost door turned, and the Brigadier's lady hastened in. As I glanced round, something or other dropped lightly into the palm of my hand, and next moment Violet was gone. 'Twas only a little knot of white ribbon I'd got, though the scent and the warm touch of it together were enough to startle one—I almost thought she'd changed into it; and to this day, ma'am, I'll be hanged if I know whatthatwas the scent of—unless it was sandal wood!
"'Quick!' said Mrs Brady, in a hurry, 'what d'ye stand staring there for, man alive? Sir Charles is upstairs, and you can't go this way; so through the cabins with ye, lieutenant, and out on the quarther-dheck!' Before I well knew what I was doing, accordingly, we were in the judge's main-cabin, where the ship's masts and the men gathering about the ropes could be seen through the round-house doors as they stood open. 'Mrs Brady,' said I, suddenly stepping back to her, 'you're an angel, ma'am, and——' 'You unprincipled young villain ye!' said she, springing aft with her fingers spread, and begining to raise her voice, 'what would ye do! Brigadier.—D'ye think 'tis deaf I was in the stair yonder, you promiscuous young——' However, I gave her one bewildered look, and heard no more of it, bolting as I did through the nearest door right against the man coming to the wheel; while the midshipman was on the look-out for me everywhere to say that the captain of the Indiaman was waiting for me below in his cabin.
"Indeed she was moving slowly through the water already, as the light cat's-paws ruffled it here and there, and drew aloft into her royals; our own little craft beginning to slip gently along to leeward of the ship, with the dark Lascars' faces under the foot of her white fore-topmast-staysail, giving her a doubtful enough air, I must own. I had nothing particular to say to Finch, in fact; but, captain as he was of the Indiaman for the time, 'twas the least I could do to see him; besides that somehow or other, I had a sort of feeling as I came on board half-an-hour before, I couldn't exactly say why, that made one anxious for a near sight of him. If he suspected anything wrong amongst his crew, why at any rate he would have an opportunity of mentioning it ere we parted company; but, awkward as our meetingeach other again was, of course, and both being on such different footing from before, while my own mind was naturally full of what had just happened, it turned out much as might be expected. Finch was evidently not the same man he had been a few weeks before, except in his puppy fine gentleman manners and way of dress, which were twice as high-flown; with his hair curled, a white handkerchief hanging half out of his breast-pocket, a regular East India uniform, and everything showing the tiptop skipper. The thing that set me less at my ease with him was, that I was sure, by one glance of his eye, he had a pretty fair guess of where I had been last, and saw it in my manner—which made me the more careful, as matters stood, to give no signs of more meddling with the Indiaman. However, I threw in a hint or two, when Finch out and told me quite frankly, therehadbeen a little disorderly conduct on board after they left the Cape, but he had thoroughly put it down, without letting the passengers know anything about it, as he said: only, the very day before, at the time when the schooner fired, there were a few of the men, he told me, that seemed inclined to disobey orders—fellows he wished he could get rid of.
"'Now, Captain Finch,' said I, as I looked over my shoulder at them from the capstan, 'will you point out the men you spoke of, sir, that showed themselves mutinous?' Finch drew back at this, however, and hummed and hawed at the word. 'Yes,mutinous,' repeated I; 'there's no use mincing the matter, I suppose. Just be so good as let me see the fellows, and I'll rid you of them at once!' Finch's glance followed mine as it lighted on Harry Foster's shaggy head watching us with the eye of a buffalo, past a knot of slouching, hulking, foremast-men of his own kidney. The moment I caught sight of Jacobs' broad, hearty, brown face, standing apart a bit with his friends, Tom, Bill, the red-haired Irish topman, and three other honest-like man-o'-war's-men, I took my cue for the meantime. 'My lads,' said I, walking quietly forward, 'I want a few hands for theHebefrigate—you know her, I daresay—and that's enough; for a model like theHebedoesn't float the water—now, I can't press any of you!' Here a general laugh ran along both rows, and I heard a growling chuckle from ugly Foster. 'But,' added I, laughing too, 'you canvolunteer!'
"There was a dead silence, in the midst of which Tom, the fore-topman, the most dashing fellow in the ship, stepped aft with his hat in his hand, then Jacobs, then Bill, and my acquaintance the 'Savage,' then the three others. In place of grumbling, in fact, there began to be a hurrah amongst the rest, except some of Foster's chums; a few more seemed inclined to follow, and as for my gentleman captain, he appeared not to know what to do. 'Now, my man,' said I, stepping straight up to ugly Harry, and eyeing him right in the face as he stood, 'you're a fine seaman-like fellow—true-blue, I'm sure—I've taken a particular fancy to ye—won't you ship for theHebe—eh?' Foster didn't know where to look, twisting himself round, hitching up his trousers, and altogether taken fairly aback; every eye was on him, and I'll be hanged if I don't think he turned it in his mind to agree. 'Come, Foster,' said I, in a low voice, 'I know you, my man, but if you ship I'll look over the whole!' All at once Captain Finch walked up to me, saying, 'If you persist in taking these men, sir, you'll have to answer for it, I can tell you!' 'I know my own meaning, sir,' said I firmly; 'I am in the regular course, and answer for it I will! Say the word, my man, and ship?' said I again. 'Blowed if I do!' said Harry, turning on his heel with a grim scowl; 'none o' yer frigates for me!' and he walked off. Jacobs and the others came on the gangway with their bags, however, and pitched them to the men in the boat, without anyone offering to interfere; indeed, Finch had seemingly given it up sooner than I expected.
"'Now, Captain Finch,' said I, before stepping over the side after Mr Snelling and the men, 'I'd much rather we could have hit upon the right men; however, the more need for my keeping in sight of you to windward, as I shall do at least till we steer for the Bay of Bengal. I couldn't do less, you see,' added I, on getting no answer, 'than make myself strong enough to help you if needful!' 'I shall report to the Admiral at Bombay, sir!' said he fiercely. 'You may do that, Captain Finch,' I said, 'as soon as possible; but, in the meantime, you can't be sure of what may turn up of a dark night, and a couple of lights at your main-yardarm, or anywhere, will bring the schooner down in half-an-hour or so if there's a breeze. As for a calm,' said I, turning round—butsuch a strange white look had come over Finch's face as he glanced after me, that, thinking he was beside himself with rage, I went down the side without another word. 'Take your own way!' I fancied I heard him mutter betwixt his teeth; but next moment we were pulling off.
"Well, the breeze ere this time was steady, though light, and we drew gradually to windward of the Indiaman, till by the afternoon the white band on her hull was just awash with the water, and there I kept her, with a little variety, pretty near the whole night, and most of the following day.
"The next night came almost as dark as it had been that night of the calm; but the breeze freshened again pretty strong, and accordingly I kept the schooner down to get nearer the ship, which we had seen in the first dog-watch dead to leeward. I was rather uneasy for a while at not being able to make out her lights, and we slipped fast through the water, when all at once both Jones and Westwood called out from forward that they saw them, and I walked to the bows.
"'All right,' said I, 'but, no, by heaven! That's the signal I named to the captain! Set stunsails, Mr Jones, and make her walk, for God's sake!'Twolights it was aloft in the gloom, right to leeward as before: there was something wrong, or else she wanted to speak us; so away we flew before the wind, under everything that could be set. I looked and looked, when a thought struck me; not another light was to be seen below, and they weren't high enough from the heave of the sea for even a ship's lower mast.
"Yes, by George!' said I hurriedly to Westwood and Jones, 'that's atrick! The fellow means to give us the slip. Clap the helm down, Mr Snelling, and haul aft the sheets there—luff, luff!' We were losing our weather-gage; in fact, the Indiaman must actually be to windward of us ere then, and if the breeze freshened we might lose them altogether. The thing that troubled me most was, that I couldn't believe the man had thought of such a plan himself; and if he once took a hint from any of the scoundrels I knew were aboard, why, there was no saying what might be the upshot in the end. Finch was a common enough character at bottom; but with such notions as I was sure were working in his head about Miss Hyde, one step might lead him on to another, till any chance occasion might make a desperate villain of him,especially if he suspected myself of aught like good fortune with the young lady. It wasn't much past midnight, the air was wonderfully heavy and sweltering, and the swell going down, when we heard a murmur amongst the men on the forecastle, and saw a red fire-ball pass high over to nor'ard for half-a-minute, leaving a trail in the dark sky beyond the headsails.
"A queer ghastly sort of ruddy gray streak opened out in the black of the horizon, where some of them thought they made out the ship; but soon after we could hear a low hollow kind of a hum, rushing as it were from east to west, till it grew almost like the sound of waves on a beach; which made us begin to look to ourselves. There was a bright line of light directly in the opposite quarter, and the sea far away seemed getting on fire, with a noise and hubbub coming along below, that nobody appeared to know the meaning of; while aloft it was as still as a church. For a moment I saw theSeringapatamquite plainly several miles off; but from the confusion, I never could say whether it was north or east; in fact, we kept watching the canvas, expecting to have a hurricane into it next minute. Suddenly the sea came gleam-gleaming and flickering on, as it were, with a washing bubble and a hissing smother of foam, till it splashed right against our larboard bulwarks, heaping up like perfect fire upon the schooner's side, and running past both stern and bows, away with a long rolling flash to the other horizon. All was pitch-dark again after that, and a whisper went about our decks and round the binnacle lamp of 'Theripples!—It's the ripples!'27'Nothing more, sir!' said Jones, even he seemingly taken by surprise at first. Twice again we had it, though each time fainter, right out of the midst of the gloom; after which it was as calm as before. 'Thank God!' said I, breathing hard, 'we'll have that Indiaman in the morning, at any rate!' 'Why, sir,' answered Jones, thoughtfully, 'after this we are likely to have the south-west monsoon upon us ere long—'tis just the place and the season for it.'
"And so it was. Instead of sighting theSeringapatamat daybreak, I had a strong suspicion she had gone to eastward; but of course the faster the schooner was, why if it were thewrong way we should only get from her the farther, and miss her altogether, without ever knowing how matters went, even if she got quietly into port; so, being the best plan I could think of for the meantime, away we drove north-westward, sweeping the horizon with the glass every morning. We had run so far, indeed, without success, that I was sure she couldn't be ahead; when one day I asked Mr Jones to bring me up the chart for those parts, as we took the latitude. We were a long way to westward of our own course at the time, and Jones's finger went along eastward till it stopped right upon the Maldive islands, while he looked up with a sudden sharp glance. 'By heaven,' said I, 'yes!—I forgot that story altogether—be so good as to send that man there, Jacobs, to me. Jacobs,' said I, 'which of the officers' clothes did that fellow Foster use to scrub lately, in the Indiaman?' Jacobs gave his hair a rub, recollected a moment, and answered, 'Why, sir, the captain's own.' 'Oh!' I said, 'well, that'll do, Jacobs'—and Jacobs walked forward again. 'Mr Jones,' said I, quickly, 'thatchart belonged to the captain!—I'll have a look at that said desert island, sir!' We found something answering to it on the chart; and in a few minutes the schooner was bowling before the dregs of the monsoon to eastward.
"'At all events,' added I, 'we'll see if these vagabonds mean to keep their word and turn hermits—either we catch them there, Mr Jones, or else we must find that Indiaman, though she were in sight of Colibah28lighthouse!' Jones's eye lighted, and he turned his nostrils to the monsoon as if he snuffed it in; in fact, he was that sort of man that needed somewhat out of the common way to keep him right."