My excitement made my voice resonant as a trumpet, and the men in both watches came scampering along the deck. The shaking of the canvas, the racing of feet, my own and the cries of the crew, produced, as you may credit, a fine uproar. Of course I had foreseen that there would be no danger in bringing the ship aback. The wind though fresh was certainly not strong enough to jeopardize the spars; moreover, the sea had moderated.
Up rushed the carpenter in a very short time, rather the worse, I thought, for the dose he had swallowed.
"What's the matter! What the devil is all this?" he bellowed, lurching from side to side as the ship rolled, for we were now broadside on.
"The bo'sun has fallen overboard!" I shouted in his ear; and I had need to shout, for the din of the canvas was deafening.
"Do you say the bo'sun?" he bawled.
"Yes. What shall we do? is it too dark to pick him up?"
"Of course it is!" he cried, hoarse as a raven. "What do you want to do? He's drownded by this time! Who's to find him? Give 'em the proper orders, Mr. Royle!" and he vociferated to the men—"Do you want the masts to carry away? Do you want to be overhauled by the fust wessel as comes this road, and hanged, everymother's son of you, because the bo'sun's fallen overboard?"
I stood to leeward gazing at the water and uttering exclamations to show my concern and distress at the loss of the boatswain.
Stevens dragged me by the arm.
"Give 'em the proper orders, I tell ye, Mr. Royle!" he cried. "I say that the bo'sun's drownded, and that no stopping the wessel will save him. Sing out to the men, for the Lord's sake! Let her fill again, or we're damned!"
"Very well," I replied with a great air of reluctance, and I advanced to the poop-rail and delivered the necessary orders. By dint of flattening in the jib-sheets and checking the main-braces, and brailing up the spanker and rousing the foreyards well forward, I got the ship to pay off. The carpenter worked like a madman, bawlingall the while that if the ship was dismasted all hands would certainly be hanged; and he so animated the men by his cries and entreaties, that more work was done by them in one quarter of an hour than they would have put into treble that time on any other occasion.
It was now one o'clock, so it had not taken us an hour to drown the boatswain, put the ship in irons, and get her clear again.
Stevens came off the main-deck on to the poop, greatly relieved in his mind now that the sails were full and the yards trimmed, and asked me how it happened that the boatswain fell overboard.
I replied, very gravely, that I had come on deck at eight bells, being anxious to see what way the ship was making and how she was heading; that remembering I had left an overcoat in one of the quarter-boats, Ilooked, but could not find it; that I spoke to the boatswain, who told me that he had seen the coat in the stern sheets of the quarter-boat that afternoon, and got on to the poop-rail to search the boat; that I had turned my head for a moment when I heard a groan, which was immediately followed by a loud splash alongside, and I perceived that the boatswain had vanished.
"So," continued I, "I pitched a life-buoy astern and sang out to put the helm down; and I must say, Mr. Stevens, that I think we could have saved the poor fellow had we tried. But you are really the skipper of this ship, and since you objected I did not argue."
"There's no use sayin' wecouldha' saved him," rejoined Stevens, gruffly. "I say we couldn't. Who's to see him in the dark? We should have had to burn a flare for the boat to find us, and what with ourdriftin' and their lumpin' about, missing their road, and doing no airthly good, we should ha' ended in losin' the boat."
He did not notice the tarpaulin spread over the skylight, though I had an explanation of its being there had he inquired the meaning of it.
He hung about the deck for a whole hour, though I had offered to take the boatswain's watch, and go turn and turn about with him (Stevens), and he had a long yarn with the man at the wheel, which I contrived to drop in upon after awhile, and found Cornish explaining exactly how the boatswain fell overboard, and corroborating my story in every particular.
Thus laborious as my stratagem had been, it was, as this circumstance alone proved, in no sense too laboured; for had not Cornish seen, with his own eyes, the boatswain and myself standing near the boatjust before I gave the alarm, he would in all probability have represented the affair in such a way to Stevens as to set him doubting my story, and perhaps putting the men on to search the ship, to see if the boatswainwasoverboard.
He went below at two o'clock.
The sea fell calm, and the wind shifted round to the nor'ard and westward, and was blowing a steady pleasant breeze at six bells. The stars came out and the horizon cleared, and looking to leeward I beheld at a distance of about four miles the outline of a large ship, which, when I brought the binocular glasses to bear on her, I found under full sail.
She was steering a course seemingly parallel with our own, and as I watched her my brains went to work to conceive in what possible way I could utilize her presence.
At all events, the first thing I had to dowas to make sail, or she would run away from us; so I at once called up the watch.
Whilst the men were at work the dawn broke, and by the clearer light I perceived that the vessel was making a more westerly course than we, and was drawing closer to us at every foot of water we severally measured. She was a noble-looking merchantman, like a frigate with her painted ports, with double topsail and top-gallant yards, and with skysails set, so that her sails were a wonderful volume and tower of canvas.
The sight of her filled me with emotions I cannot express. As to signalling her, I knew that the moment the men saw me handling the signal-halliards they would crowd aft and ask me what I meant to do. I might indeed hail her if I could sheer theGrosvenorclose enough alongside for my voice to carry; but if they failed to hearme or refused to help, what would be my position? So surely as I raised my voice to declare our situation, so surely would the crew drag me down and murder me out of hand.
Presently Fish and Johnson came along the main-deck, and while Fish entered the cuddy Johnson came up to me.
"Hadn't you better put the ship about?" he said. "You're running us rather close. The men don't like it."
Seeing that no chance would be given me to make my peril known to the stranger, I formed my resolution rapidly. I called out to themen—
"Johnson wants to 'bout ship. Yonder vessel can see that we are making a free wind, and she'll either think we're mad or that there's something wrong with us if we 'bout ship with a beam wind. Now just tell me what I am to do."
"Haul us away from that ship—that's all we want," answered one of them.
At this moment the carpenter came running up the poop ladder, with nothing on but his shirt and a pair of breeches.
"Hallo!" he called out fiercely; "what are you about? Do you want to put us alongside!"
And he bawled out fiercely—"Port your helm! run right away under her stern!"
"If you do that," I exclaimed, very anxious now to show how well-intentioned I was, "you will excite her suspicions. Steady!" I cried, seeing the ship drawing rapidly ahead; "bring her to again a point off her course."
Stevens scowled at me, but did not speak.
The crew clustered up the poop ladder to stare at the ship, and I caught some of them casting such threatening looks at me, that I wanted no better hint of thekind of mercy I should receive if I played them any tricks.
"Mr. Stevens," said I, "leave me to manage, and I'll do you no wrong. That ship is making more way than we are, and we shall have her dead on end presently. Then I'll show you what to do."
As I spoke, the vessel which we had brought well on the port-bow hoisted English colours. The old ensign soared gracefully, and stood out at the gaff-end.
"We must answer her," I exclaimed to the carpenter. "You had better bend on the ensign and run it up."
I suppose he knew that there could be no mischievous meaning in the display of this flag, for he obeyed me, though leisurely.
The ship, when she saw that we answered her, hauled her ensign down, and after awhile, during which she sensibly increasedthe distance between us, and had drawn very nearly stern on, hoisted her number.
"Run up the answering pennant," I exclaimed; "it will look civil any way, and it means nothing."
I pointed out the signal to the carpenter, who hoisted it; but I could see by his face that he meant to obey no more orders of this kind.
"Steady as she goes!" cried I, to the fellow steering. "A hand let go the weather mizzen-braces and haul in some of you to leeward."
This manœuvre laid the sails on the mizzen-mast aback; they at once impeded our way, nor, being now right ahead of us, could the people on board the ship see what we had done. The result was the vessel drew away rapidly, I taking care to luff as she got to windward, so as to keep our flying jib-boom in a direct line with her stern.
To judge by the way the men glanced at me and spoke to one another, they evidently appreciated this stratagem: and Stevens condescended to say, "That's one for her."
"Better than going about," I answered drily.
"They've hauled down them signals," he said, blinking the point I raised by my remark.
"Yes. She doesn't mean to stop to ask any questions."
The end of this was that in about twenty minutes the ship was three or four miles ahead of us; so not choosing to lose any more time, I swung the mizzen-yards, and got theGrosvenorupon her course again.
Stevens went below to put on his coat and cap and boots in order to relieve me, for it was now four o'clock. The dawn had broken with every promise of a fine day,and where the sun rose the sky resembled frost-work, layer upon layer of high delicate clouds, ranged like scale armour, all glittering with silver brightness and whitening the sea, over which they hung with a pale, pearly light.
I was thoroughly exhausted, not so much from the want of rest as from the excitement I had gone through. Still, I had a part to play before I turned in; so I stuck my knuckles in my eyes to rub them open, and waited for Stevens, who presently came on deck, having first stopped on the main-deck to grumble to his crony Fish over his not having had a quarter of an hour's sleep since midnight.
"I'm growed sick o' the sight o' this poop," he growled to me. "Sick o' the sight o' the whole wessel. Fust part o' the woyage I was starved for food. Now, with the skipper overboard, I'm starved for sleep.How long are we going to take to reach Florida? Sink me if I shouldn't ha' woted for some nearer coast had I known this woyage wur going to last to the day o' judgment."
"If it don't fall calm," I answered, "I may safely promise to put you off the coast of Florida on Friday afternoon."
He thrust his hands into his breeches' pockets, and stared aft.
"I am very much troubled about the loss of the bo'sun," said I.
"Are you?" he responded, ironically.
"He was a civil man and a good sailor."
"Yes; I dessay he was. But he's no use now."
"He deserved that we should have made an effort to save him."
"Well, you said that before, and I said no; and I suppose I know wot I mean when I says no."
"But won't the crew think me a heartless rascal for not sending a boat to the poor devil?" I demanded, pretending to lose my temper.
"The bo'sun was none so popular—don't make no mistake; he wasn't one of——Hell seize me! where are you drivin' to, Mr. Royle? Can't you let a drownded man alone?" he cried, with an outburst of passion. But immediately he softened his voice, and with a look of indescribable cunning, said, "Some of the hands didn't like him, of course; and some did, and they'll be sorry. I am one of them as did, and would ha' saved him if I hadn't feared the masts, and reckoned there'd be no use in the boat gropin' about in the dark for a drownin' man."
"No doubt of that," I replied, in a most open manner. "You know the course, Mr. Stevens? You might set the fore-topmaststun'-sail presently, for we shall have a fine day."
And with a civil nod I left him, more than ever satisfied that my stratagem was a complete success.
I bent my ear to Miss Robertson's cabin as I passed, to hear if she were stirring; all was still; so I passed on to my berth, and turned in just as I was, and slept soundly till eight o'clock.
I only saw Miss Robertson for a few minutes at breakfast-time.
The steward as usual carried their breakfast on a tray to the door, and in taking it in she saw me and came forward.
"Is it all well?" she asked, quickly and eagerly.
"All well," I replied.
"He is in the hold," she whispered, "and no one knows?"
"He is in the hold, and the crew believe to a man that he is overboard."
"It is a good beginning," she exclaimed, with a faint smile playing over her pale face.
"Thanks to your great courage! You performed your part admirably."
"There is that hateful carpenter watching us through the skylight," she whispered, without raising her eyes. "Tell me one thing before I go—when will the ship reach the part she is to stop at?"
"I shall endeavour to make it Friday afternoon."
"The day after to-morrow!"
She clasped her hands suddenly and exclaimed with a little sob in her voice, "Oh, let us pray that God will be merciful and protect us!"
I had no thoughts for myself as I watched her enter her cabin. The situation was, indeed, a dreadful one for so sweet and helpless a woman to be placed in. I, a rough, sturdy fellow, used to the dangers of the sea, was scared at our position when I contemplated it. Truly might I say thatour lives hung by a hair, and that whether we were to live or perish dismally would depend upon the courage and promptness with which the boatswain and I should act at the last moment.
It was worse for me that I did not know the exact plans of the mutineers.
I was aware that their intention was to scuttle the ship and leave her, with us on board, to sink. Buthowthey would do this, I did not know. I mean, I could not foresee whether they would scuttle the ship whilst all the crew remained on board, stopping until they knew that the vessel was actually sinking before taking to the boats, or whether they would get into the boat, leaving one man in the hold to scuttle the ship, and lying by to take him off when his work should have been performed.
Either was likely; but one would makeour preservation comparatively easy; the other would make it almost impossible.
When I went on deck all hands were at breakfast. The carpenter quitted the poop the moment I showed myself, and I was left alone, none of the crew visible but the steersman.
The breeze was slashing, a splendid sailing wind; the fore-topmast stun'-sail set, every sail round and hard as a drum skin, and the water smooth; the ship bowled along like a yacht in a racing match. Nothing was in sight all round the horizon.
I made sure that the carpenter would go to bed as soon as he had done breakfast; but instead, about twenty minutes after he had left the poop, I saw him walk along the main-deck, and disappear in the forecastle.
After an interval of some ten minutes he reappeared, followed by Johnson, the cook, and a couple of hands. They got upon theport side of the long-boat, and presently I heard the fluttering and screaming of hens.
I crossed the poop to see what was the matter, and found all four men wringing the necks of the poultry. In a short time about sixteen hens, all that remained, lay dead in a heap near the coop. The cook and Johnson gathered them up, and carried them into the galley.
Soon after they returned, and clambered on to the top of the long-boat, the cover of which they pitched off, and fell, each with a knife in his hand, upon the pigs. The noise now was hideous. The pigs squealed like human beings, but both men probably knew their work, for the screeching did not last above five minutes.
The cook, with his face, arms, and breeches all bloody, flung the carcases among the men, who had gathered aroundto witness the sport, and a deal of ugly play followed. They tossed the slaughtered pigs at each other, and men and pigs fell down with tremendous thuds, and soon there was not a man who did not look as though he had been rolled for an hour in the gutter of a shambles. Their hoarse laughter, their horrible oaths, their rage not more shocking than their mirth, the live men rolling over the dead pigs, their faces and clothes ghastly with blood—all this was a scene which made one abhor oneself for laughing at it, though it was impossible to help laughing sometimes. But occasionally my mirth would be checked by a sudden spasm of terror, when I caught sight of a fellow with an infuriate face, monstrous with its crimson colouring, rush with his knife at another, and be struck down like a ninepin by a dead pig hurled full at his head, before he could deliver his blow.
The saturnalia came to an end, and the men cursing, growling, groaning, and laughing—some reeling half stunned, and all panting for breath—surged into the forecastle to clean themselves, while the cook and Johnson carried the pigs into the galley.
I did not quite understand what this scene heralded, but had not long to wait before it was explained.
In twos and threes after much delay, the men emerged and began to wash the decks down. Two got into the long-boat and began to clean her out. Then the carpenter came aft with Johnson, and I heard him swearing at the steward. After a bit, Johnson came forth, rolling a cask of cuddy bread along the deck; after him went the steward, bearing a lime-juice jar, filled of course with rum.
These things were stowed near the foremast.Then all three came aft again (the carpenter superintending the work), and more provisions were taken forward; and when enough was collected, the whole was snugged and covered with a tarpaulin, ready, as I now understood, to be shipped into the long-boat when she should have been swung over the ship's side.
These preparations brought the reality of the position of myself and companions most completely home to me; yet I perfectly preserved my composure, and appeared to take the greatest interest in all that was going forward.
The carpenter came on the poop presently, and went to the starboard quarter-boat and inspected it. He then crossed to the other boat. After which he walked up to me.
"How many hands," he asked, "do you think the long-boat 'ud carry, comfortable?"
I measured her with my eye before answering.
"About twenty," I replied.
"One on top o' t'other, like cattle!" he growled. "Why, mate, there wouldn't be standin' room."
"Do you mean to put off from the ship in her?"
"In her and one of them others," he replied, meaning the quarter-boats.
"If you want my opinion, I should say that all hands ought to get into the long-boat. She has heaps of beam, and will carry us all well. Besides, she can sail. It will look better, too, to be found in her, should we be picked up before landing; because you can make out that both quarter-boats were carried away."
"We're all resolved," he answered doggedly. "We mean to put off in the long-boat and one o' them quarter-boats. Thequarter-boat can tow the long-boat if it's calm. Why I ax'd you how many the long-boat 'ud carry was because we don't want to overload the quarter-boat. We can use her as a tender for stores and water, do you see, so that if we get to a barren place we shan't starve."
"I understand."
"Them two boats 'll be enough, anyways."
"I should say so. They'd carry thirty persons between them," I answered.
To satisfy himself he went and took another look at the boats, and afterwards called Johnson up to him.
They talked together for some time, occasionally glancing at me, and Johnson then went away; but in a few minutes he returned with a mallet and chisel. Both men now got into the port quarter-boat and proceeded, to my rage and mortification, torip a portion of the planking out of her. In this way they knocked several planks away and threw them overboard, and Johnson then got out of her and went to the other boat, and fell to examining her closely to see that all was right; for they evidently had made up their minds to use her, she being the larger of the two.
The carpenter came and stood close to me, watching Johnson. I dare say he expected I would ask him why he had injured the boat; but I hardly dared trust myself to speak to him, so great was my passion and abhorrence of the wretch whose motive in rendering this boat useless was, of course, that we should not be able to save ourselves by her when we found the ship sinking.
When Johnson had done, some men came aft, and they went to work to provision the remaining quarter-boat, passing bags of bread, tins of preserved meat, kegs ofwater, and stores of that description, from hand to hand, until the boat held about a quarter as much again as she was fit to carry.
In the mean time, others were busy in the long-boat, getting her fit for sailing with a spare top-gallant stun'-sail boom and top-gallant stun'-sail, looking to the oars and thole-pins and so forth.
The morning passed rapidly, the crew as busy as bees, smoking to a man, and bandying coarse jokes with one another, and uttering loud laughs as they worked.
The carpenter never once addressed me. He ran about the decks, squirting tobacco-juice everywhere, superintending the work that was going forward, and manifesting great excitement, with not a few displays of bad temper.
A little before noon, when I made ready to take the sun's altitude, the men at workabout the long-boat suspended their occupation to watch me, and Stevens drew aft, and came snuffling about my heels.
When I sang out eight bells, and went below to work out my observations, he followed me into the cabin, and stood looking on. The ignorance of his distrust was almost ludicrous; I believe he thought I should work out a false reckoning if he were not by, but that his watching would prevent me from making two and two five.
"Now, Mr. Royle," said he, seeing me put down my pencil; "where are we?"
I unrolled the chart upon the table, and drew a line down a rule from the highly imaginary point to which I had brought the ship at noon on the preceding day, to latitude 29°, longitude 74° 30'. "Here is our position at the present moment," I said, pointing to the mark on the chart.
"This here is Floridy, ain't it?" hedemanded, outlining the coast with his dirty thumb.
"That is Florida."
"Well, I calls it Floridy for short."
"Floridy then. I know what you mean."
"And you give us till the day arter tomorrow to do this bit o' distance in?"
"It doesn't look much on the chart. There's not much room for miles to show in on a square of paper like this."
"Well, we shall be all ready to lower away the boats when you give us the word," said he.
"Perhaps you'll sit down for five minutes, Mr. Stevens, and inform me exactly of your arrangements," I exclaimed; "for it is difficult for me to do my share in this job unless I accurately know what yours is to be."
He looked at me askant, his villainous eyes right in the corners of their sockets;but sat down nevertheless, and tilted his cap over his forehead in order to scratch the back of his head.
"I thought you knew what our plans was?" he remarked.
"Why, I've got a kind of general notion of them, but I should like to understand them more clearly."
"Well, I thought they was clear—clear as mud in a wineglass. Leastways, they're clear to all hands."
"For instance, why did you knock a hole in the quarter-boat this morning?"
"I didn't think you'd want that explained," he answered promptly.
"But you see I do, Mr. Stevens."
"Well, we only want two boats, and it 'ud be a silly look-out to leave the third one sound and tight to drift about with theGrosvenor'sname writ inside o' her."
"Why?"
"Because I says it would."
"How could she drift about if she were up at the davits?"
"How do I know?" he answered morosely. "I'm lookin' at things as may happen. It ain't for me to explain of them."
"Very well," said I, master enough of the ruffian's meaning to require no further information on this point.
"Anything more, Mr. Royle?"
"Yes. The next matter is this: you gave me to understand that we should heave the ship to at night?"
"Sartinly. As soon as ever it comes on dusk, so as we shall have all night before us to get well away."
"Do you mean to leave her with her canvas standing?"
"Just as she is when she's hove to."
"Some ship may sight her, and findingher abandoned, send a crew on board to work her to the nearest port."
I thought this might tempt him to admit that she was to be scuttled, which confession need not necessarily have involved the information that I and the others were to be left on board.
But the fellow was too cunning to hint at such a thing.
"Let them as finds her keep her," he said, getting up. "That's their consarn. Any more questions, Mr. Royle?"
"Are we to take our clothes with us?"
He grinned in the oddest manner.
"No. Them as has wallyables may shove 'em into their pockets; but no kits 'll be allowed in the boats. We're a poor lot o' shipwrecked sailors—marineers as the newspapers calls us—come away from a ship that was settlin' under our legs afore we had the arts to leave her. We jest hadtime to wittol the boats and stand for the shore. We depend upon Christian kindness for 'elp; and if we falls foul o' a missionary, leave me alone to make him vurship our piety. The skipper he fell mad and jumped overboard. The chief mate he lost his life by springin' into vun o' the boats and missin' of it; and the second mate he manfully stuck to the ship for the love he bore her owners, and we pree-sume, went down with her."
"Oh!" I exclaimed, forcing a laugh; "then I am not to admit that I am the second mate, when questioned?"
He stared at me as if he were drunk, and cried, "You!" then burst into a laugh, and hit me a slap on the back.
"Ah!" he exclaimed. "I forgot. Of course you'll not be second mate when you get ashore."
"What then?"
"Why, a passenger—a parson—the ship's doctor. We'll tell you wot to say as we go along. Come, get us off this bloomin' coast, will you, as soon as you can," pointing to the chart. "All hands is growin' delikit with care and consarn: as Joe Sampson used tosing—
'Vith care an' consarnVe're a vastin' avay.'
'Vith care an' consarnVe're a vastin' avay.'
And our nerviss systems is that wrought up with fear of our necks, that blowed if we shan't want two months o' strong physicking and prime livin' at the werry least, to make men of us agin arter we're landed."
And with a leering grin and an ugly nod he quitted the cabin.
I made up my mind as Stevens left me to bring this terrible time to an end on Friday afternoon, come what might. Let it fall a calm, let it blow a gale, on Friday afternoon I would tell the carpenter that the ship was off the coast of Florida, forty or fifty miles distant.
If, by the boatswain's ruse, I could keep the ship afloat and carry her to Bermuda, it would matter little whether we hove her to one hundred or even two hundred miles distant from the island. The suspense I endured, the horror of our situation, was more than I could bear. I believed that myhealth and strength would give way if I protracted the ship's journey to the spot where the men would leave her, even for twenty-four hours longer than Friday.
The task before me then was to prepare for the final struggle, to thoroughly mature my plans, to utilize the control I still had over the ship to the utmost advantage, and to put into shape all plausible objections and hints I could think upon, which would be helpful to me if adopted by the crew.
What I most felt was the want of firearms. The revolver I carried was indeed five-chambered, and there was much good fortune in my having been the first to get hold of it. But could I have armed the boatswain or even the steward with another pistol, I should have been much easier in my mind when I contemplated the chances of a struggle between us and the crew.
However, there is no evil that is notattended by some kind of compensation, and I found this out; for taking it into my head that there might be a pistol among Duckling's effects, though I was pretty sure that the weapon he had threatened me with was the one in my possession, I entered his cabin with the intention to begin a search, but had no sooner opened the lid of his chest than I perceived that I had been forestalled, for the clothes were tossed anyway, the pockets turned inside out, and articles taken out of wrappers, as I should judge from the paper coverings that lay among the clothes.
So now I could only hope that Duckling hadnothad a pistol, since whoever had rifled his box must have met with it. And that Stevens was the thief in this as in the case of the silver I had no doubt at all.
There being now only two of us to keep watch, Stevens and I did not meet at dinner.I took his place whilst he dined, and he then relieved me.
The steward told me they were having a fine feast in the forecastle; that upwards of ten of the fowls which had been strangled in the morning had been put to bake for the men's dinner; that in addition to this they had cooked three legs of pork, and were drinking freely from a jar of rum which the carpenter had ordered him to take forward.
I could pretty well judge that they were enjoying themselves, by the loud choruses they were singing.
Believing they would end in becoming drunk, I knocked on Miss Robertson's door, to tell her on no account to show herself on deck. She gave me her hand the moment she saw me, and gently brought me into the cabin and made me sit down, though I had not meant to stay.
The old gentleman stood with his back tothe door, looking through the port-hole. Though he heard my voice, he did not turn, and only looked round when his daughter pulled him by the arm.
"How do you do, sir?" he exclaimed, making me a most courtly bow. "I hope you are well? You find us, sir," with a stately wave of the hand, "in wretched accommodation; but all this will be mended presently. The great lesson of life is patience."
And he made me another bow, meanwhile looking hard at me and contracting his brows.
I was more affected by this painful change—this visible and rapid decay, not of his memory only, but of his mind—than I know how to describe. The mournful, helpless look his daughter gave him, the tearless melancholy in her eyes, as she bent them on me, hit me hard.
I did not know how to answer him, and could only fix my eyes on the deck.
"This prospect," he continued, pointing to the port-hole, "is exceedingly monotonous. I have been watching it I should say a full half-hour—about that time, my dear, should you not think?—and find no change in it whatever. I witness always the same unbroken line of water, slightly darker, I observe, than the sky which bends to meet it. That unbroken line has a curious effect upon me. It seems to press like a substantial ligature or binding upon my forehead; positively," he exclaimed, with a smile almost as sweet as his child's, "as though I had a cord tied round my head."
He swept his hand over his forehead, as though he could remove the sensation of tightness by the gesture. It was pitiful to witness such a venerable and dignified oldgentleman stricken thus in his mind by the sufferings and miserable horrors of shipwreck.
"I think, sir," I said, addressing him with all the respectfulness I could infuse into my voice, "that the uneasiness of which you complain would leave you if you would lie down. The eye gets strained by staring through a port-hole, and that eternal horizon yonder really grows a kind of craze in one's head, if watched too long."
"You are quite right, sir," he replied, making me another bow; and, addressing his daughter, "This gentleman sympathizes with the peculiar inspirations of what I may call monotonous nature."
He looked at her with extraordinary and painful earnestness. Evidently, some recollection had leaped into his mind and quitted him immediately, leaving him bewildered by it.
He then said, in a most plaintivevoice—
"I will lie down. Your shoulder, my love."
He stretched out his old trembling hand. I got up to help him, but he withdrew from me with an air of offended pride, and reared his figure to its full height.
"This is my daughter, sir," he exclaimed, with cold emphasis; and though I knew he was not accountable for his behaviour, I shrunk back, feeling more completely snubbed than ever I remember being in my life.
With her assistance he got into the bunk, and lay there quite still.
She drew close to me, and obliged me to share the seat she made of the box which had contained the steward's linen.
"You are not angry with him?" she whispered.
"Indeed not."
"I shall lose him soon. He will not live long," she said, and tears came into her eyes.
"God will spare him to you, Miss Robertson. Have courage. Our trials are nearly ended. Once ashore he will recover his health—it is this miserable confinement, this gloomy cabin, this absence of the comforts he has been used to, that are telling upon his mind. He will live to recall all this in his English home. The worst has never come until it is passed—that is my creed; because the worst may be transformed into good even when it is on us."
"Youhave the courage," she answered, "not I. But you give me courage. God knows what I should have done but for you."
I looked into her brave soft eyes, swimming in tears, and could have spoken somedeep thoughts to her then, awakened by her words.
I was silent a moment, and thensaid—
"You must not go on deck to-day. Indeed, I think you had better remain below until I ask you to join me."
"Why? Is there any new danger?"
"Nothing you need fear. The men who fancy themselves very nearly at their journey's end, threaten to grow boisterous. But my importance to them is too great to allow them to offend meyet. Still, it will be best for you to keep out of sight."
"I will do whatever you wish."
"I am sure you will. My wish is to save you—not my wish only—it is my resolution. Trust in me wholly, Miss Robertson. Keep up your courage, for I may want you to help me at the last."
"You must trust in me, too, as my whole trust is in you," she answered, smiling.
I smiled back at her, andsaid—
"Now, let me tell you what may happen—what all my energies are and have been engaged to bring about. On Friday afternoon I shall tell the carpenter that the ship is fifty or sixty miles off the coast of Florida. If the night is calm—and I pray that it may be—the ship will be hove to, that is, rendered stationary on the water; the long-boat will be slung over the side, and the quarter-boat lowered. Allthisis certain to happen. But now come my doubts. Will the crew remain on board until the man they send into the hold to scuttle the vessel rejoins them? or will they get into the boats and wait for him alongside? If they take to the boats and wait for the man, the ship is ours. If they remain on board, then our preservation will depend upon the bo'sun."
"How?"
"He will either kill the man who gets into the hold, or knock him insensible. He will then have to act as thoughhewere the man he has knocked on the head."
"I see."
"If they call to him, he will have to answer them without showing himself. Perhaps he will call to them. They will answer him. They will necessarily muffle their voices that we who are aft may not suspect what they are about. In that case the bo'sun may counterfeit the voice of the man he has knocked on the head successfully."
"But what will he tell them?"
"Why, that his job is nearly finished, and that they had best take to the boats and hold off for him, as he is scuttling her in half a dozen places, and the people aft will find her sinking and make a rush to the boats if they are not kept away. Hewill tell them that when he has done scuttling her, he will run up and jump overboard and swim to them. This, if done cleverly, may decide the men to shove off. We shall see."
"It is a clever scheme," she answered, musingly. "The boatswain's life depends upon his success, and I believe he will succeed in duping them."
"What can be done he will do, I am sure," I said, not choosing to admit that I had not her confidence in the stratagem, because I feared that the more the boatswain should endeavour to disguise his voice the greater would be the risk of its being recognised. "But let me tell you that this is the worst view of the case. It is quite probable that the men will take to the boats and wait for their mate to finish in the hold, not only because it will save time, but because they will imagine it an effectualway of compelling us to remain on the vessel.
"What villains! and if they take to the boats?"
"Then I shall want you."
"What can I do?"
"We shall see. There still remains a third chance. The carpenter is, or I have read his character upside down, a born murderer. It is possible that this villain may design to leave the man whom he sends into the hold to sink with the ship. He has not above half a dozen chums, confidential friends, among the crew; and it will be his and their policy to rid themselves of the others as best they can, so as to diminish the number of witnesses against them. If, therefore, they contemplate this, they will leave the ship while they suppose the act of scuttling to be actually proceeding. Now, amongst the many schemeswhich have entered my mind, there was one I should have put into practice had I not feared to commit any action which might in the smallest degree imperil your safety. This scheme was to cautiously sound the minds of the men who were not in the carpenter's intimate confidence; ascertain how far they relished the notion of quitting the ship for a shore that might prove inhospitable, or on which their boats might be wrecked and themselves drowned, and discover by what shrewdness I am master of, how many I might get to come over to my side if the boatswain and myself turned upon Stevens and killed him, shot down Johnson, and fell, armed with my revolver and a couple of belaying pins, upon Cornish and Fish—these three men composing Stevens' cabinet. I say that this was quite practicable, and no very great courage required to execute it, as we shouldhave killed or stunned these men before they would be able to resist us."
"There would be nine left."
"Yes; but I should have reckoned upon some of them helping me."
"You could not have depended upon them."
"Well, we have another plan, and I refer to this only to show you a specimen of some of the schemes which have come into my head."
"Mr. Royle, if you had a pistol to give me, I would help you to shoot them! Show me how I can aid you in saving our lives, and I will do your bidding!" she exclaimed, with her eyes on fire.
I put my finger on my lip and smiled.
She blushed scarlet and said, "You do not think me womanly to talk so!"
"You would not hate me were you to know my thoughts," I answered, rising.
"Are you going, Mr. Royle?"
"Yes. Stevens, for all I know, may have seen me come in here. I would rather he should find me in my own cabin."
"We see very little of you, considering that we are all three in one small ship," she said, hanging her head.
"I never leave you willingly, and would be with you all day if I might. But a rough sailor like me is poor company."
"Sailors are the best company in the world, Mr. Royle."
"Only one woman in every hundred thinks so—perhaps one in every thousand. Well, you would see less of me than you do if I was not prepared to lay down my life for you. No! I don't say that boastfully. I have sworn in my heart to save you, and it shall cost me my life if I fail. That is what I should have said."
She turned her back suddenly, and Ihardly knew whether I had not said too much. I stood watching her for a few moments, with my fingers on the handle of the door. Finding she did not move, I went quietly out, but as I closed the door I heard her sob. Now, what had I said to make her cry? I did not like to go in again, and so I repaired to my cabin, wishing, instead of allowing my conversation to drift into a personal current, I had confined it to my plans, which I had not half unfolded to her, but from which I had been as easily diverted as if they were a bit of fiction instead of a living plot that our lives depended on.
During my watch from four to six, Stevens joined me, and asked how "Floridy" would bear from the ship when she was hove to?
I told him that Florida was not an island, but part of the main coast of NorthAmerica, and that he might head the boats any point from N.N.W. to S.S.W. and still, from a distance of fifty or sixty miles, fetch some part of the Florida coast, which I dared say, showed a seaboard ranging four hundred miles long.
This seemed new to him, which more than ever convinced me of his ignorance, for though I had repeatedly pointed out Florida to him, yet he did not know but that it was an island, which might easily be missed by steering the boats a point out of the course given.
He then asked me what compasses we had that we might take with us.
"We shall only want one in the long-boat," I replied; "and there is one on the table in the captain's cabin which will do. Have you got the long-boat all ready?"
"Ay, clean as a new brass farden, and provisioned for a month."
"Now let me understand; when the ship is hove to you will sling the long-boat over?"
"I explained all that before," he answered gruffly.
"Not that."
"You're hangin' on a tidy bit about them there boats. What do you think?"
"I suppose my life is as good as yours, and that I have a right to find out how we are to abandon this ship and make the shore," I answered, with some show of warmth, my object being to get all the information from him that was possible to be drawn. "You'll get the long-boat alongside, and all hands will jump into her? Is that it?"
"Why, wot do you think we'd get the boat alongside for if we didn't get into her?" he replied, with a kind of growling laugh.
"Will anybody be left on the ship?"
"Anybody left on the ship?" he exclaimed, fetching a sudden breath: "Wot's put that in yer head?"
"I was afraid that that yellow devil, the cook, might induce you to leave the steward behind to take his chance to sink or swim in her, just out of revenge for calling bad pork good," said I, fixing my eyes upon him.
"No, no, nothen of the sort," he replied quickly, and with evident alarm. "Curse the cook! d'ye think I's skipper to give them kind o' orders?"
"Now you see what I am driving at," I said, laying my hand on his arm, and addressing him with a smile. "I really did think you meant to leave the poor devil of a steward behind. And what I wanted to understand was how you proposed to manage with the boats to prevent him boarding you—that is why I was curious."
The suspicious ruffian took the bait as I meant he should; and putting on an unconcerned manner, which fitted him as ill as the pilot jacket which he had stolen from the captain he had murdered, and which he was now wearing, inquired, "What I meant by that? If they left the steward behind—not that they was goin' to, but to say it, for the sake o' argyment—what would the management of the boats have to do with preventin' him boardin' of them? He didn't understand."
"Oh, nothing," I replied with a shrug. "Since we are to take the steward with us, there's an end of the matter."
"Can't you explain, sir?" he cried, striving to suppress his temper.
"It is not worth the trouble," said I; "because, don't you see, if even you had made up your mind to leave the steward on the ship, you'd only have one man to dealwith. What put this matter into my head was a yarn I read some time ago about a ship's company wishing to leave their vessel. There were only two boats which were serviceable, and these wouldn't hold above two-thirds of the crew. So the men conspired among themselves—do you understand me?"
"Yes, yes, I'm a-followin' of you."
"That is, twelve men out of a crew composed of eighteen hands resolved to lower the boats and get away, and leave the others to shift for themselves. But they had to act cautiously, because, don't you see, the fellows who were to be left behind would become desperate with the fear of death, and if any of them contrived to get into the boats, they might begin a fight, which, if it didn't capsize the boats, was pretty sure to end in a drowning match. Of course, in our case, as I have said, even supposing youhadmade up your mind to leave the steward behind, we should have nothing to fear, because he would be only one man. But when you come to two or three, or four men driven mad by terror, then look out if they get among you in a boat; for fear will make two as strong as six, and I shouldn't like to be in the boat where such a fight was taking place."
"Well, but how did them other chaps manage as you're tellin' about?"
"Why, they all got into the boats in a lump, and shoved off well clear of the ship. The others jumped into the water after them, but never reached the boats. But all this doesn't hitourcase. You wished me to explain, and now you know my reasons for asking you how you meant to manage with the boats. Do not forget that there is a woman among us, and a fight at the last moment, when our lives may dependupon orderliness and coolness, may drown us all."
And so saying I left him, under pretence of looking at the compass.
I had no reason to suppose that the hints I took care to wrap up in my conversation with Stevens would shape his actions to the form I wished them to take; but though they did no good, they would certainly do me no harm, and it was at least certain that my opinion was respected, so that I might hope that some weight would attach to whatever suggestions I offered.
Nothing now remained to be done but to wait the result of events; but no language can express an idea of my anxiety as the hours passed, bringing us momentarily closer to the dreaded and yet wished-for issue.
Some of the men got intoxicated that afternoon, and I believe two of them had a desperate set to; they sang until they were tired, and for tea had more hot roast pork and fowls.
But the majority had their senses, and kept those who were drunk under; so that the riot was all forward.
I wondered what the boatswain would think of the shindy over his head, and whether he had a watch to tell the time by. His abode was surely a very dismal one, among the coals in the forepeak, and dark as night, with plenty of rats to squeak about his ears, and the endless creaking and complaining of the timbers under water.
A terrible idea possessed me once. It was that he might be asleep when the man went down to scuttle the ship, who, of course, would take a candle with him, and find him lying there.
But there was no use inimaginingevil. I could only do what was possible. If we were doomed to die, why, we must meet our fate heroically. What more?
It blew freshly at eleven o'clock, and held all night. I kept all the sail on the ship that she would bear, and up to noon next day we spanked along at a great pace.
Then the wind fell light and veered round to the north; but this did not matter to me, for I showed the carpenter a run on the chart which convincingly proved to him that, even if we did no more than four knots an hour until next day, we should be near enough to the coast of Florida to heave to.
This afternoon the men made preparations to swing the long-boat over the side, clapping on strops to the collar of the mainstay, and forward round the tressel-tree, ready to hook on the tackles to lift theboat out of her chocks. Their eagerness to get away from the ship was well illustrated by these early preparations.
All that day they fared sumptuously on roast pork, and whatever took their fancy among the cuddy stores, but drank little, or at all events not enough to affect them, though there was sufficient rum in the hold to kill them all off in a day, had they had a mind to broach the casks.
Towards evening we sighted no less than five ships, two standing to the south and the others steering north. The spectacle of these vessels fully persuaded Stevens that we were nearing the coast, he telling me he had no doubt they were from the West Indies, which he supposed were not more than four hundred miles distant.
I did not undeceive him.
I saw Miss Robertson for a few minutesthat evening to repeat my caution to her not to show herself on deck.
The men were again at their pranks in the forecastle, sky-larking as they call it at sea, and, though not drunk, they were making a tremendous noise. One of them had got a concertina, and sat playing it, tailor-fashion, on top of the capstan, and some were dancing, two having dressed themselves up as women in canvas bonnets, and blankets round them to resemble skirts.
Fun of this sort would have been innocent enough had there been any recognized discipline to overlook it; but from decent mirth to boisterous, coarse disorder, is an easy step to sailors, and in the present temper of the crew the least provocation might convert the ship into a theatre for exhibitions of horse-play which, begun in vanity, might end in criminal excesses.
During my brief conversation with Miss Robertson, I asked her an odd question—Could she steer a ship?
She answered, "Yes."
"You say 'yes' because you will try if you are wanted to do so," I said.
"I say 'yes' because I really understand how to use the wheel," she replied, seriously.
"Where did you learn?"
"During our voyage to the Cape of Good Hope. I used to watch the man steering, and observe him move the wheel so as to keep the compass card steady. I told Captain Jenkinson I should like to learn to steer, and he would often let me hold the wheel, and for fun give me orders."
"Which way would you pull the spokes if I told you to put the helm to starboard?"
"To the left," she answered, promptly.
"And if I said 'hard over?'"
"If the wind was blowing on the left hand side I would push the wheel to the right until I could push it no further. You can't puzzle me, indeed. I know all the steering terms.Really, I can steer."
I quite believed her, though I should never have dreamt of her proficiency in this matter, and told her that if we succeeded in getting away from the boats, she would be of the utmost importance to us, because then there would be three men to work the ship, whereas two only would be at liberty if one had to take the wheel.