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Illustrated by Wallis MacKay, MONTREAL: : DAWSON BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 1878. ir iHitTr- iilriTpij^r iTTTr 2033 Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year 1877, by DAWSON BROTHERS, in the Off.ce of the Minister of AgriciUture. A. A. Stevenson, Printer. PREFACE. ^ /^^RITICS have'often brought an objection — among others — against the few books I have written, that " they are written with a purpose." To The CaNains Cabin they will no doubt object that it is written without a purpose. And so, like the famous old man with his a3s, who ever since he was invented has been the stock friend of authors writlno- prefaces, I shall no doubt be still held by the critics to have pleased nobody. But that makes me love them none the less. If they speak well, I find that people buy the books to find out whether the judgment be true. If they speak ill, all the world desires to know for itself the reasons for their distaste. Where- fore I wish all my critics a most hearty VI PREFACE. Christmas and a good digestion, that whetlier they be disposed to approve or to disdain, they may e'en do it with all their might. To my public, always so kind to me in that most touching of compliments to an author or an artist, the buying of his works, I may say, that although in The Captains Cabin I have not had before me any of the definite purposes of philanthropy or social reform which were the chief moi"ives of books like Ginxs Baby and Lutchmee and Dilloo, this book will not be found to be wholly with- out a purpose. If it should only make you soundly merry at this festive time, or read you some good lesson of human sympathy, forbearance, and ch:irity, I shall not be dis- contented. Wherefore also unto you all, my readers everywhere, I wish all the blessings and pleasures of a healthy and a merry Christmas! E. J. CONTENTS. THE DINNER BELL CHAPTER I. *•• ••• ••• •« ••• ••• At* PAGFi I CHAPTER II. IN THE STEERAGE 27 CHAPTER III. A FELON ABOARD 38 CHAPTER IV. A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO ^I A SEA LAWYER CHAPTER V. ••• ••• ••. •.. ••• ... 88 CHAPTER VI. A VALET TO ORDER ,,, ••• ... •<• ... ,., ,,, ,,, i|_ via CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. I'AGE A MIXED COMPANY I25 CHArTER VIII. FEMININE MYSTERIES ■•• ••• ••• ••• CHAPTER IX. THE REPRISAL OF THE PAST «9« ••• ••• ••• •• 137 149 CHAPTER X. A BOW SHOT AT A VENTURE 165 CHAPTER XI. THE DISCOVERY 184 CHAPTER XII. THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE ... . •• ••• ••• ••• 209 CHAPTER XIII. THE RECONCILIATION - 221 CHAPTER XIV. A RUNAWAY MATCH ... 234 I 1 PAGE ... 125 ... 137 149 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. ... 165 ... 184 209 . ... 221 234 CHAPTER I. THE DINNER BELL. "TAING-DONG, dmg-doMg, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-a~dong ! The great ship Kamschatkan, 3,500 tons. Captain Windlass, R.N.R., commanding, had cleared the Mersey, and was running up the channel for the west of the Isle of Man, the breeze being light at N.E., and her speed twelve knots. But for the thud and vibration of her screw twirling on the great shaft in mighty- revolutions to the splendid play of a pair of Penn's marvellous engines, whose enormous cylinders os- cillated to and fro with an ease and quietness that THE captain's cabin. was almost appalling to a spectacor ; and but for the evidence of their eyes, as the grccn-sct river banks, with their charming panorama of wood and field and mansion, with here and there the spires or • towers of hamlet churches, and all the other sweet features of English scenery, had swiftly passed from view, the passengers would scarcely have believed themselves to be driving through the water nearly at the speed of a racehorse — six hundred of them, with bag and baggage, and some thousands of tons of merchandise into the bargain. • Less than three hours before, the majestic vessel displayed from the pier, to the eager eyes of the last batch of first-class passengers, who were with much ado embarking on the tender, her long and graceful hulk floating out in the middle of the noble river, the Union Jack at the stern, the pennon of the steamship company at the fore peak, her masts and spars sharply relieved against a black cloud, while the sun from its westering path 4 THE DINNER BELL. picked out with a golden burnish the complicated tracery of tackle and stay, of rigging, rope, and spar. The funnel vomited smoke, which the lazy breeze bore aft in a broad black ribbon, and across the river could be heard the bellowing of the great steam pipe, as the engineer, watching his gauges curbed the impatience of the hissing boilers. The tiny tender, rolling in the slight swell of the river, came bowling alongside with her deck crowded. From amidships to the bow of the giant vessel steerage emigrants pressed to the starboard bul- warks, to watch the embarkation of the few scores of " fellow " passengers who w ere to occupy the luxurious cabins, and enjoy if they were able the rich fare, of the saloon deck. The canny Scotch and Canadian passengers, who had gone aboard by an earlier tender, and had seen and " nobbled " their stewards and stewardesses, and settled down comfortably in their cabins, and secured the best THE captain's CABIN. i II seats at table, now peered curiously over at the later arrivals, with whom they were to eat and drink and talk and quarel and vomit in friendly community for the next ten or twelve days. These astute persons had already studied the list of passengers which lay before the purser in the saloon, and had to some extent drawn therefrom their own con- clusions as to the chances of a pleasant company for the voyage. Meanwhile, amidst much uproar, immense con- fusion, wholesale giving and disregarding of com- mands, murderous heaving about and pitching down of luggage, screams, oaths, angry words, laughter, shouts of captain, mates, stewards, and seamen, and no little chaffing from the leviathan to the cockboat and back again, suddenly a bell clangs, ** All ashoic ! " The captain roars from the bridge to the tender, " Cast oflf there ! " The steam rushes out with a deafening clangour that drowns ** good-byes," The tender, darting off amid a cloud ^\ THE DINNER BELL. 5 of waving handkerchiefs and a feeble cheer, takes away and leaves behind a few aching hearts and crying eyes ; and then suddenly a little bell rings from the bridge. A man below lays his hand on a steel rod ; it moves slowly. It moves ! There is a second's pause, a rushing mighty sound through the bowels of the great ship, a quiver ; and the screw, at the bidding of that slight command, twirls its tons of iron fluke through resisting tons of water, just like a child's toy-windmill in a breeze. Anon, with a shudder that thrills through every heart on board, from the experienced captain to the new cabin-boy — from Sir Benjamin Peakman, K.C.M.G., the swell of the cabin, down to John and Betsy Smith, children of John and Betsy Smith from Dorsetshire, steerage passengers, who are leaving starvation at home to risk it abroad — the leviathan majestically moves forward. " We are off! " says Sir Benjamin, with a slight trace of excitement in his tone, addressing his THE captain's cabin. i daughter, a young lady of eighteen, fresh from a crack school near Windsor, where she has been trying to learn, amongst relatives of royalty, the accomplishments of an aristocrat. • "We're off! " says Mr. Sandy McGowkie, of the firm of McGowkie and Middlemass, who keep a *' store " at Toronto, where everything a man or woman can wear or use or waste in the way of * dry goods " is sold, to yield the thrifty Scots a handsome twenty thousand dollars a year clear profit. He speaks to a neat-looking little Scotch- woman, with a blooming face — just now a trifle pale — and bright eyes, and a fine row of pearly teeth, which she displays to perfection as between a sob (thrown after the tender) and a smile (meant for McGowkie, who however does not see it) she faintly echoes, "We're off!" Honest McGowkie has just brought this little woman from Aber- deen, his native city, where she has figured for a few short years back as pretty Miss Auldjo, THE DINNER BELL. 9 I ■vii 'I ■& daughter of the Reverend Andrew Auldjo, the well- known U.P. minister. That worthy — having come off with them in the earliest tender, and given them many a word of sober warning and good counsel, along with his parting blessing, emphasised by a brief exercise of prayer in their little cabin — can still be discerned on the paddle-box of the tender, conspicuous by his great height, waving up and down a tear-damped pocket-handkerchief with the ungainly regularity of a semaphore, or a flag signal. For the staunch old man is going back to a widower's home, and to his Lord's work, with a shadowed albeit a steadfast heart. "We're off!" cries poor little Miss Beckwith, a young lady somewhat short of forty summers, in a dingy grey travelling dress and coarse straw hat with a blue veil of ninepenny net, which she drops over her pale face and moist eyes, as she takes from her bosom a well-worn locket, contain- ing the photograph of a man — a man not handsome, 8 THE captain's CABIN. and made even ghastly by the ill-used sun, which often so effectively resents the work of the so-called " artists " who endeavour to adapt him to their vile purposes. But she kisses the glass that protects the picture, and her poor little heart, which has throbbed to many a sorrow, pulsates rudely against the whalebone fencing of her stays — her oldest and staunchest friend in the world. She is departing — the steamship company having agreed to carry her first-class at half price, for I can vouch that steam- ship companies have both consciences and hearts — to try her luck as a governess in Canada. That photograph is one of her brother, a hopeless " ne'er- do-weel," whom she has practically been keeping for years out of her small earnings ; from whom she is indeed now trying to escape ; who only last night, in the poor inn they stayed at in Liverpool, got drunk, and struck her, for not leaving him the few shillings she had kept over to give her a week or two's chance of life in America ; a brute U THE DINNER BELL. 9 whom she left snoring this very day in a drunken slumber, and all unconscious of her sorrowful parting kisses. Great Heaven ! what bloodless and . bleeding hearts get linked together in this mad world of ours! "We're off!" says a seedy-looking man, with a sharp, cold, Jewish face, who has restlessly moved to and fro among the crowding steerage people, averting his features whenever they were glanced at, however casually, and drawing low over his forehead a great dirty-brown felt wideawake that looks fit to serve the gloomy turrt of a famous night-prowling poet. Sharply has this man, and with increasing restlessness, been watching the arrival of the tender ; quickly has his eye run over its company and taken a measure of every man and woman on board ; anxiously he sees the steamer at length depart with its lightened load ; eagerly he watches the captain, leaning on the rail of the bridge before he gives the critical command ; 10 THE captain's CABIN. !|lt til I! Ilii! and deep and grateful is the sigh he heaves as he sees the skipper's hand rise and gently touch the button which sends the order for the mighty machine below to begin its labours. And now, drawing a deep breath, he smiles sardonically on the people around him, and cries aloud, " We're off! " " Thank God ! " he adds to himself, with a quaint and profane stroke of piety. It is the gratitude of a heart evil and full of evil apprehensions. "We're off!" says a man to himself in the cap- tain's cabin, feeling the first thrill of motion, as he lies on the velvet sofa, and glances round the darkened chamber, where his valet : as piled up, in extreme confusion, bags, valises, rugs, sticks, and boxes — hat, dressing, despatch, or otherwise — enough for a batch of officials on a Queen's Com- mission. " Ha ! we're off," he says, sighing. " I wish I were ashore again, I declare I do." And he turns his face to the cushion and lies there motionless, but occasionally grumbling to himself. t^ THE DINNER BELL. II This man had the best cabin in the ship, on the upper deck, starboard side, at the stern end of the row of deck-houses, which embraced, as is usual in these big vessels, the cabins of captain, purser, doctor, the ladies upper saloon, and the smoking- room, besides enclosing the " companion " leading down to the spar-deck and its port and starboard lines of cabins. The captain, for a consideration, had agreed to give up this luxurious place for the voyage, and to be satisfied with his great chart- room amidships, under the bridge, where there was every convenience for sleeping, and where he was within hail of everybody. Only the day before the vessel sailed had an agent arranged with the owners that his client should occupy the favoured room astern. But we shall have gone over the whole vessel before we return to our sheep, so we come back to the huge dinner bell, which the youngest and most energetic steward — like the king of the " ghouls " n ! 12 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. ii in the tower in Poe's celebrated jingle— is ringing with all the zest and ferocity of a madman. Hor- rible, jovial bell ! To-day every one may call it, with Byron — ' . That tocsin of the soul, the dinner bell! but to-morrow afternoon, driving up beyond the north coast of Ireland in the teeth of a nor'- wester, when that madcap villain stands there, and for five full minutes bangs and jangles that brazen bowl about with a brutal jollity, and over the creak of stay and warping plank, and the shi- vering thud of the waves on the dead-lights and on the thin iron skin of the ship, the wild and wan- ton brawl of that metallic voice will sound like the crack of doom — it will thrill to many ears as if it were the demoniac howling of a spirit of the storm, or like the hideous cachinnation of some diabo- Jical cynic sitting at the foot of the companion, and laughing over the sorrows of the wretches who, huddled and cowering and squirming in their nar- THE DINNER BELL. ringing Kor- ean it, )nd the a nor'- 1 there, es that id over he shi- ts and d wan- ike the as if it storm, diabo- )anion, js who, ir nar- row berths, ha\ e that horrible sensation of going up to heaven and going down into the deep, so well described by a psalmist, and have become for the nonce utterly indifferent where it might all end, if the infernal torture could only be straightway and for ever terminated. — But here, again, we must pull up our too active Pegasus. To begin, we were too r^/r£7spective ; now we are /respecting too far. For the moment, at least, when this hideous jangle, inadequately reported in our first sentence, startles the ship, the sea is smooth and the air is appe- tizing, and from nearly every cabin, with few ex- ceptions, ladies and gentlemen and cads and counter- jumpers are streaming into the great saloon. In the broad, long, low room, with its row of round -eyed lights, its polished panils, gilded cornices, and flashing mirrors, two tables are laid out on either side. That to the right, entering on the port side, is the captain's table, at the top whereof sit those whom he selects for the honour ,1; f '^' \ \ I 14 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. to the number of twelve, friends of himself or the owners, and distinguished passengers. On the left is the purser's table, frequented mostly by bachelors, old and young, and by leery commercials, who are married when at home, but are travelling for the voyage en gar^on — a most lively table, where the purser genially encourages a vast consumption of strong sherry and stronger whiskies, where rough joke and bread story are never wanting ; and where, however dark or unweatherly the day, the men come up to the call of the imp with the bell, the strong stomachs of these practised voyagers ever standing out manfully against the perturbing efforts of storm and wave. Soup is on the table. Many of the guests are seated. Stewards are standing at intervals of every ten persons on either side of the long tables, curiously examining their squads of victims, and forming estimates of the probable amount of the gratuities when the voyage is over. A bell tinkles, jS .:^ THE DINNER BELL. 15 the covers of the soup tureens come off with a flourish, their steaming contents are ladled out, and clattering spoons and smacking lips give testimony rather to the appetite than to the good-breeding of the general company. The benches are pretty well filled. There are eighty-seven cabin passengers on board. Here and there in the long ranks a hiatus is visible, the empty chair of some invalid, or weak- stomached man or woman, or of some one whose sorrow at parting is keener than appetite. There is also at first a considerable blank at the head of the captain's table. He of course is absent. So long as his ship is in the channel he will not leave the deck. But to the right and left of his seat several places are vacant. The cards of the persons to whom they have been assigned lie on the table-cloth. " Where are the swells ? " said a coarse-looking middle-aged man, with cheeks that looked as if it was no unusual thing for them to weather an Atlantic storm, and who sat at the foot of the III! III! I I i6 THE captain's cabin. captain's table. He addressed a young gentleman opposite to him, tall, with dark hair and eyes, well -cut features, and a reserved and haughty bearing. The young man lazily lifted his eyes towards the speaker, and inquired rather with them than by his tone of voice — which was fashionably drawling and monotonous — " I beg pardon. What do you mean .? " " Why, don't you see," replied the other, not minding his fellow-traveller's manner, " there ain't any one at the head of the table, where the swells sit .? " " Oh I " returned the young man, quietly apply- ing himself again to his soup. The red-faced man plied his spoon vigorously and audibly. When he had done, he renewed the attack. "You know, I s'pose, that only the captain's friends and the ' aristocracy ' are alloived to sit in the twelve first places ? ** itleman id eyes, laughty towards than by Irawling do you ler, not ;re ain't e swells ' apply- ed man Ihcn he aptain's o sit in ' i! t i !fll THE DINNER BELL, 17 " No. I am not an experienced traveller. I never was at sea before," said the other, carelessly. " Yes," persisted the man ; " it's a sheer bit of humbug. I've seen fellows sitting up there I shouldn't care to associate with. There is always such a lot of snobbery about these things. / prefer to come to this end of the table. It's the most independent, and / think the most respectable." At this moment an elderly gentleman opened the door which led into the saloon from the pas- sage, and stepping aside, made way for two ladies, who, leisurely sailing in, instantly attracted all eyes at both tables. The first to enter was a large, over- dressed, haughty-looking woman, whose features, no longer handsome, were nevertheless striking, and expressive of a powerful character. As she stepped through the door, she brusquely lifted her gold eye-glass, and with a sweep round the saloon, took in the whole company, deliberately, from the captain's end round to the purser, and from the t (I ■I i i8 THE captain's CABIN. purser round again to the captain's seat. Then she turned to her companion, a young girl, here- after to be described, and beckoning to her to take the place to the left of the captain, herself secured that at the post of honour on the right. The elderly gentleman, who also carried and used sharply a pair of gold glasses, seated himself next to the younger lady, on an imperative nod from the other. We have said that several seats were unoccupied. The lady again raised her glasses and read the name on the card placed next to her own. She then reached over for the card beyond, and perused it carefully. By a quick impatient move- ment she ordered the gentleman to hand her the cards which were in corresponding relation to him on the other side ; and when she had studied these, and returned them, she applied herself to her soup. One card only remained uninspected. It was the fourth on the captain's right. That one appar- ently escaped her. ^^) THE DINNER BELL. 19 ■t. Then [irl, here- ;r to take f secured ht. The nd used self next nod from jats were asses and her own. ond, and nt move- her the m to him ied these, her soup, t was the le appar- The card at her own right hand bore the name of Mrs. Carpmael, the next one that of Mr. Carp- mael. On the opposite side, near the elderly gentleman, were the names of Mr. and Mrs. McGowkie. " Of Toronto," the gentleman had said, in answer to an interrogatory raising of the lady's eyebrows. " Dry goods." "Captain's friends, I suppose," she said, care- lessly. " Yes. No doubt. McGowkie is making money — he's a good man of business." " " Humph ! Well, here he is, I dare say," said the lady, as the Scotchman, entering first, dressed in his rough tweed suit, was followed by his pretty wife, who had mounted a bright coquettish little cap, which th^ thrifty storeman had selected for 1 or from a wholesale lot at the Wood Street Warehouse Company's, in London. Mr. McGowkie nodded to the elderly gentleman, 3» 20 THE captain's CABIN. neither familiarly nor rudely, but with a certain sedate assurance. He allr'wed his wife to take her seat next to the knight — for the party at the head of the table was in fact that of Sir Benjamin Peak- man — and seeming not to notice the fact that both his wife and himself were being mercilessly ogled by Lady Peakman, McGowkie said : " Sir Benjamin, I beg to introduce you to my wife, Mistress McGowkie. She's ower fresh as yet to matrimony, and to sailing, too ; but she'll get experience in time." Sir Benjamin thereupon shook hands with Mrs. McGowkie, with the air of a nobleman condescend- ing to his housekeeper. " I congratulate you, Mr. McGowkie," he said, glancing at Mrs. McGowkie's fresh bright face. " May I say that you are evidently a fortunate man } It is not every one who is so successful in his investments as you always appear to be." And the knight's eye wandered a moment across. THE DINNER BELL. 21 to his lady, who was now looking at him through her glasses. She seemed amused. Pretty Mrs. McGowkie blushed finely, and then asked for soup ; and then, suddenly seeing that the fish was on the table, said she would not take any soup ; and then, getting quite crimson, sat poring over her plate for a full five minutes, with her silly little heart throbbing, throbbing, like a mill-wheel. Nothing of all this, except the words, had escaped the eyes of the red-faced man at the foot of the table, who had in truth been staring with all his might. Neither had the young gentleman been entirely blind, though he took his observations with an indolent ease and affectation of indifference peculiar to him. He asked no questions. " Do you know who that old boy is > " said the red-faced man, a little nettled by the young man's indifference. " I do not," replied the other, bending over his turbot 22 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. I " It's Sir Benjamin Peakman, one of the new knights they've made to the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. He's a wealthy old fellow from Quebec — was prime minister there four years ago ; and, for all his airs, was once a ploughboy." " Really ! I think the better of him, then," re- plied the young gentleman, slowly sticking a glass in his eye, and for a moment or two glancing at the knight. The red- faced man was encouraged. It was his nature to bait his company. He hated men who were impenetrable, and by fair means or foul, by cunning or sheer rudeness, he was wont to force his way over any guard, however practised, strong, or skilful. He was one of a dozen thick-skinned commercials such as you may find any voyage, travelling from Liverpool to Quebec or Portland. "That swellish-looking old woman," he added, * with the great pile o' ribbons on her head, and • t?^*TA.>fc-.>*'ir'*'.^^ THE DINNER BELL. 23 the gold lorney-etts, is Lady Peakman. She's a strange woman, she is. They call her in Quebec the leader of society. No one knows who she is or where she comes from, but folks tell some queer stories about her. Sir Benjamin Peakman picked her up, they say, somewhere on the continent, long ago, when he was travelling there on business as simple Mr. Peakman. He's her second husband, I believe. At least, so they say. That girl 's the only child they have, and a mighty pretty one, too, only she looks too stuck up. Coming aboard, I saw her lift her dress, and she had on fine silk stockings, all pink colour, like a ballet-girl's." " Humph ! " said the young man, taking no notice whatever of the girl to whom his attention had been directed. " You see sharply ; you might be a haberdasher, sir," looking keenly at his tormentor. Then, with great nonchalance^ he proceeded to dis- cuss the stewed kidneys which had now reached the table. 24 THE captain's cabin. ' I Mmr. till The red-faced man grew redder for an instant, for the youth had hit him, by some extraordi- nary chance, squarely and accurately. He was Mr. Twopenny, hosier and haberdasher, of West Notre-Dame Street, Montreal. He relapsed for awhile upon his food, and waited for another op- portunity. After a hasty struggle with a large plate of kidneys and potatoes, he glanced up the table again. " La ! there's the Carpmaels come in," he said. "That man, sir, has the biggest law business in Montreal. There ain't a lawyer in the province can touch him. That's his wife, with the thin nose and nut-cracker face. They say she's dis- tantly connected with the nobility. I believe she was over with Lady Blogden, when Sir Antony was governor." The young man having finished his entree, and no doubt feeling called on to say something in ac- knowledgment of the garrulity of his vis-d-vis, THE DINNER BELL. 25 said, with a studied drawl, "Ah, you appear to know everybody on board." , "Well, I do know a good lot," replied the other, with unconcealed pride, " but not all of 'em. Now," he said, leaning his arm on the table, and stretching forward confidentially, " there's an elderly man I saw go into the captain's cabin upstairs. I guess he has taken it for the voyage. He has a man-servant with him. He ain't here to-night, and I fancy his seat is the empty one up there near Mr. Carpmael. I don't know him, and nobody on board seems to know him. His name is Fex. I saw it on the boxes. A queer name, ain't it ? No one I've spoken to ever heard the name before. Did you .? " " No," said the other. " I never heard the name before." He yawned ostentatiously, and turned to ad- dress a question to the mild-looking gentleman beside him, who was dressed in a dark tweed suit, 26 THE captain's CABIN. and wore a black necktie. This gentleman had been an attentive listener to the loud talk of their vis-d-vis, and to the mild responses of his neigh- bour, but had not uttered a word except to the waiters. He might have been an actor, or a peda- gogue, or a parson, or a dissenting minister. His quiet answers attracted the young man, and the most determined efforts of the rougher traveller opposite failed to break up the conversation, which was carried on in a tone that scarcely allowed a word to reach him. So the red-faced man turned to his neighbour, who happened to be the little governess, Miss Beckwith, had their eigh- ) the )eda- His 1 the seller /hich Dwed man ; the CHAPTER II. IN THE STEERAGE. WHILE the saloon passengers were spending their hour and a half at dinner, and in that gossip and general canvass of each other's names, appearances, and characters, which always takes place at the first symposium on board an outgoing steamer, the three or four hundred persons in the steerage were trying to settle down in their more humble quarters. A strange medley is the so-called "steerage" of a great ocean packet. Walk a hundred feet forward from the saloon cabins, by the port or starboard ways, past the thin wooden partitions which screen in the throbbing, quivering movements of the Titanic machinery; past the scullery and the galley. 28 THE captain's CABIN. where white-turbaned boys and cooks through all weathers carry on their skilful labour in con- cocting dishes that are not eaten, or many a time, if swallowed, never digested, the visitor from the after portion of the ship reaches, just abaft the huge foremast, the large square hatchway, around which in glorious confusion circulate men, women, and children, of many nations and conditions. It is a stirring scene. Sailors pass- ing to the deck from the forecastle bunkers, or idly lounging about ; scullery boys pushing to and fro huge basket-waggons of dirty plates, or washing and preparing the vegetables for the saloon and steerage meals; laundrymen with the soiled table-linen for the daily wash ; the baker's assistants bringing up the flour for the bread of a thousand people from the storeroom far down on the main deck below the forecastle, at the extreme bow of the ship ; rough women chaffing rougher men ; children swarming in and out ; in fine weather a lively IN THE STKEKAGE. 39 mob of bantering, laii^liing, and gesticulating folk of all countries ; in stoimy weather, often a scene of abject misery, illness, and squalor. Descend the iron ladder of the hatchway into the quarters on the main deck. You drop among a mass of humanity, occupying a great space be- tween decks, about seven feet high, and extending from the fore part of the vessel back for about one-fourth of her length to a point-where the main bulkheads shut in the hugh area devoted to the coal and machinery, and to a score of varied uses in the ship's economy. The only light this space can receive is from the hatchway down which you have descended, or from the round ports in the rough cabins which line the sides of the vessel, and this only at times when their doors can be left open by the inmates. The cabins from door to side- lights are about twelve feet deep. On either side of the narrow passage, which ru.is athwart the ship, are great bunkers, one below and one above, di- 30 THE captain's CABIN. vided by rough boards — except in a case where whole families wish to sleep together — into berths about two feet and a half wide and six feet long — very like coffins with the lid off. Into this chamber, where air can never enter during the whole passage, except through the door and from the space be- tween decks outside, which itself depends for fresh air upon windsails passed down the hatchway (for the port-lights are only a few feet above the water- line and cannot be opened during the voyage), there are crowded twenty persons. Twenty per- sons in a cabin twelve feet long, fifteen feet wide, and seven feet high, with sixty-three cu^ic feet of what is called air to each person, when the hatches are battened down during a gale, is not according to Richardson's gospel of hygiene. Families claim the right to go together. Fathers, mothers, boys, maidens, ^nd infants, huddled into these troughs, with their mattrasses and blankets, manage as best they can to reconcile the exigencies of physical life IN THE STEERAGE. 31 with the decencies prescribed by instinct or good feeling. Every day, however, these places are care- fully cleaned out, and inspected by the doctor, and not unfrequently by the captain, if he be a good one. Further along the deck, in the darkness there amid- ships, where a lanthorn is always necessary to enable you to pick your way, you may find the quarters of the single men — narrow berths hastily but firmly knocked up with rough deal boards, when it is found by the owners that living freight is for that voyage to take the place of dead weight. For the single women, a curious mixture of poverty-stricken respectability and indescribable immorality, one or two of the larger cabins are set aside ; and, if the officer in charge does his duty, they will be kept free from the intrusion of men. The conditions are the very best that can be attained for sea travelling at six guineas a head. The air in this place, even in the early morning, is on ordinary occasions by no means foul. But 32 THE captain's CABIN. when the safety of the ship necessitates the closing of all openings, it is likely that the steerage is a trifle worse off than the saloon. To maintain order in the motley assemblage, to preserve young people from the vilest contamina- tion, to watch a society so various and so rudely cast together, you may as well admit is an impos- sible task. It is however attempted, and as well done as it can be by some of the steamship owners — by the owners of the Kamschatkan and her sister ships. And happily for human nature there are rarely wanting among these reeking crowds persons who, skilled in benevolent work and taught by experience something of the temptations and evils of life, and also of blessed antidotes, give them- selves up to the task of mitigating the horrors, the abominations, the perils, of these intolerable circumstances. The confusion in the gangway, and on the middle and lower deck, upon the first night out ■«■■ IN THE STEERAGE. 33 of the Kamschatkan was indescribable. A gang of men under the direction of the fourth officer and the steerage steward were trying to clear away and stow in the luggage - room a quantity of boxes, baskets, bags, and bundles which still lay about, and which the owners cherished the impossible hope of retaining in or near their sleeping-places during the voyage. Loud quarrels, objurgations in half-a-dozen different languages, the commanding voice of the officer, the chaff of the disinterested onlookers, the movement to and fro of bodies of people, groups of friends, large families, fathers and mothers seeking lost children, and squalling younglings looking for vanished parents, altogether produced an effect such as might be imagined from a combination of Babel with Bedlam. In the middle of it here and there might be seen a few groups of persons who, re- gardless of the noise and commotion, sat at the rough tables which were fixed across the deck at 34 THE captain's CABIN. It t' yi^ its widest part. Some of these groups were finish- ing the tea and bread which had lately been served to them upstairs on the main deck, in their tin cups and on their platters of the same metal. Others were drinking off their small stores of ale or spirits, brought on board in defiance of the rules, and which they desired to get rid of at one bout, before the officials had had time to ob- serve them. Towards one of these groups — which was particularly noisy and uproarious, and in the middle of which there was going on, with the aid of the lanthorn that swung from the beam above them, some game of cards — the man with the wide- awake hat and Jewish face was pushing his way through the stirring crowd. A buxom young girl of about sixteen or eighteen years of age, turning hurriedly out of the cabin in which she had been aiding her mother to arrange the family bunker, ran against him. He instantly threw his arms round her, crying ''•:-''ii! IN THE STEERAGE. 35 out, " Now, my dear, not so quick. You're pretty fast at wooing, you are." The girl's face grew crimson as she struggled to get free, and finding the man's arms were powerful and his manner determined, she gave him a sharp slap in the face, which left the marks of her rosy fingers even on his pallid complexion. " D — you ! " said he, throwing her off violently. " I'll pay you off for this before we get ashore." " Yo will, eh, maister ? " said a long, slouching, broad-chested fellow, who, stretched out, would have been six feet one, to an inch, but whom the bending influence of labour had brought down a few inches. " Yo take my caounsel, wull ee, and leave she aloan." Looking up and down the rough-clad dimensions of the fresh - looking Norfolk giant, who owned to a friendship with the girl, the Jew-faced man seemed inclined to avoid trying conclusions, and wished to laugh it off. " Oh ! my friend," he said, with an affectation of 36 THE captain's CABIN. il^ good humour, " it's all right. I was only chaffing." And he rapidly passed on. At the same time he said to himself, " I'll remember you, young man, and take it out of you, too." " Chaffen, weer ee ? " said the tall youth, looking after him suspiciously. " Then oi zay doant ee chaff no muore that way. Oi zay, Meary, he han't a hurt ee, have he } Oi'll crack the skull ov 'im naouw ef he have." " O no, Zacky," said the girl, " I'm all right." " Yo cum and tell me, Meary, ef ee goes on to try any muore of his tricks wi ee ;- do ee zee ^ Yo just cum to me, an' oile pitch im into the zay ; oi wull, zure as my name's Zachary Plumtree." Meanwhile the object of Zachary's wrath had reached the place where, with the scent of a sleuth- hound, he had judged that there was some gambling going on. A circle of eight or ten people of dif- ferent nationalities were watching four men who were playing the American game of euchre. Shad- , I IN THE STEERAGE. 37 ing his face carefully with the broad flap of his felt hat, the new comer keenly took stock of the company — then of the players — and lastly ad- dressed himself to the play. In two minutes he picked out the pigeon and the escrocs. Satisfied with his inspection, or disgusted with the smallnesa of the stakes, he soon went away. 'im ip 11 CHAPTER III. A FELON ABOARD. ''"T^HE ship had put into Lough Foyle, for Mo- ville. The tender from Derry had brought up one or two passengers. The mails had been transhipped. And now the Kamschatkan, bracing herself to the task, was rapidly leaving Tory behind her, running directly into the teeth of -a nor'-wester. The night fell black and drizzly ; the ship, without a stitch of canvas, and with her top- masts lowered, hurled on by the enormous pressure of the untiring screw, pitched her bow gallantly at the vast advancing waves, ran up their sliding bosoms until she nearly reached the crest, quivered a moment up there on that dizzy height, and then plunging like a sea-mew or a porpoise through the A FELON ABOARD. 39 tons of boiling surf that capped these leviathan rollers of the deep, and shaking them off her shoulders in a hissing fall of foam, she darted down with dizzy vehemence to the bottom of the vast abyss which the rising mass had left behind it. Everythmg had been made tight. The fore hatches had been battened down ; the dead-lights had been screwed on the engme-room and saloon skylights and the deck-cabin windows ; the fiddles were on the table in the saloon, and everything was in the usual trim for dirty weather. Bad as the weather was, the watch were busily engaged in securing more firmly the tarpaulins and tacklings of the boats, and in making everything as taut as possible. Scarcely a passenger was to be seen. One or two brave fellows stuck to the smoking-room, and tried to be jolly over their pipes and whisky. In the steerage only one man seemed to be able to with- stand the general demoralisation. It was the man in the wideawake. He was sitting near the top of II 11 ij 40 THE captain's cabin. the companion on the main deck, in the coil of a huge cable, talking to the steerage steward. After comparing some notes about his fellow-passengers at that end, he turned the conversation to the saloon. "You've a rare lot of first-class passengers aboard, haven't you ? " " Yes," said the steward. " Most on 'em wants to get home for Christmas, you see. It's not a favourite time for crossing, but this is a new ship, and captain's a favourite, and so a good many on *em have been waiting. I never saw so many afore, at this time o' year." " Hah I Anybody particular aboard ? " " Well, there's a live lord among the rest. A young fellow, I believe, name of Lord Pendlcbury, but I haven't seen him. Then there's old Sir Benjamin Peakman and his wife and daughter. He's as rich as Creases. I don't know of any other folks of consequence. The usual lot, I suppose, i A FELON ABOARD. 41 commercial travellers, agents, and small trades- people." " You say Sir Benjamin Peakman is rich } Has he got a valet with him ? " " Not on board this time. He generally has one when he crosses. — There's a fellow, by the way, in the captain's cabin, Mr. Fex — rum name, ain't it ? —he has a gentleman to wait on him." " Do you think Sir B. wants a valet .? That's my business, you know." " Oh ! I didn't know," replied the other. « Well, I can find out for you." " Do. I know sometimes these Canadian swells look out for servants on board your ships." " Do you ? Have you ever crossed before, then?" " Not with you," said the other, evasively. " Try a drop of my brandy," handing a flask. " You'll find it exlra good," he added, winking. " It came out of the cellar of my last governor." Mr. Crog, the steerage steward, highly appre- I 43 THE CAPTAIN S CABIN. ciated the brandy and the joke. They untied his tongue a little. " I say " he said, lowering his voice, though in the infernal din that was filling the air from the fearful storm without and the rattle and racket and groanmg and shrieking within, there was little chance of their being overheard, "tl^^ captain's m a precious stew. Just as we wen vmg off from Greencastle, after the tender had left us, a little boat ran up from the telegraph station there. A man in the stern held up a telegram. " * What is it ? ' shouted the captain. " ' Telegram to stop the ship.' « ' Stop the ship .? What for .? ' " * You've got Kane, the murderer, on board.* " * Nonsense I ' shouted the captain. " ' I tell you. Captain Windlass, you have. Here's the telegram, describing him.' " ' All right,* says the captain. ' Quartermaster, there ! ' m A FELON ABOARD. 43 fi " • Ay, ay, sir.' " * Heave out a few coils of the log line there into that boat.' " * Heave it is, sir.' " When it was done, ' Now,' says he to the tele- graph clerk, ' tie on the paper and run your boat close alongside." "In another moment the telegram was aboard. *' ' Hav' vou got it ? ' shouts the captain. " ' Ay, ay, jir.' " Ring went the bell, ' Full speed.' Round went the screw.' The boat was precious nearly upset, and we could hear them scolding as we bore away. — Halloo, I say ! Look out ; you'll go down the hatchway I " The Jewish- looking man, who had been sitting comfortably enough on the huge coil of rope, was suddenly pitched over head and heels backwards into the water-way, and with another roll described a graceful parabolic curve, which landed him only — w^— — »— ■ 44 THE CAPTAIN 3 CABIN a foot or two short of the hatchway, with his shoulder jam against the combing, where he came to an anchor. The steward ran forward and se- cured him. He seemed to be much shaken and alarmed. '" There, get down again into your crib, and hold on tight with both hands. Why, you've knocked your weather eye, and look like death. Here, take a swig of your own reviver." " Oh, it's nothing," said the other. " Where's my hat ? " In handing him the big wideawake, the steward took a good look at him. " That's not the man ! " he muttered to himself. " But he's a precious sharp-looking un, now one gets a sight of him." Any observer would have agreed with Mr. Crog. The removal of the wideawake had revealed a most striking head and physiognomy. A head with an immense shock of carroty hair, which was in a state A FELON ABOARD. 45 of great disorder. A forehead, square, receding from great ugly brows. Black, keen, flashing eyes, ga- thered inward, and completely caverned by those brows. A long pale face, every lineament telling of strength, and resolution, and passion, and cunning. A nose sharp and thin, with a Jewish outline ; a small mouth ; a long narrow chin ; half whiskers at the side of the face, of a peculiar sandy-red colour, which oddly contrasted with the darkness of his skin and eyes. The lower part of the face shaved smooth as a child's. For an instant the man's eyes looked up boldly and peremptorily into those of the steward, as if to penetrate his inmost thoughts. But Mr. Crog had no sooner seen his man than every trace of suspicion vanished. The stranger revered himself again with his hat. One eye was swelling desperately with a blow from one of the iron stanchions at the side of the vessel. He made no effort to relieve it. " I'm all right, new," he said, laughing. " What ,5 «:; I in ': I IW 46 THE captain's CABIN. were you saying ? Try a little more of this. I can fill it again." "Oh, I thought perhaps you could help me in fishing out this fellow. There's a tremendous re- ward offered — five hundred pounds." "Whew!" said the other, jumping up briskly, but, warned by the increasingly savage motion of the vessel, tumbling into his nest again and holding on firmly. " Have you got a description } " His face was turned away from the steward, and his tone was one of indifference, but if Mr. Crog could have peered under the dark sombrero, he would have seen on those singular features a mix- ture of irrepressible pain and anxiety. "Yes," said Mr. Crog. — "Take care! Don't you go squirming about so, or you'll be off again. I've got it here. The capen gave me a copy of it Every officer and steward has a copy. It's short, you see, being by telegraph. We was to have waited till the detective arrived by special boat *-L A FELON ABOARD. 47 from Derry, with the full description, and no one was to be allowed to go ashore. [Reads.] " A man of about forty-five or fifty years of age, with thick black hair, supposed to be dyed to cover grey, parted down the middle. Large black whiskers, worn a la Dundreary, with heavy mous- tache. High forehead, big eyebrows, black shining eyes. An imperial on chin, prominent nose, dresses handsomely in frock-coat, or, when travelling, in a tweed shooting suit. Large diamond ring on left little finger. Very powerful build, seems about five feet eight or ten inches in height. Good address, and very gentlemanly in his manners. Probably has a wound or bruise on his left eye. Talks German, French, and English." '* Well, you've got the bruise, any way," said Mr. Grog, laughing. " It's fortunate I was by, to see how you got it. They're all so keen after the quarry, I'll bet you anything with that bruise you'd have been in quod in twenty-four hours." 1 48 THE captain's CABIN. " By Jove ! " said the other, laughing loud and long. " Take a man up for murder because he has a black eye ! You'll be able to seize a dozen of these fellows downstairs on that score before two days are over. There's a gang of gamblers on board." • "No. Is there.?" " Yes. I found 'em out last night. I've not been a gentleman's gent, and all over Europe, from St. Petersburg to Biarritz, not to speak of Homburg and Monaco, for nothing." Mr. Crog looked respectfully at his Jewish friend. This was the very man to help him to dig out the criminal from the mine of humanity below there. "Well," replied Mr. Crog, "there's a hundred pounds for you if you pick him out, dead or alive." '• A hundred pounds, sir," cried the other, in a contemptuous tone. " Do you suppose I'm going to share with you at any less than half the money .<* k A FELON ABOARD. 49 I'll . see you hanged first. Wait until I've talked it over with some of the officers." Mr. Crog was quick enough to see that the astute stranger had caught him, and being a man of sense, he agreed with the fellow quickly, whiles he was in the way with him, seeing that now it would be that or nothing. They shook hands over the bargain, and then the stranger tried to rise to get to his berth. He could scarcely move. "Well," he said, "I am stiff! I shall have to lie up, I can see. Well, don't you be in a hurry about that fellow. I shall stay quietly in my berth for a day or two, and listen to what goes on, es- pecially if this infernal weather lasts." "By the way," said Mr. Crog, "what's your name } " "Stillwater," replied the other. "James Still- water. I've given up my ticket to the purser's steward, so you need not bother me about that I'll look after myself." r i 50 THE captain's CABIN. He crawled slowly down the hatchway, and limped along to the men's quarters, where he had selected the most retired, the darkest, and most disagreeable berth in the ship. CHAPTER IV. A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. OIR BENJAMIN PEAKMAN, K.CM.G., was a new knight, but not a new light, in the colo- nial world. His name had been associated with the business and politics of our transatlantic posses- sions for now very nearly a third of a century. Hard and astute, he knew how to conceal his shrewdness and sternness under an air of good hu- mour and even of deference, which, if it reminded one too much of the sleek affectation of a cat, bent on a hunting excursion in a bird-frequented garden, was at all events generally agreeable. He was not a handsome man, but he had large teeth, and he showed them with adroitness. He was always smiling. He smiled to himself when he 5* $2 THE captain's cabin. was by himself, and when (you would have thought) he fancied no one was looking. The truth was he always saw everybody and everything. He forgot nothing. His manners were invariably gentle and conciliatory, specially so, some people said, when he meant mischief. He purred, whichever way you stroked him, which proves that the feline analogy is not quite perfect. He had been like this from the time when he first emerged from obscurity into a visible and noticeable life. People in Quebec could remember him — when Quebec was the greatest commercial place in Canada — an errand boy for the shipping house of Macwhappy and Salt. It was said that he had come to that post from the Eastern Townships, where many a time he had driven the team that dragged his father's plough. If mentioned at all, that ought to be put down to his credit, for never did plough- boy carry into town a gentler mien or a more natural deference than Benjy Peakman, when he iHif' 1 '^4.. A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. S3 deserted agriculture for commerce. He was a big boy too, and a sharp one. His mother was descended from a family of U. K. loyalists, who had selected a home in the colony of Quebec when, with a sturdy love of Monarchy and Tory- ism, they were obliged either to flee the new re- public, or to fight to establish it. It was by her impulsion that young Benjy, who had received a tolerable education at a village school, conducted by an honest Presbyterian Scotchman, was led to leave the tending of his father's flocks, and try his luck at fleecing in a larger arena. The result did honour, in some sense, to the maternal instinct. Master Benjamin had been brought up in a hard school. He had rarely handled money. When he did see it he appreciated it. His small eyes danced in his large face whenever he held it in his hand. The propensity of trade, of winning wealth, of keeping it, and of making it grow, ab- sorbed his soul. There are such boys with faculties f si 54 THE captain's CABIN. Otherwise noble and worthy. Had I such a boy 1 should pray that this devil might be cast out of hinri, for I know none worse. I could cherish some- hope for a profligate, prodigal, debauched, or drunken character ; but the steady establishment in any hum.an being, by a gradual process from early youth to manhood, of the trading soul and spirit, with all that follows it of selfishness, hardness, want of scruple, low subtlety of intelligence, blood- less heart, impenetrable conscience, consuming hunger and thirst after wealth, and indomitable determination to possess it at all hazards — present and future — is the most dismal and hopeless per- * version of a God-made nature that it is possible to conceive. Rather than that, be happy to see your son making ducks and drakes of his fortune, if you are fool enough to give him one, and with some scraps of honour, of good feeling, of generosity, of conscience, still glowing amid the embers of his disordered being. 1 A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 55 However, this may seem to be rather hard upon Sir Benjamin Peakman, besides appearing to fore- stall or prejudice the reader's opinion of him. Wherefore it is to be accepted distinctly as in no way referring to him, but as an interlocutory and abstracted remark, for thj relevance and propriety whereof there is ample precedent in numerous works, ancient and modern, admitted by all the critics to be perfect both in matter and form. Young Peakman's policy from the first was like that of the British Government when it means mischief: it was a policy of conciliation. No one could put him out of temper. His mates could never bully him into a fight or tempt him to a harsh word ; his employers, when they swore at him, saw him accept their oaths as if they were blessings; he disarmed the most ill-tempered debtors to the firm, or its most impracticable customers, by the gentleness with which he parried their rude remarks, and the quiet steadiness and tni 11 56 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. the crafty devotion with which he insisted on carrying out his employers' commands. He was one day hit on the head by a jack-boot thrown at him by a captain of one of his employers' ships who was in bed at an hotel. He picked it up, and respectfully returned it ♦o the owner, saying, " What message shall I give, sir, to Messrs. Mac- whappy and Salt ? " All this was very amiable, and to many persons seemed to be very praiseworthy. And so it would have been, had it been the natural ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. But it was not. It was simply cunning of the meanest order. Twenty years later, when Captain Gumbo wa«s a veteran, and Benjamin Peakman had ' «rftr ^r ^ part- ner in the firm of Macwh jakman, the old man was turned oh it the ist chance like a mangy dog ; and when he went to Peakman anr^ pleaded his long service and his six children, ani besought that he might not be sent into hopci ? it A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 57 poverty, Mr. Peakman, in his blandest manner and with the smile of an angel, said, " Captain Gumbo, I am sorry I cannot hold out the least prospect of our requiring you again. You have perhaps for- gotten a little incident which occurred so many years ago, when I was a boy in this office and you were the senior captain ? I wish you good-morning. If sir. The captain told this story all over Quebec. Everybody commiserated him, but everybody re- spected Benjamin Peakman the more. They saw that he was not to be trifled with. Sir Benjamin Peakman was known, then, to be an able man, a steady, resolute, even a dogged man ; a man who hid from other people equally his aims and his manner of working them out. A trustworthy friend, if it were worth his while ; but a man whom if you once crossed, he would have his revenge out of you in some way, and, by general opinion, would not be nice about the means. But always so oily, 11 I; .1 t 58 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. SO acute, so studious of the people he dealt with, so wide awake to their weaknesses and so subser- vient to their wishes, that all the world, with a few exceptions, regarded him as the " ablest," the " nicest," the " altogether most atlractive " man. Hence when Mr. Peakman, then a wealthy- colonist and a member of the Upper House and a colonial cabinet minister, v/as sent over to Lon- don to make certain financial and political nego- tiations with the Home Government, he at once made his way. His deference just suited the courtly ministers ; his ability took those who were men of business. The whole Colonial Office, from the doorkeeper to the Secretary of State, regarded him as the pink of colonial statesmanship. When he had gone away they found he had got a great deal more out of them than they could well defend in Parliament. Sir Benjamin had been more than lucky in find- ing a wife every way as clever and as ambitious as )i M A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 59 himself. She was devoted to the joint interest, and promoted it by every means in her power. Nothing was too low or too high for her to attempt. She resolved that they should be asked to the Prince's parties at Chiswick, and they were asked. In her Canadian home she had been known to spend her mornings in whipping cream and preparing compotes with her own liands for an evening ball-supper to the Governor - General. It had always been a mystery who she was and where she had come from. It was known that Mr. Peakman had first met her at Baden. It was said she had been known as Countess Stracchino, and of course that her first husband was dead. It was a favourite joke with the officers of the garrison at Quebec to say that she was "the real cheese." Whatever might have been her early history, her later days were in every way exemplary. She bore children to Mr. Peakman. She aided him in all his efforts. She kd society in the ancient city of Quebec '4-\ )., 60 THE CAPTAIN S CABIN I :ii over the heads of ladies who were great-grand- daughters of earls and third cousins of the wives of marquises. Every attenr*pt to oust her had failed. She patronised the Anglican Church of the colony, and was, in the estimation of the Bishop, its real defender of the faith. She was omnipotent. Success always stirs up hatred. She was widely and thoroughly hated. There was a good deal in her that laid her open to attack. Her manners were a trifle vulgar, her pronun- ciation and grammar were not unexceptionable. Her face and figure were neither handsome nor elegant. But nothing could stand against the com- bination of a millionaire with a conciliatory manner and the spouse of a millionaire with the ambition to rule. This lady had been the mother of several chil- dr'^r, as we have already said, but of these only one survived infancy — the daughter, Miss Araminta. A pretty girl, with a nice fresh complexion, a I } ■i^. A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 6i straight nose, beautiful blue eyes, brown hair, sweet lips, rather too full for perfect form, and a dimpled chin. Now the Lady Peakman and her daughter had the best cabin in the ship, except the captain's, to wit, the large cabin which was immediately behind the captain's chair in the saloon — at the end of the port passage. Their maids occupied the next room, with a narrow gangway between. Sir Benjamin preferred the inner line of cabins on the other side of the passage, and had one to himself some few numbers down towards the middle of the ' ship. It was the afternoon of the second day out. Neither the knight nor his ladies had thought it discreet to attempt to leave their cabins. Lady Peakman in the lower berth, and Araminta in the upper, lay panting and screaming and dozing and trembling, in turns, all through the dismal hours, as the great vessel for its part rolled, pitched, '■■.if 62 THE captain's CABIN. i :i vibrated, shrieked, and groaned like a vast tor- mented Cyclops. "Oh! Oh!" shrieked Lady Peakman. "Maria, Maria ! The There I Go this instant and tell Sir Benjamin I'm dying. Tell him to come to me immediately. I have something to say to him be- fore I go." " Yes, my lady," said the unhappy maid, rushing out of the room with suspicious alacrity, and throw- ing herself into the opposite cabin, where for a few minutes she mingled her tears and — well, we won't go into particulars — with those of Miss Fanny Ringdove, the young lady's maid. By-and-by she returned to Lady Peakman, who had begun again to shout for her. " Sir Benjamin's compliments, my lady, and he is very ill himself, or he would come to you imme- diately, but he dare not leave his berth. He would like to say a few words to you, my lady, if you could go to him, in case the worst should happen." A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 63 1 " Oh, the wretch ! " sighed my lady. « Araminta ! Ar-a-w/7/-ta ! Do you hear ? " " Yes, mamma ! " very feebly. "I'm dying, do you hear ? and your father won't come to me! Oh, I know it! I have a presenti- ment that we're going to the bottom. Maria I Maria ! Be quick ! " In rushed the unhappy maid again, and pro- duced that basin which is at once our horror and our reh'ef when we yield to the antic triclcs of the bounding sea. Bur alas ! alas I the girl herself was uncontrollably ill. At times like these nature's longings cannot be repressed, degrees of rank are not to be maintained, and mistress and maid mingled their sorrows in the flowing bowl! "Mamma!" shouted Araminta, when this dis- agreeable duet had ceased, and Lady Peakman sank back exhausted, "are you better.?" " O no : what is it .? " 64 THE captain's CABIN. f-^ " Where do you think Lord Pendlebury can have been last night?" " How should I know, child ? Probably in his berth." " Have you ever seen him } " "Never. And now I never shall. I'm dying! —Maria ! " " My lady." " Sal volatile, brandy, chloroform ; quick, or you'll be too late! Ah! there! O dear! I cannot go any farther, my heart will come up next Why, where's the girl gone to ? Maria ! " But Maria had rushed off in paroxysms of a grief of her own, which was by no means a silent one, to the cabin on the other side, and my lady might shout away, for there was no answer. Araminta. Mamma, is Lord Pendlebury very rich ? Mamma. Yes. I see by " Burke " he has all the Mi^ Iiilli ill A CURIOUS IMBROGIJO. 65 have n his yingl ■ you'll arl I ne up le to ? of a silent y lady y very all the Horndean estates, and several county properties. Are you not ill, Araminta ? Araminta. a little, but I try to conquer it. Do you think Sir Benjamin will make Lord Pcndle- bury's acquaintance. Mamma ? Mamma. Oh, certainly. If ever we get a chance with this weather. Mind you do your best. It is your first opportunity. Araminta. I don't believe I shall ever see the deck again, if this horrible storm continues. Oh, there ! did you hear that crash ? Oh, deliver us I Something has happened." Miss Araminta was right. Something had happened. The gale, which had been blowing with increas- ing strength from nor'-nor'-west, while the great swell of the Atlantic waves came sweeping up from a point or two south of west, had already created in the cross purposes of these mighty forces 66 THE captain's CABIN. a sufficiently troublesome state of circumstances even for a huge steam Triton three hundred and sixty feet long. The wind was charged with icy wet, which was disseminated not so much in spouts of rain as in a ceaseless drizzly scour, which sought out and penetrated every crevice in anything hu- man or inanimate that was exposed to its action. The look-outs on the fore-deck, the captain and the mate, who, clad in india-rubber from head to foot, anxiously moved about on the reeking bridge, peeied over the dripping man-sails which served for a poor protection from the terrific blast against which the ship was driven with all the power of the enginery below. " What does she say, Dick ? " shouts the captain in the mate's ear ; for, in the horrible rout and roar, voice is blown away into eternal space before it can pass an inch from a man's mouth. " Twenty-eight all but a tenth, sir," shouts the mate, who has been down to the chart-room to >3*. ill A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 67 s the m to examine the barometer. "We're near the worst of it." The instant he speaks, high up to heaven, right in front of them, heaves the bow of the great vessel. The two men, holding on to the stanchions of the bridge like grim death, and knowing that something is coming, cast an eye through the drift up the long incline of deck before them, up to the farthest end, where for a moment they catch a glimpse of two men, like themselves, hanging on there with desperate vigour to lee and weather braces. Then there is a moment's poise ; the whole of the mighty hulk of the steamer seems to be balanced somewhere about the middle of the keel, on the top of a shivering mountain ; then there is a sudden twist of the mountain beneath them, as it throws the vessel contemptuously off its shoulder sidewise with an angry shudder! Down a terrific yawning pit into a sea-green hell rushes the great ship, rolling, as she runs, over on her lee beam, till 6* I 68 THE captain's CABIN. llHi!! i III the boiling waves hiss up the scuppers and into the waterways, and now suddenly recovering her- self with a mighty trembling and straining, in the midst of which the huge flukes of the screw are released from the water, and fly round with a roaring noise and a prodigious vibration that can be heard and felt by every soul on board, she slowly rolls back again on the weather beam ; and then, with a mighty roar, a huge green curl of seething waters raise a frightful crest for twenty feet above the bulwarks on the weather bow, and looking and moving like a thing of life, menacing with annihilation the two awestruck men beneath, dashes some thirty tons of water over on the upper deck. See, where it sweeps along, hissing, boiling, prancing, swirling, four feet deep from bow to stern, and then finding no ready outlet, thrashes away some ten or fifteen feet of bulwark, and pours back in a torrent to the sea from whence it had leaped. The noble vessel, shaking herself free from W i 1 1 r A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 69 the tormenting wave, rises again proudly to her work, and bids de^ance once more to the giant powers of storm and sea. This was what the two officers saw, and they breathed more freely when out of the seething waters the two look-outs emerged, still hanging on manfully, and shaking the water out of their eyes and hats, as half friguLrned and half laughing they tried to look at each other across the deck, and to shout congratulations which could not be heard. But in hurtling along the space of deck confined by the bulwarks, the water, foiled in its deadlier purpose, resolved to make malicious use of its assumed right of way. As it rushed round the stern deck-houses, gathering momentum from the upward incline of the triumphant bow and the starboard roll of the vessel, a mass of water was thrown with great force against the closed door of the little gangway at the top of the companion on the starboard side, and of the door next to it, which 70 THE captain's CABIN. ti ; was that of the purser's cabin. The impact of a ton or two of fluid was too much for the strong brass fastenings of these defences, and in an instant bursting them in, the uproarious water rushed on, and tumbling down the stairs in a green cascade* seethed and gambolled tumultuously along the passages, overtopping the combings of the nearer cabins, and flooding the floors with briny foam. Shrieks went up on every side. Forgetting nausea and decency together, men and women jumped out of their berths, splashing into the cold water, and, dashing out of their cabins into the long pas- sages, clasped each other with new-born fervour for the brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity. Down through the open doorway the fierce wind, finding entrance, now blew cold and cutting. Ye gods I What is man or woman either in such a time as this } Lady Peakman, having cast off the shawl in which her large head had been encased, presented herself in a good long rode de A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 71 nuit, ?.^ the extremity of which appeared her sturdy limbs swathed in long white woollen stockings, with which she plashed up and down in the water, that with every motion of the vessel washed to and fro and in and out of the surrounding cabins. Miss Araminta, poor child, in a vain effort of decency, had seized and thrown around her neck the first thing that came to hand — a short flannel toilet-jacket — and screaming at once for her father, her maid, and the captain, darted up the companion hatchway into the arms of a gentleman who, in very imperfect costume, and wet from head to foot, seemed to have freshly come in from taking a bath in the open. Her screams were mingled with his groans and en- treaties, for the terrified young lady clung to him as if he were a life-buoy. " Let me go, miss, if you please, for heaven's sake ! She's coming, site's coming ! " Shrieks were heard from the upper deck, and IWr 72 THE captain's CABIN. suddenly through the open door there rushed into the gangway a middle-aged female, with a turban of flannel on her head and a red petticoat of the sarr.2 material put on over her long robe, which, clinging in wet folds to her knees and legs, very oddly impeded her freeness of motion. • ■ ^0 ' " 'Tis she ! 'Tis she ! " shouted the man ; and breaking free from Araminta, he bolted down the companion and into the first cabin that appeared, locking the door behind him, and jumping without ceremony inf-o the lower berth, which was unoc- cupied. It was the cabin of Lady Peakman's maids, one of whom. Miss Ringdove, still lay in mortal terror and sickne^.s in the upper berth. No sooner did she witness this bold intiusion, than she added her part to the universal chorus. But people outside were far too alarmed on their own account — thinking that they were all going straightway to the bottom — to be stirred by Miss Ringdove's exclamations. I m.. led into I turban ^"^ .t of the 2, which, -gs, very "^l an ; and own the - , . ppcared, without as unoc- ' ^ikman's II lay in :th. No ) han she it people account ightway igdovc's ;;it?il fi i mi A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 73 " My dear young lady," said the gentleman from below, sticking out his night -capped head, and shouting as loud as he could, in a vain effort to rise superior to the horrible racket, "pray, pray be quiet ! I'll do you no harm whatever." "O dear, O dear! O-o-o-o-o-o ! " shrieked Ringdove. "I'm in earnest! On my honour I won't hurt you ! " roared the man. " O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o ! " screamed the maid. The man jumped out of the berth in desperation and the woman went off in a fit. Miss Araminta, thus rudely cast oft; had caught hold of tho brass balustrade at her side to keep herself from being thrown down the stairs. At this moment a gentleman ran up from belov/, enveloped in an ulster. Notwithstanding his ex- citement, which was however not that abject terror from the outbreak of which he was escaping, he could not help appreciating in an instant, in all its w 74 THE captain's CABIN. M absurdity, the scene before him. Poor little Ara- minta, pale as a sheet, and with her utterly ineffi- cient scarlet jacket and white fluttering muslin, as she clung to the side of the companion, was gazing awe-struck at the apparition of the lady above her, dressed as we have described, who no sooner saw the gentleman than she whipped out of the gang- way and into the s':orm again. Hardly able to suppress hi" laughter, the new- comer addressed the trembling damsel. "Pray, miss, don't be frightened. There can be nothing the matter. A little water has burst in; but, don't you see, we should all have been at the bottom long ago if anything really serious had occurred. Take my arm. Here, put on my coat ; " and throwing off his ulster, the youth, who was dressed, wrapped it around shivering little Ara- minta, and buttoned her in safely, and then asked where she would be taken to. "Oh, to Captain Windlass, to the captain's cabin, please. I'm so frightened I " :'4. A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. n h The young man made no reply. He did as he was told, carrying the young lady in his warm ulster up to the deck and into the cabin of which we have spoken, the door of which was open. There was a foot of water within, the combing re- taining it, but he plashed through this and laid her on the sofa. " Where is Captain Windlass ? " said little Ara- minta. " Oh, please find him, sir ; ask him to get me a p!ace in his boat." The young man saw that she was wandering^, and with great delicacy he said, " Do believe me, that there is no danger. May I go and fetch your father ? ' "Yes, do, please. Sir Benjamin Peakman, No. 35. God bless you ! thank you ; thank you ever so much ! " The young gentleman foiwhwith departed in search of the knight. As i e descended the com- panion he heard a tremendous row below. The ^i 76 THE captain's CABIN. reader must remember that all this time the steamer had been pitching and rolling as madly as ever. The water downstairs was running out of the passages and into the water-ways at the gang- way on either side of the main - hatch. The excited passengers had been calmed down by the stewards, and were returning to their berths. The cabins were being swabbed out by boys, who laughed as they listened to *-he groans of the shivering victims. But at Lady Peakman's cabin things had not settled down as quietly as else- where. There were collected — Sir Benjamin, in a neat al fresco costume of which he was evidentiy unconscious — for he was a man of very particular dignity ; Lady Peakman, as we have before de- picted her, wringing her hands and weeping ; Lady Peakman's maid Maria, also weeping ; and a couple of stewards. " Base man ! " screamed Lady Peakman. " What have you done with my daughter } Let us in." ■ !l l'''*t.^>\ A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 77 From inside proceeded the subdued sobs of Miss Ringdove, who, having sh'ghtly recovered, had wrapped her head in the counterpane, and was ineffectually screaming "Murder!" "If you don't let us in, we will break open the • door ! " shouted Sir Benjamin, for once in a passion. " What do you mean, sir } " "All right, sir ; all right," retorted a hoarse voice. « I beg the young lady's pardon, I'm sure. I have done her no harm. But is Mrs. Corcoran out there.?" "No, no!" cried the stewards. "There's no Mrs. Corcoran here." " Well, ladies and gentlemen, make way ! " cried the malefactor; and before they had had time to obey his injunction he threw open the door, and, rushing out, dashed his head straight into the manly chest of the knight, and pitching him and the stewards over like ninepins, narrowly escaped doing the same trick for Araminta's benefactor, 78 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. who was turning into the passage, and then he sped up the comoanion and out upon the deck like a maniac. In another moment, Mr. Fex, for it was he, had darted breathless into the captain's cabin. Slamming and bolting the door, he was about to drop exhausted on the sofa, when a suc- cession of piercing screams from that quarter filled his ear. There was a female in the cabin ! "Great heavens!" said the distracted Fex. " What does this mean ? Am I mad ? One wo- man after another ! And in my cabin too ! Pray, madam [" Oh ! Oh ! " screamed Araminta.] I beseech you, miss [he went down on his knees in the water], for any sake, miss, calm yourself. How did you come into my cabin .? Where on earth am I to go to? Every cabin is full of women." " Your cabin, sir!" cried Araminta, who was a good deal cooler than she pretendeo. " Is not this the captain's cabin ? " A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 79 " Yes, my dear young lady ; but I have engaged it" "Oh, murder! Papa! Mammal Help here! Mur-d-e-e-r ! " The unfortunate Mr. Fex was more than at his wits' end. He was ready to jump overboard. At this moment a knocking was heard without. There, no doubt, was the young man, who had come back with a steward and Sir Benjamin. Mr. Fex in desperation leaped into his berth a.id wrapped the clothes around him. Araminta, who had not lost her presence of mind, jumped up and unlocked the door. The young man was the first to enter, followed by the knight. « Where is that rascal > " cried the knight, in a towering passion. All his principles had given way under this severe strain. « What on earth do you mean, sir?" he shouted, as Araminta pointed to the berth, and, catching the young man's glance, they both collapsed in hysterics of laughter. i 1 J So THE captain's cabin. " Kill me ! Kill me ! " murmured Mr. Fex. "There is no harm done, papa," cried Miss Ara- minta, smoothing her hair and looking round, to see that the ulster was as gracefully disposed as / possible. *' It's my fault. I rushed upstairs in my fright, and this — this — gentleman — was kind enough to take charge of me. I asked him to bring me to the captain's cabin. For some reason or other that gentleman there had left it — and when he came back he — he — locked the door before he discovered me •-= . , , Araminta would have gone on, but Sir Benjamin began to feel in his gouty feet the chilling effects of the water in which they were standing. " Take my arm," he said, curtly, to his daughter. " I am infinitely obliged to you, sir, whoever you are, for your attention to Miss Peakman. She is very young and inexperienced." " Not more so than I am, I expect," returned the 7 .' man, bowing haughtily. "I am glad to M. I. Ilsf A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 8i have been of any service to the young lady," with a more kindly inclination to Araminta. As the knight and his fair daughter left the cabin, the youth was about to follow them, when a muttered remark from the occupant drew him to the side of the berth. He caught a glimpse of the man's face, who with his eyes shut appeared to be groaning out maledictions. " What, Corcoran ! " cried the young gentleman, seizing Mr. Fex by the shoulder, and shaking him roughly. " What on earth, sir, are you doing here ? and travelling incog, too .? " " I'm gone clean mad ! " said Mr. Fex, starting straight up in the bed, and speaking with an un- mistakable Dublin accent. " Where on earth — or at sea rather — did you come from, my lord t if it is indeed yourself — for I can't believe my own eyes and ears." " I ought to ask you that question, sir," said Lord Pendlebury, laughing — for it was he. " How comes 7 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 laiia |||25 'i'Im 2.2 m 1.4 12.0 1.8 1.6 % W V] '<^. "l "^ m. ///, Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y )4S80 (716) 872-4503 t^ '^h. w ^ CP^ ■|5| I ! I ' I ! I i i ! 82 THE captain's cabin. it that the Master in Chancery is off duty, and at his age, under an assumed name, performing these pranks on a steamer a thousand miles from Dublin?" Overcome with the oddity of the thing, the young man threw himself on the sofa and laughed boisterously. " Oh, Corcoran ! " he cried, at length. " I owe you a guinea. I was lying in my berth as sick as a dog when all this happened, and you have cured me ! ' " Whist, me lord ! " cried the reputed Mr. Fex, putting his head out of his berth, and earnestly motioning to the peer to be silent. " You knew all about the ' proceedings,' of course ?" Lord Pendlebury nodded. - :; " And that she got the divorce ? * ^ i The peer nodded again. " And that she got it on suborned evidence got up by that cursed attorney and thief Mulrooney ? " ink :i A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. Hid at these from , the ghed owe sick have Fex, estly w all ^got " I did not know that^ Corcoran," replied the young man, gravely. " Fex, Fex ! My lord, call me Fex," cried the tenant of the cabin, in a ludicrous attempt to speak low and yet to carry his voice through the din. " I've seen her ! — She's there ! " and he poirif-ed to- wards the thin mahogany bulkhead which divided his cabin from that of the purser next door. "What, Mrs. " " Och, dear Lord Pendlebury, don't you mention the name now, darling, for I'm at my wits' end what to do." " Oh, it is impossible : it's all nonsense ! " " No, no ; look here ; " and Fex, alias Corcoran, vaulted into the water, and shutting the door, whispered loudly to his friend. " You know when that terrible shock came, I was lying here quiet enough, and thinking I'd soon be three thousand miles away from Dublin and the everlasting banter of the Castle and the clubs, when I heard the 7* mmm 84 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. y I shock and roar of the water as it rushed along the deck and burst in the two doors next to mine, and came running in here through every cranny and crevice. I thought we were all off for Hades, and not liking the idea of going down in my berth, I opened my door and ran out on the deck. At the same instant, on my life as I hold on here, sAe ran out of ^he next cabin, the purser's, in a neat undress familiar to me ; and she no sooner saw me standing there in my own al fresco state, than she began to give tongue like a steam fire-engine whistling for water — though, by the way, at the moment there was plenty of that about. " ' *Tis he ! 'Tis he ! ' says she, covering her eyes. ' 'Tis Peter's ghost come to reproach me, just as I am about to perish. — Oh, Peter 1 Peter ! ' and she tried to lay hold of my arm. " ' Aroynt thee ! ' says I. For I thought she was a ghost too, and that may be we had each ap- peared to reproach the other at our dying mo- A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 85 ments. And I made a leap for the cabin. Faith, I don't know what's to come of it ! There was a female on deck, there was a female in the cabin I ran into, and there was a female in possession of my own when I came back. There are at least two people to be settled with, besides her second husband, who must be on board, for I was told six months since she was to be married again. You'll stand by me now, won't you?" The earnestness of the narrator produced on the young lord an effect the reverse of that intended. He shouted with laughter. '- "Oh, my lord," said poor Mr. Fex. " It's amusing to you, but it's death to me. Now you know all about this, I need never show my face in Dublin again. Well, well, I may arrange a thing or two, and get ovc. the side of the ship, for 'twill kill me, any way." There was just a flash of seriousness in the speaker's manner, and Lord Pendlebury, who was 5^1 * 'I M! iff I I i i :| ii !i 86 THE captain's CABIN. an astute young fellow for his age, began to be afraid the joke was going too far. He sat up and assumed a more sober air. ' - " Nonsense, Corcoran. I give you my word of honour I'll say nothing about it. The fact is, in ' the excitement, you have made a mistake. S/ie ■ is not on board. It is impossible. Make yourself easy. Come, I'll call up a steward. They must bail out this cabin, which is one huge footbath. As for that ridiculous old knight, and his chit of a daughter, and her stupid maid, we shall soon put them all right. Get into bed, my friend, you are shivering fearfully. How did you get that bruise over the eye } " Mr. Fex was soon in bed, and the events of the day, acting upon an excitable temperament, brought on a slight attack of fever. His servant being prostrated, as gentlemen's gentlemen and ladies* abigails invariably are by the weather at sea, a steward was told off by the doctor to A CURIOUS IMBROGLIO. 87 look after him during the night. This fellow, having nothing better to do than to listen to the patient's incoherent wanderings, excogitated a theory about poor Mr. Fex which entailed serious consequences. 'i:":y^-;^;-jB'. J, -::. \n i I I I i ' I tffi • CHAPTER V. A SEA LAWYER. T3 Y the morning of the third day the wind had "^'^ slightly abated, although it was still blowing what are termed " great guns," and the captain, who had been up the better part of two nights, was taking a few hours' rest in the chart -room, when a loud knock, followed by the opening of the door and the insertion of a dripping sou'-wester, disturbed him. " If you please, sir," said the intruder, " may I speak to you, sir ? " " Yes, Mr. Stackpoole, if it is anything important. Come in." The intruder was the fourth officer, and he was followed by a steward, Cadbury. They both looked very grave. A SEA LAWYER. 89 " I think, sir," said the mate, " we've got him ! " " Got what ! " said the captain, whose brain was a little disturbed by want of sleep. "///;«, sir ; the murderer Kane, sir!" | " The devil ! " cried the captain. " Where ? " " In your cabin, sir ! " y ^ The honest captain burst out in a cold perspira- tion at the idea of his quarters being occupied by ' an accused malefactor. "What, the Mr. Fex ?" " His name ain't Fex, sir/* interrupted the steward, touching his forehead. " He was took ill yesterday, sir, and I've been with him all night. He's been going on rambling most dreadful, just •like a murderer; asking God to forgive him, saying he'd drown hisself, calling out that he'd be the death of a man of the name of Mulrooney that, of course, sir, would be the detective — and asking his dearest Pearl to forgive him— that would be some wicked woman of his acquaintance, sir." w I' :i' ; 90 THE captain's CABIN. " Does he answer to the description ? " " Exactly, sir," cried the officer and the steward in one breath. "And we've agreed to divide the reward." " Humph ! " said the captain, throwing off his great woollen nightcap, scratching his head, screw- ing up his eye, and taking an observation of the two lucky men bobbing there before him, and wishing to himself that they might ever get the reward they were so cock - sure of dividing. " Humph ! What have you done with the man ? " " He's still in the cabin, sir." " But he'll run away ; he will throw himself over- board." ''-.>--^ ';-■ ^v -^^ :■>:■"" ^'.'''■.,'-, -.^■':.: ■,.;.;,'-: v'''- *''''•'■.' .■/,:-'?-|' " Oh, no, sir. He is very weak this morning. And I've stationed six of the watch, under a quartermaster, outside his door, with instructions to seize him if he tries to escape," said the officer. " Very well, Mr. Stackpoole. Keep the guard on until further orders. Serve out a brace of pistols ti mk. (To the fourth officer.) Stackpoole. Yes. All right, sir! Captain. "Large black whiskers, worn d la Dundreary." Ambo. Right you are, sir. [" Dundreary, ye scoundrels ! And who or what is Dundreary, does either one of ye know ? "J 8* •ii 100 THE captain's CABIN. ' h ! ; 4 , 1 !l 1 1 ' i2 ft*! i ' U m Captain. " Heavy moustaches." Ambo. Reg'lar Rooshians, sir! Captain. " Low forehead — big eyebrows — black shining eyes — long chin — prominent nose." How does that strike you, Stackpoole ? Stackpoole. Like two bights of the same hawser. Captain. " Dresses handsomely in a frock-coat, or, when travelling, in a tweed shooting suit." 1 hey all look round the cabin. Mr. Stackpoole, with a long, brown middle digit, indicates on the peg at the head of the " prisoner's " berth a suit of grey Irish tweed. Ambo. True to a knot, sir ! Captain. "Large diamond ring on left little finger." Mr. Fex moves his hand instinctively, but the fourth officer is too quick for him. He darts for- ward, seizes the left hand, and there, sure enough on the little finger glitters a large Cape diamond. II M ■■«s A SEA LAWYER. lOI Stackpoole. Diary\orid it is, sir, clear as the North Star. v • [" Powers above ! " said poor Fex. " It's a plot to ruin me !"] Captain. Prisoner, keep silence till you're fully- identified.—" Very powerful build — seems about 5 feet 8 or 10 inches in height." Ambo. Every word true, sir ! Looks like a young box ! ["Five feet eight, do ye say.?" cries Mr. Fex, indignantly. " Five feet eleven in my stockings, as I live. Will ye have me measured, captain > "] Captain. " Good address and very gentlemanly manner." — Humph! [" There they have me," interrupted the prisoner. " That and the diamond are the only points that are true to fact ! "] Ambo. Undoubted swell, sir ! Captain. " Probably has a wound or bruise on his left eye." f 102 THE captain's cabin. ■i!i 111 i III Ambo. Left eye as blue as blue-Peter, sir ! Captain. " Talks German, French, and English.'* [" Sorra a bit of German ever dirtied my mouth," shouted Mr. Fex, emphatically.] Captain. No French either, eh > Fex. Mats out, Monsieur le Capitahte, d mer- veille. Captain. Ha ! Then that will do. Notice that, my men, speaks French like a Nantes skipper. ["Does he.?" growls Mr. Fex in greater wrath than ever. " Me, that the Emperor didn't know from a Frenchman."] Captain. Outside, there, fetch in the irons I At these words the unhappy Fex, giving a roar that shook the cabin, made an effort to jump out of his berth. But on the signal six or seven men rushed in, and each securing a limb or a por- tion of one, the luckless man lay completely at their mercy, still roaring with all his might. The riot alarmed the lady who occupied the purser's J ,; j' i A SEA LAWYER. 103 cabin. They could hear her giving vent to her anxiety in loud lamentations. " They're killing him, they're killing him ! Oh, captain ! what are ye doing to him ? " she screamed through the thin partition. " No harm, madam ; don't be alarmed," shouted the captain. Poor Fex — Corcoran — was by this time subdued and unconscious ; and the captain, leaving two sturdy sailors under the quartermaster to guard his prisoner, went off to his chart-room, with the pride of a man who had done his duty. It was soon all over the ship among the officers and crew — the only people able to be about — that the murderer had been secured in the captain's cabin. Hence, when the steward who waited on Lord Pendlebury took him his breakfast at the usual hour of nine, the whole story, with many embellishments, was retailed for his benefit. To the narrator's surprise, the young lord laughed at the top of his bent. |ri '1^1 104 THE captain's CABIN. " Well, you are a set of duffers ! " he cried. " Go and tell the captain to let the poor fellow oflf immediately, or there will be the devil to pay. That gentleman is a friend of mine, a Master in Chancery in Dublin, and this is as good as two thousand pounds damages to him \ O dear, O dear ! Cor- coran, you'll kill me with laughing." The young lord having dressed himself rapidly, his loud occasional guffaws sounding through the thin bulkheads, and exciting the greatest indigna- tion among his neighbours at the untimely mirth, was on his way to the deck, when Sir Benjamin Peakman encountered him in the passage. " I have only just heard," he said, bowing in his most conciliatory manner, " to whom I am indebted for the courtesy shown yesterday to my daughter in very trying circumstances. I am very happy, Lord Pendiebury, knowing many of your friends, to make your acquaintance. Let me present myself— Sir Benjamin Peakman." W .1 il A SEA LAWYER. 105 Lord Pendlebury bowed — rather stiffly. " Pray, Sir Benjamin," he said, " do not take the trouble to recall the slight and very ordinary atten- tion I was happy to render to the young lady. I hope she is none the worse for her fright. I am on my way, if you will excuse me, to my poor friend in the captain's cabin, who has fallen into a ridiculous scrape, the result of our skipper's over- zeal." " Your friend^ Lord Pendlebury ? " gasped the knight. "Yes, Mr. Peter Corcoran, an Irish Master in Chancery, who has taken a whim to travel incognito as Mr. Fex." " A most important man I " cried the knight, with fervour. " But — I believe — lately — he had — a — a — * "A suit for a divorce. Exactly. And won it That is to say," said the young lord, laughing, " the divorce was decreed. He was freed from his wife." "And he is a friend of yours," cried Sir Ben- •n [It II io6 THE captain's cabin. I ; jamin, with effusion, "I have, as you may be aware, a good deal of influence with the owners of these steamers. Can I be of any service, do you think ? " " Well," said the peer, drily, " possibly, Sir Benjamin, you may be able to persuade the captain that he has done a very ridiculous thing, and that his owners will have to pay handsomely for his blunder, unless he can patch it up with Corcoran." " My lord, I will see Captain Windlass at once. I shall make a point of setting this matter right. He is, I can assure you, an estimable fellow, and no one will feel more sorry than he that any friend of Lord Pendlebury's should have been maltreated in his ship." " Oh, pray let him not regard me in the matter at all," replied Lord Pendlebury. " But you may perhaps know that Corcoran is a nephew of Lord Summerton, and of sufficient consequence in him- self to demand the captain's best amends." With that Lord Pendlebury ran off to his un- vmi A SEA LAWYER. 107 i,' fortunate friend, whom he found eyeing his guards in mute horror, and listening to occasional groans and sighs which could be distinctly heard from the purser's cabin. " Pendlebury ! " he cried. " I had entirely for- gotten you 1 Only think of this. Accused, under the name of Cain, of murdering my brother Abel. Convicted of dyeing myself — my hair, my friend, 'that never knew a single hue that nature had not painted 1 * Cut down by an inexorable law to five feet eight inches, which I haven't been since I was sixteen. Handcuffed by these ruffians — I shall never survive this ! Whisper, my lord. Open that small box there. It's my medicine case. You will see a small phial, No. 28, marked strychnine. I always kept it when she was about, in case I should need it. Just hand it to me secretly, like a Chris- tian friend, and say no more." " No, Corcoran I I cannot spare you yet. You must last out this voyage, at least Wouldn't the 1 08 THE CAPTAIN S CABIN. whole Castle go into hysterics over this I I have sent off the old knight you hit so hard in the stomach yesterday, to arrange matters. He's a sly commonplace curmudgeon, but he may be use- ful. P.emember, you must not claim vindictive damages." " Ten thousand pounds ! Not a farthing less I They've bruised me al! over: charged me with murder, dyeing, robbery — shortened my length, and perhaps my life." " Never mind. If you threaten them with such penalties as that, you know it will pay to throw you overboard." This argument produced an impression. • "I say, Pendlebury," he said, in a low tone. "Do you hear her^ next door > She has been going on that way ever since this happened. Curious, eh ? Is it possible she grieves ? No matter, I'll never for- give her." Lord Pendlebury was a man of the world, but WLa^ A SEA LAWYER. 109 he looked a little shocked at the coolness of Mr. Corcoran " You forgive her, Corcoran I Come now, that's too audacious ! You forget, man, that it all came out in evidence — though, God knows, I don't want to be hard on you — and that it was you who were defendant, and it was against ^(7tt the Ordinary gave judgment." " Bah ! " cried Corcoran, earnestly. " It all comes of your ridiculous English justice. You try a case in six hours, and scamp it, while an Irish Court would take six days at it, and give ample justice for the money ! Gn my honour, Pendlebury, as a gentleman, and as I stand before God, I tell you there was not a word of truth in the charge. We had no children, and she had nothing to do but to watch and nettle me, and I was always more lively than discreet ; but, as sure as I live, she never had any just cause to complain of me. Her attorneys were determined to win their case, and they got the ?;..! i I 1 10 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. * proofs ' — as they call them — but there was no truth in the charges." "Whew!" said Pendlebury. " Tout pent se r^tablir.'* " No, no ; she is married. I'm glad to say I'm relieved of the trouble of thinking about it." " How do you know ? " " What is she doing here ? She must be travel- ling with somebody. That som.ebody is her hus- band." " Where is he, then ? " inquired the peer. ** I don't know. Ill, on his back, in one of the lower cabins. — Ah ! what's this now } " Sir Benjamin Peakman and the captain entered. The knight in his blandest manner made the humblest apologies for his errors of yesterday. The captain more awkwardly endeavoured to make his peace with the Master in Chancery. "Captain," said the Master, with a grave face, *' I'll forgive you on one condition. Do I talk French like a Nantes skipper? Am I aiR feet A SEA LAWYER. Ill eight inches ? Is my hair dyed ? Do you retract these and all other personal reflections?" Captain Windlass, being more of an honest sailor than a man of the world, did not relish this raillery ; but he took off the irons with his own hands, and there was a tear in the corner of his clear blue eye as he tendered his big fist to his quondam prisoner. " Faith, captain," said the Master, "your method of examination was 'cross* in more senses than onj. If you were to transport that huge corpus of yours into the Four Courts, and emphasise your questions with those big fists as you did with me, there's never a witness could stand before ye. They'd swear anything you liked. However, I'm obliged to you. It's ten thousand pounds in my pocket. But now I'll pay ye good for evil. You say the murderer is on board. I'll help you to detect him, and when he's found we'll manage with him better than you did with me." 11 m CHAPTER VI. A VALET TO ORDER. i } 1 ! W '1 :( ■ ': :( 1.1 it Utti*' 11 i LiLiL T\ T R. CROG, the steerage steward, had gone through a good deal of mental worry and physical exertion since the vessel had eloped from Greencastle Bay in the manner he so graphically described to his new friend, Mr. Stillwater. The four hundred people under his care were an un- usually large number for the season of the year and its invariably furious weather. They kept him busy at all points. Their cries, their tears, their adjurations, their oaths, their threats, their terrors — all of which he would like to have treated with contempt, but dared not, for these people know how to take their money's worth out of the com- panies — brought down Mr. Crog in three days A VALET TO ORDER. 113 from a state of breathless redundancy to one of breathless emaciation, and altered his colour from a fine healthy rose-blush to a tint of tawny orange. To meet the fickle fancies of such a various charge, to soothe, to threaten, to nurse, to cheer, and to bully three hundred people who are rolling about in helpless terror and misery, is not an occupation which one would suppose to hold out attractions even to a performing dog, but there are men found to take to it, and not unkindly. Mr. Crog was ever vowing when at sea that he would leave it, and ever when in port reversing his decision. The storm which had been driving in the teeth of the gallant Kamschatkan for nearly three days be- gan on the evening of the fourth day to abate. The wind shifted a point or two ; the barometer, like a repentant spirit, took a turn upward. Hope spread from cabin to cabin, where most of the passengers had been the prey of abject terror and into! .rable discomfort. The closed doors and battened hatches 114 THE captain's CABIN. allowed no air to penetrate below, and to the hor- rible swinging and shaking of the vessel was added the steady poisoning of the victims by confined and rebreathed air. It is strange that with all those resources of mechanical science which are available in the construction of these huge floating palaces, no successful means should yet have been devised to produce between decks and in the gor- geous cabins, that most successful antidote to sea- sickness — fresh air. What are electric bells and gilded cornices to a vomiting mammal .? What is the healthy ozone of a deck rising and falling between some sixty degrees of variation from the horizontal, to a creature lying below, pitilessly turned upside down and inside out amid the smell of bilge-water and cookery ? Give us more air, my masters, more air, an you would have us reconciled to the pleasures of the " melancholy ocean." The steerage — on the main deck below the spar deck — had been, during the three days, a purgatory A VALET TO ORDER. IIS in more senses than one. It was impossible to rig up wind-sails, and the foulness of the air below prostrated many a sturdy constitution. Here, how- ever, Mr. Crog held on his way, overwhelmed with labour, which was shared by a stewardess, Mrs. Crog to wit, and by the doctor, a little man who, coming on board a very pale pink, had gradually taken on the look and colour of a dirty piece of parchment. Unhappy doctor! He is the one man on the ship who cannot shirk his duty, and often the man least fit for it. When my Lady Peakman feels that nausea defies all the coaxing arts of her maid, and all the faint resolution she can herself muster, the doctor must be fetched from bed, or board, or cabin, or steerage, to go through the idle form of prescribing again what has invariably failed before, of trying to find an anodyne for the incurable. " What do you fancy, my lady .? " cries the dis- tracted medico, himself half nauseated by the w ■ , 116 THE captain's CABIN. III; ■f*t-i --i ) ■' |.;i 4 ij J it 1 f *!»•.: II I. ij ferocious motion, and by constant observation of the symptoms of the universal malady. " Something acid. Oh, my dear doctor, pre- scribe an acid drink — with something in it to support me ! " " Lemonade and brandy } " " Ugh ! Don't mention it ! " She motions with her fingers in a certain direction. " Champagne } " " Oh ! gone long since ! " Fingers pointing again. " Have you tried the effervescent citrate of bis- muth ? » " Maria ! here, quick ! Doctor, you'll kill me. The mention of it is enough." " Your paroxysms are exceedingly severe," says the medico, who has been observing with his head on one side. He has said so to every one in the chip. "I'll tell you what I'll do— I'll order you squeezed lemon in potass water." " The very thing ! Just what I feel I want. Oh ! A VALET TO ORDER. 117 my clear doctor (hysterically), how shall I ever sufficiently thank you ! I felt I was dying, and you may have saved my life. Do come back in an hour, and see how I am getting on." " By all means, my lady. Her ladyship must be kept warm," he says to the drooping Maria, and hurrying away, buries himself in the steerage far out of call of the indignant dame when, an hour later, after a temporary struggle with his last pre- scription, she is once more screaming for the hapless medico. If he turns into his berth for an hour's sleep, he is aroused by a terrific thump on the door, " Docther, doc-ther ! " " What's the matter } Who's there > " " It's me, yer honour," says a gigantic Hibernian, thrusting into the cabin a shock of red hair, from beneath which his eyes dance all over the bottles that are rattling about in their racks. " Well, what do you want } ". "Biddy Maclore, me own wife, yer honour, is i'y. . i: :t Ii8 THE captain's CABIN. m 1-! -' t p'\ & m^ fWi H ■Br 41 ' ii -J ^ iii dyin' forenenst me eyes. Will ye come before she's gone clane off to glory ? " "Stuff! they're all dying. What's the matter with her ? " " She can't heave no furder, yer honour ; and she says it'll be the death of her sure in five minnits, if ye don't come." " Maclore ! " " Yer honour ! " " Do you see those cards in a little tray on your right >" ' " I do, yer honour." " They're orders for Bass's ale. Take one, and give half the bottle to Biddy as soon as you can, and take the other half yourself. You're looking seedy under the eyes ; and, mind you, don't you bother me again to-day." "Thank ye, yer honour, ye've saved her life;" and helping himself to two cards, Maclore goes ofT to claim the " medicine." A VALET TO ORDER. 119 Mr. Grog's engrossing cares had not prevented him from giving some attention to tne subject of the fugitive criminal. Great indeed was his chagrin when it was announced on the morning of the third day that the man had been found, by a rival steward, and in the captain's cabin. He tried to look up Mr. Stillwater, who, having disappeared into the men's quarters, had not emerged again. But that person had very successfully concealed himself. He was provided with all that he needed, and he made no requisitions on the steward. He managed to get his tea brought to him by a fellow- passenger, who was just able to crawl up and down again with their tin mugs. Mr. Stillwater had kept his ears open to everything that was said around him during the two days, and this acute listener acquired many a hint of the experiences, aims, and destinies of the emigrants. Towards the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Grog, provided with a lanthorn, entered the men's '*^.' ^ 'T^ 'n 120 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. quarters on the starboard side of the engine bulk- heads, and proceeded deliberately to scan the faces of all the invalids who tenanted its rows of cribs, top and bottom. The men lay four deep, side by side. At length, at the farthest end, in the inside berth of t'le lowest row, Mr. Crog recognised the great wideawake, under which, even in the dark- ness, Mr. Stillwater concealed his face. The truth was, he had an objection to the skirmishing of rats over his countenance. " Halloo ! " said Mr. Crog. " Here you are I I thought you must be dead." " More dead than alive," replied the other, shad- ing his face from the light. "Take away that confounded lanthorn — it blinds one." " All right. Are you able to get up > The weather's beginning to moderate, and the peison you know of has sent down to the steerage to ascertain if there's a v/ally aboard in want of a place." 'I A VALET TO ORDER. 121 " Bravo ! That's all right. I shall get up directly. I've only been a bit lazy." " I've such a game to tell you of, about our run- away friend. Come along as quick as you can." Leaving his lanthorn for the man to take to the wash-room, the steward went off and waited fc Mr. Stillwater at the top of the companion. " Come," he said, looking at Mr. Stillwater's im- proved appearance, " you're all right now — and your eye is quite well." He then related the story of Mr. Fex's arrest, and of the subsequent denouement. The latter was not so much enjoyed by Mr. Stillwater as the former. However, he laughed at Mr. Crog's nar- rative, which, being the fourth or fifth edition, had become by this time considerably em- bellished. "We still have to find our man. Well, the weather promises better now: it will bring him out," said Mr. Crog. TT 122 THE Captain's cabin. " I heard something while I was lying in there," replied the other, " which gave me a notion that there was somebody aboard connected with a rob- bery, at all events." " No. Did you ? " said Mr. Crog, keenly. " Tell us all about it." " Better wait until I've got to the bottom of it," replied Mr. Stillwater, quietly. " Now, where shall I find this old gent, eh ? " "No. 35, port side, inside cabin. Knock. He expects you." As Mr. Stillwater went off, steadying himself to the motion of the vessel, Mr. Crog looked after him, with a suspicious expression upon his face, "You're too knowin', you are," he muttered. " I was a fool to let on to you. I shall have to watch you pretty close, my man, or you'll be doing me out of my share." The interview of Mr. Stillwater with Sir Ben- jamin Peakman was satisfactory. The knight, not w n A VALET TO ORDER. 123 feeling very well, required attentions which Mr. Stillwatci undertook to minister for the sake of a few small coiijs of the realm, about which there was an amusing parley between the quick-witted knave and the much more able man of business. The latter had the best of it. " If you should satisfy me," said Sir Benjamin, " I shall probably find a place for you in my house at Quebec. You can enter on your duties at once. And as I don't like your cDming to wait on me from the steerage, I have arranged with the purser that you shall occupy a cabin amidships. Get your things removed there as soon as you can." Mr. Crog was lying in wait for Mr. Stillwater when he returned, and was not sorry to hear that the latter was to remove from the steerage. " He'll have enough to do to look after Sir B.,'* said the steward to himself." Accordingly he assisted Mr. Stillwater with 124 THE captain's CABIN. alacrity to remove his effects, among which was a heavy portmanteau, to his new berth. On his part, Mr. Stillwater was not sorry to get away from Mr. Crog's too familiar observation. J ill.! i. ^ CHAPTER VII. A MIXED COMPANY. TOURING the night the wind veered round to the east and considerably moderated, and the barometer leaped up an inch and a quarter. The late-rising sun emerged bright and clear from the horizon, and the vessel, being now fairly out in the open Atlantic, and running in a south-westerly direction, sped on through a warm bright atmo- sphere. The huge swell of the disturbed ocean had given place to dancing waves, which seemed from the rapidly-moving deck to roll along in crystal- green battalions crested with snowy foam. Before noon, the awning-deck, fore and aft, was crowded with lounging convalescents, in every variety of costume, lying about in sheltered and sunny spots. ' 126 THE captain's CABIN. II 1 Above them, now poising in relief against the clear blue sky, now hovering over the flaky wake of the vessel, and ever and anon darting down to pick up some of the garbage which the galley stewards had thrown down the shoots, were huge graceful sea-gulls — the prettiest scavengers in nature. The watch, dispersed about the deck, overhauled the ropes, stays, tarpaulins, and other gear, which had been injured by the storm. A shroud -net- ting had been rigged on the quarter-deck, to keep off the passengers while the ship's carpenter and his mates endeavoured to provide temporary bul- warks for the large piece which had been carried away by the wave. In one of the most comfortable places on the lee side of the deck-house (which had by her direc- tions been secured at an early hour by her maid), Lady Peakman sat, propped up by cushions from the saloon bunkers, which any other passengers would have removed at their peril. Her ladyship, A MIXED COMPANY. f27 however, was accustomed to presume on her hus- band's wealth, and on her own superiority. She looked rather languid. The last few days had convinced her once more of the vanity of human wishes, and the weakness of the human stomach. Her large cheeks were depressed and flabby. Dark strokes underlined her eyes. A good deal of their brightness and fierceness was subdued, and the eyelids had a tendency to droop over them heavily. But she had caused Maria to array her in an ela- borate toilette. Over her black - grey hair she wore a beautiful cap of unplucked sea-otter skin. Her dress was of olive cloth richly embroidered, over which had been thrown a fur -lined pelisse of more than half her length. Miss Araminta, who had also suffered extremely, if less noisily than her mamma, was a charming little picture of a recovering invalid. She lay in the sun, in a scarlet cloak, left open, and display- ing an elegant travelling dress of mouse-coloured i: 128 THE captain's CABIN. matelassi trimmed v/ith feathers. On her head was a coquettish little felt hat, with a blackcock's feather, which suited admirably her fine auburn hair. Her little form, half hidden, half set off by a carefully-adjusted rug of the fur of the white fox, while her head lay back on a soft pillow of eider- down, presented a very pretty though over-dressed picture to any unattached young gallant, peer or commoner, who might be loitering abo'it. The two ladies were lying close to the open door of the purser's cabin. Within, upon the sofa, at- tended by a middle-aged maid of sedate deport- ment, lay a tall and handsome woman, herself of middle age, who listened with half contemptuous interest to the conversation that went on without Seated on a camp-stool, with his back against the poop scantling, was the knight, reading a novel. His new valet had arranged the stool, with a skin upon it, and laid a small pile of books within convenient reach. ' head xock's luburn ff bya te fox, ■ eider- iressed peer or :. The loor of )fa, at- deport- rself of iptuous vithout against iding a 2 stool, pile of ^ .a iH mi u A MIXED COMPANY. 129 It was the first time this man had seen Lady Peakman. She was reclining, with her eyes half- closed, and took no notice of him. He, on the contrary, having glanced at her an instant, suddenly dropped his face, a habit he had, to shade his eyes, and regarded her with a fixed, keen look. Sir Benjamin, coming up at the moment, spoke to his lady, who opened her eyes directly on Mr. Still- water's face, and catching his intent stare, coloured, frowned, looked away, and then with a startled expression looked at him again. But he had gone. The knight saw this. "Ohl" he said, "you were wondering who that man was. He is the fellow I have engaged as my temporary valet. He understands his business, though I don't like his expression. His hair and whiskers are a beastly red." Lady Peakman made no observation, and the knight sat down and took up William Black's latest 10 "'I 11 U^ f 130 THE captain's CABIN. I ; I ,i i'''?' r fl ! I novel — one of those books that have charms alike for the rudest and the most artistic mind. Presently Miss Araminta, who had been silently- using her eyes, said, " There he is, mamma ! " A tall young gentleman, in a coarse tweed suit, passed from the companion, and slightly raising his hat to the young lady, proceeded along the deck further astern, where several persons were extended at their ease, protected from the slight wind by the saloon skylight and its high combing. Lady Peakman glanced approvingly at the young lord's figure, but presently her face assumed an air of astonishment arid disgust. " Sir Benjamin," she said, " come here quickly." The knight, annoyed at being interrupted, came forward, smiling like a cherub. "Look here, my dear. Lord Pendlebury has gone and thrown himself down on a rug at the feet of that vulgar Mrs. McGowkie ; and, do you see, she has the impudence to smirk and chat suit, with him as coolly as if he were a draper's as- sistant ? Do go and tell him who those people are. He will be exceedingly mortified by-and-by if you allow this to go on without warning." Sir Benjamin was not born a gentleman, and this is said to be a disadvantage which no after experience can make up. He put his book under his arm, and swinging his glasses in his hand, sauntered up the deck to the spot where the young peer was abandoning himself to the quaint and easy liveliness of the U. P. minister's daughter. Mr. McGowkie, who had met the young lord in the smoking-room, was aiding and abetting with ad- mirable Caledonian coolness. Sir Benjamin, stand- ing above, and bowing to Mr. McGowkie in his most polished manner, and beaming on the whole party with his curious smiling eyes and large flashing teeth, said, — "Oh, can I have a word with you, my lord >"* Lord Pendlebury, inwardly cursing Sir Benjamin lO* I 11 I 132 THE captain's CA .*. n \i for a troublesome old fellow, but thinking that he mi^ht have something to say about his friend Corcoran, rose and walked beside the knight, who led the way amidships. When they were fairly out of hearing, the latter said, — " Lord Pendlebury, Lady Peakman, who hopes you will permit me to present ; to her, thought that I ought to convey to you a piece of informa- tion. She is, you probably are aware, quite an habitude of society ; and I am sure that you will feel that she is only discharging her duty — and — and will accept her kindly little intervention in the spirit in which it is meant ? " Lord Pendlebury, astonished at this exordium, merely bowed, and looked straight before him. " Lady Peakman was afraid, you know," said Sir Benjamin, who required all his blandness and all his resource to acquit himself of the delicate mission he had undertaken, " lest you should think us remiss, being thoroughly conversant with our r-i :l ! A MIXED COMPANY. 133 little colonial society, and therefore acquainted with all the colonial people on board — as no doubt you can understand persons in our position are obliged to be," said Sir Benjamin, apologeti- cally, with a simper, which did not seem to exert upon the peer a soothing effect, for the quick- eyed knight saw his nostrils dilating, "if we did n*. "" inform you who and what they are. Because, of course,* proceeded Sir Benjamin, with a win- ning effort at a smile, " we know that a peer would not care to be associated with any who — though they might be very honest people — were not exactly persons of any position, you know ; in fact, quite the reverse." " Oh, you are quite mistaken about that," said Lord Pendlebury, brusquely, hoping to cut short this tirade, which was boring him extremely. " I rather have a fancy for odd company, and cads are my particular whim. But, to tell you the truth, I haven't been into the steerage yet Is Lady Feakman afraid of fleas ? " 11 134 THE captain's CABIN. i '^'11^ " O dear no ! You misunderstand me, my dear Lord Pendlebury," cried the knight, flushing up. " Lady Peakman observed you were being addressed in very familiar terms by the person you were talking to when I came up — a Mrs. McGowkie — and she thought it would only be right to let you know that she is only the daughter of a Scotch dissenting minister, and that Mr. McGowkie, her husband, is what in England you would call a wholesale draper of Toronto." " Ah 1 " said Lord Pendlebury, with greater tact than the knight had shown. " How kind of Lady Peakman to concern herself about me ! I quite appreciate her good taste and her good feeling. Will you do me the honour to present me to her ladyship }" Sir Benjamin was delighted. They proceeded aft. Lord Pendlebury said a few polite words to Lady Peakman about the \/eather, slyly squinting meanwhile into the purser's cabin at its occupant, A MIXED COMPANY. I3S te who was listening intently to all that took place ; •and then, after exchanging a few commonplace remarks with Araminta, the peer lifted his hat, and coolly walking back again, resumed his position opposite little Mrs. McGowkie, who became more lively and pretty than ever. Shrewd Sandy Mc Gowkie had not been an apprentice at Lewis and Allonby's for nothing. He had watched the whole performance with a sardonic interest and a grim sense of humour, which produced curious results on his steady face. Araminta pouted and pretended to sleep. Lady Peakman tossed her head and turned her back. Sir Benjamin's study of Mr. William Black's charming book assumed an intensity v/hich the great novelist would have been pained to witness, especially if he had noticed that not a page was turned over for h?.if-an-hour. After lunch, however, the peer, v/ith commanding coolness, seized upon the knight's stool, and conning with the air of an II' 11 •sasssmm h I i > i » ; t ^' ]- 136 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. amateur admirer the graceful figure and pretty dress of Miss Araminta, made himself immensely' at home. The facile knight lent himself agreeably to this whim, while his lady endeavoured, with in- different success, to run a delicate line between hauteur and amiability. She was too fond of governing to endure with equanimity a neat and successful rebuff. But little Araminta prattled away in the best Windsor-school style, and by-and- by, when Lord Pendlebury gravely asked the per- mission of Lady Peakman to give her daughter a promenade, it was very solacing to the old lady to watch the lithe damsel leaning on the steady arm of the rich and brilliant young peer. 1 r ." ' . 1 fell CHAPTER VIII. FEMININE MYSTERIES. T^ING-DONG, &c. Once more that dinner bell with its "clang and clash and roar!" The bright cool weather had quickened the blood and sharpened the appetites of the saloon passengers, and with very few exceptions they showed up at the table. There was the captain, rosy and smiling, fresh from his shaving-glass, in his blue jacket and gilt buttons, every inch a sailor and a man. He was chatting with his friends the McGowkies. Sandy had been crossing to and fro for ten years, and Captain Windlass and he always " foregathered " with mutual g'^od-will. Mr. Carpmael, a trifle sea-green perhaps about the cheeks, and his wife were at the table. Next to (i 138 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. !» them there had seated herself a tall lady, who, though past the prime of life, still showed traces of a period when she must have figured as handsome. Her fine cap and black lace shawl, which dropped negligently off her shoulders, vin- dicated her regard for the conventional custom of dressing for dinner. Lady Peakman coming in, as usual, late, with considerable fuss, exchanged glances with this lady, and saw in a moment that she had to do with a person probably as skilled as herself in the ways of society. Araminta's dress showed that her maid « had been put to some trouble in preparing her for action. The knight in his black frock coat asserted the eminent dignity of the family. Behind his chair the new valet silently stationed himself. "Oh, I thought," said Lady Peakman to the captain, as she raised her glasses and swept the table with her glance until she had reached the FEMININE MYSTERIES. 139 J point where Lord Pendlebury — who, she observed in a moment, still retained his grey tweed coat — was sitting, " I thought, captain, that you would have been able to arrange that Lord Pendlebury should join our party at the head of the table." " I should have been very happy," said the cap- tain, with the indifference of a matter-of-fact man who was master of his ship, " to find Lord Pendle- bury a place somewhere up here, had he applied to me in time. But he selected his own seat." " Oh, I know. He came on board late," said her ladyship. And turning her eyes inquiringly across the table, she added, with a curious mixture of graciousness and insolence, " Perhaps Mr. Mc Gowkie could ^" " Na ! " said Sandy McGowkie, drily, interrupt- ing her. " We're no to move, my Lady Peakman, noo we're settled down in these seats. His lord- ship may just shift for himsel*." " The impertinent puppy," said Lady Peakman 140 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. M 'i i4f- to herself. "And after his lordship has been so condescending to him." The lady opposite McGowkie could hardly re- press a smile, which the knight caught and re- sented. Lady Peakman had not been so fortunate. " Oh," she said, turning deliberately towards the stranger, " here is a lady who, I believe, has no companion. Do you think, madam, that it might be possible to arrange that Lord Pendlebury — a friend of ours — who is at the foot of the table, might be allowed to join us by making an exchange of seats with you.?" " Lord Pendlebury, madam," said the lady, quietly raising a single eye-glass and looking at the peer, " is an old friend of ours — I mean, of mine — and I can scarcely conceive that he would consent to the arrangement you propose." "The table must stand as it is arranged," said the captain, bluntly, and he was dashed in Lady Peakman's good graces for ever. FEMININE MYSTERIES. 141 no The knight smiled all the time, and bowed with affected approval upon McGowkie and his vts-d-vis, as they made their remarks. With the greatest ease he instantly entered into conversation with the strange lady about the young peer. Her accent gave him a hint, which he improved. " He was a short time in Ireland, I think } " said he, deferentially. The experienced dame gave a sly side-glance at Lady Peakman, on this incautious admission by her husband that the "friendship" with the young lord was not of. sufficient intimacy to have enabled them to follow his notorious movements. " I knew him very well in Dublin," said the lady, " when he was an aide-de-camp to the Lord-Lieu- tenant. He was so clever, everybody liked him at the Castle." Sandy McGowkie's under jaw was a study. Mistress McGowkie looked frightened. This was a battle with great guns, and she knew who she M m Shi Il'ii? )s|:ti. ■i 'i m di ■ i 4 m k .!!• ■t .m lii I . 1 ilMi 1 i I: 142 THE captain's CABIN. thought had won. Mr. Carpmael, with lawyer-like alacrity, turned the conversation, out of which Lord Pendlebury was allowed to drop " like a hot potato." Lady Peakman had used her scented handker- chief very vigorously, and then applied herself to the soup. As she laid down the spoon, her eye fell on the face of the knight's valet, who stood sedately behind his chair. He was looking straight at her. Their eyes therefore met. A curious change passed over his face swiftly, like a flash of lightning. " Good Lord I " cried Lady Peakman, and she fainted away. In an instant there was immense commotion. The valet darted round the table and supported his lady. Araminta screr.med. Everybody jumped up. Little Mistress McGowkie was the only one who retained her presence of mind. She clapped a bottle of smelling salts to her ladyship's nose, and dashed a glass of water in her face. But it was not a fit which would yield to those remedies. Lady FEMININE MYSTERIES. 143 ' Peakman was carried by the valet and the captain into her cabin, the knight following and wringing his hands. The doctor, who had, on taking a glance at her, instantly run for his lancet, now ordered the cabin to be cleared. Later on it was reported in the ship that Lady Peakman had had a slight fit, brought on by eating too rapidly when in a state of excessive weakness. Two persons were ceaseless in their inquiries and in their offers of help, namely, Mrs. McGowkie and the lady who sat next to Mrs. Carpmael. This lady's maid, an older and more experienced person than either Maria or Miss Ringdove, was installed for a time in charge of the invalid. She gave as the name of her mistress, Mrs. Belldoran. One person on board had not yet taken advan- tage of the finer weather to leave his quarters. The door of the captain's cabin, surrounded as we have seen by aristocratic and pretty loungers, remained closed, save when Nick Donovan, the steady-going '»ii if I I '5 i I ! i > M Jl> ' !" ll 1 1 » i ih I a- i j: 1 Hi L T44 THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN. Irish servant of its tenant, now and then entered to wait upon his master. Mr. Corcoran, for he must now be known by his correct name, was not merely kept in hiding by a pusillanimous shame, but his terror at the idea of another meeting — even under more dignified conditions — with his divorced lady was more than he could overcome. On her part, as we have seen, there appeared to be no such mau' vaise honte. She had gone to dinner ready to face any emergency. When the excitement created by Lady Peakman's illness had subsided, and people, finding the patient did not mean immediately to die, resumed their places, Mrs. Belldoran made herself very agreeable to the company about her. Lord Pendlebury joined her as she was leaving the saloon, and a few words passed between them. " Well, you have not forgotten me } " she said. "O no, Mrs. Cor I mean — whew! I forgot! A thousand excuses. Forgive me. What shall I say ? " FEMININE MYSTERIES. 145 " Mrs. Bclldoran." " Your family name. Of course I have not for- gotten you. What a dch'ghtful place that Castle was ! — But what changes ! — How terrible all this is ! Forgive me, I cannot help alluding to it." " Oh ! " said the lady, touching her eyes with her pocket-handkerchief. " What I have suffered I And now, what do you think ? Come into my cabin a moment, where no one can hear us, and let me tell you. — You swear you will never utter a word of this .? Well. I met in London a very estimable and gentlemanly person — a Mr. Free- mantle — cousin, you know, of the Freemantles of Castle Doynton. He is permanent financial secretary, or auditor - general, or something like that, in the Canadian Government. And, my dear Lord Pendlebury, do you know I agreed to marry him at the expiration of a year from the — the — you know. I cannot bear to mention the word. The year is just up, and I thought it would be II 11 I :,'l- ' i ^ vS 146 THE captain's CABIN. better to go out and marry him quietly in Montreal, instead of setting every one's tongue a-going here. Well now of all the most perverse and terrible accidents in the world — He is on board. Ay ! and in the very nexi c abin. I heard his voice. I have seen him " — Mrs. Belldoran covered her eyes with her handkerchief, as if to shut out the terrible vision — " seen him under the most absurd circum- stances, which I won't describe to you." Then she began to cry. " And do you know," she continued, sobbing, "the poor creature ! my maid tells me they mistook him for a murderer, and put ^' in irons. I heard them struggling with ^ ^ «^ar! was there ever anything mort auiui, jre awkward ! " " Pray be calm ! ' cried Lord Pendlebury, who was distressed at the feel-'ng she showed, 'ie bit his lips, for he knew not what else to ^ The chance of a re-establishment was gone, foi re was the lady e7t route to be married. FEMININE MYSTERIES. 147 "You may at least be friends again," he said to himself, half thinking aloud. " No," she said, beating her breast. " No, never! I sat in court. I heard the evidence. Up to that time, although I was dreadfully angry with him, for he is a most foolish and impracticable fellow, I never really in my heart believed the worst about him. But the evidence of that Homburg waiter I There was no getting over that you know." " Mrs. Corcoran — there — please forgive me, but I can call you nothing else — that evidence was not true," said Lord Pendlebury, surprised at his own dogmatism. He had nothing but Corcoran's word for it. " Who says so ? " said the lady, vehemently. " I have seen him in the next cabin. He told me the whole story. He assured me on his honour as a man c id a Christian that there was not a word of truth in that evidence, though he admits he behaved stupidly and unadvisedly." \ si 148 THE captain's CABIN. Is- I ' " Heaven help me!" cried Mrs. Belldoran, throw- ing herself down and weeping bitterly. " If I could only believe it ! I have never had a happy hour since this horrible thing happened. Pray leave me," she added, holding up her hand and motioning him away. The young peer, greatly moved, walked out on the now darKcned deck, and paced up and down a full hour before he could recover his self-command. \ mmmmmmm CHAPTER IX. JjI THE REPRISAL OF THE PAST. A LL nightlong LadyPeakman lay in Ir^r berth. The curtain was drawn, to shade from her eyes the light, which by the captain's permission had been left burning. Araminta and her maid had been removed to an empty cabin, and her lady- ship's abigail occupied the other cabin alone. To- wards night the wind, which as the gale moderated had gone round with the sun, freshened up a little, and the comparative serenity of the day was suc- ceeded by a slight rolling motion, which was not however unpleasant. To and fro rocked Lady Peakman, to and fro through the draggling hours ; listening to the irritating crack-crack of the wood- work as it started here and started there ; to the $t ill .ii ' 1 ISO THE captain's CABIN. heavy step of the watch trampling to and fro to heave the log or haul tight a brace ; to the jingling of the glasses in the rack over her head ; to the melancholy sough and boom of the wind and ocean, that strangely-mingled sound which im- presses such a feeling of intense mystery and powerlessness on a lonely soul at sea. And just now Lady Peakman was intolerably alone — painfully isolated in her own sorrow. For a great and terrible sorrow had stricken her. " Oh," she said to herself, " if I wei -^ only ashore. If I were not shut up in this floating den. It is too horrible ! " She was a woman of courage, of experience, of resource, but she was completely paralysed. At times she burst into fits of weeping. 4 Had Maria been awake, she could have heard the sobs, and the low moans between them, which, strong as her mistress was, and desperately as she strove to stifle them, would have way. What was ti.i ; u n f' il m THE REPRISAL OF THE PAST. 151 d fro to jingling ; to the ind and hich im- :ery and tolerably Dw. For ;r. y ashore. It is too rlence, of sed. At ve heard Ti, which, i\y as she rVhat was it that went and came with its gentle and its tem- pestuous changes through the soul of this woman —this woman so hard to herself, so haughty, so domineering, so relentless to others ! Somethin