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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE
 
 GABEIEL DENVEE 
 
 BY 
 
 OLIVER MADOX-BROWN 
 
 'Ze honheur vient souvent bien iar(l,—apris la mort da loutes iws 
 espiffances, Aussi faul-il aux malheureux heaucoup d'espvii pour le 
 reco?inaifre, ei cle force pour I'arreler mi passage- 
 
 A NEW EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 
 
 1875 
 
 All ricihls reserved
 
 6^ QrZCL
 
 TO MY FATHER
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 As suddenly 
 Thou comest ns the memory of some dream, 
 Which noiiv is sad because it hath been sweet. 
 
 Shexlet. Prometheus Unbound. 
 
 Gabriel Denver was one of a party of emig-rants to 
 the first attempted colony of Swan Eiver Settlement. 
 This was as a child with liis parents. His mother, 
 who was Portuguese by birth, caught fever and sick- 
 ened and died from the privations consequent upon 
 that well known and disastrous expedition, where 
 five hundred people were landed and left all but 
 naked in the autumnal mists and rain without 
 covering or shelter. His father was English. 
 
 This child grew up (among the wild awe-striking 
 scenery, where no single thing resembled the dim 
 reminiscences he may have retained of his native 
 country) into a man who was of a taciturn, almost 
 
 B
 
 2 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 one might say sombre, nature — one of those men, too 
 rarely met with, who seem to accept their lives 
 passively, and without doubt or enquiry. Yet the 
 lines of his face showed the deep and resolute inborn 
 energy of which he was capable when roused or pro- 
 voked. In his character the fire and passionate fit- 
 fulness of his mother's southern blood was strangely 
 blended with the cold reflecting qualities and energy 
 of the northern nature ; one acting and re-acting on 
 the other, and forming a mind in which reflection 
 came always after the attainment of desire, never be- 
 fore. This mind, too, was of that peculiar magnetic 
 order which so unaccountably assimilates, as one 
 might say, other minds to itself— a mental quality 
 which is far more powerful even than beauty of face. 
 Now Denver possessed both : and his being perfectly 
 unaware of their existence made their influence even 
 stronger. Nothing is more overpowering than ex- 
 treme simplicity! He was, indeed, one of those 
 men, brave as a lion and truthful as a child, with 
 whom romantic and excitable women sometimes fall 
 madly in love. 
 
 When (after a long life) his father died, he was 
 left with his sister and his cousin Deborah Mallinson 
 dependent on bis protection, though not on his
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 3 
 
 exertions, for they each of them had a certain sum of 
 money, sufficient to maintain them. Shortly after 
 this, he settled down in Tasmania ; where, after a few 
 months, he became deeply involved in one of the 
 wild speculation-manias in which the restless colo- 
 nists used so often to lose their hard-earned gains. 
 He was only saved from complete ruin by his sister, 
 who lent him all the money she had. 
 
 Before two years had passed, his household was 
 broken up by the marriage of this sister ; and to re- 
 pay her he was reduced to borrowing from his cousin 
 - — or rather to accepting her own secret offer of a 
 loan to him. This he was unwilling to do at first ; 
 but necessity is a hard task-master. Of course 
 Deborah continued to live in his house ; but the life 
 he himself led left him but little time to spend in it. 
 Two hundred nights out of the annual three hundred 
 and sixty-five, he slept with no roof to his head but 
 the sky. 
 
 Deborah was a woman seemino-lv without much 
 predilection or sentiment ; one of those cold, calculat- 
 ing people who seem to cast a chill over everything 
 they touch. Her dark complexion, cold black eyes 
 and long black hair gave her an almost sinister ap- 
 pearance, though she was far from ugly. She too 
 
 B 2
 
 4 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 had the passionate Portuguese blood in her veins. 
 She was certainly not a woman who would have given 
 her whole fortune away from a mere generous impulse, 
 and without expecting any return for it. 
 
 The return she expected was that Denver should 
 become her husband ; and on the accomplishment of 
 this desire she set her whole mind. Indeed, she loved 
 him; his seeming indifference to her only going 
 to increase her passion. She very seldom spoke; 
 she acquiesced passively in all the long absences 
 he made ; but she regarded him with a jealousy 
 burning and intense as the sun she lived under. 
 A keen physiognomist might easily have read this 
 passion in her deep-set eyes and in her face; 1 it 
 Denver had no more suspicion of the sentiments she 
 reo-arded him with than he had afterwards of his re- 
 ciprocating them, though at length her constant 
 refusal to marry made her real aims obvions enough. 
 They had lived together all their lives, and yet she 
 was an utter stranger to him ; two people of more 
 absolutely separate tendencies were perhaps never 
 brought together. For a man of Denver's disposition 
 to love a woman of whose heart or soul he knew 
 nothing, and in whose face existed no beauty, was a 
 simple impossibility.
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 5 
 
 At length a season came in which one of the most 
 prosperous citizens of the colony offered Deborah his 
 liand ; but only to be rejected by her. Denver, 
 hearing of this, thought it his duty to remonstrate 
 with his cousin. 
 
 Her only reply vras to burst into tears. 
 
 ' You are the only man I will ever marry. You 
 can do as you like, Gabriel ; but I will have no one 
 but you ! ' she exclaimed suddenly and with great 
 emphasis. 
 
 ' I ! Why I cannot love you ! ' he replied, in some 
 astonishment at her abruptness. 
 
 ' Nobody else shall ! ' Deborah rejoined, with a 
 sparkle in her black ejes. 
 
 What was he to do ? His cousin was evidently in 
 love with him ; he had incurred great responsibility 
 in borrowing her money, for none of his expectations 
 had been realised, and he was still a poor man. She 
 had refused to marry any one else and was obliged 
 always to live with him ; and every time he met her 
 he saw the same speechless importunity in her man- 
 ner towards him. It seemed an utterly unselfish at- 
 tachment. 
 
 The end of it was that he told her if she still cared 
 for him at the end of a year he would then marry
 
 6 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 her ; but he laid especial emphasis on his words when 
 he said she would be at perfect liberty to change her 
 mind if she chose before the expiration of that period. 
 ' / have had time enough to make it up in^ was all 
 Deborah said. 
 
 But as the time grew nearer and nearer, and he be- 
 came more and more acquainted with his cousin's 
 disposition, he still saw nothing that could make him 
 love her more. Indeed, he seemed to like her less 
 every day. Yet he had chosen his lot and must abide 
 by it. His destiny seemed to have formed itself as 
 simply and naturally as a cloud swims in the sky. 
 Sometimes he wondered how he could have pledged 
 himself to such a promise ; he could hardly realise 
 it. Maybe the patience with which he bore the 
 chains that were slowly being forged for him was 
 caused by the absence of any inducement to burst 
 through them ; for he was a man of deep and hidden 
 passion, and of that keen nervous temperament the 
 hot outbm-sts of which would have been irresistible 
 when urging him on to some definite object. 
 
 Just after this singular engagement his sister 
 died quite suddenly, a circumstance which he felt 
 deeply, for she was the only person he loved in the 
 world, and, save the woman who was so soon to
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 7 
 
 become his wife, was the last relative he had iu the 
 colonies. 
 
 Now, when within about eight weeks of the day 
 on which the marriage was to have been consum- 
 mated — on the morning of September 15,1834 — a 
 letter arrived for Denver, dated a full year previously. 
 It was from a London attorney, informing him that 
 he was the next heir to an estate left by a brother 
 of his father, who had died without making a will. 
 
 This was a startling piece of news I In a country 
 such as he lived in men make rapid resolutions and 
 soon execute them. There was nothing to do but to 
 leave for England immediately (by the ' Black Swan,' 
 
 return emigrant shij), which would start from S 
 
 in a coujDle of days) or to wait five or six months 
 for another opportunity. He chose the former course. 
 At first, he intended to leave his cousin behind, and 
 promised to return for her ; but Deborah was deter- 
 mined to accompany him. It was tacitly understood 
 that they should be married in England. It seemed 
 as though she were determined not to lose sight of 
 him until they should be married. Some marriages 
 are bitter, bitter mockeries ! 
 
 So Denver left hastily to secure a passage for 
 liiraself and his cousin, she remaining behind to
 
 8 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 arrange sucli things as might be necessary for the 
 long voyage. A two hours' ride across an enormous 
 sterile plain, covered with stinging nettles (some of 
 them six feet high, and through which his own 
 sheep were scattered in all directions), brought him 
 to the small seaport town. 
 
 He got there some little time before the arrival 
 of the ship from Hobart Bay, and he first caught 
 sight of it as a small speck on the dim horizon, 
 which gradually increased in size till it came within 
 a mile of the shore. Two women were to be seen 
 on the quarter-deck, but they did not attract his 
 notice, for he supposed there would be many other 
 passengers on board. It was nearly night before the 
 ' Black Swan ' anchored in the shallow waters of the 
 little bay. 
 
 Only the dark silhouettes of her flapping and soon 
 furled sails could be seen against the dying radiance 
 in the western sky as he was rowed to her side. 
 As maybe supposed, such an arrival as a 'homeward 
 bound ' ship in the undulating waters of the little 
 bay created much excitement in the town on its 
 shores. The circular beach was thronged with men, 
 women and children, and filled with noise and light. 
 
 He soon got on board in the darkness, to make
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 9 
 
 arrangements with the master, but he only found 
 the first mate on deck. 
 
 The ship sailed the next evening-, he was told. 
 There Avould be only two passengers on board beside 
 himself and his cousin. Had he any family with 
 him ? 
 
 ' None.' 
 
 ' Well,' said the young man, ' I trust we shall 
 make a pleasant voyage, sir. Mr. Gregory (our 
 captain) was out f.hooting at the Cape, and met with 
 an accident. We had to leave him for our return, 
 so I have had to navigate the ship myself — a heavy 
 responsibility added to my other duties. We only 
 landed here for water and vegetables. It's not an 
 unpleasant surprise to get two new passengers.' 
 
 ' Who are the two now on board ? ' 
 
 ' One of them's a rather pretty girl mth bright 
 brown hair : her name is Miss Laura Conway. The 
 Eh ! Did you speak, sir ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said Denver, who had started suddenly and 
 muttered something. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon. The other is some relative, 
 I think her aunt ; at least, she has the same name. 
 They say the girl has lost her father, and is going 
 to join some of her other relations in Devonshire.
 
 10 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 I hav'n't seen mucli of them during the time they've 
 been on board. At any rate they both look very 
 
 poorly, and Oh I the fare, the passage-money ? 
 
 It's as in the prospectus, ninety guineas down in 
 gold, and twenty more on quitting the ship. But 
 as I was saying, Miss Conway looks very poorly, and 
 I trust the lady you bring with you will look after 
 her and freshen her up a bit ; she'll want it before 
 long. Her old aunt is worse than an encumbrance 
 to her.' 
 
 This disconnected dialogue took place on the 
 fore-deck, where it was too dark for Denver to see 
 the face of the man he was talking to. 
 
 The few trifling, unconsidered words the sailor had 
 uttered could not have induced the sudden start he 
 had given at the mention of the girl's name. In 
 spite of the more important matters he had on hand, 
 Denver could not help the intense feeling of interest 
 and compassion w^hich was awakened in his breast 
 on hearing it. Indeed, he had good reason for his 
 curiosity and surprise, as will presently be shown. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the mate led him up the 
 obscure lumbered deck and down into the cabin to 
 sign the printed receipt. An old woman, witli a 
 worn, wrinkled face, was sitting imder the lamp
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 11 
 
 with her elbows on the table : as they entered slie 
 was coughing. The sailor said, briefly, 'Mr. Gabriel 
 Denver, youi- fellow-passenger to be.' 
 
 She rose totteringly,and looked at them as though 
 her sight were dim ; then she made a courtesy, and 
 went away. 
 
 The man filled up the form (though not without 
 some consideration), counted the gold which was 
 handed to him, tested doubtful pieces with his 
 mouth, and at last, finding it all right, handed the 
 paper to Denver, asking him at the same time if he 
 wished to look at his sleeping berth. He then 
 opened a door at the end of the compartment, dis- 
 closing a passage about two feet wide and ten 
 long, which had doors on either side, some open and 
 some shut. Denver was too tired to pass mucli com- 
 ment on what he said. The place was filled with 
 the peculiar salt smell to be found in all confined 
 places in the vicinity of the sea ; but the mate, with 
 the cheerful remark, ' the stench '11 soon clear off 
 when it's used a little and we get out into the open 
 water,' walked through and flung back a small 
 window at the end, admitting a fresh stream of the 
 sea breeze full in their faces, while Denver prepared 
 to go on shore.
 
 12 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 ' Are you sure her name is Laura Conway ? ' he 
 asked, abruptly, as he was stepping down into the 
 boat alongside. 
 
 ' Of course I ' 
 
 ' G-ood-night,' said Denver ; and hearing him say 
 so, the boatmen pulled off to the shore. 
 
 Denver had good reason for the interest he took 
 in this name ' Laura Conway.' Some nine years 
 back he had been in the neighbourhood of Sydney — 
 then a wild and but sparsely cultivated district. 
 He lived at the time on an island some five miles 
 from the town, and just at the mouth of the Para- 
 matta river. There were convicts on this island ; a 
 strict watch was kept on the water all round it. 
 
 One sultry Christmas night, just after sundown, 
 he, with several others, was lying on the shore, 
 throwing pebbles through the hazy line of moon- 
 licrht which glittered across the harbour, and talking 
 idly, as men do who have no care on their minds. 
 The moon was rising from behind Nan's Point, at 
 the mouth of the river opposite, and a mass of 
 sombre and mysterious shadow lay half across the 
 water, inside which nothing was visible. No sound 
 was audible, save that of their own voices and the 
 ripple of the rising tide.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 13 
 
 Suddenly one of the party looked up, saying he 
 could hear the splash of an oar ! It was against 
 regulations to approach the island at that hour. 
 They all listened and looked to their pistols ; for in 
 those days dangerous characters were about the bush, 
 and it behoved honest men to be on their guard. 
 But the boat which at last pulled out of the shadow 
 of the shore and into the moonlight, in no way 
 verified their fears ; for there was only one person 
 in it, and that one seemed to have great difficulty 
 in managing the big unwieldy oars. 
 
 They all of them lay watching its approach with 
 great curiosity. At last Denver hailed it. 
 
 Still the boat approached nearer and nearer ; its 
 keel grated on the shore before any reply came. 
 They all gathered round it with astonishment ; for 
 the rower was a girl scarcely eleven years old — a mere 
 child ; with a beautiful face and slender figure, with 
 bright blue eyes and brown auburn hair, which fell 
 all over her face and neck, sadly disarranged by 
 the wind. She seemed most singularly inadequate 
 to tlie labour she must have undergone in crossing 
 from the shore. 
 
 Denver lifted her out, asking what she wanted, for 
 she seemed far too startled at their sudden appearance
 
 14 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 to be able to speak ; but there was something in his 
 manner which appeared to reassure her. ' Please, 
 sir I ' she exclaimed eagerly, and looking full in his 
 face, ' I want the doctor. My father has been taken 
 ill — there was no one but I to come, and I want help 
 for him.' 
 
 As she uttered this appeal there was a sudden and 
 dubious pause. The fact was that these men, used 
 to all descriptions of chicanery and cheating as they 
 were, thought at first that the child's being sent was 
 a mere plot to decoy two or three of them over to 
 the land, and there rob — or perhaps do even worse 
 with them. It so happened that the doctor (who 
 belonged to the prison) was one of the party. He 
 was a Scotchman ; and in spite of all his prudence 
 had once been caught and maltreated by a trick of 
 the same nature. At any rate, he now whispered 
 
 half-audibly ' It's a ruse. Yaniker Bill's ' at 
 
 the bottom of it I Let's detain her.' 
 
 ' I wouldn't go alone I* answered another, out loud. 
 
 ' Who sent you ? ' said Denver. 
 
 ' No one ! Oh for heaven's sake don't waste time ! 
 He may die ! ' Saying this her strange fortitude 
 ' A well-known ' bush-ranger ' of that period.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 15 
 
 seemed half to fail her, and she began almost sobbing. 
 ' Pray come, I dare not say more I I ran down to 
 the shore and wandered up it to where they keep 
 the boats ; and then I rowed over here to where I 
 heard your voices.' 
 
 ' Doctor,' said Denver, ' she must be telling the 
 truth ! We must go.' But the doctor appeared 
 doubtful of the wisdom of such a proceeding. 
 ' What's your name ? ' he said to the child. 
 
 ' Conway — Laura. For heaven's sake I ' 
 
 ' What ! Conway of Xan's Point ? Has'nt your 
 father got his brothers with him ? ' interrupted the 
 doctor. 
 
 To this the child made no reply, for she began 
 crying outright. 
 
 ' Did he send ye ? ' pursued the doctor. 
 
 ' They won't let me go near him ! ' * 
 
 ' Is there anything ^vrong then ? ' 
 
 To this question she again made no reply ; she 
 only reiterated her entreaties to them to go back with 
 her. There was something so sweet and at the ?ame 
 time so imploring in tlie sound of her voice that it 
 would have been difficult to listen to it vathout being 
 moved. It seemed to fascinate them. Even the
 
 % 
 
 16 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 suspicions of the doctor appeared to be lulled by her 
 last entreaty, for he said no more. 
 
 ' If you won't go I luill !' said Denver, getting 
 over the gunwale as he spoke. The other three fol- 
 lowed him. The child got in, too ; but not a word 
 more explicit would she say, save that she repeatedly 
 begged them to row faster. She was in great agita- 
 tion. Indeed, she seemed in a perfect agony of 
 childish terror and impatience. In spite of her re- 
 ticence, they saw that something serious must have 
 happened ; and, their sympathy being more and more 
 awakened, they pulled with a will, till the sides of 
 the half-rotten boat groaned with the strain put upon 
 
 them. 
 
 They soon plunged into the shadow, and it took 
 but a minute more to reach the shore. There, with- 
 out a moment's reflection, they left the boat ; and, 
 guided by her, they all scrambled along a rough pre- 
 cipitate path on to the summit of the low cliff. This 
 had been cleared through the dense and entangled 
 brushwood which grew close down to the sides of 
 
 the water. 
 
 At the top they found a great triangular patch 
 of ground, all cleared for cultivation— a white gaunt 
 spot hemmed in by a dark and dreary fringe of trees.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 17 
 
 In the middle of this the outlines of a still more 
 dreary log-hut rose against the sky. It looked a 
 lonely, desolate, unpleasant place enough, seen in 
 the weird moonlight. 
 
 A lamp biu'nt in one of the windows ; and as they 
 came nearer they heard groans. 
 
 One moment more and they were in the verandah, 
 breathless with their run ; for their little guide had 
 managed to infuse some of her own alarm into their 
 breasts. The door was locked. They knocked 
 gently at first, then with force. Still no one 
 answered. One of them called out at last and 
 threatened to break it down, for the child assm'ed them 
 her uncles were still in the house with her father. 
 
 Just as they were debating whether to do this or 
 force a wav throug-h one of the windows, a lio-ht 
 streamed through the chinks and the door unexpec- 
 tedly opened, while two men appeared blocking up 
 the entrance. There was a lantern on the floor be- 
 hind, which showed them to be two strong and 
 rough -looking fellows. 
 
 They were forced aside before they could speak, 
 and the others pushed by them into the house. 
 
 During this short scuffle the child had said not a 
 word. She seized up the lantern which had been 
 
 c
 
 18 GABRIEL DEN^^ER 
 
 overturned in the struggle, and clutching Denver by 
 the hand led the way into another room. 
 
 Even in the confusion and hurry of that moment 
 he could not help noticing the extreme beauty and 
 grace of her featm-es, as the light reached and lit 
 them up from underneath — the curved Hne of the 
 chin and her long tremulous eyelashes — her red- 
 golden hair which curled and flashed as it fell on her 
 shoulders. 
 
 The nervous fingers clutching his hand seemed 
 to send a subtle and delicate thrill through his whole 
 arm. 
 
 In the room she led them into, a man was 
 stretched on a pallet-bed, writhing about, and with 
 a ghastly face. Seeing all these men enter, he raised 
 himself as though striving to speak ; but fell back 
 exhausted and incapable of articulation. 
 
 ' Oh ! father, father ! they've killed him ! ' shrieked 
 the child, darting to his side ; ' I saw them ! I was 
 sure of it !' 
 
 The doctor snatched the lantern out of her hand 
 and examined the patient hurriedly. 
 
 ' Poison,' he said coolly. 
 
 Then he looked round the rough blank walls of 
 the room. His eye was arrested by a medicine chest
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 19 
 
 (one such as is used by seamen) which stood in one 
 corner. Denver dragged it out into the middle of 
 the floor. The drawers were locked, but there was 
 no time to look for a key, and he broke them open 
 with his clasp-knife. 
 
 There seemed to be a fresh supply of drugs in it ; 
 one of the packets was labelled ' Poison ; ' there was 
 also a small medical tumbler, stained with the dregs 
 of some greenish liquid, which the doctor smelt and 
 put aside. At his request the child ran out and 
 got another, in which he poured a quantity of Avhite 
 powder, which he also found in the drawer. This he 
 mixed with water and prepared to administer to the 
 sick man. The poor fellow seemed perfectly to 
 understand what was wanted, but he could barely 
 swallow it, and only did so after much effort. 
 
 The salts soon produced the desired effect, and 
 after a while he vomited. This seemed to relieve 
 him from the pain he suffered, yet it was two or 
 three hours before he could speak sufficiently to be 
 able to accuse the two men who had been in the 
 house with him, of a desire to poison him for the 
 money he possessed. They were his step-brothers^ 
 two incorrigible idlers for whom he had done all in 
 his power. They had come to him sorne months 
 
 c 2
 
 20 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 back in a state of perfect destitution ; lie bad taken 
 them in, and clothed and fed them. Learning at 
 last of his having two thousand pounds in gold 
 concealed about the premises, they had resolved to 
 rob him of it, but owing to the assistance which 
 came to their brother, they had to make off without 
 it. The most they did was to escape with safety; 
 they were never seen again. Except for the unex- 
 pected energy displayed by this mere child (who, 
 seeing her father get ill, and instinctively distrusting 
 the efforts they made to soothe her, had run down 
 to the waterside and crossed it as she explained) 
 they would have carried out their nefarious plan 
 without interference. She was a brave, thoughtful 
 little thing, and had it not been for the relief she 
 brouoht, her father must have succumbed. 
 
 The affair made a slight sensation at the time, 
 but was soon forgotten in the hurry and turmoil of 
 colonial life. Soon afterwards Denver left the dis- 
 trict and completely lost sight of them, yet he had 
 never forgotten the beauty of the child's face and 
 the bravery of her action. The impression now 
 remained as vividly in his mind as though the 
 occurrence had happened yesterday, instead of nine 
 3-ears ago.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 21 
 
 Was it she? The chance of seeinof her once 
 more inspired him with intense curiosity. She was 
 a child when he knew her, but she would be a 
 woman now. It would be a strano-e thino- to meet 
 her on the ship again. 
 
 ^O'-' '-'^'^'^o
 
 22 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 I am giddy. Expectation ^vhirls me round. 
 
 The imaginary relish is so sweet 
 
 That it enthrals my senses. — TroUus and Cressida. 
 
 DuRiNa the night he slept very unsoundly, and when 
 he rose the next morning he had different matters 
 to attend to in the town, which kept him occupied 
 till nearly noon ; then he was free to go down to the 
 shore and on board the ship again. 
 
 There was a slight swell on from the sea, and the 
 brown sand was all wet and dashed with its foam. 
 He walked down the small picturesque jetty (which 
 was made of whole tree-trunks bound together with 
 cramps of iron, and covered with green seaweed below 
 high-water mark), and thence he stepped into one 
 of the small boats moored at its side. It was dinner 
 hour, and there were only two or three listless half- 
 tamed aborigines to be seen lying idly out of the 
 sea's reach, half buried in the hot sand, and basking 
 like dogs in the sunshine. He had to row himself.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 23 
 
 The * Black Swan,' swaying slightly on the 
 waves, lay anchored about two hundred yards off 
 shore. She was a large two-masted vessel, Spanish 
 built some forty years before. Her forecastle 
 was very high, and its beak projected prominently 
 over the waves, being elongated still further by the 
 bowsprit. The prow was very blunt, which betokened 
 a dull sailer. The quarter-deck and stern (under 
 which Denver first approaclied) rose six or seven 
 feet higher than the middle-deck, but was lower 
 than the forecastle. Four windows, cut lozenge 
 shape, in the sides, with little panes of thick glass, 
 intended to light the cabin and resist the sea at the 
 same time, gave to the stern of the ship a singularly 
 picturesque appearance. A line of fantastic carving 
 went round these apertures, joining them one to 
 another. Over the rudder the name of the ship 
 was painted in red. the carving was gilded, though 
 tarnished and worn by age, and the rest of the sides 
 was simply painted black, as the name seemed to 
 suggest. 
 
 Early in the morning she had finished loading 
 what little cargo remained to be taken on board, 
 and now she rode at anchor. The great ship, as she 
 swung and lurched, tossing her high masts on the
 
 24 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 slight fluctuations of the waves, seemed like a restive 
 horse impatient for action. 
 
 There appeared to be no one on deck ; the men 
 were most likely resting from their labours at noon. 
 Making his boat fast to a rope ladder which hung 
 down the side at the gangway, Denver scrambled 
 on board, and looking round him, he saw the still 
 uncovered entrance to the hold — a great black 
 chasm with an iron ladder leadinjj; down it — which 
 he began descending, as in the hope of finding some 
 one. Right at the furthest end a ship's lantern, 
 swinging from the great cross-beams that held the 
 deck up, threw a flickering and uncertain light over 
 the heaps of sacks and barrels, lashed together by 
 connecting ropes, which formed the cargo, while a 
 blaze of sunlight from above showed him that the 
 place was deserted. The smell was so sickening 
 that he was glad to climb out into the fresh sea 
 breeze again. 
 
 It was now approaching the height of the 
 Australian summer, and the day would have been 
 unendurably sultry but for the cool and fragrant 
 gusts of the wind, fresh-scented from the just- 
 blossoming woods off' shore. Denver went listlessly 
 and sat down in a patch of blue shadow cast across
 
 GABRIEL DENVEll 
 
 'JO 
 
 the stern, as if to wait, at his leisure, the appearance 
 of anyone connected with the ship. He first looked 
 out to sea, perhaps speculating over the miles upon 
 miles of hidden peril which lurked beyond those 
 now-smiling horizons. Then, after a while, he 
 turned his gaze across the cool green glittering waves, 
 heaving and rmdulating one after another as they 
 stretched away for the shore. 
 
 There lay the town, built chiefly of wood ; its 
 white- painted walls bright in the sun, with here and 
 there an English red-tiled roof visible, and forming 
 a strange contrast to the rest of the straggling- 
 built houses. The planks they were built with had 
 been painted gaudily enough when first hammered 
 together, but thev were now toned down and 
 neutralised into strangely beautiful harmony by the 
 dust and dirt of a few seasons. The sun-bright 
 curtains dangled at the open windows, the dusty 
 grey-green foliage of the Tasmanian trees (diversified 
 in one place by a group of yellow-flowered labur- 
 nums, imported by some home-sick colonist) moved 
 tremulously in tlie wind — all forming a picture 
 unlike anything one can imagine in Europe ; a kind 
 of intermingling of English and tropical scenery 
 strange to contemplate.
 
 26 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 But the Australian could not be supposed to 
 notice such peculiarities, as he mused over the view 
 before him, or to notice the yet more essentially 
 tropical way in which the trees towered over and 
 grew amongst the houses, sprung from the gardens 
 and waste places. Since the few short years of the 
 town's existence, all had risen as if by magic from 
 the very spot he had landed on some seven years back 
 — then a beautiful wilderness. Now over the whole 
 place there hung a vapour of blue smoke from its 
 chimneys. 
 
 Even the water seemed peculiar to itself in its 
 all but faultless lucidity ; the sand in its depths 
 sparkled like gold, wliile the shadow of the ship, 
 cast slantingly through the waves, could be seen 
 plainly on it. 
 
 The long reaches of the bay were seen winding 
 for miles on each side of the town, edged always by 
 a line of white foaming breakers. Denver's keen 
 eyes could see the many-coloured leaves of the 
 creepers as they grew scattered over the low sandy 
 cliffs — on which, about four miles off, the sombre 
 inland forest grew in places so low down near the 
 sea that its dark branches seemed to reach over and
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 27 
 
 cast shadows on the surge which broke among its 
 
 roots. 
 
 The well-known densely-wooded hills, slightly 
 cultivated at their bases, rose behind. All was 
 crowned by the deep-coloured, sultry, and glorious 
 blue sky, while the whole scene was burning and 
 scintillating beneath the uamitigated splendour of 
 the noonday sun. 
 
 To most of the people who live or may have 
 lived in this world, any particular scenery which 
 recalls impressions of past liappiness to the mind 
 is toned with the satiety which colours the hap- 
 piness itself; and so any feeling of regret on its 
 being exchanged or lost to view is soon deadened. 
 But this prospect, which Denver gazed into so 
 intently, if it recalled no positive misery to him, at 
 least suggested few ideas of any but the most 
 fictitious and transient pleasm-e. This may, perliaps, 
 account for the half-sad feeling: which tinged and 
 invaded his mind, as he thought that he might 
 never again set eyes on these- hills and plains, where 
 he had spent so many years of his life. He felt that 
 he had not taken all that was owing to liim from 
 their bounteous profusion — some intangible and un- 
 nameuble desire was left unsatisfied in his heart :
 
 28 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 an unpaid debt of nature existed, as it were, which 
 he was reluctant to cancel. 
 
 As he sat thus, gazing dreamily into the distance, 
 the intense silence of the noon was suddenly broken. 
 A woman's voice became audible, singing softly 
 underneath him ; the sound so faint and inarticulate 
 at first that it seemed half-formed out of the plashing 
 of the water. Indeed, it was more like the wild 
 unconscious sighing of the wind in the strings of an 
 -^olian harp than a human voice ; but its sweetness 
 was soon intensified into a thrill that held all his 
 nerves in suspense for tlie moment while it lasted ; 
 then it died away. 
 
 Denver's brain, dreaming over the associations 
 suggested by tlie landscape he saw across the waves, 
 was just in that un concentrated state which leaves 
 the mind helplessly unprotected from any outer 
 impulse or impression — in fact, liable to be over- 
 whelmed by the first pleasurable sensation which 
 stirs its curiosity. 
 
 This unexpectedly sweet voice more than startled 
 him, for in one instant he remembered every single 
 thought and speculation of tlie evening before. 
 If the mention of the girl's name had roused him 
 then, what was the effect produced by it compared
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 29 
 
 to that which was now created in his mind bv the 
 sound of her voice ! 
 
 It went through all his nerves like a thrill of 
 electricity. 
 
 He stood up, as though waiting for the sound to 
 recommence, but he could hear only the plaintive, 
 lialf-hushed rij^ple of the water, which he half 
 believed (so still was everything else) had been 
 woven by his imagination into the music which had 
 enthralled him. At last he strode down the deck 
 and lowered himself into liis boat alongside, deter- 
 mined to row round the ship and find where the 
 sound came from. He could have given no reason 
 for so doing, it was a mere instinctive impulse that 
 he was governed by. 
 
 Getting the oars out, he had just managed to 
 pull round the stern, tossing gently on the waves, 
 when he was arrested by something which fascinated 
 him. 
 
 A young girl nearly grown to womanhood was 
 leaning with her bare arms on the sill of a cabin 
 casement, looking across the cool green sea to where 
 it deepened into blue at its confines. She had a 
 face sad in expression, yet so beautiful that Denver 
 could hardly believe what he saw. Her eyes were
 
 30 G.\iiRIEL DEXVER 
 
 luminous and joale with reflected lights from the 
 translucent water, and the warm, fragrant wind was 
 blowing her golden-brown hair in clustering ringlets 
 across her shoulders and neck ; wliere the sunlight 
 caught upon it, its tangles glowed and sparkled as 
 with red fire. 
 
 She was combing out its vine-like tendrils, and 
 still singing, though almost under her breath. A 
 linen chemisette hung lightly round the soft cm've 
 of her white, delicate shoulders, and it was pressed 
 and modelled to the shape of her breast by the 
 sea breeze. Her throat, where it showed through 
 her streaming hair, was exquisitely tender and well 
 formed. 
 
 The oars dropped out of Denver's hands as he 
 looked ujD at her, and this slight noise attracted her 
 attention. She turned her head, and catching sight 
 of his strange, bearded face, with its keen, glistening 
 eyes watching her so intently, she disappeared, 
 though not before a deep blush had suffused her 
 countenance. He was left staring up at the empty 
 casement like a bird fascinated by a snake, his heart 
 beginning to throb and his nerves to thrill as 
 thouah under the influence of some wild burst of 
 music — as, indeed, on first hearing her voice he had
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 31 
 
 been. Such subtle and mesmerical masic seemed 
 instilled into his brain, that he still remained as 
 though stupefied, with his face turned up to the 
 blank window, which with its gilded carving looked 
 like a frame from w^hich some wonderful picture had 
 been withdrawn. At last an old, wrinkled face 
 appeared at the opening, and a curtain was drawn 
 across it. This recalled him to himself, and with 
 his brain in a perfect whirl he once more began 
 (although slowly and reluctantly) to pull round the 
 ship. 
 
 Denver could not have seen this girl, Laura 
 Conway (for such was her name), above two or three 
 quarters of a minute at the utmost, yet had she 
 mesmerised him he could not have separated himself 
 more unwillingly from her (or rather from the spot 
 where he had first seen her), or have fallen more 
 completely under her power had she wished for 
 power over him. 
 
 Now that he could see her no longer, his mind 
 seemed to have emerged from one of those dreams, 
 the entire duration, meaning, or appearance of which 
 the awakened sleeper tries and longs ineffectually to 
 reconstruct from such fleeting fragments as remain 
 in his memory.
 
 32 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 But it was past, and only the red curtain flut- 
 tered in the wind. 
 
 It is said that a dream occurs simultaneously 
 with the act of awakening. This also had been all 
 but instantaneous, and after it a sort of awakening 
 had followed, though to what he knew not. 
 
 Perhaps for one instant his soul caught a glimpse 
 do\vn the long vista of entanglement, that was so 
 soon to mislead it ; for Laura's beautiful eyes had 
 ensnared it with their magnetism — though he could 
 hardly remember their colour, or still less could 
 recall distinctly the shape of her face. A mere in- 
 distinct impression of sun- sparkling, wind-blown 
 hair, of bare arms and white shoulders, was all 
 that was left for his imagination to fill up and com- 
 plete, or, perhaps, assimilate to some forgotten 
 ideal of its own. The utter suddenness of this scene 
 made his very brain dizzy ; it might account better 
 for his ultimate feeliDgs towards her, than if he had 
 been with her every day since he had known her in 
 her childhood. For this very girl ivas once the 
 child who had so long ago entreated his assistance. 
 How utterly changed she was, and yet how unaltered ! 
 It was like the resemblance of a flower to its bud. 
 
 Now there is always in every human heart (no
 
 GABRIEL DEiVVER 33 
 
 matter how dull or callous it may be in other direc- 
 tions) a certain store of conjugal love which can 
 never be dissipated by any but legitimate use, no 
 matter how long it may lie unawakened. Denver had 
 never loved any woman save his sister, and now, for 
 the first time in his whole existence, he had met 
 with some one whom he could be satisfied to love as 
 his wife. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the growth and 
 nourishment of this love were voluntary on Denver's 
 part ; just for the present he was utterly incapable 
 of analysing or understanding his feelings. He 
 only felt the blind instinctive yearning ; the charm 
 which leads, or misleads, the brain and heart ; and 
 he was as incapable of guiding it or of calming 
 himself, as of staying the sim's course in the distant 
 blue heaven above him. The love that ultimately 
 changed his wlxole nature had instilled itself into 
 his heart before he even suspected its existence ; like 
 wild-fire in the sun-scorched deserts he had passed 
 his life among. Great events spring from small 
 causes. The light of the sun striking on a fragment 
 of glass is sufficient to ignite a whole wilderness. 
 
 When he did ultimately become aware of wliat 
 his love must entail in its fulfilment (far out at soa 
 
 D
 
 34 GABEIEL DEXVER 
 
 as they were, with nothing else to occupy his atten- 
 tion), he was too much carried away by the pas- 
 sionate wilfulness of his nature to be able to resist 
 his inclination, or even to dream of doing so. 
 
 But now, when scarce six minutes had passed, 
 he loved blindly and helplessly — almost like a child 
 which cries for something it is unable to ask for in 
 words ; though his heart's demand was soon to grow 
 articulate. 
 
 All these foreshadowings of passion glided past 
 his mind in a sort of reverie, while his boat rolled 
 and quivered on the shifting waves, impelled 
 reluctantly towards the shore. He would fain have 
 gone back again could he have found a plausible 
 excuse for so doing, but an instinctive sense of 
 delicacy prevented him, as he remembered the way 
 the curtain had been drawn across the casement. 
 
 But he faced the ' Black Swan ' as he sat in the 
 boat, and to his spell-bound eyes the great ship (so 
 matter of fact in its plainness ten minutes 
 before) was now transformed into a magic place ; 
 each casement, timber, or rope of it haunted 
 with strange, ineffable fantasies, all of which were 
 concentrated round one point — the face he had 
 fallen in love with,
 
 GABKIEL DEXYER 35 
 
 At last he reached the jetty, and stepped out 
 among several men who were standing there, scarcely 
 remarking their faces, however, for he stood looking 
 back on the ship as it rode at anchor. Two or 
 three figures now began to appear about it, some 
 aloft and some on deck : a boat loaded with cabbages 
 and carrots put off to go on board, and its cargo 
 was hauled up in a net. Two or three carts 
 loaded with potatoes stood in the sand, and the men 
 ■were too busy unloading them to notice Denver's 
 abstracted gaze fised on the stern of the ship. 
 
 A few of the cunning-brained, tattooed natives 
 stood around, pilfering whatever they might lay 
 their hands on in the confusion ; one of them came 
 up to him muttering ' Bundaary ! Bundaary ! ' in his 
 guttural voice, for he had brought the dead, 
 awkwardly-shaped body of a kangaroo to exchange 
 with the shipmen. Denver repulsed his importu- 
 nities in a not unkindly manner, but the same man, 
 emboldened by such unexpected treatment, and 
 Interrupting one of the other Europeans, only 
 jumped back in time to escape a kick. 
 
 Presently the crew were all employed about the 
 rigging. Grreat strings of green cabbages were hung 
 round the stern, and even in the rigging, till it
 
 86 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 seemed as if the ship were being decorated for a 
 Christmas holida3\ After a while the kangaroo 
 itself was purchased, and hung up in the shrouds, 
 head downwards. The haggling and bargaining 
 which attended its purchase were prodigious, for all 
 the aborigines considered tliemselves bound to join 
 in it, while only one of them could express himself 
 in English. Two bottles of rum and four pounds of 
 brown sugar (to make 'bull' with) were agreed 
 upon, and then the owner departed ; all his friends 
 following him, and evidently vying zealously with 
 each other in their attentions and flattery. 
 
 All these singular scenes passed unnoted by 
 Denver, but at last the present master of the 
 ' Black Swan ' (the man he had seen the night 
 before) came off on shore, and stood giving direc- 
 tions to the men, and talking to him for more than 
 half an hour. It is a singular and most suggestive 
 thing that Denver in no single word alluded to the 
 girl he had seen and knew to be on board. The 
 sailor was enquiring of him when his cousin would 
 arrive, and what luggage she would bring; and he 
 replied in so absent-minded a way that the man 
 seemed quite taken aback. Wlicn about to return 
 on board, the mate asked if Denver cared to go back
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 37 
 
 with him and dine. ' The officers take their meals 
 an horn- later than the men,' he explained. 
 
 Denver made some excuse and refused ; it seemed 
 the man was not aware of his having already been 
 on board that day. 
 
 So he was left to himself again, and he spent 
 the whole afternoon Avandering feverishly about 
 the little wooden-paved streets of the town — an 
 idler where all were toiling and a dreamer where 
 all were realising. After a short absence of the kind 
 he would return and re-examine the ship wifh 
 unrelaxing vigilance. 
 
 Now about four o'clock, as he came down in front 
 of the vessel, for perhaps the eighth or ninth time 
 that day, he saw a woman standing on the quarter- 
 deck, just where he himself had been that morning; 
 she was leaning on the rail of the bulwark, looking 
 across at the sandy hillocks of the shore. Denver 
 always had about him a small telescope such as 
 was used in those days to trace the cattle that 
 strayed over the great plains. He raised this with 
 trembling hand and looked through it. 
 
 As though by magic, her face was drawn within 
 two or three feet of his eager eyes, making him, at 
 first, almost start back in bewilderment.
 
 38 G.\BKIEL DEX^'ER 
 
 No philosopher, whose seemingly wasted years of 
 labour had unexpectedly rewarded him with the 
 sight of a new planet, could have gazed on it with 
 half the raptm'e which shook Denver's very soul, 
 as he looked for the first time unhindered on Laura's 
 face ! "When once the star is found, there is an end 
 of it; for who can know or examine it further? But 
 Denver knew he would soon be side by side with 
 Laura, in her presence, hearing the rustle of her 
 dress, almost within sound of her respiration, and 
 even hearing her speak I He was to live near her a 
 space of time, that seemed to him in his blindness a 
 whole eternity. 
 
 Xo words can describe the unutterable longing 
 which fell upon his heart as he thus watched her 
 gracious figure. She was clothed in a robe of blue 
 serge. Everv now and then she balanced herself 
 gracefidly and slenderly with the slight motion 
 of the sea. Her face seemed to him like an un- 
 plucked flower, w^ith its beautiful curved mouth, and 
 its drooping eyelids that were weighed down by their 
 lashes over large dilated jDupils, the irises of which 
 seemed bluer tlian the very lieavens. 
 
 Her hair was now clustered and bound up round 
 her forehead.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 39 
 
 It all seemed so near that he could have touched 
 it with his hand — yet was so far away that he 
 could have thrown himself into the sea to reach it. 
 
 She moved at last, and in his agitation he 
 dropped the glass : before he could fix it again she 
 was gone. 
 
 This scene was the last stroke in the forging of 
 his passion. From that moment he knew that he 
 loved her irrevocably. No merely human words 
 could describe all the tumultuous longings and 
 thoughts which thronged in his brain ; for there are 
 some phases of human passion which while they 
 last can never be described in mere words — only 
 some of our most madly-inspired musicians have 
 been divinely gifted with power to eliminate and 
 strike these chords ; for which, indeed, their art 
 seems the only possible utterance. 
 
 All the rest of the day, as Denver paced about 
 the sands looking on the ship, a divine ecstasy of 
 yearning seemed to have fallen on him — a yearning 
 such as might have possessed the soul of some 
 ancient martyr as it swept tlirough the night and 
 darkness of death into the open radiance of its ex- 
 pected heaven. 
 
 It is a strange tiling that during all this time he
 
 40 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 should have shrunk fiom going on board to where 
 she was, until the last moment. It was as a kind 
 of anticipation of delight— a prolongation of longing 
 to its uttermost limits of desire — which kept him 
 on shore till Deborah arrived in the town. 
 
 Very little of his thought had been spent on 
 her that day I 
 
 The sun was setting far out to sea in a swift- 
 fading flood of luminosity ; and as the shades of 
 evening fell, veiling the town and the water in its 
 placid obscurity, they went on board. Before the 
 return of the sun at daybreak, the signal lamps of 
 the ' Black Swan ' had passed into the gloom over 
 the horizon.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 41 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Didst thou but know the inly touch of love, 
 Thou wouldst as soon go kindle fire with snow, 
 As seek to qiiench the fire of love with words. 
 
 Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 
 Now, in a short while, of the four passengers whom 
 the 'Black Swan' carried with her (Denver and his 
 cousin, Deborah ]Mallinson, Laura Conway and her 
 old aunt), one no longer needed her shelter ; for the 
 old decrepit woman sickened and died in the very 
 first week of the voyage, leaving the j)oor girl her 
 niece without a single known face recognisable 
 within many thousands of miles. When the dead 
 woman was cast overboard bv the sailors, Laura as 
 she looked through her tears into the fast receding 
 distance, where the 'heavy-shotted hammock shroud' 
 had been flung into its ocean grave, thought and 
 fancied that she was alone — utterly alone ! — in the 
 universe. Her's seemed a bitter position to re- 
 flect on. The dead woman had been connected
 
 43 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 with her earliest associations — the dim consecrated 
 recollections of her childhood ; and her death 
 created one of those voids in the daily life which 
 time alone can obliterate. 
 
 She stood for a long while trying dizzily to re- 
 tain sight of the spot of foam created by the plunge 
 of the corpse, but it mingled rapidly with the crests 
 of the waves, and her eyes were misled from place 
 to place, till at last she only saw a vague distant 
 expanse of water, and knew that the body of her 
 last friend vvas sinking under it. It was a hard 
 thing to realise ! 
 
 Yet VN'hat grief she felt she seemed to restrain 
 within herself. She must have endured sorrow 
 before, for she knew how to be silent over it ; but a 
 weariness, akin to enervation, seemed to have cast 
 its visible shadow over her, and she either remained 
 by herself in her own compartment, or went about 
 the confined space in the stern with listless foot- 
 steps and pallid face. Only by some strong effort 
 of self-control could Denver restrain himself from 
 too plainly exjiressing what was in his heart ; and 
 perhaps his first positive sentiment of dislike or 
 hatred for Deborah arose from the cold, unsym- 
 pathetic manner in which she first looked on at the
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 43 
 
 death-bed and funeral, and afterwards neglected 
 Laura. 
 
 Something must have betrayed the secret of his 
 infatuation to Deborah ; for indeed of all passions, 
 love, next to jealousy, is the least capable of conceal- 
 ment. She knew that he loved Laura before Laura 
 knew it herself. 
 
 Ere she had been at sea five days, she entirely left 
 off speaking to Denver, and she seldom even noticed 
 Laura's presence, save when she had occasionally to 
 move aside to let her pass by on the narrow deck. 
 Not one word did she utter on the subject of the 
 death which had just occurred ; but she noticed 
 silently how Laura's pallid features flushed, and how 
 her sad eyes brightened, whenever Denver was near 
 or speaking to her. This seemed to be recurring 
 all day long, yet, strange to say, she seemed to 
 a^oid them, or even purposely leave them together. 
 But in reality she was ever stealthily watching their 
 motions. 
 
 It was the pride of a slighted woman endeavouring 
 to overcome or hide her jealousy — an unequal strife, 
 for under the veil of affected carelessness the gnawing 
 of care was always in her heart. 
 
 One night she left the cabin in which she slept,
 
 44 GABKIEL DEXVER 
 
 and came up on deck to bathe her hot face in the 
 fresh sea wind. 
 
 There she found Denver sitting on a bench inside 
 the glowing circle made by the lamplight. He was 
 apparently sleeping, for his head rested back on the 
 bulwark, and his hands and arms were lying sleep- 
 relaxed by his side. She could hear his deep respira- 
 tion. 
 
 She approached cautiously and began watching 
 him. 
 
 Once or twice his hands clenched slightly ; then 
 his head turned on one side and he suddenly said out 
 loud, ' Laura ! Laura I I love you ! ' 
 
 Deborah started back into the shadow, for with 
 these words lie awoke — looking round him in a be- 
 wildered way as thougli loth to admit tluit he had 
 been merely dreaming. Then she went down to l^er 
 berth again. 
 
 The chief cabin of the ' Black Swan ' was a low- 
 roofed dusty compartment, of the width of the vessel, 
 and between twenty and thirty feet long. 
 
 The companion-steps from the quarter-deck led 
 down at one end of it. When the door at the top 
 swung open with any lurch of the ship, the sky, all 
 crossed by the black lines of the rigging, would be
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 45 
 
 seen reflected at the other end in a large mirror that 
 was cracked down the centre, and fastened in a 
 tarnished gold moulding, while on each side of its 
 frame was a door. A worn kidderminster, embel- 
 lished with a pattern-work of flowers, was stretched 
 on the floor-deck ; and the long narrow table down 
 the centre seemed part of the construction of the 
 floor. 
 
 A constant view could be had out of the small 
 deep windows on each side, of the dreary grey water, 
 occasionally blurred by splashes of white foam which 
 flew past ; and through them, a perpetual luminous 
 trembling of green light was reflected on the white- 
 painted rafters of the ceiling, from the grey, glittering 
 waves outside. The whole apartment (doubled by 
 the delusive looking-glass at the end) seemed very 
 long, mysterious, and shadowy. Save for the occa- 
 sional slanting of the sides and roof, it might have 
 been taken for a room in some old country house. 
 
 Of the two doors at the stern end, one led into a 
 collection of small cupboards, entitled the ' Ladies' 
 Compartments ' — the other into where Denver's cabin 
 was. All arrangements were very imperfect on board 
 the return emigrant ship ; though those three pas- 
 sengers, nm-tured amid the roughness of the early
 
 40 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 colonial life, but for the confinement, were not so un- 
 comfortably situated as might be supposed. 
 
 Laura and Deborah were the only women on the 
 ship ; the cabin and passengers were attended to by 
 a boy hardly twelve years old, and the two mates 
 both lived in the high forecastle near to the sailors, 
 who, nineteen in number (including the negro cook 
 and the boy), could have been hardly enough, it 
 seemed, to man efficiently the old-fashioned ship with 
 its crowded sails and multitudinous rigging. 
 
 So in this cabin Denver and Laura were left 
 together, hour after hour, and day after day, without 
 separation or change. It was here that Laura, 
 coming out of her room in the morning (when they 
 had long lost sight of land), saw Denver standing 
 looking at the door she was opening. She recognised 
 with a tremor the keenly-handsome face she had 
 seen so unexpectedly the day before. 
 
 There was some slight complication in this re- 
 cognition — it was a double one, so to say, for it hap- 
 pened that the old woman whom Denver had been 
 introduced to had mentioned his name to her niece. 
 She remembered it distinctly. Grabriel Denver ! It 
 brought the whole scene in which they had met be-»
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 47 
 
 fore her mind again ; bnt alas, her father was dead 
 in reality now ! 
 
 The idea of once more seeing the man she had 
 known during that perilous episode of her childhood 
 raised her interest to the utmost. Her's was one of 
 those rare minds in which gratitude is inherent and 
 always uppermost. 
 
 Yet when she saw this man standing before her, 
 she hesitated and blushed deeply. He was not only 
 Denver, but he was the man she had already seen on 
 the previous morning ! She had never imagined 
 their identity with each other. 
 
 She blushed — maybe even then some particle of 
 the intense feeling she afterwards came to regard 
 him with was latent in her imagination ; for this 
 man's flashing eyes, sunburnt features, and dark curl- 
 ing beard and hair, had been caught up as by some 
 vagary of nature and stamped on her brain ; she had 
 dreamt about him, and she was thinking of him even 
 as she came face to face mth him at that moment. 
 
 There was a sinister-looking dark-complexioned 
 woman with black eyes and hair standing beside 
 him. She was Deborah Mallinson, his cousin, to 
 whom he was to be married. The girl looked at
 
 48 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 her with a vague, instinctive sense of dislike, created 
 she knew not how. 
 
 Then her aunt fell ill, and in the trouble and 
 grief of nursing her, Laura's mind was too occupied 
 to entertain any other thoughts : she was almost 
 worn out, as her paleness attested. She could have 
 had no sleep for three nights, in spite of the unwilling 
 assistance which Deborah afforded her. But nothing 
 could avail, and the old woman's life gradually 
 ebbed, and sank into stupor till she died. At last 
 Laura was alone in the ship, for even the corpse was 
 gone. 
 
 That evening, when Denver happened casually 
 to meet her on the deck, there was some strange- 
 toned fascination in the commiserating words he 
 spoke which almost startled her. It seemed to 
 penetrate and quiver into her very soul, leaving a 
 lingering impression, like the reverberation of a sel- 
 dom-struck chord in some sombre melody that 
 imexpectedly and inexplicably perturbates the mind 
 with its occult, inarticulate significance. 
 
 Between these two there seemed some hidden 
 connection — a wordless compact, which neither 
 could comprehend, fathom, or resist. It was as 
 though their spirits had met and plighted troth in
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 49 
 
 * 
 
 a dream ; or as if they had been brought up together 
 in childhood, and, now changed and transformed by 
 time, were unable to recognise each other's faces, 
 though their minds, formed under the same in- 
 fluences and impressions, had still in common the 
 old bonds of sympathy. 
 
 As the girl looked in Denver's face she answered 
 him falteringly : yet a heavy load seemed gone 
 from her heart. For awhile her grief and weariness 
 were forgotten. 
 
 It seemed as if some oppressive doubt (the origin 
 or meaning of which she was nevertheless ignorant of) 
 had been suddenly solved or dispelled. Every tone 
 of his voice and expression of his features showed 
 plainly that he felt for and pitied her. Now to 
 have roused the strong-willed, sunburnt colonist's 
 compassion seemed an unexpected atonement and 
 compensation to her, in a place where she could only 
 have expected to find a pitiless, empty void, haunted 
 by unknown faces. 
 
 Her mind, scarcely developed yet, was innocent 
 as a child's, with the same flow of passionate feeling 
 in its unsounded, unsuspected depths — unsuspected, 
 because as yet no particular aspect of thought oi* 
 passion was stamjDed on her features, despite a 
 
 E
 
 50 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 certain dreamy look which at times seemed as 
 though it might expand at a touch into something 
 more defined in character. This was united, as we 
 have seen, with that fitful nervous energy under 
 which, when resisted, the weakest woman sometimes 
 grows terrible. 
 
 With two such natures as tliese, the seeds of 
 compassion and gratitude could not have fallen in a 
 soil less fitted to restrain them from flowering into 
 some more definite expression. 
 
 The commencement and extremes of human 
 passion are dumb, and, in speech, well nigh expres- 
 sionless. Only the soul comprehends what the 
 tongue fails to articulate — the first promptings of 
 love. 
 
 Denver and Laura were together all the day, 
 save for Deborah's sullen unseen presence ; yet it is 
 probable that his heart and will would have failed 
 him had he attempted to say in words what he 
 knew they were both thinking of; for some secret 
 instinct told him tliat she was beginning to recipro- 
 cate his love, 
 
 To love and to be beloved was become a new prin- 
 ciple in this man's life — a vague, unexplored some- 
 thing, before which all else seemed to dwindle and
 
 GABEIEL DEXYER 51 
 
 die away. His life seemed turned into a trance 
 like an opium-dream, and when disturbed from it 
 be would bave turned fiercely and shaken off the 
 disturber, and bave sunk back into its unrealised 
 depths with redoubled longing-. 
 
 At first Deborah seemed a mere shadow to him, 
 a faint relic of his former life : but as the anta^o- 
 nism between her and Laura deepened and developed 
 (and the futm-e began to loom up before him), he 
 saw more plainly the step he had taken. Then 
 apathy turned into defiance, and then again into 
 fierce smouldering hatred, as he felt the moral ties 
 which bound him to this woman — imable, as he was, 
 ever to avoid her presence in the shijj, where she 
 was as a living sign that he had broken the most 
 binding promise that it seemed to him a man could 
 make ! When Laura was with him he forgot every- 
 thing save his love for her, but when he was alone 
 all these thoughts thronged round his brain like 
 accusing angels. 
 
 He knew, moreover, that Deborah, in the wild- 
 ness of her jealousy, might at any moment reveal 
 all tliat was jDassing to the sailors — tliough that 
 could do nothing to harm them. Always, as by 
 
 £ 2
 
 53 GAERIEL DENVER 
 
 some instinct, they strove to conceal and bury their 
 feelings from everyone's sight or knowledge. Their 
 love was not open or self-confessed ; it began with a 
 shrinking and a half-shame on her part, while lie 
 wilfully shut his eyes to the truth of his jDosition, 
 till the night-mists of passion gathered around and 
 blinded him. 
 
 Laura knew well enough that Gabriel was en- 
 gaged to Deborah : she was in the sliip with them 
 night and day. Even her first knowledge of his 
 passion for her was learnt from her conjectures on 
 Deborah's strange conduct towards them both. 
 
 So there could have been no ignorance on her 
 part. There was the gulf plain before her, but its 
 very depth apparently served to lure her, for every 
 minute she was nearer the edge. 
 
 The utter impossibility of separation ; the absence 
 (in the monotonous sameness of the voyage) of any- 
 thing fit to cause reflection, or distract the attention 
 from the endless meditation that always circled 
 helplessly round the spot it knew not how to avoid ; 
 the life on board ship, which seemed entirely a life 
 of its own, lost to all the old limitations, meanings, 
 and responsibilities ; with its vague and terrible fits of 
 ennui, during which the mind seeks vainly, over and
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 53 
 
 over again, from the same objects for something to 
 interest itself in, as wildly and vainly as a land-bird, 
 blown out to sea by the wind, seeks for a rock to 
 rest its wings on ; — all helped to ensure that she 
 could no more resist pondering over Denver than a 
 dazzled moth can help fluttering round a lamp. 
 
 Gradually, step by step, she came to love him, 
 and to know that he knew it. All these changes 
 occm-red during the first three weeks of the vovage, 
 and still they had never spoken one word of their 
 feelings ; but love, like fire, lies in wait, and finds 
 at last its fit time. 
 
 All that fourth week the monotonous days passed 
 slowly, while Deborah, deserted and brooding over 
 her fancied wrongs, watched, kept note, and saw 
 tlirough every subterfuge as only a jealous w^oman 
 can see. The ' Black Swan,' bearing them all, kept 
 her undeviating course, a black speck tossed in tlie 
 stupendovis vastness of the ocean, a speck that 
 seemed scarcely larger in proportion than the white 
 winged albatross which, fed for good luck by the 
 sailors, followed over the foam in her wake. 
 
 Lost in the night, save for her gliding meteor- 
 like lamps, or seen again in the daytime, it was a 
 strange contrast this vessel presented, utterly witliout
 
 54 GABEIEL DENVEE 
 
 evidence, as she was, of the blinding, maddening 
 mist of passion which flooded her decks and absorbed 
 the minds of these three people. How utterly wrapt 
 up in themselves they were ! how absolutely obli- 
 vious of the vague dumb indifference with which 
 the winds and waves, the limitless forces of Nature, 
 neither compassionate nor pitiless, looked on, and 
 refrained from crushing them, poor over-bold in- 
 truders on their innermost sanctuary ! 
 
 Yet could Denver have tried afterwards to recall 
 his impressions of this period of the voyage in mid- 
 ocean, they would have seemed to him scarcely more 
 definite than the dim, uncertain objects he had 
 sometimes seen through an autumnal mist, in which 
 everything was obscured : everything, save the red 
 lurid sun — his passion and longing !
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 55 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 be warned ! 
 A fearful sign stands in tlie house of life. 
 An enemy. A tiend lurks close behind 
 The radiance of thy planet. — Schiller. 
 
 Yielding with coy submission, modest pride, 
 
 And sweet reluctant amorous delay. — Paradise Lost. 
 
 One evening-, as the ship sailed before the wind, 
 just after sunset, Laura Conway stood leaning in the 
 half-dusk over the bulwark of the quarter-deck. She 
 seemed to be watching the dizzy, bubbling white foam, 
 always changing shajDe and gliding off from under 
 the dark stern, when something moved near her. 
 She turned and saw Denver standing by her side. 
 Perhaps she had been thinking about him, for she 
 blushed deeply, but Denver could scarcely see her 
 face. Tlie warm flush of light was fast fading out 
 of the horizon-sky, the last faint gleams from the 
 sunken sun were dissolving off the cloud-rims, and 
 everything was fast growing indistinct, save where
 
 56 GABRIEL DEXVLV.^ 
 
 the dim circle of the moon brightened behind them, 
 as it hung low over the sea. 
 
 For a time they both stood without speech, and 
 so close together, that as Laura's arm lay on the 
 bulwark, his touched and pressed against it. In the 
 gathering gloom his eyes seemed to glisten and emit 
 phosphorescent light, like some feline animal's. 
 They stood there and still neither moved nor spoke, 
 when Laura felt the arm pressed against hers begin 
 to tremble. Suddenly with a wild, unrestrainable 
 movement he seized her hand, and held it, covering 
 the slender fingers with kisses, over and over again. 
 Then he paused, as if he were fearful of his over- 
 boldness. Yet he still clutched her fingers convul- 
 sively, while his hot hands sent a perceptible tremor 
 and thrill of their own excitable nerve-electricity 
 quivering up her arm, almost into her shoulders and 
 throat. 
 
 She left him her hand unresistingly, and the 
 next instant he drew her towards him, and his 
 bearded lips were pressed to licr cheek, and his arms 
 were closed round her neck, while her lustrous hair 
 fell all about him, clinging like the tendrils of a 
 vine. 
 
 In the darkness the girl resigned hei-self to lier
 
 GABRIEL DEN^'ER P7 
 
 lover's arms, and clung to him as naturally and un- 
 affectedly as a child sinks into slumber, while all the 
 restrained longing- that over-filled his heart was 
 poured forth in one impetuous passionate burst of 
 eloquence, as he held her unresistingly in his arms. 
 
 The emotion and inconceivable ecstasy of that 
 moment were like the culmination and climax of an 
 opium-eater's dream. 
 
 All external nature was lost to him as he still 
 spoke, and to her as she listened clasped to him in 
 the darkness — like two shadows fused by the 
 twilight ; their hearts throbbing in company till the 
 beat of one seemed almost to regulate that of the 
 other, ignoring everything of their lives but them- 
 selves, till they seemed like two blind people clasped 
 together in one perpetual night. The love whose 
 secret promptings Laura had long dreaded and 
 trembled over had risen at length and conquered her 
 — she told Denver she loved him. 
 
 Now these words were uttered in a third person's 
 hearing. 
 
 Hidden by the deep shadow (cast from a large 
 T)oat hanging on the opposite bulwark) within which 
 they stood, a second woman was sitting imnoticed ])y 
 them. She had been watching Laura, but when
 
 58 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 Denver appeared at her side she got up and came 
 near enough to overhear their conversation. 
 
 Meanwhile the night was come, and the moon- 
 light was, as yet, very dim. She could see nothing 
 of them save a dark patch where they stood within 
 the shadow ; but every now and then, as the ship 
 shifted on her course, this shadow changed place. 
 Then she could for a moment catch sight of their 
 faces (lit up as with a vague and ineffable happiness) 
 — owing to the moonlight falling on them ere they 
 had time to move out of it again. They evidently 
 desired to conceal themselves. 
 
 They both remained as utterly and absolutely un- 
 conscious of her presence as a bird is of the lynx 
 that lies hidden in the foliage, crouching for a 
 spring. 
 
 This hidden figure paused, listening to them 
 stealthily, without a sign of vitality, till Laura 
 spoke ; but as the last tremulous words left the girl's 
 lips she stirred in the darkness. It seemed as though 
 a tremor of rage had passed through her limbs. 
 For one moment she appeared about to accost them ; 
 then she changed her purpose and turned, stepping 
 noiselessly along the deck, and down the cabin hatch- 
 way.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 59 
 
 Laura, as her head hung in a half-ecstasy on her 
 lover's shoulder, saw the dark, well-defined outline of 
 some woman's figure detach itself from the black 
 mass made by the boat against the luminous sky, 
 and appear with startling distinctness in the moon- 
 light — a woman with her head turned towards them. 
 
 One instant more, and she was gone ! 
 
 Denver too must have seen her, for he moved 
 back suddenly. Laura could feel a clenching move- 
 ment in the arms which clasped her, and his fingers 
 tightened in hers as she started half-tremblingly — 
 for it was Deborah. 
 
 Neither spoke nor mentioned what they had seen, 
 but some shadow seemed, as it were, projected across 
 them — a dark foreboding filled both their minds. 
 During that short half-hour Laura had forgotten 
 Deborah's very existence ; but now brought so unex- 
 pectedly to her view, she must have foreseen for a 
 moment something of what must inevitably follow — 
 shut up iu the loneliness of the ship for months as 
 they were. But it was no use thinking about it ; she 
 had given lier love irrevocably to Denver. 
 
 Henceforth he must exist as a part of her being 
 — it seemed to her that she could not live without 
 him. She trusted in him blindly ; it made her shud-
 
 GO GABKIEL DExNVErt 
 
 der as she tliought that Deborah's claim over him 
 might necessitate their ultimate separation, or prove 
 tliat they had no right to love each other. God had 
 made them for each other, and was she to part them ? 
 Could she really liave supposed Deborah to be capable 
 of holding them asunder, she would have turned on 
 her with a fierce unrelenting hatred and resistance ; 
 but cast off from them and utterly helpless as she 
 seemed, it was impossible to hate her. Eather never 
 think of her at all ! 
 
 Even she could half have pitied her, if it had 
 been possible to believe her actuated by any single 
 motive save hatred and revenge. Had she, who loved 
 Denver, not more right to him than Deborah, who 
 hated ? 
 
 Could she ever have had some right to him after 
 all ? Had he loved her when he promised to marry 
 her ? Impossible ! Impossible ! The affair 7nust 
 have been brought about as Denver had just explained 
 to her. 
 
 It was useless her attempting to imravel all these 
 unanswerable questionings as they flitted dimly 
 through her mind — tangled, involved problems, to 
 attempt to solve wliich created an abyss of doubts 
 that her soul dared not peer into. It was hopeless
 
 GABRIEL DENVER Gl 
 
 now — slie had taken the draught and must abide by 
 its intoxication. 
 
 It was just as if one single instant's disbelief in 
 the reality of her liappiness had arisen in her soul^ 
 one instant of doubt — then it was g-one aiiain. She 
 closed her eyes tightly (as though she would thus 
 shut out her mind's dubious speculations) and once 
 more shrank close to her lover's side. 
 
 He kissed her suddenly, as though roused out of 
 some momentary fit of abstraction by her move- 
 ment. 
 
 From that night forth, both, as by some common 
 dread, avoided mentioning Deborah. Her name 
 never again passed their lips. 
 
 At last they slowly separated as the ten o'clock 
 bell sounded down the ship, and a sailor came up 
 on the quarter-deck to relieve the steersman. The 
 man brought a lantern with him, which he flashed 
 open on them as he passed. This was hung up 
 close by on the mast (looking gliastly and lurid in 
 the colourless moonliglit), and its glow fell round 
 tliem and on their faces. Deborah's red and black 
 striped cloak lay on the bench opposite. 
 
 In the flickering light there seemed something 
 so strangely, almost wildly, elated about their faces.
 
 62 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 and Denver's eyes slione with such a glitter, that 
 the man paused, staring curiously at them both for 
 a moment. 
 
 Then, without a word spoken, he went on to his 
 wheel ; while the relieved steersman came by, silent, 
 too, as he strode down the decks of the ship. Had 
 it not been for the sudden appearance of this light 
 they might have stopped there half the night 
 through, but, as it was, Laura went down to her 
 sleeping compartment, while Denver, reluctantly 
 separated from her, remained pacing the decks 
 enveloped in his own thoughts. It was a singular 
 love, this of theirs, that could be all seemingly 
 dissipated and blown asunder by the flickering light 
 of a ship's lantern ! 
 
 There was a slight mist overhead, rising from 
 the sea ; and two or three white stars hung jewel- 
 like in the vapour, too brilliant to be absorbed into 
 the light of the moon, which, glittering from the 
 centre of a luminous aureola of mist, seemed now to 
 flood the entire sky and atmosphere with its radi- 
 ance. Denver's figure, coupled with its long 
 spectral shadow, could always be seen as it crossed 
 the different lights which fell through the over- 
 hanging sails on to the deck of the vessel.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER G3 
 
 One of the mates on watch for that night 
 suddenly appeared by his side, as though attempting 
 to enter into conversation with him, but Denver 
 managed to leave him before long, and presently he 
 came out into the full light on tlie forecastle, where 
 he remained by liimself, hanging over the slight 
 chain railing, and looking right down the glittering, 
 shiftina; track of the moonlight, which fell over the 
 waves they were traversing. Yet he was thinking 
 but little of what he saw. Somehow the reality of 
 his life seemed to have come back to him, now that 
 Laura was no lono-er in his arms. The influence of 
 his moral intoxication was passing away ; in which- 
 ever direction he turned the figure of his cousin 
 Deborah seemed always before his eyes, speechlessly 
 reproaching him with the violation of his promise 
 to her. 
 
 What right had she to be there, when Laura 
 loved him ? 
 
 Denver was a fatalist so far, that while no fiat 
 of Destiny appeared to oppose his inclination, his 
 body and soul were seemingly passive in the hands 
 of Fate ; but now that this would-be contradiction to 
 his will (or rather his desire) attempted to assert 
 itself in Deborah's person, all the latent energy of
 
 64 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 his nature sprang to resist it. Yet the course of 
 events seemed to him hopelessly beyond control ; 
 they were palpably not of that kind that could be 
 averted by labour of mind or body. 
 
 In all his thinking he could only come to one 
 conclusion — that in marrying Laura Conway he 
 would be doing a great wrong to Deborah. The 
 only restitution he could make would be to give up 
 Laura and marry her. The very thought made him 
 shudder and turn pale. 
 
 Then his eyes turned inadvertently to the deep, 
 dark water beneath liim. A cold shiver ran through 
 all his limbs, and he turned aside, hardly daring to 
 look down on it again, for fear some idea suggested 
 by it should lay hold of his brain a second time. 
 
 Deborah had taken absolutely no notice of liim 
 for four weeks, yet she never seemed out of his 
 sight. When he was below, he fancied he could see 
 her white face and dark eyes watching him tlu'ough 
 the window of her door ; when he was on the deck 
 he knew she was following him. 
 
 She might be there now — and he turned sharply 
 as a piece of cordage flapped against the canvas of 
 one of the sails ; and at night she had haunted liis 
 very dreams, till he had got to hate her more bitterly
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 65 
 
 than can be conceived. He never could rid himself 
 of a sickening idea that Laura would inevitably 
 come to some harm from her, and he was never at 
 ease save when the girl was in his sight. 
 
 He might have stopped up there on the fore- 
 castle for some two or three hours, when, suddenly 
 descending the iron ladder, he passed up the ship, 
 and Hung himself on his berth, tired out in mind 
 and body. Above him, on deck, and around the 
 vessel — save for the shouts of the mariners on watch, 
 the creaking of cordage, and the slapping of the 
 waves driven off the bows — the night-silence was 
 unbroken. 
 
 When Laura met Deborah the next mornino-, 
 they were alone in the cabin. Laura trembled, for 
 she instantly saw by Deborah's white, bloodless face, 
 that she must know everything. But Deborah only 
 looked at Laura's pale features for one moment, 
 during which her lips seemed to quiver slightly, 
 then she turned away, nor was she ever seen to look 
 at her rival again. 
 
 There was something so terrible about this ap- 
 pearance of restrained resentment, that Laura nearly 
 fainted when she was alone. 
 
 Now to these two lovers, henceforth, each day
 
 GG Gabriel Denver 
 
 seemed like the past one. Every hour appeared 
 to increase their infatuation. If a flower had 
 sprung up from every footstep which Laura made 
 upon the hard wooden deck, Denver would scarcely 
 have expressed surprise, so blindly did he put his 
 trust and love in her. They passed their time either 
 down in the cabin by day, or upon deck in tlie 
 evening — hidden in the shadows of the sails when 
 possible on fine nights. But so secretly was their 
 intercourse conducted, that it can scarcely be told if 
 one man in the steerage guessed rightly what was 
 passing at the stern end of the ship, though that 
 something luas the matter ought to have been 
 visible to them all. This seemingly morose man, 
 walking about the decks all night, and scarce 
 answering when spoken to, was a mystery and an 
 enio;ma to them all. 
 
 The two offic3rs of the 'Black Swan ' were sup- 
 posed to take their meals in the cabin with the 
 passengers, yet they never did so — perhaps finding- 
 Denver too unsociable, or, perhaps, because they 
 were offended at Deborah's never speaking to them. 
 They were unable to converse freely before them, it 
 may be. At any rate, they had got to leave them 
 quite to themselves, and did not trouble their head.T
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 67 
 
 about tbem. TJiey bad now been at sea nearly seven 
 weeks, so slowly did tbe sbip sail. Sometimes tbey 
 would be baffled and beaten back before tbe wind, 
 tben making smooth headway again for awhile, 
 and then again they would be tossed helplessly about 
 in the strong, tempestuous waves, drenched half- 
 mast high by their spray. At such moments 
 Deborah would lock herself up in her cabin, praying, 
 perhaps, that the ship might founder and engulf 
 them all ; and Laura would shrink terrified by 
 Denver's side ; while all the crew would be stationed 
 about the ship, letting the ropes fly or hauling them 
 tight, and watching the sails, as the great ship was 
 tossed and pitched from crest to crest of the waves — 
 a very image and simile of humanity and its restless, 
 ruling passions. Always as the sea subsided, they 
 sailed on in a straight line for the Cape of Good 
 Hope, still some two hundred leagues distant. 
 
 Denver saw from Deborah's strange silence and 
 behaviour that some act of her resentment would 
 occur before long, as assuredly as one knows, from 
 the sultriness and unnatural calm of the atmosphere, 
 when a tempest is brewing : but what form the ex- 
 pression of her anger would take, he knew not. 
 
 His hatred and distrust for her contrasted 
 
 F 2
 
 68 G.IERIEL DENVER 
 
 strangely in his mind with the gentleness of the love 
 with which he regarded Laura^a love which was 
 as the half-sublime half-brute tenderness with which 
 the fierce luminous eyes of a tiger might gaze upon 
 its young or on its mate — a feeling instinctively 
 gentle beyond all conception. 
 
 Things went on tlius, uninterruptedly, till it fell 
 about that the wind died away and left the 'Black 
 Swan ' almost stagnant in the sultry, phosphorescent 
 water. 
 
 This was on the 17th of November. At the 
 slow rate the ship sailed, they would scarcely reach 
 the Cape for a week yet, even with the most 
 favourable wind. That whole day tlie crew took the 
 opportunity of rearranging, in preparation for their 
 arrival, such of the cargo as was consigned to the 
 African colony. All was confusion throughout the 
 ship ; and when the night came (still without a 
 breath of aij-), the men were worn out and exhausted 
 with their labour. 
 
 It was intensely dark, and the moon would not 
 rise till three in the morning. The bewildering 
 brilliancy of the tropical stars was veiled and hidden 
 utterly behind a pall of dense cloud, which rested 
 passively over the ocean. Later on in the evening,
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 69 
 
 a little wind sltowed overhead, dispersing- the clouds 
 slightly ; but the ' Black Swan ' lay unnoticed below, 
 with all her people slumbering on board her, except 
 two, kept sleepless h)y their passions — Deborah 
 Mallinson, who had overheard Laura promise to 
 meet Denver in the open air after nightfall, and 
 Denver himself, who was pacing the dark, gloomy 
 quarter-deck, wild with impatience, because from 
 some unexplained cause Laura did not fulfil her 
 promise to liim. 
 
 The 17th of November was a day on which 
 these two might well be perturbed in mind, for .it 
 was the day on Avliich they were to have been 
 married.
 
 70 GABKIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Coiild curses kill as doth the mandrake's groan 
 I Avould invent as better searching terms 
 As curst, as harsh, as horrible to hear, 
 Delivered strongly through my fixed teeth, 
 With full as many signs of deadly hate 
 As lean-faced Envy, in her loathsome cave. 
 
 Henry VI., Part 2. 
 
 It was eight weeks since the ' Black Swan ' had lef 
 
 her moorings at Port ; and now, lost in the 
 
 deep, windless night, she floated without sound or 
 motion. The cabin lights were extinguished, and 
 all on board the becalmed vessel seemed enveloped 
 in silence and sleep. 
 
 Her brown, wind -worn sails had all been furled 
 aloft in the breathless air, and, strange negligence, 
 there Avas no sign or signal of any watch kept over 
 the decks. The torpid ship was left entirely to her 
 0"svn control ; even the steersman was slumbering, 
 his hand attached by a string to the wheel, which, 
 in case of any unexpected movement of the rudder,
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 71 
 
 or sudden rising of the wind, would tighten, and so 
 recall him to his duties. The breeze which had 
 borne the big ship out so far into the ocean had 
 long before nightfall entirely died away from the 
 face of the water, though high overhead it still 
 lasted, so that the few stars visible from the ship lost 
 in the darkness below, appeared to be slowly drifting 
 past the apertures in the sultry overhanging yet 
 unseen clouds. The sea still heaved slightly round 
 the great black hull, agglomerated in the obscurity 
 surrounding it, save where a faint line of light was 
 emitted by the water rippling and splashing round 
 its sides. 
 
 At times, some unlooked-for lurching of the 
 vessel would cause a wave to dash up over the water- 
 line, showering back inflamed into a livid chaldron 
 of glowing phosphoric fire, spreading round in 
 circles of luminous foam, reflected brilliantly in the 
 wet hull, and gleaming in the cabin-windows, and 
 on the heavy anchors at the prow ; and, even in the 
 utter darkness, playing with a weird flickering 
 reflection on the undersides of the great projecting 
 yards and the rigging, otherwise indiscernible up 
 aloft. 
 
 Indeed, the sultry tropical ocean seemed in an
 
 72 GAUlilEL DEWER 
 
 imiisually excitable phosj)horic condition. Every 
 few minutes, the water to a distance round the 
 entire hull would be suffused with a pale quivering 
 flame, which at times lit up its clear green depths 
 far beneath the surface ; and the spot where floated 
 a piece of drift timber, dropt overboard during 
 the calm, was illuminated by constantly reciu*ring 
 flashes of the same fantastic light. Where the 
 calm, hardly perceptible swell of the subsiding 
 waves met with no obstruction, they were hidden in 
 the deepest obscurity. 
 
 The whole of the upper outlines of the ' Black 
 Swan,' to a practised eye, might have formed a kind 
 of dark silhouette, half blotted out against the 
 night, but for the two lanterns burning above the 
 bulwarks. One was a red signal-lamp, pendent 
 over the liigh, old-fashioned forecastle, which 
 struggled feebly with the intense gloom in which 
 it hung, but was too high up to shed its faint 
 glimmer on the fore-deck. The other, more bril- 
 liant in light, and fastened to the mainmast, threw 
 a glow over all the stern end of the ship (the deck 
 behind being concealed in the densest shadow), and 
 fell on the figure of a man, who liad suddenly 
 become visible in the darkness
 
 CLBRIEL DENVER 73 
 
 He commenced walking to and fro in the sombre 
 flickering lamplight : though he could not have 
 been a sailor, for he appeared from his dress to be 
 one of the passengers. At intervals, he came so 
 close to the steering-wheel, that his great black 
 restless shadow cast by the lamp covered it, yet 
 without hiding its form ; for a dim light burned 
 in the tilted binnacle, and reflected a glow on to the 
 brass-bound circle of spokes. 
 
 The helmsman from here was just visible in a 
 kind of transparent half-light. He was slumbering 
 heavily, and was wrapped up in a tarpauling to keep 
 off the wet niiilit-dew which covered the decks, 
 gleaming wherever it met the light. At times, the 
 water would be heard bubbling faintly round the 
 stern and rudder — a sound so vague that it could 
 scarce be distinguished from the sailor's placid 
 breathing ; but everything else around and on the ship 
 seemed silent as death, save the ceaseless movement 
 of this man, wlio continued his monotonous footsteps 
 up and doAvn the deck, his head sunk on his breast, 
 and without appearing to notice anything around 
 him, till his action seemed as restless as an excited 
 restrained animal. 
 
 Every now and then, he interrupted himself.
 
 74 GABRIEL Di:XVER 
 
 seeming to listen with impatience, and then re- 
 simiing his walk. He must have been pacing there 
 a long while with some object in view, for the dew- 
 drops gleamed like silver on his shoulders, and in 
 his tangled curly hair. 
 
 It might have been thought at first that his 
 strange, sleepless restlessness was the result of the 
 indescribable ennui and weariness caused by the 
 long voyage ; but tliere would, on closer considera- 
 tion, have seemed a more poignant cause for it. 
 
 A slight noise at last attracted his attention ; 
 and with a deep, prolonged respiration, he turned 
 facing the lamp, looking intently into the darkness 
 behind it. 
 
 His sun-burnt bearded face, the eyes glittering, 
 as he stood with the light concentrated on them 
 (two scintillating points, like stars, surrounded by 
 the deep gloom of the night), looked strangely care- 
 worn and fevered. It was like that of a man who 
 had passed long nights without sleep : and seemed, 
 in its anxious, almost haggard look, coinciding 
 witli his restless movements, to express some 
 heavy annoyance or disappointment under which 
 his mind was labouring. 
 
 As he paused with raised head, shading his eyes
 
 ■ ] 
 
 I 
 GABRIEL DENVER 75 i 
 
 with his hand, an indistinct sound like the rustle of 
 a woman's dress, becoming audible above the dreary 
 endless plashing of the water, fell on his ears. | 
 
 There seemed at this as if a gleam of light were ! 
 
 reflected suddenly through the gloom of his mind. 
 The despondent expression of his face was utterly 
 changed ; and though he could have seen nothing, 
 he turned hastily in the direction the sound came 
 from, and disaj^peared in the darkness. 
 
 Almost before he could find where he was going, 
 he nearly stumbled against some figure-^that of a , 
 
 woman, standing motionless on the deck near the 
 bulwark. She had come silently in the night out of 
 the companion-stairs that led to the cabin — ad- 
 vancing stealthily, and hardly seeming to breathe, 
 lest her respiration should betray her presence. 
 She evidently desired to watch the restless figm-e 
 pacing in and out of the circle of light, while she 
 herself remained hidden. 
 
 It was not so intensely dark behind the lamp as 
 the light, dazzling and blinding his eyes, had made 
 it seem to him ; for against the faint glow of the 
 lantern on the forecastle he could dimly trace the 
 outline of a woman's form. 
 
 She remained perfectly motionless and speechless :
 
 76 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 but without a moment's reflection, his limbs seeming 
 to act before his mind could direct them, or recover 
 consciousness in the sudden bewilderment of his 
 senses, he went up to her, impetuously uttering the 
 name ' Laura ! ' 
 
 Then he paused for a moment ; and flinging his 
 arms round her neck and shoulders (which were 
 muffled up in the hood of a shawl), he pressed her 
 passionately to his breast, whispering in a low, 
 almost trembling voice : 
 
 ' I know you'd be certain to come, my love — 
 though I've w^aited a weary while for you ! Why 
 don't you speak to me, Lam-a ? We sha'n't be over- 
 heard here. Ah ! ' 
 
 Then — as he seemed to kiss her face — a sudden 
 tremor stopped his words, and the woman broke 
 away from his embrace with an angry exclamation ; 
 while he, starting back from her, appeared to 
 stagger for an instant, as though a snake had stung 
 
 him. 
 
 All this passed in an instant, hidden in the 
 
 darkness. 
 
 The woman whom he bad embraced so tenderly 
 and passionately began crying out in an exaspe- 
 rated, angry voice :
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 77 
 
 ' How dare you treat me in this fashion ? Fm 
 not Laura, allhoiij/Ji I occupied her j^osition once! 
 Ah I you sneak back soon enough now; but you shall 
 not escape me. We two are alone at last. You 
 shall render an account of the fidelity you've shown 
 me.' 
 
 ' Curse you ! Will you never let me have one 
 moment to myself, without poisoning it with yovu' 
 presence ? ' the man answered fiercely. ' It's bad 
 enough to have to think about you I ' 
 
 ' You lie ! ' she interrupted, in a passionate, 
 almost screaming voice ; ' I've neitlier been near 
 you, nor spoken to you, for six weeks. Good God! 
 what a return I've toiled my life out for ; to sit 
 silent by myself in this dreary, stifling ship, neglected 
 by everyone, watching you make love to another 
 woman before my very face, hour after horn-, day 
 after day, week after week, till it's driven me mad ! 
 I've sat thinking about you and watching you till 
 my brain whirled, and my eyes grew dizzy, and I 
 could have struck a knife into your hearts. Yet 
 you think, because I've taken no notice of you, and 
 never spoken to you, that I'm too poor-spirited or 
 dejected or callous to care how you treat me, and 
 that you can do as you like ; but you shall find out
 
 78 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 the difference. You shall know what it is to neglect 
 a woman's love, and then fall under her power. 
 Every hour of your existences shall be an everlasting 
 cuise to you and your shameless paramour ! You 
 shall learn to dread each other's faces ! You've 
 embittered my entire life from when I first set eyes 
 on you ; but I shall be well revenged. I loved you 
 once, Denver, for all you could do to disgust me. 
 Loved you ! I loved you as only a woman can love, 
 until I found at what price you held me. I hate 
 you now ! But sooner than give you up to her, I'll 
 steal in upon you in your sleep and strangle you. 
 Grod ! after all I have done and suffered for you, 
 to be kissed and embraced in mistake for another 
 woman ! I could have borne anything before ; but 
 you've neglected me all my life, and insulted me 
 now, till you've driven me to distraction. I don't 
 know what I'm doing or saying. It's made me 
 insane to compare the difference between her sick- 
 ening face and mine in the glass below, and think 
 what it has cost mc. She affects to ignore my very 
 existence ; but she shrinks from me, and dreads me 
 more and more. Are my feelings to be no more 
 regarded than an animal's, do you think ? I've 
 endured hours upon hours of misery, till my mind
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 79 
 
 wandered, and I tliougbt I was a child again, playing 
 in my dead mother's bouse, only to come to myself, 
 remembering that you were both within two or three 
 yards of me, hardly out of my sight or hearing, and 
 thinking over the injustice you have done me, till 
 I've bad to dig my nails into my breast, to prevent 
 myself from screaming out, or flying at her and 
 tearing her eyes out, and blinding her. Yet I've 
 managed to keep all my resentment to myself, 
 smouldering secretly in my own brain, until the 
 expression of my face makes everybody in the ship 
 shun me. All this has been going on in tliis ac- 
 cursed ship, minute after minute, falling on my 
 brain like drops of water, torturing me till they've 
 driven me to madness. I overheard you asking her 
 to come up and meet you to-night, and I thought 
 to watch you both together ; but she wasn't with you, 
 and I meant to await another opportunity, only you 
 interrupted me with your cursed kiss : you scorched 
 my lips with it. Ah, Denver ! you shall yet learn 
 what a woman's love turned to hatred is.' 
 
 She grew so violent at last, that her throat 
 seemed quite exhausted with her passion, and she 
 broke down into a fit of hysterical sobbing. Nothing 
 is more trying to the patience than the convulsive,
 
 80 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 unnatural cries of an liysterical woman ; but now, in 
 tliis strange position on the deck of the ship, hidden 
 as she was in the profound gloom of the night, her 
 voice, exasperated by passion, seemed something to 
 shudder at. 
 
 Denver had kept perfectly speechless and motion- 
 less till her voice broke down. One might not have 
 known of his existence even ; but now he moved 
 away from her, into the circle of light. 
 
 She seemed by an intense effort to stifle her 
 cries, and followed him, exclaiming with still more 
 passion and virulence than befoi'e : 
 
 ' I've had a fit of this coming on for a long 
 while. I've bitten my lips till my mouth was full of 
 blood, to restrain myself and wait till my time came ; 
 but I'll have it out now. I thought I'd fling myself 
 overboard into the sea at first, but that I thouglit 
 how happy it would make you. No, I'll not do that. 
 You can't and sha'n't get rid of me. I siuear you 
 shall share all my sorrows to the last bitter, bitter, 
 dregs. I'll cling to you to the last hour of your 
 existence, and make every day of your life as great 
 a curse to you as you have made mine to me. Ah I 
 you feel my words ; but I'll make you wince still 
 farther yet, till you are as mad and wretched as you
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 81 
 
 have made me, though you have some one to love 
 you.'' 
 
 Her voice stopjied ouce more, as though she 
 were breathless. His continued silence seemed 
 only to embitter her anger. 
 
 Now that they were both come fully into the 
 lamplight, the display of mad, reckless passion in 
 this woman's face was something terrible. Lit up 
 by the feeble flickering lamp, it formed a white 
 angry spot of light surrounded by an immense ex- 
 panse of darkness. It was like a portrait painted 
 with the night for its background. The sky, the 
 sea, and the atmosphere, and even the ship itself, 
 were all (save for a few drifting stars overhead) 
 blotted out together, and absorbed into the deep 
 gloom — only this one distorted face seemed visible, 
 with the light concentrated on it. 
 
 The intense monotonous night-silence, broken 
 only by her exasperated voice, seemed wishing to 
 diffuse and drown the sound in its breathless immen- 
 sity. It was as the self-centered madness of 
 humanity contending vainly with the solemn un- 
 deviating dignity of nature, for no soul on board 
 the ship apj)eared to hear her. 
 
 There was a tierce, constrained look about Den- 
 
 G
 
 82 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 ver's eyes, though he still said not a word ; but her 
 face looked perfectly hideous in her mad temper. 
 The hood of her cloak had slipped back on her 
 shoulders, leaving her unbound black hair to fall in 
 writhing tangles about her face and neck. She had 
 thrown the shawl over her night-go^m, and her feet 
 and throat were bare. 
 
 Her complexion was very dark, and her livid lips 
 quivering back over her teeth, showed them glisten- 
 ing at times. Her deep-set eyes, glittering with 
 the revengeful light of madness, under her high 
 cheek bones and dark curved brows, gave to her 
 naturally fine features a devilish expression, such as 
 only the blind vindictive jealousy which was goading 
 her could give to the divinely-intended face of a 
 woman. Hers looked more like the head of an en- 
 raged venomous snake. 
 
 Most men would have been cowed and silenced 
 by such temper — a savage might have opposed it by 
 force ; but to reason with it was impossible. 
 
 This man before her had a certain instinctive 
 elevation and dignity in liis bearing. In the life of 
 danger and toiling which had left its signs upon his 
 features, he must have gone through too much to be 
 a coward ; but tlie sudden and extreme transition
 
 GABKIEL DEXVER 83 
 
 from the sweet expression, the answering embrace, 
 the warm beauty and soft utterance of the girl who 
 loved him, to this woman (whom he seemed 
 to detest, and even more so perhaps from the 
 lingering knowledge which clung about him, in his 
 blind desperate love for her rival, that he was doing 
 her an undeserved injury), the change from the 
 almost ecstatic happiness he had felt for one instant 
 to this hateful realism, utterly deadened and sickened 
 his heart, and unnerved his brain. 
 
 His head felt giddy as he thought of the irrevoc- 
 able hold she might have had over him in a little 
 Avhile. He could hardly bear looking at lier; his mind, 
 flooded by his blind reckless passion for her rival, 
 was utterly incapable of feeling any pity for her. 
 He could only feel the tantalised never-satiated 
 longing of his heart. 
 
 He could no more struggle against the fate which 
 had led him on boaid this ship, to fall in love with 
 the beautiful girl he met there (who as blindly re- 
 ciprocated his passion), than a tired spent swimmer 
 could contend with the eddies of a whirlpool. 
 
 Could this W'Oman alwavs clino- to him all his 
 life, as she had threatened ? It seemed like some 
 intanaible spell laid over him. His brain felt 
 
 G 2
 
 84 GABRIEL DENVEll 
 
 bewildered, as if bis reason were going ; all his 
 mental struggling only seemed to leave bis love 
 more clearly defined and tenacious, bis batred for 
 her more bitter. , 
 
 What could be expected of bim ? He was only 
 one man, guided by the same instincts wbicb over- 
 sway the minds of all humanity — a swimmer thrown 
 struggling among harsh rocks and breakers, despe- 
 rate for safety and life. 
 
 He was a wild man, and bad been brought up 
 among still wilder associations. One half-muttered 
 5^et irresistible suggestion seemed dinning always in 
 his brain. Once it came so strongly that it almost 
 fashioned itself into uttered and audible words ; but 
 something like a flash of light in the darkness 
 seemed to bewilder his eyes. It was too terrible. 
 He dared not think about it. He felt powerless as 
 a child, and could do nothing. 
 
 But if his conscience forced him to keep the 
 promise this woman had once extorted from him, it 
 seemed to him, in bis present excitement, that his 
 whole future life would be one blind blank misery to 
 him. 
 
 As he stood Avith bis back to the lump, his 
 gleaming eyes looking restlessly aside into the deep
 
 GAClllEL DENVER 85 
 
 night, like a tiger glancing through its bars, any- 
 where but at the hateful face before him, in the 
 silence and utter obscurity around him, where all 
 human associations were lost and obliterated, and 
 where his mind could meet with no known object to 
 assure itself of its own identity, he could hardly 
 realise his position. 
 
 There was a cold sweat on his brow, despite the 
 fierce look which flitted at times over his features. 
 Nothing could more strangely exhibit the instan- 
 taneous extremes between passion and discourage- 
 ment to which some men's minds are subjected. 
 
 The woman had ceased speaking for a while, as if 
 to gain breath, and now, more angered than ever at 
 his stubborn silence (for in the wild state of mind 
 induced by her jealousy she was utterly incapable 
 of understanding what his silence meant), she began 
 again railing against him, more wildly and bitterly 
 even than before. 
 
 ' Ah ! I am only a weak woman, yet you dur jfc 
 not look me in the face. You and she think you 
 have kept yourselves so close ! but I'll expose you 
 both before the whole ship. They shall all know 
 what you have made of her, and how false-hearted 
 you've been to me. I could have been happy an
 
 80 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 hundred times over but for you : Ijut 3-on i<hall not 
 ruin my life for nothing.^ 
 
 Once more all words failed her, and she broke 
 down into a violent iit of hysterical sobbing. Over 
 and over again she repeated, in sob-broken utterance, 
 ' I hate you ! Pll revenge myself on you ! ' 
 
 ' If you hate me, Deborah Mallinsou, only half so 
 much as I do you,' said Denver, at last forcing him- 
 self to look at her, ' you'd not come up here at this 
 hour of all hours, to tempt and madden me in this way.' 
 
 He muttered this almost under his breath ; but 
 her morbidly-acute ear caught the meaning of his 
 words. 
 
 Her eyes flashed as with fire. She left off 
 sobbing, and gave a taunting laugh, and came still 
 nearer to him on the deck — nearer and nearer, till 
 she could have touched him with her hand, then she 
 paused and looked fearlessly in his face. 
 
 No passion is more bitter or maddening than the 
 jealousy which has its root in disappointed love, it 
 destro3's the very soul. A child could have seentliat 
 this woman was rendered insane by it. 
 
 Denver went on endeavouring to speak calmly — 
 though his tight-clutched hands and his convulsive 
 lips displayed his fast accumulating anger.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 87 
 
 ' What right have you to attempt to make my 
 life a misery to me ? I never wished for you ! We 
 should never be happy together — even if I had not 
 met "with Laura. Your existence would have been 
 the curse of my life ! You only come up here now 
 
 to taunt me ' 
 
 ' Is my life and misery nothing to you ? ' she cried 
 with a fresh outburst of tears. 
 
 * Yes ! you have found the truth out — though 
 God knows / never tried to conceal it. I do love 
 Laura Conway, and have loved her from the first hour 
 I overset eyes on her. I never, in the wildest dream, 
 ever saw a face like hers before, and I could no more 
 resist loving her than I could help breathing !— while 
 I hate you ! You've goaded me now, till the devil 
 seems twitching my arms to fling you into the sea 
 and myself after you ! Yes, I do love her and she 
 loves me in return, in spite of you. She was coming 
 up here to meet me just now. I had been waiting 
 for two hours, and was going wild with impatience, 
 till I mistook you for her and kissed you — when I'd 
 sooner have kissed a black bush-snake. Your pre- 
 sence is utterly hateful to me, I don't care what you 
 can do or say. God knows I can't help it if I'm 
 wronging you. On board this ship, getting more
 
 88 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 sick of it every day as I do, I can no more keep from 
 going near her than iron from a loadstone, or an 
 opium eater from bis laudanum. I'm in heaven when 
 I'm near her, all ray life past and present seems 
 obliterated. Before I told her bow I loved her I 
 suffered worse torments tlian hell's ! I've walked 
 about this declc in the night time, when she was gone 
 and nobody could see me, going more hopelessly in- 
 fatuated about her every minute, and yet thinking 
 that I had no right to be happy with her — -struggling 
 to realise why love such as she and I had for each 
 other must be suppressed, and kept breaking our 
 hearts in secret, while we remained unable to help 
 ourselves, until I seemed like a fly caught in a 
 spider's web ! I felt as if my brain were entangled 
 in some horrid dream that I should wake from and 
 find to be all a delusion. I broke through it by force 
 at last : I found she loved me as much as I loved her. 
 She is as light-hearted as you were always discon- 
 tented and sullen— more pure and innocent than the 
 sea foam we're floating on. Come I ' he said suddenly 
 and sternly, breaking off the desultory, disconnected 
 way in whicli he had been speaking, and looking 
 straight at her. ' Don't begin again. It's too late 
 to recede, and I'm troubled enough already, without
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 89 
 
 you. You may go too far, for it's raised tlie devil in 
 me talking- of her in comparison to one like you.'' 
 
 If the lio-ht could have been directed on to his 
 countenance, Deborah would liave seen a strange and 
 most sinister look on his brow ; but standing with 
 his back to the lamjD as he was, she could only see 
 him shudder visibly and press his clenched hands to 
 his forehead. 
 
 She had managed to keep silent with great diffi- 
 culty, though it coidd be seen plainly that she was 
 getting more insane every moment, her jealousy and 
 passionate resentment had reduced her to a condition 
 in which ]uore than one woman has been known to 
 wind all her hair round her throat and strangle her- 
 self. Once she clenched her teeth till her head and 
 neck shook in a kind of convulsion. . 
 
 But before he could finish she seemed to make a 
 violent effort to regain her self-possession. At last 
 she said, in a low suppressed voice (which nevertheless 
 trembled with such passion that every word of it 
 struck more keenly on the startled senses than if it 
 had been uttered in the wildest tones), ' Fling me 
 overboard^ you coward, and stain your soul with 
 murder as icell as 'perjury.^ 
 
 At the same time she advanced so close to him
 
 90 GABKIEL DE.WER 
 
 that her face was within a foot of liis. Their eyes 
 glared straight into each others' pupils — her's, blind 
 and mad with stored up resentment at the wrongs 
 she supposed herself to have suffered, reflected in his, 
 which were wild and luminous as an animal's. 
 
 ' Fling me overboard — I wish I conld move you 
 into doing so ! You're not frightened to stab my 
 feelings — to strangle all the pleasure I have in life ; 
 but you don't dare to put yourself under the law. 
 You needn't look at me in that way — you can't in- 
 timidate me ! She pure as the sea foam I Inno- 
 cent I ' she cried in an ironical voice, which her 
 violence rendered almost inarticidate, though she 
 struggled to express plainly her meaning. 
 
 Then she retreated back a step from him and 
 shook her outstretched arm threateningly in his face, 
 wliile he turned into the light, following her move- 
 ments. The fire in his heart seemed flashing out 
 througli his very eyes. 
 
 ' I'll punish the sliameless creature,' she cried, 
 witli terrible emphasis ; ' I'll punisli her, tliough I'm 
 sent to hell fire the next instant for it I ' 
 
 There was a sudden pause, a ciisis such as the 
 soul of any one looking on at this strange scene might 
 have shuddered under, but she seemed quite unap-
 
 t^ABIUEL DENVEll 91 
 
 palled at the anger she bad roused in the man, and 
 she stood facing him defiantly. 
 
 He moved, and his face was lost in shadow, while 
 she started back and waited panting and breathless. 
 The dead silence around them was broken only by 
 the placid ripple of the waves. 
 
 Suddenly a harsh noise, like the opening of a 
 rusty-hinged easement, was heard. Previously to that 
 a peculiar and undefined sound like the low murmur 
 of a bee had become half-audible ; but now, some 
 twenty yards from where these two stood, a woman's 
 clear sweet voice rose through the night, in words 
 which could be heard plainly as they issued from her 
 low-strained throat. 
 
 It was a song the melody of which sounded 
 beautiful beyond expression, as the singer sang and 
 pronounced it clearly with her subtle voice : — 
 
 Aliis, who knows or cares, my lore, 
 
 If our love lire or die ? 
 If thou thy frailty, sweet, shoiild'st prove, 
 
 Or my soul thiue deny ? 
 Yet merging sorrow in delight, 
 Love's dream disputes our devious night. 
 
 None know, sweet love, nor care a thought 
 
 For our heart's vague desire ; 
 Nor if our longing come to nought, 
 
 Or burn in aimless fire. 
 Let them alone, we'll waste no sighs. 
 Cling closer, love, and close thiue eyes.
 
 92 GABRIEL DEXVEU 
 
 She ceased, and the sweet viuration died swiftly 
 away in the depths of the night. 
 
 The mind of the singer producing this song 
 must have formed a strange contrast in its utter 
 isolation from the mad flood of passion and hatred 
 and recrimination which swept round these two. It 
 was as if an utterly windless, passionless space of 
 smooth sea and sunlit sky existed, enveloped by a 
 raging, black, profound and foam-surging ocean — 
 utterly incommunicable with, and undisturbed by 
 the surrounding tempest ; for the human mind in its 
 manifold forms resembles a sea with its waves, all 
 indissolubly connected together — one driving on and 
 followed by another — one strong ripple fashioning a 
 million others to its uttermost confines. 
 
 Strange was the effect this song produced on 
 these two ; it was as though the wind had died 
 away in the midst of a storm. 
 
 The woman stopped, listening to it with a 
 ghastly look and with averted eyes, while Denver 
 turned from her, pressing his hands wildly over hi? 
 face and brow, and trembling all over until it died 
 away. When it ceased Deborah's senses were 
 suddenly recalled to his presence ; she seemed to 
 start and come to herself with a sudden tremor.
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 93 
 
 Her eyes gleamed wildly and cruelly, but her 
 face seemed changed into colourless stone, and the 
 next instant she was lost to view. He saw her face 
 and form recede like a flicker of light vapour into 
 the darkness, and only heard the rustle of her dress 
 on the boards : then all was quiet. He remained a 
 little while as if stupefied, without motion, and then 
 he went and leant against the bulwark, looking 
 vacantly out into the night.
 
 94 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 I can give yoii inkling 
 Of an ensuing evil. — King Henry VIII. 
 
 Denver's figure, lost in the blind tenebrous night, 
 still leaned over the bulwarks, with his heart beating 
 wildly, and his brain as though entangled in the 
 delirium of some vast fever dream ; for, indeed, the 
 effects of such a moral convulsion as his innermost 
 soul must have undergone in his just-ended alterca- 
 tion with Deborah JMallinson were not such as 
 could easily subside again. 
 
 He saw plainly that her love for him had driven 
 her to madness — or, rather, her disappointed am- 
 bition and wounded pride, he thought. It was all 
 her own fault ; it was she who had deceived herself, 
 not lie, who had never loved her, nor pretended to. 
 Some of the old stubborn spirit of resistance was in 
 his mind ; a keen sparkle of fire cauglit from the 
 lamp gleamed in his eyes for an instant, and then 
 died out again.
 
 GABRIEL DE^'VER 95 
 
 Yet there ivas incontrovertible truth in her 
 tauntino- defiance of him ; it sickened him to think 
 of a man in his position deliberately stealing- 
 Lamus love, here, out at sea, where there was no 
 single friend to advise her — where, in fact, she was 
 as entirely at his mercy as the ship itself was at the 
 mercy of the wind. Yet, if he could gain the reso- 
 lution to leave her, to fly from her, loving- him as 
 he knew she did, what would his own life be after- 
 wards? It was, indeed, something- scarcely con- 
 ceivable, the more than idealised purity with which 
 this rough-nurtured Australian thought of and 
 worshipped the woman he loved. 
 
 If he were still to keep his promise to Deborah ? 
 after what had passed this night, too ! — this night 
 which was once to have been their wedding-night. 
 
 Then he clianged recklessly the arm he was 
 leaning on, and turned, staring blindly and help- 
 lessly into the darkness, which, diversified here and 
 there with quaint flashes of light where the waves 
 broke together, was hardly more obscure and devious 
 than his own future life seemed to him. One leap 
 out into it woidd end it all ! and he would sooner 
 take it than marry her. 
 
 Poor helpless waif, drift in the whirlpool of
 
 96 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 passion, was this the only antidote to the weary, 
 futile striving against destiny ! 
 
 Had he been chained to the deck he could barely 
 have been more powerless to take the leap and 
 leave Laura behind him. Only three nights back, 
 casually speaking, she had told him she would kill 
 herself if he were separated from her. Yet to take 
 advantage of her love for him — a love, too, entirely 
 created by his own reckless selfishness. 
 
 Ever as his mind strove to conjure up her sweet 
 form and face in the darkness before him, Deborah's 
 hated countenance, distorted by passion, seemed to 
 intervene and float before his eyes, while her 
 dissonant threats would ring and vibrate through 
 his brain whenever he tried to recall Laura's 
 plaintive and compassionate voice. Each time he 
 thought of these two in comparison with each other 
 his nerves seemed to quiver — a cold shudder and 
 thrill seemed to vibrate through his whole nervous 
 system. 
 
 At last he recoiled from the bulwark, and began 
 pacing heavily up and down the deck. His mouth 
 felt dried up and his throat parched ; but he did not. 
 heed his thirst. His eyes were hot and dizzy, and 
 his hands hung helplessly by his sides.
 
 GABRIEL D£2sVER 97 
 
 A single touch of the lips or pressui'e of the 
 hand might have sufficed to quench and alleviate all 
 this self-torturing anxiety ; but where was she who 
 alone could have given this ? why had she not kept 
 her promise ? — he was in such a state of mind that he 
 hardly dared to think. 
 
 Then he stopped abruptly, and almost staggered ; 
 so startled was he bv a sudden and vague sense of 
 dread which filled his mind. Could Deborah have 
 seen or spoken to Laura before she had met Idm ? 
 
 It was impossible. Scarce an hour ago (while 
 Deborah was with him) he had heard Laura singing 
 in a way which showed her to be utterly unconscious 
 of any special uneasiness. He felt a sigh of relief 
 as he reflected she would not have been aware of 
 what had taken place. 
 
 Would she not still come to him ? Ah I if she 
 onlv knew how he suffered ! 
 
 He stood listening in the sultry unbroken silence, 
 as though for some indication of her footsteps, so 
 intently that even the faintest noise could not have 
 escaped him. 
 
 But even the very ripple of the water was stilled, 
 and, as he strove to listen, the noiseless obscurity 
 became terrible to him. The dull beatino- of his 
 
 H
 
 98 GABEIEL DEXVER 
 
 heart shook through his whole frame, but all around 
 the gathered and faultless night-silence seemed, as 
 it were, to crawl up and envelope him stealthily — to 
 fall like a heavy weight and oppression on his brain, 
 that would paralyse his limbs if he listened too long 
 in it ; and he pressed his hands wildly to his throb- 
 bing forehead as he resumed his desultory footsteps. 
 Til ere is something in silence which is terribly 
 depressing. 
 
 Yet Laura, whose presence he longed for so 
 ceaselessly, was lying under the very spot of the 
 deck on which he stood. 
 
 There was a small kind of ground-glass sky- 
 light over the sleeping cabins, which was halved by 
 the division separating the two compartments. 
 It was close to the wheel, and in the lamplight, 
 Denver standing beside this, and glancing into the 
 impenetrable darkness covered in by it (in which he 
 knew Laura now lay sleeping) had for one instant 
 the idea of getting a light and going down to her, 
 since she did not come to Itlm. 
 
 Only for one glance at her features, to stem and 
 charm away this prolonged morbid flood of anxiety ! 
 Only one single moment of forgetfulness ! 
 
 But then again his heart sank within liim, and
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 90 
 
 Lis blood seemed to rush into his head, as he 
 imagined himself going like a thief in the night, to 
 gaze stealthily on her where she lav, with shut eyes 
 and dreaming face, in her bed, unconscious and 
 slumbering. 
 
 What was she dreaming about? Maybe of 
 himself', and if he were to go now, and she were to 
 Avake, and discover how he was insultino- her ' 
 
 The mere fact of the idea having occurred to 
 him, caused his sun-burnt cheek to redden as with a 
 bitter sense of shame : for her private cabin was a 
 place more sacred to him than the holiest sanctuary 
 of a temple is to its most blinded and bigoted 
 devotee. As he stood still for a moment by this 
 window his face looked strangely careworn, then his 
 figm-e disappeared again out of the light. 
 
 These descriptions of the ceaseless discomfort 
 and remorse which seemed to embitter Danver's 
 love for Laura, may appear to indicate a strange 
 want of will, or power of concentration in him, that 
 a man capable of such deep and passionate feeling, 
 could not (in the ardency of his attachment to tlie 
 woman he loved) force himself to forget the very 
 slight tie which now bound him to the woman he 
 hated. But Denver's was no ordinary nature. The 
 
 H 2
 
 100 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 knowledge that the only way of satisfying this utter 
 and perfect, if at root selfish, love of his would be 
 by wronging another luoinan^ was enough to make 
 every nerve in his body recoil with abhorrence. 
 Yet, if he fulfilled his promise to his cousin, he 
 would be doing Laura an injury which seemed to 
 him far greater in proportion. It was as though he 
 were placed in a position from which he could make 
 no single step that would not dishonour him ; and, 
 with two evils to choose from, he chose the least of 
 the two. 
 
 To Denver now, his old life in the wilderness of 
 forest-tangled hills and half-civilised settlements, 
 was as though blurred over and forgotten. One 
 evening long back he could recollect — tlie evening 
 in which he liad first seen Laura. But his remem- 
 brance of this was after all scarcely more distinct 
 than the light of a will-o'-the-wisp over a dark 
 morass. Then came a long and shadowy blank ; and 
 then he remembered how he had seen her once more, 
 leaning on the cabin casement, with the wind 
 blowing through her golden hair. 
 
 This was the one inseparable remembrance which 
 clung to him ; the rest of his existence seemed to 
 have been effaced like a forgotten dream.
 
 GABFvIEL DENVER 101 
 
 How the mesmeric iufluence which unconsciously 
 hung about Laura's extreme beauty, had so swiftly 
 usurped his brain, and filled the till then only 
 vaguely-felt void of his life, he could recall no more 
 than an ojaium eater can recall his first life-in- 
 fluencing vision-sleep. 
 
 At times (vainly endeavouring to excuse himself) 
 he almost felt as though the circumstances which 
 environed him, had been created at the moment 
 when, for the second time, he caught sight of Laura; 
 so that when he loved her most wildly, he found a 
 woman already intended for him, in the person of 
 his cousin Deborah. Baffled and tantalised beyond 
 endurance at this injustice, he had broken through 
 every restriction of his destiny. 
 
 Yet along with this, paralysing every effort to 
 evade it, closer and closer the constant unchanging 
 knowledge kept forcing itself upon him, that he had 
 promised to marry Deborah of his oiun free luill ; 
 and that every complication he was involved in had 
 been brought about by Jiimself, and himself alone. 
 
 Now tliis maddened him. 
 
 Deborah only remembered the marriage vows he 
 was to have sworn to her on that very clay, to love 
 her till deatJt ! — how that very evening was to have
 
 102 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 been their nuptial-night, and how in preparing to 
 take him when a poor man she had given up twenty 
 better chances in life for herself. 
 
 Now, when he had become suddenly rich, and 
 she had come on board the ship to accompany him 
 to England, prepared to fulfil her duties ; pre- 
 pared to love liim even (for he seemed strangely 
 handsome to her), she had been thrust aside 
 and coldly neglected. She had found it was as 
 utterly impossible for Denver to reciprocate her love 
 as for the ice she remembered in England to form 
 under the Tasmanian December's sun. 
 
 Nothing was left for her to do but to give up 
 all thoughts of pleasing him, and to return the 
 disdain with which he treated her. 
 
 And all tliis was brought about by the superior 
 beauty of another woman's face, the deeper redness 
 of her lips, the intenser sweetness of her eyes, and 
 the golden colour of her hair. 
 
 What psychologist can fathom or light up to 
 view the soul of a neglected woman ? — hardened as it 
 is into strange formations of dull callous feelings, 
 sometimes like rocks which strike out flashes of 
 hatred to every footfall, at other times dead and 
 perished as the fallen leaves.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 103 
 
 Life's cliill boughs emptied by deatli's autumn blast. 
 
 Love, sentiment, and duty all frozen and con- 
 gealed together — only predominate hate and pas- 
 sionate resentment alive and undying in the midst ! 
 
 Truly such an existence is a deserted and sunless 
 chaos, which the mind shrinks from penetrating 
 into. 
 
 Married women have children to engross their 
 attention : under the sunlight of their smiles and 
 their unconscious laughter and happiness the lower- 
 ing clouds evaporate, the ice dissolves ; but Deborah 
 had nothing. 
 
 She had chosen to love Denver whether he would 
 or not, and had tried vainly to mahe him love her. 
 She had failed, and this was the result. 
 
 One cannot but admit that it was more her fault 
 than Denver's. 
 
 She was one of those people who, when they set 
 their mind on any object, would die rather than 
 relinquish its attainment. If Denver was not to be 
 her husband her breath seemed to her but as a 
 waste gift of her Creator. She had from the first 
 dimly foreseen what sooner or later would be likely 
 to come with a man of Denver's disposition ; but the 
 days of their long engagement had passed one after
 
 104 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 another, and as the longed for November morning 
 came nearer and nearer, she had ahnost begun to 
 forget her jealousy. 
 
 But noAv — when it might have been expected 
 least of all- - out in the dreary central Indian 
 Ocean, where there was nothing else to occupy her 
 brain, the thing she dreaded had come. 
 
 Deborah knew Gabriel's character too well to 
 attempt any personal resistance ; but was her whole 
 life and joy to be wasted while she looked on unre- 
 sistingly ? 
 
 Separate him from her rival she knew she coidd 
 not ; hut ivlien she did strike, she resolved it shoidd 
 be in a luay luhich they little dreamt of. 
 
 But what could all this matter to Denver? the man 
 was infatuated. ' Witchcraft had joined to beauty ' 
 as it were, and his soul lay under their spell. Even 
 in the deepest and bitterest reveries of his secret 
 self-distrust, that one face which had ensnared his 
 soul, floated continually before his face, inevitably 
 blinding him as the sun docs the eyes which have 
 too boldlv gazed at it. 
 
 Even now his imagmation was 3^earning and 
 dilating on it, as he sat down wearily on a bench
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 105 
 
 just out of the lamplight, restiug his tired brow and 
 elbow ou the bulwark. 
 
 In the half-unconscious lethargy his mind and 
 body soon fell into, he must have remained some 
 time, when he saw distinctly (though with half- 
 closed unspeculative eyes) a light come out of the 
 cabin doorway, some twenty feet from where he was, 
 and proceed down the ladder on to the fore-deck 
 throwing a brilliant and flickering light on every- 
 thing but the bearer of it, who managed it appa- 
 rently as though desiring to remain unseen. 
 
 It flickered about up and down for several 
 minutes without attracting his attention. 
 
 There was a slight grating noise, as though the 
 hatcliway, left unbattened by the sailors, were being 
 moved up, then the light or candle disappeared. 
 There was not the slightest noise to indicate a foot- 
 fall, and everything vanished into the night again. 
 
 All this passed unnoticed, and at last he gre^\ so 
 drowsy that his head sunk completely on his arm, 
 and he was overpowered by sleep, thougli his 
 dreaming brain, irritated and worn by over-exertion, 
 still dwelt on the one all-abcorbing topic of his life. 
 
 What a wonderful thing a collection of all tlie 
 dreams which fill men's minds would be ; wliat a
 
 106 GABKIEL DEXVER 
 
 demonstration of how rarely satisfaction ever follows 
 5'earning — of the strange vicissitudes of dreaming* 
 and realisation under which we live. All the 
 illimitable night-silence and obscurity, with the 
 blind yearning and remorse which they brought to 
 his soul, were no more to him. 
 
 He thought he was wandering once again in the 
 arid Australian Avilderness, and Laura was in his 
 arms. He knew nothing of how he had gained her, 
 and hardly could credit the ecstatic happiness he 
 felt. No hope deferred could again baffle or tanta- 
 lise his soul to madness : she luas his ! and gazing 
 on the sweet-flushed face which lay half-caressingly 
 and half-bashfully on his shoulder (his arm and 
 hand round her neck, hidden under the soft pro- 
 fusion of hair) he kissed, over and over again, the 
 thin, transparent eyelids and warm lips. 
 
 She was inconceivably beautiful. 
 
 Now the sun was sinking, and its slanting 
 radiances transmuted everything they fell on into 
 their own transient gold. The coming night-wind, 
 blowing from across the desolate purple hill-sides, 
 flung Laura's loose and tangled hair, all glowing 
 about her face and throat, till its clustering tendrils 
 blinded her eyes, and she paused, disengaging her- 
 self from him, to push it aside.
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 107 
 
 As she stood with lifted hands, she suddenly 
 disappeared, while he ran madly over the rocks and 
 in among the sage-brambles, seeking her, but always 
 ineffectually, until, at last, he thought he must have 
 been cheated and deluded by some phantom. 
 
 Then he stopped, and sought tremblingly for 
 the lock of red-brown hair which she had just given 
 him. 
 
 Next his heart, his lingers clutched a handful 
 of dried leaves — only that. 
 
 The sun was sinking so low now that only the 
 extreme summits of the high hills were lit by its 
 glow, and the swift Australian twilight was fast 
 absorbing everything around him. In the climax 
 of his perplexed despair he resolved to fling himself 
 into the deepening shadow beneath him : from the 
 topmost crag of the high rock which he had climbed 
 to examine the surrounding and now indistinguish- 
 able country. The black night liad swept down 
 upon him as he prepared to fling himself off — when 
 he awoke with a start, his breast throbbing wildly, 
 and his eyes staring blindly into the real darkness, 
 with the perspiration starting from his forehead. 
 The circulation of his blood seemed as though it had 
 stopped for a moment. 
 
 Just at that instant, as lie sat up trying dizzily
 
 1C8 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 to collect his thoughts, he felt something scramble 
 ov^er his feet. 
 
 Looking down hastily and then into the circle 
 of light near liim, he saw two or three rats emerging 
 from the shadow, cross through it, and hurry into 
 the opposite obscurity again. One stood up in the 
 calm and characteristic manner of its kind, supporting 
 itself on its long hairless tail, and cleansing its neck 
 and whiskers carefully with its wet paws; then it 
 deliberately inspected the end of its tail, and finally 
 disappeared, followed by others. 
 
 A rat will behave in this cool and methodical 
 way no matter what danger it may be flying from. 
 
 Grlancing round him, Denver could see their 
 keen teeth and fierce little red eyes glistening, as 
 they caught the light in tlie obscurity round his 
 feet. He almost fancied he could hear the pattering 
 of their feet, for the tail of a rat is very awkward, 
 and makes a great noise whenever the animal runs. 
 
 These animals, usually so alert and watchful, 
 did not appear to be in the slightest attracted by 
 his movements : he even stamped on the deck 
 purposely to frighten them, and none started. 
 
 Indeed, they were evidently scared already ; it 
 was as though they were in tlie presence of some
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 109 
 
 greater danger — one wliich was common to everyone 
 on the sliip. Thus they roused Denver's attention 
 in spite of himself. He could not make out what 
 was the matter witli tlicm ; and he had never 
 noticed a rat on the decks before. 
 
 Now, as he turned his head, looking unconsciously 
 down into the impenetrable darkness from which 
 these rats came, he saw that the red signal lamp 
 a-head was obscured, almost hidden, beneath a 
 large and luminous mass of vapour, which hung 
 round it, coloured by its light. Staring intently at 
 it for some seconds, he saw that the mist was in 
 front of the lamp and about half-way down the ship. 
 It seemed swirling round the dim outline of the 
 fore-mast which was just visible against its vague 
 light. 
 
 The thing looked so unnatural and lurid, and, 
 moreover, so conspicuous, that even in his half- 
 sleepy surprise he started up with his eyes fixed and 
 staring on it. He was still trembling and bewildered ; 
 his senses almost benumbed by his interrupted 
 dream. 
 
 What was the matter ? Wliat could have hap- 
 pened ? 
 
 Could this mist have risen from the sea ?
 
 110 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Your mitigations adde but seas to seas, 
 Give matter to my fires to increase their burning : 
 And I, ere long, enligliteued by my anger. 
 Shall be my own pyle and consume to ashes. 
 
 Bevengefor Honour. 
 
 While be was gazing on tliis strange appearance, 
 hardly knowing what he was about, or what to 
 tliink of it, a peculiar but startliugly unmistakable 
 smell of burning floated by him — just a whiff as it 
 were : but presently it seemed filling and pervading 
 the whole atmosphere. 
 
 There is something in the smell of fire, which 
 alarms more quickly than any other sign of danger. 
 Its effect on the mind almost resembles that pro- 
 duced by the unexpected hiss of some deadly snake. 
 Once before in his life Denver remembered (when 
 camping out in a dense inland forest) how he had 
 roused himself in his sleep, while the wind passed 
 him tainted with just such a smell as this. A most
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 111 
 
 vivid recollection of what followed flashed into his 
 mind as he looked wp anxiously at the red smoke- 
 like substance in front of the lamp. 
 
 He stepped forward to get a nearer view of it ; 
 and, doing so, trod on something, which gave a shrill 
 scream — it was another rat. 
 
 All at once, as he remembered the behaviour of 
 these animals, there seemed to be no longer room to 
 doubt that something had gone wrong in the ship. 
 A sudden idea took possession of him that she must 
 be on fire — somewhere underneath in the forehold. 
 
 The heat had driven the rats out of their places 
 of refuge. 
 
 The smoke (for such it was, in reality) still 
 drifted in the light : it even seemed increasing in 
 density. 
 
 Something was amiss; but he still, for one 
 instant longer, paused in uncertainty — when sud- 
 denly all further doubt was driven out of his mind 
 by a fearful crash down aft in the ship ; soon fol- 
 lowed by another. The sound came from the fore- 
 hold ; and in the deep silence which succeeded, he 
 could distinctly hear a crackling as of dry wood 
 burning. It was enough to make a man of nervous 
 temperament lose his self-possession ; but Denver's
 
 112 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 weather-hardened nerves had never known fear. 
 This now most positive danger seemed rather to 
 rouse him to activity. Still, he stood irresolute for 
 an instance (debating* whether to rush down and 
 bring Laura on deck ; or to abstain from alarming 
 her needlessly, and run to the forecastle), when the 
 steersman behind him, who had been unseen and 
 forgotten in the dark, was awakened by the same 
 noise, and rose to his feet. This man seemed half- 
 dazed for an instant, and nearly tripped himself up 
 with the string he had tied to his arm; but in 
 another moment (as, sliading the lamplight off his 
 eyes with his hand, he caught sight of the red smoke) 
 he understood what was the matter, for he shouted 
 out wildly, ' The hold's afire ! Fire ! Fire ! ' and, tug- 
 ging desperately against the cord broke it — stumb- 
 ling against Denver with a savage oath, as he darted 
 by him into the obscurity, shouting over and over 
 again the cry which strikes such terror into the 
 heart — a sound intensified into a nameless horror 
 to the sailor at sea. It went all throuah the 
 vessel. 
 
 In an instant, a confused sound of footsteps and 
 voices became audible : some man shouted out to 
 know what was the matter, and was answered by
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 113 
 
 the cry of ' Fire ! ' again and again repeated in every 
 conceivable tone. 
 
 Certainly fire was burning somewhere — for the 
 crashing and crackling momentarily augmented. 
 Indeed, it appeared to burst and roll through the 
 whole ship. The confusion and clamour increased. 
 As Denver breathlessly followed the man down the 
 deck, a keen fierce glow burst suddenly from the 
 openings in the unbattened hatchway, such as might 
 have come through the chinks in the door of a 
 furnace — fierce rays of light which shot through tlie 
 darkness — light which flickered on the wildly 
 alarmed faces of the negligent sailors, who had all 
 scrambled out on hearing the terrible alarm-cry as it 
 rose in the night. 
 
 There must have been some unusually inflammable 
 material in the hold ; for the sudden fire seemed 
 already to rage under the deck. No one who has 
 not witnessed such an alarm as this, can comprehend 
 the horror of it ; or realise the sensations of those, 
 who, failing to baffle the flames, see nothing before 
 them, as they retreat foot by foot — save a choice 
 between two deaths — fire or water ! their only home 
 turned into a burning furnace, floating, tossed about 
 on the immense sea, all the waters of which fail to 
 
 I
 
 114 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 extinguish it. The two elements most utterly 
 opposed to each other, combined for the destruc- 
 tion, the pitiless annihilation, of the common enemy 
 man! 
 
 Among these men thus hastily collected on the 
 deck, everything was in uncertainty. None knew 
 how long the fire had burned, whence it came, or 
 how to reach it. 
 
 "While it lasted, the flare through the broad 
 hatchway lit up the spars and rigging overhead, 
 like the entangled boughs of a forest by fire-light ; 
 but from a common impulse, the hatch was slammed 
 down and fastened. To allow ventilation was to 
 destroy one of their few chances of safety ; for as 
 the fire was still confined to the entrails of the great 
 hull, it might yet stand a chance of being stifled 
 and suffocated in its own smoke. 
 
 Yet if they could have seen how, among the 
 sacks and barrels in a corner of the hold underneath 
 them, tlie fire flared up fiercely, and increased at 
 every instant, they might have thought differently ; 
 but the shutting down of the hatch had reduced its 
 sound to a dull distant muttering, which was less 
 terrifying — though every now and then a louder 
 crackling than usual gave intelligence as to what
 
 GABEIEL DENVEE 115 
 
 was really going on. The imminence of the danger, 
 which had suddenly invaded their sleep, seemed to 
 bewilder and half-ioaralyse the efforts of every one. 
 The men ran against each other in the -dark, 
 swearing as only excited sailors can — and all 
 shouting questions, which no one could answer, 
 and without the slightest discipline in their move- 
 ments. In the darkness of the night, utterly black 
 as it was, whatever they most wanted was not to 
 be found. 
 
 In these days such catastrophes are often set 
 down to the rats; and with justice, for it is well 
 known that these animals, getting ravenously 
 excited over phosphorus, will steal lucifer-matches 
 and carry them home to their nests : where they 
 ignite them by their gnawing — thus setting fire to 
 everything around them. But in those days the 
 tinder box was still the only means of procuring 
 fire. A man was endeavouring to get a light from 
 one of these old-fashioned contrivances at that 
 moment ; and one can judge of the state of confusion 
 they were thrown into, by the fact that none of them 
 thought of going to the lamp in tlie stern. Tlie 
 others all stood silent, waiting anxiously round this 
 man, for none could see what they were about. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 GABEIEL DEXYEE 
 
 Only the sliai-p chipping of the flint (mingled 
 with their suppressed breathing), could be heard for 
 a few moments. Then a spark flashed brilliantly 
 in the darkness, the tinder ignited, and was blown 
 up by half-a-dozen eager bearded mouths, soon illu- 
 minated by its glow ; and then in the flaring efful- 
 gence, an unexpectedly grand scene came out — 
 delineated in wildly powerful light and shade, where 
 the breathless nioht silence and obscurity had 
 reigned so supremely scarce ten minutes before. 
 What a study of expression in their faces I — their 
 gleaming eyes, bronzed features, bearded cheeks ; 
 and, above all, their strange attire. In a place 
 where not a trace of humanity had seemed to exist, 
 a crowd of wildly gesticulating figures were now 
 rushing about — all j ust as they had tumbled out of 
 their hammocks : some in red shirts, others in their 
 trousers, and one man (a negro) with nothing at 
 all of covering to his bare black skin ; his eyes 
 flashing like diamonds in his fright. 
 
 The light fell also upon the mass of white smoke 
 swirling heavily about over their heads. 
 
 Shutting the liatchway over the fire seemed as 
 though it had conquered it for a while : and they 
 all stood around, panting with the exertions they
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 117 
 
 had made to batten it. The wihi disorder created 
 in their minds began slightly to abate. 
 
 The flames, wherever they might be, could still 
 be got mider, perhaj^s. The imjoortance of the 
 danger seemed to have been very much overrated ; 
 but still the deck was getting hot under their feet 
 as they stood upon it, and none of them knew what 
 to do. 
 
 The helmsman ran back, and got the tarpauling 
 he had thrown down at the stern. This was taken 
 and stuffed into the chinks of the hatch — throuoh 
 which a sudden puff of hot smoke swirled out in 
 their faces, and joined the undulating volume over- 
 head. This proved the fire to be still encroaching, 
 and a fresh burst of alarm took jDossession of them. 
 
 Denver was nowhere visible among these men. 
 
 A sick sailor, whose face and limbs seemed wasted 
 by debility, was carried out of the steerage by two 
 of his fellows, and laid on the quarter-deck, near 
 three other figures, two of them women, who stood 
 there. Two of these, as far as could be seen in the 
 dim sombre light that reached them, formed a 
 group ; of which one was a slight slender figure, 
 standing half supported in the embx-ace of the other 
 — some man whose features were indiscernible.
 
 118 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 The third was lookiug on witli a half careless, 
 half sullen expression on her face, though it might 
 have been curious to have watched the sudden start 
 and the look which came into her eyes, as she heard 
 Denver's voice behind her talking to Laura. Yet 
 she was, to all intents, not in the slightest degree 
 concerned at the N'iolent tumult, and the shoutings 
 and lights which had broken out so unexpectedly in 
 the still midnight. 
 
 When Denver knew what i*eally was the matter, 
 he turned hastily back up the deck, and trembling 
 with anxiety, though not for himself, he sprang 
 down the companion stairs into the cabin. Groping 
 his way through tlie pitchy blackness in which it 
 was all enshrouded, he came to Laura's door — or 
 rather the door which led to the inner appartment 
 for he had never been farther inside. He called her 
 name loudly twice over ; the door opened, and 
 someone pushed against him in the dark. 
 
 It was Laura herself; she was already awake, 
 standing listening to the trampling of feet overhead, 
 and the confused shouting. 
 
 Just now a fresh burst of tlie sound was heard, 
 as though something were taking place ; and such 
 was Denver's excitement that he could hardly stay
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 119 
 
 to tell her what the alarm was about ; but taking 
 her up in his strong arms, he literall}^ carried her 
 out on to the deck.' 
 
 The perilous fire seemed so deadly and near to 
 them, that he could not endure to have her out of 
 his sight, even for an instant, in the dark cabin, 
 where the dreaded flames might, for what he knew, 
 break out at any moment. 
 
 She was scarcely dressed, save for the nightgowTO. 
 she slept in, and its hem fell fluttering on her bared 
 and inexpressibly delicate feet. But a heavy cloak 
 was thrown over her shoulders, which sufficed to 
 conceal her form. 
 
 Deborah had been below. In the dark Denver 
 had stumbled against lier, and she now followed 
 them out and up the steps. When they got on 
 deck they found that five or six lanterns had been 
 lighted, and strewn about the fore part of the ship, 
 so that they could now see what the men were doing.
 
 120 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Over head the dismal hiss 
 Of fiery darts in flaming voUies flew. — Paradise Lost. 
 
 There was no iire-engine to the ship, but all the 
 available buckets had been brought up and filled 
 over the side. The disturbed waves they had been 
 dipped into were alive and dancing with phosphorus, 
 and the water that filled them was coated with its 
 pale flame ; they were place J on the fore deck, 
 which was splashed all over with patches of wet that 
 gleamed brightly as the lamplight fell upon them. 
 But no one seemed to know where to fling the 
 contents of these pails, so they stood there un- 
 emptied and disregarded. A still larger piece of 
 tarpaulin liad been procured to stop the draught 
 through the hatch and stifle the fire, completely 
 over this the large fragment of a sail was laid, 
 though the thick vapour still escaped endlessly, 
 evidently pouring through some aperture which they
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 1l>1 
 
 could not discover in the darkness. Some unknown 
 and hidden source of ventilation must have existed 
 in the hold, for the sullen hissino- and cracklino: 
 underfoot continued. It even increased, and the 
 deck they stood on grew unendurably hot, while the 
 water dried perceptibly as it leaked from the 
 buckets. 
 
 The opaque white smoke, varied here and there 
 witJi a swirl of black, now began completely to hide 
 and envelope the rigging overhead. The way the 
 danger thus seemed to increase upon them without 
 anything of it being seen (though the flames could 
 be heard so plainly) struck more consternation into 
 these men and bewildered them more than if the 
 forecastle itself had been blazing with fire. 
 
 It was indeed a strange waking for them, to be 
 thus called out in the midnight on to the decks, to 
 conquer a hidden and dreaded enemy — one none the 
 less feared because inanimate — and to have to stand 
 helpless on the hot decks under the blinding smoke, 
 with a presentiment in their hearts that it was too 
 late, and that all their efforts would be useless, 
 even if there still remained time to apply them. 
 
 Now while Denver and Laura (lie for the moment 
 unable to tear himself away, and she clinging to
 
 122 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 Lim) were watching this scene from what used to be 
 called the ' barricade ' of the Spanish quarter-deck, 
 neither of them knowing whether the fire were being 
 got under or not, a sailor rushed through the door 
 at the foot of the forecastle, followed by a large ape 
 he had unchained, probably to give it a chance for 
 its life. 
 
 This man shouted and cried out that the bulk- 
 head, which separated the fore cabin or steer- 
 age from the hold, was splitting and burning- 
 through, so that the compartment was filled with 
 smoke. 
 
 This was true, for the vapour began to issue out 
 at the door he had just come through. 
 
 There was a sort of recoil among them as they 
 heard and saw this. Those who were still filling the 
 buckets over the side left their occupation, and from 
 their action it seemed as though, for an instant, they 
 were about to forsake the deck and leave their ship to 
 her fate. Anything which was said was lost in the 
 noise and confusion, but the first mate seemingly 
 persuaded tliem to form a line with the buckets, for 
 this they did after a while. The water was passed 
 down to the mate and five of the men who had 
 followed him through into the fore-cabin, but this
 
 GABEIEL DENVER Ud 
 
 was all done with an evident feeling of despair as 
 to any result. 
 
 A loud hissing and spluttering showed presently 
 that something had ibeen reached — it was fearful to 
 listen to. Then they heard faint cries, as if for help, 
 and all except the fire became quiet. 
 
 The emptied buckets were not passed back, and 
 the men gathered round the entrance with fresh 
 relays beo-an to look with consternation in each 
 other's faces. 
 
 One at last tried to penetrate into the smoke. 
 
 The way which led to the steerage under the 
 forecastle was a simple ladder of iron, placed so that 
 one came down facing sternwards, and a good way 
 under where the entrance was. 
 
 There was no sound for a time, only the subdued 
 roar of the fire and the smoke in their faces. 
 
 In a while the man who had gone in reeled out 
 among them again, half suffocated with the atmos- 
 phere he had endured for half a minute. Though 
 hardly able to speak at first, he told them that the 
 others must be lying stifling in the darkness, and that 
 it was impossible to breathe below. 
 
 The attention of one or two of these men had 
 been in the meantime called to Denver, who was
 
 124 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 Standing on the quarter-deck witli Laura. In the 
 dusk the two figures could hardly be told one from 
 another. These sailors thought perhaps that their 
 strange self-contained passenger was a coward, and 
 frightened to come down near the danger ; but they 
 had indeed little time to waste in thinking over the 
 motives of his actions. Tiie second mate — a black- 
 bearded sailor in a red shirt and trousers — tried a 
 second time to descend the iron ladder, holding a 
 lighted lantern which brightly illuminated the dense 
 smoke streaming through the aperture. 
 
 As might have been expected, lie was driven back ; 
 it was useless to attempt resistance. The men must 
 have been dead by that time ; and no one could have 
 carried a senseless body up the iron ladder while in- 
 haling the smoke. 
 
 At last they retreated back out of the clouds and 
 gusts of livid clioking vapour. Six out of their 
 number were gone while they had irresolutely stood 
 by. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the effect of this" 
 shock on tliem ; it seemed for a moment as though 
 all were lost. 
 
 One man ran nearer the quarter-deck to get a 
 draught from the cistern which stood there, and he
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 125 
 
 called out, apparently to encourage the two women, 
 ' There's no danger. AVe shall get you all off safely 
 if the fire spreads.' 
 
 But his actions belied the assiu*ance of his words, 
 while the next instant another voice shouted both to 
 him and to Denver, ' Come down and help us, there's 
 no time to lose ! ' 
 
 Then a third voice shouted, ' Get up the cabin 
 scuttle-butt on deck ! ' 
 
 These words were the only articulate sound in all 
 the confusion and clamour which rose and fell — for 
 all speech was now drowned in the noise of the hid- 
 den fire. 
 
 Denver tenderly separated himself from the arms 
 which would have detained him ; and followed the 
 first named man down into the smoke and confusion 
 on the deck. It was getting so thick there now, that 
 the forms of the sailors were all blurred together, 
 while they could be heard coughing as it got into 
 their lungs. These men were all strangers to him 
 with unknown faces and voices — despite his having 
 been confined in the same ship with them for eight 
 weeks. As he got near them he heard one man ex- 
 claim : 
 
 ' Its nary use our stopping here ! Let's launch
 
 126 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 the laoats while there's time — or our deaths '11 be 
 upon our own heads ! ' 
 
 ' We can't do nothin' ! ' another said. 
 
 ' Wait till she burns through, and then we'll see 
 what we're about,' interrupted a resolute voice. 
 ' Man and boy I've worked in the old ship ofif and on 
 these forty years, and 7 don't leave her till I'm 
 driven ! ' 
 
 The last speaker was a man of fifty, short and 
 thick-set, with a grey beard cropped close to his face 
 and small keen grey eyes. He stood perfectly calm 
 and resolute, his jaws munching a lump of tobacco. 
 The others displayed no such presence of mind, and 
 did not scruple to show the alarm which was wildly 
 depicted in their faces. The boy who attended on 
 the cabin was not among them; he had probably 
 been forgotten in his berth, so that the smoke must 
 have reached and suffocated him in his sleep. 
 
 One of them clutched Denver's arm, his fingers 
 trembling the while. 'What could they do' he 
 asked, 'only twelve men and the turpentine stored 
 below ! ' 
 
 Denver had known of no inflammable material 
 like that in the hold. This explanation served to 
 explain why the fire was burning with such viru-
 
 GABEIEL DEXTEE 127 
 
 lence ; but he made no rei^ly — his eyes were wander- 
 ing uneasily through the smoke towards the place 
 he had just quitted. 
 
 The fire being hidden jDrecluded all possibility of 
 nipping it in the bud so to speak ; they could only 
 wait till the flames made their appearance. They 
 stood pressed together irresolutely like a flock of 
 frightened sheep ; only waiting for such a pretext to 
 make good their escape. 
 
 The smoke swirled in long Im'id wreaths over 
 their heads. Xow for the first time there began to 
 be sparks in it. 
 
 One appeared, flickering like a red will o' the 
 wisp among the ropes overhead. They all gazed 
 silently upon the zigzag course of this herald of the 
 coming fire. At last it went out in the smoke, ex- 
 tinguished for want of air. 
 
 None of them knew where it came from or indeed 
 asked. Each looked where the others were lookino-, 
 till they must all have seen it. 
 
 Denver alone started slightly, as for one instant 
 it seemed inclined to shoot off in Laura's direction. 
 
 Soon their sole thought would no doubt be 
 centered on securing their safety ; but in the mean- 
 time, during the momentary pause they made, these
 
 123 GABRIEL DEXTEE 
 
 sailors, so suddenly and awfully reduced to the brink 
 of despair, formed a strange and puzzling spectacle 
 of apparent indifference. It was a kind of lull which 
 always precedes the most tumultuous efforts of nature 
 or man. Their unchained monkey, in weird contrast 
 to them, sat on the bulwark, whence it screamed and 
 gibbered at the smoke in aimless rage and terror — 
 its face the while, lit up by a lantern beneath it, 
 looking perfectly devilish. 
 
 Tlius they waited for the unquenchable fire to 
 make its appearance and end their uncertainty, for 
 with something tangible they could at least know 
 what to do. Even it might be no exaggeration to 
 state that they wished for the light of the expected 
 flames to guide and assist tlieir efforts. It may be 
 added that they had not long to wait now. Every 
 one of them had been obliged to procure some 
 covering to protect the feet, or they could never 
 have stood there, so intense was growing the heat of 
 the deck. The bright sparks were constantly issuing 
 one after another out of the door in the forecastle ; 
 but they had grown too common now to attract 
 notice. 
 
 Two or three of them in an excited but purpose- 
 less manner, had dragged the tarpaulin g off a corner
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 129 
 
 of the hatch, and were endeavouring to pour the re- 
 maining pails through a chink so as to create a 
 volume of steam underneath. 
 
 As the liquid splashed on the planks around them, 
 it hissed and vanished away in its own vapour. 
 
 They had better have been gone while there still 
 remained time, instead of trifling thus with the 
 element they had failed to conquer. Nothing they 
 could do now was of any avail ; for without doubt 
 the whole interior of the hold had turned into one 
 volume of fierce unmitigated flame. Even now as 
 they stood there, it hissed and spluttered up through 
 the very hole down which they were trying to pour 
 the water — like some fierce animal enraged at the 
 efforts made to ensnare it 
 
 Something like an explosion seemed suddenly to 
 occur, the boards of the hatch itself cracked, split 
 up, and burst into fire with the intense heat, while 
 the tarpauling and canvas shrivelled up, and all 
 finally gave way. One immense mass of flame, first 
 forcing itself past at one corner, rushed and swept 
 clean through the reopened hatchway, like an ex- 
 plosion of gas through the shaft of a mine. 
 
 This reached and flickered high into the air, 
 unexpectedly shooting millions upon millions of 
 
 K.
 
 130 GABRIEL DE^'VER 
 
 sparks, like flakes of volcanic fire, into the un- 
 fathomable blackness overhead, spangling the dark 
 sky like clusters of shooting stars, and falling in 
 fieiy showers into the waves round the doomed 
 vessel. A kind of sibilant hissing, like that of the 
 wind through the leaves of a tree, became audible 
 round the ship, resulting from the sjaluttering 
 contact of the sparks with the water ; while the 
 instantaneous glare must have been visible for miles, 
 as it fell kindling along the dreary deserted wastes 
 of the midnight sea. 
 
 All this happened in one instant. 
 
 The astonisliing transformation of the night, 
 flashed so suddenly on the bewildered brains of the 
 men gathered round, that it made them more mad 
 and reckless than a stampede of frightened animals, 
 and they lost what little self-possession remained to 
 them. 
 
 Now, as the explosion burst upwards with its 
 fiery frightful heat, as though about to rend up the 
 small space of deck betwixt the hatchway and the 
 bulwarks, these thirteen lost men, terrified by its 
 snake-like tongues of cruel flame, were no doubt 
 about to rush aft up the deck, there to lower the 
 boat and put off, after getting what they could into
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 131 
 
 her. It was scarcely above twenty minutes since 
 they had been first alarmed by the discovery of the 
 fire; but now, to their terrified imaginations, the 
 entire entrails of the ship must have been wasted 
 away and gutted, so that the bottom could be but a 
 mere shell, ready to si:)lit up and sink them at any 
 moment. When the destroyed hatches fell in (or 
 rather were flung out over their heads), the sudden 
 rush of fire in their faces proved so scorching that, 
 standing, as they were, nearest the bows of the 
 vessel, they all retreated, and scrambled back to 
 the, as yet, intact forecastle. Two men dragged 
 Denver with them in the confusion, and the 
 monkey followed on all fours, howling with terror 
 and pain as its feet touched the hot deck on to 
 which it had sjirung. 
 
 Thus they all disappeared in the smoke which 
 veiled the fore jDart of the vessel before they knew 
 ■what they were about. 
 
 All power of thought was driven out of each 
 man's head, and a nameless, simultaneous terror 
 seized them, levelling the human intellect almost to 
 that of the monkey which followed them — to a mere 
 instinctive clutching for life, no matter how delusive 
 or transitory the means of safety. 
 
 E 2
 
 132 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 Meanwhile, the edges. of the deck took fire and 
 burnt up like tinder, making a return past the flaming 
 hatchway all but impossible after a few seconds. 
 Two men, however, recovering themselves in time, 
 managed to rush through the flame with their faces 
 hidden in their jackets. Denver, in vain, three 
 times over, attempted to follow them, but, at each 
 effort, he was defeated by the insupportable heat, 
 and driven back. 
 
 Flame, in spite of its brilliancy, is more opaque 
 than its own smoke. The rising fire effectually 
 prevented anything taking place at one end of 
 the ship, from being seen at the other end — the 
 stern and prow of the ' Black Swan ' were prevented 
 from communication by the fire in its centre I
 
 G.iBEIEL DENVER 133 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 And from about him fierce effusion rolled 
 
 Of smoke and bickering flame and sparkles dire. 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 Denver pressed his hands on his forehead, and gazed 
 in stupefied bewilderment at the red, undulating 
 flames, the hoarse tumultuous roar of which would 
 baffle description. 
 
 It was impossible to get through them, and 
 Laura was on the other side ! 
 
 maddening complication of terror and 
 misery ! 
 
 It was most likely a mere delusion created by 
 the over- wrought and excited state of his brain — 
 but at tliat instant liis eyes seemed to catch a mo- 
 mentary glimpse of her terror-stricken face through 
 a forked gap in one of the red tongues of flame, as 
 though she were just on the other side. Thinking 
 that he was once more about to attempt to fling him-
 
 134 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 self into the fire - this time to his infallible destruction 
 — several of the men he was amono' strove to restrain 
 him ; but he could not have heard their voices even 
 had he wished to, and he shook them off savagely 
 and disappeared into the smoke. 
 
 His heart was palpitating- wildly, his head was 
 dizzy with anxiety and terror, and he staggered as 
 he ran. Yet for all this he had a distinct purpose in 
 his mind. 
 
 He intended to reach Laura. 
 
 GTroping his way blindly along the side of the 
 bulwark (for he kept his eyes, lips, and even his 
 nostrils, closed against the dense, suffocating smoke), 
 his out-stretched hands were arrested by the fore- 
 rigging, or rope-ladders, which led to the fore- 
 mast top. These he began ascending with all the 
 energy of desperation. 
 
 He scarce know where he was going, but clinging 
 tenaciously to the ratlines, he climbed upwards — 
 hardly conscious of what he was about, so sore and 
 painful had the smoke made his eyes, when he had 
 been once or twice forced to open them ; and he 
 dared not breathe, though his lungs craved after the 
 fresh sea air they had been used to. 
 
 Presently he reached the fore-top, and found
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 135 
 
 himself able to stand there ; but even here the 
 smoke was dense as ever. 
 
 He could see nothing beyond the terrible red 
 glare just beneath him, and at times the flames 
 reached up above his head ; but his arm came in 
 contact with a thick rope that seemed to lead up 
 obliquely to the mainmast on the other side of the 
 fire. It was one known as the main-topmast-stay. 
 
 It was four strands thick, and appeared thoroughly 
 capable of bearing his weight, and in an instant he 
 resolved to trust himself to it ; but ere he had got 
 half across — clinging by his hands and feet, and 
 with his body swinging from side to side, he found 
 himself nearly over the flickering points of the 
 flame, while the hoL atmosphere and smoke from 
 them swirled about his face. 
 
 The heat was too intense for him to proceed, and 
 with great difficulty and trouble he managed to slip 
 backwards to the place he had just quitted. 
 
 He was almost dead for want of breathable air. 
 There was not an instant to lose ; he must go 
 higher ! — higher ! 
 
 Exhausted as he was, he next commenced 
 scrambling up the fore-topmast rigging till he 
 reached the cross-tree, on whicli he found two or
 
 136 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 three rats clinQ,ino:, tbeir instinct liavino- tauoht 
 them to evade the fire in the very way he was doing. 
 
 Once astride on tins, he paused to rest for a 
 second, feeling almost as though about to fall off 
 into the clutches of the conflagration below. Its 
 burning breath reached him still, high up as he had 
 climbed, and its vividness seemed to strike even 
 through his tight-shut eyelids. 
 
 There was another rope here — the top-gallant 
 stay this time. By follo\\ ing it he could still cross 
 from mast to mast. 
 
 It appeared to be thinner than the others, and 
 it oscillated backwards and forwards as he pressed 
 his hands on it ; but there was not a moment for 
 reflection- -to take or leave it seemed the only 
 choice left him. 
 
 He began crossing it ; but he had entirely 
 miscalculated its strength, if he expected it to 
 bear him. Before he had gone eight yards up it, 
 the portion he had just passed over gave way. 
 
 He fell with incredible rapidity, but still grasping 
 the end of the rope in his hands, though he half- 
 lost his self-possession. There was a flash, as of fire, 
 all round him — a light in liis eyes, and a hissing in 
 his ears — and he had swung through one of the
 
 GABRIEL DEXYER 137 
 
 great red tongues of flame, that flickered so himgrily 
 up among- the outlines of the rigging. 
 
 But this -was the work of one instant, and the 
 next, his feet, which he had instinctively thrust out 
 in front of him, struck against the shrouds of the 
 maintop mast. He must have fallen nearly twelve 
 feet, right across tlie fiery vortex, like a pendulum 
 from one mast to the other. 
 
 The flames had reached the rope he was hanging 
 to, and the charred strands had given way at some 
 part he had just crossed. He still clung desperately 
 to it, as rebounding from the ropes and mast he 
 had reached, he swung round them in a circle of 
 some seven or eight feet. 
 
 Next, the rope got entangled in the main-royal 
 backstays to starboard. He managed to clutch suc- 
 cessfully at one of these ropes as he passed it. He 
 was now clear of the smoke which enshrouded the 
 forepart of tlie vessel ; though he still could not 
 breathe without liesitation. Looking down, he saw 
 the quarter deck some forty or fifty feet under him. 
 It seemed an astonishing depth ; for he had never 
 been aloft before. 
 
 Just one instant he clung there, to rest liimself 
 now that his perilous journey was over. Neither
 
 138 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 his hands nor his face were burnt, strange to say— 
 his black beard only was a trifle singed. 
 
 Then he began cautiously sliding down — holding 
 two ropes at a time, for they were little more than 
 cords. Three of them joining together a little way 
 beneath him made the passage safer. 
 
 At last he reached the bulwark, and thence 
 he leapt on to the deck.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 139 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 To be furious 
 Is to be frighted out of fear. — Antony and Cleopatra, 
 
 Now there were five people in all collected on the 
 quarter-deck: the two mariners, who had both suc- 
 ceeded in rushing- past the terrible heat and flame ; 
 the sick man, who had been brought out and placed 
 there (he was stiff and rigid — dead, for tlie shock he 
 had received, operating on some heart complaint, 
 had proved fatal)— Deborah Mallinson, and Lam-a 
 Conway. 
 
 Laura was dressed in her old blue goAvn, which 
 she had apparently got, and slipped over her night- 
 dress ; tlie hem of which fluttered out underneath. 
 The cloak had dropped off her shoulders. She stood 
 there, too horror-stricken to cry out, or even to 
 tremble. One of the sailors had caught her by the 
 arm (just as the men on the other side had 
 tried to hold Denver), seemingly, to restrain her
 
 140 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 from rushing: down into the flames on the deck 
 beneath. It seemed as though she were fascinated 
 by them. 
 
 Her clustering- hair ard her eyes were wildly 
 lustrous with their glow ; but her face and lips were 
 more pallid and bloodless than those of the dead 
 man at her feet. She was stretching her hands out 
 imploringly towards the fire, and trying vainly to 
 elude the man's grasp. 
 
 She had seen Denver, as she thought, swal- 
 lowed up in the first unexpected outburst of the 
 conflagration. He had been overwhelmed by the 
 flames ; and she struggled madly to fling herself 
 into them, and reach him — even in death. 
 
 Another instant, and she might have accomplished 
 her purpose : for there is a terrible nervous energy 
 latent in a woman's despair ; but suddenly she heard 
 his voice calling on her name. 
 
 It was just behind her. 
 
 Another instant, and he had sprung to her side ! 
 
 Uttering some inarticulate exclamation, she 
 staggered blindly into Ins arms : and lay in them 
 seemingly lifeless, but for the low convulsive sobbing 
 with which she drew in her life-breath. She had 
 swooned.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 141 
 
 But, indeed, it was more terror for Gabriel's 
 safety, than fear for her own which she suffered 
 from. 'She tried to flino- herself into the midst 
 on't ! I had to follow and bring her back ; and a 
 spark caught in her hair, and set it afire I ' cried the 
 man, who had held her arm. ' Take care on her. 
 man — she's gone mad I ' 
 
 Denver scarcely heard what he said. He kissed 
 her dissevered lips, once, long, and passionately. 
 Then withdrawing his face from hers, he could feel 
 her heart beating- ao"ainst his breast. It seemed 
 for the moment to hold his very soid entranced. 
 
 At last, slowly, and reluctantly he placed her on 
 the deck ; with her head still resting on his knee. 
 He did not notice his cousin Deborah looking 
 down on him, for kneeling there as he was his whole 
 attention was concentrated on the form he had just 
 been holding in his arms. There is scarcely any 
 sentence or word, that could adequately describe 
 Deborah's expression and features, as for one 
 instant she glared down on them. Then she turned 
 away, staring stedfastly and blindly on the raging 
 flame — her eyes glittering and blazing with a kind 
 of mad reckless contempt, till they seemed almost 
 to reproduce the fire and light they fronted.
 
 142 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 This evening was to have been her marriage- 
 night. 
 
 Yet of all this Denver saw nothing. At last, 
 he let Laura sink on to the deck, and getting up, 
 looked on the conflagration ; of which the flames 
 now seemed to envelop the whole middle of the 
 ship, even as a gigantic snake miglit wreath itself 
 round the limbs of a gazelle. The whole waist of 
 the ' Black Swan ' was burning, seized in the con- 
 vulsive, unrelinquishing grasp of the shuddering 
 element. The warmth whicli reached them, grew 
 at times almost to furnace-heat ; and the stench of 
 the burning tallow and turpentine was unendurable 
 and sickening. It was a scene to stupefy and enthrall 
 the mind with its intense horror. Denver, as he 
 stood over Laura's inanimate form, gazed at it with 
 a sense of his own helplessness, till the feeling 
 became oppressive and painful. 
 
 Could anyone from a bird's-eye point of view, 
 have overlooked what was passing on the leagues of 
 dark sea below, he might have noticed — miles away 
 for the present, yet rapidly approaching — an elon- 
 gated triangle of pale glimmering fire, sweeping 
 and fusing its way along the surface of the water. 
 The point or apex of it was presently impelled into
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 143 
 
 the glare, which encircled the burning ship. In a 
 while it was lost, as it entered and swept over and 
 round the lurid expanse of light. 
 
 It was the disturbance produced in the sea's 
 surface by the action of the wind ; which had at 
 last risen, and was coming direct down on the ' Black 
 Swan.' Alas ! her sails were destined no longer to 
 inflate and palpitate in its embrace ! What hope 
 now remained for her ? — now that the wind had 
 come to the aid of the fire. 
 
 The elements seemed at last, as though in very 
 shame, to have shaken off their torpid contempt ; 
 but it was strange that in ail this wilderness of sky 
 and water, fire alone should have been the one 
 chosen element of destruction. It was the wild 
 irregularity of method by which nature carries out 
 her most faultless plans — yet there was about it 
 an intense deep wickedness, which seemed some- 
 thing that the human brain alone could have 
 devised. 
 
 Knowing that the two sailors were lowering the 
 boat, Denver remained passively over Laura, ready 
 to lift her in when all should be prepared. So 
 absorbed was his mind in the fire, and so intently 
 was he watching over her, that he did not hear (or
 
 144 G.IBRIEL DENVER 
 
 tbouglit one spoke to the otber) when one of them 
 shouted to him to go down to the cabin and get up 
 the keg of drinking-water which stood in the corner. 
 It is doubtful if he had gone to bring it up, that he 
 could have managed it all by himself, but just at 
 that moment he had tliouo-ht he could distinguish 
 faint but incessant cries coming through the lulls in 
 the fitful crashing of the fire, though nothing could 
 be seen through the smoke. 
 
 Now just then the vapom- cleared away from a 
 part of the rigging of the foremast, and the light of 
 the flames giving full that w^ay, two men were 
 plainly seen clinging to the ropes, their faces and 
 hands vividly illuminated by the light from beneath 
 They were on the cross-tree. 
 
 He just saw this for a moment, then the cleared- 
 away smoke swirled down again, and all was hidden 
 of their apparently useless struggles. To all appear- 
 ances they must be lost. 
 
 Denver could do nothing, and he dared not leave 
 Laura. They evidently failed, for he saw nothing 
 more of them, most probably the ropes had all been 
 burnt through by this time. His blood chilled for 
 an instant as he heard another cry, as of human 
 agony, amid the confusion of sounds.
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 145 
 
 Glancing up through the rigging above him, as 
 if for other traces of the crew, he noticed a white 
 speck, turned red by the fire-light, wheeling in long- 
 circles around the ship, coming nearer to it at times 
 then receding ; and then, as though unable to resist 
 some unconquerable impulse, it still sank nearer to 
 it again. At last his eyes, strengthened by long 
 practice in the sheep walks, could, by straining 
 through the darkness, make out plainly the form of 
 the albatross, which had followed them all the 
 voyage through, and which Laura had been used to 
 throw ship's biscuit to. He could observe, by the 
 way it flapped its long wings, that it must be 
 disturbed by the unusual sight beneath, yet still it 
 descended in its wheeling flight. 
 
 Just then, to liis surprise, he felt in his face one 
 of the first fitful gusts of the now streno-thenino- 
 wind ; while simultaneously the fire and smoke 
 reeled and swooped over. Great flakes of flame 
 began to be driven down the ship by other than self 
 agency. Outside the lurid glare which lay over the 
 sea, the waves had grown alight with phosphor, but 
 faintly and ghastly pale their light seemed, when 
 contrasted with the red flare of the couflao-ration. 
 
 O 
 
 The western verge of the horizon was defined in 
 
 L
 
 14G GABEIEL DEXA'ER 
 
 glimmering' fire against the dead night ; while in 
 the sky, quite suddenly, a few most exquisitely 
 brilliant stars showed themselves. As the wind 
 gained in force, great vapourous masses of cloud 
 began to float and roll over the firmament. One or 
 two of the lowest and nearest caught dimly tlie 
 reflection of the fire, and glowed as they passed over 
 the ship, but the greater portion being involved in 
 the obscurity, the eye could hardly make out if it 
 were not the planets themselves that were moving. 
 
 It is impossible to represent the brilliant con- 
 trast between these stars and the utter blackness 
 they seemed suspended in, but no one of them was 
 more cut off from communication with its brother- 
 worlds, than the ' Black Swan ' now seemed from all 
 help, in this dreary central sea. Nothing could 
 have served better than these pitiless unchanging 
 night-jewels, to typify the utter and stupendous 
 loneliness of the doomed ship. These stars will 
 shine through all eternity, for them time has no 
 existence ; but alas ! the transitory radiance of the 
 * Black Swan' was soon to be extinguished in the 
 secret depths of the night it now served to illu- 
 minate. 
 
 There could be no doubt that the forecastle was
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 147 
 
 burning, the whole of the fore part of the vessel 
 was probably being gutted. The fire would soon 
 have to spread sternwards from mere lack of mate- 
 rial. 
 
 The strong oaken foremast still towered among 
 the manifold embraces of the flames. 
 
 One could see by the intermingled column of 
 fire and smoke, swaying from side to side and driven 
 high into the air, that the hull was moving under- 
 neath it, and slowly following the large columns of 
 smoke that rolled away to windward, lit up in the 
 darkness by the countless particles of burning matter 
 and fire flakes, which they carried with them. These 
 fiery sparks constantly swarmed off, whirling like 
 legions of fire-flies, and falling into the spluttering 
 waves, while the livid and gyratory wreaths of 
 vapour (either dissolved, or driven too far off for 
 the light to fall on them) were lost in the night. 
 
 One word of explanation is necessary here. The 
 men left on the forecastle had, with enormous effort, 
 succeeded in repairing and launching a large but 
 damaged boat, which had been stowed away close 
 under the forecastle. They had procured some 
 bread and water, and had leapt off the deck, just 
 
 L 2
 
 148 GABKIEL DEXVER 
 
 managing to escape the flames. There were ten of 
 them in the boat, winch was kiimched to windward. 
 It had begun to blow hard bv that time, and having 
 no oars, they were pushed on for some distance 
 under the hull. At last they propelled themselves 
 round the side with their hands, and so were left in 
 the ship's wake. 
 
 Their boat was heavily weighted, and its sides 
 plunged deep in the waves, so that they made little 
 progress before the wind ; while the ship, lightened 
 by the fire, travelled at the rate of four miles an 
 hour, nearly. So they fell farther and farther behind 
 in the obscurity, nor was anything whatever seen of 
 them again by those left on the deck of the vessel. 
 
 We must now revert to the spectacle presented 
 on the stern of the ' Black Swan.' Denver was still 
 standing passively over Laura's prostrate figure, the 
 dead sailor was stretched almost at her feet, and 
 Deborah was behind, still standing close to the mast 
 and looking obstinately at the fire. Did one not 
 know the passions which possessed the secret hearts 
 of these people, Denver's intense love as he watched 
 Laura's foce, and the almost ao-onv which over- 
 whelmed him to see it thus unconscious, and 
 Deborah's jealous hatred, which seemed to make her
 
 GABKIEL DEXVER 149 
 
 accept passively, or even to welcome, the catas- 
 trophe, did one not know all this, these three would 
 have seemed most strangely apathetic to what was 
 going on around them. 
 
 The two men near them were struggling vio- 
 lently to launch the boat. They supposed their 
 shipmates to he still on tlie forecastle, and would 
 have rowed round to rescue them could they have 
 managed it; their strength, however, was insufficient. 
 Nearly five minutes had been lost, an incredible 
 lapse of time to men in their position. They had 
 loosened the knots of the ropes, and got everything 
 ready to let go, their long bright knives in their 
 teeth ready to divide the cords if necessary, and so 
 save every available second of time. The lurid 
 fire-light made their pale faces look fearfully savage 
 and desperate as they thus toiled away for their 
 lives, but, in spite of all their efforts, the boat still 
 hung obstinately on the deck side of the bulwark. 
 The davits to which she was slung must have been 
 stiffened with rust, nothing that could be done 
 would move them. 
 
 One of the men suddenly looked over his shoul- 
 der. Seeing Denver, he rushed at him and dragged 
 him by the arm, at the same time shouting in his 
 ear, ' For Grod's sake, man, come and bear a hand,
 
 150 GABRIEL DE>TEIl 
 
 an' you wish to get the gall off alive. We shall all 
 be burned up like rats, she's on fire under us I ' 
 
 This allusion to Laura struck unconsciously the 
 right cord in Denver to make his whole being 
 vibrate with the strength of a god. 
 
 As these three men, united now, rushed at the 
 boat, their shoulders sufficed, for the stiff supports 
 moved with a groan, and the long curved keel and 
 lines of the boat swung free over the side. The 
 slip-knots were loosened, then with the care of 
 expert sailors (yet with a rush and a plunge that 
 sent the salt spray up in their faces) the great boat 
 was launched beneath them. 
 
 Not one instant too soon, for a dense column of 
 smoke and sparks, at that very moment, burst from 
 the cabin door, and swirled out all round the deck 
 and stern, obscuring everything. Immediate safety 
 of life was all they had time to think of then. 
 
 With his keen eyes nearly blinded, Denver seized 
 up Laura's inanimate form, as thougli it were lighter 
 to him than a child's, and he leapt from the bulwark 
 and into the boat like a tiger. There was no time 
 for reflection, it was nearly twelve feet under him, 
 and the double-weighted concussion all but staved 
 the bottom out. The boat rocked and swayed in
 
 GABIilEL DEXVEIi lol 
 
 such a way that he could hardly keep his feet while 
 he laid down his precious burden on her rough 
 planks. 
 
 With less case-hardened sinews than the Austra- 
 lian's, a dislocated ancle would most likely have 
 resulted from such a plunge, adding fresh complica- 
 tion to their ill-fate, but, wiry as a mountain goat's, 
 his limbs escaped unhurt. 
 
 There was not a second to be thrown away. 
 Turning back to the lurid suffocating mist he had just 
 leapt from, he perceived that the two men left on 
 the deck were now in the act of liftino- Deborah 
 Mallinson over the side. They shouted to attract 
 his attention, the next instant she fell, and he 
 caught her in his arms, almost shrinking back from 
 her, despite the strong excitement he was under. 
 
 Then there was a complete lull for a time. 
 
 He had placed Laura with her head resting on 
 one of the thwarts, and he now stooped over, cover- 
 ing her up completely in the cloak which still clung 
 about her form. She was yet in a state of syncope 
 or swoon, not of unusually long duration, for it was 
 scarcely twenty minutes since she first lost conscious- 
 ness. Perhaps it was well for her thus to have 
 passed through the dreadful perils she had been
 
 152 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 exposed to ; but Denver (who had perhaps never 
 before seen a fainting fit) must have thought she 
 was dying, or even dead now ! He could not accept 
 in patience her apparent lifelessness. His limbs 
 trembled so that in his agitation he was reduced to 
 holding on by the gimwale of the boat to steady 
 himself. As he hung over her face, dreading lest 
 her soft sweet eyes should never look on him again, 
 he forgot all else. 
 
 Yet when he felt her pulse it was still working, 
 while her heart throbbed and fluttered like a new- 
 taken sparrow's as he pressed the palm of his hand 
 against it, and this somewhat reassm^ed him. 
 
 Deborah meanwhile had seated herself in the 
 stern sheets, her elbows on her knees, her face and 
 eyes covered up and hidden in her thin convulsive 
 liands. The boat lay in the deep shadow under the 
 side of the ship, save when the point of some flame 
 leapt and flickered higher than usual, lighting them 
 up for an instant ; but there was as yet no light 
 from the cabin windows above them, which showed 
 that up to the present the fire had not reached 
 there, though from one wliich liad been left open a 
 few thin swirls of smoke were issuing. The two 
 sailors had disappeared into the smoke unnoticed
 
 GABKIEL DEXVER 153 
 
 by Denver, having gone to get the barrel of drink- 
 ing water they had inefifectually shouted to him 
 about. 
 
 Now as Denver was bending over tlie unconscious 
 figure in the bottom of the boat, the light fell full 
 on them without dying out again. Looking up in 
 surprise lie found that they were no longer along- 
 side of the ship, but that they were separated by a 
 gap which widened even as he looked at it. The 
 wind just before this had ceased blowing for an 
 instant, but a second gust seemed to have begun; 
 then it stopped again and the vessel stopped too. She 
 seemed turning slightly round with the relaxed 
 impetus, and this drove all the smoke down over 
 the stern. 
 
 But once again the vessel began to veer round 
 with the renovated wind, and thus it happened that 
 they were now floating some forty feet from the 
 side. 
 
 All this occurred before he could understand 
 what was the matter. The ship of course drove 
 before the wind much faster than the boat they were 
 in, owing to its larger size ; but Denver reached to 
 the connecting rope (that sailors call the painter) 
 and pulled it taut.
 
 154 GABRIEL DEXYER 
 
 It slackened again, and slipping from the pulley 
 it passed through, fell with a splash into the waves. 
 
 Thus the frail boat (now some sixty feet from 
 the ' Black Swan ') had floated out of the shadow it 
 had lain concealed in, clear of the suffocating smoke, 
 and into the full ever-augmenting glare of the 
 flames. 
 
 They could see from here how completely the 
 ship was mastered ; the fire seemed to burn in its 
 fitful convulsive movements from the centre right 
 down to the forecastle itself. It was a terrible 
 peril to have escaped from. 
 
 Now as this man iu the boat looked up, barely 
 able to grasp its significance, he suddenly saw two 
 black shado-vvy silhouettes looming through the 
 smoke which enveloped all the quarter-deck. They 
 were the two sailors who had saved them. If unable 
 to swim (as in all probability they were) they would 
 be lost irretrievably. 
 
 "When these two luckless men found the boat 
 absent they seemed to rush to the opposite bulwark, 
 as though they might have mistaken the side where 
 they had left it. When they returned and saw where 
 it really was, they commenced gesticulating wildly 
 iud shouting in a fashion that reached Denver's
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 155 
 
 ears even through the fearful roar and rush of the 
 spreading conflagration. 
 
 He shouted back to them to jump and swim, 
 but could obtain no reply. Gathering up the 
 dripping fifty feet of rope into a coil, he flung it to 
 them with a practised hand, as he would have 
 lassoed a refractory horse, but it fell short into the 
 sea. 
 
 All this while the ship Avas receding farther and 
 farther away from the boat. The insupportable 
 vapour of the fire had been growing more dense over 
 the stern, and now it closed down, entirely and 
 finally hiding these two despairing wretches from 
 sio-ht. Nothiuo- could be known of what became of 
 
 o o 
 
 them after. 
 
 The whole of the ship's bows were burning as has 
 been said, and in some places the fire had even 
 eaten three or four feet down the sides. The flames 
 from the high forecastle sometimes towered twenty 
 feet above the reach of the rest ; it was singular to 
 watch them shooting up spirally, and twisting like 
 serpents about to spring, or shuddering like hys- 
 terical women. The rigging of the foremast was 
 all destroyed, even the yards had fallen from it, but 
 the great spar still stood, while the fire raged
 
 166 G.\BKIEL DENVER 
 
 fiercely round its foot, and the enormous flames 
 were constantly shooting- up, twining and entangling 
 themselves round it. Suddenly it swerved, almost 
 imperceptibly, next it gave way at the base, and 
 with a loud crash fell by the board ; countless 
 fragments of burning rigging and rope dangling 
 from it, and so into the sea on the opposite side 
 of the ship, while shower after shower of its 
 brilliantly flaming splinters flashed vip, and were 
 driven off in the wind. 
 
 The ship indeed seemed fraught with the very 
 elements of hell. Up till now the stern had ap- 
 peared intact as far as the fire was concerned, but 
 now (through the stifling mist which enveloped it 
 down to the water's edge) the four side windows 
 could be seen alight and flaming. At last they 
 burst one after another with the heat, and long 
 tongues of fire shot through, flaring almost as 
 steadily as jets of gas for a while, and then again 
 vomiting their black smoke. The sleeping com- 
 partments right in the stern had soon caught, and 
 the old well-seasoned wood of their partitions 
 crackled like dry brushwood. The sky-light in 
 front of the binnacle split and shivered in fragments, 
 and the red flame rose through it, turning the smoke
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 157 
 
 lurid and dun-coloured, and firing the deck-edges 
 it shot past. 
 
 Thus in an incredibly short space of time the 
 fire had spread from end to end of the ship. What 
 fate had befallen all her crew — whether they had 
 been suffocated, or whether they had jumped over 
 into the sea and been drowned — Denver could not 
 tell ; for he did not know how the ten men on the 
 forecastle had escaped, and the boat they were in 
 was nowhere visible now. 
 
 Suddenly Denver started to his feet with an ir- 
 repressible exclamation of horror. He had been 
 gazing at the vessel end on from the stern ; but now 
 she began to vere round in the wind, and the bow- 
 sprit appeared starting out of the blazing forecastle, 
 and on this something that seemed to be a human 
 being was clinging, looking strangely dwarfed by the 
 extent of luminous smoke which rolled over its 
 head. It clung in the chains desperately and 
 tenaciously, crouching at the end of the spar, and 
 from the way it seemed endeavouring to protect its 
 face and hands, the fire must have been scorching 
 it. Then it was hidden for a moment. 
 
 In the short glance he obtained, Denver thought 
 it was a human being. It was impossible to attempt
 
 158 GABRIEL DEX^'ER 
 
 a rescue, for he had no oars. He cast off his coat, 
 as if he meant to jump over and swim. Yet a single 
 glance wliich he took at Laura's face sufficed to 
 paralyse his will. His heart was brave as a panther's, 
 but where conflicting imjjulses meet the strong 
 disable the weak. His love was more powerfully 
 predominant with him at that moment than his 
 humanity, and he shuddered as he thought of being 
 drowned and leaving Laura alone in the boat with 
 Deborah. 
 
 Again he turned his face to the ship. The 
 figure had once more become visible ; but it was not 
 a human being, for looking more carefully this time 
 he saw that it was the ship's monkey. 
 
 As he looked, a great tongue of flame flared out, 
 curling round the spar so as to envelop the animal 
 in a fiery embrace. Through some aperture the 
 flames sprang out now, under the bowsprit, hardly 
 two feet above the water line, while blown down by 
 the increasing wind, the fire and smoke swooped 
 over, entirely hiding the spar again. When the 
 smoke cleared off again, the spar itself had fallen, 
 and in the sea the poor animal's pain had come to 
 an end. 
 
 The conflagi-ation was now at its brightest ; it§
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 159 
 
 glow seemed to fall from horizon to horizou, and to 
 light up the very clouds in the heavens above it. 
 
 It v/as strange now to watch the behaviour of the 
 albatross, which again attracted Denver's attention. 
 When he first saw the bird, it was flying high over- 
 head ; but it had been whirling nearer and nearer 
 to the ship every moment since then. It made 
 longer and wilder circles in its spiral descent, as 
 though wishing all the while to escape ; but all its 
 struggling seemed only to end in its coming still 
 closer to the heat, flapping its long, powerful wings 
 wildly, and swerving from right to left in its fright. 
 At last it seemed suspended scarcely fifty feet above 
 the flames, over the flickering points of which it 
 whirled in a fascinated, bewildered Avay, for several 
 minutes. Finally, with a wild but unheard shriek, 
 it approached so close that the feathers of its long 
 wings seemed to shrivel up, and it fell helplessly 
 and headlong into the lurid smoke. 
 
 Thus, at last (it seemed to Denver), of all the 
 living beings, human or animal, which had existed 
 between the horizons of this desolate ocean, only 
 the three people in the boat were left living and uu- 
 separated. It was as if the ties of passion — the 
 hatred and love which entangled tliem mutually —
 
 160 GABEIEL DEXVER 
 
 had physically held them together, so that ^Yith the 
 safety of one the lives of the two others were assured. 
 It must not be supposed that the glow from the 
 fire lighted everything equally, for the swirling 
 smoke-wreaths intercepted the light on all sides ; 
 and great black flaring shadows were constantly 
 projected from them for hundreds of yards over the 
 surface of the waves. The heavens above were 
 black as ink, and full of sinister apertures, through 
 which, now and then, a glittering star would make 
 itself visible as the cloud-rack drifted by. Alto- 
 gether it was a spectacle which in its desolation and 
 grandeur admitted of no mediocrity, everything 
 visible being brought out by the preternaturally 
 wild light of the conflagration, or liidden in the still 
 wilder shadows of the opposing night ; but, indeed, 
 in proportion to all this awful vacuity of space and 
 blackness, the flaring and burning of the deserted 
 ship would have seemed scarcely more important 
 than the dim light shed by a glowworm on some 
 dark meadow, while the boat, containing the three 
 people in whose fate this story is concerned, would 
 have seemed a faint indiscernible speck, lost in a 
 circle of lurid radiance, and tossed at will by the in- 
 visible wind.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER IGl 
 
 Yet what human utterance can sufficiently 
 describe the rapture and relief in Denver's heart, as 
 Laura gradually began to come back to conscious- 
 ness. With his eyes blinded, and his brain lost to 
 all that was going on around him, he was supporting 
 her head, chafing her soft hands, and sprinkling the 
 salt water on her temples, when her arms and 
 shoulders moved convulsively, the closed eyelids 
 half-opened, and her lips moved, muttering faintly 
 something that he could not hear at first. Then she 
 said more distinctly, ' Water ! tvater ! give me some 
 water ; 'my throat 's 'parched.''
 
 1G2 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 0, love, -wiio bewailest 
 
 The frailty of all things here, 
 "Wliy chose you the frailest 
 
 For your cradle, your home, and your bier ? — Shelley. 
 
 Till that one instant, no tliougbt of want had 
 entered his mind; everything had been forgotten, 
 until this word water made the blood recoil on his 
 Jieart. They had none, and he remembered now in 
 his despair how lie had heard the men calling out to 
 him about the barrel, and how he had neglected to 
 fetch it. 
 
 He had endured thirst before in his life, and 
 knew only too well v.-hat it was ; and a terrible train 
 of probabilities rushed througli his mind all in that 
 one instant, as lie dashed his hand up against his 
 forehead with an action that had all the wildness 
 and frenzy of desiDcratiou about it. 
 
 Deborah liad turned her face to them with a
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 163 
 
 fierce, harsli gleam in her dark eyes, unwomanly, 
 and fearful to behold. 
 
 Once again Laura reiterated her demand faintly. 
 He knelt beside her, and said in a voice so strangely 
 altered that it seemed not to come from his own 
 lips, ' We have no water. We're adrift on the sea, 
 adrift in an open boat — you, Deborah, and I — and 
 unless we're soon found and j)icked up — may God 
 be merciful to us ! ' 
 
 As he spoke he lifted her up in his arms, and 
 pointed across the miles of glistening sea, which 
 gleamed with a thousand reflections from the fire. 
 The ship was still burning, though its flames were 
 so lov\^ down now that they seemed in places to be 
 springing from tlie very waves. Even from that 
 distance the warmth fell on their faces like August 
 sunshine. He felt Laura shudder as he supported 
 her ; but as her consciousness began more fully to 
 return, she muttered faintly, 'I remember now. 
 I fainted when I thought you had been burnt or 
 injured. There was a gi'eat flash of fire in my eyes, 
 but I could see nothing. I don't want to drink 
 now. Oh I it's terrible to look at,' she cried, as a 
 full burst of the red flame broke out, lighting up 
 
 M 2
 
 1U4 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 the crests of the waves about their boat more luridly 
 than ever. 
 
 In reality, her throat was parched, if she would 
 only have admitted it. But with quick womanly 
 perception she had denied this ; following out the 
 instinctive wish tliat was always uppermost in her 
 mind, not to give pain to him in whose keeping she 
 had entrusted her most secret heart. Even now she 
 knew by the tone of his voice and the look of his 
 features, that she had put him into an agony by her 
 half-conscious request. But not having witnessed 
 all they had gone through, she could not understand 
 the keen pang he winced under, when she lifted her 
 face and pressed her lips with trembling fondness to 
 his bearded chin, saying, ' It's not your fault that 
 we've been driven out here. Weh^e still together. 
 Don't look in that way — it pains me more to see you 
 in pain than to be so myself.' 
 
 The man pressed lier figure to his breast; his 
 eyes lightened, and the moustaches which con- 
 cealed his lips parted with a kind of ghastly smile 
 in answer to hers, but he kissed her only, and said 
 nothing. 
 
 A strange and memorable sight it would have 
 been for anyone who could have watched them thus
 
 GABrJEL DENVER 165 
 
 by the light of tlie fire, and yet a stranger thing 
 would be a world formed without love. 
 
 There was only one other there wlio could have 
 seen them. Laura turning her face away suddenly 
 from her lover's passionate gaze, uttered an involun- 
 tary exclamation, for there was the figure of a second 
 woman in the stern of the boat — a solitary muffled 
 figure in a long red cloak, with her face entirely 
 hidden. There was something suggested by the 
 action of her liands and arms, which made the 
 absence of any features in the covered countenance 
 (despite the form of the nose and brow being faintly 
 indicated) seem more terrible to the imagination 
 than any actual face could have been. 
 
 Deborah's attitude might ha\'e served as a 
 model for one knows not wliat statue of passion 
 or madness, as she thus crouched with her elbows 
 on her knees, her face low down between her hands, 
 and pressed into the folds of her shawl. It was as 
 though she could not endure to look upon something 
 near her, and yet as though her hidden eyes still 
 reproduced it, causing her still to shrink back from 
 it in imagination. 
 
 It was the woman who was to have been her 
 lover's wife.
 
 ICG GABRIEL DEJsl'ER 
 
 Her first impulse was to withdraw herself away 
 from him ; although the other could not see her, 
 and appeared to be utterly disregarding her pre- 
 sence. 
 
 It turned her blanched face even paler, as she 
 noted the gleaming expression in Denver's eyes when 
 he also glanced in Deborah's direction. She knew 
 the character of the man she loved, too well to mis- 
 take any of the signs of his features ; and a sick- 
 ness seized her heart as she saw the intense hatred 
 that was expressed in this one look of his. Yet 
 they both drew together again ; and it seemed 
 almost as though Denver were trying to shut out, 
 and hide from her sight all that was passing around 
 them, such a persistent time did he spend kissing 
 and pressing his lips on her eyelids. 
 
 Presently, they were once more attracted by a 
 greater crashing and hissing than any that had been 
 audible before. The ' Black Swan ' might by this 
 time have been over a mile away, though it 
 seemed scarcely half that distance. In some places 
 the fire had burned quite down to the water's edge, 
 and the blackened side-timbers projected upwards 
 from the backbone of the ship, and into the flames, 
 like the charred ribs of some heretic's skeleton,
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 107 
 
 wlien the flesh is shrivelled away. Two or three 
 blackened and shattered spars (one witli its cross- 
 trees still intact), were all that remained of the 
 great forecastle. The sudden crash had been caused 
 by the fall of the mainmast, and tlie accompanying- 
 splutter by the volumes of bright sparks which fell 
 into the sea in consequence. The decks were eaten 
 through and destroyed ; and the once vast and stately 
 vessel was now fast dwindling away to a mastless 
 and emptied hull, half of its strong oaken timbers 
 having melted into smoke, even as water evaporates 
 into steam or mist. This shattered, fire-vomiting 
 mass of timbers, which groaned and fell to j)ieces 
 with every slight movement of the waves, had once 
 been their home, in which the destiny of those lives 
 had been remodelled. 
 
 There is, perhaps, nothing in nature more 
 strange to reflect on than this magic transmutation 
 by fire, which we witness daily with so little thought 
 or comment. To see a substantial object take light 
 and vanish away in flame before our very eyes — not 
 dying invisibly, as our own souls do, but simply 
 vanishing away from sight — while only a dis- 
 proportionate sediment of its ashes remains behind, 
 seems almost miraculous in its way — altliough to a
 
 168 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 scientific mind it is simple enough. But never was 
 this perplexing problem brought more abruptly 
 before the human intellect than at present with 
 these two people. Where had the great ship gone 
 to ? Neither could tell. It had simply dissolved 
 into flame and smoke. 
 
 ^ Alas ! what could these ill-fated lovers do, but 
 sit helplessly clasped in each other's arms ? Now 
 they were dependent upon themselves ; and all 
 human or earthly aid appeared withdrawn from 
 them. 
 
 Yet for a man like Denver, it was impossible 
 to remain long in utter despair. That they could 
 ultimately be left to drift to death through the 
 desolate ocean seemed incredible ! Eain would fall 
 from the clouds above them ; they would be picked 
 up by some ship ; or they would reach land. All 
 these hopes he whispered hurriedly to Laura, as 
 they sat looking at each other by the light of the 
 now fast-receding fire. 
 
 It was plain that the flames were lessened in 
 violence : and their glare, save for a few fits and 
 starts, was growing less bright minute by minute. 
 
 Now Denver, looking search ingly into the 
 v^eepening shadows which surrounded the boat, saw
 
 GABlilEL DEJS'VER 169 
 
 to bis astonishment, two or three great splashes of 
 phosphor struck from the waves here and there ; one 
 big drop of water fell on his forehead, and a slight 
 pattering shower began all round. 
 
 It was rain ! 
 
 In an instant he had started up, and began 
 hastily considering the best way to collect it, when 
 it should pelt down as he knew it presently would — 
 for the first drops were large and violent, as though 
 presaging a storm. But his heart palpitated with 
 disappointment, for there was not a single utensil 
 capable of holding water in the boat. 
 
 All he could do would be to spread out their 
 clothes on tlie planks in the bottom, and then wait 
 till they were sopping. It would be only a tem- 
 porary supply, but he had no time to think of 
 that. His own jacket lay where he had cast it 
 down : but lie caught it up, and in an instant had 
 spread it out flat. Then he pulled Laura's cloak off 
 her shoulders, doubled it fourfold, and placed it in 
 the most exposed position he could find. 
 
 His figure could be seen working hastily by the 
 fast-decreasing light of the fire. Next, he tore his 
 waistcoat off (out of which something fell clinking), 
 and placed that on the thwarts,
 
 170 GABRIEL DEFTER 
 
 After all this had been done, he once more 
 turned to Laura, who had been watching him 
 mutely, hardly understanding what he was about. 
 
 His eyes gleamed with excitement as he put his 
 strong arm round her neck, and exclaimed quickly, 
 ' You shall have some water, my darling, if you'll 
 only wait a while ;— although I don't know liow to 
 get at it in this infernal place ; if we were only on 
 land it would be different. Would to God it would 
 lighten ! ' he went on, turning round to examine 
 the remains of the fire-destroyed ship. ' The rain's 
 left off; though it'll begin again, I know, by the 
 dampness of the wind ; but if the fire goes out 
 beforehand, there'll be no light to see what we're 
 about. I wish it would rain now. Why, I believe 
 the ship is sinking ! Good God ! Laura, look at 
 the steam ! Every chance is against usJ*
 
 GABRIEL DEXTER 171 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The seat of desolation, void of light, 
 
 Save what tlie glimmering of those livid flames 
 
 Casts pale and dreadful. — Paradise Lost, 
 
 Just as he spoke a dreadful hissing and spluttering 
 became audible, or rather burst on their ears, 
 swelling up into a hideous sound, like the mut- 
 tering of distant thunder. There was one last glare 
 of light — an almost instantaneous flash, that per- 
 mitted them to see a vast rolling volume of steam 
 for an instant — then everything seemed to vanish. 
 It was the water, which appeared to be penetrating 
 into the hull, and quelling the fire as it reached it : 
 and then suddenly the darkness fell all around them, 
 for the remains of the burning ship were sucked 
 down, and stifled under the waves. 
 
 Two or three sparks were left for a while 
 travelling about overhead, but they soon died out in 
 the gloom. Tlie vortex created over where the 
 ' Black Swan ' had gone down, gleamed and flashed
 
 172 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 with phosphor fire, reflected dimly on a few dis- 
 solving wreaths of hot steam left whirling over it ; 
 but presently the darkness settled again ; and every- 
 thing connecting the boat and its occupants with 
 the lost ship was blotted out in the night. 
 
 Laura had shut her eyes, and turned her head 
 away, as if fearing to look upon this last episode 
 in the calamity which had befallen them ; only 
 she crouched closer to Denver's side on the bench 
 where they sat. Her eyes (dazzled as they must 
 have been by the abrupt change), would have made 
 but a slight difference to her, open or shut, in the 
 sudden intense blackness they were floating adrift in. 
 The simultaneous loneliness and silence, unbroken 
 by any noise or light whatever, was awful to listen 
 to, or look into. Denver sat speechless and motion- 
 less, with his arm still clasping her neck ; and for a 
 while they both kept the most complete silence, as 
 though their minds were utterly ovenvhelmed with 
 the beginning of the end of the catastrophe. 
 
 At last the girl opened her eyes, and looked 
 round timorously into the darkness. The stillness 
 and gloom were both disturbed at once by a heavy 
 plunge of the boat ; and a gleaming semicircle of 
 phosphorescent ripples showed all round its broAv,
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 173 
 
 dimly lighting' up their faces for an instant, in 
 strange contrast to the lurid glow they had been 
 in only one minute before ; while Deborah's form 
 appeared at the stern, outlined faintly against the 
 glimmering water, Denver (perhaps feeling the girl 
 tremble against him) took her hand into his own 
 to reassure her ; but still he said nothing. He 
 seemed waiting with breathless imj^atience for some- 
 thing which he expected to happen. She tried to 
 look at his face, but though it was touching her 
 own she could not see it. Instinctively she passed 
 her trembling hand over his features, as though to 
 feel his expression, just as a blind person might 
 have done. 
 
 Meanwhile a peculiar hissing and murmuring 
 began to steal softly to her ears, almost inaudible 
 at first, but intensifying by degrees, until once more 
 she began to hear and feel the heavy drops of the 
 rain falling, splash, splash after splash, in both of 
 their faces, all over the boat and into the sea around 
 them. 
 
 This was what Denver had been waiting so 
 silently for. 
 
 Now, at that moment a most unusual and singular 
 phenomenon appeared, one of those wildly-poetical
 
 174 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 paradoxes with which nature sometimes mocks our 
 weak perceptions ; for the waves of the sea caught 
 fire and were ignited by the wet incessant pelting of 
 the shower ; while the white water-flames, spreading 
 from confine to confine, seemed at first as though . 
 they would have consumed the frail black boat which 
 drifted in their midst. 
 
 Laura uttered an exclamation of perfect terror. 
 The entire surface of the water (as far as could be 
 seen through the blind pelting of the rain) was 
 covered with circles and flashes of bright flaming- 
 phosphorus ; and the storm still increasing, it began 
 to dart up in showers from the waves in every direc- 
 tion, and soon was lashed into seemingly incredible 
 fury. 
 
 It was as though tlie sea in its wildly tempestuous 
 triumph and mockery, were mimicking the fire it 
 had quenched with a display of its own mock-fire. 
 Laura's fear-filled eyes, soon tired by the tumultuous 
 and infinite shiftings and dancings of tliese weirdly- 
 livid flame-showers, almost began to convert the 
 different shapes taken by their gliastly outbursts of 
 luminosity, into the forms of fiends or demons, thus 
 revelling in their ungodly glee over the ruin and 
 desolation they had achieved.
 
 GABRIEL DEX^'ER 175 
 
 The countless lines of the rain itself, the causer 
 of all this strange disturbance, pelting recklessly 
 down into the blind darkness, were compelled to re- 
 flect the vivid sea-illumination high up into the 
 gloom they emerged from ; and a soft delicate 
 trembling of light was emitted everywhere. 
 
 At the stern end of the boat Deborah again be- 
 came visible, crouching over as she had been from 
 the first, save that the cloak which she had pulled 
 over her face had now fallen off, and the luminous 
 rain was pelting down on her shoulders and dripping 
 off the loosened locks of her hair. 
 
 Before long everything in the boat was drenched 
 through. 
 
 Laura's cloak lay in the bottom, where Denver 
 was collecting the rain in its folds. Her uncovered 
 hair was sodden and streaming with the wet ; though 
 strange to say (as if by some occult sympathy with 
 the flame of the sea) its dripping tangles were filled 
 with glittering electric sparks, and it crackled as 
 though it were burning. The soft wet smell of the 
 rain tantalised her thirst, and unable to wait for 
 Denver, she was pressing the locks one by one to her 
 lips, and sucking them for the moisture they con- 
 tained.
 
 176 GABRIEL DENYEll 
 
 Her lover had left her side, and was groping 
 about on his hands and knees, spreading out the shawl 
 to catch as much of the rain-shower while it lasted 
 as he could. This time lie was resolved that no 
 chance should escape them in their precarious posi- 
 tion merely through his negligence, and he worked 
 with trembling diligence. But even now (it having 
 lasted scarcely three minutes) the turbulent rain be- 
 gan to beat in his face less and less violently, till at 
 length it ceased almost as suddenly as it had begun ; 
 while the lashed surface of the water calmed down 
 again — though it was still suffused in places by dis- 
 turbed sheets of its liquid luminosity. 
 
 All this scene that has been described was lit up 
 by the weird lights and tremulous reflections that 
 came from the water ; but now that these were gone 
 all became dark again. Denver, intent as he had 
 been on his occupation, had now got what he wanted 
 for the time. The shawl was drenched through and 
 dripping. 
 
 This he brought carefully to Laura ; and he 
 caused her to hold her head back while he en- 
 deavoured to squeeze some of the water out of it and 
 into her mouth. 
 
 The greater part of tliis precious liquid was, as
 
 GABKIEL DEXVER 177 
 
 might be imagined in such darkness, wasted over 
 her face and throat ; yet he managed in some degree 
 to quench and alleviate her thirst. After this he 
 tried to squeeze some into his own dry lips. 
 
 No idea ever entered his head of attendinor to 
 his cousin ; he knew that if slie chose she could col- 
 lect the moisture for herself quite as well as they 
 did, but it so happened that Deborah got none of it. 
 
 The shawl was at length wrung dry, and he let it 
 fall out of his hands. They were safe from thirst, 
 but only for a few hours, and both knew that well, 
 however hard they tried to disguise their knowledge 
 from each other. As to any thought of saving up 
 the water, it was simply out of the question. He sat 
 down beside Laura, wringing his wet hands dry be- 
 fore he touched her with them, while she sat shaking 
 the remnants of the wet out of her damp hair. 
 
 It would be no easy task to define the sinister 
 complication of doubts that possessed them both, as 
 they slowly began to realise their position, so unex- 
 pected and terrible did it seem to them. It was not 
 despair, although it might have been akin to it, and 
 it certainly was not hope. All these events liad come 
 about one after another in so brief a space that 
 little room for reflection had been left. He had done 
 
 N
 
 178 GABRIEL DEX^'ER 
 
 all that he was capable of in his bewilderment, simplj 
 from instinctive necessity at the moment ; but now 
 that they were left with time to consider how they 
 were to act, neither of them could tell. Utterly 
 strange to the sea, Denver was well-nigh as helpless 
 as Laura herself. 
 
 They sat together with their clothes wet through 
 — ^not indeed tliat this was much thought of, 
 Australian bred as they were ; for, strange though it 
 may appear to us English people, it would perhaps 
 never have occurred to them to seek shelter from 
 such a slight shower as this had been. They were 
 composed ; but neither seemed to like to utter the 
 thoughts that oppressed them. Terrible stories they 
 had heard long since concerning the survivors of 
 shipwrecks, floated half-realised through their minds, 
 and neither cared to speak of them to the other. It 
 was a dire combination of distrust and uncertainty 
 that they struggled in, and their mutual love perhaps 
 made it all the more terrible. Their existences had 
 as it were been suddenly, from a disquieting dream, 
 merged into a terrible reality ! 
 
 The fickle wind had now once more fallen 
 away, tnough such clouds as had not dissolved int^ 
 the rain-fall iiad been long since driven off from
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 179 
 
 the sky, so that the dej)ths of the heavens were 
 jewelled all over with piercingly brilliant stars. 
 The atmosphere above seemed at first to be laden 
 with a pallid mist. It being now close upon two 
 o'clock, the quarter moon was about to rise, while 
 a vague haze of light, preceding its appearance, 
 was mingling with the night over the western 
 horizon, and spreading gradually up to the deep 
 zenith. The face of the calm ocean was utterly 
 dark and lost; and the boat, save for the weird traces 
 of phosphor emitted round it, was unseen. 
 
 Denver and Laura, sitting together, had both 
 begun to talk iu a low voice, as though fearing lest 
 Deborah should overhear them. Laura was listening 
 with terror as he narrated how he had first seen the 
 fire, and how the men had all lost their senses. 
 This she dimly remembered herself, but she knew 
 nothing of what followed — of how liow he had leapt 
 off the burning ship with her in his arms, and how 
 the two men were left behind. 
 
 As he spoke she could tell plainly by the tone of 
 his voice how utterly overcome he was by the 
 dreadful position they were in, although more no 
 doubt on her own account than on his. Come what 
 might, she resolved to die rather than utter one word 
 
 N 2
 
 180 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 of complaint to him. A terrible gloom had suc- 
 ceeded the light halo of forgetfulness which their 
 love had cast around them, and yet their passion 
 only seemed to burn more brightly in contrast with 
 it, as they sat clasped side by side on the boat bench, 
 out on the lonely sea. Thus, neither of them caring 
 to move or think, they sat silent for a while, until 
 it became evident that Laura was quite worn out. 
 Gradually, in spite of everything, her head sank 
 against her lover's breast, and she ceased replying to 
 him, while her breathing grew more regular and 
 prolonged, till at length he sat with his arms round 
 her, knowing that she was asleep, and hardly daring 
 to draw a full breath lest the motion of his chest 
 should disturb her. If she had seemed something 
 to worship and wonder at, while waking and moving, 
 how sacred must she have appeared now, fallen 
 asleep for the first time in his arms. 
 
 The warmth of their bodies, aided by the sultry 
 atmosphere, had by this time nearly dried their 
 clothes, and the boat was fast drying too. Both 
 were hidden in the night. The dreaming sweetness 
 of the smile on Laura's face was unseen by Denver; 
 she was sleeping, and utterly unconscious of all that 
 was around them.
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 181 
 
 It was impossible for a man of Denver's tempe- 
 rament to give way to utter despair without knowing 
 the exact reasons for so doing ; and he had no real 
 knowledge of what their position might ultimately 
 turn to. How were they to support existence? He 
 could not tell ; he must wait for the daylight. 
 
 Now it is a terrible thing waiting to learn 
 whether despair or hope must prevail. Laura was 
 as a weight which dragged him down continually. 
 He dared not consider what might become of her, 
 and what she, so physically weak, might ere long- 
 have to undergo. He remembered his own sufferings 
 from thirst long since, and his heart turned sick 
 within him as he reflected on what two or three 
 days might bring them to. 
 
 There was no chance for them on which he 
 dared to calculate sanguinely, though he indeed 
 recollected having heard some of the men on the 
 ill-starred ' Black Swan ' mention a colonial vessel 
 which they expected to cross, and a glow of hope 
 rose within him for a moment, but only to sink to 
 a deeper despondency, as he thought how slight 
 would be the chance of their meeting, or how likely 
 they were to pass each other in the night unnoticed. 
 How he longed for something to make a signal with
 
 182 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 (knowing all the while that the boat was empty), or 
 that at least the dark night might clear away so 
 tliat he could see and think what he was about. 
 
 It is clear that no bodily suffering would have 
 broken this man's spirit, but only an intense mental 
 strain. With some men the body is slow to act on 
 the mind, however swift the mind may be to para- 
 lyse the body. Thrown without warning amid so 
 strange a complication of physical trouble and 
 mental bewilderment, he required all the resolution 
 and streng-th of his will to keep himself in courage, 
 and thus a wild alternation of sanguine hope and 
 bitter despondency beset him all that niglit — though 
 the tendency of his character was to discard hope. 
 
 But through all these fluctuations of hope and 
 despair, his intense love for Laura was always upper- 
 most, like the unchanging key-melody in one of 
 Warner's most wonderful storms of music. He was 
 ever mixing up her image with his own endlessplans of 
 escape or pictures of destruction, until, sitting in the 
 boat pondering over these dreadful eventualities, her 
 placid and regular breathing — always in his ears — 
 began strangely to boat time with his own thoughts, 
 and gradually a benumbing drowsiness stole over his 
 mind, giving strange aspects to the ceaseless evolu-
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 183 
 
 tions of his brain. Once he roused himself thinking 
 of Deborah as she sat at the other end of the boat, 
 and of the fate that seemed to bind them together, 
 with some of his old unreasoning resentment, despite 
 the dreadful position they were both in. Some 
 nameless suspicions seemed to enthrall, almost to 
 stupify him ; but Deborah kept herself quiet in the 
 stern of the boat, giving no token of her presence. 
 
 But Laura's breathing always came regularly. 
 Listening to the sound which was so sweet to him, 
 he grew at length utterly tired out with unjaroduc- 
 tive thinking and planning, tired out in body and 
 brain, till he almost began to slumber himself. 
 
 Indeed, it was no use keejDing awake, ever 
 turning over and re-examining vain conjectures as to 
 what fate had in store for them, and only realising 
 the terrible uncertainty of not knowing whether to 
 hope or to despair : all he coidd do would be to 
 endeavour to ward off such tangible peril as really 
 did present itself. He knew that lie required sleep 
 now to enable him to begin the next day with 
 sufficient energy and courage. He had been re- 
 flecting how he could manufacture a fishing-line, 
 and so procure nutriment that woidd save them for 
 awhile. He liad arranged a plan to carry this out
 
 184 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 by daylight, and a vague glow of hope seemed rising 
 over the horizon of his mind. 
 
 His tired head sank lower and lower till at last 
 he roused himself with an effort, and lifted Laura's 
 imconscious form into the bottom of the boat. Still 
 leaving his arm round her neck to serve as a pillow, 
 he lay down beside her. The girl's thin hands still 
 clung lightly roimd him, and her sleeping face fell 
 against his own. JSo in the deep night, swaying 
 gently on the dark face of the ocean, these two fell 
 asleep together for the first time in their lives ; and 
 the glittering stars looked down into the darkness. 
 
 • • • • • 
 
 Denver's sleep was dreamless ; yet he always 
 retained consciousness of an oppression weighing 
 him down, such as there inevitably is upon a man 
 who slumbers between the pauses of difficulty and 
 trouble. 
 
 There can be nothing sadder tlian to wake 
 up from this condition, and lie striving vainly to 
 recall the causes of the depression and sorrow which 
 hangs over the spirit, until suddenly the reason 
 dawns on the remembrance, enlarged and intensified, 
 as it were, by the effect of the gloomy twilight in 
 which the mind then is.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 185 
 
 Beyond this, however, he made no sign ; he lay 
 still, his heart beating violently, sick with per- 
 plexity, and knowing- not what to do. 
 
 But soon his natural weariness reasserted itself; 
 and lulled by the soft soothing of the waves, he fell 
 asleep again, this time utterly and dreamlessly. 
 
 In the meantime, casting its shadow through 
 space, the great earth spun swiftly on its com-se in 
 the eternal flood of sunlight it revolves through ; 
 and on the side which came nearest the sun, tlie 
 night and the glimmering moonlight began slowly 
 to give way before the dawn. Gradually a kind of 
 pale reflection of daylight diffused itself over the 
 sea, and where the conflicting waves splashed, their 
 tropical flame became hardly visible : only the 
 bubbles of foam created here and there, looked 
 white and brilliant even to weirdness, contrasted 
 with the grey extent of water they were sprung 
 from. The deep dark colour, where the sides and 
 hollows of the restless waves reflected the sky above, 
 gave an almost immeasurable idea of the depth of 
 the ocean, on which the old-fashioned boat could 
 be seen dimly adrift. Everywhere this pale and 
 colourless ocean extended, dark in the centre, and 
 towards the north-west (where, even now, the verge
 
 186 GABKIEL DENVER 
 
 of the horizon could scarcely be distinguished from 
 the sky beyond it) ; -while, towards the south-east, 
 the sky was brightening perceptibly with a faint 
 resplendence of pallid light. The clouds were all 
 blown off in the wind, or dissolved into the late 
 rainfall ; but round the cleared zenith, the heavens 
 were heavy with night and shadow ; here the clus- 
 tering stars still shone resplendent, though they 
 were growing less bright as they neared the grey- 
 ness of the coming da^vn ; while the dim quarter- 
 circle of the moon grew more vaporous than ever, 
 as it still rose over the southern sky. 
 
 More than these faint indications, there were 
 still no absolute signs of the coming of the sun ; 
 save that now the same increasing paleness began 
 slowly and imperceptibly to detach sucli objects as 
 were to be seen out of the oblivion the night had 
 plunged them into ; and that the defined circle of 
 dark in tlie upper sky perceptibly receded. For 
 more than an horn- the liglit in tlie east had gone 
 on concentrating, until without any previous 
 warning, a profuse irradiation and flush of yellow 
 effulgence was emitted over the horizon, spreading 
 across the heavens to the very zenith and changing 
 everything ; while an intensely brilliant point of
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 187 
 
 light, from whence all this radiation proceeded, 
 shone out over the confines of the palpitating waves 
 like a touch of intense fire, lighting up the ocean 
 simultaneously from glittering crest to crest in a 
 long line towards the desolate boat. Only one 
 figure, that of Deborah, was visible in it, looking 
 at the sunrise, which glowed on her pale face, and 
 shading her eyes with her arm. 
 
 Strange was it to note this lonely boat abroad 
 on the waters, with just this one figure visible above 
 its gunwale. Presently this woman turned her fiice 
 away from the sun, and a terrible expression came 
 over it ; for she was watching the faces of the 
 two sleepers who lay on the planks in the bottom. 
 
 The wild incessant light of the sunrise went on 
 increasing : a red globe of glowing fire was now 
 half-detached from the dim verge of the horizon, 
 and soon it had consumed the last lingering evi- 
 dence of night. The sea was turned to a deep 
 blue ; while the pale sky, harmonising with it, was 
 inexpressibly lovely in its different cadences and 
 modulations of tone and colour. 
 
 Soon, still hanging low above the waves, the full 
 disc of the sun, glittering in its blinding effulgence, 
 shone over everything : and in half-an-hour more its
 
 188 GABIIIEL UEXVER 
 
 light fell slantingly over the gunwale of the boat. 
 It gleamed on Denver's face, and reached his pupils 
 through his shut lids. He awoke, and separating 
 himself from Laura's arm without awakening her, 
 he rose to his feet, looking round on the dreary- 
 scene. 
 
 So the longed-for day broke over the salt waves 
 of the glistening ocean.
 
 GAJ5R1EL DEXVER 189 
 
 CHAPTER Xlir. 
 
 I am liungrj' for revengp, 
 Aud now I cloy me with beholding it. — Richard III. 
 
 Laura still seemed to sleep, and lie did not wake 
 her ; but after standing awhile examining the sky 
 and the sea, he bent down and picked up the cast-off 
 cloak, which had lain disused during the warmth of 
 the night, and then began searching carefully 
 through its seams and folds, as though with some 
 set purpose. Next, he felt in his pockets for his 
 knife : but it was gone, aud he began picking the 
 thread out as well as he could with his fino-ers and 
 teeth. In this way, by knotting and plaiting frag- 
 ments together, he made shift to get four or five 
 yards of strong pack-thread. 
 
 This was to form a fishing-line. 
 
 Once, while his work was going on, he bent over 
 the side of the boat, peering down into the depths 
 of the blue water ; but he could see nothing there.
 
 190 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 The sea vras as clear as crystal, and his eyes^ 
 pluuged deeper and deeper into the weltering flood, 
 until it all became hazv, and he could see no 
 further. 
 
 The line was made fast to one of the pegs that 
 the oars move in ; and then he began to look about 
 him. A hook must be made. 
 
 His eye was caught by some object glittering 
 in the folds of the shawl ; and leaning down, he 
 found a small silver brooch there, with a strong 
 pin to it. In an instant he had caught it up, and 
 l^lucked the pin out of it, and this he fashioned 
 with his teeth, until it was bent into the form 
 required. Then it was made fast at the end of the 
 line. 
 
 In the meantime, so intent was he on this 
 work, that he had not noticed how Laura Conway 
 was awake. She was roused by his movements, for 
 every step he made caused the frail boat to quiver 
 from stern to prow, as it hung on the clear 
 waves. 
 
 He was trying to think what he should bait the 
 hook's point with, when he looked up, and saw her 
 rising in a bewildered manner. 
 
 The poor girl seemed scarcely to know where
 
 G-y3RIEL DENVER 101 
 
 she was at first ; and then she caught sight of 
 Deborah, half lying and half sitting in the stern- 
 There was a kind of empty and doorless locker, 
 the top of which formed a bench that her face lay 
 on, supported by her left arm. The right hung 
 down passively by her side, the fingers twitching at 
 intervals. The rest of her body was on the planks, 
 and she was just high enough to look over the low 
 gunwale. 
 
 Laura's face resumed the paleness which seemed 
 habitual to it now as she came and sat down by 
 his side on the only other bench in the boat ; 
 she still, however, watched Deborah, as though 
 unable to take her eyes off. 
 
 Denver looking anxiously about him all the 
 while, could think of nothing better for a bait than 
 to tear pieces off his woollen shirt-sleeve, and to 
 prick his arm with the hook so as to soak them in 
 blood. This he did ; and a few drops of the red 
 liquid fell on each, staining them through. Now it 
 must be remembered that sea fish will bite almost 
 at a bare hook itself, and that the lure he had pro- 
 vided for them would have sufficed to attract 
 swarms from the water around the boat. 
 
 Fastening the rag on, he next dropped the line
 
 192 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 over the side : but it only floated there. He had 
 to pull it back, and fasten the broken brooch on 
 it before it wovild sink. Then, with his finger 
 trembling on the line, his heart beating with anxiety- 
 while he waited the result, he turned round to 
 Laura. She was still gazing half in amazement 
 and half in fear at his cousin ; but she that was 
 looked at neither moved nor looked back, only her 
 dark eyes gazed vacantly (with a kind of half- 
 smothered and sombre fire in them) out across the 
 glittering waves, while her lips moved occasionally, 
 though without sound coming from them. It seemed, 
 indeed, as though her own frantic words had come 
 true, and that the events slie had passed through 
 really had reduced her to insanity. There seemed 
 something in her presence that always acted like a 
 spell over poor Laura whenever they met — ^just as 
 the wild singing ceases through the woods and all 
 is hushed when a liawk sweeps overhead in de- 
 creasino- circles. Yet it seemed as if fate were 
 never weary of bringing these two in more literal 
 contact with each other every day of their lives. 
 But now Deborah took no notice of her, and seeing 
 this, she began to regain confidence. The dark- 
 complexioned black-haired woman with her jealous
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 193 
 
 face and fiery eyes inspired her with almost the 
 same kind of instinctive terror that one feels on 
 sight of some venomous reptile. 
 
 But she felt that Denver's strength of will was so 
 near to protect her, that she presently threw off all 
 restraint in speaking to him ; or, at least, all such 
 as was not self-imposed by her own natural modesty 
 and bashfulness; though it is probable that if 
 Deborah had once looked at her, the same influence 
 would have been resumed. Far from being able to 
 look at them, however, she seemed hardly able to 
 bear being looked at herself. Some subtle instinct 
 seemed to tell her whenever their faces were turned 
 in her direction ; and even though they were not 
 looking directly at Iter, she seemed as ill at ease 
 as a wild animal. Once or twice an involuntary 
 impulse caused Denver to turn round, gazing at her 
 as though she had fascinated him, and with a look 
 of unyielding repugnance in his face ; but, other- 
 wise, he seemed to accept her presence passively — 
 just as a kind of fate, which must be dumbly 
 endured without reasoning or resistance. 
 
 So Laura, timidly at first, but with gathering 
 confidence as she observed Deborah's lassitude and 
 apathy, began to talk with Denver, and to allow him 
 
 o
 
 194 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 to caress her, and wind the fond fingers of his free 
 hand through the ripples of her hair. 
 
 Yet, God knows, it seemed to neither of them a 
 time for triviality ; they both knew well that their 
 lives hung upon a straining cord, literally wpon the 
 line Denver v:as fisJdng u-ith, and despite the 
 mutual love which at times asserted itself, trans- 
 muting everything in tlieir faces and voices into its 
 own tone, despite this, neither could hide from the 
 other the trouble and anxiety on their minds. 
 
 Nearly a full hour must have passed, during 
 which Denver had succeeded in making, with Laura's 
 assistance, another line, getting the necessary thread 
 from the skirt of her dress, and fashioning the hook 
 from a hair-pin. 
 
 Lam-a herself held this one, and so they patiently 
 waited a longer while yet, neither of them speaking, 
 and always without success. 
 
 Suddenly (not having rightly seen how the hooks 
 were baited, or perhaps wishing to divert his mind 
 from the gloom his face must have shown it was 
 harboiu-ing) she atked him what they had at the 
 ends of the lines. 
 
 ' A rag stained with blood,' he replied. 
 
 ' Your own blood ! ' she exclaimed, looking at
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 195 
 
 liim with such intense fear, that he almost smiled, 
 in spite of the sickening anxiety that was growing 
 in his heart, but he only made a motion with his 
 head in reply. 
 
 Twenty or thirt}' minutes more passed, he with 
 one line, she with the other, and neither of them 
 said a word. 
 
 Again Laura spoke, 'There's nothing on my line, 
 Denver. Has nothing touched yours ? ' 
 
 'Nothing.' 
 
 He was evidently not in a talkative mood, but 
 presently she again essayed to rouse his attention : 
 
 'Put some of iny blood on the hooks, maybe it 
 would attract them more than yours, Gabriel.' 
 
 There was something almost ludicrous in the 
 feminine simplicity and confidence with which this 
 was said, and in the -way she bared one of her 
 beautiful wrists and held it out to him, but in the 
 place in which they were uttered, there was a signi- 
 ficance in her words and in her action which made 
 them terrible. 
 
 As to Denver, he merely smiled in her face, half 
 bitterly and half tenderly, and then the lines of his 
 countenance relapsed into their somewhat more than 
 serious expression, while he took her outstretched 
 
 o 2
 
 I'JG GABEIEL DEXVER 
 
 hand in his own, pressing it at intervals with his 
 fingers, and went on watching silently and intently 
 the water in which the line drifted. 
 
 She noticed that his hand trembled at times, 
 and there was something so strangely anxious added 
 to the habitual earnestness of his features, that she 
 hardly dared to take her eyes off him as they sat 
 together. 
 
 He was thinking over the preceding day's excite- 
 ment and terror that had thus rendered them cast- 
 aways. Something caused him suddenly to look up 
 at Deborah, in one of those impulses before described, 
 but Laura's face and eyes assumed a look of terror 
 at the fierce expression shown in his, for she dreaded 
 him to meet Deborah's gaze even more than she 
 herself did, and she laid her hand on his arm as 
 though its touch could distract and break up his 
 reverie. 
 
 The reality of their position was growing terrible 
 to them. 
 
 It must now, to judge by the sun's position, have 
 been nearly noon. An almost imperceptible breeze 
 blew over the surface of the sea in slight wave- 
 ruffling gusts, and served a little to atone for the 
 flame-heat on their bare heads and lightly clad
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 197 
 
 bodies, but it brought no cloud with it. The sky 
 was utterly denuded and cloudless (save for one 
 faint white speck, just touching the waves, where the 
 moon was sinking) and its paleness at dawn was 
 now changed to a colour as deep and brilliant as the 
 manifold tones of the ocean beneath ; not the vaguest 
 hint of the morning's grayness remained. 
 
 The very waves seemed palpitating with the 
 heat. Whenever the boat plunged slightly, as it 
 now and then did, a dash of lukewarm spray was 
 east in their faces. 
 
 Now that the full noon-tide glare showed the 
 vast proportions of the water and firmament, tlie 
 boat with those in it (Deborah lying or leaning in 
 the stern, Denver with his careworn featm-es, and 
 the other girl with her beautiful face and her hair 
 flaming red in the sun) looked fearfully diminished 
 and lonely. To Denver and Laura, the impri- 
 soning walls of the blue horizon and the still bluer 
 sky beyond, became perfectly insufferable in their 
 unbroken monotony. A soul-benumbing sensation 
 of utter helplessness gained upon them as the tedious 
 day wore away. 
 
 They were absolutely without anything in the 
 boat save their clothes. Denver's watch, his knife.
 
 198 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 and liis telescope (things that he invariably had 
 witli him) were all left behind in the cabin of the 
 destroyed ship. Only ont of one of his pockets 
 nearly twenty or thirty guinea-pieces and some old 
 Spanish pieces of eight, still in colonial circulation, 
 had fallen and lay unheeded and valueless in the 
 bottom of the boat. 
 
 How many times Denver stood up gazing intently 
 all round the smooth, unchanging horizon, always 
 hopelessly and futilely, it would be impossible to 
 say. Multitudinous times his heart started within 
 him, and his brain turned dizzy again with the 
 recoil of his sudden hope, while some horizon wave, 
 bearing its crests of foam white in the sun, took for 
 an instant the semblance of a sail, ere it subsided 
 again and was lost, and how many times did his 
 eyes, foiled, and haggard, and desperate, return 
 baffled to Laura's face again ! 
 
 It indeed would be hard to tell, totally unused 
 to scanning; the sea and its si^ns us he must have 
 been, how often he was tluis deluded into false hope 
 by some unusual and transitory appearance, while 
 ever liis inward despair grew with eacli successive 
 disappointment. 
 
 The day wore slowly on, tlie sun was over their
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 199 
 
 heads at the zenith, and then long- past them on the 
 other side again. Every three or four minutes they 
 had to wet their heads to assuage the heat, longing 
 all the while that they could only dare to put the 
 cool moist sea-water between their dry thirst-bitten 
 lijDs, for thirst, at first an inconvenience, now began 
 to grow intolerable. Denver at last bethought him 
 of stretching the cloak like an awning from thwart 
 to thwart in the narrow prow, so as to obtain shelter 
 for Laura underneatli it. 
 
 This was done, but first some whispered conver- 
 sation took place between them, she seemingly 
 urging him to carry out some request, something 
 which he was very unwilling to comply with, until 
 at last she said, in a voice strangely decided for her, 
 ' If you don't, 1 will ! ' 
 
 At this he stepped reluctantly up the boat to 
 where his cousin was sitting, and spoke some words 
 to her. She took no notice of him the first time. 
 Again he reiterated what he had said, ' The sun will 
 scorch you to death unless you come under the shelter 
 we have made.' 
 
 Then she turned lier head and looked at him 
 with a face that made him start, so dreadful was 
 the contempt it seemed to expres 
 
 \*s.
 
 200 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 ' Die ivhere ojoii choose,^ slie only said, ' Die 
 where you will, I choose to die here.'' 
 
 After such a speech as this, both he and Laura 
 saw that it was useless to address her again. She 
 was mad. 
 
 Denver himself refused positively to lie down 
 under the cloak, and sat silently in the hot open air. 
 He was too used to the sun to fear sun-stroke, but 
 presently the fitful gusts of wind beginning to 
 strengthen, cooled somewhat the sultry atmosphere. 
 
 The two lines were continually slack, several 
 times he had gashed the brown hair-covered skin 
 of his arm to resoak the baits with his blood, but 
 all his exertions seemed thrown away. The blue 
 water appeared to be deserted by all animal life. 
 Again and again the red stains were washed out of 
 the rags, and at last he grew hopeless, and almost 
 gave up attending to them. 
 
 Since the dayliglit had really permitted him to 
 think and act without prejudice, a deep soul-be- 
 numbing sense of despondency had taken hold of 
 him, and begun to enervate his whole moral being. 
 His strong keen eyes were worn out and blinded 
 with trying to pierce the blank confines where the 
 faultlessly modelled dome of the sky seemed to rest
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 201 
 
 on the waves. The pallid day-moon that hung so 
 like a fleck of cloud in the mid air, was now no 
 longer to be seen, and the scorching sunlight blinded 
 and maddened him. He remained silent and motion- 
 less for a while, with his brown sinewy wrists and 
 hands twisted over his face, but after some time he 
 got up, and unable to resist some inner impulse, he 
 lifted gently a corner of the shawl so as to look on 
 Laura's face and figure for a moment. 
 
 She lay half-sleeping with closed eyes, and there 
 was a frightened look on her features which, more- 
 over, were slightly stained by the sun into a com- 
 plexion which in no way diminished her beauty. 
 Just at her neck a button was undone, and over the 
 apple of her throat, otherwise whiter than ivory 
 itself, a brown rim showed where the sun had 
 reached. The whole head lay enframed in its rich 
 profusion of warm golden hair, which glittering 
 where the sunlight fell upon it, lay spread out on 
 the concave boards and rippling round her face like 
 an auriole. 
 
 As the lover bent over this spectacle of his 
 mistress' beauty, a tumult of wild agony mastered 
 his soul, and showed visibly in all his features, 
 as his imagination realised the slow and lingering
 
 203 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 death which might be, even now, environing her. 
 He put the cloak back without seeming to disturb 
 her, and once more sat down, twisting his hands 
 over his face, as if in a spasm of internal pain. 
 All his blind infatuated tenderness and still blinder 
 love could do nothing for her, unless help came 
 to them ; but he would be reduced to sitting 
 helplessly at her side, watching her die a death of 
 lingering pain, and all he would be able to do would 
 be to kiss her nselessly, and wait till the end. This 
 time yesterday on board the becalmed ship he 
 would have shuddered and turned pale at the mere 
 suggestion of such a prospect, but now with it 
 visibly before him, he sat as if he were stupified or 
 stunned. 
 
 By the position of the sun it must have now 
 been about six in the evening. In another hour it 
 would set and leave them in total darkness again ; 
 but for the present there were no signs of the 
 evening, and everything glittered still with undi- 
 minished though slightly mellowed power of light. 
 Laura still lay motionless, and Denver sat watching 
 by lier, always revolving idle conjectures which 
 ended in nothing, save in producing a still gloomier 
 view of their situation every time that he con-
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 203 
 
 sidered it. At times he strained his eyes into the 
 cloudless and now yellowing depths of the sky, in the 
 vain hope of discovering any vague particle of mist 
 or vapour which might serve to indicate rain, for his 
 thirst tortured him and made it terrible for liim to 
 look on the tantalising sea-water. 
 
 Everywhere he was baffled. The depths of his 
 own heart, the unblemished sky, and the unbroken 
 horizon lines, brought nothing but discouragement 
 and deeper dejection to him. Yet at times it seemed 
 so impossible that such a fate could environ him and 
 Laura, after all the protestations that had passed 
 between them, and all the mutual love and hope 
 they had for each other, that once he began inad- 
 vertently to laugh. 
 
 It was a mere twitching of the facial muscles ; 
 but to anyone who could have seen this, it would 
 have seemed as though the workings of madness 
 were in his brain, caught from his cousin Deborah's, 
 for madness is infectious, like any other disease. 
 
 Meanwhile the sun sank lower and lower, and its 
 rays slanting, horizontally across the waves, showed 
 the workings in his sunburnt face lowering out in 
 deep shadow and intense glow, till it would have 
 become fearful to contemplate. Tlie shadow of the
 
 204 GABKIEL DEXVEE 
 
 boat stretched further and further along the golden 
 waves, till at last the burning rim of the sun 
 touched, joined, and dipped into the sea, then 
 began slowly and steadily to disappear, and so 
 palpably, it seemed, that anyone in the boat might 
 almost have looked to see the steam of boiling water 
 rise in the sky. 
 
 A long train of scintillating glitter travelled 
 over the foam and greenery of the sea, and arrived 
 dancing and flashing up to the boat, as in mad glee 
 and mockery of the two figures, a man and woman, 
 who sat clasped together in her prow — Laura with 
 her hair spread over Denver's neck, and two or 
 three tangles of it, bright with the dying sun, blown 
 and streaming in the wind, their faces pressed one 
 to another, and lit up into a kind of wild enthusiasm. 
 
 For a while they had forgotten even their 
 wretchedness in their great love, for with nothing 
 else in tlie world they had at least that to satiate 
 them. 
 
 It was a beautiful and yet a terrible picture, 
 taken with its inward meanings and outward sur- 
 roundings ! 
 
 Their faces were set to the light of the sun, and 
 Deborah, being behind them, received their shadows
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 205 
 
 full over her. She had turned, and was looking 
 at them clasped as they were together. There was 
 a kind of fiercely sinister smile on her lips and 
 in her dark, deep-set eyes — such a look of exulting 
 malice and mockery that one knows no words to 
 describe it with. Then the expression changed 
 into one of intense hatred, and she sank back again 
 into her old position. 
 
 It is peculiar to this latitude that darkness 
 swiftly and simultaneously comes with the sinking 
 of the sun. Even now the night, hardly restrained 
 by the radiation of the last glittering fire-point 
 visible, began to sweep in long reaches of gloom 
 over the hollows made by the profoundly heaving 
 ocean, while the faint clusters of stars gleamed forth, 
 slowly brightening down from the dark depth of the 
 zenith till they reached the verges of the sea. 
 
 Soon the limitless surface of the sea, still hot 
 with the sun, was bathed and enveloped in the cool- 
 ness and secresy of night ; and for that whole day 
 these three had touched no nutriment.
 
 206 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 I'll join with black despair against my soul, 
 And to myself become an enemy. — Richard III. 
 
 Nothing now happened during the evening, all was 
 dark and silent over the sea The boat still drifted 
 with the wind, to what point of the compass it would 
 be impossible to say, till moon-rise ; undulating 
 slightly, and splashing the waves here and there, it 
 left a glimmering, half-seen trail of phosphor behind 
 it, like a line drawn in the dark by a wet lucifer- 
 match. 
 
 Just after sunset, a thick band of clouds rose 
 over the sky, veiling such dim light as was shed by 
 the stars, and everything was in utter obscurity. 
 Miles away from them, in one place, the sea grew 
 all alive with pale fire, and the clouds opened, dis- 
 playing the sky far away overhead as though one of 
 them had dissolved into rain, but neither Laura nor 
 Denver noticed this, and the stars were soon hidden
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 207 
 
 again. They both sat together straining their eyes 
 into the blind darkness, the fever of thirst burning 
 into their very brains, lie wearying his hot lips with 
 useless kisses on hers, and she leaning passively in 
 his arms. 
 
 About midnight, utterly worn out and tired, 
 they both lay down in the bottom of the boat and 
 tried to sleep. 
 
 Hunger and thirst had perceptibly weakened 
 Laura, who was natm-ally of a delicate constitution ; 
 whenever he took her hands in his own they were limp 
 and powerless, while their pulses beat languidly and 
 slowly. In a while she began to slumber. 
 
 But there could be no rest to Denver's sedulous, 
 self-torturing conscience and brain. It was frightful 
 to Ue there, feeling starvation and death environing 
 and creeping upon them from every side, and if his 
 mind had suffered from the confinement of the horizon 
 lines by day, how much more acute the same feeling 
 became now that he was shut in and blinded by the 
 darkness. It was a morbid sensation which grew 
 upon him till he imagined at times that he could 
 scarce stretch out his hands without bruising them 
 against the solid confines which appeared to envelope 
 him, and this nervous feeling so grew upon him
 
 208 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 at last that it seemed as though lie were buried 
 alive with Laura, and he pressed her tight in his 
 arms in a kind of insanity. 
 
 Turning his face upwards, however, with a pro- 
 found sense of refuge and relief, his eyes always 
 found a resting-place between the narrow sides of 
 the boat, in the countless clusters of constellations 
 which glittered at times through the changeful 
 openings of the clouds overhead, till, watching them 
 over-intently, his sight, weakened by too much 
 effort, caused them to swim and dance one with 
 another like fire-flies. Once he caught himself 
 asking almost out loud if it was the stars that were 
 moving or the clouds. It even gave him a dull 
 sort of pleasure to lie there, half overcome by sleep, 
 looking up and speculating as to where they would ap- 
 pear next, while the rack slowly travelled by. Hunger 
 endured for a while becomes strangely soporific and 
 paralysing on the nerves, and this lack of energy 
 which it causes is one of the chief reasons why 
 people starve so easily in the midst of great cities. 
 There is even some slight pleasure to be obtained 
 from it, for a starving man sees visions like an 
 opium-eater's. 
 
 Laura all this while slept uneasily if dreamlessly,
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 209 
 
 for all sleep is said to be dreamless till the moment of 
 wakening up, but her restless respiration showed the 
 unsettled condition of her mind. Denver himself 
 at intervals caught a little sleep, but no rest or repose ; 
 for always some disconnected idea or dream possessed 
 his brain, causing him to wake with its oppression. 
 Once he was wandering in a burning forest ; he had 
 lost the track, and got more entangled in its fiery 
 mazes each minute, and all the while he was 
 carrying Laura in a swoon. He dashed wildly 
 between the great blazing trees, warding oflf the 
 burning branches with his bare arm ; and then 
 again he was wandering in the same wood, before it 
 had been devastated by the fire. He was pushing 
 wildly through the leaves in search of Laura, whom 
 he had accidentally lost sight of and never recovered. 
 Nowhere could he find the vaguest trace of her, but 
 at last he reached the side of a deep pool or tarn 
 among the rocks, and just as he was bending down 
 over it to quench his thirst, he recognised her sweet 
 flushed face, smiling to him from its depths. Not 
 for one instant remembering that it must merely be 
 the reflection of some person standing behind him, 
 he flung himself into the water and sank as though 
 he were paralysed ; and while he was sinking through
 
 210 GABKIEL DE^*VER 
 
 its depths, he dimly perceived a blurred female 
 figure standing on the bank above wringing her 
 hands. It was Laura, who had been following him 
 all the while, he thought ; and he struggled wildly 
 to climb throuQ-h the water and reach her, but he 
 
 o 
 
 failed, and seemed to lose all consciousness. When 
 he came to again the scene had changed. He had 
 lost his way on the ' Split Stones ' ^ in a dark, star- 
 less night, and was once more carrying Laura in his 
 arms, expecting every moment to lose his footing 
 and be dashed to pieces over the rocks below. 
 
 But he always woke up just as some catastrophe 
 was about to occur. Then feeling that he really 
 embraced her in safety, a wild tumult of joy would 
 possess his soul, yet dying again swiftly, like a flash 
 of lightning, as the knowledge of the reality, out of 
 which his dream had formed an allegory, came 
 back to him. These short and interrupted dreams 
 became so painful to him at last, that his whole at- 
 tention was occupied in preventing himself from 
 dozing off again into one of them. 
 
 The broken-up clouds once more slowly drifted. 
 
 • An enormous geological formation of shattered disjointed rock 
 strata and precipices near where he had lived. A kind of inferior 
 coal (or anthracite) was dug from the side of one of the hills there.
 
 G.\BRIEL DEXVER 211 
 
 off in the wind over the horizon, and presently the 
 largely-increased quarter-moon rose over the sea 
 with a glittering trail of silver scintillant light. 
 When it was high enough for its brightness to reach 
 the bottom of the boat, it lit up dimly their appa- 
 rently sleeping forms. Lam-a had separated and 
 woven, as it were, two cords out of her golden hair, 
 and had wound them round Denver's neck in a 
 lustrous tangle so as to bind his face still beside 
 her o^vn. It seemed like an exquisitely tender 
 effort to assure him (when speech failed in sleep) of 
 her still unyielding love ; but his face looked worn 
 and haggard, and in the moonlight it could be 
 plainly seen that he was not sleeping. Each new 
 token of her passion for him only served to deepen 
 his profound wretchedness. It was not the mere 
 sense of compassion created by love for her beauty 
 and youth, or the idea — terrible to us as it is — of 
 such a frail flower as Laura Conway withering and 
 dying of hunger and drought, which moved him so, 
 because now her beauty was a thing all but for- 
 gotten and swept aAvay in the mad torrent of his 
 passion. His love was an intense, intangible, unin- 
 telligible worship, of which he could have explained 
 no more than that it existed. It might have been 
 
 p 2
 
 212 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 her beauty which ensnared him at first, but noiu 
 the object of his love was changed to something 
 incorporate and invisible — for it was her soul, her 
 own personal identity, transmuted and fused into 
 his own, which he loved ; and it was the idea of this 
 soul, common to each of them as it was, having to 
 sunder and disperse in the mystery of death which 
 maddened him beyond all measure of control. 
 
 He lay there trying to calm himself after each 
 mental outburst of horror and passion, yet hardly 
 daring to stir in his position, lest it should disturb 
 Laura's sleep, which, as it was, seemed as uneasy as 
 the waves of a sea under the gusts of some unex- 
 pected wind. After a while he carefully left her 
 side, untying the entangled hair without waking 
 her, and stood up in the boat. 
 
 Two or three more weary hours passed thus. At 
 intervals he could be seen getting up and feeling 
 the lines by a sort of mechanical impulse ; but his 
 labour was always without result. He sat with his 
 elbows on his knees, and his chin resting on his 
 hands, always looking restlessly into the luminous 
 haze of the moonlight ; for a sudden fear had struck 
 him that some ship might pass them without sign 
 or knowledge of their presence, unless he kept con-
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 213 
 
 tinually on tlie watch. One miglit have gone by 
 even wliile he was sleeping. It would be impossible 
 to describe the agony and weariness and despair 
 with which this idea beset him, while he watched 
 uselessly till the faint undefined indications of the 
 dawn, growing greyer and greyer, began to consume 
 the darkness, until at length the golden sun itself 
 rose, and in its splendour and might changed the 
 bright moon to a faint an fleck lost in the delicate 
 purple of the morning sky. 
 
 Then he turned hopelessly from the sea and sat 
 watching Laura's face by the increasing light. He 
 was glad that she should still be sleeping and un- 
 conscious : it was best for her to be so. He did not 
 wish to disturb her. 
 
 Denver, perhaps, was not aware that looking in- 
 tently on a slumbering face will invariably awaken 
 it ; but presently the wan countenance of the sleeper, 
 disturbed by the magnetism of his gaze, turned 
 wearily up to his. 
 
 The keen edge of her thirst had quite drowned 
 all sense of hunger, and itself after a while had 
 turned into a kind of dull somnolent sickness which 
 seemed to consume her whole frame, making her 
 eyes and brain giddy, so that as she now strove to
 
 214 GABEIEL DEXYER 
 
 rise, she fell back again, pressing her hands to her 
 face and brows, while Denver bent down over her. 
 
 The sight of this made him apparently des- 
 perate ; for a sudden thought came to him, and he 
 drew up the line hanging idly from the boat, and 
 taking the hook at the end cut with it a gash in his 
 left arm. 
 
 The red blood spurted out, though with feeble 
 flow. Then holding Laura's head up with his right 
 hand, he tried to set this to her lips. 
 
 They were covered with red before, in her weak 
 state, she could tell what he was about (for she had 
 shut her eyes to avoid the sudden influx of morning 
 light) ; but when she really understood what he 
 wished to do, a fit of irrepressibly violent shud- 
 dering seized her, and passed througli her entire 
 frame ; and she shrank and struggled away from 
 him, and fell back in a swoon. 
 
 Her lips and teeth were tightly closed, he could 
 not dissever them ; and the blood on liis arm con- 
 gealed, and ceased flowing after a while. 
 
 It might be said that for a time, hanging 
 over her and kissing her wildly, he lost his reason. 
 Once he rose to his feet in a kind of frenzy, and 
 made a couple of steps towards Deborah for he
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 215 
 
 fancied that he had heard a low stealthy laugh. 
 There was a terrible fire in his eyes, but his face 
 turned all bloodless, and he went back to Laura 
 again, and clasped her in his arms, trembling all 
 over, and calling piteously upon her name. 
 
 If she were dead, he resolved to jump over into 
 the sea with her. 
 
 But at length a vague and faint reappearance of 
 vitality stole like a pale flame over her face, and her 
 senses returned to her. 
 
 Denver was too sick at heart to be the first to 
 speak, until she said faintly, ' ! my head, my head 
 aches ! put some water on my forehead : I'm going 
 to be ill ! Why did you frighten me by cutting 
 your arm ? it makes me sick. Lay me down on the 
 boards, Grabriel.' 
 
 He laid her down as she asked, making a pillow 
 for her head out of his jacket, rolled up with the 
 cloak ; and she lay there nearly the whole day. 
 Later on, as the sun grew hotter, he took the cloak 
 av/ay again, and spread it out from gunwale to gun- 
 wale, so as to shelter her. All the time he did 
 nothing but hang over her, keeping her hot fore- 
 head wet with sea-water, and blowing on it with liis 
 dry lips to make it cool.
 
 210 GABHIEL DENVER 
 
 There was nothing to look at in the shining 
 sultry waves of the sea, and he was sick of hauling 
 in the empty lines. They wei-e useless. The pallid 
 inoon sank unnoticed at noontide, while he still sat 
 over Laura, hardly knowing what he was about : 
 and liis face became more and more haggard and 
 wild-looking in his despair, as he saw she grew 
 weaker and weaker hour by hour. She scarcely 
 spoke now, her eyes were shut, and a slight, each 
 time fainter, pressure of the hand was the only 
 sort of communication which passed between them 
 for several hours. 
 
 The morning had now long changed into noon ; 
 and at last the red sun dipped into the waves and 
 sank. 
 
 This time there was a lurid purple band of 
 mist or vapour flaming all round the western 
 horizon ; and by the reflections in this, a sort of 
 twilight was prolonged for a while ; and then the 
 night came utterly. 
 
 Laura still lay where Denver had placed her. 
 He himself, worn out, but sleejjless, lay down at 
 her side : but he dared not slumber, lest she should 
 rouse and speak to him. At last, the darkness was 
 a little dispelled by the light of the coming moon.
 
 GAERIEL DENVER 217 
 
 Their white faces and dark figures could be seen 
 dimly in the dusk of the boat, while Deborah still 
 remained in sight above the gunwale. She seemed 
 scarcely to have changed her position from the 
 first. 
 
 Now, if Denver could have retained the heart 
 and courage to have continued lookinsf into the 
 darkness, he wovdd have seen (just as the moon 
 began to rise), the shadowy white form of a ship, 
 all dim and blurred in the night, save for its 
 signal lamps. Its sails, braced up fore and aft, 
 showed luminously and half transparent, for the 
 ever-increasing light was on the farther side of it. 
 It looked more like the spectre of a vessel than a 
 real one : but j^resently, sailing right before the 
 wind, it crossed the low-hanging moon, on which 
 the light of the sun now fell in a semi-circle ; and 
 though it may seem incredible, a deep shadow 
 overspread the boat, travelling in a long line across 
 the sea, as if a passing cloud had obscured the light ; 
 while, at the same time, the dark silhouette of a 
 three-masted vessel appeared, plainly detined against 
 the light sky. Then it passed, shifting its course 
 so that the moonliglit fell on its sails in a way to be 
 seen from the boat. It was scaj-cely a mile distant.
 
 218 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 and was still running right ahead with the light 
 changeable wind. 
 
 But Denver was too utterly and sullenly hopeless 
 to sit straining his eyes into the darkness on this 
 third night, as he had done on the second ; and sailing 
 fast, the vessel passed miles and miles away into the 
 tenebrous atmosphere : first, its form disappeared, 
 then its lamps. Deborah either could not, or would 
 not see it, although her face was turned in its 
 direction. 
 
 Truly, a decree of destiny seemed to hang over 
 Denver and all connected with him ! 
 
 The morning's light came silently, and found 
 Laiu'a by then well nigh too weak to move from 
 her position in the bottom of the boat, where she 
 lay like a frail flower thrown down and broken by 
 the wind. 
 
 It could not be said that she felt now the exact 
 sensations of hunger and thirst in themselves, for, 
 as has been shown, they had in some degree 
 passed away, and been replaced by an intolerable 
 brain-oppressing weight of sickness and dizziness 
 ever increasing, so that her weak limbs could scarce 
 have supported her had she tried to stand. 
 
 It was a shocking cliange to have taken place
 
 GABKIEL DE:nVER 219 
 
 in one so young and fair as Laura ; and all in the 
 space of three days. The bright eyes were sunken 
 and lustreless, the beautiful oval lines of her face 
 were worn and liollow, while her small cheek-bones 
 and chin showed sharp through the wasting flesh. 
 The tangled hair alone preserved its old profusion 
 and beauty. 
 
 It was a strangely piteous sight to witness, for 
 with her life, her beauty in nowise seemed to ebb ; 
 and yet she was so fast weakening now, that as she 
 lay in the bottom of the boat (lier head and neck 
 stretched back, and supported on a wooden block 
 meant for tlie rowers to set their feet to), she was 
 fast becoming incapable of motion, if not insen- 
 sible. 
 
 The approach of death in circumstances like 
 these is so gradual that in the enervated condition of 
 the body and mind consequent on their exhaustion 
 the sufferer hardly believes in its presence, imtil, 
 having undermined every stay to vitality, it springs 
 forth swift as a tropical twilight, and all is over. 
 
 Naturally, weak constitutions give way sooner 
 than strong ones : and this is why, in contrast to 
 Laura, Denver still managed to keep his strength, 
 though his spirit was broken, and on his soul a blind
 
 220 G^VBEIEL DEXVEE 
 
 unreasoning despair was settled. The sight of her 
 sufferings rendered his worn face haggard and fierce 
 as a starving wolf's. But it was no use strug-Hino-. 
 All seemed to him as the working out and develop- 
 ment of some predestined fate, only in the deep 
 heart of his fatalistic nature he cursed the pitiless 
 immovable spirit or master of his destiny — cursed 
 and cursed again with a scowl on his forehead, and 
 a blaze of fire reillumining his sunken eyes, as he 
 hung pressing his lips wildly on Laura's fever- 
 parched forehead. Indeed, he was scarcely respon- 
 sible for his actions. 
 
 In the bottom of the boat between Laura and 
 where Deborah lay, mad and sullenly alone, there 
 was a cleared space of some seven or eight feet. In 
 this, when not hanging over Laura (with eyes 
 flaming like a panther's over its wounded and dying 
 mate), Denver managed to pace backwards and 
 forwards continually. It was a procedure which 
 seemed terribly natural to him ; for truly the strain 
 upon his reason had well nigh broken it, and only 
 his fierce southern animal nature retained its empire 
 over his brain. 
 
 The girl still uttered no word of complaint, but 
 this made the visible alteration in lier life and
 
 GABRIEL DEX^^ER 221 
 
 strength all the more agonising to witness. He 
 shuddered, and dared not again offer her his own 
 blood in dread lest he should frighten her into 
 "another swoon ; and he remembered dreadful stories 
 of men whose thirst had been tantalised to madness 
 by drinking from each other's veins. Indeed, human 
 blood does not quench thirst. 
 
 In the course of Denver's life, violent bv 
 nature as he was, he might often have thought 
 of suicide as the preferable escape in certain 
 emergencies of suffering or trouble ; but it is well 
 knowQ that such men always look on death with 
 dread, when it comes by any save their own choice, 
 for suicide has been indeed well defined as 'the 
 strongest utterance of desire for life which the 
 hiunan will can evince.' Therefore it is no strange 
 thing that Denver looked fonvard to the death 
 which seemed to await them both with a nameless 
 horror and shuddering. It was terrible to watch 
 the way his mind struggled against its doom, and 
 found innumerable reasons to cling to and yearn for 
 prolongation of life, and yet could believe in no 
 possible evasion of the sentence that had gone forth 
 against it. His soul was as a prisoner pleading for 
 grace at the inexorable bar of destiny. Had he not
 
 222 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 everything in life to live for ? — why should he die 
 before his time ? Looking at his life in the 
 abstract with all its petty restrictions lost sight of 
 in the far distance, where it seemed receding from 
 him, it now made no such unhappy appearance as 
 it had seemed to in the querulous unquiet dream 
 he had lived in on board the ship. He saw that he 
 still loved Laura, and that she reciprocated his 
 passion with an intensity which few others have 
 experienced in this weary, satiated world : he knew 
 that they could still be happy together — imutterably 
 happy ! and that they were now dying without 
 excuse or reason. 
 
 To die, to cease to exist, to look at his brown 
 sinewy arm (still with its old useless strength in it), 
 and feel that in a while he would be without power 
 over its movements ! To use his vision now, but 
 think that in a while his eyes would darken till they 
 could no longer see Laura's face, and that his ears 
 would no lono;er hear her voice — that voice which 
 once thrilled through his whole soul ! To live still, 
 and yet know that his senses were beginning to ebb 
 like a sinking tide, or to dissolve like a pool of sea- 
 water left behind by the retreating waves, and 
 sucked up by the power of the sim ! To lie as if
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 22G 
 
 paralysed, in helpless contemplation of the future 
 unlived days, while the present ones slowly darkened 
 and vanished around liim ! To leave the life before 
 him so miserably unfulfilled ! — it made him like some 
 thirst-maddened animal tantalised by a transitory 
 desert mirage. 
 
 It was too terribly incredible for belief. 
 
 Then he starting up, gazing wildly on the 
 monotonous blankness of the sky and at the smooth 
 glistening sea, like a man who expects to emerge 
 from some dream which is stifling his very soul to 
 death. 
 
 All was vacant : the gleaming waves mocked his 
 eyes everywhere, wliile the horizon-line stretched 
 endlessly round the sky without hint or signal of 
 any relief for him. 
 
 The same dull, inarticulate despair returned on 
 him. It was useless to struggle against destiny, 
 and he went and laid himself down beside Laura 
 with the intention of awaiting his end there. 
 
 He had covered her up with a cloak to keep the 
 sun off, and she never moved or spoke. After a 
 while he got up suddenly and began pacing the 
 boat again, praying in his heart that he might not 
 die before Laura — not with the mere selfish desire of
 
 224 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 preserving her life to the uttermost, but because his 
 excited and morbid imagination had drawn a terrible 
 picture of his own dead form lying in the bottom of 
 the boat with Laura still living at the other end of 
 it — perhaps calling to him while he was unable to 
 answer : and this thought made his fevered blood run 
 cold. It has been said before that he had made up his 
 mind, if the worst shouicl come to the luorst, that 
 he would jump into the sea with her and drown 
 himself, and now he began to imagine how they 
 would be tossed about in the ground-currents under 
 the green water, dragged through the long oozy 
 seaweed and driven from rock to rock by the 
 restless waves — dead and clasped to each other, 
 Laura's golden hair, drenched with wet and slime, 
 clinging all about his neck and shoulders. If his 
 dead arms should loose their grasp, and some wave 
 should part them one from another ? He shuddered 
 as he considered this probability ! 
 
 He seemed to have lost all command over his 
 imaginative faculties. His brain was too much 
 exhausted by his long fast ; and these terrible 
 and morbid pictures rose before him one after 
 another in spite of all he could do to rid himself 
 of them.
 
 G.UJEIEL DEXTER £25 
 
 It was almost like madness. Whether it was 
 owing to his mental condition or not cannot be 
 said, but by fits and starts every object which met 
 his eyes seemed dyed blood-red, while his ears rang 
 and tingled with a kind of humming tune like the 
 low, vexed murmur of a bee. Every now and then 
 a peculiar dizzy sensation came over him, till he 
 trembled as though with the palsy. 
 
 All the afternoon of that day Lam-a seemed to 
 have fallen into a deep sleep, uninterrupted save for 
 a slight rattling in her throat. Her eyelids looked 
 so thin and shrunken now they were closed, that he 
 almost fancied he could see the blue of their pupils 
 showing through them. The blood had withdrawn 
 from her lips, but they were dark as with fever. 
 He thought he had never before seen her looking so 
 di\dnely beautiful as she seemed now. Yet the 
 spark of her life, though it waned within her, still 
 had its moments when it flickered up as though 
 striving to rekindle itself; and once or twice she 
 endeavoured to rise and speak to her lover as he 
 hung over her. But her words were unintelligible, 
 her brain had become delirious.
 
 226 ABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 it is moustrous, monstrous ! 
 Methonght the billows spoke and told me of it, 
 The -winds did sing it me. — Tempest. 
 
 My burthened heart •would break 
 Did I not curse them. — Henry VI., Part 2. 
 
 Once more the sun had crossed the steep blue sky 
 and sunk, and the night came on ; and in this night, 
 either because she was mad, or because she could 
 endure thirst no longer, Deborah drank the sea- 
 Avater long and deeply, and the effect this bitter 
 draught produced on her was, that when the 
 morning's light came she was raving. 
 
 All through the darkness the wind at times rose 
 boisterously, but having nothing to contend with 
 save the passive waves, it was strange to witness how 
 silent its deep gusts were. Owing to some abrupt 
 change in the atmosphere, there was no phosphor- 
 fire now in the dark sea, and the wind blowing from 
 due south it was almost cold. All the night through
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 227 
 
 Denver sat watching over Laura, speaking to her at 
 times, yet hardly knowing what he was saying, 
 getting no answers, and not daring to disturb her 
 lest he should turn her insensibility and sleep into 
 something deeper. The day broke tempestuously 
 over the sea, and in the grey half-light of the da\vn, 
 as the boat swung about ou the waves, she lay so 
 still that he uttei-ed a terrible exclamaticm and fell 
 down beside her on his knees. She opened her 
 eyes and moved her lips slightly, for she was still 
 living. 
 
 At that moment he heard something like a 
 shriek just behind him, and turning round he saw 
 Deborah bending forward and looking at Laura in 
 such a manner that he watched her, unable to tiu-n 
 away. 
 
 Once again a point of fire shot out suddenly 
 over the eEistern wind-blown waves, a circle of sun- 
 light radiated through the cloudless but windy sky, 
 and a stormy Imid reflection of the sun lit up every- 
 thing, broken up and diversified into a thousand 
 shapes on the crests of the strong waves, while the 
 white, shifting foam-flecks, sweeping up their dark 
 under-sides, conveyed an appalling idea of the black 
 ^ngry sea's profoundness. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 Every now and then two or three of these waves, 
 uniting together, would bear the frail boat up, 
 half hidden in their flying spray and foam-flakes, 
 high overhead, as if to exhibit it in mockery to the 
 rest of the sea ; just as a cat plays with a bird, letting 
 it flutter up, well knowing that its wings are 
 broken— and then again it would be sunken into a 
 deep, dark hollow and lost to view. 
 
 Over all this, to a blind man unable to see 
 the boat, the shriek which had attracted Denver's 
 attention would have vibrated, dominating the sibi- 
 lant hissing and surging of the vexed foam like 
 the cry of an angry wind-baffled sea-bird. 
 
 Suddenly Deborah saw that Grabriel was looking 
 at her, and she made a savage motion with her head 
 towards Laura, and shrieked out again, ' Not dead 
 yet ? Is she always to live on and make my eye- 
 sight a curse to me ? What have I not done to kill 
 and destroy her that she still lingers there like a 
 starving snake ? Oh, Grod ! if it's useless after all, 
 and I've given my soul to be burnt in hell and my 
 body to death, only to be cheated I I'd strangle her 
 sooner with my own hands I / fired the ship, to 
 drive you out of it. It was on the night of the day 
 I was to have married you. I caused the fire — I, I,
 
 GABEIEL DE.WER 229 
 
 I ! — and it's gone on burning- in me ever since. I 
 drank out of the sea to quench it ; but it's eaten 
 its way up into my very throat and brain, and now 
 I'm going to die before you. Xo, no, no ! 1"11 live 
 to desecrate her grave yet. Shell die in this boat 
 and rot in it, and when it falls to pieces with decay, 
 or gets sunk, her bones will sink with it — you can't 
 help her. Ah I you may glare at me — you know 
 who you owe all this to now. I told you how you 
 should learn what a woman's love turned to hatred 
 could do.' 
 
 She had risen on her feet, and now she choked 
 and gasped in her utterance, and set her liaud to her 
 throat as if she were strangling, then she staggered 
 and fell back on the stern seat, half slipping off it, 
 so that the back of her head caught on the gunwale, 
 with its long dishevelled black hair partly streaming 
 in the water, partly over her throat. The pupils of 
 her eyes contracted as though by a sudden spasm of 
 pain into mere pin-points, and there was a shudder 
 through her frame and a convulsive grasp of the 
 empty air with her hands. 
 
 The light of the fully-risen sun fell right on her 
 face, as the boat lifted on the foam-dashed glittering- 
 crests of the stormy waves. She gazed back full on
 
 230 GABRIEL DExWER 
 
 it, wildly but unblinded, with wide eyes, their pupils 
 dilated till they occupied the whole of their Irisee. 
 
 The bright corresponding- image and reflection 
 of the sun flashed back out of them unflinchingly, 
 for she ivas dead.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 231 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 And ' Fear'st thou ? ' and Fear'st thou ? 
 And ' See'st thou ? ' and liear'st thou ? 
 And ' Drive -we not free 
 O'er the terrible sea, 
 
 I and thou ?— ' 
 • ••••••« 
 
 While around the lashed ocean, 
 Like mountains in motion, 
 Is -withdrawn and uplifted, 
 Sunk, shattered, and shifted 
 
 To and fro \— Shelley. 
 
 '■ Black Swa', C. S. C My God ! why it's a remnant 
 of one of our own ships ! It's been on fire ; where 
 did you find it, man ? ' 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Newton, the man on watch i' the 
 fore heard something- strike on the bows. We were 
 tacking again' the wind, an' we all heard it come 
 knocking down along the off side to windward where 
 the seas washed round ; it couldn't get free like till 
 it was left astarn, and then we all on us see it by the 
 
 ' Colonial Shipping Company.
 
 2S2 GAEEIEL DENVER 
 
 breeming-,' and the ship was hove to while we noosed 
 it up in a slip-knot — the other piece along with it — 
 and heavy enough they was to haul, too I ' 
 
 ' It's clear as daylight that there's something hap- 
 pened — its burnt out of the stern-post, witli the outer 
 plank let into it. Why, we were just looking to come 
 up with her.' 
 
 So saying, the master of the ' Albatross ' knelt 
 down on the deck, examining the dripping fragment 
 of charred wood, with the well-known but half- 
 obliterated letters on it, which his sailors had hoisted 
 up out of the sea. A second piece lay beside it, 
 burnt and blackened in the same manner ; he knew 
 they were quite fresh in the water, for there were no 
 barnacles or marine weeds cliuofino- to them. 
 
 Just tlieu the first mate came up on to the 
 quarter-deck, telling the master that there was some 
 story among the men in the steerage, of the cook's 
 boy having declared tliat (while sitting out on the 
 bowsprit scouring a pot the preceding night) he had 
 seen an apparently empty boat for one moment, and 
 then had lost sight of it aj^fain, thouoh he had been 
 ashamed to mention this, lest he sliould get into 
 trouble for rais;n<>- a false alarm. 
 
 ' Phosplior-fire.
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 233 
 
 All the crew of the large vessel, on some j^re- 
 text or another, could be seen looking on eagerly, 
 gathered round in the dusky grey light before the 
 sunrise. The boy being among them, was called 
 forward. He reiterated positively his tirst statement. 
 "When asked why he had not spoken before, he 
 answered — 
 
 ' Well, sir, I just see it for an instant like, and 
 wasn't sure whether there were anybody in 't or not, 
 and couldn't find it again. I should have thought 
 a shadow had come ower it, on'y there weren't no 
 clouds afore th' moon, an' whilst I wasn't certain I 
 was called forrard. But I did speak of it, sir.' 
 
 The master's sun-browned features had grown 
 strangely anxious and troubled. He was evidently 
 in great perplexity, and he turned round consulting 
 apart with the two mates, and was heard to say, 
 ' Something's clearly gone wrong with poor Gregory's 
 ship ; he and Johnson ought to know how to manage 
 her, though. Why, I knew the "Black Swan" well 1 ' 
 
 ' So do I, sir — I've sarved in her,' interruiDted a 
 grey-bearded sailor, coming forward deferentially ; 
 ' tlie name oughter be writ in red characters. I can't 
 read myself, but I should know 'em among a tliou- 
 sand. Why, there's one gone — ay, ay, there should
 
 234 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 be four to that, it's burned out,' and the man stooped 
 down examining the log, while they all gathered two 
 or three steps closer around the pool of water that 
 had dripped from it on the deck. The steersman, 
 near whom they stood, craned forwards anxiously to 
 look over their heads, in the intervals of manipulating 
 his wheel. 
 
 The master and his mates again began speaking 
 apart. One of them said two or three days more or 
 less could make no ultimate difference to the voyage, 
 and that besides it was their duty to the Company ; 
 and the result of their consultation was a determina- 
 tion to return on their course, and examine the sur- 
 rounding sea as narrowly as possible, until they 
 could make some more certain discovery. 
 
 This was the more easy inasmuch as the ' Alba- 
 tross ' had been for more than a week beating and 
 battling vainly against an adverse wind, that would 
 now entirely favour their plan — which was to sail in 
 a gradually decreasing circle over an extent of nearly 
 five hundred miles, so as at last to reach the centre 
 or pivot round which, as it were, they had turned ; 
 and if nothing were discovered of the ship they sup- 
 posed to be burnt, all they could do would be to re- 
 sume their course to the Cape.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 235 
 
 The full blinding effulgence of the sun burst 
 presently over the waves, just as the 'Albatross' 
 swung heavily round in the trough of the sea — its 
 sails flapping for an instant until the wind caught 
 and filled them out again. Then the reversed vessel 
 swept back over the no longer opposing undulation 
 of the sea. All that day they sailed with a careful 
 look-out ; and just towards the evening another spar 
 was discovered, floating half-submerged in the water, 
 with something clinging or fastened to the under side 
 of it. On its being neared, it was found to be, as 
 was supposed, a long fragment of the bowsprit, burnt 
 off at the end. 
 
 A dead, drowned, tailless monkey clung tena- 
 ciously to it ; and its hairy skin was singed with fire 
 in parts. 
 
 The man who had served on board the ' Black 
 Swan ' recognised tlie animal, and said that its name 
 was ' Tom Jones,' which name had been given it 
 owing to its resemblance to a man among the crew, 
 who had always ill-treated it in consequence. Its 
 face was agonised now and stiffened, poor thing, into 
 a strangely human look of fright, which made the 
 men examining it shudder despite themselves, as they
 
 236 GALIUEL DE^'VER 
 
 tliouglit of what must have happened to its more 
 human associates. 
 
 Their fears for the ship were now increased to a 
 dead certainty. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the effect a 
 catastrophe such as this appeared to have been has 
 on the mind of a sailor. The dangers of the 
 treacherous sea he expects and is prepared to 
 accept ; but amid the limitless expanse of water 
 that he passes liis storm-beaten life on, to have 
 suddenly to battle with a rebellion of the fire he 
 carries with him to preserve his life — such a 
 catastrophe he is absolutely unprepared for and 
 stupefied at. 
 
 The whole of the ship's company felt sobered, and 
 they went about the reeling decks quietly, or stood 
 talking in groups when they were not occupied — for 
 they all knew the destroyed ship well, and some 
 among them knew the men of her crew. 
 
 A more anxious look-out tlian ever was kept ; but 
 nothing further happened till the night came over 
 the sea. 
 
 Speed was then slackened, and tlie ' Albatross,' 
 lighted up with lanterns, sailed carefully through 
 the darkness. It is strange how the motions of in-
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 237 
 
 animate substances which obey human guidance, ap- 
 pear at times to respond to the different mind-con- 
 ditions of their masters. The ship seemed to sweep 
 forward with almost as much anxiety as was felt by 
 those on board of her. 
 
 Anxious ears waited for shoutings ; many anxious 
 eyes peered into the darkness, in the vain hope of 
 discovering any signal as of distress, but nothing 
 happened — all was dark and silent over the cloud- 
 shadowed sea ; only the wind increased, whistling 
 boisterously through the rigging overhead, while the 
 turbid dark water (glistening here and there as it 
 caught the reflections from the dead-lights in the 
 stern windows) seemed under cover of the dark- 
 ness to become more tumultuous every moment. At 
 intervals a hollow thud would be felt on the prow as 
 it cleft through some strong wave, and a great shower 
 of white foam-spray would rise gracefully into the 
 light, blown by the whistling wind hissing and 
 weltering across the decks, or swept back into the 
 gloom it emerged from. Just dimly discernible in 
 the night, a long trail of white foam seemed always 
 endlessly spun and reeled out from under the counter 
 and dark stern, while overhead — where not obscured 
 by the clouds — the stars shone out in brilliant and
 
 238 GABKIEL DENVER 
 
 nebulous clusters through the black sky ; until at 
 last the moon rose over the tempestuous ocean, 
 obscuring them and lighting up the wild scene, 
 
 .... Mad as the sea and wind 
 
 When each contends which is the mightier. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 Before morn the wind shifted, and blew from 
 due south, and the atmosphere became in conse- 
 quence cold : though this change was even the more 
 favourable to the ' Albatross,' as it staggered along 
 through the high foaming billows. The grey 
 colourless daylight broke gradually ov» the sky, 
 reflected back on to the dark water underneath. 
 
 Just before ' sun-up,' as they called it, an alarm 
 was raised throughout the ship. 
 
 Two or three of the watch could be seen on the 
 forecastle, pointing into the distance and shadow, 
 which still lay unconsumed over the northern side 
 of the ocean. One of them shouted (half the sound 
 being blown away by the violent wind), ' There 
 they are ! Right away down ! ' 
 
 The master and mates, and all who could leave 
 their posts, hurried up the wet decks, and scrambled 
 on to the forecastle. 
 
 A large dark speck, which their keen eyes
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 239 
 
 fashioned into the shape of an oarless, rudderless 
 boat, with two figures in it, could be seen plainly, 
 tossing about on the white tumultuous seas. The 
 ship was bearing right do\vn on them, straining in 
 all its cords and canvas. 
 
 Just then the light of the sun broke, radiating 
 over the stormy waters, and clearing away the dusky 
 half-obscm-ity. The master of the ship obtained 
 his spy-glass, and brought it to bear on the boat and 
 its occupants. They were as yet about three miles 
 ahead, but a strange sight was suddenly brought 
 within two or three feet of his eyes by the telescope. 
 It was a large, old-fashioned boat, wide and flat, 
 and strong. A woman was standing at one end of 
 it, violently confronting and upbraiding a man 
 who knelt down, apparently leaning over someone 
 in the bottom. Suddenly the woman dashed her 
 arms up wildly, as though she had received a sun- 
 stroke, and then fell back in the stern-sheets of 
 the boat. The man rose, clasping his forehead with 
 his hands, and looking right in the woman's face, 
 which still remained visible above the portoise. A 
 fearful look, indicative of some incomprehensible 
 feeling (not sorrow, as could be seen even at that 
 distance), convulsed his features : then he bent
 
 240 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 down in tho boat, looking up no more, so that his 
 face was bidden. 
 
 Tbey were lost for a moment in a deep bollow 
 of tbe sea : and wben tbey rose into tbe sunligbt 
 again, it gleamed fearfully on tbe woman's eyes, 
 bvit sbe never moved to avoid it. 
 
 Meanwbile, tbe sbip came nearer and nearer, 
 driven before tbe still increasing wind. A boat 
 was got all ready to launcb into tbe rougb sea, and 
 its crew stood near it. Tlie sbip-master still looked 
 eagerly tbroiigb bis telescope from tbe forecastle, 
 giving it up at times to bis second mate, wbo stood 
 near bim, tbe otber officer baving descended to tbe 
 fore-deck to direct tbe seamen. Plve or six of 
 tbese sailors were presently sent swarming up aloft, 
 to clew up some of tbe principal sails wben tbe 
 proper time sbould arrive. Once, owing to tbe 
 temporary negligence of the two men steering 
 (caused by their curiosity), tbe bows of tbe sbip 
 struck so heavily in tbe sea, that the angry churned 
 spray flew up all over it, wetting tbe men on tbe 
 forecastle to tbe skin, while tbe mate rushed up, 
 rating tbe steersmen soundly. Tbe eagerness and 
 excitement of tbe men seemed imparted to tbe 
 very heart of tbe great 'Albatross,' as sbe swept
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 241 
 
 on, recklessly dashing the violent waves aside from 
 her prow. 
 
 In scarce more than twenty minutes they were 
 witliin nearly a mile of tlie boat, which was still 
 tossing about on the white crests of the angry 
 waves, like a black feather shed from the breast of 
 some sea-bird. 
 
 At last, when the ship was within a hundred 
 and forty yards of them, one of the men on the fore- 
 castle shouted down the wind. 
 
 The sound ought clearly to have reached those 
 in the boat, although the men behind the speaker 
 heard not one word ; but nothing stirred in it, no 
 notice was taken, despite the woman's face being 
 turned just towards them. 
 
 At last they crossed the boat some fifty yards 
 from where it lay, and got to windward. 
 
 Suddenly all the great sails fell and were furled 
 up — all save the two topsails, which were braced up 
 in wedge-shape, so as to counteract each other ; the 
 helm was put up, and the ' Albatross ' slackened 
 speed, though it still made considerable headway 
 with the impetus of its late motion. 
 
 The great ship finally all but stopped when 
 some eighty yards past the boat. 
 
 n
 
 242 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 The launch, hanging off the counter, was swung 
 down into the surf and surge, which dashed 
 hungrily up the side as if to devour it. It was a 
 work of great difiiculty and trouble ; but, at last, 
 the boat floated in safety on the shifting black 
 water, and five of the most experienced hands, 
 clinging to the shrouds, sprang down into it. One 
 held on, preventing its gunwale from fouling 
 while the others with some diflicidty, owing to 
 the roughness, managed to unship their oars. 
 Then the boat sprang from imder the side, 
 staggering and reeling against the wind. It dashed 
 blindly into the showered spray of the wild and 
 turbid waves, the men pulling lustily. A large can 
 placed in the bottom, steamed and SAvirled with heat, 
 its exhalations floating off in wreaths about the 
 heads of the rowers. 
 
 In the meantime a wall of mist had risen out of 
 the east, even in defiance of the cold antarctic wind 
 which was blowing. Its edges were vaguely 
 defined in places into the shape of clouds, and 
 presently it rose so high, and grew so inflated in its 
 watery impalpability, that it obscured the new-risen 
 sun. Next, for a few moments it became all golden- 
 coloured, like a mountain mist at sunrise, while a
 
 GABEIEL DEXVEK 213 
 
 circle of the dark sea-water surrounding- it, turned 
 lustrous and green with its reflections : but this 
 radiance was transitory, and only lasted a few 
 moments. The edges of these clouds kept con- 
 tinually separating into fleecy fragments and 
 particles, which flew irregularly across the sky in all 
 directions, and a dull grey shadow fell everywhere, 
 the waves again turning to a profound blackness, 
 which contrasted harshly with the snow-white foam 
 that crowned their ever-forming ridges. 
 
 It would have been a grand, almost an awful 
 scene to have been present at. The straining masts 
 of the great ship rolled from side to side, as the 
 hull underneath swung about on the sides of the 
 inflated waves ; the foam dashed up, boiling and 
 surging under its dark sides ; while the wind 
 shrieked through the rigging overhead, growing 
 wilder and wilder at each moment ; although, o wing- 
 to the skill with wdiich the helm and sails were 
 managed, its utmost efforts only served to more 
 effectually decrease the ship's movement. The 
 whole of the men left on board (excepting the two 
 steersmen) were gathered in an excited group 
 against the bulwark under the forecastle, anxiously 
 
 B 2
 
 244 GABRIEL DEXVEIl 
 
 watching the progress of the launch, pulling* against 
 wind and sea as it was. 
 
 Once or twice the boat's crew endeavoured, 
 wliile resting on their oars, to attract the attention 
 of those they were about to succour, but without 
 any success. 
 
 The noise of the contending wind and water 
 drowned everything ; the sound was driven far 
 behind them, and Deborah's face gave no token 
 of recognition or sensibility. 
 
 Denver they had quite lost sight of, for he had 
 thrown himself into the bottom, and hidden his 
 head in Laura's golden hair, by the side of her cold 
 face, wliile his arm was clasping her throat and 
 shoulder tightly. Her head lay quite back 
 uncovered, with its locks streaming loosely about 
 it, while her cheeks were colourless — though 
 her thin cin-ved lips were red, and dark as with 
 fever ; a combination whicli added strange beauty 
 to her pallid features. Her figure was slightly 
 gathered together, wiili the knees drawn upwards. 
 She was clothed in the blue serge gown she had 
 covered her night-dress with : her white feet were 
 bare, a Leautifully-modelled ankle showing under 
 tl\e torn liem.
 
 GABEIEL DEXVER LM-j 
 
 Both their figures were covered in places by 
 splashes of briny spray : and there was water dashing 
 from side to side in the bottom of tlie boat. Most 
 likely Denver expected at each moment to be over- 
 whelmed, and was clasping Laura in his arms ready 
 to sink with her. 
 
 Here was a scene wild enough to impress 
 even the hurried and not over impressionable 
 mariners ; truth here, indeed, seemed stranger than 
 fiction ! 
 
 The strength of the wind at times intensified to 
 a perfect tumult ; the sjjray (or spoondrift as the 
 sailors called it) was driven off the crests of the 
 speckled and cowering waves like a shower of salt 
 rain. The boat with its rowers struggled manfully 
 through the water, and the foam of tlieir oars 
 dashed in puffs over their heads, wetting their 
 faces and beards, and blinding their eyes till they 
 had to stop, wiping them on their sleeves. At last 
 they reached within two or three yards of the 
 undirected boat, which, it must be remembered, 
 was being driven towards them by the wind. 
 
 The sea drove both the boats up together with 
 a heavy shock, and the spray whirled in a fountain 
 between their sides. They met high up on the
 
 246 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 ridge of a great wave, but the next instant they 
 sank over into the abyss on the other side of it, so 
 that those on board the ' Albatross ' lost sight of 
 them. 
 
 Laura, still living, opened her languid sick 
 eyes, and saw — dizzily, as in a dream — a sailor's 
 sunburnt face leaning over the side looking down 
 at her, with his red hands holding on to the 
 gunwale. 
 
 He made a rope's end fast round the thwart, 
 just above her, and then turned round for an 
 instant, shouting ' Steady ! Steady ! Ease her off, 
 lads!' 
 
 Without another word spoken he half stepped 
 and half rolled over the side, while a confused 
 clamour of human voices rose in the wind, and 
 a second concussion struck and shook the boat. 
 The forms of two or three otlier sailors appeared to 
 be hovering over her, but her brain was so weak 
 and delirious that she could understand nothing, 
 and all became dark to her. 
 
 Denver was stunned with amazement as these 
 men helped him on to his feet — for two or three 
 minutes he dared not believe in this sudden and 
 brain-bewildering reality. Three strangers stood
 
 G.\BKIEL DEXYER 247 
 
 around him in the boat — wliich, made fast to 
 another, was being drag-ged in the direction of a 
 large three-masted ship, that seemed to have sprung 
 from the waves he knew not how. Not one word 
 was uttered. He just caught a glimpse of a can 
 they had with them, and saw that it was filled with 
 some hot and steaming liquid, and then they all 
 turned simultaneously to where Laura lay. Utterly 
 bewildered with the suddenness of what was passing 
 around him, he asked no questions, but held the 
 girl's head up eagerly. There was no time to speak, 
 and one of them knelt down, holding the hot rim 
 of the can to her parched lips, which he first 
 moistened by passing his wet finger over them. At 
 first she hardly seemed to know what they wanted ; 
 but as the smell of the steam blew in her face, she 
 began to sip eagerly from it for a while, as though 
 she had half forgotten how to drink properly. 
 Then she managed to take a draught, and sank back 
 exhausted. The can was next held out to him, and 
 he drank from it : and its heat seemed to infuse 
 sudden hope and vigour through all his nerves, 
 like a thrill of electricity. Once more he knelt 
 down over Laura, and looked up excitedly for the 
 can. He saw that they were now trying to force
 
 248 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 a stream of the black liquid in between Deborah's 
 rigid lips and death-clenched teeth. 
 
 He got up and sprang at them, trying to get it. 
 
 ' She's dead ! Give me the coffee for the girl, or 
 her life will go too.' 
 
 But they resisted him, and still persevered over 
 Deborah. The man holding the can said, ' No, no, 
 ray man ; bide a while, or thou'lt do her an injury.' 
 
 These were the first words that had passed be- 
 tween them. 
 
 One at last muttered, ' She must be dead ; her 
 neck and arms are stiff,' and they all turned to 
 Laura again. 
 
 Some more of the life-giving liquid was poured 
 down her throat, but she was too weak to make any 
 acknowledgment of this, and lay passively in Den- 
 ver's arms. 
 
 A slight flush, however, came over her cheeks. 
 
 The two boats, blown by the wind, were pulled 
 rapidly in the direction of the ship. Presently 
 they arrived under the side, and as the cast-away 
 boat pitched up and down on the dead water eddy 
 beneath the counter, none of the sailors could think 
 how to get Laura's prostrate, half-senseless form up 
 on to the deck above.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 210 
 
 Now a single rope-ladder had been flung ovci 
 the bulwark with its ends trailing in the water ; 
 and Denver, to the surprise of all, took her up 
 fiercely, yet as easily as a cat would its kitten, and 
 holding her on one arm so as to leave tlie other free, 
 he climbed up the uncertain ladder and over on to 
 the deck, into the midst of the group of marvelling 
 sailors. 
 
 Deborah was left in the boat alongside, and he 
 heard the men clustering over her call out to their 
 fellows on deck — 
 
 ' It's no use ; she's stone dead ! ' 
 
 Thus once more they were in a position of safety, 
 and seemingly secure in it.
 
 250 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 "When all the winds fight the enraged billows, 
 That rise to imprint on the black lips of clouds 
 A thousand brinie kisses. — Bevenge for Honour. 
 
 Conceive the sensations of some lost soul, drawn, 
 vainly struggling, to the entrance of hell — when 
 most it gives np all hope, and the lurid flickering 
 flames seem most agape for it — if the mockery of the 
 devils changed suddenly to the smiles of the wel- 
 coming angels and it Avere to feel itself snatched from 
 the dreaded fumes of the abyss into the midst of the 
 flowering sweet-scented blossoms of its imaginary 
 and despaired-of heaven, with all its long luminous 
 prospects ! 
 
 The past would seem like some hideous dream — 
 the present like tlie futile imaginings of delirium. 
 
 The conception of this alone might enable one 
 to form some idea of Denver's feelings, as jealously 
 carrying Laura in his arms, he climbed on to the
 
 GABEIEL DEX^T^R 251 
 
 ship's deck and found himself standing amid the 
 group of mariners, like one caught up unexpectedly 
 from hell into heaven. He was too stunned by the 
 sudden prospect o;f life thus opened out before him 
 to indulge in any premature self-gratulations, or, 
 indeed, quite to credit the truth of his senses. 
 
 Laura was immediately carried below deck into 
 the after-cabin. The stern of the 'Albatross' was 
 shaped and fitted up much as the ' Black Swan's ' 
 had been, save that the sleeping-berths were not 
 constructed in the same situation. There being no 
 passengers on board, they were occupied only by 
 the master and his mates. She was placed by 
 Denver, who still refused all assistance, in a ham- 
 mock swinging loose from a rafter in the roof of the 
 main cabin. This j)lace was right in the stern, and 
 its windows looked out over tlie wake of the vessel. 
 
 No c[uestions were asked of Denver, but directly 
 she was laid in this hammock, they all began by a 
 common impulse to crowd into the cabin from the 
 outer one. The sailors were ordered back again, 
 and only three men stopped with him helping. 
 They seemed to imderstand and sympathise perfectly 
 with the occult causes of his breathless, eager anxiety. 
 It is singular that men who lead the rough lives
 
 252 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 sailors do, should be capable of such extreme tender- 
 ness as these men manifested. 
 
 Tliey liad prepared some soup, and they l)egan 
 trying to get it by spoonfuls down her throat. She 
 s\vallo^Yed it with avidity at first, and then she 
 seemed to resist and desire to have no more ; but 
 they persisted, for her life depended on their 
 efforts. 
 
 It was no use talking to her, or entreating her 
 to be reasonable, as Denver did once or twice, for 
 she neither seemed to hear nor to be able to answer. 
 Ey assiduous efforts, however, they managed at last 
 to force her to swallow a cupful. There seemed to 
 be brandy, or more probably laudanum, in it, and it 
 almost immediately turned her unnaturally lethargic 
 weakness into real sleep. 
 
 After tossing her thin sun-burnt hands about 
 restlessly on the pillow for a while, she became 
 utterly unconscious. 
 
 ' There ; if she sleeps for two or three hours 
 she'll be able to eat safely — it might have been 
 dangerous now,' exclaimed one of them, looking 
 closely on her ; while Denver took some of the rich 
 o-olden tanL'les of her hair and laid them over her 
 face and eyes, as tliough to keep the light out.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 253 
 
 Then, and then onl}-, could they prevail upon 
 liim to take any nourishment himself. 
 
 This was about twenty minutes, or even more, 
 after the first draught of coffee they had allowed 
 him to have in the boat. He now ate some salt 
 meat and biscuit ravenously, and drank the weak tea 
 which was made, as the best and safest thing that 
 could be given him. 
 
 His craving for food seemed absolutely unsati- 
 able, and yet he could scarcely eat at all. He was 
 in such a condition of nervous excitement that, in 
 spite of all he had gone through, it became impos- 
 sible to him, after the first keen pangs of his hunger 
 were deadened and satiated. 
 
 They looked on, wondering at the little he ate, 
 for as it was they had only given him food in a very 
 sparse quantity. 
 
 At last he began to tremble all over, and a small 
 flask of strong cordial was handed him. A draught 
 from this somewhat restored him. 
 
 ' You must be careful,' said the master, ' you 
 seem worse than she is.' 
 
 As it has been explained, the cabin they had been 
 taken into was situated over the stern part of the 
 ship, and its windows looked out down the long trail
 
 254 GABKIEL DEXVER 
 
 of foam, undulating- with the stormy waves, that 
 seemed so incessantly foaming and following them 
 as they drifted along. A large seaman's chest was 
 lashed tight under the sills, and the planks under- 
 foot were bare. A clock, which had stopped, hung 
 on one side, a framed and badly-coloured print 
 of the sinking of the ' Eoyal Greorge ' faced it, 
 while an old-fashioned twisted lamp swung free 
 from the roof, all overrun with entangling lines 
 of reflection from the stormy water eddies round 
 the rudder. 
 
 Laui-a now lay placidly enough on the hammock, 
 as these four men stood round her. 
 
 The ship master, Mr. Newton, as the sailors had 
 called him, was a -wnnd-bronzed, sun-burnt, grey- 
 headed sailor, who might jjerhaps have been sixty 
 years of age, though he seemed vigorous and stm'dy 
 as a man of forty. 
 
 He began at length questioning Denver. 'It's 
 through the intervention and mercy of the Al- 
 mighty alone that you've been found in this way,' he 
 began. 'But surely you can't have passed very long 
 without food if you eat like that.'' 
 
 ' We were four days in the boat,' Denver answered, 
 ' she and I ; if you had not seen us we must have 
 perished in a few hours.'
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 255 
 
 He then tried to give some accoimt of the fire, 
 but he was far too exhausted to say much. He ex- 
 plained how the men, one and all, appeared to have 
 perished, for he had no idea of how the ten others 
 had escaped. When asked if he could tell how the 
 flames had first broken out, they all must have 
 noticed the start and visible change which came over 
 him, as he told them how he had seen the fire first, 
 but knew nothing more about it. 
 
 Then they asked him who the other woman was, 
 and how she had died. 
 
 He looked at tliem keenly for an instant with 
 gleaming, resolute eyes, and then said sternly, ' She 
 was my cousin ; her name was Deborah Mallinson ; 
 she drank the salt-water and went mad.' 
 
 Her death the captain had seen himself, so there 
 could be no suspicion of foul play; but he said 
 nothing, and merely asked, ' Do you wish to see her 
 again ? ' 
 
 ' No.' 
 
 They all three looked in each others faces, but 
 without speaking. 
 
 Perhaps some dim perception of the truth struck 
 them, strange and di'eadful as it was, though what- 
 ever they might have suspected was of a quite in- 
 articulate nature to them. They must have seen
 
 256 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 plainly from Denver's compressed lips and the reso- 
 lution his face expressed, that it would be worse than 
 useless to question him further. 
 
 Meanwhile the movement of the ship seemed to 
 have grown slower and slower, till at last it had 
 almost ceased. The waves could be heard beating 
 and breaking idly round the sides, and the ship- 
 master looked anxiously through the narrow case- 
 ment and on to the sea. Then he started, and said 
 something to the two otliers in a low voice, and 
 without farther explanation hurriedly left the com- 
 partment. His footsteps could be heard going out 
 on to the deck. Everything was so still above that 
 they could overhear the talk of the sailors. 
 
 The whole of the inferior crew were clustered on 
 the fore-deck, discussing what had just happened, 
 and looking over the side, where the two boats still 
 swam. In one of them Deborah was laid out as she 
 had died, with the black and red striped cloak 
 wound round her form. Could they have known 
 her story, it would have been terrible indeed to 
 watch her lying so helpless now she was dead, but 
 to them a prostrate figure, with a sail or a cloak 
 flung over it, was perchance no very unusual sight. 
 Two or three men were still down in the boats
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 257 
 
 alongside. One of them lifted a fold of the cloak 
 off the dead pale face, exposing its clenched teeth 
 and distorted lips, wide nostrils, and dark, filmy, 
 staring eyes. The hair lay all round it in writhing 
 tangles, like a nest of black serpents. During the 
 past two or three weeks it had completely changed 
 its character, for its long waving lines had become 
 all crinkly and shrivelled up, as though her head 
 had been singed with fire. 
 
 The man dropped the corner of the cloak again 
 with a shudder. 
 
 None of them desired to have the corpse on 
 board if it could be helped, for they superstitiously 
 believed its presence would bring some misfortune 
 to the ship. 
 
 There still remained in force at that time the rem- 
 nants of an old Icelandic sea superstition, which was, 
 that no dead human body could intercept the light, 
 or, in other words, cause a shadow to fall from it. 
 
 Now there was a distinct outline of shadow that 
 fell under one of her outstretched hands, and these 
 sailors began pointing it out to each other, half 
 seriously even, as a proof that there was still life in 
 the body. 
 
 But immediately on his reaching the deck, the 
 
 s
 
 258 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 master gave some order whicli caused the ship's own 
 boat to be hauled up the side and hung temporarily 
 half over the bulwark, all wet and dripping with 
 water. Then they demanded what should be done 
 with the dead body. The boatswain was directed to 
 get an auger and bore two or three holes in the 
 bottom of the boat the corpse was in. This was done. 
 
 It presently fell off from the side, and lagged 
 behind in tlie rough waves, but seven or eight 
 minutes passed before it was twenty feet astern. 
 
 One could have seen that the boat was filling 
 with water, for the body moved once or twice, the 
 cloak fell off its livid, desolate face, and it seemed 
 to rise in the bottom. 
 
 When about half sunk it swung round the stern 
 close to the rudder. Denver, standing near the 
 casement and hearing a heavy splash, looked out, 
 and saw the half-submerged form, with its pallid 
 face and dark ghastly eyes, staring, as he thought, 
 right up at him from just underneath. At that 
 moment the head, neck, and whole body turned 
 slightly, as though she had come to life again. A 
 shudder, inconceivable in its full horror, convulsed 
 him irresistibly ! 
 
 The boat fell away far behind, till he almost lost
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 259 
 
 sight of her, though the woman's form always 
 appeared nearer its edge. His eyes remained fol- 
 lowing its com-se, fixed and fascinated. Every 
 moment it rose more heavily on the waves, or sank 
 deeper in the dark bubbling hollows of the water. 
 
 At last a quantity of advancing spray splaslied 
 over it and sank it instantly. The body was seen 
 for one moment, then — caught most likely under 
 one of the thwarts — it was sucked down out of sight 
 to all eternity, in the vortex created by the sinking 
 of the boat. A whirling eddy of white foam 
 ascending the curled and dark-green underside of 
 the overwhelming wave, was all that was left to bear 
 witness for a few moments to the last episode in 
 Deborah's weary, passion-baffled life and death. 
 
 Denver started, with his heart beating violently, 
 an inexpressible burst of relief overwhelmed him, 
 such as one feels on starting up from some oppressive 
 and terrible dream, the fascination that had en- 
 tranced him was removed, and he turned giddily 
 away from the casement. 
 
 At the same moment Laura stirred in her sleej), 
 uttei-ing a low-voiced exclamation like a moan, and 
 he came hastily to her side, but otherwise her sleep 
 seemed placid and undisturbed. 
 
 s 2
 
 2C0 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 There must have been some good reason for the 
 almost indecent haste with which the dead body was 
 consigned to the waves, for almost before the end, 
 the different sailors began to move swiftly about the 
 decks, each carrying out some separate order with 
 all the diligence he was master of. They could be 
 seen constantly directing their looks towards the 
 north-east. Yet the wild fitful violence of the cold 
 south wind seemed to abate every minute, the 
 strength of the gale had quite expended itself, and 
 at last it entirely ceased. There was a too suddenly 
 ominous hush and warmth and calm spread over all 
 the visible face of nature, one which bore far too 
 distinct a resemblance to the invariable lull which 
 ever precedes its wildest and most frantic outbursts. 
 Something unnatural was about to take place ; the 
 sailors knew this, and were preparing to receive it. 
 
 From horizon to zenith, the once blue sky was 
 completely covered and whitened with the dull 
 fleecy remnants of the morning mist, that had risen 
 so unaccountably in the east. 
 
 Here and there, through small momentary aper- 
 tures, the gleaming sun and the blue sky still shone 
 through, so that their transient rays speckled the 
 livid palpitating surface of the sea with strangely
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 261 
 
 shifting spots of tremulous green, too soon dispelled 
 and divested of their magic radiance as the clouds 
 blew over each other. But under all this transitory 
 and flower- like greenery, the cunning treacherous 
 sea concealed its purpose, even as a snake lies hid 
 in the grass, ready to lift its head and sting when 
 the time comes. 
 
 Presently the mists overhead all joined together, 
 blocking the sun out everywhere. 
 
 Covered in all directions with detached patches 
 and long continuous lines of white dissolving foam 
 from the crests of the subsided billows, the salt, 
 bitter ocean — livid and panting as it was — appeared 
 like some infuriate animal, regaining its wasted 
 energy and dissipated strength before the final effort 
 of its fierce rage. Where it chafed round the black 
 lines of the ship, it seemed like a lion, which, 
 purposely lashing its flanks with its tail, grows 
 angry under the self-infliction. 
 
 At length, however, its surface was entirely 
 absorbed into the smooth glassy undulations which 
 rolled seemingly from horizon to horizon ; on them 
 the 'Albatross' rose and fell witliout farther motion. 
 The white, weather-stained canvas aloft was all 
 furled, but the keen-eyed sailors still hung about
 
 262 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 the dizzy heights in the rigging, obeying the shouts 
 from the quarter-deck and forecastle. 
 
 The sea had grown so calm now, that the reversed 
 shadow of the hull and its three great masts fell 
 darkly and languidly mirrored deep down in the 
 green water. 
 
 It was strange how anxious the sailors all looked, 
 the extraordinary scene of the morning seemed 
 forgotten and jDassed away from their minds, and 
 down below the two mates had quitted the cabin 
 where Laura was laid, so that Denver was left alone 
 with her. 
 
 She still lay in the hammock, but she was now 
 no longer sleeping, despite her eyes being closed, 
 for her feverish hands moved up and down con- 
 tinually, sometimes pressed on her head, sometimes 
 entangled and wound in her long tresses, while her 
 lips moved deliriously, though she could scarcely 
 articulate. 
 
 The sense of utter escape as from some soul- 
 poisoning spell, which had penetrated Denver's mind 
 and nerves when he saw Deborah sink, would be of 
 itself difficult to describe in all its acuteness, but 
 now, watching over Laura's mysterious mental and 
 bodily condition, a terrible heart-sickening sense of
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 263 
 
 some dread or doubt which he dared not analyse, 
 returned on him again, made all the darker by 
 contrast with his previous relief. He felt himself 
 quite alone in the world with her now, with none to 
 come between them, his whole being shaken and 
 convulsed to its innermost recesses at the slightest 
 sign, or look, or touch from her ; and 3-et she lay 
 there before his face unable to recognise him, and 
 without even the strength necessary to give utterance 
 to the delirium of her enfeebled brain. At times he 
 pressed his liot li^js wildly on hers, but she never 
 opened her eyes ; spoke to her piteously and entreat- 
 ingiy, but she gave no sign of recognition ; or 
 clasped the hot hands that ab.vays tossed about so 
 wearily, only to have them withdrawn, until at last 
 he retired to a distance and stood looking on her, 
 perfectly sick to the heart with terror and per- 
 plexity. 
 
 There is nothing more unnatm'al, or even more 
 awful, than to be forgotten and unrecognised by a 
 loved friend when delirious with sickness and fever. 
 Such meaningless words as are uttered serve only to 
 depress the mind which seeks to gatlier vain conso- 
 lation from them.
 
 254 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 Denver endeavoured long and unsuccessfully to 
 connect or disentangle Laura's meanings. 
 
 Once he imagined, however, that he heard his 
 own name muttered, and he went up to her side, 
 though without attracting her notice. After this he 
 took up a wet sponge left there, and began with 
 trembling diligence to bathe her forehead and face, 
 and even her feet. His heart palpitated so that he 
 could hear nothing else. 
 
 Suddenly she opened her eyes, looking fixedly in 
 one corner of the cabin, as if she saw something she 
 desired there ; but whatever it was she must have 
 seen it before she opened them, for only the bare 
 oaken planks met her view. 
 
 She half rose and tried to stretch out her hands, 
 while a flame-like smile flickered over her thin, wan 
 visage, then, exhausted with the effort, she lay back 
 on the hard pillow and fell almost instantly asleep. 
 The smile yet remained on her features, though 
 gradually dying out, till they quite composed them- 
 selves, and it was lost. 
 
 All this while Denver stood by hardly daring to 
 stir, though he longed to clasp her in his arms now, 
 as a little while back he had longed for water to give 
 her.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 2G5 
 
 Save for her short, quick breathing, the interioi 
 cabin grew quite silent and noiseless. 
 
 Overhead all was dead silent, too, and the men 
 remained anxiously keeping watch over the smooth 
 livid sea, which was still all flecked with yellow, de- 
 caying remnants of foam. The fleecy, motionless 
 clouds in the skies above entirely precluded the sun- 
 light. 
 
 Everything remained quiet in absolute calm still, 
 when a slight murmur, or rather a hissing sound, 
 suddenly became audible to them from towards the 
 north-east. 
 
 The master and first mate rushed to the wheel, 
 grasping its spokes in readiness, and then turned, 
 looking sharply out in the direction the noise came 
 from. It seemed to act on tlie sailors like the 
 warning hiss of some dreaded serpent. 
 
 A very slight rufHing of wind appeared to play 
 along over the confines of cloud and sea, then it re- 
 ceded behind the horizon again ; but paltry as it 
 seemed to have been, the waves it had passed over 
 were white and reeling with foam, while the clouds 
 were scattering in clusters. 
 
 A second time it played out to where the be- 
 calmed, passive ship lay, stealthily and with con-
 
 266 GABRIEL DEXVEE 
 
 cealed purpose, as it were ; just as a Trild cat might 
 stretch out its velvet, delicate paw into the nest of 
 a brooding bird, and once more withdraw it, as 
 fearing lest it might prematurely distm-b its intended 
 victim. 
 
 Then the gathering wind seemed angrily to 
 become aware that the mariners were on the alert 
 for it. To pursue the simile, where the animal's 
 eyes woidd have flamed with resentment, two or 
 three sinister-looking black clouds, small but rapidly 
 elong^ating, emerged over the waves — merely this, 
 and then all became silent for a while. 
 
 Next, when the crouched-up animal would have 
 risen, and sprung, and flown at her victim I 
 
 What had happened ? What was the matter ? 
 
 Everything in the cabin grew suddenly and un- 
 expectedly dark to Denver's wondering eyes. 
 
 A dreadful pause succeeded, in which two or 
 three footsteps rang above him on the deck, like the 
 clashing of iron. 
 
 He rushed to the casement and looked out. 
 
 The whole extent of the eastern horizon had 
 grown black with sudden shadow and cloud. The 
 foremost fragments of it swirled by over the frail
 
 GABRIEL DE^'VER 267 
 
 ship like dark wreaths of smoke, wliile underneath, 
 in strange and splendid contrast, the whole sea had 
 grown white as with foaming and fm-ious passion, 
 and the spray was beaten out of it mast-high like 
 rain. It all swept down on them like a deluge, and 
 the great vessel rose with a sudden plunge, and 
 drove away before the outburst of tropical tempest. 
 
 Outside it was a black speck, driving through 
 the white foam which seemed to sweep foremost 
 everywhere, blown in advance by the tumultuous 
 violence of the wind. 
 
 Inside the cabin where Denver was, all became 
 quite dark, save for the faint traces of light cast on 
 the roof at times, not reflected from the black turbid 
 water, but from the foam which surged over it. 
 The spray showered heavily on the thick glass with 
 a sound like the distant rattling of thunder ; but the 
 strong iron framework withstood its utmost efforts. 
 The violent whistling of the wind could be heard over- 
 bead in the strained cordage and the hissing of the 
 water underneath, mingled at times with human 
 shouts and cries. The door swung open heavily 
 with the vibration, and fell creaking to and fro, till 
 he crept across the sloping floor and latched it. 
 The hammock always swayed gently ; he could just
 
 268 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 see a glimmering blank spot, swinging backwards 
 and forwards, where Lanra's still sleeping face was 
 propped up on its pillow. 
 
 He stood by it a while, listening to the different 
 noises all complicated one with another, until he 
 could make certain that he heard the sound of her 
 faint but continued respiration among them ; and 
 then he went again and looked out at the casement, 
 blind with weltering splashes of foam and water. 
 He was wildly anxious as to what had happened, 
 but he dared not leave the cabin. Through the wet 
 streaming glass he could dimly see a vast trackless 
 extent of foaming waves, all following the ship, and 
 overhead the trailing rack of the dark, cloud- 
 covered sky (faintly luminous in thin places, but 
 unseparated everywhere) drove after. Whenever he 
 could make out the long ridge of a wave, he noticed 
 that it was slightly circular in form, and where the 
 tumultuous water was not white with foam, it was 
 black with itself. The motion of the ship was 
 swift and plunging, and yet, strange to say, so even 
 that (although the deck slanted till he leant on the 
 under wall for support) Laura's hammock-bed swung 
 so gently that she was never once wakened.
 
 G.\ERIEL DENVER 269 
 
 In the liusli which came at long intervals he 
 could always hear the sound of her breathing. 
 
 Once or twice, raising a burst of shouting over- 
 head, a heavy wave caught and struck on the plunging 
 prow with a dull, hollow shock, and then the strong- 
 built vessel quivered through all its timbers. 
 
 He could hardly see for the darkness, but how to 
 procure a light he could not tell. 
 
 At last he thought of groping his way to the 
 chest and searchino- it. After a while he managed 
 to force the lid open, and turning over the contents 
 he found a tinder-box with a long bundle of matches 
 attached to it. 
 
 By striking the flint over and over again, he ob- 
 tained a spark, then he blew it up and lit the sul- 
 phur-tipped match from it. 
 
 All this while the prolonged snake-like hisses of 
 the water and the whistling of the wind above were 
 intensified. 
 
 But just as he had obtained the first glimmering 
 of fire, and was about to rise with it, a sharp gust 
 of wind through some draughty crack blew it out 
 again, and he had to begin afresh. At length with 
 his lighted match he once more reached to where 
 the lamp swung, and it being charged with oil, for-
 
 270 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 tunately, he ignited the wick. A trembling reflec- 
 tion of warm light fell all over the cabin walls and 
 on Laura's face and throat and golden hair, while 
 the hammock swung to and fro from the hooks in 
 the rafter. 
 
 Just then the door was flung open, and a man, 
 whose face was unknown to him, staggered in, holding 
 by the post. 
 
 'We've been caught in a hurricane,' he exclaimed, 
 speaking in great haste ; ' it's carrying the ship with 
 it, but the sky's lighting in places, and the wind 
 will die away presently. How is she ? Still sleeping ? 
 Ah ! that's the laudanum. I can't wait ; you must 
 watch by her. You'd best not venture on deck. 
 There's a butt of drinking-water in this cabin.' 
 
 Without a word more he slammed the door to, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 At the same moment the ship rolled heavily on 
 the broken surf of some smaller cross-wave, while a 
 burst of shouting broke out on the deck above. 
 Again and again the bows plunged deeply, and the 
 stern rose and fell, till the unusual motion made 
 Denver's heart quiver. Then it passed off, and in a 
 momentary hush, the dull thudding of men's feet 
 could be heard just overhead, mingled with the
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 271 
 
 creaking and groaning of the rudder, until the 
 sweeping tumultuous wash of the water drowned 
 everything again with its j^eculiar heavy foam- 
 scattering stormy splashing of -waves — a sound not 
 to be conveyed in language. 
 
 The ship, skilfully directed, seemed to be slip- 
 ping out of the circular sweep of the wind and tide, 
 taking advantage of every opening in the ridges of 
 the Avind-cloven waves ahead. All they could do 
 was to keep her as much as possible before the wind, 
 and take every opportunity to turn aside. Of course 
 it must not be supposed that they could see them- 
 selves going round. In those days the law of storm 
 was unknown, so that if they knew the way the 
 storm travelled, it must have been by instinct. The 
 entire circle which was being formed by the hm*ri- 
 cane might have to involve a space some seven or 
 eight hundred miles in circumference ; but the cir- 
 cular inclination, from their point of view (which 
 seemed to be at the very centre of the cyclone), was 
 so very decided that any deviation too much to the left 
 —the tempest's com-se sweeping to the left — would 
 inevitably have destroyed them. The pressure to 
 windward might have thrown them into the trough of
 
 272 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 the sea, and driven the waves surging over the sides, 
 and eventually have swamped them. 
 
 Just one corner of a sail, set and inflated like the 
 hood of a cobra, served to direct the vessel. One man 
 kept his place lashed in the forecastle, which swayed 
 to right and left, or rose and fell all wet, grey, and 
 gleaming. He shouted directions to one just behind, 
 and so the steering orders were passed through a chain 
 of mouths up to the three men labouring at the wheel 
 — no easy task, for the very loudest shouts were over- 
 powered and blown away in the wind like whiffs of 
 smoke. To any but a seaman it would have looked 
 fearful to watch the two or three men who still, in 
 spite of everything, managed to cling about in the 
 dizzy rigging, while the great foam-dashed abysses 
 in the hollows of the waves would have been no less 
 dreadful to contemplate, as the great ' Albatross ' 
 toppled over and fell into them and rose out again 
 perpetually. 
 
 None of the crew had time to remember or think 
 about the two human beings they had rescued in the 
 boat that morning. 
 
 But when this incessant struggle against wind 
 and sea had endured for over four hours, it began to 
 show signs of relaxation, and the long shut-out day-
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 273 
 
 light streamed in on the wild waves, through one or 
 two straggling rifts in the shattered and sombre 
 storm-clouds. A heavv, blinding deluQ;e of rain 
 began, and the afternoon sun, which pierced through 
 in scattered rays, made the showers glance and 
 sparkle with gleams of exquisite golden light. One 
 sunbeam fell right on the ship, causing the wet masts 
 and complicated ropes of the rigging to glow like 
 lines of red shifting fire. It was a magic transfor- 
 mation in comparison with the lowering sombreness 
 of the storm half-an-hour before ; but, returning to 
 the main cabin, there is no longer time to spare for 
 describing the cessation of the tempest. 
 
 T-
 
 274 G.yiRIEI DENVER 
 
 CHAPTEK XYIII. 
 
 Wild, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one 
 
 Who staggers forth into the light and sun, 
 
 From the dark portals of a mortal fever. — Shelley. 
 
 During the prolonged and violent raging of the 
 storm, no one came near them a second time, and 
 Denver watched Laura's sleep with ever-increasing 
 anxiety for over two hours. 
 
 He was not aware that the lethargy she lay in 
 was merely the result of the opiate which had been 
 administered to her. After any dangerous shock 
 upon the nerves, sleep- — no matter how produced — 
 is the most soothing and beneficial remedy in exist- 
 ence. The sailors were well aware of this ; the only 
 mistake they made was in not administering the 
 same opiate to Denver himself. He had not ob- 
 tained one moment of rest all that day ; he was 
 in full possession of his senses : the sudden re- 
 action his unexpected rescue had produced in his 
 mind was fast performing what four days' exposure
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 275 
 
 to the sea had failed to do — he had become seriously 
 ill, and every moment he was growing worse. 
 
 At times the whole cabin seemed to swim round 
 before his over-exerted eyes, and a constant fit of 
 cold shivering pervaded his limbs. Every now and 
 then he was forced to sit down and rest himself on 
 the box, but after a little while he always got up 
 again to examine Lam-a's pale slumbering face. A 
 sharp stinging sense of pain now began to shoot 
 through the joints of his limbs at every movement 
 he made, and his brain grew so dizzy that he could 
 barely stand on his feet. 
 
 Yet he tried hard to fight against his growing- 
 weakness, and he never for one instant admitted to 
 himself that he was ill. Remembering what the 
 man had told him, he groped his way out of the 
 door into the adjoining cabin ; and by the reflection 
 of the lamp through the doorway, managed to 
 discover the barrel of drinking-water which was 
 lashed in one corner there. 
 
 He knelt down and drank eagerly from the 
 spout, and then returned. Going back a second 
 time, he discovered that he had left the tap tm'ned 
 on, and that all the water, down to the last dregs, 
 was spent. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 G.\J3RIEL DEXVEK 
 
 The dark floor was all vret and slippery, and 
 it reeled so that it was difficult for a man in 
 his condition to keep his feet. Nevertheless, he 
 staggered to the rail of the companion-stairs, which 
 led up to the quarter-deck above. There he re- 
 mained, holding on for a moment or two. 
 
 He was not thirsty, and what he wanted he 
 scarce knew himself, but presently he commenced 
 ascending them, still holding on by the rail. The 
 shrill wind blew wildly through in his face, and a 
 gTeat blinding splash of salt spray fell in his eyes 
 and hair. He just reached the entrance, and caught 
 a dim glimpse of the black foam-dashed decks, with 
 five or six figures clinging about them, and of the 
 raging sea all around, when over all the noise of 
 the wind and waves he heard his own name called 
 distinctly. 
 
 ' Denver ! Denver I ' 
 
 He clambered hurriedly down the steep staircase, 
 and into the obscure cabin below. 
 
 The door of communication had swuns: to ao-ain 
 and latched itself, and he stood listening for an 
 instant. At first he could only distinguish the groan- 
 ing of the buffeted side timbers, as the waves flung 
 themselves up, urged on by the wild and sibilant
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 277 
 
 howling of the wind, but in a while the sound 
 was repeated faintly, and he rushed to the door — 
 for it was Laura's voice. - 
 
 The effects of the opiate had gradually worn off, 
 and she had returned to self-consciousness at last. 
 She had lain still for a while on re-awakening, 
 trying vainly and dizzily to collect her wandering 
 thoughts, for she could in no way recognise the 
 place in which she found herself. 
 
 The lamp cast its weird flickering eddies of 
 sliadow over the ceiling and walls, as it swung from 
 side to side ; and she could feel that her hammock 
 was swinging with it. How had she come into this 
 place ? 
 
 She could recollect nothing. 
 
 She heard the liquid splashes of the waves, and 
 the loud murmur and hiss of the surge, dashed and 
 toiling uselessly against the strong sides ; for then 
 the very heart-beats of the storm were throbbing 
 over and around the ship : and she lay listening a 
 long while to the confused and desultory sounds. 
 Next she tm-ned her head and caught a glimpse of 
 the white foam, dashing up against the small window 
 of the casement — and then a partial recollection of
 
 278 GABRIEL DEXTER 
 
 all she had gone through flitted through her mind, 
 and she felt herself h udder. 
 
 She tried to rise, but for an instant her will 
 failed her and she found it impossible, and next 
 she attempted to cry out, but could utter no 
 sound. Every episode of lier short life seemed to 
 revolve rapidly before her, from the most trifling- 
 episodes of the childhood in which she had first seen 
 her lover, down to her second meeting with him. 
 She saw the impression his face then made upon her 
 floating- now before her eyes, as though it had been 
 burnt into her very brain, and her intense love 
 for him grew like a blown flame consuming her 
 lieart. 
 
 Laura had thoroughly recovered consciousness 
 now, and her strength seemed partly to have 
 returned with it, yet for a little while longer she 
 lay quiet ; after which she raised herself, and looked 
 round the empty compartment, and saw that he 
 was not there. 
 
 A vague feeling of dread rose in her heart ; she 
 collected all her force and called his name twice 
 over, but she obtained no answer save the desolate 
 conflicting- noises of the storm.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 279 
 
 A second time she called him, ' Denver ! 
 Gabriel ! ' 
 
 In another instant he appeared by her side with 
 startled, anxious featm-es. Without speaking a word 
 he threw his arms round her head, kissing her cold 
 temples over and over again. 
 
 After this he withdrew to a little distance, 
 bending forwards and looking fixedly in her face. 
 At the same moment a frightened expression came 
 into her eyes, as though she noticed something about 
 his features which disturbed her. 
 
 ' Where have you been, Gabriel ? ' she asked. 
 'Why, your hair's all wet, and full of white 
 foam ! ' 
 
 ' Do you really know me ? ' he suddenly de- 
 manded, in a strange and excited voice. He seemed 
 not to have heard what she said. 
 
 ' Yes ; why should I not ? ' she answered, but 
 she spoke so faintly that her words almost escaped 
 him, and she had to repeat them. 
 
 ' It's more than I do ; for I scarce know what I'm 
 thinking about. You've been delirious, Laura, 
 and you're very weak still ; but you'll soon be 
 better.' 
 
 Her head moved a little as she lay back, and
 
 280 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 perhaps he thought this movement was intended 
 to imply disbelief in what he said, for he put his 
 face to hers, passionately kissing her cold lips. 
 They quivered sliglitly beneath his close burning- 
 pressure. 
 
 Some indescribable burst of the love in her 
 heart caused her to raise herself so as to clasp him 
 round the neck. There was a flush of blood in her 
 pale frightened face, but it died out again, and her 
 features grew more pallid than ever. 
 
 All tliis while the noise and tumult of the storm 
 increased, so that the wind-tossed vessel shifted and 
 fell about more tempestuously than ever. Denver had 
 great difficulty in keeping his feet, and he grasped 
 the cords of the swinging hammock to steady 
 himself. 
 
 Holding on in this way, he bent over a second 
 time, kissing her cold face again, just as it was 
 receding from his, for her arms had let go their 
 hold upon his neck. 
 
 His eyes must have become very dim, for her 
 features seemed to form a mere glimmering blank 
 before them. He looked up dizzily, and then 
 again bent his liead down over her. The rich curls 
 of his wet black hair had grown very long during the
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 281 
 
 protracted voyage, and they fell over, twining and 
 clustering among her golden ones. 
 
 He tried to speak, but only uttered some 
 inarticulate exclamation, while his hands relaxed 
 their grasp on the ropes. 
 
 The next instant Laura screamed out loudly, 
 for he had staggered, and fallen under the hammock 
 on to the floor. 
 
 In a while some hurried footsteps might have 
 been heard coming through the outer cabin. At 
 the same moment, the light of the sun fell all round 
 the ship, and a wild stormy reflection from the 
 glittering waves pierced through the casement on 
 to the ceiling. The door was flung oj)en, and the 
 master of the vessel, followed by two others, 
 came in, their long oil-skin coats running with 
 water. 
 
 Laura was leaning out of the hammock crying 
 for help, while Denver was lying insensible on the 
 floor underneath her. 
 
 • • • • 
 
 The sun sank stormily over the still high- 
 runuiDg but subsiding sea, and the daylight faded 
 gradually away. The men on board the ship had 
 been obliged bv that time to fasten a fresh ham-
 
 282 G.\BRIEL DEXVER 
 
 mock in one of the sleeping-cabins, and watch over 
 it carefully, for on recovering from liis insensibility 
 Denver was discovered to be delirious, and raving 
 under an attack of what they considered to be brain 
 fever. 
 
 About midnight, or after, a group of some seven 
 or eight of these sailors stood talking together on 
 the deck, in the shelter of tlie forecastle. How 
 many there were among them could not be seen, 
 for in the dusk their forms were all fused together 
 into one dark, indistinguishable mass, diversified 
 by their dimly discernible white faces, or here and 
 there by the sparkle of an eye. But their voices 
 were plainly audible; in fact, they were all talking 
 loudly, and the substance of their conversation may 
 be of interest. 
 
 ' I never heard anything stranger than the way 
 he goes on. What can the man have on his 
 mind ? ' exclaimed one in a tone of astonishment. 
 
 ' And above all, what can his cousin Deborah, as 
 he calls her, have done to him ? ' interrupted another, 
 who must have been one of the mates. ' There's 
 some mystery about him — and / can't see to the 
 bottom on't.' 
 
 ' How can he have come to have all that money
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 283 
 
 with him in the boat, and nothing- else?' said 
 a third. But no one attempting to answer this 
 question, there was a general pause. 
 
 ' I couldn't have gone near them sooner 
 than I did,' exclaimed the voice of the master 
 of the ship, breaking the silence again. ' You see 
 the weather gave us no time, really. It was 
 very unlucky, but I never saw such a scene. We 
 might have gone under at any moment. What a 
 trouble there was to persuade her to remain by 
 herself, to be sure! I'm afeard she overheard 
 the way he began raving when he came to 
 again. But I think I've quieted her now. Grood 
 Lord ! ' 
 
 He stopped short, for just at that moment 
 a young man came down the deck and joined 
 them. 
 
 ' Why, Spraggon ! ' cried the master, with great 
 emphasis. 'What the devil have you left him 
 alone for, man ? ' 
 
 ' He's been dreadful bad, sir ; but he's quite 
 still again now. I reckoned it safe to leave him a 
 moment, I heard tlie girl give a call; she says 
 she wants you, sir.'
 
 284 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 ' Oh ! well, I must come, then ; but you should 
 have given a call yourself, and never — ' 
 
 Whatever the master had in his mind to say was 
 again cut short, for one of the party interrupted 
 him with a sudden and unceremonious exclamation. 
 They all tiurned, looking in the direction the man 
 pointed to. 
 
 The mist in the western sky was bright with 
 reflection from the rising moon — a watery point 
 of light just grown visible above the rough waves 
 hanging there, as if loth to part from tlie horizon, 
 and look on the misery of the world below. Over 
 the dark outline of the stern bulwarks to starboard, 
 a strange black silhouette appeared, and paused for 
 a moment. Some man stood there, holding on 
 with one hand to the shrouds of the mizen-mast. 
 He seemed to be intending to fling himself over- 
 board. 
 
 They all of them started in horror, as this 
 figure dashed its arms up wildly — another second, 
 and it would have fallen into the obscurity and 
 disappeared. 
 
 But at the same moment a second figure — a 
 slender woman, whose long hair was bright with the 
 moonlight — darting forward, seized the man as he
 
 GABKIEL DENVER 285 
 
 still stood poised there, and in another instant { 
 
 had succeeded in dragging him down on to the 
 deck. • 
 
 A loud, piercing series of shrieks rang through 
 the whole vessel ; but by that time they had all 
 rushed up to the place on ^yhich these two figures 
 were. They found Laura clinging to Denver, and 
 struggling to restrain him from leaping overboard 
 in his delirium ! Overpowered by terror and anxiety 
 for his safety, she had — after sending the message to 
 the captain — managed to leave her hammock, and 
 had got into the outer cabin to wait for a reply. A 
 dim lantern just expiring in fitful alternations of ', 
 
 light and shadow showed her the place was empty 
 even of furnitm-e — when suddenly she found Denver 
 standing before her. He made no answer when she 
 spoke to him, and seemed totally unaware of her pre- 
 sence. He was muttering to himself, and seemed to 
 see something before him which he was evidently 
 following and talking to. Had he gone mad ? They | 
 
 had not told her really what was the matter with 
 him. Unable to attract his notice, and faint with J 
 
 terror and weakness, she followed him up on to the I 
 
 quarter-deck. She tried to scream, but her speech I 
 
 failed her, for her tongue seemed paralysed — she
 
 286 GABEIEL DENVER 
 
 uttered no sound. Every instant she thought herself 
 about to swoon, but by a violent effort of the will, 
 she managed to retain what little strength was left 
 to her. 
 
 Just as he managed to climb up on to the bul- 
 wark (still as if following someone in his delirium) 
 she had thrown herself upon him, seized him, and 
 dragged him back again in her weak arms ; wliile at 
 the same moment the spell on her tongue seemed 
 removed. fShe uttered scream after scream, till all 
 the startled crew had rushed up to her assistance. 
 
 Denver was almost instantly overpowered, and 
 carried down into his berth again. They made ar- 
 rangements to watch over him more carefully for the 
 rest of that evening. 
 
 ' I hope to Gfod this wind may last, then we 
 shall bear up for the Cape, and put him ashore ; 
 hell be safe there,' exclaimed the master in the 
 hearing of the crew, when the confusion created by 
 this wild scene had calmed do^vn a little. ' I'm sure 
 I never dreamt to what uses my ship might be put 
 ere ever the voyage was out ! '
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 287 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Deeply have I slept ; 
 As one who hath gone down into the springs 
 Of his existence and there bathed, I come 
 Regenerate up into the world again. 
 
 Death's Jest Book ; or, The Fool's Tragedy. 
 
 It is a terrible thing to experience the first vague 
 
 struggle of returning consciousness, after a long 
 
 illness, varied by the delirium and insensibility with 
 
 which an acute attack of brain fever is accompanied. 
 
 The brain seems perpetually whirling round, as in a 
 
 vast sea of grey glittering light ; the sufferer gasps 
 
 for breath like a drowning person, he knows not 
 
 whether his sensations are those of life or death, and 
 
 longs vainly for his agony to cease in one or the 
 
 other ; yet he can neither live nor die. He just 
 
 vaguely recollects his own personality, and that is all. 
 
 Sometimes a wildly distorted reminiscence of some 
 
 action of his former life surges up in his mind — then 
 
 he grows delirious and raves over it, making the
 
 288 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 people watcliing at his bedside shudder despite them- 
 selves. The most absolutel}^ trivial words and events 
 are remembered, and invested with a solemnity and 
 awfulness wliicli is beyond conception. 
 
 If death prevails, the struggle is soon over, and 
 the soul leaves the body in peace and goes to seek 
 for peace itself ; but if the sufferer is of vigorous con- 
 stitution, his life will somehow manage to maintain 
 itself. Should this be the case, the more he returns 
 to himself, the severer and more marked grow the 
 alternations of the struggle — till sometimes after a 
 more violent paroxysm than usual, he manages to 
 gain, as it were, a little breathing-space. Then he 
 lies, striving wildly and vainly to piece together his 
 disconnected ideas, and at times, in the midst of 
 his insanity and delirium, he dimly recollects the 
 features of the face he may catch a glimpse of, 
 bending over his. He even tries to speak to it, 
 only he can find no words to utter. Oh! how 
 bewildering to find that after all the mind is not 
 a mere particle of agonised sensation, tossing about 
 through space like a sparrow caught up in a whirl- 
 wind ! 
 
 There is an old northern allegory which narrates 
 how Life and Death, after struggling vainly one to
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 289 
 
 overcome tlie other, at length became friends, and 
 throwing down their weapons, between them created 
 Love. Now Denver, after one of the worst paroxysms 
 of the illness which had attacked him, at lenoth ex- 
 perienced a vague feeling of sensibility ; his soul 
 had long hovered over the verge of life and death, 
 but at last some faint recollection of his life returned 
 to him, and with his vitality his love for Lam-a 
 seemed to re-awaken. A longing, half-sorrowful 
 sensation obtruded itself among the terrors which 
 haunted and beset the visions of his fever-stricken 
 brain, while he began dimly to perceive a half- 
 remembered face floating before his dizzy eyes. It 
 was very pale, with a mass of golden hair rippling all 
 round it — its tremulous, red cmwed lips, moved oc- 
 casionally, as though they were speaking to him — 
 while its eyes were of a deep intense blue, shadowed 
 and rendered dim by their long lashes. 
 
 Then he lost sight of it again, and began dream- 
 ing of a deep pool of water he remembered in his 
 childhood, round the margin of which the lono- 
 tropical grasses used to spring up, waving and quivei*- 
 ing in the wind. He thought he was once more 
 wandering roimd its sides, gazing into the reflection 
 of the lofty blue sky mirrored in its depths. An in- 
 
 u
 
 200 GABRIEL DEXYER 
 
 expressible sensation of peace seemed at last to fall 
 upon liis agitated soul, and he became ntteiiy ur- 
 conscious. 
 
 When he caught sight of this face a secona l^^ 
 it was after waking up from a profound and dream- 
 less sleep which he had fallen into. 
 
 It happened in this way. 
 
 He suddenly found himself lying on a soft bed in 
 the middle of a room, the furniture and appearance 
 of which he was utterly incapable of recognising. 
 
 There was an open casement right in front of 
 him, and the v,dnd was blowing through, fluttering 
 the bright curtains Vv'hich hung at its sides. There 
 were two of these openings, one at each end of the 
 room ; and they were literally made upon the prin- 
 ciple from which the modern name has been derived 
 — wind-door; for there were no sashes or glass to 
 them, and the breeze was free to come or go. The 
 apartment could not be one of the cabins on board 
 ship, for there was foliage and vegetation in front of 
 these windows, and he could hear the leaves shaken 
 and rustling with the movements of the atmosphere. 
 The white sultry sunlight shot through, chequering 
 the cool, uncarpeted floor. 
 
 The aspect of all these unusual and strange things
 
 G.IBEIEL DENVER 291 
 
 tired his eyes, and lie closed them again. His posi- 
 tion was an utter mystery to him. Had he been ill ? 
 
 Opening them again, he looked at the wall. It 
 was made of wicker-work, like a division intended to 
 separate one large chamber into two. Clinging oa 
 it he noticed an extraordinary reptile — a chamelion, 
 such as is kept in all the Cape Town houses to de- 
 stroy the flies and other vermin. He had never seen 
 such an animal, and gazed at it with amazement. 
 Its eyes were turned up, squinting crookedly at the 
 flies on the ceiling ; and while he watched it, the 
 colour of its skin changed from a dingy green to a 
 brilliant violet. He could not make out whether he 
 was awake or not. AYhere was he ? 
 
 Then a bewildering idea flashed across his mind, 
 making his weakened nerves quiver with excite- 
 ment 
 
 ' Where ivas Laura ? ' 
 
 Hitherto he had moved nothing but his eyes. 
 He now attempted to turn his head, so as to look on 
 the other side of him, and he just managed to lift 
 his neck and catch sight of the ceiling, with a vivid 
 reflection dancing over it, when he fell back help- 
 lessly on the pillow, and discovered that he was 
 almost too enfeebled to move.
 
 292 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 A second time lie essayed eagerly, and this effort 
 •was saccessful. He turned riglit over, and could see 
 the other side of the room. 
 
 His sudden anxiety was quieted again. There 
 Lam-a was, sitting at his bedside ; she was leaning 
 over, reading from the pages of some large book, 
 bound in sober brown cloth, which lay open on her 
 knees. Her elbow rested on the arm of the chair in 
 which she was seated, her chin was supported in the 
 palm of her hand, and her red-golden hair lay hang- 
 ing loosely over her shoulders. There was an uneasy, 
 careworn expression in her pale face, but her eyes 
 were fixed so intently on the page she was perusing 
 that she had not noticed his unexpected movements. 
 
 In one moment all his bewilderment and doubt 
 and i^erplexity was quieted, he had lost sight of 
 everything excepting the fact that she was really 
 before him. At first he could scarcely articidate ; 
 his tongue was parched, and clove to the roof of 
 his mouth. ' Laura ! Laura ! ' he exclaimed in a 
 faint voice. 
 
 She uttered a cry, and lifted her head up in a 
 startled way, while the bible dropped off her laj^ 
 and on to the floor with a rustle and crash, and 
 the next instant her arms were round his neck.
 
 GABRIEL DENVER 293 
 
 Their mutual position seemed completely to liave 
 changed now, he was the dependant, and she was the 
 protector. He was supported in her arms, not she 
 in his. 
 
 ' Where in heaven's name am I ? ' he demanded 
 in a feeble voice. 
 
 ' Hush ! the doctor said you were not to talk 
 ■when you should wake. You've been asleep all 
 the night till now. Lay your head back, so — 
 but no. 111 put the pillow under it. There.' 
 
 So saying, she propped his head up on the pillow, 
 and placed her hand on his lips, enjoining silence in 
 a more practical fashion. 
 
 ' Are you thirsty ? ' she asked after this. 
 
 ' A little. But for God's sake tell me liow — ' 
 
 Again he felt the hand, interrupting his speech 
 by its soft affectionate pressure on his excited lips. 
 
 ' If you speak another word I shall be compelled 
 to leave the room,' he heard her answer, ' but as it 
 is,' she continued, in a more tender voice, as though 
 fearful of having spoken too harshly, ' I must go 
 down for your drink. my God ! to think that he 
 sliould have recovered after all,' she exclaimed to 
 herself, half audibly. 
 
 Then he felt her kiss him two oi three times
 
 294 • GACPJEL EEXTER 
 
 over. He was too weak and dizzy to be rebellious, 
 and lay quietly enough. 
 
 After this, seeing how motionless he remained, 
 she crossed to the other side of the room, and nest 
 he heard her open a door and go out. 
 
 The mists which hid his memory from him were 
 beginning to clear away a little, but in what fashion 
 he had come to this place he knew not. He dimly 
 recollected how the ship had rescued them, but 
 between that time and this a great blank space of 
 utter deathlike forgetfulness intervened. Yet it 
 could be scarcely two or three hours ago since he 
 had been in the storm watching over Laura's ham- 
 mock. 
 
 It was late in the day then, almost evening, and 
 Tiow it was morning. How was he to accormt for 
 the lapse of time which must have occurred ? 
 
 It was an utterly unanswerable problem. 
 
 It was no use thinking, and he lay still, waiting 
 patiently for Laura to retm-n. 
 
 Presently he heard her footsteps coming up a 
 flight of stairs outside, but there were two or three 
 others with her, and they all came to his bedside. 
 
 One was a stout, elderly woman, with sun-freckled 
 features, wlio began smiling at him ; she was appa-
 
 GABEIEL DEXVER 295 
 
 rently German or Dutch by birth, for she spoke 
 English very imperfectly. She was followed by a 
 half-naked woolly-headed negress, who carried a 
 stone jug. The tliird was a tall, burly man, in a 
 nankeen jacket, and with a straw hat on his head. , 
 
 This man leant over him and took up his wrist, 
 as though feeling the pulse. 
 
 ' How are you ? ' he asked suddenly ; ' has yom- 
 sleep refreshed you ? ' 
 
 ' I feel very weak,' answered Denver, hardly 
 knowing what he meant. 
 
 ' Hem ! Well, yes, you had to lose a good deal 
 of blood. It lowers the system, of course. Oh ! 
 you'll do very well with a little more care,' exclaimed 
 the doctor (for such he was) in a cheerful tone. 
 
 But Denver's whole attention was riveted on 
 Lam'a, who now again stood beside him. 
 
 He watched her filling a glass out of the jug 
 which was held by the negress, and when it was 
 full she came to his bedside with it. Then, sup- 
 porting his head with one hand, she held the glass 
 to his lips with the other, and she only removed it 
 when she had persuaded him to drain off its contents 
 to the very dregs. When he had done this, she 
 allowed him to fall back on the pillow again.
 
 ^96 GABRIEL DEXVER 
 
 He heard them all whispering together at the 
 foot of his bed, and tried vainly to make out what 
 they were saying. He only caught the words ' sleep 
 is everything to Mm,' and two or three other discon- 
 nected sentences, for he had become so drowsy now 
 that their voices seemed to have no more meanino- 
 to him than the low vexed humming of the insects 
 on the ceiling over his head. 
 
 In a few moments he had fallen fast asleep. 
 
 More than eleven hours passed ere he awoke ; 
 the room was in candle-light by tliat time, for the 
 night had come on. The chameleon was still 
 clinging on the walls, but it was shrivelled up and 
 sound asleep, dreaming perhaps of some one among 
 its antediluvian comrades. 
 
 He felt ravenously hungry, and entreated for 
 something to eat. Laura was no longer in the room, 
 the woman whom he had seen in the morning had 
 now taken her place. Seeing that he was awake, 
 and hearing his entreaties, she went out, and re- 
 tm-ned with a basin of warm chicken broth, which 
 she began good-naturedly to put into his mouth 
 with a large spoon. 
 
 Suddenly he asked for Laura. 
 
 ' She's sound asleep ; it's the first rest she has
 
 GABRIEL DEX^^ER 297 
 
 had for six days,' answered his new nurse, in her 
 strange pronunciation. 
 
 ' Do not disturb her on any account,' exclaimed 
 Denver. 
 
 He was allowed to finish the broth, and soon 
 after this he fell asleep again. 
 
 It was broad daylight before he roused himself. 
 His sleep had refreshed and invigorated him, and 
 the change which had taken place in his strength 
 was extraordinary, for he could sit up in his bed 
 almost without aid. He still had not the vaguest 
 idea of how he had come into his present position. 
 Trying to reflect on the mystery which surrounded 
 him only made his brain giddy, and none of the 
 people who entered the room would answer any 
 questions, they all seemed more ignorant than 
 himself even. 
 
 The doctor came two or three times a day, and 
 imder his treatment Denver grew stronger and 
 stronger. At length, after ten days he was able to 
 leave his bed and sit looking out at the windows of 
 his room. He seemed living in a dream. Another 
 week passed, and he was able to walk by himself. 
 
 It was then that for the first time he was told 
 how he had fallen down in a swoon while on board
 
 293 GABRIEL LEXVER 
 
 the ship Avhich had saved him. He had remained 
 delirious up to the time when he had suddenly found 
 himself lying on the bed, with Laura watching over 
 him. 
 
 Laura told him how he had been placed in a 
 hammock, while they had been obliged to keep 
 guard over him most carefully, until he lost all his 
 strength. They had never expected him to live. 
 What had taken place during the first night she 
 said not a w^ord about — indeed, many years passed 
 before she informed him of tlicd. After some days 
 they had reached the Cajse, but that part of the 
 vo3'age had been stormier than ever. She was still 
 very ill herself; but he had been with great dif- 
 ficulty transferred ashore in his hammock, and 
 placed under medical care in the house he was now 
 an inmate of. What kindness and hospitality they 
 had been treated with he himself knew. 
 
 ' The angels in lieaven itself could not have 
 behaved more tenderly to us than the sailors on 
 board the Albatross,' exclaimed Laura. ' Wlien we 
 reached here they gave all your money up, and re- 
 fused any payment whatever. The master came 
 several times to see you, but the ship has sailed 
 now. Ah ! one little knows of the kindness which
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 29D 
 
 is to be met with in this world, if one only needs 
 it.' 
 
 "While they v/ere talking- they had both been 
 seated in the verandah of the house. This place 
 was all ovea-grown by the entangled clinging foliage 
 of a luxuriant grape-vine. They had been sitting- 
 there so long without disturbance that the night had 
 stolen down upon them, and they had not perceived 
 it. The dark outlines of the trellis-work, interlaced 
 with the curled tendrils and flutterino- leaves of the 
 plant, v/ere dimly visible against the faint-colom-ed 
 African sky, and the wan stars were slowly brighten- 
 ing over the dark fringe of palm-trees which rose 
 against the horizon just in front of the house. 
 
 Both had remained witliout speaking for some 
 little time, when they suddenly rose and went out 
 into the open air. Denver still seemed to reo^uire 
 Laura's arm to support him. 
 
 They appeared to be in a cultivated garden. 
 The sweet fragrance of flowers seemed to fill the 
 whole atmos]3here, though the ground round them 
 was all dark and obscure, so that nothing could be 
 seen on it. 
 
 They still wandered to and fro in the dusk with- 
 out speaking, vv'hen Laura suddenly knelt down in
 
 300 GABEIEL DEXVER 
 
 the dusk and plucked some flowers, wliicli she held 
 for him to smell. 
 
 ' Laiu-a,' he exclaimed abruptly, as though 
 roused out of some reverie he had fallen into, ' ^Yhen 
 we are married we must live in England.' 
 
 She made no reply. Perhaps she blushed, but 
 be could not see her face distinctly. 
 
 ' When I reach London I shall be comparatively 
 rich,' Denver resumed, after a pause. ' I was 
 coming to England to secm'e some money that has 
 been left me by an uncle — eigliteen or nineteen 
 thousand pounds, I think it is.' 
 
 ' Only that ! ' remarked Lama, apparently in a 
 tone of amusement. He thought she was laughing 
 at him. 
 
 ' Only ! ' he exclaimed. 
 
 ' Why, / must be richer than you are.' 
 
 ' You I ' said Denver, in an almost disconcerted 
 tone, ' why, you never told me so.' 
 
 'But it never occurred to me — it's my poor 
 father's money which is settled on me,' said Laura 
 in perfect simplicity. ' How singular ! When I 
 come of age it will be at my disposal.' 
 
 At this moment they were joined by two or three
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 301 
 
 other people, who became dimly visible in the dusk 
 of the night, and presently they all went into the 
 house together. 
 
 In another fortnight they had been married, and 
 were on their way to England. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 It was long before the excitement caused by the 
 narration of their wild and extraordinary adven- 
 tures died out, although Denver had concealed tlie 
 details of it as much as was possible. The master of 
 the ' Albatross ' had left a written statement behind 
 him as to how the boat liad been found, and of the 
 third person in it. No one guessed the origin of the 
 fire ; Denver said not a word on that subject, and 
 his wife said nothing either, whatever she might 
 have known or suspected. • 
 
 Before many months the story had penetrated 
 even into the colony Denver had just quitted. The 
 only thing new was the fact that a boat containing- 
 ten men was picked up by a Eussian ship in S. Lat. 
 51°, E. Lon. 45°. These men were half insensible 
 from hunger and thirst, and they were afterwards 
 surmised to have belonged to the ill-fated ' Black 
 Swan.' They all of them disappeared in different 
 quarters of the world, however. The whole story
 
 i02 GABrJEL DE2sVER 
 
 was distorted into a series of the most 'extravagant ; 
 rumours, -whicli grew wilder and wilder as time went 
 
 on — increasing like the rijDples in a pool of still : 
 
 water, which widen out till at last one utterly loses | 
 
 1 
 
 sight of them, and the agitated water grows placid 
 
 again.
 
 GABEIEL DENVER 303 
 
 COXCLUSION. 
 
 Tho sullen passage of tliy -nxary st^ps 
 Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set 
 The pre<!ious jewel of thy home return. — Bichard II. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the 2'ith of June 1841, the 
 sun sank stormily among the clouds over the sea, in 
 front of the craggy precipitous cliffs of Combe-SIar- 
 tin, on the north coast of Devonshire. All day long 
 the atmosphere had been threatening rain ; but the 
 clouds still lingered in the hdavens, unwilling as it 
 were to waste their substance over the sterile hills. 
 
 While the sun declined, a little vand arose, 
 moaning fitfully among the thin distorted trees 
 which fringed the wild crags of the cliff-side. The 
 rims of the piled-up cloud's over the horizon vrere 
 lined as with fire, and where the sky was visible 
 through them, it could be seen dissolving tenderly 
 into those efflorescent hues which are only to be 
 noticed in the most brilliant sunsets. Far under 
 the difScult foot-path, whicli wound fearlessly along
 
 304 GABKIEL DENVER 
 
 the face of the projecting rocks, the desultory 
 beating- of the waves could be heard as they seethed 
 among the half-submerged stones of the sea-shore, 
 and over this path the half-sad, half-solemn tolling 
 of a chvirch bell, from some distant village far in- 
 land, made itself audible, the sound coming indis- 
 tinctly across the hills, well-nigh drowned in the 
 echoes it created. The whole scene was indescribably 
 peaceful and still. 
 
 At last the twilight commenced, and the trees 
 and rocks along the wild headland slowly disappeared 
 in its dusky, lingering obscurity. The sea at the 
 same time began to emit faint sparkles and flashes 
 of phosphor-fire — its invariable prelude to a storm. 
 
 But just before the sun had utterly disappeared, 
 the intense silence was disturbed, for two figures be- 
 came visible in the obscure half-light. One was a 
 man, well-dressed, and with a swarthy, dark-com- 
 plexioned face, the other, who was walking arm-in- 
 arm with him, was in all probability his wife. The 
 last dying gleams from the sunset continually caught 
 and glowed in the tangles of her hair, while her face 
 seemed to be very pale and beautiful. 
 
 They were both quite silent. Sometimes they 
 looked down on the sea beneath them, or even stood
 
 GABRIEL DEXYER 305 
 
 still for a moment, gazing at the bright-rimmed 
 clouds in the western sky, but it was always without 
 speaking. There seemed, indeed, an intense pathos 
 in their speechlessness ; their minds sympathised 
 too deeply with the obscurity and loneliness which 
 environed them to care to disturb its solitude. 
 
 Close at their feet a child of some five or six 
 years old was following them. This child's face 
 seemed to be strangely lovely, and she had ruddy 
 golden hair, although in the dusk (save for the 
 sparkle in her eyes) her featm'es were scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable, so that only a mere indistinct impres- 
 sion could be formed of them. Her quick vivacious 
 movements formed a strange contrast to their silence 
 and quietude. 
 
 They all continued walking for some timo yet 
 up the obscure devious pathway. The bell had 
 ceased tolling for a long while now, the vague and 
 desolate moaning of the sea under the deep cliff was 
 the only sound audible. 
 
 ' Laura,' exclaimed the man, stopping suddenly, 
 ' it's going to rain ; we must turn back.' 
 
 But almost at the moment he spoke, two or 
 three drops fell in their faces, and next the rain
 
 306 GABRIEL DENVER 
 
 commenced poming down in a torrent, although it 
 chiefly fell over the sea beyond the land. The lady 
 relinquished her husband's arm, and hastily caught 
 up the child, covering it with her shawl. 
 
 Then they hurriedly began to retrace their steps 
 round the projecting masses of earth and stone. 
 
 Presently they came to a great overhanging rock, 
 which appeared capable of affording shelter, and they 
 stopped under its side. The lady sat down on a 
 smaller fragment of stone which had fallen from 
 above, and placed her child on her knees, while her 
 husband remained standing at her side. Their pale 
 glimmering faces could be seen dimly defined against 
 the dark hollow under the rock. 
 
 The rain continued to pour down everywhere, 
 but it seemed too violent to be of long duration. 
 From the situation in which these three had placed 
 themselves, the sea beneath was plainly visible, but 
 an extraordinary alteration had taken place in its 
 placid appearance. From the dimmest verge of the 
 horizon up to wliere the tide waves broke at the foot 
 of the gloomy headland opposite, its surface was all 
 dancing and flashing with a kind of weird magical 
 fire which was beaten out of it by the rain. The 
 dark lines of the coast could be seen for miles, edged
 
 GABRIEL DEXVER 307 
 
 by white livid lines of luminous foam. Wherever 
 the rising waves broke on the black rocks, a perfect 
 shower of blue ghastly and mysterious flame flashed 
 out of them, while the rain fell agitating the rest of 
 the phosphorescent water in every direction. 
 
 ' Good heaven ! ' said the man, as he gazed on 
 this wild and fantastic scene. ' We've watched the 
 sea often enough from these cliffs, but I never thought 
 to see it like this a second time, Laura. How it re- 
 minds me of that night.' 
 
 The lady looked on in silence, for she was oc- 
 cupied with the child on her knee. 
 
 At last the shower all but ceased, and they came 
 out on to the wet pathway again. The fragrance of 
 the fallen rain filled the whole atmosphere. 
 
 ' Mamma,' cried the child suddenly, in a shrill, 
 sweet voice, which roused a perfect swirl of echoes 
 in the damp rocks overhead. 
 
 ' Well, dear ? ' replied the mother. 
 
 ' What did my father mean by what he said just 
 now ? ' 
 
 ' When do you mean ? ' 
 
 ' When he said it reminded him of that night, 
 and when yom- hands began to tremble so.'
 
 308 G.iBRIEL DENVER 
 
 At this the father caught the child's slender 
 form up in his arms half-laughingly, and kissed 
 her face; but the lady answered gravely, 'Some day 
 when you are old enough to understand it, perhaps 
 I'll tell you, Laura.' 
 
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