THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Professor 
 Frank W. Wadsworth
 
 // *-
 
 BOOKS BY W. CLARK RUSSELL. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 3$. 6</. each ; post 8vo. illustrated boards, 
 2s. each ; cloth limp, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 ROUND THE GALLEY-FIRE. 
 
 IN THE MIDDLE WATCH. 
 
 ON THE FO'K'SLE HEAD. 
 
 A VOYAGE TO THE CAPE. 
 
 A BOOK FOR THE HAMMOCK. 
 
 MYSTERY OF THE ' OCEAN STAR. 
 
 ROMANCE OF JENNY HARLOWE. 
 
 AN OCEAN TRAGEDY. 
 
 MY SHIPMATE LOUISE. 
 
 ALONE ON A WIDE WIDE SEA. 
 
 THE GOOD SHIP 'MOHOCK.' 
 
 THE PHANTOM DEATH. 
 
 IS HE THE MAN? 
 
 THE CONVICT SHIP. 
 
 HEART OF OAK. 
 
 Crown 8vo. cloth, 3s. 6d. each. 
 THE TALE OF THE TEN. With 12 Illustrations by 
 
 G. MONTBARD. 
 
 THE LAST ENTRY. With a Frontispiece. 
 London: CHATTO & WINDUS, m St. Martin's Lane, W.C
 
 HEART OF OAK
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS 
 
 ON 
 
 HEART OF OAK. 
 
 ' The marvel of it is that Mr. Russell's imagination never flags, nor is he ever at a 
 loss for those minute details which, skilfully and artistically piled up, go to make a living 
 picture. " Heart of Oak " is worthy to take its place in the matchless roll of his sea- 
 stories. Of living writers Mr. Russell, alike in style and method, most nearly approaches 
 the classic standard of Defoe.' — Punch. 
 
 ' Mr. Clark Russell has succeeded to the heritage of Marryat and Dana. There is 
 a wonderful go about some of his stories which makes one hold one's breath. . . . 
 " Heart of Oak " is as thrilling as anything he has written. The story is in parts almost 
 unbearable from its terrible passages, but as to its power there can be no question. Take 
 it altogether, it is the strongest work its author has hitherto produced.' — Academy. 
 
 'Mr. Clark Russell's excellent new story. . . . It requires the genius of a Clark Russell 
 in his own particular line to make all this appear possible, and to keep the interest steadily 
 increasing to the finish. But the difficult task is accomplished, and only one or two of 
 the author's previous stories could be mentioned as more successful, or more distinctive 
 in their plot and construction, than " Heart of Oak." ' — Athenaeum. 
 
 ' The extraordinary narrative seems so veracious and is so exciting that every reader 
 will find himself taking the warmest interest in the fate and possible fortunes of the 
 castaways. The perils of the deep were never better painted in words ; and the story is 
 as bracing and healthy as the polar atmosphere in which its incidents move. It is an 
 excellent sea-story, which has all the good qualities for which its author's books are 
 admired, and which will maintain and confirm his reputation.' — Scotsman. 
 
 ' In " Heart of Oak" the descriptive passages are fully equal in vividness and beauty 
 to those in any of its long line of predecessors. . . . We think it likely that Mr. Russell's 
 admirers (whose name is legion) will be inclined to feel that they can get as much of the 
 ocean as they need by staying comfortably at home and reading tales like " Heart of 
 Oak." ' — Daily Chronicle. 
 
 ' Mr. Clark Russell's hand has lost none of its cunning. . . . From the first page the 
 reader's attention is secured. . . . The reader would hardly thank us for spoiling by 
 premature disclosure his enjoyment of so thrilling a tale. . . . Those who want to get 
 away from weary or unsavoury problems into an atmosphere of honest romance and 
 adventure cannot do better than yield themselves to the spell of this " three-stranded 
 yarn." '—Glasgow Herald. 
 
 ' "Heart of Oak" is an extremely clever and uncommonly lively book.' — Leeds 
 Mercury. 
 
 ' A story which will hold the reader's close attention from beginning to end.' — 
 I. iterary World. 
 
 ' Mr. Clark Russell has built up as thrilling and startling a romance as any we have 
 had from his pen. . . . The story has, of course, a happy ending— Mr. Russell is the 
 friend of happy endings, and we like him all the better for being so. . . . He keeps the 
 heart of his reader palpitating with interest and excitement from the first page to the 
 last.'— Speaker. 
 
 1 A complete and delightful success. In general power and freshness the book does 
 not fall one whit behind any of its predecessors.' — Spectator. 
 
 ' Mr. Clark Russell has proved once more that no one knows better than he how to 
 construct a thrilling story of the sea, and to hold the reader spellbound through a 
 volume of the most exciting adventure.'— Westminster Gazette. 
 
 ' Mr. Clark Russell's " Heart of Oak" is distinguished by all the excellent qualities 
 which one associates with that most accomplished and prolific of marine scribes. His 
 books have the real smell and sound of the sea.'— St. James's Gazette. 
 
 'A stirring tale of the sea— one of those records of thrilling adventure and hair- 
 breadth escape in which Mr. Clark Russell excels. For a fine tale, redolent of wholesome 
 sea-breezes, we can heartily recommend it.'— Guardian.
 
 HEART OF OAK 
 
 A THREE- STRANDED YARN 
 
 BY 
 
 W. CLARK RUSSELL 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 *THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR ' 'THE PHANTOM DEATH* 
 
 'THE CONVICT SHIP 1 ETC. 
 
 A NEW EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS 
 1898
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 SrOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON
 
 rafts 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 ii. 
 
 in. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY . 
 MARIE'S SWEETHEART . 
 THE ' LADY EMMA "... 
 IV. MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE . 
 V. THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD . 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 
 A HURRICANE 
 
 DISMASTED 
 
 THE JURY-MAST 
 THE CREW LEAVE 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 
 THE HULL 
 
 XIV. STILL ADRIFT .... 
 
 XV. THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 XVI. THE AURORA AUSTRALIS . 
 THE THICK OF IT 
 IMPRISONED .... 
 MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 
 STARTLING NEWS . 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS . 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON TnE ICE 
 THE BRIG ' ALBATROSS ' . 
 AT SEA AGAIN .... 
 THE ICE. . 
 CORONATION ISLAND . 
 
 XXVIII. MR. MOORE ENDS HIS STORY 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 43 
 
 52 
 
 6i 
 
 73 
 8i 
 
 92 
 107 
 118 
 127 
 
 137 
 
 146 
 156 
 165 
 176 
 184 
 194 
 203 
 213 
 222 
 
 233 
 
 245 
 
 255 
 267 
 
 84165G
 
 HEART OF OAK 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY 
 
 I date the opening of this narrative, February 24, 1860. 
 
 I was in the drawing-room of my father's house on the 
 afternoon of that day, awaiting the arrival of Captain Burke, 
 of the ship ' Lady Emma,' and his wife, Mary Burke, who had 
 nursed me and brought me up, and indeed been as a mother 
 to me after my own mother's death in 1854 ; but she had left 
 us to marry Captain Edward Burke, and had already made 
 two voyages round the world with him, and was presently 
 going a third. 
 
 My father sat beside the fire reading a newspaper. His 
 name was Sir Mortimer Otway : he was fourth baronet and a 
 colonel ; had seen service in India, though he had long left 
 the army to settle down upon his little seaside estate. He 
 was a man of small fortune. Having said this, I need not 
 trouble you with more of his family history. 
 
 I was his only surviving child, and my name is Marie ; I 
 have no other Christian name than that ; it was my mother's. 
 My age was twenty and my health delicate, so much so that 
 Captain and Mrs. Burke were coming from London expressly 
 to talk over a scheme of my going round the world in their 
 ship for the benefit of my appetite and spirits and voice, and 
 perhaps for my lungs, though to be sure they were still sound 
 at that date. 
 
 Ours was a fine house, about a hundred years old ; it 
 stood within a stone's throw of the brink of the cliff; walls 
 and hedges encompassed some seventy or eighty acres of land, 
 pleasantly wooded in places, and there was a charming scene 
 of garden on either hand the carriage drive. I stood at the 
 
 B
 
 2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 window with my eyes fastened upon the sea, which went in a 
 slope of grey steel to the dark sky of the horizon, where here 
 and there some roaming mass of vapour was hoary with snow. 
 It was blowing a fresh breeze, and the throb of the ocean was 
 cold with the ice-like glances of the whipped foam. Presently 
 it thickened overhead, and snow fell in a squall of wind that 
 darkened the early afternoon into evening with smoking lines 
 of flying flakes. The sea faded as the reflection of a star in 
 troubled water. My father put down his newspaper and came 
 to the window. He was a tall man, bald, high-coloured ; his 
 eyes were large and black, soft in expression, and steady in 
 gaze ; his beard and moustache were of an iron grey, he was 
 sixty years old, yet still preserved the soldier's trick of carrying 
 his figure to the full height of his stature. 
 
 ' At what hour do you say they're to be here ? ' 
 
 ' At three.' 
 
 He glanced at his watch, then out of the window. 
 
 ' That doesn't look like a scene where a delicate girl's 
 going to get strong ! ' 
 
 1 No,' I answered with a shiver. 
 
 ' But a crown piece on a chart will often cover the area of 
 worse weather than this, and for leagues beyond all shall be 
 glorious sunshine and blue water.' 
 
 ' It's hard to realise,' said I, straining my eyes through the 
 snow for a sight of the sea. 
 
 ' Well,' he exclaimed, turning his back upon the window, 
 ' Bradshaw is an able man ; his instances of people whom a 
 sea voyage has cured are remarkable, and Aveigh with me. 
 Living by the seaside is not like going a voyage. It's the hun- 
 dred climates which make the medicine. Then the sights and 
 sounds of the ocean are tonical. Are sailors ever ill at sea ? 
 Yes, because they carry their sickness on board with them, or 
 they decay by bad usage, or perish by poisonous cargoes. The 
 sea kills no man — save by drowning.' 
 
 He took a turn about the room, and I stared through the 
 window at the flying blankness. 
 
 ' Steam is more certain,' he went on, thinking aloud. 
 ' You can time yourself by steam. But then for health it 
 doesn't give you all you want. At least we can't make it fit 
 in your case. It would be otherwise if I had the means or 
 was able to accompany you, or if I could put you in charge of 
 some sober, trustworthy old hand. Steam must signify several 
 changes to give you the time at sea that Bradshaw prescribes.
 
 MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY 3 
 
 It's out of the question. No ; Mrs. Burke's scheme is the 
 practicable one, and I shall feel easy when I think of you as 
 watched over by your old nurse. But I have several questions 
 to ask. When are they coming ? Have they missed their 
 train ? ' 
 
 About five minutes after this they were shown in. 
 
 Mrs. Burke, my old nurse, was a homely, plain, soft-hearted 
 woman, a little less than forty years of age at this time. She 
 was stout, and pale, though she was now a traveller, with 
 large, short-sighted blue eyes, a flat face, and a number of 
 chins. She was dressed as you would wish a homely skipper's 
 wife to be : in a neat bonnet with a heavy Shetland veil 
 wrapped around it ; a stout mantle, and a gown of thick warm 
 stuff. She sank a little curtsey to my father, who eagerly 
 stepped forward and cordially greeted his old servant ; in an 
 instant I had my arms round her neck. You will believe I 
 loved her when I tell you she had come to my mother's service 
 when I was a month old, and had been my nurse and maid, 
 and looked after me as a second mother down to the time when 
 she left us to be married. 
 
 Her husband stood smiling behind her. He was short, an 
 Irishman : he looked the completest sailor you can imagine — 
 that is, a merchant sailor. He was richly coloured by the 
 sun, and his small, sharp, merry, liquid blue eyes gleamed 
 and trembled and sparkled in their sockets like a pair of stars 
 in some reflected hectic of sunset in the eastern sky. Every- 
 thing about him told of heartiness and good humour : there 
 was something arch in the very curl of his little slip of 
 whiskers. A set of fine white teeth lighted up his face like 
 a smile of kindness whenever he parted his lips. He was 
 dressed in the blue doth coat and velvet collar, the figured 
 waistcoat and bell- shaped trousers, of the merchant service 
 in those days, and over all he wore a great pilot-cloth coat, 
 whose tails fell nearly to his heels ; inside of which, as inside 
 a sentry box, he stood up on slightly curved, easily yielding 
 legs, a model of a clean, wholesome, hearty British skipper. 
 
 Of course I had met him before. I had attended his 
 marriage, and was never so dull but that the recollection of his 
 face on that occasion would make me smile, and often laugh 
 aloud. He had also with his wife spent a day with us after 
 the return of his ship from the first voyage they had made 
 together My father shook him cordially by the hand. He 
 then led him into the library, whilst I took Mrs. Burke upstairs. 
 
 b2
 
 4 HEART OF OAK 
 
 We could have found a thousand things to say to each 
 other ; there were memories of sixteen years of my life common 
 to us both. I could have told her of my engagement and shown 
 her my sweetheart's picture ; but I was anxious to hear 
 Captain Burke on the subject of my proposed voyage, and so 
 after ten minutes we went downstairs, where we found my 
 father and the captain seated before a glowing fire, already 
 deep in talk. 
 
 The captain jumped up when I entered, my father placed 
 a chair for Mrs. Burke, who curtseyed her thanks, and the 
 four of us sat. 
 
 ' "Well, now, Mrs. Burke,' said my father, addressing her 
 very earnestly, ' your husband's ship is your suggestion, you 
 know. You've sailed round the world in her and you can tell 
 me more about the sea than your husband knows '—the 
 captain gave a loud, nervous laugh—' as to the suitability of 
 such a ship and such a voyage as you recommend to 
 Miss Otway.' 
 
 ' I am sure, Sir Mortimer,' answered Mrs. Burke, ' that 
 it'll do her all the good, and more than all the good, that the 
 doctors promise. I should love to have her with me.' She 
 turned to look at me affectionately. ' Since you can't accom- 
 pany her, sir, I'd not like to think of her at sea, and me 
 without the power of caring for her. No steamer could be 
 safer than the " Lady Emma." ' The captain utlered a 
 nervous laugh of good-humoured derision of steamers. ' If 
 you will trust my dear young lady to me, I'll warrant you, 
 Sir Mortimer, there's not the most splendid steamship ailoat 
 that shall make her a comfortabler home than my husband's 
 vessel.' 
 
 • I have some knowledge of the sea, Captain Burke,' said 
 my father. ' I have made the voyage to India. What is the 
 tonnage of the " Lady Emma " ? ' 
 
 ' Six hundred, sir.' 
 
 'That's a small ship. The " Hindostan " was fourteen 
 hundred tons.' 
 
 ' You don't want stilts aboard of six hundred tons to look 
 ever the head of the biggest sea that can run,' answered the 
 captain. 
 
 " ' She sails beautifully and is a sweet-looking ship,' said 
 my eld nurse. 
 
 • When do you start ? ' asked my father. 
 
 ' 1 hope to get away by the end of next month, sir.'
 
 MISS OTWAY OPENS THE STORY 5 
 
 • Your little ships, I understand, which are not passenger 
 vessels, often sail very deeply loaded and are unsafe in that 
 way,' said my father. 
 
 ' There can be nothing wrong with a man's freeboard, sir, 
 when his cargo is what mine's going to be next trip : stout, 
 brandy, whisky, samples of tinned goods, a lot of theatre 
 scenery, builder's stuff like as doors and window frames, 
 patent fuel and oil-cake.' 
 
 ' Gracious, what a mixture ! ' cried his wife. 
 
 ' What I suppose is termed a general cargo ? ' said my 
 father ; ' not the best of cargoes in case of fire.' 
 
 ' What cargo is good when it comes to that, sir ? ' asked 
 Captain Burke, smiling. ' We must never think of risks at 
 sea any more than we do ashore. To my fancy there's more 
 peril in a railway journey from here to London than in a 
 voyage from the Thames round the world.' 
 
 ' Miss Otway must be under somebody's care, Sir 
 Mortimer,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' How do you think she looks ? ' 
 
 ' Not as she'll look when I bring her back to you, sir.' 
 
 1 It's astonishing what a lot of colouring matter there is 
 for the blood in sea air,' said Captain Burke. ' When I was 
 first going to sea I was as pale as a baker ; or, as my old 
 father used to say, as a nun's lips with kissing of beads ; 
 
 afterwards ' he paused with an arch look at his wife. 
 
 4 And the colour isn't always that of rum either,' be added. 
 
 ' Where does the ship first sail to, nurse ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Tell my young lady, Edward,' she answered. 
 
 ' We're bound to Valparaiso, and that's by way of Cape 
 Horn,' said the captain. ' We there discharge, fill afresh, and 
 thence to Sydney, New South Wales, thence to Algoa Bay, 
 and so home — a beautiful round voyage.' 
 
 ' Right round the world, and so many lovely lands to view 
 besides ! ' exclaimed Mrs. Burke looking at me ; ' always in 
 one ship, too, in one home, Sir Mortimer, with me to see to 
 her. Oh, I shall love to have her ! ' 
 
 My father looked out of the window at the wild whirl of snow 
 that had thickened till it was all flying whiteness through the 
 glass, with the coming and going of the thunder of a squall 
 in the chimney, and. a subdued note of the snarling of surf, 
 and said, ' Cape Horn will be a cold passage for Miss Otway.' 
 
 ' It's more bracing than cold,' said Captain Burke, 
 1 People that talk of Cape Horn and the ice there don't know 8
 
 6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 I reckon, that parrots and humming birds are to be met with 
 in Strait le Maire. I was shipmate with a man who's been 
 picking fuchsias in such another snowfall as this down on the 
 coast of Patagonia.' 
 
 1 Miss Marie, you should see an iceberg ; it's a beautiful 
 sight when lighted up by the sun,' said my nurse. 
 
 ' Beautifuller when under the moon and lying becalmed 
 like a floating city of marble, and nothing breaking the quiet 
 save the breathing of grampuses,' exclaimed the captain. 
 
 In this strain we continued to talk for some time. My 
 father better understood than I did that my very life might 
 depend upon my going a voyage, and spending many months 
 among the climates of the ocean. All the doctors he had 
 consulted about me were agreed in this, and the last and the 
 most eminent, whose opinion we had taken, had advised it 
 with such gravity and emphasis as determined him upon 
 making at once the best arrangements practicable, seeing that 
 he was unable to accompany me for several reasons ; one, 
 and a sufficient, being his dislike of the sea when on it. Our 
 long talk ended in his proposing to return with Captain 
 Burke to London to view the ' Lady Emma,' which was lying 
 in the East India Docks, and my old nurse consented to stop 
 with me until he returned, so that we could chat about the 
 voyage and think over the many little things which might 
 be necessary to render my trip as happy and comfortable as 
 foresight could contrive. The one drawback that kept my 
 father hesitating throughout this meeting with Captain 
 Burke and his wife was this : the ' Lady Emma ' would not 
 carry a surgeon. But that question, they decided, would be 
 left until he had seen the ship, and satisfied himself that she 
 would make me such a sea-home as he could with an easy 
 heart send me away in. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 marie's sweetheart 
 
 My father went to London next day with Captain Burke. I 
 denied myself to callers, and until my father came back re- 
 mained alone with my old nurse, once or twice taking a 
 ramble along the seashore when the sun shone ; but my
 
 MARIE'S SWEETHEART 7 
 
 health was bad, and I had as little taste for walking as for 
 company. 
 
 I suffered from a sort of spiritlessness and a dull indif- 
 ference to things. My health was the cause of my low- 
 heartedness : but there were many reasons now why I 
 should feel wretched. It was not the merely leaving my 
 father and my home for a twelvemonth and longer, to wander 
 about the ocean in a ship in search of colour for my cheeks 
 and light for my eyes and strength for my voice ; but for my 
 health I should have been married in the previous October ; 
 and now my marriage must be put off till the sea had made 
 me strong, and I was to be sundered from the man I loved 
 for months and months. 
 
 My betrothal had happened whilst my old nurse Burke 
 was away ; it was therefore news to her, and she listened to 
 all about it with eager affectionate attention. I told her that my 
 sweetheart was Mr. Archibald Moore, the son of a private 
 banker in the City of London. I had met him at a ball in 
 the neighbourhood, and within a month of that we were 
 engaged. He was the sweetest, dearest, handsomest — I found 
 I did not want words when it came to my praising him and 
 speaking of my love. 
 
 She said : ' Does he often come to see you, Miss Marie ? ' 
 
 ' Often. Every week. He is occupied with his father 
 in the bank, and can only spare from Saturday to Monday.' 
 
 • Will he be here next Saturday ? ' 
 
 ' I hope so.' 
 
 c Dear heart ! Oh, Miss Marie, I have a thought : will 
 not his father spare him to sail with us, so that you can be 
 together ? ' 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 ' But why not ? ' 
 
 ' Father would not hear of it.' 
 
 She reflected and exclaimed, ' And Sir Mortimer would 
 be quite right. To be sure it would not do. Is it not a pity 
 that we have to live for our neighbours ? Neighbours have 
 broken folks' hearts, as well as their fortunes. Why shouldn't 
 you two be together on board my husband's ship ? But the 
 neighbour says No, and people have to live for him. Drat 
 the prying, squinting starer into one's windows ! He forces 
 us to dress out a better table than our purses can afford, and 
 to give balls when we ought to be cutting down the weekly 
 bills. But he don't like the sea, my dear, There are no
 
 8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 neighbours at sea. Unfortunately the wretch stops ashore ; 
 people have to come hack, and so he has 'em again.' 
 
 Mrs. Burke made much of Mr. Moore's portrait. She 
 had never seen a handsomer gentleman. What was his age ? 
 I answered ' Thirty.' ' All the sense,' said she, ' that a man's 
 likely to have he'll have got between thirty and forty. It'll 
 comfort you, Miss Marie, to remember that Mr. Moore's 
 thirty when you're away. He's old enough to know what 
 he's about : he's made up his mind ; there'll be no swerving.' 
 
 This was the sort of gabble to please me. She knew my 
 nature, and when and how to say just the sort of thing to set 
 my spirits dancing. In truth the part of my proposed 
 banishment hardest to bear was the fear that a long absence 
 would cool the heart of the man I loved. 
 
 On Friday Mrs. Burke left us to rejoin her husband, whose 
 home was in Stepney, and on that day my father returned. 
 He was in good spirits. He had seen the ' Lady Emma ' 
 and thought her a fine ship. She was classed high, and was 
 yacht-like as a model. Mr. Moore had accompanied him 
 and Captain Burke to the docks, and was wonderfully pleased 
 with the vessel and her accommodation. 
 
 ' We've got over the difficulty of a doctor,' said my 
 father. 
 
 ' How ? ' I answered. 
 
 ' Burke has consented to engage one. I told him if he 
 would carry a surgeon, by which I mean feed and accommo- 
 date him in the ship, I would bear the other charges. He 
 has a month before him, and may find a man who wants a 
 change of air and who'll give his services for a cabin and food. 
 Or, which is more likely, he'll meet with some intelligent 
 young gentleman who wants to try his 'prentice hand on 
 sailors before starting in practice ashore. Doctors find 
 sailors useful as subjects ; they can experiment on them 
 without professional anxiety as to the result.' 
 
 Now that it was as good as settled I was to sail in the 
 * Lady Emma,' I looked forward to meeting Mr. Moore next 
 day with dread and misery. I was going away alone. All 
 the risks of the sea lay before me. I was low and poor in 
 health. W 7 ho could be sure that the ocean would do for me 
 all that the doctors had promised ? Who was to say it would 
 let me return alive? I might never meet my love again. 
 AVhen I said good-bye to the man who by this time should 
 have been my husband, it might be for ever, and the thought
 
 MARIE'S SWEETHEART 9 
 
 made the prospect of meeting him next day almost insupport- 
 able. 
 
 He found me alone in the drawing-room. The servant 
 admitted him and closed the door. I stood up very white 
 and crying ; he took me in his arms and kissed me, led me to 
 a chair and sat beside me, holding my hand and nursing it, 
 and looking into my face for a little while, scarcely able to 
 speak. How shall I describe him, whose love for me, as you 
 shall presently read, was such as to make my love for him, 
 when I think of him as he sat beside me that day, as I follow 
 him in memory afterward, too deep for human expression ? 
 He was tall, fair, eyes of a dark blue, deep but gentle, and 
 easily impassioned. He wore a large yellow moustache, and 
 was as perfectly the model of an English gentleman in ap- 
 pearance as Captain Burke was a merchant skipper. 
 
 He began immediately on the subject of my voyage. 
 
 ' It's hard we should be parted ; but I like your little 
 ship, Marie. I've not met your old nurse, but I judge from 
 what your father tells me you could not be in better and safer 
 hands. Captain Burke seems a fine fellow — a thorough, prac- 
 tical seaman. I wish I could accompany you.' 
 
 ' Oh, Archie, 1 shall be so long alone ! ' 
 
 ' Ay, but you're to get well, dearest. I've thought the 
 scheme over thoroughly. If there's nothing for it but a 
 voyage, as the doctors insist, your father's plans, your old 
 nurse's suggestion, could not be bettered. Who would look 
 after you on board a big steamer ? There is nobody to 
 accompany you — no relative, nobody we know, no party of 
 people I can hear of to entrust you to — making, I mean, such 
 a voyage as the doctors advise. I should be distracted when 
 you were gone in thinking of you as alone on a steamship at 
 sea, with not a soul to take the least interest in you saving 
 the captain ; and captains, I believe, do not very much love 
 these obligations. Civility, of course, everybody expects, but 
 a big ship to look after is a big business to attend to.' 
 
 4 It will be a terribly long voyage.' 
 
 ' To Valparaiso, and then to Sydney and Algoa Bay, and 
 home. About fourteen months. So Burke calculates it. A 
 long time, Marie ; but if it is to make you strong, it will not 
 be too long.' 
 
 In this wise we talked ; then, there being two hours of 
 daylight left, I put on my hat and jacket and, taking my lover's 
 arm, went with him slowly down the great gap in the cliffs
 
 io HEART OF OAK 
 
 to the seashore. It was sheltered down hero. The yellow 
 sunshine lay upon the brown sand, and flashed in the lifting 
 lengths of seaweed writhing amidst the surf, and had a sense 
 of April warmth, though it was a keen wind that then blew — 
 a northerly wind, strong, with a hurry of white clouds like 
 endless flocks of sheep, scampering southwards. The sands 
 made a noble promenade, surf-furrowed and hard as wood ; 
 the breakers tumbled close beside us with a loud roar of 
 thunder, and exquisite was the picture of the trending cliffs, 
 snowclad, gleaming with a delicate moonlike light in the pale 
 airy blue distance. All sights and sounds of sky and sea 
 appealed to me now with a meaning I had never before found 
 in them. I would stop my lover as we walked, to observe 
 the swift and beautiful miracle of the moulding of a breaker 
 as it arched out of the troubled brine, soaring into a snow- 
 storm, arching headlong to the sands with the foam flying 
 from its rushing peak like white feathers streaming from a 
 dazzling line of helmets ; and once or twice as we talked, I 
 would pause to mark the flight of the gulls stemming the 
 wind aslant in curves of beauty, or sailing seawards on level 
 tremorless wings, and flinging a salt ocean song with their 
 short raw cries through the harsh bass and storming accom- 
 paniment of the surf. 
 
 1 If the breeze does not make me strong here, why should 
 the sea make me strong elsewhere ? ' I said. 
 
 ' It is the change. I have heard of desperate cases made 
 well by travel.' 
 
 ' It is hard ! To think that my health should force me to 
 that ! ' I exclaimed, pointing to a little vessel that had rounded 
 out of a point two miles distant, and was lifting the white seas 
 to the level of her bows as she sank and soared before the fresh 
 wind, every sail glowing like a star, her rigging gleaming like 
 golden wire, her decks sparkling when she inclined them 
 towards us, as though the glass and brass about her were 
 rubies and diamonds. 'I wonder if she will ever return, 
 Archie ? ' 
 
 ' Why not ? Cheer up, dearest.' 
 
 Vv r e watched her till she had shrunk into a little square of 
 dim orange, with the freckled green running in hardening 
 ridges southwards, where the shadow of the early February 
 evening was deepening like smoke, making the ocean distance 
 past the sail look as wide again to the imagination as the truth 
 was. I shuddered and involuntarily pressed my lover's arm.
 
 MARIE'S SWEETHEART n 
 
 ' The wind is too cold for you,' he said, and we slowly re- 
 turned home up through the great split in the cliff amongst 
 whose hollows and shoulders the roar of the surf was echoed 
 hack in quick, sudden, intermittent notes like the sound of 
 guns at sea. 
 
 From this date until I sailed my time was wholly occupied 
 in preparing for the voyage. I went to London with my father 
 to shop ; Mrs. Burke accompanied us, and half our purchases 
 were owing to her advice. Fortunately for her, as the wife of 
 a sailor who was able to take her to sea with him, she was 
 childless, and could afford to give me much of her time. They 
 reckoned I was to be away fourteen months, but Captain 
 Burke advised us, having regard to the character of the voy- 
 age, especially to the passage from Valparaiso to Sydney, to 
 stock for a round trip of eighteen months : this he thought 
 would provide for a good margin. Clothes for all the climates, 
 from the roasting calms of the line down to the frost-black 
 gales of the Horn, were purchased ; many delicacies were laid 
 in— a hundred elegant trifles of wine and condiments, of 
 sweetmeats and potted stuffs, to supplement the captain's 
 plain table or to find me a relish for some hungry howling 
 hour when the galley fire should be washed out. Mr. Moore 
 wrote that he frequently visited the ship, and that he and 
 Mrs. Burke between them were making my cabin as comfort- 
 able as my old nurse's foresight and experience could manage. 
 
 So went by this wretched time of waiting and of prepara- 
 tion. 
 
 About a fortnight before the ship sailed my father received 
 a letter from Captain Burke, telling him that he had engaged 
 a surgeon. His name was Owen. His age he said was about 
 forty-three ; he was a widower. The loss of his wife and two 
 daughters three years before this period had broken him down ; 
 he was unable to practise ; had travelled in the hopes of dis- 
 tracting his mind, but his means were slender and he was un- 
 able to be long away or go far ; yet when he endeavoured to 
 resume work he found himself unequal to his professional 
 calls. He thereupon sold his practice and had lived for some 
 months in retirement upon a trifling income. Having seen 
 Captain Burke's advertisement he offered his services in ex- 
 change for a free voyage. The captain described him as a 
 gentlemanly man, his credentials excellent, and his experience 
 considerable,
 
 12 HEART OF OAK 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE ' LADY EMMA ' 
 
 On the morning of a day for ever memorable to me as the date 
 of my departure from my home — namely, March 31, 1860 — 
 my father and I went to London, there to stay till April 2, 
 when it was arranged that I should go on board the ship at 
 Gravesend. My grief worked like a passion in me ; yet I was 
 quiet ; my resolution to be calm whitened my cheeks, but 
 again and again my eyes brimmed in spite of my efforts. 
 
 Oh, I so feared this going away alone ! Even though I 
 was to be in the company of my faithful, dear Mrs. Burke, my 
 very heart so shrank up in me at the idea of saying farewell 
 to my lover, with the chance of never seeing him more, that 
 sometimes when I said my prayers I would ask God to make 
 me too ill to leave home. 
 
 It was a melancholy grey day when I drove with my father 
 to the station ; the east wind sang like the surf in the naked, 
 iron-hard boughs, and the sea streamed in lines of snow into 
 the black desolate distance, unbroken by a gleam of sail, save 
 as we turned the corner which gave me a view of the ocean, I 
 caught sight of a lonely black and red carcass of a steamer 
 staggering along, tall and naked as though plucked, with a 
 hill of foam under her counter ; the melancholy and desolation 
 of the day was in her, and no picture of shipwreck could have 
 made that scene of waters sadder. 
 
 I had bidden good-bye to all I knew during the week : there 
 were no more farewells to be said. We entered the train, and 
 when we ran out of the station I felt that my long voyage had 
 truly commenced. I'll not linger over my brief stay in London. 
 Mr. Moore was constantly with me : indeed we were seldom 
 apart during those two days of my waiting to join the ship at 
 Gravesend. His father and sister called to say good-bye ; I 
 was too poorly and low-spirited to visit them. In truth I 
 never once left the hotel until I drove with my father and Mr. 
 Moore to the station to take the train to Gravesend. 
 
 Before embarking, however, I made the acquaintance of 
 Mr. Owen, the surgeon of the ship. He had occasion to be in 
 the West End of London, and Mrs. Burke asked him to call. 
 I viewed him with considei'able curiosity, for it was not only 
 he was to be my medical adviser — I could not but reflect that
 
 THE 'LADY EMMA' 13 
 
 I was to bo locked up in a small ship with this man for very 
 many months, with no other change of society than Captain 
 and Mrs. Burke. I was pleasantly disappointed in him. I 
 had figured a yellow, long-faced, melancholy man, with a 
 countenance ploughed by frequent secret weeping, and fur- 
 rowed by pitiful memories and night thoughts black as Dr. 
 Young's. Instead, there entered the room briskly, with a 
 sideways boAV cleverly executed whilst in motion, the right 
 arm advanced, a short, plump figure of a man in a coat cut in 
 something of a clerical style, short legs, and a face that would 
 have been reasonably full but for its long aquiline nose, and 
 contraction of lineaments due to a big bush of hair standing 
 out stiff in minute curls over either ear. Otherwise he was 
 bald. 
 
 My father was extremely polite to him. He stayed an 
 hour and partook of some slight refreshment. He stared at 
 me very earnestly, felt my pulse, considered me generally with 
 polite professional attention, and, after he had put certain 
 questions, said to my father with significant gravity : 
 
 ' You may console yourself, sir, for the temporary loss of 
 your daughter ; I do not scruple to say that in sending her on 
 this voyage you will be saving her life. I believe I can 
 recognise her case, and strongly share the opinion of those 
 who prescribe a long residence on board ship upon the ocean.' 
 
 My father's face lighted up : nothing I believe could have 
 heartened him more at the moment than this assurance. 
 Mr. Moore took Mr. Owen by the hand and said : 
 
 ' We shall be trusting her to you, sir ; she is very dear to 
 me. We should be man and wife but for her health."' 
 
 ' All that my anxious attention can give her she shall have,' 
 said Mr. Owen, bowing over my lover's hand. 
 
 Yet he did not stay his hour without letting us see, poor 
 fellow, that in the depths of his heart he was a grieving man. 
 He said nothing ; no reference was made to his affliction : but 
 in certain pauses the pain of memory would enter his face like 
 a shadow, and sometimes he would sigh tremulously as one 
 in sorrow sighs in sleep, scarcely knowing, you saw, that he 
 did so. 
 
 _ When he was gone, my father said to Mr. Moore that his 
 spirits felt as light again now that he had seen what sort of 
 man it was who would have charge of my health. 
 
 ' Taking all sides of it,' he said, ' I don't think we could 
 have done better. Marie goes with an old nurse who loves her
 
 14 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ag her own child ; Mr. Owen seems a kind-hearted, experi- 
 enced, practical man. I hope be understands that our 
 appreciation of his kindness will not be restricted to bare 
 thanks on the return of the vessel. The more I see of Burke, 
 the better I like him. lie is an honest, experienced seaman 
 from crown to heel, and in saying that I am allowing him all 
 the virtues. No ; the arrangements are wholly to my satis- 
 faction and my mind is at rest. It will be like a long yachting 
 trip for Marie : she will have a fine ship under her, and all 
 the seclusion and comfort of a yacht combined with the safety 
 of ample tonnage. I am satisfied. It was a cruel difficulty ; 
 we have had to meet it ; it is well met, and now, Marie, there 
 is nothing to do but wait. Have patience. The months will 
 swiftly roll by — then you will return to us, a healthy, fine 
 young woman, full of life and colour and vigour, instead 
 
 of ' His voice broke off in a sob and he turned his head 
 
 away. I ran to him and he held me. 
 
 On April 2 we went down to Gravesend. Mr. Moore 
 accompanied us. Captain Burke had telegraphed that the 
 ' Lady Emma ' was lying off that town and would tow to sea 
 in the afternoon of the 2nd. We arrived at Gravesend at 
 about twelve o'clock and drove to a hotel. All my luggage 
 had been sent on board the ship in the docks. Mrs. Burke 
 waited for us in a room overlooking the river ; here she had 
 ordered luncheon to be served. She seemed hearty and 
 happy : kissed me, and curtseyed to my father and Mr. Moore, 
 and taking me to the window said : 
 
 ' There she is, Miss Marie. There's your ocean home. 
 "What do you think of her as a picture ? ' 
 
 She pointed to a vessel that was straining at a buoy 
 almost immediately opposite. A tug was lying near her. It 
 w r as a young April day ; the sunshine thin and pale, the blue 
 of the heavens soft and dim, with a number of swelling bodies 
 of clouds, humped and bronzed, sailing with the majesty of 
 line-of-battle ships into the south-west. A brisk wind blew 
 and the river was full of life. The grey water twinkled and 
 was flashed in places into a clearness and beauty of bluish 
 crystal by the brushing of the breeze. The eve was filled 
 and puzzled for some moments by the abounding tints and 
 motion. A large steamer with her line of bulwarks palpitating 
 with heads of emigrants was slowly passing down ; another 
 with frosted funnel and drainings of red rust on her side, ag 
 though she still bled from the scratches of a recent vicious
 
 THE 'LADY EMMA' 15 
 
 fight outside, was warily passing up : beside her was a large, 
 full-rigged ship towing to London, and the sluggish passage 
 of the masts, yards, and rigging of the two vessels, the 
 steamer sliding past the other, combined with the sudden 
 turning of a little schooner close by, all her canvas shaking, 
 and with the heeling figure of a brig, her dark breasts of 
 patched canvas swelling for the flat shores opposite, a spout 
 of white water at her fore-foot, and a short-lived vein of river- 
 froth at her rudder ; then, close in, two barges heaped with 
 cargo, blowing along stiff as flag-poles under brown wings of 
 sail ; these, with vessels at both extremities of the Reach 
 coming and going, interlacing the perspective of their rigging 
 into a complication of colours and wirelike outlines, for ever 
 .shifting : all this wonderful changing life, I say, adding to it 
 the trembling of the stream of river, the pouring of smoke, 
 the pulling and shivering of flags, put a giddiness into the 
 scene, and for some moments I stared idly, with Mrs. Burke 
 beside me pointing to the ' Lady Emma.' 
 
 My eye then went to the ship, and rested upon as pretty a 
 little fabric as probably ever floated upon the water of the 
 Thames. I may venture upon a description of her and speak 
 critically : indeed I must presuppose some knowledge of the 
 sea in you, otherwise I shall be at a loss ; for as you shall 
 presently discover I was long enough upon the ocean, under 
 circumstances of distress scarcely paralleled in the records, to 
 learn by heart the language of the deep, how to speak of ships 
 and tell of sailors' doings, and I cannot but name the things 
 of the sea in the language in which the mariner talks of 
 them. 
 
 The ' Lady Emma ' was a full-rigged ship, between six 
 hundred and seven hundred tons in burthen ; she was a 
 wooden ship— iron sailing vessels were few in those days ; 
 she was painted black : but though loaded for the voyage she sat 
 lightly upon the water, and a hand's-breadth of new metal 
 sheathing burned along her water-line like a gilding of sun- 
 light the length of her. Her lower masts were white, her 
 upper masts a bright yellow ; her yards were very square, or, 
 as a landsman would call them, wide : the most inexperienced 
 eye might guess that when clothed in sail she would spread 
 wings as of an albatross in power, breadth, and beauty for a 
 meteoric flight over the long blue heave. 
 
 ' How do you like her, Miss Marie ? ' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 1 She is a pretty ship, I think,' I answered.
 
 16 HEART OF OAK 
 
 1 She is a beauty,' said the good woman ; ' she outsails 
 everything.' 
 
 ' She has a fine commanding lift about the bows,' said Mr. 
 Moore, passing his arm through mine. « Captain Burke tells 
 me she has done as much as three hundred and twelve miles 
 in the twenty-four hours.' 
 
 ' So she has, sir,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 'I wish she'd maintain that rate of sailing all the time 
 Marie is aboard,' said my father. 
 
 • Oh, Sir Mortimer, this going will seem but as of yester- 
 day's happening when yonder ship's out there again, returned, 
 and your dear girl's in your arms, strong, fine, and heartv, 
 rich in voice, and bright-eyed as she used to be when a baby. 
 These voyages seem long to take, and when they're ended it's 
 like counting how many fingers you have to remember them, 
 so easy and quick it all went.' 
 
 Lunch was served and we seated ourselves, but my throat 
 was dry and I could swallow nothing but a little wine. My 
 father and Mr. Moore pretended to eat ; suddenly looking up 
 I met my sweetheart's gaze : a look of inexpressible tenderness 
 and distress entered his face, and starting from his seat he 
 went to the window, and kept his back to us for a few minutes. 
 Mrs. Burke went to him and whispered in his ear ; I perfectly 
 understood that she begged him to bear up for my sake : 
 indeed it needed but for my father and my lover to give way, 
 for me to break down utterly, with a menace of consequent 
 prostration that must put an end to this scheme of a voyage 
 on the very threshold of it. 
 
 We left the hotel at two o'clock and walked slowly to the 
 pier. I was closely veiled. I could not have borne the inquisi- 
 tive stare of the people as we passed. Whilst we waited for a 
 boat, I watched a mother saying good-bye to her son, a bright- 
 haired boy of fourteen in the uniform of a merchant midship- 
 man. She was in deep mourning, a widow, and I had but to 
 look at her pale face to know that the boy was her child. The 
 lad struggled with his feelings ; his determination to be manly 
 and not to be seen to cry by the people standing round about 
 nor to go on board his ship with red eyes doubtless helped 
 him. He broke away from her with a sort of sharp sobbing 
 laugh, crying, ' Back again in a year, mother, back again in 
 a year,' and left her. She stood as though turned to stone. 
 When in the boat he flourished his cap to her ; she watched 
 him like a statue with the most dreadful expression of grief
 
 THE 'LADY EMMA' 17 
 
 the imagination could paint. Never shall I forget the motion- 
 less figure of that widow mother and the grief in her face, and 
 the look in her tearless eyes. 
 
 ' There's plenty of sorrow in this world,' said Mrs. Burke, 
 as the four of us seated ourselves in the boat, ' and there's no 
 place where more grief's to be seen than here, owing to the 
 leave takings and the coming back of ships with news.' 
 
 ' Master of a ship fell dead yesterday just as he was a-step- 
 ping ashore,' said the waterman who was rowing us. 'Bad 
 job for his large family.' 
 
 ' You'll take care to have a letter ready before the ship is 
 out of the Channel, Marie,' said my father. ' Mrs. Burke, 
 your husband will give Miss Otway every opportunity of send- 
 ing letters home ? ' 
 
 ' I'll see to it, Sir Mortimer.' 
 
 We drew alongside the ship. Captain Burke and Mr. Owen 
 stood at the gangway to receive us. When I went up the 
 ladder, supported by my father, Captain Burke with his hat 
 off extended his hand, saying : 
 
 ' Miss Otway, welcome on board the " Lady Emma." 
 She has received my whisper. She knows her errand and 
 what's expected of her. She'll keep time, Sir Mortimer ; and 
 the magic that'll happen betwixt the months whilst our jib- 
 boom is pointing to as many courses as the compass has 
 marks is going to transform this delicate, pale young lady into 
 the heartiest, rosiest lass that ever stepped over a ship's side.' 
 
 ' I pray so, I pray so,' exclaimed my father. 
 
 ' Captain Burke is not too sanguine,' exclaimed Mr. Owen 
 with a smile. 
 
 4 When do you start '? ' asked Mr. Moore. 
 
 ' Soon after three, sir, I hope,' answered Captain Burke. 
 
 I ran my eye over the ship. The scene had that sort of 
 morbid interest to me which the architecture and furniture of 
 a prison cell takes for one who is to pass many months in it. 
 I beheld a long white deck, extending from the taffrail into 
 the bows, with several structures breaking the wide lustrous 
 continuity : one forward was the galley, the ship's kitchen ; 
 this side of it was a large boat with sheep bleating inside her ; 
 whilst underneath was a sty full of pigs, flanked by hen-coops 
 v hose bars throbbed with the ceaseless protrusion and with- 
 drawal of the flapping combs of cocks and the heads of hens. 
 Near us was a great square hatch, covered over with a tar- 
 paulin, and further aft, as the proper expression is, was a big 
 

 
 i8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 glazed frame for the admission of light into the cabin ; some 
 distance past it a sort of box, curved to the aspect of a hood, 
 called the companion-way, conducted you below. At the end 
 of the ship was the wheel, like a circle of flame with the 
 brasswork of it flashing to the sun, and immediately in front 
 stood the compass box or binnacle, glittering like the wheel, 
 and trembling to its height upon the white planks like a short 
 pillar of fire. 
 
 A number of sailors hung about the forecastle, and a man 
 leaned in the little door of the galley in a red shirt, bare to 
 the elbows, eyeing us, with a pair of fat, dough-like, tattooed 
 arms crossed upon his breast, a picture of stupid, sulky 
 curiosity. 
 
 We stayed for a few minutes talking in the gangway ; 
 Mrs. Burke then asked me to step below and see my cabin, 
 and I went down the steps followed by the rest, and entered 
 tbe ship's little plain state-room. 
 
 I stopped at the foot of the ladder and drew my breath 
 with difficulty. What was it ? An extraordinary sensation 
 of icy chill had passed through me. It was over in an 
 instant, but it was as though the hand of death itself had 
 clutched my heart. Was it a presentiment working so 
 potently as to affect me physically ? Was it some subtle 
 motion of the nerves influenced by the sight of the interior, 
 and by the strange shipboard smells in it which there was no 
 virtue in the hanging pots of flowers to sweeten ? I said 
 nothing. My father halted to the arrest of my hand, suppos- 
 ing I wished to look about me, and yet, oh, merciful God ! 
 when I date myself back to that hour, and think of me as 
 entering that cabin for the first time, and then of what hap- 
 pened afterwards, I cannot for an instant question — nay, with 
 fear and awe I devoutly believe — that the heart-moving sen- 
 sation of chill which came and went in the beat of a pulse 
 was a breath off the pinion of my angel of fate or destiny, 
 stirring in the thick-ribbed blackness of the future at sight of 
 my first entrance into the scene of my distress. Do not 
 think me fanciful nor high strained in expression or imagina- 
 tion. My meaning will be clear to you. 
 
 The Burkes had done their best to make this state cabin 
 comfortable to the eye. Shelves full of books Avere secured 
 to the ship's wall : a couple of globes of gold and silver fish 
 hung under the skylight, where too were some rows of flowers 
 hanging in pots. A couple of tall glasses were affixed to the
 
 THE 'LADY EMMA' r 9 
 
 cabin walls, and the lamp was handsome and of bright metal. 
 A new carpet was stretched over the deck, and the table was 
 covered with a cloth, so that the interior looked like a little 
 parlour or living-room ashore. I also observed a stove in 
 the fore end of the cabin ; it looked new, as though fitted for 
 this particular voyage. 
 
 'Dear Miss Marie, let me show you your bedroom,' said 
 Mrs. Burke. 
 
 A narrow corridor went out of this living room in the 
 direction of the stern ; on either hand were cabins, four of a 
 side. Mrs. Burke threw open a door on the port or left hancl 
 side, and we entered a large berth. Two had been knocked 
 into one for my use. 
 
 ' This is bigger than anything I could have secured for you 
 on board a steamer,' said my father. 
 
 My old nurse's eyes were upon me whilst I gazed around. 
 They had made as elegant a little bedroom of the place as 
 could possibly be manufactured on board a plain, homely 
 sailing ship. Every convenience was here, and the furniture 
 was handsome. They had put pink silk curtains to my bunk 
 which was single — that is, the upper shelf was removed so 
 that I should have the upper deck clear above me when I pil- 
 lowed my head. They had prettily decorated with drapery a 
 large oval glass nailed to the bulkhead : this mirror caught 
 the light trembling off the river, and brimming through the 
 porthole and filled the interior with a radiance of its own as 
 though it had been a lamp. The carpet was thick and rich ; 
 the armchair low and soft. A writing table stood in the 
 corner, and on it was a lovely bouquet ; the berth was rich 
 with the smell of those delicious flowers ; the atmosphere 
 sweet as a breeze in a garden of roses. It was my lover's gift, 
 sent on board the ship just before she left the docks, but I did 
 not know this until after I had said good-bye to him. 
 
 ' It is as comfortable as your bedroom at home, Marie,' 
 said my father. 
 
 ' I find your thoughtful heart everywhere here, nurse,' 
 said I. 
 
 ' We have all done our best, and our best shall go on being 
 done,' she answered, smiling, and meeting my father's gaze 
 she dropped him one of her little old-world curtseys. 
 
 ' I don't think you'll find anything missing, sir,' said 
 Captain Burke, ' from Mr. Owen's medicine chest down to the 
 smallest case of goodies in the lazarette.' 
 
 c2
 
 zo HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' My daughter is in kind hands. I am satisfied,' said my 
 father, and he came to me and put his arm round my neck. 
 
 Captain Burke, saying he was needed on deck, went out. 
 Mrs. Burke and Mr. Owen followed ; my father stepped into 
 the state-room that I might be alone with my lover. 
 
 He caught me quickly to his heart and kissed me again 
 and again with a passion of grief and love. We had 
 exchanged our vows before, over and over. We could but 
 kiss and whisper hopes of a sweet meeting, of a lasting re- 
 union by-and-by. It was like a parting between a young 
 bride and bridegroom, but with a dreadful significance going 
 into it out of my health and out of the thought of the perils 
 of the sea. Indeed, a sadness as of death itself was in 
 that parting, and I know Archie felt that, as I did, when 
 he released me and stood a moment looking into my white 
 face. 
 
 When we went into the cabin I found my father earnestly 
 conversing with Mrs. Burke. He was asking questions about 
 my luggage and effects, and impressing certain things upon 
 her memory. A few minutes later Captain Burke came down 
 the companion steps, and, halting before he reached the 
 bottom, exclaimed : 
 
 1 Sir Mortimer, I'm sorry to say the tug'll be laying hold 
 of us now almost immediately.' 
 
 My father started, looked at me with something frantic in 
 the expression of his face, then crying, ' Well, if the time has 
 
 come ' and took me in his arms. Then with tears 
 
 standing in his eyes, and gazing upwards, he asked God to 
 bless and to protect me, and to restore me, his only child, in 
 safety and in health to him ; and now speechless with grief, 
 mutely looking a farewell to Mrs. Burke, who herself was 
 weeping, he went on deck, followed by Mr. Moore, whose 
 leave-taking here had been no more than a single kiss pressed 
 upon my forehead as I stood beside the table after my father 
 had released me. 
 
 When they were gone I sank into a chair ; Mrs. Burke 
 looked with wet eyes through a cabin window. She was right 
 to let my grief have its way. After a little I heard the voices 
 of men chorusing on deck ; overhead people regularly tramped 
 to and fro. Mr. Owen came into the cabin and said : 
 
 ' Pray, Miss Otway, let me conduct you above. The air 
 will refresh you, and the picture of the river is striking and 
 full of life.'
 
 THE 'LADY EMMA' ?r 
 
 1 Come, dear Miss Marie, with me,' said Mrs. Burke, and 
 I put my arm through hers and went on deck. 
 
 I stood still on discovering that our voyage was begun. 
 Our ship had been moored to a buoy ; there had been no 
 anchor to weigh, no wild music of seamen nor hoarse quarter- 
 deck commands to give tbe news of departure to those under 
 deck ; the little tug had quietly manoeuvred for our tow-rope, 
 and now the ship's bows were pointing down the river, her 
 keen stem shearing through the froth of the paddle-wheels 
 ahead, with some sailors heave-hoing as they dragged upon 
 the ropes which hoisted certain staysails and jibs ; the old 
 town of Gravesend was sliding away upon the quarter. I 
 strained my eyes in vain for a sight of the boat in which my 
 father and Mr. Moore might have been making for the shore. 
 Well perhaps that I could not distinguish ber. I think it would 
 have broken my heart then to have seen them, thus, for the 
 last time, making their way ashore for that home I was 
 leaving for months, and perhaps for ever. 
 
 ' We have started, nurse ! ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' Yes, dear,' she answered. ' Do not make haste to cease 
 crying. Let nature work by degrees in her own fashion. I 
 shall soon see my dear girl looking proudly with health, and 
 oh, the joy of your meeting with your father and Mr. Moore, 
 and my happiness when I see them staring at you, scarce 
 knowing you for your beauty and brightness 1 ' 
 
 The water blazed with sunshine, the merry twinkling of it 
 by the fresh April wind made the whole Reach a path of 
 dazzling light. Twenty vessels of all sorts were about us : 
 some leaned with rounded canvas soft as sifted snow, with 
 yellow streaks of metal glancing wet to the light out of the 
 brackish foam, that wanted the shrillness and spit of the froth 
 of the brine ; some lifted bare skeleton scaffolds of spars and 
 yards as they towed past ; some were no bigger than a Yar- 
 mouth smack, and some were great steamers and deep and 
 lofty ships from or for the Antipodes. But whatever you 
 looked at was beautiful with the hues of the afternoon, the 
 backing of the green land, the inspiration of the sea, the 
 spirit of ocean liberty wide as tbe horizon that is boundless 
 and high as the air through which the clouds blew.
 
 22 HEART OF OAK 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 MABIB BEGINS HER VOYAGE 
 
 This was the first voyage I bad ever made. I was born in 
 England, and was left at school when my mother went 
 round the Cape to India on the second visit my father paid 
 to that country. I had never in my life crossed a wider 
 breast of water than the English Channel between Folkestone 
 and Boulogne. Everything here, then, you will suppose was 
 wonderfully new to me ; infinitely stranger indeed than had 
 the ship been a steamer whose funnel and masts have 
 commonly but little in them to bewilder the landgoing 
 
 e y e - 
 
 Hundreds of times had I watched ships passing over the 
 blue or grey waters which our house overlooked ; but they 
 were as clouds to me, indeterminable though beautiful 
 decorations of the deep : I knew nothing of their inner life, 
 of one's sensations on board, what the sailors in them did. 
 I looked up now and beheld three masts towering into a 
 delicate fineness to the altitude of their own starry trucks, 
 with yards across, rigging complex as the meshes of a web, 
 white triangular sails between. A sailor stood at the wheel, 
 floating off from it with the easy, careless posture of the sea, 
 his knotted hands gripping the spokes of the gleaming circle. 
 A stout-faced man in the tall hat of the London streets, his 
 neck swathed in a red shawl, walked up and down the deck 
 near the cabin skylight. Mrs. Burke told me he was the 
 pilot. She pointed to a man who was standing on the fore- 
 castle as though keeping a look-out on the tug, and said that 
 he was Mr. Green, the first mate of the ship : indeed the 
 only mate. The boatswain, she informed me, who was not a 
 certificated officer, would take charge of her husband's watch 
 when the ship was at sea. 
 
 She talked thus to distract my mind. I asked her what 
 she meant by her ' husband's watch,' thinking she meant the 
 timekeeper in his pocket. 
 
 •' Why,' she said, ' every ship's crew is divided into two 
 companies or watches, called port and starboard : the star- 
 board watch is the captain's and the other the mate's 
 Let us walk a little. Already you are looking better, 
 positively.'
 
 MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 23 
 
 Here Mr. Owen joined us. 
 
 ' I declare, doctor,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, ' that Miss 
 Otway has already got a little colour in her cheeks, more 
 even since we left Gravesend than, I warrant, Sir Mortimer 
 has seen in her the last twelvemonth gone. If she means to 
 begin to look well so soon, how will it be with her, sir, when 
 this ship's bowsprit is pointing the other way and we shall be 
 all ready to go ashore ? ' 
 
 Mr. Owen in a soft felt hat, an academic bush of hair 
 under either side of it, like the cauliflower wig of olden days, 
 and a warm, heavy black cloak, might have passed for a 
 clergyman. He asked permission to stroll the deck with us, 
 and pointed out objects ashore and upon the water with an 
 intelligence that proved him the possessor of a talent for 
 colour. 
 
 Once he broke off in what he was saying to look at the 
 land ; he sighed deeply, yet, forcing a smile, said to Mrs. 
 Burke : 
 
 ' That parting should never be a sad one which promises a 
 happy meeting, at the cost of no more than patience.' 
 
 ' Truly indeed not,' said Mrs. Burke cheerily. 
 
 1 It is the meeting ! it is the meeting ! promise that, and 
 what is the leave-taking '? ' he exclaimed, and was all on 
 a sudden too moved to speak : he faintly bowed, and went 
 to the ship's side and looked at the shore. 
 
 We did not long remain on deck. I found the wind cold, 
 my head slightly ached ; I was weary with the exhaustion 
 which follows upon fretting. Mrs. Burke went with me to rny 
 cabin, and we spent a long while in talking, recalling old 
 memories, and most of the time she was cheerfully busy in 
 seeing that my things were in their place and that I wanted 
 for nothing. 
 
 The night had drawn down dark over the ship when we 
 passed from my berth into the state cabin. It was about 
 seven o'clock. Supper was ready. The table was bright with 
 damask and silver and flowers ; under the skylight the large 
 globe lamp glowed steadily, and filled the interior with the 
 soft radiance of sperm oil. I heard some men singing out on 
 deck and the noise of ropes flung down upon the planks. 
 The sound was strange and put a sort of wildness into this 
 interior, despite its fifty civilising details of furniture. 
 
 A young sandy-haired youth, long and lank, in a camlet 
 jacket, stood at the foot of the companion -steps, and swung a
 
 24 HEART OF OAK 
 
 bell with evident delight in the noise he made. Mr. Owen 
 started up from a locker in the corner of the cabin on seeing 
 us, and exclaimed : 
 
 1 There is a brave wind blowing. Captain Burke hopes to 
 be off Deal by midnight.' 
 
 ' That will be famous work,' said Mrs. Burke. ' But this 
 is a clipper ship.' 
 
 ' Are we sailing ? ' said I. 
 
 1 Yes. Some canvas is spread. But the tug still has hold 
 of us,' responded Mr. Owen. 
 
 I felt no movement in the ship. She was going along 
 with the seething steadiness of a sleigh. Just then Captain 
 Burke came below. His composed, cheerful face, peak- 
 bearded with red hair and arch, merry Irish eyes, seemed to 
 bring a new atmosphere of light into the place. He 
 addressed some friendly sympathetic question to me ; we then 
 seated ourselves, I on the captain's right, and Mr. Owen at 
 the foot of the table. 
 
 It was my first meal at sea, if indeed the ship could then 
 be called at sea, and memorable to me for that reason. I 
 had tasted no food since breakfast, and now tried to eat, but 
 less from appetite than from the desire to please my old 
 nurse. My chat with her before supper had determined, mo 
 to fight with my grief, to regard the voyage as a long holiday 
 yachting excursion, which should be happy if I accepted it as 
 a twelvemonth's diversion that was to end in making me a 
 new woman, and in fitting me to become a wife. It was this 
 last point that Mrs. Burke had insisted upon, and, like a good 
 many ideas which are obvious and commonplace when 
 uttered, it took my fancy, lighted up my views as though it 
 had been a sort of revelation, and whilst I sat at supper I was 
 so composed that more than once I caught Mr. Owen dart a 
 glance of surprise at me when I answered or put a question. 
 
 ■ The sea is very smooth here, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' There is no sea yet,' he answered. ' It's river so far. 
 We're towing through what's called the Warp, near the Nore, 
 whose light ye should be able to see, Miss Otway,' said he, 
 getting up and ducking and bobbing to command the whole 
 compass of a cabin window. 
 
 ' I wonder the ship doesn't run the tug down,' said Mr. 
 Owen. 
 
 The captain looked at me with his merry eyes and 
 chuckled.
 
 MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 25 
 
 ' Ay, we're a match for the old slapper even with nothing 
 on us but fore and aft canvas and two topsails,' said he. 'I 
 wish Sir Mortimer was with us. Here's a voyage to thread 
 a heart through the strands of his years. I don't know 
 that ever I met a gentleman I took a greater fancy to, unless 
 it's Mr. Moore,' and he gave me a bow, whilst I smiled, feeling 
 a faint glow in my cheeks. 
 
 ' There'll be a full moon at eight,' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 ' So there will, sir, thank God,' answered Captain Burke. 
 ' We sailors can never have too much light. No, not even in 
 our wives' eyes,' said he, with an askant arch look at Mrs. 
 Burke. 
 
 And now he began to talk. Though without the brogue 
 in his tongue, he had the fluency and humour of his country. 
 He was full of stories of adventure and experience ; scarce a 
 sea he had not navigated in his day. His wife watched me 
 eagerly, and if ever I smiled her face lighted up and her kind 
 eyes shone. All his efforts were directed to cheer me. Ob- 
 serving Mr. Owen smelling at an egg he exclaimed : 
 
 ' What's that you've got ? ' 
 
 ' Something laid too soon, captain.' 
 
 ' Doctor,' said the captain, ' I know a sailor who made an 
 experiment : he put a number of French eggs under a sitting 
 rooster, and what d'ye think was hatched ! Cocks and hens 
 in the last stage of decrepitude ! They hopped and staggered 
 about in his little back-yard, and died of old age in twenty- 
 four hours. That was his test of a bad egg. If he wanted 
 to make sure, he hatched it.' 
 
 Thus ran his careless, good-humoured gabble, and perhaps 
 had he talked wisely and soberly he would not have done me 
 any good. 
 
 He went on deck presently, and the mate, Mr. Green, 
 came below to get his supper. He was a middle-aged man, 
 of a very nautical cut in figure and clothes, with a sneering 
 face, and a beard of wiry iron hair covering his throat, 
 though he shaved to the round of his chin, and a droop of 
 left eyelid put the expression of an acid leer into that side of 
 his face. 
 
 Mr. Owen had withdrawn to his cabin. Mrs. Burke and 
 I sat at a little distance upon a comfortable sofa near the 
 stove. The mate squared his elbows and fell to work slowly 
 but diligently, often lifting his knife to his mouth and chew- 
 ing with the solemnity of a goat.
 
 26 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' He rose from before the mast,' said Mrs. Burke. ' I 
 hope he's a good sailor. This is his first voyage with my 
 husband. He holds a master's certificate, but that don't 
 signify much, I expect. A man wants to know human 
 nature to command a crew of sailors. He's been a common 
 seaman himself, and fared ill, and worked hard on a starva- 
 tion wage, as most of the poor creatures do, and that's likely 
 to make him hard with the men and unpitying. It's always 
 so. It's the person who's been in service that makes the 
 exacting mistress.' 
 
 All this she spoke softly. She then inquired of the mate 
 how the weather was on deck. 
 
 ' Why, not so fine as it is down here, mum,' he answered. 
 1 There's a vast of stars, but 'tis black till the moon comes 
 up.' 
 
 ' Where are we now ? ' 
 
 ' The Girdler ain't far off,' he answered, masticating 
 slowly. 
 
 ' Is the tug still towing us ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, certainly yes, mum ! ' 
 
 He did not seem disposed to talk, aiid answered with 
 grimaces and the awkward air of a man ill at ease. 
 
 I was looking at his square sturdy figure, with his 
 weather-ploughed face and the muscles all about it working 
 like vigorous pulses to the movement of his jaws, when I felt 
 a slight motion of the ship, a gentle, cradling heave of the 
 deck : the lamp and all things pendulous swayed ; creaking 
 noises arose from all parts ; a sudden giddiness took me. 
 The movement was repeated with the regularity of a clock's 
 tick. 
 
 ' Isn't the sea getting up ? ' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, staring 
 at the gleaming ebony of the skylight windows and then 
 around her. 
 
 The mate arrested the tumbler whose contents he was 
 turning into his mouth to distend his lips in a grin, which he 
 probably thought concealed. 
 
 ' Why, I thought we were still in the river ! ' cried Mrs. 
 Burke again. 
 
 The mate, picking up his cap, rose, contorted his square 
 figure into a bow to us, and went up the companion-steps. 
 
 The motion of the vessel affected me. Mrs. Burke got a 
 pillow and made mo comfortable on the sofa, and, wrapping 
 herself in a shawl, went on deck. She returned presently
 
 MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 27 
 
 and said that the river had widened into a sea, with danger- 
 lights sparkling here and there and the full moon rising 
 solemnly and beautifully upon the port bow. She hugged 
 herself and said it was blowing fresh, and the ship under 
 several breasts of canvas was chasing the little tug, which 
 was splashing ahead as fast as she could go. 
 
 ' We're doing between seven and eight miles an hour. 
 Only think ! ' she cried. ' We shall be opening the lights of 
 Margate very soon. To think of Margate and the sands and 
 the shrimps, and us sailing past it to the other end of the 
 world. How do you feel, my dear ? ' 
 
 I answered that I felt sick. 
 
 ' You will suffer for a day or two,' said she, ' and then 
 you'll take no more notice of it than I do. Hark ! what is 
 that ? ' 
 
 The sounds proceeded from Mr. Owen's cabin. 
 
 ' They'll never get a cure for it,' said Mrs. Burke, looking 
 in the direction of the doctor's berth. 
 
 I lay motionless, feeling very uncomfortable and ill. Mrs. 
 Burke gave me some brandy and put toilet vinegar to my 
 head. She advised me to go to bed, but I begged leave to 
 rest where I was. The motion of the ship grew more lively 
 the further she was towed towards the mouth of the river, 
 where the weight of the field of water past the Forelands 
 would dwell in every heave. At last, a little while after ten 
 o'clock, I told Mrs. Burke I felt as if the fresh air would 
 revive me, on which she wrapped me up in shawls and helped 
 me on deck. She walked on firm legs with the ease of an old 
 salt, whilst I so swung and reeled upon her arm that I must 
 have fallen twenty times but for her support. 
 
 But, nevertheless, the moment I emerged through the 
 little companion-hatch, with its load of warm atmosphere 
 closing behind me in a sensible pressure of mingled cabin 
 smells and heat, I felt better ; a shout of bright strong moon- 
 light wind fair betwixt my parted lips swept aw T ay for the 
 time all sensation of nausea : I breathed deep and looked about 
 with wonder. 
 
 It was a fine, noble night-scene of water and ship. We 
 were following the tug under three topsails and a main top- 
 gallant sail and a flight of fore and aft canvas ; the sails 
 swelled pale as steam into the moonlight air, carrying the 
 eye to the fine points of the mastheads, whose black lines were 
 beating time for a dance of stars. High up was the moon,
 
 28 HEART OF OAK 
 
 full, yellow, and glowing ; if land was near, it was buried in 
 the wild windy sheen under the orb ; the water rolled in 
 liquid silver, islanded here and there by the black flying 
 shadows of bodies of vapour hurling headlong down the wind 
 north-east ; ahead the black smear of the tug's smoke full of 
 sparks, with a frequent rush of crimson flame out of the 
 funnel's throat was flying low. 
 
 Captain Burke came from the pilot's side to salute me, 
 and pointing abeam to starboard (I offer no excuse for writing 
 of the sea in the language of the sea) exclaimed : 
 
 ' There's Whitstable somewhere down there, Miss Otway. 
 And yonder should be Heme Bay. With a powerful telescope 
 we should presently be able to see the bathing machines on 
 Margate beach.' 
 
 ' What is that out there ? ' I asked. 
 
 1 A Geordie,' he answered, ' a north-country collier.' 
 
 She was swarming along, a very spectre of a ship, lean, 
 visionary, glistening like the inside of an oyster shell in the 
 moonlight, which whitened the black hull of her into the 
 same sort of misty sheen that was upon the water, till she 
 was blended with the air brimful of moonlight, making a 
 mocking phantom of her to fit in with the desolation beyond, 
 where you saw a red star of warning hinting at ooze, and white 
 crawling streaks and a pallid rib or two, with some fragment 
 of mast upward pointing in a finger of wreck, dumbly telling 
 you whither the spirit of the rest of it all had flown. 
 
 I watched our little ship bowing in pursuit of the tug ; she 
 curtseyed her white cloths to the moon, and the brine flashed 
 at her bows at every plunge, and went away in a wide, rich 
 race astern, for there was the churning of the paddles in it 
 too. 
 
 But soon I was overcome by nausea once more, the magic 
 of the fresh air failed me, and, yielding now to Mrs. Burke's 
 entreaty, I suffered her to carry me to my cabin. 
 
 After this for the next four or five days I was so miserably 
 ill that I lay as one in a fit or swoon, scarcely sensible of 
 more, and therefore remembering but little more, than that 
 Mrs. Burke was hour after hour in my cabin, sleeping beside 
 me on a mattress during the night, and watching over me 
 throughout that distressing time with touching and unwearied 
 devotion. Mr. Owen was too ill to visit me ; but what could 
 he have done ? Did he cure his own nausea ? I think he 
 knew of no physic for mine.
 
 MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 29 
 
 Indeed we met with very heavy weather in the Channel. 
 The wind shifted shortly after the tug had let go of the 
 ship and hlew a moderate breeze out of the south-east, but 
 in the morning the breeze freshened into a gale ; a head sea 
 ran strong, short, and angry ; the captain drove the vessel 
 along under shortened canvas, with sobbing decks and spray- 
 clouded bows as I learnt ; but to me, inexperienced as I was, 
 her behaviour seemed frightfully wild and dangerous. I 
 sometimes thought she was going to pieces. My cabin was 
 aft, the machinery of the helm was nearly overhead, and the 
 noise of it when she plunged her counter into the foam, and 
 the rudder received the blow of some immense volume of 
 rushing brine, sent shock after shock through the planks, and 
 through me as I lay in my bunk. 
 
 But the stupor of sea-sickness was upon me, I had no 
 fear ; had the ship actually gone to pieces I do not think I 
 could or should have opened my mouth to cry out. All that 
 I asked for was death, and I was so sick even unto that state 
 that I cannot remember I once wished myself at home, or 
 thought for an instant of my father or Mr. Moore. 
 
 But on the fifth day I was well enough to sit up and 
 partake of a little cold fowl and wine, and next day I was able 
 to go on deck. 
 
 By this time we were clear of the English Channel, and I 
 looked around me at the great ocean, swelling in long lines of 
 rich sparkling blue under the high morning sun. Far away, 
 blue in the air, were some leaning shafts of ships, and at the 
 distance of a quarter of a mile a large steamer was passing, 
 steering the same road as ourselves. 
 
 Weak as I was after my long confinement below, dazzled 
 and confused too by the splendour of the morning, and the 
 novelty and wonder of that windy scene of our bowing ship, 
 clothed in canvas, gleaming like silk to the trucks, I could not 
 but pause with a start of admiration when my sight went to 
 that steamer. Captain Burke, seeing me as I leaned on his 
 wife's arm, crossed the deck, and after some commonplaces of 
 genial greeting told me that yonder vessel was a French man- 
 of-war. She was round sterned with portholes for guns there, 
 and two white lines full of gun-ports ran the length of her 
 tall, shapely sides. She was ship rigged, and lifted a lustrous 
 fabric of square canvas and delicate cordage to the soft blue 
 skies, a wide space of whose field the gilded balls of her 
 trucks traced as she rolled heavily but with majesty, crushing
 
 30 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the water at her bows to the impulse of her sails and propeller 
 into a heap of splendid whiteness, like to the foam at the foot 
 of some giant cataract. She was the noblest sea-piece I had 
 ever beheld : the tricolour was at her gaff-end, a blue vein of 
 smoke, filtering from a short black funnel, scarcely tarnished 
 the azure over the horizon betwixt her fore and main masts ; 
 a great gilt eagle was perched with outstretched wings under 
 her bowsprit, and seemed to be poised for a soaring flight as 
 though affrighted by the roar of spume beneath ; her decks 
 were a blaze of light and colour when she rolled them towards 
 us, with the sparkle of uniforms, the flash of sun-stars in bright 
 metal, and gleams breaking from I know not whence, like 
 sudden flames from artillery. 
 
 ' I think I see her in charge of an English lieutenant,' 
 said Captain Burke, ' making a straight course for Portsmouth. 
 They have built good ships for us and will build again.' 
 
 He placed chairs, and Mrs. Burke and I seated ourselves. 
 I could now look about me with enjoyment of what I beheld. 
 The sun shone with some warmth, and the wind blowing freely 
 out of the west was of an April mildness. The whole life of 
 the universe seemed to be in that ocean morning, with our 
 ship in the middle of it bowing as she drove over the long blue 
 knolls. The hour was half-past eleven. Smoke was feather- 
 ing down upon the water over the lee side out of the chimney 
 of the galley, through whose door as I looked I saw a sailor 
 emerge holding a steaming tub, with which he staggered in 
 the direction of a little square hole on the forecastle. Imme- 
 diately after a second sailor rolled out similarly burthened. 
 
 ' The men are going to dinner,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' What do you give them to eat ? ' I asked the captain. 
 
 1 To-day,' said he, ' they'll dine on beef and pudding.' 
 
 ' It sounds a good dinner,' said Mrs. Burke. ' But all the 
 while I'm at sea, I'm wondering how sailors contrive to get 
 through their work on the food they get.' 
 
 1 Go and put those notions into their shaggy heads forwards 
 and there'll be a mutiny,' said the captain. 
 
 ' Beef as tasteless as one's boot if one could imagine it 
 boiled,' said Mrs. Burke, ' pudding like slabs of mortar, biscuits 
 which glide about on the feet of hundreds of little worms called 
 weevils. Edward has had to live on such food in his day, and 
 I believe it is the beef and pork of his seafaring youth that 
 give him his premature looks. He oughtn't to seem his age 
 by ten years.'
 
 MARIE BEGINS HER VOYAGE 31 
 
 He eyed her archly and kindly. ' Premature is a good 
 ■word,' said he. ' Sailors are always too soon in life. Boon 
 with their money, and soon with their drink and pleasures, 
 and soon with their years, so that it is soon over with them.' 
 
 ' They're a body of workmen I'm very sorry for,' said Mrs. 
 Burke ; ' their wrongs are not understood, and they've got no 
 champions.' 
 
 As she pronounced these words the hairy head of a man, 
 clothed in a Scotch cap, showed in the little square of the 
 forecastle hatch ; he took a wary view of the quarter-deck, 
 then rose into the whole body of a man picturesquely attired 
 in a red shirt, blue trousers, a belt round his waist, and a 
 knife in a sheath upon his hip. He was followed by three 
 others, and after a short conversation they came along the 
 deck towards us. 
 
 Captain Burke, appearing not to notice them, told his wife 
 he was going to fetch his sextant. Mr. Green, the sour-leering 
 mate, was trudging the weather side of the quarter-deck. The 
 man who had first risen, the hairy one of the Scotch cap, 
 exclaimed, as the four of them came to a halt in the gang- 
 way : 
 
 ' Can we have a word with the capt'n, sir ? ' 
 
 ' What d'e want ? ' answered the mate, speaking with half 
 his back turned on them as though he addressed some one out 
 upon the water. 
 
 ' We're come to complain that the beef to-day ain't accord- 
 ing to the articles.' 
 
 ' As how? ' said the mate, still looking seawards. 
 
 ' 'Tain't sweet, sir.' 
 
 ' No call to eat of it,' said the mate, turning his head and 
 letting his leering eye droop upon them. 
 
 ' That's not the way to speak,' whispered Mrs. Burke to 
 me with a note of impatience and temper. ' Why shouldn't 
 the meat be tainted '? It's so in butchers' shops often 
 enough.' 
 
 ' If there's no call to eat of it, there's no call to turn to on 
 it,' said one of the men with a surly laugh. 
 
 Here Captain Burke arrived with a sextant in his hand. 
 
 ' What is it, my lads ? ' said he quickly but good- 
 humouredly. 
 
 ' The starboard watch's allowance of meat's gone off, sir,' 
 said the man in the Scotch cap civilly enough. 
 
 ' The fok'sle's dark with the smell of it,' said another.
 
 32 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Notice a blue ring round the flame of the lamp ? ' said 
 the captain. 
 
 4 Tain't meat for men,' exclaimed the man, who had 
 growled out a laugh. 
 
 1 Go and bring aft what remains of it,' said Captain Burke, 
 and he stepped to the side and adjusted his sextant to get a 
 meridional observation. 
 
 The men trudged forward. I could not but notice how 
 eloquent of grumbling their postures were as they walked. 
 Experience has long since assured me that no man can so 
 perfectly make every limb and lineament of him look bis 
 grievance as the sailor. 
 
 They presently returned, bearing a dish : Captain Burke 
 stooped to it and sniffed. 
 
 ' You are right,' he exclaimed. ' Overboard with it, my 
 lads. This should never have been served out to you. 'Tis 
 the cook's fault to boil such offal. Mr. Green, see that the 
 starboard watch have some canned mutton for their dinner at 
 once.' 
 
 The men emptied the contents of the kid over the side, 
 looking very well pleased ; and then went forward. 
 
 ' They have no champions, my wife says,' exclaimed 
 Captain Burke to me with a smile. ' Poor fellows ! But I'll 
 tell you what, Miss Otway : you'll never find Jack's rights 
 wrong for the want of Jack taking the trouble to keep them 
 right.' 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 
 
 I devoted the afternoon of the first day of my recovery from 
 sickness to a journal which I meant should serve as a letter 
 both for my father and Mr. Moore, to be transmitted home in 
 sheets as the opportunity occurred. My old nurse told me 
 that her husband had written to my father whilst in the 
 Channel, and had sent the letter ashore at Plymouth by a 
 Lmack ; so they would have news of me at home down to two 
 days before. 
 
 I was so much interested in the little incident of the 
 tainted meat I have told you of, that I asked Captain Burke
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OE THE SHIP 33 
 
 this day to let me taste a specimen of the beef sailors were fed 
 on. He laughed and said : 
 
 ' Miss, your teeth are too little and white for such beef as 
 that.' 
 
 ' I'll try a cut, too, with your leave, captain,' said Mr. 
 Owen. 
 
 The captain grinned at his wife, but complied neverthe- 
 less, and when we sat down to supper, the steward placed a 
 cube of forecastle beef before us. There were plenty of good 
 things on the table : my father had half filled the lazarette, 
 or after-hold, with delicacies, and we carried an abundance of 
 live stock : everything in that way, perhaps, but a cow, for 
 which no room could be made ; but the steam of the sailors' 
 beef filled the atmosphere ; the smells of all the other dishes 
 yielded to it. And yet it was good meat of its sort. 
 
 Mrs. Burke wrinkled her nose, and said, ' Miss Marie, 
 please do not touch it.' 
 
 ' Captain Burke, I will taste a piece,' said I. 
 
 ' And I will thank you for a slice, captain,' said Mr. 
 Owen. 
 
 The captain made a great business of sharpening a carving 
 knife, all the while glancing from me to his wife with a 
 laughing eye. The stuff yielded to the sharp blade in a curled 
 shaving : it was like cutting a block of wood, that part I mean 
 where the heart is. 
 
 'Don't put it to your lips, my dear,' cried Mrs. Burke. 
 
 I tasted a morsel : the steward watched me with an ill- 
 concealed grin ; the meat, if meat it could be called, was hard 
 as leather, salt as the brine over the side, of a texture and hue 
 no more resembling corned beef such as we know the thing on 
 shore than a whelk is like a turtle. 
 
 Mr. Owen chewed and chewed. ' This is what the sailors 
 make snuff-boxes and models of ships of,' said he. 
 
 ' Is this as good as can be got ? ' I asked. 
 
 1 As good as the best,' said the captain, looking at it 
 earnestly. 
 
 ' You'll have plenty to talk about when you get home,' 
 said my old nurse. 
 
 ' It is strange that science doesn't provide the seamen 
 with food fit to eat,' said Mr. Owen, helping himself eagerly 
 to a slice of ham. 'I believe I shall give the subject my 
 attention when I get back.' 
 
 ' Science doesn" think of sailors, only of ships,' said
 
 34 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Captain Burke. ' If I had my way my crew should have a 
 fresh mess every day. But you can't go to sea all live 
 stock.' 
 
 Thus we chatted. I listened with interest and asked 
 questions. It was a new life to me. Little did I then 
 imagine how fearfully and tragically deep I was to read into 
 the darkest secrets of it. 
 
 During a few days, which carried us to the Madeira 
 latitudes, the weather continued gloriously fine. A quiet 
 north-westerly wind blew throughout ; the ship leaned gently 
 away from the breeze and rippled through the blue swell 
 dreamily ; all was so quiet aloft, all went so peacefully on 
 deck. I'd hang over the side for an hour at a time, viewing 
 the passage of the foam stars and flower-shaped bells, and 
 wreaths of froth sliding aft into a white line on either hand 
 the oil-smooth scope of wake ; I'd watch with admiration the 
 flight of the flying fish, glancing from the ship's side like 
 arrows of light discharged through her metal sheathing ; I'd 
 drink in the large and liberal sweetness of the wind, and 
 stand in the sun that its light might sink through and 
 through me. 
 
 In those few days Mr. Owen assured me the ocean had 
 already done me good. 
 
 ' But you are bound to profit,' he said as we walked the 
 deck together, ' because you have not come too late to this 
 physic of climates. People are sent to sea with one lung 
 gone and the other going, and their friends wonder they 
 should die, and talk of a voyage to sea as of no use where 
 there is organic mischief. You are here in good time, Miss 
 Otway : be that reflection your comfort.' 
 
 Then there came a change of weather ; a few days of wet 
 gale ; green seas ridging into cliffs upon the bow, and all the 
 discomfort of a long pitching and tossing bout. But I 
 suffered no longer from sickness however ; I ate and slept 
 well, and spent all the time in the cabin, reading, working, 
 chatting with Mrs. Burke or her husband, or Mr. Owen. 
 
 Captain Burke amused me in these early days by explaining 
 how he worked out his sights. He gave me a very good idea 
 of the art of navigation ; he and his wife shared a pleasant 
 cabin confronting mine. It was a little parlour in its way as 
 well as a bedroom, cheerful with oil paintings of ships, a 
 small collection of china, and other matters all carefully 
 cleated and otherwise secured. Amongst the pictures was a
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 35 
 
 cutting in black paper mounted upon white of myself when a 
 child in my nurse's arms, the lineaments defined by streaks 
 of bronze. Captain Burke told me that his wife valued that 
 little memorial above everything in the cabin, including 
 himself and all that they owned ashore. 
 
 He showed me his chronometers and explained their use ; 
 placed charts before me and talked of the places we were to 
 visit, and promised that I should be able to take sights and 
 work out the latitude and longitude before we returned home. 
 
 He said this at the dinner table during one of those days 
 of wet, foul weather. 
 
 ' Miss Otway,' he added, addressing Mr. Owen, ' is just 
 doing what everyone should do who goes a voyage, whether 
 for entertainment or on business ; she's taking an intelligent 
 interest in whatever's passing. If everybody who went to sea 
 did that the case of Jack would be understood, and you'd 
 hear no more of young ladies being astonished on discovering 
 that sailors look exactly like men.' 
 
 'I never could make head nor tail myself,' said Mrs. 
 Burke, ' of my husband's method of finding out where the 
 ship is.' 
 
 1 No voyage can ever be dull,' exclaimed Mr. Owen, ' that's 
 sensibly lived into. Yet every voyage is found dull.' 
 
 'There's too much water,' said Mrs. Burke, 'and not 
 enough things to look at. But dull days have long legs, Miss 
 Marie. Time soon passes,' said she with a cheery look. 
 ' The top's never spinning so fast as when it is asleep.' 
 
 1 There's plenty to look at,' said I. ' I don't like weather 
 that keeps you under deck ; but it can't be always so.' 
 
 ' Scarce once in a white moon, and never even that for 
 sailors,' said the captain. 
 
 ' What,' asked Mr. Owen, ' do you consider the great 
 sights of the sea ? ' 
 
 Captain Burke shut his eyes and scratched the back of his 
 head, then looking full at me he said : 
 
 ' What do you think of a ship in full sail, becalmed in the 
 heat of the fan-shaped reflection of the moon, Miss Otway '? 
 Or would you prefer a whale as big as a brig leaping half 
 out of water with a killer at its throat ? Or what d'ye say to 
 a quadrille of water-spouts, the white satin shoes on their 
 feet gleaming as they slide, and the black feathers in their 
 hair nodding stately among the clouds brilliant with electric 
 gems '? ' 
 
 d2
 
 36 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' How ? ' inquired Mr. Owen, smoothing his bald head. 
 
 ' But at sea the less you find to talk about the better,' 
 exclaimed Captain Burke ; ' I'd like my ship's log-book to be 
 as dull as a parson's tale. Trifles on the ocean become serious 
 in a moment ; a slight deviation from dulness will start a 
 tragedy. Give us no excitements.' 
 
 The conversation was ended by his going on deck to send 
 the mate down to dinner. 
 
 The miserable weather came to an end, and then we took 
 the north-east trades and swept down the Atlantic under wide 
 spaces of canvas which for many feet overhung the ship's 
 weather side, and she rushed onwards with the salt smoke 
 blowing from her bows, and that swallow of the deep, the 
 stormy petrel, freckling in its swarm the wide hollows betwixt 
 the quartering ridges. For five days we sighted nothing, 
 though Captain Burke promised that the first homeward- 
 1 ound ship he met with willing to back her topsail should 
 receive my letter. 
 
 Once during these mornings, on coming on deck after 
 breakfast, I found the ship steadily washing through the seas 
 with easy bowing motions, leaving a league-long line of white 
 behind her. We were in hot weather now ; an awning 
 sheltered the quarter-deck, and comfortable chairs were 
 under it. 
 
 It was the improving health in me that gave me the spirit 
 I had ; I did not want to sit ; the life of the sea seemed to 
 sweep into my being in a holiday dance of heart. Now that 
 I could feel without the suffering that had before prostrated 
 me the whole vitality of the ship coming out of the gallant 
 flying fabric of her into the very poise of my form, with a 
 sense as of waltzing in each compelled motion of the figure, 
 I found an enjoyment in her buoyant motions, and in the 
 rolling measures of the surge, beyond anything my poor health 
 had suffered me to know in the ball-room, beyond all delight 
 fine music had given me. 
 
 When we came on deck Mrs. Burke stood a little while 
 with her hand on my arm, whilst I looked aloft and around ; 
 our gaze met ; she laughed in the fulness of some instant 
 emotion of pleasure, and cried : 
 
 1 Oh, dear Miss Marie, I wish Sir Mortimer could see the 
 light that is in your eyes at this minute ! ' 
 
 ' I wonder,' said I, ' if Dr. Bradshaw and the others fore- 
 saw that I should enjoy this voyage ? '
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 37 
 
 ' Are you enjoying it ? ' she exclaimed eagerly. 
 
 1 1 am constantly pining for home,' I answered, ' and 
 longing — and longing, to see father and Archie. And yet, 
 somehow, this splendid sunshine and wonderful scene of sea, 
 this delicious feeling of being borne through the air, makes 
 me so glad and light-hearted that I believe the strong tonic 
 of the wind has affected my head.' 
 
 ' No more than it has mine,' she exclaimed. 
 
 ' It is like drinking wine in sorrow,' said I ; ' the mind 
 seems merry with it, and the eyes sparkle, but the heart is 
 sad all the same and will speak presently.' 
 
 ' I'll tell Mr. Owen how you talk,' said she. ' You're not 
 fair to the remedy.' 
 
 ' I don't want to sit,' said I. ' Let me look at the ship 
 this fine morning : I should like to take a peep at the sailors' 
 parlour. And suppose we go right into the bows there and 
 watch the glorious white foam.' 
 
 Captain Burke was in his cabin, the surly mate had 
 charge of the ship, so Mr. Owen accompanied us. There was 
 little to see, however ; we went to the galley and looked in, 
 and here we found the ship's cook making a pie for the 
 cabin. He was the fat-armed, dough-faced man who had 
 stared at us with imbecile curiosity when we came on board. 
 It was a queer little kitchen, not many times larger than a 
 sentry box. Mrs. Burke asked the man if the oven baked well. 
 
 ' Too veil, mum,' he answered, turning his face with an 
 expression of dull surprise upon it at sight of us standing in 
 the galley doorway. ' He's for burning up. He vants too 
 much vatching.' 
 
 1 How do you like being ship's cook ? ' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 ' Almost as much, I dessay, as you likes being ship's 
 doctor,' he answered. 
 
 Mr. Owen looked deaf on a sudden, and, stepping back, 
 found something to interest him aloft. 
 
 ' What pie is that ? ' said Mrs. Burke, who had been cast- 
 ing her eye over the little interior, with its equipment of 
 shelves, crockery, oven, coppers and the like, with the critical 
 gaze of an exacting housekeeper. 
 
 As she asked the question the ship leaned sharply upon a 
 sea ; the cook staggered with a wild flourish of the knife he 
 was trimming the pie crust with ; the pie slipped and fell 
 with a crash, breaking in halves, and out rolled a dishful of 
 preserved gooseberries.
 
 38 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' You can see vat it is for yourself, mum,' said the cook, 
 lancing his knife at the mess on the deck with a force which 
 drove the blade quivering into the hard plank. ' Who'd be a 
 blooming ship's cook ? This is the sort of life it is ! ' and 
 heedless of our presence, he began to swear, and then roared 
 out for Bill or some such name — meaning, I suppose, his 
 mate — that the fellow might come and swab up the goose- 
 berry puddle. 
 
 We walked on to the forecastle. 
 
 ' That cook's a very insolent fellow,' said Mr. Owen. ' I 
 hope he will give me the pleasure of prescribing for him.' 
 
 ' All sea cooks are ill-tempered,' said Mrs. Burke. ' They 
 live in little boxes like that, and are obliged, for want of room, 
 to stand close to furnaces all day long, and their livers swell. 
 But their trials are many. I've heard of a sea striking a 
 galley where the cook was in it full of the business of the 
 cabin dinner, and washing him and his kitchen right aft, 
 where he was rescued out of a depth of water as high as a 
 man's waist holding on for his life to a frying-pan. Cooks 
 ashore never meet with blows of that sort.' 
 
 A number of the crew were at work on various jobs in 
 this part of the vessel. Two sat upon a sail, stitching at it. 
 Hard by was a little machine called a spun yarn winch, 
 merrily clinking, with a boy walking backwards from it as 
 it yielded the line it twisted. 
 
 A man with a marline spike stood in the fore-shrouds 
 working at a ratline. I looked at everything I saw with 
 interest and attention ; to me it was like the rising of a cur- 
 tain upon a theatrical show of incomparable beauty and 
 variety ; I found novelty in the very men ; I don't remember 
 that I had ever seen such men on shore, least of all down by 
 the seaside, where the landsman seeks the sailor and finds 
 him in anything that wears a jersey and owns a boat. They 
 were hairy, burnt, wildly dressed, half-naked some of them ; 
 their trousers turned above their knees, their chests bare, 
 mossy, gleaming with perspiration ; arrows in Indian ink 
 pointed like weathercocks upon their muscular naked arms 
 as they moved them, and every man's fist was barbarous with 
 rings in Indian ink and his wrists with blue bracelets. 
 
 ' Do you see that hole there, Miss Otway ? ' said Mr. 
 Owen, pointing to a square hatch in the forecastle deck. 
 • Those men sleep down in that hole,' said he. 
 
 I drew close to the queer little trap-door to look down,
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 39 
 
 iaking care to hold on to Mrs. Burke ; for it was not only that 
 Lhe heave of the ship was to he felt here in her falls and 
 iumps, lofty as the peaks and deep as the valleys which 
 underran her : the trade wind stormed in thunder out of the 
 huge rigid hollow of the fore-course with the weight as of a 
 whole gale in the sweep of it, flying in long, steady skriekings 
 and whistlings under the arched foot, and smiting every 
 heave of brine leaping white above the cathead into crystal 
 smoke. 
 
 I gazed into a sort of well, at the bottom of which upon 
 an old green battered sea-chest sat a sailor. The man had a 
 squint that had almost twisted each ball of vision into his 
 nose ; he was deeply pitted, and had long, curling, sand- 
 coloured hair and a yellow beard ; he was pale and weedy, 
 with but a little piece of nose in the middle of his face, and 
 cheek-bones starting through his skin pale with heat, and 
 when he looked up and continued to stare at us with his 
 desperate squint, he made me guess how drowned sailors look 
 when their bodies are washed ashore. He was a sick man 
 and off duty. 
 
 ' How are you feeling ? ' the doctor called down to him. 
 
 ' Oh, dot I vhas kep' togedder mit red-hot corkscrews,' ho 
 answered in a voice that creaked like a sea-gull's note. 
 
 ' Go on taking your physic,' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 ' By Gott, yaw, dot vould be easy if der physic vhas rum,' 
 answered the man with a ghastly smile, continuing to stare 
 up at us with an occasional snapping blink of his eyelids. 
 ' But der vater in der bilge— und I gif you all der rats of der 
 ship to be drownt in her too — vas sweet gombared to him.' 
 
 Mr. Owen drew back and the sufferer ceased to speak. 
 
 ' A nasty attack of sub-acute rheumatism,' the doctor said 
 behind me. 
 
 The rest of the sailors were on deck : this man sat alone 
 on his chest in the bottom of that well, and I pitied the poor 
 solitary wretch from my heart when I considered how every 
 plunge and sharp movement of the ship must serve to give a 
 new twist to all those red-hot corkscrews he complained of. 
 It was too dark below to distinguish more than the man's 
 figure. I observed the fluctuations of a thin, watery yellow 
 light, and tasted in the occasional puffs of thick atmosphere 
 that came up a horrid smell of burning fat. 
 
 1 Do they cook down there ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' It is the fumes of the forecastle lamp Miss Otway smells/
 
 40 HEART OF OAK 
 
 said the doctor. ' It's fed with the slush the sailors make 
 their puddings with.' 
 
 I wished to ask several questions, hut the roar of the wind 
 and the sea silenced me. Mr. Owen took me by one arm, 
 Mrs. Burke by the other, and we carefully made our way into 
 what is called the ship's head, past a huge anchor and a little 
 capstan, and ropes taut as harp-strings, and vibrating with 
 the wild drumming music of the sails whose corners they 
 confined. The huge bowsprit shot out directly ahead of us. 
 It ran tapering, and was like the finger of a giant point- 
 ing, inviting the eye to the deep blue distant recess towards 
 which we were rushing, and which opened like the whole morn- 
 ing upon the sight each time our bows soared to the foaming 
 summit. 
 
 They say that the finest sight in the world is a ship in full 
 sail, and perhaps it is, but I doubt if there's one in a thousand, 
 one in a hundred thousand, who has ever seen such a thing ; 
 and the reason is that a ship in full sail means studding sails 
 out on both sides, and every stitch of the rest of her canvas 
 set, and this figure she can make only under conditions of 
 wind so rare as to render the spectacle, as I understand it, 
 something outside the experience of anyone, sailor or lands- 
 man, that ever I have conversed with. 
 
 But to my mind there is a finer sight than a ship in full 
 sail : and that is the view of the vessel you are on board of 
 rushing at you, thundering at you, for ever charging into the 
 seething troughs of brine with the white foam scaling her wet 
 and flashing bow, you meanwhile perched out beyond her, 
 watching her coming at you. 
 
 They provided this magnificent treat for me that day. It 
 fell out thus : I overhung the rail in the head, looking down 
 at the boiling dazzle there, watching with indescribable 
 delight and wonder the beautiful sight of the cutwater of the 
 ship, metalled high, sliding through the brine, bowing till the 
 ivory-white lady that was her figure-head was depressed 
 almost to the sip of the cloud of foam which the hurl of the 
 bows sent roaring and flashing far ahead, to rush back in a 
 singing, seething sheet a moment after when the ship's head 
 lifted upon the next swelling heave, bright blue till it was 
 charged and out-turned into a noise and splendour of thunder 
 and snow. Mrs. Burke and the doctor looked down with me. 
 My old nurse would sometimes turn an eye full of satisfaction 
 upon my face, which I felt was glowing with the spirit this
 
 THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE SHIP 41 
 
 rushing ocean picture had kindled. I looked yearningly 
 towards the bowsprit end and exclaimed : 
 
 ' Oh, now, if I were a man, to be able to get out there and 
 watch the ship coming at me ! ' 
 
 ' Here comes Captain Burke,' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 He had arrived on deck just then, and, seeing us in the 
 bows of the ship, was advancing. 
 
 ' Are you going to paint a picture of the " Lady Emma," 
 Miss Otway ? ' said he, coming to my side and looking down 
 at the thick and giddy foam, roaring and spitting sometimes 
 within arm's reach, and throbbing aft into a wake whose tail 
 went out of sight in the windy blue haze. 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' You are studying every effect ! ' 
 
 ' It is worth leaving home to see this ! ' said I. ' How fast 
 are we sailing ? ' 
 
 ' Thirteen knots an hour.' 
 
 ' Miss Marie wishes she was a man, Edward,' said Mrs. 
 Burke. 
 
 ' All gallant-hearted girls wish that,' said he. ' But why ? ' 
 
 1 That she might be able to climb out on to the bowsprit 
 and watch the " Lady Emma " rushing at her.' 
 
 ' Is that so, miss ? ' cried the captain, whipping round upon 
 me with his Irish briskness and arch merry eyes. I smiled. 
 • It can be managed if you please.' 
 
 I looked at the long bowsprit forking out into jib-booms 
 far ahead, with white jibs curving upon it motionless as ice, 
 save when now and again one or another breathed to the 
 plunge of the ship. 
 
 I There must be no risks ! ' cried Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' Chaw ! ' exclaimed her husband. * Will you trust your- 
 self in my hands, Miss Otway ? ' 
 
 I I will indeed.' 
 
 He called to the boatswain of the ship, a big seaman with 
 strong red whiskers and a whistle round his neck : the finest 
 specimen of an English seaman I ever saw out of a man-of- 
 war ; this man, who acted as second mate, though uncertifi- 
 cated, I had once or twice conversed with when he was on the 
 quarter-deck, and found him very civil and communicative, 
 and a relief to the eye after leering Mr. Green. 
 
 The captain gave him certain directions. He called to a 
 couple of men, and amongst them — but I am unable to explain 
 their procedure — they rigged up a chair attached by a tackle
 
 42 HEART OF OAK 
 
 to a stay ; they bound me securely in the chair, and by some 
 machinery of ropes they gently and slowly hauled me on to 
 the bowsprit, the captain and the boatswain sliding out in 
 company. Mrs. Burke watched us with a countenance of 
 fright : I felt excessively nervous whilst I was being drawn to 
 the extremity of the great spar, and held my eyes closed, but 
 did not shriek nor speak. Indeed, somehow I felt safe, though 
 a landsman might have regarded my situation as in the last 
 degree perilous. 
 
 ' Now look at the ship and tell me what you think of her,' 
 said the captain. 
 
 They had got me to the end of the bowsprit sitting very 
 comfortably and tightly secured in a chair, and the captain 
 and boatswain were on either hand of me, though what they 
 held on by I don't know. I looked, and what I saw I shall 
 never forget. For there, right in front of me, heeled by the 
 shouting wind, was the whole body of the ship, her milky 
 whiteness, mounting to the royal yards, rounding into violet 
 gloom from the sun, with gleaming half-moons of blue betwixt 
 each yard, and every afterbreast sliding under the netted shadow 
 of rigging. I rose high in my chair above the sea. Under 
 me ran the blue surge sparkling deep and clear to the bows, 
 where it burst into snowstorms. I commanded a clear view 
 of the white decks through the arch of the foresail, a hundred 
 shadows slipped along them as they slanted up and then slanted 
 down with the rhythmic swing of a pendulum ; a hundred 
 fiery lights broke from all parts as the ship leaned to the sun. 
 The wind was filled with the music of the rigging : deep organ 
 notes, then a large swelling of fifes and trumpets, coming in a 
 sudden gust or gun of wind, with a drum-like roll trembling 
 out of the taut shrouds and backstays, and a ceaseless bugling 
 in the hollow of the canvas that arched like some vast pinion 
 close beside me. 
 
 They carefully swayed my chair down tbe bowsprit and 
 got me on to the forecastle. 
 
 ' If this don't do you good, Miss Marie,' said my old nurse, 
 extending her hand to help me on to my feet, ' what will ? '
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 43 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 
 
 A few mornings after this, whilst we were at breakfast, the 
 mate looked down upon us through the open skylight, and called 
 out: 
 
 ' There's a sail right ahead.' 
 
 When we went on deck we found the vessel on the lee bow, 
 within signalling distance. The wind was the tail of the 
 trade, a fiery fanning out of north-north-east, with the loose 
 scud brown as smoke flying down it. The sea was full of 
 violet gleams and blinkings of froth ; the billow ran without 
 weight and its volume was small. It seemed as if the heat 
 was sucking the wind out of the sky, and still we were a good 
 many degrees north of the equator, though I cannot recollect 
 the latitude. 
 
 A signal of flags was run aloft to the end of the mizzen 
 gaff : the string of gay colours painted the wind and made a 
 holiday figure of the ship in a moment. When the stranger 
 perceived our signal she hauled down the red flag of the 
 English merchant service which had been flying at her trysail 
 peak ever since we had been able to distinguish it, and hoisted 
 a long, thin streamer called an answering pennant. 
 
 ' All right ! ' exclaimed Captain Burke, putting down the 
 glass he had been viewing through. ' She is an Englishman, 
 and is, no doubt, bound home. Get your letter ready, Miss 
 Otway, and if that brig is for England I will send it across to 
 her.' 
 
 I ran to my cabin. The mere thought of communicating 
 with home filled me with excitement. This, though we had 
 been some weeks at sea, was the first opportunity for sending 
 a letter home that had occurred. And then little things on 
 the ocean stir and move one greatly. Life is so dull that the 
 merest trifle is important, and what would scarcely be notice- 
 able ashore takes the aspect of a wonder. 
 
 I had kept my journal punctually down to the preceding 
 evening, and had now only to write that a brig was approach- 
 ing and would take the letter, and send a thousand kisses to 
 father and to Archie. I added that I was happy and greatly 
 improved in health. I lingered over this bit of writing. It 
 was like holding on to the dear hands of those I addressed.
 
 44 HEART OF OAK 
 
 When I had made an end, I went on deck with the letter. 
 The brig had slided abreast of us by this time : she looked a 
 very smart little vessel, with sharp bows and raking masts, 
 very lofty. She had backed her topsail as we had ours, and 
 the two vessels lay within speaking distance, bowing to one 
 another with all imaginable civility. I laughed to notice this ; 
 you would have thought them old acquaintances who couldn't 
 salute each other too often for delight in this meeting. 
 
 ' Brig ahoy ! ' hailed Captain Burke. 
 
 1 Hallo ! ' shouted a man standing a head and shoulders 
 above the bulwark rail with a staring negro at the wheel, 
 showing a little past him, whenever the brig swayed, her sand- 
 coloured decks to us. 
 
 ' What ship is that, and where are you bound for ? ' 
 
 ' " The Queen o' the Night " from Mauritius vur Liver- 
 pool, a hundred and ten days out. What ship's yon ? ' 
 
 The information was fully given, and then Captain Burke 
 bawled out to know if the other would carry a letter home for 
 him? 
 
 ' Ay, ay, but ye mun send it,' waved back the head and 
 shoulders, with a flourish of arm. 
 
 Captain Burke flourished in response. Sailors talk more 
 eloquently by gesture than the people of any nation in the 
 world. The contortion of a hump-backed posture will in an 
 instant reveal a voyage full of troubles, and more than half an 
 hour of talk is contained in a peculiar toss of the hand. 
 
 A number of the crew came running aft to the call of the 
 mate : a quarter-boat was cleared and lowered, four men 
 entered her along with the mate, who put my letter into his 
 pocket and away they went for the brig, miraculously vitalis- 
 ing and humanising the desert plain of ocean by the mere 
 picture of their straining forms and flashing oars, and the gilt 
 lines running astern from the white sides of the boat as she 
 was swept through it with Mr. Green's square frame, stiff- 
 backed in the stern, bobbing cask-like with the jump of the 
 little craft, his hand on the tiller. 
 
 ' One could almost think oneself at the seaside to see that 
 boat,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 'Yes, I just now caught myself half looking round,' I 
 answered, ' with a fancy of tall chalk cliffs, a little pier, a nest 
 of houses in a split ' 
 
 I paused. 
 
 ' And a fine house on the top of the cliff, and trees at the
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 45 
 
 back, and a flight of rooks going up like smoke out of thern,' 
 said Mrs. Burke, smiling. 
 
 ' It'll not be far off even, when we've gone all the way 
 we've got to go,' said the captain, ' and by the time we've hove 
 it into sight again, we shall have been as good as our word, 
 Miss — good as the doctor's word anyhow. What now would 
 I give for some portrait machine that takes colour and light 
 instantaneously, that when they get your letter they might see 
 you as we do ! ' 
 
 Mr. Green handed up the letter to the man who had hailed 
 us, and returned. The boat was then hoisted, the topsail 
 swung, and the ensign dipped as a farewell and thank you to 
 the little homeward-bound brig. I stood straining my eyes at 
 her as her topsail swept out of hollow shadow into a full breast 
 of sunshine, and I watched her break the long, soft, glittering 
 wave into a little leap of scaling and combing foam at her bow, 
 leaning from the hot quiet wind with yard-arm sharply pointed 
 to it, in a posture of something living that steadies itself aslant 
 for a firmer grip. She was my ocean post-office. I cannot 
 express my thoughts as I viewed her thinning down and 
 growing blue in the atmosphere that was silver blue with 
 water and blue sky, and brimming sunshine. Captain Burke 
 said she would probably arrive in Liverpool before we were 
 up with the Horn, for all that the catspaw and the calm and 
 the hard head wind had dismally belated her down to this 
 time. 
 
 And now it is that a dreadful thing happened, making this 
 day, with what had gone before, the most remarkable of any 
 to that hour. 
 
 We were standing under the fore end of the quarter-deck 
 awning, where we could command the heights of the main 
 and fore as well as see the brig astern. Whilst Captain Burke 
 was talking to me about her, his wife hard by listening, 
 assuring me I need have no doubt if the vessel safely arrived 
 at her port that her master would forward the letter to my 
 father, seeing that captains of ships hold this sort of obliga- 
 tion as sacred : I say whilst the captain was talking thus, he 
 happened to look aloft, and, following the direction of his eye, 
 I saw a seaman on the weather fore topsail yard ; his feet 
 were on the foot-rope, he overlay the yard, the outline of his 
 figure clear as a tracing in ink with his yellow naked calves 
 and feet dingy against the white canvas. What he did I could 
 not see.
 
 4 6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 The captain broke off and eyed the man intently ; then, 
 looking round a little at Mr. Green, he exclaimed, ' What 
 does that fellow mean by sogering up there? I've been 
 watching him. Who is it ? Call him down. I don't want 
 any loafing of that sort aboard my ship.' 
 
 The mate went some steps forward and, looking up, bel- 
 lowed in a voice as harsh as the noise of surf on shingle, 
 
 ' Fore topsail yard there ! Come down out of that, you ' 
 
 and here he employed several examples of the forecastle speech 
 which I will not write down because they are not proper to 
 remember, though we are to believe that the business of the 
 sea cannot be got through without brutal language. 
 
 The man looked down at the mate, and said something : 
 Mr. Green roared out again to him to ' lay down,' on which I 
 observed the sailor slided a yard or two along the footropes 
 towards the topmast rigging ; he then fell ! 
 
 He struck the deck near the galley. Mrs. Burke shrieked. 
 The man got up in a moment, stood erect with blood gushing 
 down his cheeks, and smiled at us, and the next moment 
 dropped dead. 
 
 I fainted, and when I came to my head was resting on 
 Mrs. Burke's knee, and Captain Burke was fanning me. The 
 body had been carried into the forecastle, a couple of seamen 
 were scrubbing at the stains in the white planks. Mr. Owen 
 came slowly aft, and said that the poor fellow was dead ; 
 then saw to me, took me by the hand, and seated me in the 
 coolness under the awning, where the pleasant shadow was 
 fresh with the gushing of the wind out of the hollow of the 
 great mizzen. 
 
 It was a frightful thing to have seen. I was looking at 
 the man when he fell, and my sight followed the flash of the 
 poor figure to the shocking thud of the deck ! I saw him 
 rise and smile — a smile made dreadful by blood and heart- 
 subduing by the suddenness of his falling back dead. 
 
 ' How'll Mr. Green like to recall the violent words he used 
 to the poor fellow, I wonder ? ' said Mrs. Burke, glancing at 
 the mate, who, to be sure, showed no sensibility. He trudged 
 the deck athwartship with rounded back and arms up and 
 down in the sea fashion ; occasionally leering at the sky to 
 windward, or darting a sour look at the canvas aloft. Ha 
 was no man to muse with regret on the death of the sailor, 
 and lament his own intemperate speech ; on the contrary, he 
 was one of those mates who sometimes become masters, to
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 47 
 
 whom human life, provided their own be not imperilled, is of 
 no more consequence than the extinction of the flame of the 
 slush-fed lamp which lights the sailor's sea-parlour. There 
 were many dogs of that sort at sea in those times, and some 
 have survived into these : but the odious breed grows scarce. 
 Indeed, the world has agreed to find the type intolerable, 
 and may the day be at hand when the very last of the race shall 
 be brought to the gangway in the holy grip of the giantess 
 Education, and dropped overboard to plumb the depths of 
 time, where lie the green bones of Trunnion, Hatchway, and 
 others of the clan ! 
 
 Mr. Owen recommended that the body should be buried 
 that afternoon. The weather was very hot ; the breeze was 
 slackening and the sea sheeting out— full of fitful winding 
 lanes of light as though the sun struck upon wakes and tracks 
 of oil — into the thickening distance, where the heat was show- 
 ing in a sensible presence of film, blending sky and water till 
 it was like looking at them through tears. 
 
 ' Very well,' said Captain Burke ; ' in the first dog watch, 
 if you please.' 
 
 It was at that hour almost calm, with a broad road of hot 
 red light, billowing snake-like from the ship's side over the 
 soft undulations of the western swell towards the rayless sun 
 that still floated at some height in the sky. I stood beside 
 Mrs. Burke on the quarter-deck, prayer-book in hand ; the 
 sailors came in a body from forward, and amongst them they 
 bore the corpse — an outline of tragic suggestion under the 
 large red ensign that hid it. They lifted out a portion of the 
 gangway and rested one end of the plank in the gap, and the 
 captain began to read. 
 
 What is there in shore-going ceremony to compare in 
 solemnity, in pathos, in all the deepest of the meanings which 
 are interpretable out of human forms and customs, with the 
 simple burial at sea ? All was as silent upon the water as the 
 sinking of the sun himself into the broadening road of gold 
 under him. Aloft was a gentle sound of winnowing canvas ; 
 a sob of the sea from alongside sometimes broke in upon the 
 captain's delivery. 
 
 The expressions on the faces of the rough seamen were for 
 the most part fixed. How many shipmates and messmates 
 had they helped bury in their time ? How should they be 
 concerned by death ? themselves having the Skeleton at their 
 heels every hour of their existence at sea, allowed but a
 
 48 HEART OF OAK 
 
 crooked finger for their own lives, all the remainder of their 
 hands being their owner's ! 
 
 Now, knowing sailors as I do, I can read those seamen's 
 faces by the aid of memory, and almost tell their thoughts as 
 they stood there near the gangway. 
 
 ' Well, poor Bill, there he lies. — My turn next perhaps.' 
 — ' What's that yarn the skipper's a-reading ? A blooming 
 good job for them it's true of ! No call to talk of souls at sea. 
 It's work hard, live hard, and die hard here ; and what's 
 arterwards there's Bill there to say.' 
 
 At a signal the flag was withdrawn, the stitched hammock 
 was revealed, the plank was tilted, and the grim parcel de- 
 spatched. 
 
 The night that followed was breathless and beautiful. In 
 the south-east under the moon the water stretched in a stain- 
 less field of light, flashing, but still as a sheet of looking-glass ; 
 our sails glowed blandly like starlight itself as they rose one 
 above another into the whitened gloom in whose clear pro- 
 found many meteors were darting, leaving a smoke of 
 spangles for all the world like sky-rockets under the large 
 trembling stars. Lovely they were : but for the moon I 
 think many had studded the water with points of light, to 
 ride and widen upon the black and noiseless lift of swell, 
 thick and sluggish as though it were oil that ran, and scarcely 
 putting three moons' -breadth of motion into our mastheads, 
 though it sweetened the air with the rain of dew it softly beat 
 out of the canvas. 
 
 The cabin was too hot to sit in. There was no magic in 
 two windsails and a wide skylight to cool it. I had played at 
 cribbage with Mrs. Burke till, with a yawn, the hour being 
 about half -past nine, I proposed that we should go on deck. 
 The steward followed us with a tray of refreshments ; the 
 captain and Mr. Owen joined us, pipes in mouth, and we sat, 
 nothing betwixt us and the stars but the moonlit shadow of 
 the night through w r hich we saw them. 
 
 Four bells were struck, ten o'clock ; there was no light 
 forward saving a little sheen of the forecastle lamp round about 
 the fore-scuttle, like a dim luminous mist there. But the 
 moon lay bright upon the white planks of the deck, and 
 though the rigging rose pale as tarnished silver to the mast- 
 heads it made a network of shadows black as ebony, which 
 swung with the roll of the ship as though they kept time 
 to music.
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 49 
 
 I was looking at some of this delicate network on the main 
 deck when the figure of a man passed through it and ap- 
 proached the boatswain, who had charge of the ship till mid- 
 night. They talked with a rumble in their notes that was as 
 good as telling you something was wrong. The captain 
 called out : 
 
 ' What does that man want ? ' 
 
 The boatswain then came to us, leaving the man stand- 
 ing, and exclaimed, ' He says there's a strange sailor in the 
 ship.' 
 
 ' What's that ? ' demanded Captain Burke. 
 
 ' He says there's a man walking about as don't belong to 
 the ship's company.' 
 
 ' Whose grog has he been cribbing ? ' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 The captain called to the man, who came and stood before 
 us. The moonlight whitened him : he was a powerfully built 
 fellow, with a quantity of black hair hanging about his ears 
 and dark nervous eyes, which caught the light in silver stars. 
 
 ' What's this about a strange man being aboard ? ' said the 
 captain. 
 
 ' There's a strange man in the ship, sir,' he answered. 
 
 And now I observed that in the black shadow of the 
 galley forward there stood a little group of men, apparently 
 striving to hear what was spoken aft. 
 
 ' Have you seen him ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly I have, sir.' 
 
 ' Go on,' exclaimed the captain, impatiently. 
 
 ' I was on the fok'sle when he passed me. He walked 
 slow. He looked at me as he passed, and his face was 
 wet.' 
 
 'How could you you tell that in this light?' said Mr 
 Owen. 
 
 1 The moonshine rippled in it, sir.' 
 
 ' Go on,' said the captain. 
 
 ' He was going aft as though just come out of the head. 
 I made a step or two and lost him.' 
 
 4 Where did he disappear ? ' said the boatswain in a voice 
 of awe. 
 
 ' Why, in the gloom about the foremast.' 
 
 'It'll be a stowaway come to light at a pretty late date,' 
 exclaimed Captain Burke, stiffening himself in his chair with 
 a start of temper. ' Bo'sun, get a lantern, and take and give 
 everything forward a good overhaul.'
 
 50 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' It's no stowaway, sir,' said the man who had seen the 
 stranger. 
 
 ' Ho, d'ye know him then ? ' cried the captain. 
 
 ' He was no stowaway,' repeated the seaman in a sudden 
 roaring voice of irrepressible excitement. 
 
 The captain stared at him. 
 
 ' You won't make him a ghost, will you ? ' said Mr. 
 Owen. 
 
 The man viewed the doctor in silence, then suddenly 
 shouted, whipping round upon the boatswain : 
 
 ' Tom Hartley saw him.' 
 
 c Call Tom Hartley aft,' exclaimed the captain. 
 
 The name was bawled by the boatswain, and repeated in 
 echoes like distant laughter aloft. Then a man stepped out 
 of the huddle of figures in the shadow of the galley and came 
 through the moonlight, followed by four or five, who halted at 
 the gangway. 
 
 ' What's this you've seen, Hartley ? ' said Captain Burke. 
 
 ' I was at the scuttle butt with the dipper in my hand 
 when, turning my head to look forrard, I see the shadow of a 
 man with the glimmer of a face upon it standing near the 
 foremast. I took a step, thinking it was one of the men, and 
 lost it 
 
 • How d'ye mean, lost it ? ' said the captain. 
 
 1 It sort of went out, sir.' 
 
 ' Take a lantern and search the ship forward, bo'sun,' said 
 the captain. 
 
 The three of them went forward, but I heard the first man 
 tell the boatswain that the way to see the stranger that had 
 come aboard was not by showing a light. 
 
 1 What's the meaning of it ? ' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 The captain rose in silence and walked the deck, going 
 somewhat towards the gangway, and staring forward and 
 around. The group of seamen had followed the boatswain, 
 and were now on the forecastle, a knot of silvered figures 
 with their shadows like carvings of jet lying at their feet. 
 
 ' Was it a strange man they saw ? ' I asked. ' If so, how 
 did he come into the ship ? ' and I own a chill ran through me 
 as I asked the question. 
 
 The mystery and awe of this wonderful, beautiful night of 
 moonlight and trance of ocean, glazed by the night beam as 
 though it were an ice-field, was in this hour to heighten into a 
 sort of horror the fancy of a strange man with a wet face walking
 
 A STRANGE MAN ON BOARD 51 
 
 forward ; and then again there was the memory of the death 
 in the morning and the burial before sundown. Mrs. Burke 
 was silent, and I saw her watching her husband as he uneasily 
 moved here and there. 
 
 ' Pity it's happened,' said Mr. Owen. ' It's all nonsense, 
 of course. They'll find nobody. A very small optical illusion 
 will carry conviction into the brain of a noodle. All sailors 
 are noodles in superstition. And now all hands'll think 
 there's a ghost aboard.' 
 
 Captain Burke rejoined us abruptly and seated himself. 
 
 1 They'll find nothing,' said he. 
 
 1 So I was just saying,' said the doctor. 
 
 ' But that'll be the worst of it,' exclaimed the captain. 
 ' I wish it had been that confounded seaman's watch below. 
 I don't like such things as this to happen in my ship.' 
 
 ' Why, Captain Burke, you don't mean to tell me — ? ' 
 said Mr. Owen, catching, as I did, the note of awe and 
 nervousness in the other's utterance. 
 
 'I tell you what it is,' burst out the captain irritably; 
 ' it's devilish hot to-night, I know. Is this the Bed Sea ? ' 
 
 ' Would it were, for that's where all the ghosts are laid,' 
 said the doctor good-humouredly. 
 
 ' I'm no infidel,' said the captain. ' I thank God I have 
 my faith. There's testimony enough in the Bible to the 
 existence of ghosts to satisfy any Christian man.' 
 
 'Why, Edward,' cried Mrs. Burke, 'do you want to 
 frighten Miss Marie ? ' and she poured out a small tumbler of 
 brandy and seltzer for him ; he swallowed the draught, and 
 said: 
 
 ' They'll find nothing ; which will prove, of course,' said 
 he looking at me, ' that there is nothing.' 
 
 And then he began to talk a little mysteriously of a brig 
 that had sailed out of Cork ; the crimps or runners had 
 bundled a man stone drunk into the forecastle, where the 
 captain let him lie for a day or two, guessing he would rally 
 and turn to ; instead of which they found him dead, and there 
 was no doubt he had been dead when put on board, the 
 crimps shipping the corpse in order to secure the man's wages. 
 They buried the loathly thing, but every night throughout 
 the voyage the apparition of it moved in the forepart of the 
 vessel, and always its ghostly hand struck one bell, which is 
 half an hour past midnight at sea, after which the shape 
 disappeared, and the watch on deck breathed freely again. I 
 
 e2
 
 52 HEART OF OAK 
 
 say Captain Burke talked of this brig a little mysteriously, as 
 though he secretly believed in the story, yet was ashamed we 
 should think he did so. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Owen was trying to make Mrs. Burke and me 
 laugh with some silly story of a spectre, the boatswain came 
 aft. 
 
 ' Well,' said the captain. 
 
 1 There's no strange man forward, sir.' 
 
 1 Where have ye searched ? ' 
 
 The boatswain named all sorts of places. 
 
 1 All right ! ' said the captain, springing to his feet. ' It's 
 happened right or wrong, and must take time to wear off. 
 The dew is heavy : I recommend Miss Otway to go below.' 
 
 CHAPTER YII 
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 
 
 Mrs. Burke talked with me in my cabin for some time. 
 She wondered that her husband could be so credulous as to 
 believe in ghosts, and said she had never before suspected he 
 was superstitious. She kissed me and said good-night, and 
 went away thinking, I daresay, sbe had left me fairly cheerful ; 
 and so indeed I was while she was with me, but when she 
 was gone, and I lay alone in the darkness, I felt very uneasy. 
 The cabin porthole was high above the low bunk in which I 
 rested ; I could not see the stars in it, but the noise of waters 
 fretted by a gentle catspaw of wind came through very clearly, 
 along with a dim sifting of moonshine that ruled the gloom in 
 a spectral spoke of light which was like dreaming to see ; it 
 was a dismal, sobbing, moaning noise of waters whilst it 
 lasted, and made me think of the dead men deep down in the 
 sea, and of the apparition that had moved upon the forecastle, 
 and vanished seemingly as smoke goes out, till I was too 
 afraid to sleep. 
 
 The last bells I heard stealing faintly through the calm 
 were eight — four o'clock in the morning. 
 
 However I was at the breakfast table at the usual hour ; 
 Captain Burke and his wife and the doctor came below from 
 the deck and seated themselves. Presently I said ; 
 
 ' Are we making good way, Captain Burke ? '
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 53 
 
 ' Noble way. We've taken a fine royal breeze right abeam. 
 It's bit our heels to a hair.' 
 
 I looked at him as he spoke, and observed a certain dulness 
 in his countenance. The arch expression was gone out of 
 his eyes, and if they seemed merry it was through their blue 
 glitter, not their spirit. It may have been his face which 
 made me ask : 
 
 ' Was anything more seen of the ghost during the night ? ' 
 
 ' No, miss,' he answered abruptly. 
 
 ' It was no ghost, Miss Marie,' exclaimed my old nurse. 
 I Why, as Mr. Owen justly says, you can't have no better 
 ingredients for a spectre than moonshine and the moving 
 shadows of rigging.' 
 
 ' For such a noodle as the fellow that saw the thing,' said 
 the doctor, with a half -glance of interest and speculation at 
 the captain. 
 
 ' You're not going to get correct likenesses of living people 
 out of moonshine and shadow, said the captain. 
 
 1 Why, yes, out of light and shade merely, captain, said 
 Mr. Owen. ' What else would you do work with in pencil or 
 crayon ? ' 
 
 ' I wonder you can be so silly, Edward,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 I looked at her inquiringly, perceiving that something lay 
 behind this : on which she said, ' The man who saw the ghost 
 has frightened Edward by saying he thought it was the cap- 
 tain at first, the face was so like.' 
 
 The captain sipped at a big breakfast cup to conceal his 
 expression, and subdue, as I thought, some temper excited by 
 his wife's remark. He then said, quietly smiling, but with 
 no light of merriment upon him, 'I went forward last night 
 after you were turned in, Miss Otway, to take a look round. 
 I called to the fellow the ghost appeared to, and asked him to 
 describe the thing to me ; he did so, and said it had my face. 
 My wife thinks I am frightened. You don't believe that, I 
 hope ? You'd not feel safe in a ship commanded by a skipper 
 who's to be scared by a seaman's yarn.' 
 
 ' Just a little bit of forecastle malice, depend upon it,' said 
 the doctor. ' We'll have the truth of it yet. Perhaps they 
 hope to justify their charges against your beef by dreaming 
 terrific waking nightmares, and seeing precisely the sort of 
 thing that an unsavoury harness-cask would be fruitful of.' 
 
 1 You'll have the other man saying now that the thing he 
 saw was like you,' said Mrs. Burke.
 
 54 HEART OF OAK 
 
 1 He's said it,' exclaimed the captain with an emphatic nod 
 at her. 
 
 Mr. Owen lay back in his chair with a loud laugh ; an ill- 
 timed explosion and forced withal, for you easily saw that 
 the mood of the captain was then a distemper, which needed 
 the medicine of a little skilful sympathy. But the subject 
 was dropped after the doctor's laugh, and Captain Burke, 
 turning to me, talked in a gentle voice of the letter I had 
 sent home, and calculated the distance the brig had sailed 
 since we spoke her, and chatted to entertain me and perhaps 
 to brisken up his own spirits. 
 
 When I went on deck I beheld one of the most spacious 
 splendid scenes of morning our ship had ever sprang through. 
 It was blowing fresh, but the seas ran steadily in defined hard 
 blue ridges, smoking as they came at us right abeam. The 
 rolling of the ship was so regular as to be scarcely noticeable. 
 It was all cream and yeast to leeward ; I had never seen before 
 alongside such a bubbling, throbbing spread of white spume, 
 winking, seething, crackling like burning brushwood, sweeping 
 off in steam whenever the heel of the ship hurled the blast under 
 the foot of the mainsail sheer into it over the rail. The 
 clouds hung in vast terraces to windward, with bodies of vapour 
 blowing up to the zenith out of the silk-white heaps, then 
 scudding westward to mass themselves low down in a coast 
 of cloud, that looked, with its breaks and tints, like a rich 
 land dimly seen in mist. 
 
 It was this cloud scenery, with its steady whirl of vapour 
 between, that made the morning show as wide again as it 
 was. Mr. Owen, seeing me alone looking at the water, 
 joined me. 
 
 ' It is difficult to feel superstitious on such a morning as 
 this,' said he. 
 
 ' If the stranger comes again I hope it will be in day- 
 light,' I answered. ' The thing seems to have affected the 
 captain's spirits.' 
 
 ' But not yours, I hope.' 
 
 ' I don't believe in ghosts,' said I, ' but I have faith in 
 portents and presentiments and premonitions.' 
 
 ' He looked grave, and answered so had he, and was about 
 to tell me something, then checked himself; I think his 
 imagination was with his dead then, and that he could have 
 told me of having received some warning of the loss that was 
 to befall him.
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 55 
 
 ' I am sorry,' said he, with a glance at the captain, who 
 was on the weather side of the deck talking with his wife, 
 • that the sailor should have told Captain Burke the apparition 
 was like him. These reports, if there's good faith in them, 
 catch hold of a man's spirits. The captain's worried. We 
 must avoid the subject in his presence.' 
 
 ' I should not like to be told that I had appeared to a 
 person,' said I. 
 
 ' I don't know,' he exclaimed, ' whether sailors are more 
 superstitious than others ; they're thought to be so. They 
 can plead good reasons. Last night, for example, was fuller 
 of the mysterious and the spirit-like than any churchyard 
 scene, however crumbling the church tower, however red the 
 colour than of the moon with a streak of black cloud, like 
 crape, above it. The superstitions of the sea are extraordinary, 
 and some of them beautiful. The Ancient Mariner was a 
 poet.' 
 
 ' He talks like one in the poem,' said I, smiling. _ 
 1 Coleridge went to the old sea chronicles for his ideas and 
 imagery,' he exclaimed. ' Shelvocke gave him the albatross, 
 and he found his painted ocean, and the shining and burning, 
 wriggling things in it, in Kichard Hawkins. We can never 
 see again as the old saw. They came with the eyes of 
 children and* everything was marvellous. But many of tho 
 old superstitions linger.' 
 
 ' Is there any particular superstition connected with appa- 
 ritions at sea ? ' 
 
 ' I am not well read in that subject,' he answered laughing. 
 'Most of the apparitions I have heard about concern the 
 coming on and ending of storms — mercurial spirits, spectres 
 of the barometer. The old Jacks swore that the Virgin 
 frequently appeared in the height of a gale ; they had but to 
 vow a taper and down dropped the wind. There was always 
 a gale in the wake of the " Flying Dutchman." ' 
 
 ' There's nothing but weather for apparitions to predict at 
 sea,' said I. 
 
 ' That wet-faced ghost of last night,' said he, ' reminds me 
 of Lord Byron's tale of a certain captain ; his brother, who 
 was in India, entered his cabin in mid-ocean, and lay down in 
 his bunk ; when the captain awoke he found his blankets wet 
 through.' 
 
 'Perhaps he forgot to close his cabin window,' said I. 
 « Anyhow,' said Mr, Owen, « Captain Kidd afterwards dis-
 
 5 6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 covered that his brother was drowned at that exact hour of 
 the night.' 
 
 ' This is not nice talk for such a morning as this,' said I, 
 chilled by a sudden return of the uneasy superstitious feeling. 
 
 ' There's a fine sight coming along yonder,' cried out 
 Captain Burke just then, and he pointed over the weather 
 bow with the telescope he had been looking through. 
 
 I crossed the deck and saw two large stars of light on the 
 sea-line almost directly ahead. Even whilst I gazed they 
 sensibly enlarged. The sun at this time was hanging on the 
 left of them, and his light was on the water between, flashing 
 every headlong ridge into silver, and silvering the sea-smoke 
 till it flew down the wind with the gleam of a silken veil ; 
 and beyond this rushing splendour of silver sea, softened here 
 and there by the shadows of the sailing clouds, hung those 
 two glowing stars, steady as though they were fixed in the 
 heavens. 
 
 Captain Burke let fall the glass from his eye and said to 
 Mr. Owen, 'An ocean race.' 
 
 ' Yachts ? ' said the doctor. 
 
 ' Bless me, no. Clippers rushing it for a wager. If this 
 was the other end of the year they'd probably prove tea-ships. 
 It should be a fine sight,' he cried, anticipation and spirit 
 working his face into something of its old merry, eager 
 look. 
 
 We were ourselves sailing fast, and the two ships were 
 coming along faster perhaps by two or three miles in the hour 
 than we were going ; in a magically short time they were two 
 defined shapes upon the bow about a quarter of a mile apart, 
 black spots under brilliant clouds showing like shapes of white 
 flame through the windy blue dazzle trembling into the 
 atmosphere they were coming through. The sailors dropped 
 their several tasks to look ; the surly mate stared with a fixed 
 devouring leer; all hands I guessed understood what they 
 were to see ; the cook stepped from the galley to the rail. In 
 less than half an hour from the moment of our sighting them 
 they were abreast, and when they were right abeam this one 
 hid the other, so completely were they neck and neck. 
 
 By this time our own ship's number was flying at our 
 peak, and now as they came abreast, each having told us by 
 a thin tongue of flag that our colours had been spelt out, they 
 hoisted their own names. 
 
 ' An Aberdeen clipper and a Blackwall liner,' said Captain
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 57 
 
 Burke, reading out of a signal book. ' Both from an Aus- 
 tralian port. A very pretty race indeed. But it's the spirit 
 of Souchong that puts life into that sort of thing.' 
 
 Yet spite of that I thought the show as gallant as anything 
 old ocean ever submitted, if it were not a scene of old line-of- 
 battle ships in a gale of wind. They opened into six spires 
 of delicate shadow and snowlike whiteness ; they leaned their 
 full and starlike breasts to us, the lustrous canvas tapering to 
 an apex of cloth that was a very puff of sail, wan as some 
 web of cloud near the afternoon moon. Every stitch that 
 would draw was heaped upon them ; they had the wind right 
 abeam ; to windward they were clothed with studding-sails ; 
 betwixt the masts some becalmed wing of fore and aft canvas 
 would swing in and out idly like the pinion of a wounded bird. 
 The sight was a marvellous hurry of shadows, and flashing 
 lights, and steady shining of rounded canvas ; and under the 
 bows of each a glass-clear sea arching, flashed into a very 
 snow-storm, and broke aft as far as the gangway. 
 
 They passed like clouds, silent and stately, and I continued 
 to watch them till they were glowing astern, dwindling and 
 dimming, but, as Captain Burke declared, neck and neck yet 
 even when they had sunk their courses, and nothing above 
 the clews of their topsails were ' dipping ' upon the horizon. 
 
 It was not many days after this that we crossed tho 
 equator. A pleasant sailing wind blew us over the line and 
 failed us not till we had reached almost within the Polar 
 verge of the south-east trade wind, into which Captain Burke 
 and the mate sneaked the ship by careful and unwearied 
 attention to every faintest breathing that tarnished the surface 
 of the long, blue equatorial heave. Then one morning, com- 
 ing on deck, I found a strong wind humming like a concert of 
 organs off the port bow, and the vessel 'with her yards fore and 
 aft, breaking through a quick spitting sea, and clouds passing 
 like dust over our mastheads. This was the first of the 
 south-east trade wind. 
 
 'It's all right with us now, Miss Otway,' said Captain 
 Burke as he shook me by the hand. ' We're making a straight 
 course for the Horn, and we shall be putting her nose off for 
 the great South Sea presently.' 
 
 But even though he spoke lightly, and seemed very well 
 satisfied to have taken the trade gale in its strength so young, 
 there was the same suggestion of spiritlessness in his manner 
 that had been more or less visible in him now ever since the
 
 5 8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 sailor had told him he had seen his apparition. Though the 
 ghost had not again appeared ; though Mr. Owen, with the 
 hope, no doubt, of settling the captain's spirits, had got the 
 seaman to admit that he might have been mistaken, that he 
 was leaning against the forecastle rail in a sort of doze 
 perhaps when he started and saw the thing, which, he avowed, 
 might very well have been an illusion of shadow and moon- 
 light upon his sleepy vision— it was all one ; a weight of 
 dejection had come upon the captain's mind, and ever since 
 the night of superstition he had ceased to be that merry, arch, 
 humorous Irishman who had called upon my father, and 
 made us laugh almost in the very anguish of my leave-taking. 
 This was so noticeable in him whilst he talked to me about 
 the south-east trade wind, and going for Cape Horn in a bee- 
 line, and our first sunny port — full of quaint costumes and 
 pleasant fruit and queer merry-makings— just round the corner, 
 that on returning to the cabin some time afterwards and finding 
 Mrs. Burke there sewing, I sat down beside her and talked 
 about him. 
 
 ' What should there be in this thing, nurse, to dispirit your 
 husband after all these days, now that the man has as good as 
 sworn that he was mistaken ? ' 
 
 1 Why, my dear, he is an Irishman, and they are a 
 superstitious people.' 
 
 ' The crew no longer trouble themselves about that ghost.' 
 
 ' I don't think they do. The boatswain,' said she, laughing, 
 ' told my husband a man had said that as the ghost appeared 
 with a wet face it must have been Old Stormy.' 
 
 < Who's Old Stormy ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Oh,' she answered, still laughing, ' there is a well-known 
 windlass song called " Old Stormy, he is dead and gone ! " ' 
 
 1 Old Stormy wouldn't be like Captain Burke,' said I. 
 
 ' And that should satisfy him,' she answered. ' I doubt 
 that he's quite the thing. These roasting latitudes use the 
 liver cruelly. Then again there's the anxiety of command. 
 The tone of the mind gets lowered by worry, which a man 
 takes as a matter of routine, and doesn't heed though it's 
 working in him all the same. It'll wear off, I dare say, when 
 the weather gets cold.' 
 
 She talked placidly, going on with her work with a com- 
 fortable, smiling face. She had married too late in life to 
 take anxious views of her husband. It's the young wife that 
 frets, I think. Not that Mrs. Burke would not have shown
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 59 
 
 herself deeply anxious had her husband been ailing in his 
 health ; it was his fancies she took no notice of, a smile was 
 good enough for them. 
 
 It chanced that on this same day there occurred an incident 
 that had nearly verified the judgment of any man who should 
 have accepted the visit of the apparition as a menace. After 
 loitering at the dinner-table in chat, I put on my hat and 
 jacket and followed the captain and Mr. Owen on deck. It 
 was blowing very fresh, and though the sun still nearly 
 centred the heavens we were sailing under, the weight of the 
 blast put an edge into the feel of it. But it was a glorious, 
 invigorating, cordial draught ; and I stood for awhile with 
 my hand upon the companion-hood, deeply breathing, and 
 relishing to the inmost pulses of my being that shouting 
 musical tide of liberal gale, blue and salt, yet sweet as sugar 
 when it came charged with the damp of the spray. 
 
 The brown scud was flying off the working ridges on the 
 horizon, and the ship was bowed to her channels, charging 
 the sea-flashes, with the forecastle reeling in the frequent 
 thickness of foam flying athwart. She was carrying all she 
 had of plain sail and clearly more than she needed, for I had 
 not been five minutes on deck when the captain ordered the 
 three royals to be clewed up and furled, and other sail to be 
 taken in. 
 
 I continued standing at the hatch watching two men on 
 the mam royal yard stow the sail there. It was a giddy sight 
 to my girlish eye. Indeed I had always found something 
 wonderful in the agility and fearlessness of the crew when 
 they sprang aloft, and slided out upon the yards, and struggled 
 with the canvas that soared in huge bladders from their grasp. 
 I gazed up at the two fellows and tried to figure the image 
 our ship would make viewed from that height, and whilst I 
 was picturing a narrow streak of hull rushing headlong with 
 a wild play of dazzle on either hand of her, and all aslant to 
 her trucks, with yard-arms pointing skywards and stirless 
 canvas thrilling like a thousand drums out of the violet hollows 
 I was startled by a loud cry directly overhead : and looking 
 up I spied a man in the mizzen-top, leaning off with one hand 
 upon a shroud, and pointing eagerly to leewards with the 
 other, whilst he cried : 
 
 ' There's a whole coast of water a-coming along.' 
 
 I directed my eyes at the lee line of the sea, where I saw, 
 nearly at the distance of the horizon, but clearly coming
 
 60 HEART OF OAK 
 
 along at a prodigious rate directly against the wind and rush- 
 ing surge, a wall of water : it was rounding its pouring 
 volume high above the level of the sea, and the vast bulk of 
 it, stretching north and south, blazed with the flashing of the 
 sunlight upon the savage leaps and shattering recoils of the 
 surge it was rolling up against. Mrs. Burke, losing her wits 
 at the sight, shrieked out : 
 
 ' Oh, Edward, it will drown us ! ' 
 
 Scarcely had she said this, when her husband, who had 
 taken but one glance to leeward, roared out : 
 
 ' Hard up, hard up with the helm ! Aft to the weather- 
 braces. Square away fore and aft ! Lively, my lads, for 
 Jesus' sake ! If it takes us abeam it'll sink the ship ! ' 
 
 He yelled the words and they rang through the vessel. 
 The sailors fled to the braces : their practised ears heard in 
 the captain's cry the note that signifies at sea life or death, 
 though some probably did not know what the danger was. 
 The gallant little ship answered her helm like a racing yacht, 
 and seetbed aslant down the wind in a semicircle, bowing the 
 hawse-pipes into the billow breaking under her, and slowly 
 righting as she brought her stern to the breeze, till she was 
 looking at the long on-coming, cliff-like length of brine, with 
 erect spars, rolling never and bowing only as she swept to 
 that wonderful heap of sea. 
 
 It might have been hurling towards us at forty miles an 
 hour, when we are going ten, and in a few heart-beats our 
 bows were lifting to it. 
 
 ' Hold on, all hands ! ' roared the captain from the 
 wheel, which he was grasping conjointly with the helmsman. 
 
 ' Hold tightly,' screamed Mrs. Burke to me as we stood 
 together in the companion. 
 
 Mr. Owen flung himself on his knees behind the mizzen- 
 mast. Green, the mate, stood at the mizzen-rigging grasping 
 a belaying-pin. It was as though an electric storm was 
 volleying in one continuous roar of cloud battery overhead. 
 The ship seemed to be thrown keel out of water forward. I 
 glanced astern at the instant that her bows took the first of 
 the slant of that mighty heave of sea, and the line of her 
 taffrail was depressed, like the edge of a spoon afloat in a cup, 
 in the crackling whiteness there, with Captain Burke and the 
 helmsman low down, pale and motionless. The sails 
 throughout came in to the mast with a single clap. In a 
 breath or two we were on the rounded top of that vast rolling
 
 A RACE AND A ROLLER 61 
 
 lift of water that was roaring along either extremity of it to 
 the horizon ; the wind was full of the thunder of the shock 
 and the snap of strong seas staggering on the under run ; in 
 that breathless moment of our being poised atop the whole 
 weight of the wind was upon the ship ; through the roar 
 of the roller ran the bugling in the rigging, and the 
 low, deep humming of the canvas as it strained with the 
 blast. 
 
 Then like an arrow down rushed the vessel. Oh, that 
 was a frightful moment ! So steep was the slant that the 
 water poured in tons over her bows as she went. I turned 
 sick. I thought she would take the valley in a dive and strike 
 clean through under the next sea, never again to rise. For- 
 tunately the run of the mighty roller left the water smooth in 
 its wake. The bows sprang buoyant, the whole ship seemed 
 to leap with a sort of shudder of rejoicing throughout her. 
 
 ' Trim sail the watch,' shouted the captain, letting go the 
 helm and coming forward. ' Mr. Green, bring the ship to 
 her course again. A desperately close shave. Had it come 
 from the wind'ard, or taken us abeam to leeward, or found us 
 a strake or two deeper ' 
 
 There was no need for him to finish the sentence. He 
 came to the companion-way. 
 
 ' An ocean hurdle,' said he, still very pale, and watching 
 the wheel as the man revolved the spokes to bring the 
 ship to. 
 
 ' What was it, Edward ? ' cried his wife. 
 
 1 A roller,' said he. ' I hope there may not be another.' 
 He looked to leeward. ' One of those volcanic jokes or hurri- 
 cane survivals which try periodically to swamp Ascension and 
 St. Helena. Help Miss Otway below, Mary, and give her a 
 little drop of wine, and take a nip yourself.' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A HURRICANE 
 
 Our voyage, after this incident of the roller down to below 
 the latitude of Cape Horn, was uneventful. I had looked 
 with dread to the cold of that stormy and desolate part of the 
 world ; but when we arrived, having struck a parallel, indeed,
 
 6s HEART OF OAK 
 
 beyond which the captain informed us we were not to push 
 much further, I found the ocean climate by no means insup- 
 portable. 
 
 My wardrobe had been a liberal equipment. I had furs, 
 wraps, and the like in plenty, and all very warm ; then again 
 my health had wonderfully improved, and this helped me to 
 find the cold a lesser evil than I had feared. Throughout the 
 days a fire glowed in the cabin. And yet it was towards the 
 close of June when we were nearly as far south as the captain 
 intended to go, and June is mid-winter in that part of the 
 world, with but four or five hours of light only in the day, 
 and the sun a little scarlet ball whose arc of flight might 
 scarcely frame an iceberg. 
 
 All this while the captain remained the changed man I 
 have before attempted to express him. I did not observe 
 that his despondency increased upon him. He was as one 
 who lives with some fixed belief in his head, who, depressing 
 his bearing and manner to a level, leaves himself there, never 
 sinking, but never rising either. For the rest it had been as 
 it still was, a monotonous routine of bells and meals, reading, 
 chatting, playing at games in the cabin ; sometimes we had 
 spoken a ship ; once we had floated quietly into a school of 
 whales which made the cold black deep lying under the large 
 stars of the south as beautiful as any dream of poet with the 
 silver willowy curves of light they blew to the moon. 
 
 In this time I found no opportunity to send a second 
 letter home. 
 
 I cannot remember our latitude on this day I am to write 
 about. I understood that, for reasons my memory will not 
 suffer me to explain, we had made more southing than was 
 necessary, whilst we were further to the east— half-way, 
 indeed, to Georgia Island, — than the captain and mate cared 
 to talk about. The weather had been sulky all the morning ; 
 large snow clouds in soft dyes of darkness upon the stooping, 
 corrugated, leaden sky, floated sullenly athwart our mast- 
 heads, but without any squally outfly of wind so far, though 
 often the snow fell thickly. A large westerly swell was 
 running, and the ship bowed heavily upon it, finding nothing 
 to steady her in the small beam breeze that blew bitter as ice 
 straight out of the south. 
 
 I remained in the cabin all the morning, reading beside 
 the fire. Whilst we were at dinner, the mate, shaggy in thick 
 pilot cloth and a great fur cap between whose ear-covers his
 
 A HURRICANE 63 
 
 face lay small as though •withered by the cold into a mere 
 leer of eye and a purple nose jewelled with a little icicle, 
 came half-way down the companion ladder. 
 
 ' There's a big island jumped out of a snowfall on the lee 
 bow,' he exclaimed. ' The lady'll like to see it p'raps,' having 
 said which he instantly returned on deck. 
 
 Strangely enough, though w T e had measured many leagues 
 of ocean often for months and months studded with bergs, 
 we had down to this hour sighted nothing of the sort. I had 
 longed to see an iceberg before all other sights of the deep, 
 and at once wrapped myself up, and went on deck with the 
 captain. On stepping to the lee side, there on the bow about 
 two miles off we beheld a vast iceberg like a mighty cathedral 
 in alabaster shaping itself out of a soft vapoury shadow ! As 
 each feature of the mass stole out it showed with an ivory- 
 like clearness against the hoary soot of the snow-cloud past 
 it ; the swell of the sea washed the base in a large surf. 
 The water was lead coloured as the sky ; its heavings were 
 slow and stubborn, and each volume rolled along as though 
 it were of oil or quicksilver. Some lovely snow-white petrels 
 darted swallow-like athwart our sluggish wake. I cannot 
 express how their beauty deepened, to the imagination, the 
 sky- wide loneliness of this scene of ocean with its ice-island 
 there, material as rock, dissoluble as the smallest of the 
 flakes falling upon it — a mere dream of substance — a pageant 
 of the deep as illusive as the tapestries of the clouds. 
 
 Many shadows of snow hung round the sea. It was like 
 entering a vast arena funereal with draperies. 
 
 ' What does that iceberg remind you of ? ' said Mr. Owen, 
 approaching us with Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' Of a cathedral,' said I. 
 
 ' Exactly,' he exclaimed. ' Winchester and Canterbury 
 combined, with a hint from Strasburg in that corner to the 
 right yonder, where its opening is clear of the snow 7 .' 
 
 ' A pretty little fairy toy to thump up against on a black 
 howling night,' said Captain Burke, with an uneasy look 
 round at the weather. 
 
 1 This is as strange a day as ever I saw,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' How long could people live on such an iceberg as that ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 • Give 'em wreckage for huts and food and fuel, and they 
 should live long enough to be taken off,' answered the captain. 
 
 1 Ha ! ' exclaimed Mr. Owen, pensively regarding the
 
 64 HEART OF OAK 
 
 majestic bulk, * fancy finding one's self alone on such an 
 island as that ! An ice Crusoe ! ' 
 
 • I've known three whalers taken off a piece of ice four or 
 five days before the lump they floated on would have melted 
 under their feet,' said the captain. 
 
 Mr. Owen viewed him with a smile. The captain 
 abruptly left us, and standing at the wheel directed his eyes 
 earnestly round the sea and up at the sky. Airs. Burke said : 
 
 ' My husband's uneasy. I hope we are not going to have 
 any very bad weather.' 
 
 ' Miss Otway,' said Mr. Owen, ' do you know, those birds 
 are the souls of dead ballet-girls? Observe the exquisite 
 time and grace of their measures and curvings, as though they 
 held their white skirts out and revolved to unheard music.' 
 
 Here Captain Burke called out sharply : 
 
 ' Get the main-topgallant sail furled and all three topsails 
 single-reefed.' 
 
 In a few minutes the ship was clamorous with singing men 
 and busy with running figures ; a pale ray of sunshine glanced 
 just then at no great height above the horizon and flashed 
 up our ice-glazed rigging and flamed in the spears of ice at 
 the catheads : it touched the iceberg, and the cathedral-like 
 phantasy that was now abeam whitened out into a glaring 
 brilliance which flung a sheen of its own round about it ; the 
 sky hung pale above and on its left, but to the right of it snow 
 was falling thickly. In a few minutes the whole mass 
 vanished, a deeper gloom closed in upon the sea, and the swell 
 ran with an increased weight. 
 
 It was an ' all hands ' job as sailors call it, and while the 
 watches were on the topsail yards, the captain bawled out ' two 
 reefs,' and when some hands went on to the mizzen topsail 
 yard he cried out to them to close-reef the sail, which, before 
 the men came down, was clewed up and furled. Even whilst 
 I remained on deck a sort of vapourish thickness had gathered 
 round the horizon, as though the several draperies of snow- 
 cloud had compacted into a huge circular wall, blotting out 
 everything a mile off, whilst overhead the sooty stuff, like scud 
 held in suspense, floated low down till the sweep of the dog 
 vane at the royal mast-head seemed to rend it. 
 
 It began to snow in large soft flakes. I went down the 
 companion steps, and Mrs. Burke and Mr. Owen followed me. 
 I heard Mr. Owen say softly, as though he would not hava 
 me overhear,
 
 A HURRICANE 65 
 
 'I wish the mercury had not sunk so low.' 
 
 ' I shall be glad to get out of this sea into the north, 
 where the sun is,' answered Mrs. Burke. 
 
 It was after two, and the cabin lamp was alight. I re- 
 moved my wraps and took a chair close by the stove. The 
 motion of the ship was large, and sweeping upon the swell. 
 You could judge of its character by watching the oscillation 
 of the lamp. Presently Mrs. Burke came from her cabin and 
 sat beside me. 
 
 ' We are going to have heavy weather, I fear,' said I. 
 
 ' Oh, well, this is a brave little ship,' she answered. ' "We 
 are a long way from home down here, but she's carried us 
 safely so far.' 
 
 ' She has truly, nurse. I cannot wonder that sailors 
 should feel towards ships they have long lived in almost as 
 towards the women they love. A ship is alive. I can think 
 of her as with passions and feelings. I've seen the " Lady 
 Emma " erect her spars and look at a sea as a horse cocks its 
 ears at a gate — I once heard Mr. Green talking to her, and I 
 laughed to find myself thinking she understood him.' 
 
 « What did he say ? ' 
 
 ' " Go it, old bucket "■ — I forget what more,' said I. 
 
 ' If it were not for Mr. Moore,' said she, looking at me with 
 affectionate eyes, ' I would stake all that my husband owns in 
 this ship that you ended in marrying a sailor.' 
 
 I quietly shook my head. 
 
 • Well, the sea has used you handsomely, anyway,' said 
 she. ' I dare say Sir Mortimer is at this minute wondering 
 where you are. How he and Mr. Moore will have pored over 
 the map of the world, to be sure. But little can they guess 
 where you are this very day. This is the terrible Horn your 
 father was so afraid of for your sake. It's not so cold, is it ? 
 And yet we are further south than it is customary for ships 
 to venture. What would Sir Mortimer think of such a sight 
 as you saw to-day — that great iceberg, I mean ? Fancy such 
 an object floating just opposite your house. What a fortune 
 for the boatmen ! ' 
 
 Just then I heard a shouting on deck ; it came dulled 
 through the planks, yet I caught a sharp, fierce note of 
 instant need in it. A minute later the ship leaned down to 
 an outfly of wind that seemed of hurricane force. I heard the 
 thunder of the storm, and saw the lee cabin windows drowned 
 in the green brine, whilst the weather ports winked like 
 
 F
 
 65 HEART OF OAK 
 
 blinded eyes with the sudden lashing of foam. My chair gave 
 way, and with a shock I fell with it and rolled down the deck, 
 and for some moments lay helpless, astonished, terrified to the 
 last degree, but unhurt. 
 
 Mrs. Burke clung to a stanchion, and I feared, whilst I 
 watched her stout form swinging off it, to see her let go, lest 
 she should flash down upon me and break my neck or maim 
 me for life with her weight. I could not imagine what was 
 happening, save that a sudden hurricane had struck the ship 
 and thrown her on her beam ends. She lay as though 
 capsized, with a horrible roaring, pounding, thunderous noise 
 of water on the weather side of her, and frightful sounds in 
 her hold, threaded with dim notes of rending, as though sails 
 were flogging in rags or masts going over the sides. 
 
 I managed to get on my knees, and in that posture re- 
 mained a minute like one on the roof of a house. Such was 
 the slant of the deck I could no more have crawled up it to 
 where Mrs. Burke hung by a stanchion than up a wall. This 
 awful sensation of the ship being upset was dreadfully in- 
 creased and made a sickness of for the very soul itself to faint 
 under, by her motions in the vast hollow swell which the 
 hurricane was tearing into shreds. Whenever a pause of the 
 beating sea left a weather cabin window weeping, yet clear 
 to that extent, I could judge it was about black as midnight 
 outside. The globe of the lamp had swung hard against the 
 deck, and rarely came from it even with a windward roll. All 
 in a moment the ship lurched over yet, till you would have 
 thought she was turning keel up, and this motion was accom- 
 panied by such a thump of the sea, such a shattering inleaping 
 of tons of water, it was as though a huge gun or a whole 
 broadside of pieces had been fired on board of us. 
 
 And again through the roaring blow of water I caught the 
 muffled noise of the rending of wood. I shrieked out in that 
 moment of agonising suspense, ' We are sinking ! ' and indeed 
 so blinding was the eclipse of the window glass that I did 
 truly believe we were going down and were even then below 
 the surface. 
 
 Mrs. Burke was unable to make any reply. She was 
 almost black in the face with the anguish of supporting her 
 weight and with horror and fear. In a few moments the 
 strength of her arms gave out ; but by relaxing her grip she 
 doubtless saved her neck ; her grasp loosened and she slided 
 her embrace down the stanchion to the deck, and then let go
 
 A HURRICANE 67 
 
 and swept silent and helpless as a length of timber down to 
 close beside me ; her feet struck the cabin wall hard, and she 
 lay a minute without motion as though the breath had been 
 shocked out of her. (She then grasped my hand and cried 
 out : 
 
 ' Oh, what can have happened ? Are we amongst the ice ? 
 Did you hear a noise as if our mast had been splintered ? ' 
 
 I shrieked back — I put it thus strongly, for you cannot 
 imagine the uproar in that cabin, what with the grinding of 
 the ship and the freight, the creaking of a hundred strong 
 fastenings, the cannonading of flying tons of brine against the 
 lifted exposed weather side of the vessel — I say I shrieked 
 back: 
 
 ' Let us try to get on deck. It is horrible to drown down 
 here.' 
 
 ' Don't talk like that. What can have happened ? Is 
 Edward safe? What has become of the ship? Oh, the 
 suddenness of it ! Are we amongst the ice ? ' 
 
 Thus the poor woman raved. She was silenced by a roar 
 of water like a crash of thunder close overhead ; a sea of giant 
 bulk had swept the quarter-deck, and in a breath a cataract, 
 sparkling in the lamplight, rushed smoking down the com- 
 panion, and before we could deliver a scream we were up to 
 our waists. 
 
 The water must have been of an icy coldness, but I felt it 
 not— at least in that way ; it was no colder than the summer 
 ripples which I would paddle in when a child. Terror had 
 rendered me insensible to pain. 
 
 ' Cannot we drag ourselves out of it before more comes, or. 
 we shall be drowned ? ' screamed poor Mrs. Burke. 
 
 Then it was that the ship began to right. She righted 
 slowly at first, then came to a level keel with a sickening jerk 
 and a wild leap of her whole frame that sent the water in the 
 cabin speeding and roaring white as milk. 
 
 A door opened and Mr. Owen stumbled out. 
 
 1 Oh, my God ! ' he cried. ' What has happened ? I have 
 been unable to release myself. My berth is half-full of water.' 
 
 And then he came splashing over to where Mrs. Burke and 
 I stood with an arm writhed about the stanchion. But oh, 
 the soul-lifting sense of relief that came into one with the feel 
 of that level deck and the rise and fall, hard and furious as the 
 tossing was ! 
 
 ' What has happened ? ' cried Mr. Owen. 
 
 f2
 
 63 HEART OF OAK 
 
 1 Hark ! ' was Mrs. Burke's answer, in so shrill a note, that 
 it pierced the ear like a wnistle. We heard the voices of men 
 on deck. A few moments later the figure of Captain Burke 
 appeared in the companion-way. He looked down and cried 
 out : 
 
 1 Are you all right helow there ? ' 
 
 ' Edward, come to us. What has happened ? ' shrieked 
 Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' How much water have you taken in down here ? ' he 
 cried, and descended to the bottom of the steps, where he stood 
 looking round him like a man bereft of his mind. 
 
 ' What is it, Edward ? ' screamed his wife. ' Tell us. We 
 are half dead with fright and nearly drowned.' 
 
 ' The ship's a sheer hulk — totally dismasted,' he cried, in a 
 raving way, still looking round and around and around. 
 
 ' Oh, oh,' wailed the poor woman, and the doctor, grey as 
 ashes, floundered through the rushing flood upon the cabin 
 floor towards the captain. 
 
 1 Not yet, sir, not yet, sir,' roared Captain Burke, holding 
 him off with both hands out. ' See to the ladies. Let them 
 shift their clothes. This water will drain off quickly. Give 
 them brandy and take some. Mary,' he shouted, ' the ship's 
 alive, but if she's to remain so I must see to her,' saying 
 which he went up the steps, closing the companion-way behind 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Owen splashed and staggered after him. He ran up 
 the companion steps bawling, ' Bon't lock us up down here,' 
 and tried the doors, but was unable to open them. 
 
 4 Why has he shut us up ? ' I cried, wildly, for this im- 
 prisonment was the most dreadful passage of all ; I felt as if 
 I should suffocate. 
 
 ' He's afraid of more water pouring down, and considers 
 we're safer here than on deck. He'll not leave us to drown. 
 He'll not forget we're here,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' He may be swept overboard, and the others will forget 
 us.' 
 
 • Come to your cabin and change your boots and dress. No 
 more water is coming in, you see. What is that noise ? 
 Hark ! Oh, it is the clanging of the pumps. How fearfully 
 sudden ! But it is always so at sea. Oh, my poor husband ! 
 Come, Miss Marie, come and change, or this will be giving 
 you your death,' and grasping me by the arm the dear, poor, 
 good creature led me towards my cabin.
 
 A HURRICANE 69 
 
 As we stepped, moving very slowly with frequent abrupt 
 halts and mutual cringings, for the jump of the dismantled 
 hull from hollow to peak, her helpless beamwise lurch from 
 summit to valley were a brain-sickness in sensation, Mr. 
 Owen came out of the pantry holding a bottle of brandy and 
 a glass. He bid me take a small glassful. I told him no, and 
 Mrs. Burke said it was no time to think of drinking. It 
 might be that we should be called upon very soon to save our 
 lives, and every one would want the best of his wits. 
 
 ' The captain recommended a draught of the spirit, and so 
 do I,' said Mr. Owen, reeling in the doorwa}* with the motion 
 of the ship and submitting a figure which I must have laughed 
 at, at a time less appalling, with his short legs set apart, their 
 shape defined by the soaked smallclothes which hung like 
 loose plaster upon them, his bushy mass of minute curls over 
 either ear seeming to enlarge like the puff from the mouth of 
 a cannon even as the eye rested upon them, a bottle in one 
 hand, a wineglass in the other, and his face as pale as 
 tallow. 
 
 Mrs. Burke made no answer, and we gained our cabin. 
 
 The stout door and high coaming had kept the interior 
 fairly dry. I changed, but though I immediately felt the 
 comfort of the dry thick clothing I cannot recollect that I 
 shivered, that I even felt cold, so completely was all physical 
 sensibility in this dreadful time dominated by my horror and 
 surprise and my fright lest the ship should go dowm with us 
 whilst we were locked up below. Mrs. Burke left me, to shift 
 some of her own clothes. 
 
 I stood at the cabin porthole, holding on by a stanchion 
 that served as a bed-post, and looked out. The thick glass 
 was so blind with the ceaseless wash of the roaring sea- 
 flashes that I could distinguish nothing save dissolving, 
 shifting, shapeless bulks of dim w r hite, vague as snow-clad 
 mountains beheld in starless gloom. But their thunder wa3 
 without, close beside ; and their strength was in the hurl of 
 the ship. Indeed a vast dangerous sea had been set running 
 almost as swiftly as the hurricane had burst upon us, and 
 running athwart was the huge swell filled with the might 
 of the greatest stretch of ocean in the world. 
 
 In about half an hour Mrs. Burke came to me. The 
 cabin lamp continued to burn brightly, but the fire in the 
 stove had been extinguished by the water. She made me 
 put on a pair of india-rubber shoes, for though the brine had
 
 70 HEART OF OAK 
 
 drained off the cabin floor, the thick carpet squelched under 
 the tread like wet sand which leaves a pool in your foot-print. 
 The keen edge of this swamp of brine was in the atmosphere, 
 raw and weedy and death cold ; it was like entering a ship's 
 hold under sea. 
 
 Mrs. Burke got me to the table, and procured some stout 
 and cold chicken, and compelled me to eat, herself setting an 
 example. She struggled with her spirits, and sought to talk 
 a little cheerfully. 
 
 ' We are still alive, you see,' she said. ' The " Lady 
 Emma " is one of the strongest ships ever built. I am no 
 longer frightened. I can feel the life in a ship as a sailor 
 does, and this vessel is jumping so briskly that I am certain 
 she is not taking in any water. My husband, besides, is a 
 thorough seaman. He knows exactly what to do, and what 
 is best will be done.' Then turning her head, she exclaimed, 
 1 Where is Mr. Owen ? ' 
 
 She got up and opened the pantry door ; afterwards 
 knocked upon the door of his berth. The noises were so 
 many and distracting I could not hear if he answered. She 
 opened the door and exclaimed : 
 
 1 Won't you come and eat a little supper with us ? ' 
 
 ' No, thank 'ee,' he answered, in a thickish voice. 
 
 Mrs. Burke stared at him awhile, then closed the door and 
 returned to me. 
 
 The motions of the ship were so violent that we found it 
 hard to keep our seats. 
 
 The food was flung over the fiddles into our laps. Every 
 recovery had the abruptness of the flight of a missile ; the 
 water roared about the cabin windows, and again and again, 
 as the hull sank or soared, the thunder of the sea swept 
 through her as though she had split. 
 
 The companion hatch was opened, and Captain Burke 
 descended. He was cased in oilskins, and one whole side of 
 him was white with frozen snow. He came to the table and 
 sat down. 
 
 'Now will you tell us what has happened, Edward?' 
 exclaimed his wife, and she crooked her brows with a strain- 
 ing of her large short-sighted eyes, shining with fear, to catch 
 the expression on his face as it showed and shifted in a sort 
 of hysteric agility with the leap of the shadows under the 
 lamp. 
 
 ' All three masts are gone by the board.'
 
 A HURRICANE 7, 
 
 * What's to be clone, then '? ' 
 
 ' Eh ? Done ? ' he cried, white in the face, his eyes keen 
 and hot with irritability, pulling off his sou'wester and striking 
 it upon the table with a blow that dislodged a moulded helmet 
 of snow hard as plaster. ' We want daylight first. You don't 
 realise here what it's like on deck. It's a frightful night.' 
 He checked himself with a look at me and added, ' But we'll 
 have the old jade out of it though it should come to warping 
 her with the Horn for a kedge. We'll put ye safe ashore, 
 miss. By God, then, but Sir Mortimer shan't know you for 
 plumpness and bloom ! ' 
 
 He forced a smile that had more the look of a snarl than 
 a grin with the teeth he disclosed, his eyes taking no part in 
 it. His wife caught a bottle from the swing-tray as it swept 
 to her outstretched hand and mixed a tumbler of drink. He 
 swallowed it, and then picked up a leg of fowl and a piece of 
 white biscuit, and whilst he alternately bit from either hand 
 he talked to his wife thus : 
 
 4 The first outfly was a squall of hurricane force, and it 
 pinned her right down hi the trough. I thought she was 
 gone. The men could only hold on. The boatswain at last 
 managed to scramble forward, where he got hold of an axe. 
 He brought it aft, and others taking heart on hearing him 
 sing out, got into the main chains, and with hatchets and 
 knives went to work at the lanyards. The mast went, and 
 with it the other two. It was like the melting of a shadow 
 aloft, with a crash along the starboard length of her that's 
 made matchwood of the bulwarks, I allow, and in a minute 
 spars and rigging were over the side.' 
 
 ' Is the ship sound ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes, she's tight enough. We've lost Green and four 
 men.' 
 
 1 Oh, Edward, don't say it ! Mr. Green — four men ! How 
 did it happen ? ' 
 
 ' How does anything happen at sea on a black night aboard 
 a dismantled ship with hills of ink and foam rolling over her ? 
 How it happened ask of God who did it. They're not aboard.' 
 
 He talked with jerking movements of the head, snapping 
 his speech at her, and his blue eyes were on fire. A look of 
 fear of him gave a new colour to the expression of horror and 
 consternation in his wife's face. I sat white and speechless, 
 listening to him and to the booming artillery of the sea, 
 entering with ceaseless secret terror into the motions of the
 
 72 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ship, all so violent, so extravagantly wild at times that 1 
 would say to myself, ' Now she is gone ! ' 
 
 1 Where are the crew ? ' asked Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' Forward in their quarters. There's nothing to keep a 
 look-out for except daylight. The wreck's gone clear. _ The 
 wheel's lashed, and whatever comes must come. Is this the 
 meaning of old Stormy's visit, miss ? ' said he to me with 
 another of his desperate forced grins. ' My apparition, you 
 know, with a wet face ! At sea omens are omens ; the fired 
 part is, you never can tell what form the mischief means to 
 take so that you can provide against it.' 
 
 His wife hid her face. 
 
 ' None of that ! ' he roared. ' There must be no breaking 
 down in spirit here. Miss Otway's to be returned safe and 
 sound to her father. There's no virtue in snivelling to help 
 that, with all three masts gone and the night like a wolf's 
 throat, and ice islands close aboard. Where's Owen ? ' 
 
 I said that he was in his cabin. He got up, opened the 
 door, and looked at him. There was no lamp in the doctor's 
 berth, but the sheen of the cabin light lay upon the interior. 
 The captain entered the cabin, but if he spoke I did not hear 
 him. He returned and said : 
 
 ' He is drunk ! I will have a little talk with him by and 
 by. I put you two into his care and he gets drunk ! ' 
 
 He drew on his sou'wester and stood up, holding by a 
 stanchion. 
 
 ' Are you going on deck, Edward ? ' asked his wife. 
 
 ' Certainly I am.' 
 
 1 You'll be swept overboard.' 
 
 4 Not I. I'll rout out a couple of the men and we'll have 
 this carpet up. Pah ! how the salt water stinks ! They 
 shall light ye a fire too. Boil some coffee, Mary. You shall 
 have what you want. I doubt but the galley's stove. The 
 longboat's safe, but the quarter boats are gone. She wants 
 steadying— she wants steadying ; ' and making a step or two 
 he sprang up the companion ladder and was gone.
 
 DISMASTED 73 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 EISMASTED 
 
 Captain Burke's manner of going persuaded me his mind 
 was unhinged. He had talked with excitement, shouted at 
 his wife, his eyes had been full of fire, and still it did not 
 seem that he had fully grasped the whole dreadful meaning 
 of the disaster. 
 
 After he had been gone a little while two men came into 
 the cabin with fuel for the stove. One had a blood-stained 
 bandage round his forehead under his sou'wester. The snow 
 fell in pieces of white crust from the oilskins of the seamen 
 as they reeled with their hands full to the stove. In the 
 instant of their descent the sweep of the black gale followed, 
 and filled the atmosphere with darting needles of stinging 
 told. 
 
 ' Is any water coming into the ship ? ' cried Mrs. Burke. 
 
 • No, mum. The well's just been sounded. She's right 
 enough in the hull,' answered the man with a bandage round 
 his head. 
 
 ' Aren't the decks being swept ? ' 
 
 * Now and again a spray,' answered the same man. ' She's 
 a-jumping of it drily enough. She'll not hurt as she lies 
 providing there's nothen knocking about to run foul of.' 
 
 ' Is your head badly hurt ? ' 
 
 1 Just a little bit of a cut. Nothen to take notice of, 
 thankee,' answered the man, and he knelt down and lighted 
 the fire, the other looking on and around him with a gleaming 
 gaze of curiosity. 
 
 The lighting of that fire was a marvellous piece of rich 
 deep colour as I see it now, though I had no thoughts that 
 way, I assure you, as I sat watching the kneeling figure on 
 that frightful night. He was in black oilskins bright with 
 snow ; the other in yellow, snowclad likewise, and as the 
 kindling shavings spat out their yellow flames, the two men 
 showed more like some wild startling imagination of a poet 
 done into a grotesque glowing canvas, than a commonplace 
 detail of shipboard life ; their faces sharpened and shrank, 
 grinned and grew grim with twenty shadowy expressions, 
 their roaming seeking eyes burned like rubies under the pent- 
 houses of their sea-helmets ; add the convulsive motions of
 
 74 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the dismasted hull, the ceaseless roar of seas pouring in 
 mountains, the dizzy flight, the sickening fall, the wild play 
 of the lamp, the deep, almost human groanings of the fabric 
 with blows of the surge, like bolts from the sky, shocking to 
 her heart in sounds of rending. 
 
 I hoped Mrs. Burke would ask questions of these men as 
 to the safety of the vessel, what would be done, our chances 
 for our lives, and the like, seeing that they were able seamen, 
 mariners of experience with memories perhaps of such things 
 as this too ; but she was the captain's wife ; so I held my 
 peace and watched the men, clasping myself close in the furs 
 I sat in. 
 
 Scarcely was the fire alight when again the cabin was 
 made bitterly raw by an icy shriek out of the blackness, and 
 three men, one of them the steward, all clad in oilskins and 
 hardly recognisable, descended. A couple bore some galley 
 things, a coffee pot, a saucepan, a gridiron, some drinking 
 mugs, and such matters. One of them said, ' By the cap- 
 tain's orders, ladies,' and put the utensils on the deck near 
 the stove. Another exclaimed, ' We've been told to stop 
 here. We can't get a fire to burn in the galley. The fok'sle's 
 cruel cold.' 
 
 ' Where's the cook ? ' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' Overboard, along with the mate and three others,' said 
 one of the men. 
 
 Mrs. Burke tossed her hands and after a pause said : 
 
 ' I'd cook a meal for you with pleasure, men, but I cannot 
 bear this motion — I cannot stand. Steward, fetch a ham 
 from the pantry ; there's coffee there and biscuits. Get 
 what's needed for a plentiful supper. Four overboard ! How 
 many are left ? ' 
 
 'Nine foremast hands, counting the bo'sun,' exclaimed 
 the seaman with the blood-stained bandage, looking round 
 from the stove. 
 
 Just then the rest of the seamen came below, a shaggy, 
 snow- bleached huddle, the gale following in a howl, with the 
 captain's voice in the frost-keen sling of it, shouting, ' Give 
 them all they want to eat. Let them have plenty of hot 
 coffee, and top the meal off with a dram of rum apiece.' 
 
 The companion doors were then closed, but in such wise 
 as to be easily opened from within. After that moment's 
 roar of ocean and volley of iron blast, the comparative calm 
 in this interior seemed like peace itself.
 
 DISMASTED 75 
 
 ' Isn't the captain coming down' ? ' said Mrs. Burke in a 
 voice something wild with anxiety. 
 
 ' Presently, mum,' answered the boatswain, swaying easily 
 from leg to leg, his huge form thickened out by an immensely 
 stout pea-coat ; he pulled his sou'wester off as a mark of 
 respect, and the snow on the hatch of it flew to the deck com- 
 pact, and lay there like a white wreath on a grave. 
 
 ' He'll be frozen,' cried Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' He's a-watching of an ice-mountain out over the bows,' 
 said a man. 
 
 I clasped my hands, and felt the blood forsake my heart 
 on hearing this. One of the men observed me, and in a voice 
 that went through the straining noises, like the sound of the 
 sawing of wood, cried : 
 
 1 There's no call to frighten the ladies, Jim. That there 
 block ain't a-going to hurt us, anyhow.' 
 
 They then settled who should cook ; a man undertook the 
 job ; the steward cut the ham into rashers, and after a little 
 the place was full of the smell of frying. They had their 
 orders, and went to work. You would not have guessed from 
 their behaviour that we were a dismasted hull, low down 
 past the Horn, ice near us, ourselves rolling helpless on a 
 mountainous sea, a hurricane blowing, often blind with snow, 
 our situation so frightful that every next lurch, every next 
 drive, might carry us headlong out of hand. They fried the 
 bacon, they boiled plenty of coffee, they overhauled the 
 pantry, and got out biscuit and jam and such things ; but all 
 very quietly ; I saw respect in their behaviour ; yet what I 
 best remember was their easy, unconcerned way of going 
 about this business of getting supper. Whilst one cooked and 
 others prepared the table, others again rolled the wet carpet 
 off the deck and stowed it away in a corner. 
 
 All this while poor Mrs. Burke kept straining her weak 
 eyes at the companion-way. At last she jumped up and 
 shrieked out : 
 
 1 Why doesn't the captain come down ? He'll be frozen 
 to death or washed overboard. Which of you'll go and tell 
 him to come to me ? ' 
 
 The boatswain instantly went. He was absent five minutes, 
 then returned followed by the captain, who merely saying in a 
 voice I should not have known but for seeing him, ' Get on with 
 your supper, my lads, get on with your supper. 'Tis a bad 
 job,' came to the stove and stood before it warming his hands.
 
 7 5 HEART OF OAK 
 
 His wife began to reason with him in a crying appealing 
 voice for remaining on deck, he looked at her and shook his 
 head. She saw something in his face that arrested her 
 speech, and when I glanced at the poor man I was thankful 
 she ceased to worry him. He stood on wide straddled legs at 
 the stove with his hands behind him, and the snow draining 
 into a pool at each heel, watching the men eating and 
 drinking. 
 
 I never should have imagined any ocean interior could 
 make such a picture as this. The wonder came into it out 
 of the contrast betwixt the rough coarse forecastle hands 
 gathered around the table, with the sparkle of silver plate 
 in their fists, and the comparative elegance of the state- 
 room in which they sat, with its few looking-glasses and 
 other odds and ends of decoration as before described ; and 
 always present was the overwhelming thought of the vessel's 
 loneliness. I could not indeed then figure her in her wretched 
 state, but with imagination's eye I saw the pale sweep of 
 the decks glimmering with snow, the deserted wheel : with 
 each heave and fall I figured the climb and plunge of the 
 desolate mutilated craft upon the huge seas, black and roaring 
 as thunder, with a hanging, steadfast faintness out upon the 
 bow whenever the snow squall slackened and gave a view of a 
 mile of the flashing froth breaking in sullen glares between 
 the iceberg and the ship. 
 
 ' Eat hearty, lads,' said the captain, ' eat hearty. There's 
 nothing to be done with the ship till the dawn gives us a sight 
 of her. Four of ye gone. . . .' He gave a sort of gasp, and 
 stared a moment or two at his wife, and then said to the 
 boatswain, ' Wall, would she have righted, think you, if the 
 masts had stood ? ' 
 
 The boatswain swallowed the contents of his mouth, and 
 said emphatically, ' No, sir. That second bust-down must ha' 
 done for her.' 
 
 A growl of assent ran round the table. 
 
 ' Well,' said the captain, ' we all know what's to be done. 
 We've to stick her northwards anyhow. Something may come 
 along to give us a tow. Failing that, there's enough of fore- 
 mast standing for a jury rig. The machinery of the helm's 
 sound. We've to blow to the norrards, I say, edging that way 
 for the crowded track.' 
 
 The men said nothing. I seemed to find something ominous 
 in their silence. At the same time it rcjoicul me to observe
 
 DISMASTED 77 
 
 that the captain talked collectedly, as though he had rallied 
 his wits, and had clear ideas and intentions. 
 
 When the men had supped and cleared the table, they 
 made as though to go. The captain told hem to occupy the 
 cabin for the night. They looked grateful at this, and then 
 around them, as though considering where they should lie. 
 Their awkward grins, queer swaying postures, backs curved, 
 arms up and down, and fingers curled, their bea ing, glances, 
 and manners, which expressed but little reference to our 
 lamentable and awful situation, gave me, I own, a sort of 
 heart. They looked as though, but for the captain and us 
 women, and the quarter-deck restraint of the cabin, they'd 
 have gathered about the stove, and roared out hearty songs, 
 drowning the fury without with hurricane lungs of music, 
 and spun yarns, and smoked their pipes with as much 
 thoughtless gaiety as they carried to their diversions ashore. 
 
 The captain begged me to go to my cabin, and turn in and 
 lie warm. 
 
 ' Will you go to bed at all to-night ? ' his wife asked him. 
 
 'No,' he answered. 
 
 ' I suppose you mean to do all the looking out yourself, 
 and end in being found a frozen corpse, while Jack here is to 
 sit by the stove ? ' said she in a low voice, but audible to him 
 and me, glancing round her at the men. 
 
 He peered at her with a scowl, and answered, ' I'm nearly 
 crazy. Say nothing if I'm not to go raving mad.' 
 
 ' May I not stop here ? ' said I. 
 
 1 What, with these men, miss ? ' 
 
 ' I like the company of sailors. The sight of these seamen 
 keeps up my spirits.' 
 
 ' My poor, dear Marie ! ' cried my nurSe, putting the back 
 of her hand against my cheek. ' You can't sit here. Your 
 father would not thank us for throwing you into such company.' 
 
 ' How can you talk so at such a time ? ' I exclaimed. ' I 
 dread to be alone in my cabin. Where is this ship being 
 hurled to ? If she should be flung against an iceberg ' 
 
 ' If that,' cried he, abruptly, and with temper, ' then as lief 
 be in your cabin as here, as here as on the deck.' 
 
 Then, softening his voice, he said some reassuring things 
 — I forget them — I was crying with my face averted, that the 
 men should not see me. Mrs. Burke took my arm, and we 
 entered my berth. She called to the steward to light the 
 lamp, and named some refreshments which he presently
 
 78 HEART OF OAK 
 
 brought, but it was too bitterly cold to talk ; nay, our voices 
 here, right aft as my berth was, were almost inaudible for the 
 thunderous wash ol the sea along the slant of the side, with a 
 lift of it, when the toppling, helpless hull tumbled my cabin 
 window to the foam, that must again and again have soared 
 high above the line of her bulwark rails. 
 
 I would not undress, but after I had drunk some wine, I 
 got into my bunk, where Mrs. Burke made a heap of me with 
 bedclothes and furs ; then, kissing me and promising to look 
 in from time to time, she dimmed the lamp and went. 
 
 I afterwards passed many terrible nights in this ship, but 
 none worse than this — perhaps because it was the first of them. 
 The noises of the sea and straining fabric drowned all sounds 
 in the state cabin. I could not hear if the men talked, nor 
 tell what they were doing. I terrified myself by imagining 
 that they would get at the spirits and make themselves drunk. 
 Then there was always the haunting horror of ice near us. 
 At any moment I might feel a rending shock of collision^ I 
 was sailor enough to know that if our ship was thrown against 
 such a berg as we had sighted that day, nay, even against a 
 piece of ice of her own bulk, she would be shivered into staves, 
 and all before we could put up one prayer to God. And often 
 did I pray that night, and with plenty of fervour of tongue, X 
 don't doubt, but with little heart, I fear ; I was too frightened 
 to realise the meaning of the words I used. Twice Mrs. Burke 
 visited me and said all was right ; the sailors had been on 
 deck to pump the ship out ; the hull was dry and buoyant, 
 and the gale abating. This news she gave me on her second 
 visit. There was a vast deal of snow in the wind, and the 
 blackness was so thickened by it there was no power in the 
 rushing sea-flares to make a light for the eye beyond a pistol 
 shot ; but the captain believed, she said, there was no ice 
 nearer to us than the cathedral island we had seen that afternoon. 
 
 Nature, however, was worn out at last and I fell asleep, 
 and when I awoke it was daylight, by which I guessed it was 
 not much earlier than noon ; I looked through the porthole, a 
 large lead-coloured, confused swell was running, but it was 
 un wrinkled and frothless. The motions of the ship were extra- 
 ordinarily wild and agitated ; she was flung into twenty pos- 
 tures in a minute. When I got out of my bunk I found it 
 impossible to stand without holding on. The water in the 
 wash-stand was a solid block of ice, but the cold did not seem 
 so piercing, nor of an edge so saw-like as I had found it yester-
 
 DISMASTED 79 
 
 day. I contrived to wrap myself up, and went out and saw 
 Mrs. Burke sitting alone near the stove. She sprang to help 
 me, and said that a few minutes earlier she had looked in, and 
 left on finding me asleep. A pot of coffee was beside the 
 stove, and a breakfast of cold ham, tinned meat, and other 
 things on the table. 
 
 ' Where are the crew ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' On deck,' she answered, ' endeavouring to rig up a mast.' 
 
 ' Is the captain hopeful ? ' 
 
 4 He means to stick to the ship,' she answered. ' Some of 
 the men talk as if there was nothing to be done with her, and 
 spoke of going away in the long boat.' 
 
 ' Is the vessel utterly dismasted ? ' 
 
 ' She's in a terrible plight. But make a good breakfast, 
 dear. It is quiet weather in spite of this horrible rolling. The 
 hull is sound, and we are sure to be fallen in with by some 
 vessel that will help us.' 
 
 As she spoke Mr. Owen came out of his cabin. His face 
 was the pale shadow of the countenance he had brought on 
 board. He blinked his eyes, and they were bloodshot ; his 
 very hair seemed to have been toned by emotion into a sort of 
 ashen colour. He made a slight bow, and sat down at the 
 table without speaking. Evidently he had breakfasted. Also, 
 no doubt, he had previously met Mrs. Burke. I judged by his 
 behaviour that the captain had talked to him ; it was a mix- 
 ture of sulkiness and dislike. 
 
 He had been kind and attentive to me on many occasions 
 during the voyage, and, full of fear and other crowding pas- 
 sions as I myself was, I yet felt sorry for him. I bade him 
 good morning and asked him if he had been on deck. On 
 this he rose, and clawing his way round the table, so as to get 
 near to me, he said : — 
 
 ' I owe you an apology for my conduct last night. My in- 
 discretion was not so much the result of cowardice as the state 
 of my health. Much less than I took in the hope of obtaining 
 a little warmth and spirit must have overcome me. I trust I 
 have your forgiveness.' 
 
 ' There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Owen, nor is this a time 
 to talk of such things.' 
 
 ' The captain was scarcely manly in his language,' said he, 
 turning to Mrs. Burke. ' I am not an officer of the ship nor 
 one of his crew. I am practically a passenger, and claim the 
 privileges of a passenger.'
 
 8o HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Passengers are not allowed to take too much. All cap- 
 tains object to drinking in their ships, particularly in such 
 dreadful times of excitement as last night,' said Mrs. Burke. 
 
 I lifted my ringer to call attention to the cries of men and 
 the tread of heavily shod feet overhead. Mr. Owen returned 
 to his seat at the table. Soon after this the skylight that was 
 thick with frozen snow whitened as to a watery beam of sun- 
 shine, or to some transient glance of clearer day in the sky. 
 I asked Mrs. Burke to take me on deck. She seemed to shrink. 
 I asked her if she had been on deck. 
 
 ' Yes,' she answered. 
 
 ' Then why should not I go ? ' 
 
 ' Feel how dangerously the hull rolls,' said she. ' You 
 might be thrown and break your neck.' 
 
 But I saw that her real objection did not lie so much in 
 that as in her fear of the effect of the scene of the wreck upon 
 me. Thus reading her mind, I exclaimed : 
 
 ' I will go alone ; but why will you not come ? ' and went 
 to my cabin for more wraps. 
 
 She was ready before I was, and we clasped hands, and 
 holding on carefully likewise, stopping always for that sudden 
 recovery of the deck which would happen out of its slant with 
 the rash of a cannon ball slung by a line and let go at an 
 angle, so ungovernable were the motions of the dismasted hull, 
 we gained the companion ladder, and crawled to the head of 
 the steps, where we stood in the companion itself, with our 
 heads above the hood. 
 
 I shrieked on looking ! Let my imaginations have been 
 what they would, here was the reality ! I could not credit my 
 sight. All three masts were gone ! nothing of the lower-masts 
 remained saving a height of two or three feet of jagged and 
 splintered trunk-sheaves of barbed milk-white wood on the 
 main and quarter-decks, and about ten to fifteen feet of the 
 foremast. On the right or starboard side, lengths of the bul- 
 wark were crushed flat. The decks were littered with gear, 
 ropes' ends were swimming overboard in the leaden swell like 
 huge eels and sea-snakes making from the wreck. On one 
 side, dangling between the irons, was the keel of a quarter- 
 boat— all that remained of her; the opposite davits were 
 empty. 
 
 But what idea can such talk as this give you of that won- 
 derful dismal picture of shipwreck, that spectacle of decks 
 covered with snow, of rails like an armoury with their bristling
 
 DISMASTED 81 
 
 pendants of bayonet-blue icicles ? The galley was partly 
 wrecked ; the bowsprit stood soaring and sinking upon the 
 leaping waters, but the jibboonis were gone. I did not know 
 the hull. She looked shrunk to half her former size. The 
 sky stooped to the sea with its burden of vapour, but a break 
 right overhead hovered in a colour of sulphur. No w r ind 
 stirred. Never was there a deader stagnation in the atmo- 
 sphere under the height of the Line. Yet you were sensible 
 of the presence of the spirit of this wild, desolate part of tbe 
 world even in such pauses as this, when you watcbed the sullen 
 motion of that troubled breast of deep, hurling its glassy folds 
 in comminglings which ran in silent warring to the horizon. 
 Far astern was a shape of white, a gleam in the sallow air 
 there, like that of a sail ; but my eye was now experienced, 
 and since that dash of radiance was too big to be a ship, it 
 must needs be ice. I saw a collection of white tips on the 
 starboard quarter when tbe swell threw us high, and some 
 points or shafts, faint and bluish, over the bows. Otherwise 
 the ocean line swept clear. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE JURY-MAST 
 
 All the remaining hands of the ship's company were at work 
 forward. A number of spare booms were stowed on top of 
 the galley and had probably saved the long-boat from being 
 crushed when the masts fell. The sailors had rigged up a 
 triangle of booms with blocks and tackle dangling, and even 
 as Mrs. Burke and I stood in the companion-way, tliey broke 
 into song, as they hoisted a huge spar that was to serve as a 
 mast. Their hearty chorus was frequently interrupted by 
 sharp, eager shouts from Captain Burke or the boatswain Wall. 
 The break overhead thinned out yet and made more light. 
 A strange dim dye of sulphur went sifting down to the 
 horizon, and the sea in places worked against it dark as bottle 
 glass. About two miles off some whales were blowing ; their 
 vast bulks show r ed in a black wet gleam amid the swell ; but 
 even then, such was the blending of their curved forms with the 
 confused running, that, but for their fountains, the eye had 
 missed them. 
 
 G
 
 82 HEART OF OAK 
 
 We stood watching in the shelter of the companion way. 
 The longer I looked, the stranger, the more forlorn, the more 
 lamentable the scene showed, the more perilous and hopeless 
 our situation seemed. What sort of cloths were they going to 
 spread upon such a height of boom as they were chorusing 
 at ? I thought of the spacious concavities which had risen to 
 the stars, and to the blue heavens of our voyage, those sym- 
 metric breasts of lustrous canvas which, when trimmed, 
 snatched an impulse for our clipper keel from the antagonism 
 of the head wind itself ; I saw the ship robed in the beauty of 
 her sails, lifting her star-saluting royals to the very path of 
 the flying scud with jibs and staysails yearning from bowsprit 
 and jibboom towards some deeper ocean solitude past the 
 horizon ; and then I looked at the naked boom the men were 
 hoisting at the triangle or shears. 
 
 4 Oh, that cannot help us ! ' I cried ; ' what does Captain 
 Burke intend ? ' 
 
 ' Even if it should fail as a mast,' Mrs. Burke answered, 
 ' it will be useful as a flag-post. Why, this hull lies so flat 
 without spars a ship might pass three or four miles off and 
 not see us.' 
 
 Here the captain looked round and spied our heads. With 
 a note of his old cheerfulness he called out : 
 
 ' Many a good prize has been navigated out of an ocean 
 battle-field under leaner sticks than that, and added to the 
 Royal Navy after tasselling Jack's pocket-handkerchief with 
 dollars.' 
 
 This lie seemed to say as much for the men as for me. 
 He then approached and asked me how I did ; and told me 
 not to look too long at the wreck. 
 
 ' Keep up your heart, miss,' said he. ' We'll have you out 
 of this in good time. Mary, don't let her stand here dwelling 
 upon this scene. Why, it was a nightmare even to my 
 seasoned eyes when it first came out of the dawn.' 
 
 ' Is that mast meant to carry a sail ? ' said I. 
 
 ' When we fix it and stay it we'll set something square 
 upon it, certainly. There'll be room for a bit of fore and aft 
 canvas between the head of it and the bowsprit end. Then 
 let the wind blow south with God's blessing, or east and west 
 will do, to edge us north. We need but steerage way, after 
 which there'll be nothing to do but keep warm till all's well. 
 Take her below, Mary. Look at her face ! She'll wither 
 here.'
 
 THE JURY-MAST S3 
 
 The hours of daylight were so few that the night was upon 
 the rolling hull before the seamen had done more than lash 
 the jury-mast to the stump with a stay or two for support. 
 And with the darkness of the night there came along a black 
 Cape Horn snow squall, like a dust storm in its blinding 
 power, with a thunder of wind in it, and so much more after- 
 wards that by five o'clock as high a sea was running as that 
 of the preceding day. 
 
 The crew came into the cabin for shelter, and cooked their 
 own supper as before. They ate and then went to the stove, 
 and afterwards Captain Burke and his wife and myself sat 
 down to some cold food and a cup of hot coffee. Mr. Owen 
 came to the door of his berth, but seeing the captain at table 
 at once retired, closing the door upon himself. The captain 
 took no notice. His good spirits were gone again. He drank 
 some coffee, but scarcely tasted food. His posture was one of 
 gloomy despondency as he sat at table, and he rarely lifted 
 his eyes save to dart a glance now and again at the sailors, 
 which put it into my head to think that more worked as 
 causes for his dejection than the new fierce gale and our awful 
 situation. His wife often furtively looked towards him but 
 never ventured to address him, no, not even to ask him if he 
 would eat. 
 
 Well, just such another evening and night as had passed 
 happened with us now. From time to time one or another 
 would go on deck and come below and report the night a 
 flying blackness. On the boatswain returning from one of 
 ■these errands of observation the captain said : 
 
 ' Does it clear at all ? ' 
 
 1 Still as thick as muck, sir.' 
 
 ' Any smell of ice about ? ' 
 
 ' No, sir.' 
 
 I wondered to hear them talk of smelling ice in a snow 
 storm as thick as froth, and said to the captain : 
 
 ' Is ice to be smelt ? ' 
 
 He looked at me as though he had no mind to answer, to 
 be even civil, then said sharply, ' Yes.' 
 
 My poor old nurse bristled like an angry hen at this be- 
 haviour, though she was still afraid of the mood upon him, 
 yet being determined that I should get all the comfort possible 
 out of any information the men could give, she turned upon 
 the boatswain, whose bulky, oilskinned figure swung on 
 frock-shaped leggings beside the stove, and said : 
 
 c2
 
 S 4 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Did you ever smell ice, Mr. Wall ? ' 
 
 He looked doubtfully at the captain, and answered 
 awkwardly, ' Yes mum, scores of times.' 
 
 The captain rose and went on deck. At the same moment 
 Mr. Owen came out of his berth. It might have been that 
 through some crevice in the cabin bulkhead he was able to 
 observe the captain's movements. 
 
 ' What sort of smell has ice ? ' I asked, for I could think 
 of nothing but icebergs, of the helplessness of our hull, of our 
 being swung by these giant seas against a berg, and I wanted 
 to hear how sailors tell that ice is near without seeing it. 
 
 ' It's the extra coldness that makes the smell. Tain't no 
 smell in the or'nary meaning,' said the boatswain after a 
 pause. ' The first time I ever learnt that a man could smell 
 ice in a breeze full of frost and snow was in my first voyage 
 in these parts. We was running off the Horn, not so low as 
 this here, in a smother o' flakes, nothen visible of the ship 
 from the wheel but her mainmast. I and another was steer- 
 ing the ship, the mate comes rushing aft and sings out to the 
 captain, who was walking abreast of the wheel, " I smell ice, 
 sir." They both took a sniff, and I could see by their way of 
 snuffing they both smelt it plain. They looked into the 
 driving smother to starboard and then to port, and then all 
 on a sudden a man on the fok'sle cries out, " Ice right ahead." 
 "Hard a port," sings out the capt'n, and out it jumped, big 
 as a church, right on the bow. Smelt it myself then.' 
 
 A low growl of laughter ran amongst the men, and several 
 looked as though they, too, had yams to spin. 
 
 I scarcely slept that night. The cold was terrible, and 
 there were the noises of the sea and the gale, and the heart- 
 maddening rolling and plunging. Yet, wonderful to relate, 
 next morning, exactly as on the day before, a dead calm was 
 in the air, and the swollen hills of swell ran in liquid lead in 
 a confused shouldering. I went on deck with Mrs. Burke at 
 about twelve, and watched tht men completing the captain's 
 toy-like affair of jury-mast. They had set a jib upon the 
 bowsprit, and were now bending a sail to a yard which was to 
 be hoisted to the head of the jury-mast. The lean stick was 
 so abundantly stayed that it looked like the inside of an 
 umbrella. The rolls of the hull were dangerous and very 
 fierce ; it was impossible to walk the deck. This morning 
 they had got a fire in the galley, which had been roughly re- 
 paired. The brown smoke floated straight up out of the
 
 THE JURY-MAST 85 
 
 swaying chimney, and, trifling as that detail of colour and 
 life was, yet somehow it brought back to the poor old hull 
 something of her old spirit and look. No farmyard sounds 
 came from forward ; no grunt from the long-boat, no cackle 
 nor crow from the hencoop ; all the live-stock had been 
 frozen or drowned during the first night of the gale, when the 
 masts went. 
 
 I saw those glancings of ice on the horizon which I had 
 taken notice of yesterday ; they hung in the same quarters, 
 and flamed at the same distance against the dark sky with a 
 fairy, star-like brightness. I turned my eyes in every direc- 
 tion for a sail. 
 
 ' Don't ships ever come this way ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' Oh yes, many,' answered Mrs. Burke. 
 
 ' What sort of ships ? ' 
 
 • Whalers chiefly, Edward says.' 
 
 * Suppose one should come ; what will Captain Burke 
 do?' 
 
 1 Ask her to tow us.' 
 
 1 If the master declines ? This is a big, helpless vessel for 
 another ship to tow in such seas as run here. And what 
 would a ship do with us in tow should we meet with such 
 weather as blew last night or the night before ? ' 
 
 She made no answer. 
 
 ' Surely Captain Burke will transfer us all.' 
 
 ' He'll not leave this vessel,' said she. ' It is not only that 
 he has himself an uninsured venture in her, his obtaining 
 further employment might depend upon his carrying the 
 "Lady Emma" into safety. And if it can be done, it 
 ought to,' she added, with a flat, peering, anxious look 
 around the sea. 
 
 Presently all was ready with the sail. The seamen 
 raised a song, and to a steady, shearing noise of ropes in 
 sheaves, with a frequent chorus that swept like a shout of 
 hope into the bitter, motionless atmosphere, the yard slowly 
 ascended the jury-mast. It was like a huge lug-sail in form 
 and fittings. Tauten it as they would, the breast hollowed 
 and rounded with such blows as of a cudgel, and such claps 
 as of musketry, that the boom sprang and buckled like a 
 willow in a breeze ; the sail was therefore lowered until wind 
 came to steady it. 
 
 It put a weariness as of rheumatism into the body to stand 
 long, and when we saw the sail hoisted we went below.
 
 85 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Mr. Owen was sitting beside the stove ; he rose on our 
 descending, and went on deck to look around, then, after a 
 brief halt in the shelter of the companion-way, returned 
 and sat him down at the table with the fingers of his right 
 hand buried in his right bush of hair, his whole bearing 
 abjectly disconsolate. Presently, looking at Mrs. Burke, he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 ' Is that single pole on the forecastle all the mast the 
 captain means to navigate this ship with ? ' 
 
 ' I do not know. My husband will be glad to tell you, I 
 am sure,' answered Mrs. Burke. 
 
 He gave a ghastly sarcastic smile that instantly vanished 
 in his former expression of sullen, resentful grief and dismay, 
 showing as a man might who is under a sudden tragic sur- 
 prise which em-ages him also. He looked down, shaking his 
 head softly, and drumming, then started as if he would walk, 
 but the jerk and tumble of the deck was too strong. I began 
 to fear for the poor man's mind. 
 
 Mrs. Burke told me the men would get dinner in the fore- 
 castle that day — there, or in the galley. They did not come 
 to the cabin. The only man of them who arrived was the 
 steward. He clothed the table, and made us a tolerable show 
 of dinner. I beg to recall to jour memory the many delica- 
 cies my father had laid in for me. 
 
 It was about half-past one, I think, and about the time 
 when the steward was done with the table, when the com- 
 panion doors were opened, and the captain came below. The 
 lamp burned brightly ; indeed, it made most of the light we 
 had. The skylight was, perhaps, half a foot thick with frozen 
 snow ; the companion doors were kept closed to exclude the 
 cold ; and little light came through the cabin windows, which 
 the hull dipped with pendulum-like monotony into the 
 thunder shadow of the swollen brine. Yet by the lamp-light 
 we saw very clearly, and I observed that the captain's face 
 was lighted up with some life and hope. I thought a sail 
 was in sight, and started, expecting to hear him say so. 
 
 ' There's some luck for us in this devil's own ocean after 
 all,' said he, swinging his figure towards us, eagerly watched 
 by Mr. Owen, who was on his feet leaning upon the table, 
 and staring with head moving as the captain moved. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' cried his wife hysterically. 
 
 ' Why,' said he, ' there's a breeze sprung up out of the 
 south'ard. I've been watching the ship ; there's drag enough
 
 THE JURY-MAST 87 
 
 in the rag we've got upon her to give her way. And so, Miss 
 Otway, be easy, now that we're heading for the sun afresh, 
 with a man at the wheel and a little scope of wake astern of 
 us.' 
 
 ' Anything better than lying like a log,' cried Mrs. Burke, 
 with a short swallow in her speech. ' I had hoped from your 
 face there was a ship in sight.' 
 
 ' And so did I,' I exclaimed. 
 
 Mr. Owen sat down suddenly, and again buried his hand 
 in his hair. 
 
 ' But this is as good as a ship being in sight,' cried the 
 captain, irritable on a sudden. ' I want to blow north where 
 ships are to be fallen in with, and we're something to see 
 now, with a thirty foot hoist of canvas on top ten foot of free- 
 board ; whereas, before— but let's get something to eat.' 
 
 We seated ourselves. Mr. Owen took a corner chair and 
 spoke not a word for some time, till at last, on the captain 
 saying that if he fell in with a vessel he would offer handsome 
 sums for a tow, the doctor said abruptly : 
 
 • To where ? ' 
 
 The captain eyed him with an unfeeling pause of con- 
 tempt, and then answered : 
 
 ' That would not rest with you, sir.' 
 _ ' I must request you to transfer me, if we fall in with a 
 ship,' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 'I shall be happy,' said the captain, nervous and con- 
 vulsive with temper, ' at least— you've got to remember the 
 object you're here for.' He looked at me. ' Miss Otway is 
 not likely to accompany you, and you'll be no gentleman if 
 you desert her.' 
 
 ' Miss Otway will accompany me if you give her an op- 
 portunity of leaving this wreck,' said Mr. Owen. 
 
 ' This is no wreck, sir,' said the captain in a low level 
 voice of menace, stooping his head and looking at the doctor 
 under crooked eyebrows. 
 
 Mr. Owen muttered that he intended to save his life if he 
 could, and Miss Otway's too if he was allowed— the rest he 
 mumbled ; after ceasing to articulate his lips moved ; then, 
 with a sudden impassioned motion of despair and horror, he 
 sprang from his chair and disappeared in his berth, having 
 barely taken three bites. 
 
 ' I fear his intellects have become disordered,' said Mrs. 
 Burke.
 
 88 HExYRT OF OAK 
 
 'He'd like to drive me out of the ship. The lily-liver 
 would have me abandon a craft that's as staunch as the 
 newest line-of-battle ship afloat. What would it signify to 
 him that I left a couple of thousand pounds of my hard earn- 
 ings to go to the bottom here, so long as his dingy skinful of 
 bones and bobs of curls were safely landed ? ' exclaimed the 
 captain in a low-pitched, deliberate speech that trembled, 
 nevertheless, with emotion and temper. 
 
 His wife gave me a look as though she would entreat me 
 not to talk to him. Now and again he lifted up his eyes to a 
 tell-tale compass that hung exactly over his chair ; almost as 
 regular as the beat of a clock was the plunge of the ship from 
 rigbt to left, from left to right. The blinding green sense of 
 one side and then the other of the cabin portholes, and a loud 
 yearning thunder of water washing past. 
 
 After a little the captain went to his cabin. I said I would 
 like to see the ship under sail, and when we had clothed our- 
 selves for the deck Mrs. Burke and I went to the companion - 
 steps. 
 
 A seaman, clad in oilskins and swathed about the neck 
 till he showed nothing of his face but a pair of eyes, stood at 
 the wheel. Some delicate stars and darts of snow were falling, 
 but they did not cloud the view. The square of white canvas 
 was stretched by a fresh following breeze of bitter coldness, 
 beyond frost itself; the sea was feathering upon the swell, 
 and a number of grey and white petrels skimmed the flashes 
 as they moulded their flight to the wind-furrowed rounds. 
 The white sail looked like a wild and sickly light when the 
 hull swung it athwart the soot over the horizon, but there 
 could be no doubt that the vessel was in motion. We durst 
 not leave the holding place of the companion- hood to look 
 over the taffrail or side, but you saw she had steerage way by 
 the manner in which the fellow twirled the wheel. 
 
 A group of seamen with their hands deep buried, some of 
 them sea-booted fishermanlike to their knees, trudged the 
 white frozen deck opposite the galley. It was wonderful to 
 see them keep their feet ; the rumbling hum of their strong 
 lungs stole aft against the wind ; they swayed in earnest talk, 
 and minded us not when they faced our way, again and again 
 staring round at the sea as though for a sail. 
 
 Now we had not been looking about us above five minutes 
 when, happening to glance aft past the helmsman, I saw the 
 ocean not above half a mile distant white as milk, the fore-
 
 THE JURY-MAST 89 
 
 stretch of it was about two miles long ; how wide it went back 
 I could not say, nor could I guess what it was ; there was no 
 snow nor any particular blackness of cloud over it, nor un- 
 common wildness of flight in the vapour overhanging us. 
 Before I could call Mrs. Burke's attention to the wonder, the 
 seaman at the helm turned and spied it, and instantly roared 
 out in a voice that swept past the ear like the wind of some- 
 thing heavy swiftly flying. 
 
 ' Why,' cried Mrs. Burke— but the rest of the sentence was 
 clipped sheer off her lips in a yell of squall, a very hurricane 
 blast ; the air was dark with spray, in the midst of which I 
 just caught sight of the jury-mast and cail disappearing — not 
 abruptly, but in a dissolving way, as a snowflake dies on 
 water. The whole thing went in the shriek of the blast, with 
 a single report and a snowstorm of flying tatters ; the next 
 instant Mrs. Burke was dragging me down the companion - 
 steps, and we both got into the cabin dazed, frozen to the 
 marrow, as much confounded and terrified by that sudden 
 meteoric shock and blast of wind, with its burthen of white 
 brine and its noise of fierce yells and whistlings, as though 
 we had scarcely escaped with our lives. 
 
 The captain heard, or guessed, what had happened ; he 
 rushed from his berth on to the deck, but the squall pinned 
 him in the companion-way for a minute, and he stood 
 struggling as though some man had taken him by the throat. 
 In five minutes, however, the furious outburst was spent or 
 had flown ahead ; I could tell that by glancing at the cabin 
 windows whenever they lifted clear. The steward came below 
 to trim the lamp. Mrs. Burke asked him what was doing on 
 deck. He answered, nothing, and told us what we knew, that 
 the jury-mast and sail had blown over the bows. 
 
 It was now to be felt by the distressful, horrid, jerky 
 motion, that the hull had taken up her old situation in the 
 trough. 
 
 ' What has happened ? ' said Mr. Owen, coming out of his 
 berth. 
 
 Mrs. Burke told him. He groaned, and sat down close 
 besi le the stove, folding his arms tightly, and said : 
 
 1 What is to become of us ? This is distracting. I am 
 prepared to meet my Maker, but it is the suspense — it is the 
 suspense — it is the having to wait for death that crazes.' 
 
 4 1 am surprised at you,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, drawing 
 herself up. ' How, as a man, can you talk so before this
 
 (jo HEART OF OAK 
 
 young lady '? As for me, I don't mind what you say ; I am 
 the wife of a sailor, and it's not in you to improve my spirits 
 or make me despair. But you have no right to forget your- 
 self aa a man before Miss Otway.' 
 
 He slapped his knee violently, crying out, ' Poor as I am, 
 I would give five hundred pounds had I never heard of your 
 husband or his ship.' 
 
 The poor woman looked at him with her flat eyes and 
 curled her lip, then gave me an expressive glance when he 
 arose and began to move about the cabin, holding on and 
 looking at the windows to left and right as they soared blind 
 with the foam dazzle. 
 
 It was dark as midnight on deck before the captain came 
 below, and yet it may not have been three o'clock. He 
 approached the fire and stood before it, his wife and myself 
 sitting on either hand of him. He seemed to steadfastly 
 regard Mr. Owen, who was on a locker at the after end of the 
 cabin, but did not offer to speak. Presently his wife said : 
 
 ' Are the mast and sail lost for good, Edward ? ' 
 
 'Ay.' 
 
 ' What was the whiteness that swept them away ? ' 
 
 ' What but a squall ? This is a great ocean, and mark 
 our luck ; there were thousands of miles of water for that 
 squall to sweep over on either hand of us, but Old Stormy 
 bestrode it, and, scenting us, made for the hull.' 
 
 ' There are other booms to rig up a mast with.' 
 
 ' So there are,' he answered speaking quietly, with his 
 eyes fixed upon the form of the doctor, as though he addressed 
 him. ' There are other spars, but there's not another crew to 
 do the work.' 
 
 His wife gave a start at this and looked up at him with a 
 passion of anxiety, putting her hand upon his arm. 
 
 ' The men have as good as told me,' said he, ' through the 
 bo'sun, that there's nothing to be done with jury-masts. 
 They're willing to try their hands to-morrow on another — to 
 oblige me — but they'd rather get my permission to prepare 
 the long-boat for leaving the ship so as to give chase to a sail 
 if one should show too far off to speak us ; failing that, then 
 to take advantage of a smooth in the weather and to make for 
 the northward in an open boat — in this sea — the idiots ! ' 
 
 ' But something must be done,' shouted Mr. Owen from 
 his coiner. ' The ship will go to pieces if she's to be left to 
 knock about in this hollow sea.'
 
 THE JURY-MAST yi 
 
 Captain Burke took no more notice than had the doctor's 
 voice been the creaking of a bulkhead. 
 
 It was quieter on that tban on the preceding night. The 
 wind, we learnt, was a scanty breeze out of the south ; here 
 and there the vapour had thinned, and a pale star shivered in 
 the openings ; our drift that day had lifted some northward 
 point of ice, and the dim faintness of it was visible on the 
 port beam, as the helpless hull lay ; that was all the ice to be 
 seen, and it was far enough off to keep us easy. A large black 
 swell was flowing north and south, but the folds were wide 
 and regular, and the motion of the hull was almost easy upon 
 it. These matters about that scene of night outside I got 
 from the captain and steward. 
 
 The sailors remained forward. I understood they managed 
 very well now they could keep the galley fire going. Once 
 during this evening I asked Captain Burke, when he came 
 below for a glass of hot grog and biscuit, why he did not burn 
 a signal fire. 
 
 ' And risk setting the hull in a blaze ? ' said he, ' with the 
 chance of there being nothing within five hundred miles of 
 us.' 
 
 ' It might bring help, Edward,' said his wife. 
 
 He flung from us in a passion. It was a bad sign with 
 him now, that the merest nothings, such as my question, put 
 him into a rage. He swallowed his glass of grog and returned 
 on deck, and when half-way up the companion ladder he paused 
 to shout back, 'No use in making a flare unless there's something 
 to signal to,' and then stepped into the blackness outside. 
 
 It was fine weather next day — fine for that part of the 
 world, I mean ; glimpses of watery blue, betwixt curtains of 
 ashy yellow and brown vapour, some slanting pencils of dull 
 sulphur in the north, striking the line of the horizon out of a 
 long ragged edge of cloud. The wind was west, fresh enough 
 to flash plumes of spray out of the running wrinkles ; there 
 was the head of an iceberg away north to the right of the weak 
 shower of sunshine. This was all to be seen— saving always 
 the hull with her deck of frozen snow, and her catheads 
 barbed with ice, and her lines of rails bristling with daggers 
 and small arms of frozen dew and brine — when I looked 
 through the companion hatch after leaving my cabin. 
 
 Whilst Mrs. Burke, Mr. Owen and myself breakfasted, we 
 heard the people on deck busy with another jury-mast. The 
 captain's voice rang out again in loud eager shouts. Mrs.
 
 92 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Burke sent the steward up to beg her husband come below 
 and breakfast whilst the coffee was hot ; he sent answer that 
 he could not leave ; but even whilst the steward was delivering 
 the captain's reply, a long strange hallo was delivered by one 
 of the men ; the sounds of bustle ceased ; in a minute or two 
 we heard a rush of feet ; Mr. Owen jumped from his chair and 
 ran up the ladder, whence, after he had paused to stare round, 
 he shouted in a voice of ecstasy : 
 
 1 A sail, Mrs. Burke ! There's a ship in sight, Miss 
 Otway ! ' 
 
 I screamed with a sudden impulse of delight ; I could no 
 more have arrested that cry than have stopped the hull from 
 rolling ; then, swiftly as my legs would carry me and my arms 
 would work, I gained my berth and attired myself for the deck 
 and rushed up reckless of foothold. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 
 
 The sail shone like a piece of ice against a belly of soft 
 snow-cloud right ahead — that is, ahead as the hull's bows 
 lay. I should have supposed it ice, but for the captain, wbo 
 stood close beside the companion holding the ship's glass ; ho 
 said, ' There she is, miss.' 
 
 ' Is she coming this way ? ' cried I, shivering with cold 
 and passion. 
 
 ' I can't tell as yet. She's only just been sighted. Bear 
 a hand with the first empty tar barrel you can get hold of,' he 
 bawled, moving forwards, and he continued to shout, but I 
 could not gather the instructions he delivered. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Burke joined me, and then Mr. Owen, 
 swathed to tbe nostrils. 
 
 ' It's almost too good to credit,' he exclaimed. ' Can they 
 be mistaken ? Is it ice ? If it should prove a ship ! ' 
 
 He went sliding and staggering towards some men in the 
 waist and stood questioning them, heedless of the captain. 
 
 With the promptitude of seamen the crew collected a lot 
 of stuff for making a smoke ; they stacked a large heap of 
 matei'ial near the gangway and set fire to it, and in about ten 
 minutes a thick body of blue smoke was rolling over the rail, 
 and clouding upwards with many a sparkling ruddy gleam
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 93 
 
 shooting up tongue-shaped or arrow-like into the throat of the 
 sooty pouring. 
 
 It was wide daylight and the antarctic day young, but the 
 clouds rimmed the horizon with the shadow of night, and the 
 crimson light of the flare promised as swift an intelligence of 
 our forlorn condition as the smoke. The seamen continued 
 to feed the fire ; and all the while Captain Burke was 
 stretching his telescope at the distant gleam ; the men again 
 and again turning their eyes from it to him with looks growing 
 dark with impatience and consuming anxiety. Mr. Owen 
 had fetched his binocular glass and strained his eyes through 
 them without intermission. Mrs. Burke and I standing in 
 the companion, which was the one sheltered part of that long 
 stretch of frozen deck and smashed bulwarks, gazed without 
 speech. 
 
 Suddenly a sailor, one who had been most active in feeding 
 the fire, sprang on to the rail ; he grasped a spear-shaped 
 projection of ice, which broke short off and he fell on his 
 back ; he sprang again with an oath, and after looking, 
 turned to others who were standing near the fire and roared : 
 
 ' Mates, she's leaving Us, by God ! ' 
 
 ' She takes us for a whaler trying out. There's no good 
 in smoke as a signal down here,' said a sailor. 
 
 ' It's our chance,' bawled the fellow who had sprung and 
 fallen, now throwing himself back on to the deck. ' There 
 mayn't come another for weeks. What's to happen then? 
 Are we to drive about in this fired ocean till we ends as 
 froze-up corpses ? I'm for following her.' 
 
 ' Take her bearings, bo'sun, while she's in sight,' shouted 
 a seaman, and the huge sailor, as obedient as though the 
 captain had given the command, rolled aft and put the sharp 
 of his hand upon the compass bowl. 
 
 ' Captain Burke,' exclaimed one of the seamen, in a voice 
 startling with its sudden savage note of revolt, ' we've bad 
 enough of this. There's nothen that's a-going to be of any 
 use to us in them booms.' He pointed behind him with bis 
 thumb. ' There's our chance. We'll run ourselves into her 
 sight and she'll pick us up.' 
 
 • Hold your jaw, you Johnson,' said Captain Burke, who 
 was as white as the deck in the face, though his eyes showed 
 dangerously like a madman's who watches his chance to leap 
 upon you. 
 
 1 Hold my jaw ? ' growled the seaman, a hairy, scowling
 
 94 HEART OF OAK 
 
 man in a yellow sou' -wester, dropping his head into ail 
 insolent butting posture. ' Why, so I will arter I've told yer 
 that when them masts went we was quit of your blistered 
 articles, and here's one as ain't for stopping one bloomin' 
 minute longer to mess and muck about with jury-masts, 
 penn'orths of parasol to be blowed over the bows as soon as 
 they're up. Mates,' he yelled, ' I'm after that ship whilst 
 there's time. Who's for coming ? ' 
 
 As though there had been something quickening and 
 thrilling as magnetism in the sailor's shout, the whole of the 
 men made a jump for the boat, one of the first being the 
 boatswain, who was coming aft from the compass when the 
 seaman bawled the invitation. 
 
 The smoke of the flare had flittered down into a curl of 
 pale blue vapour, which blew over the rail feather-shaped to 
 the sea. The captain stood this side of it, watching the men 
 in a staring idle way whilst they went to work at the boat 
 with gleaming knives, hacking and cutting at her fastenings 
 — he seemed as though deprived of his reason — then he 
 roared out : 
 
 ' Leave that boat alone. Don't touch that boat. She 
 belongs to the ship. She's my property. Overboard and 
 swim for that vessel there if she's your chance, you dogs ! 
 But leave that boat alone.' 
 
 A few turned their heads to look at him and then went on 
 passing their knives through the lashings, clearing away the 
 booms and so forth. 
 
 1 Stop him ! ' shrieked Mrs. Burke. ' Help, Mr. Owen ! 
 What can he do ? What's the use of it ? They'll kill him ! ' 
 and I too screamed when I saw the captain rush upon the 
 nearest of the men regardless of their naked knives ; he 
 struck out right and left, flooring two, hut a third — none of 
 them I observed offering to hit him back — crooked his leg at 
 the poor man's heels, and he fell, fetching the iron-hard, 
 snow-coated plank a thump that left him motionless. 
 
 Mrs. Burke rushed to his side. The boatswain cried out : 
 
 ' He's no right to stop us, mum. It's our lives we're 
 working for and thinking of. You and him and the lady'll 
 come along too. Now, mates, whilst there's daylight, for God's 
 sake ! ' 
 
 Mr. Owen crossed to the captain's side and assisted Mrs. 
 Burke to drag him aft. His figure slipped over the frozen 
 snow as though he was lifeless, but they had not dragged
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 95 
 
 liiin a dozen paces in the direction of the companion-hatch 
 when he cried out and struggled. Mr. Owen let go ; with the 
 help of his -wife he got on his feet. 
 ' Get me some brandy,' said he. 
 
 I heard him and made with what speed I might for the 
 cabin, my face bloodless and my heart beating as fast as a 
 watch ticks. That brief scene of conflict, like to one of 
 those terrible mutinies I had read of in sea tales, had been 
 shocking to witness, on top as it was of our helpless and awful 
 situation, and all the anguish of expectation and fear which 
 had filled the past few days. I was sick and nearly fainted. 
 I sat down to catch my breath and press my temples. Before 
 I found strength to rise, Mrs. Burke descended, followed by 
 her husband. 
 
 He seated himself at the table, upon which he lay his 
 right arm and buried his face in it. She coaxed him after 
 a little into taking some brandy, and then, observing my 
 state, she got me to take a sip. 
 
 Meanwhile overhead I heard the crew busy with the long- 
 boat ; her keel thundered as they ran her to the side for 
 launching. Their movements were full of feverish bustle ; in 
 truth they were working for life or death ; they meant to catch 
 the ship, and there remained but a very few hours of day- 
 light. 
 
 1 Does your head pain you, Edward ? ' 
 ' No,' he answered, and strained his hearing to catch what 
 was passing above. 
 
 ' Will they let us know when they're ready to take us ? ' I 
 cried. 
 
 ' Take us ! ' the captain exclaimed, with a sudden anger in 
 his whole manner as he turned towards me. ' They may taka 
 you, but I stop here.' 
 
 ' No, no, Miss Marie,' cried my poor old nurse, ' they must 
 not take you without me, and my place is by my husband's 
 side wherever he is. Think if they should miss the ship, which 
 is more than likely : they'll be in an open boat in this frozen 
 ocean ! Fancy being in an open boat in such weather as that 
 of the night before last ! You would not live to see to- 
 morrow's dawn. And how should their going concern us ? If 
 they fall in with the ship they'll report we are here and the 
 vessel may return. If tbey miss her they are in an exposed 
 open boat, and we are in a dry, comfortable hull, with a good 
 warm cabin to sit in, and no worse off than if all the crew
 
 9 6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 were aboard. For what can they do ? If the ship comes, 
 she'll corne whether the crew are on board or not.' 
 
 ' But are the three of us to be left alone ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' The dogs could have helped me,' muttered the captain. 
 ' We blew northwards yesterday and to-day we sighted a sail. 
 They are villains to steal my boat, the only remaining boat. 
 But I am too few for them — I am too few for them.' He 
 clasped his hands upon the back of his head as though he was 
 in pain there. 
 
 Just then four or five seamen came tumbling down the 
 companion-ladder ; one held a lighted lantern. This man 
 exclaimed : 
 
 ' Capt'n, the boat's alongside, and all's ready.' 
 
 ' What are you doing down here ? ' thundered the 
 captain. 
 
 4 The victuals we want are in the lazarette,' answered the 
 man. ' No good lifting the main-hatch and overhauling the 
 cargo when all we need's handy here.' 
 
 Even whilst he spoke the rest had pulled up a little 
 square hatch cover with an iron ring in it ; it fitted a larg8 
 manhole a few paces abaft the companion-ladder ; this hatch 
 conducted to a part of the after-hold called the lazarette, a sort 
 of store-room in which the cabin provisions and wines, with 
 other commodities, were stowed. 
 
 Captain Burke jumped from his seat ; his wife fell upon 
 him shrieking, and with her arms about his neck forced him 
 to sit, beseeching him to have patience, to let the men have 
 their way, to attempt no violence or they would kill him. lie 
 trembled with rage and weakness and grief, but he understood 
 his powerlessness — which was merciful, for there was an angry 
 stubbornness in the hurry and motions of the men which was 
 as good as advising their captain, with a curse and a threat 
 wrapped up in the hint, not to meddle with them, not to offer 
 to hinder them, if he valued his life. 
 
 Very promptly the lot emerged from the lazarette, bearing 
 cases and sacks, hams, cheeses, and so forth. They no doubt 
 guessed they'd come to want plenty of provisions should they 
 miss the ship they were after. They ran headlong up the 
 ladder, none heeding us, but not above two minutes afterwards 
 the boatswain's burly figure showed m the companion-way, 
 and he bawled down : 
 
 ' Capt'n Burke, we're all ready, and there isn't a second 
 to lose. Ain't you going to join us along with the ladies ?'
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 97 
 
 He received no reply. 
 
 He repeated the question, roaring it out in a bull-like 
 bellowing, and then came a step or two down the ladder to 
 stretch his neck that he might see us. I cried out : 
 
 ' Are we to be left alone '? ' for I cannot express the horror 
 that chilled me when I thought of the sailors leaving us to 
 save themselves, insomuch that they might be on board 
 another ship sailing towards the sun ere the Southern Cross 
 was trembling in the south that night, whilst the three of us 
 who stayed — two of them women — might go on rolling about 
 in a wrecked and crusted hull till she grew sodden and sank, 
 or split against an iceberg. 
 
 ' Come you along with us, miss, if the captain and his wife 
 won't leave the vessel ? ' cried the boatswain. 
 
 ' No,' shrieked Mrs. Burke. ' Would you expose a delicate 
 young lady in these seas in an open boat ? Fools are you your- 
 selves to go. You'll be heard of no more.' 
 
 The boatswain without another word withdrew his great 
 developed bulk from the hatch, but he was instantly replaced 
 by another figure, and Mr. Owen's voice, shrill with excitement 
 and hurry, cried down : 
 
 ' Mrs. Burke, Miss Otway, aren't you coming ? They'll 
 be putting off without you if you pause.' 
 
 ' He does not ask my husband to join them,' screamed 
 Mrs. Burke, ' the wretch ! does he think I would leave my hus- 
 band ? ' 
 
 Mr. Owen came swiftly down into the cabin and talked like 
 a man in delirium. 
 
 'You have no right to keep this young lady with you. 
 Captain Burke sticks to his hull from sordid motives. That's 
 his lookout. Life's more precious than cargo. Miss Otway 
 was entrusted to my care. I insist upon her being permitted 
 to accompany us. Her father looks to me for her well-being. 
 She is eager to go with us and you will not suffer it.' Thus 
 he raved on. 
 
 ' Leave this cabin,' cried the captain, springing up. His 
 face was full of blood, his blue eyes blazed ; he had already 
 been worked up into madness, and I was certain by his insane 
 manner of starting from his chair, if the doctor did not go 
 instantly, the captain would destroy him. 
 
 But it was at that moment that the boatswain bawled 
 on deck. ' Come up ! ' were the words I caught, sounding 
 through the companion-hatch in a muffled note of thunder. 
 
 H
 
 9 3 HEART OF OAK 
 
 1 Up with tlicm who's going.' More was said which I did not 
 hear. 
 
 ' By keeping her you are murdering her, and her blood is 
 on your head ! ' cried Mr. Owen like a woman in a frenzy of 
 passion, and rushed up the ladder. 
 
 ' Don't believe him,' exclaimed Mrs. Burke, grasping my 
 hand, with a wild, short, passionate laugh that had the note of 
 an hysteric sob. ' You shall see the boat presently. You shall see 
 it out upon the water. You will judge then who would kill 
 you. Oh, not I, not I, my flower ; not I, your poor old 
 nurse ! ' 
 
 I clasped her round the neck and sobbed. When I looked 
 up Captain Burke had left the cabin. 
 
 We were apparelled for the deck, and finding the captain 
 gone, we followed, and though scarcely five minutes had 
 elapsed since the boatswain bawled, already ';he long-boat was 
 some ships' lengths distant, bowed almost to the line of her 
 lee rail by a great square of white canvas, shaded here and 
 there where the moisture had not dried out of it. She looked 
 full of people as she rose to the head of the folds, ripping 
 through it with the icy breeze fresh off her bow, till the lift of 
 the foam sparkled in a fountain-like arch right athwart her 
 forward, and her speed raised two humps of froth on either 
 quarter, and shot a long milk-white glance of wake, bright as a 
 meteor's line of light, far astern of her, lifting and falling on 
 the swell, and defined to its extremity even amidst the smoke 
 and snap of the running seas. 
 
 Captain Burke, with one hand grasping the edge of the 
 companion, stood watching her. When we came up his first 
 words were, after a brief pause : 
 
 ' They'll overhaul the ship if they can only get a sight of 
 her. Look how she sails, and how finely she is handled.' 
 
 ' She may be the means of saving us,' cried Mrs. Burke. 
 ' What use were they on board of us ? But they're useful 
 there. They'll be sighted and rescued, and we shall be hunted 
 after.' 
 
 But I did not want her nor her husband after I had watched 
 the boat a little to tell me that unless they quickly encountered 
 succour, their situation, crowded together in a small exposed 
 space, would be terrible. Also, since Mrs. Burke would not 
 have loft her husband, I should have been the only woman in 
 her. I cannot say how the mere sight of her as she swept 
 onwards, dwindling as you gazed into a mere toy, regularly
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 99 
 
 sinking out of sight till nothing showed but a gleaming curve 
 of her topmast cloths, wan and. slender as a distant sea-fowl's 
 pinion, then taking the slope till she leaned, poised and foam- 
 ing for a breathless instant, upon the flying summit : I cannot 
 tell you, I say, how solemnly and awfully that mere toy, full of 
 human beings, emphasised to my perception the vastness and 
 the loneliness of this cold, green, heaving breast of ocean. 
 
 Captain Burke took the telescope out of the companion 
 and swept the sea for some little distance on either hand 
 the boat's bows, pausing on the lee side of the fabric where, 
 my sight being good, I spied a point like a light tipping the 
 sea-line against some dark clouds there whenever the hull 
 soared. 
 
 ' That's the ship,' said he, pointing. ' They may catch 
 her ! Why, had I thought of it — but who's going to make 
 proposals to mutineers — the scoundrels have stolen my only 
 boat. How do they know in leaving us what's to become of us 
 without a boat ? ' 
 
 ' Had you thought of what ? ' said his wife. 
 
 ' I'd have given them a handful of rockets.' 
 
 We stood watching the boat till the white spot she became 
 was one with the breaking seas. The hull looked indescrib- 
 ably forlorn. The sense of all life, saving us three, having 
 gone out of her, brought a deeper spirit of desolation into hei' 
 labouring shape. Oh, the heart-sickness that came into you 
 out of her dismal regular rolling in the trough ! The swell 
 lifted her, the seas burst upon her weather side as against a 
 rock, broke into smoke, and smote the hollow they sprang 
 from with the loud hissing of a hail squall. There was a 
 constant dreary gleam of ice as the fabric swayed, pallid 
 glares along her side, blue glancings from the long barbs at 
 the catheads ; the frozen snow the whole length of the deck 
 had a shrewd keen sparkle. In places along the working line 
 of the sea hung motionless the faint marble of bergs ; but 
 long before the boat was lost to view the feather-tip of sail 
 she was pursuing had vanished. 
 
 Captain Burke carefully and closely swept the horizon, 
 then replaced the telescope. 
 
 ' A few hours often make a mighty difference at sea,' said 
 he. ' By this time to morrow we may be towing north- 
 wards.' 
 
 ' Have the men gone away without a compass ? ' said Mrs. 
 Burke. 
 
 h2
 
 ico HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' The bo'sun owned a compass that was a curiosity of 
 casting and graving : I remember he showed it to the mate. 
 They'll have taken that with them. And now,' said he, 
 speaking with more cheerfulness than I had observed in him 
 for some days, ' let us go below and get something to eat. 
 There's fuel enough to keep the stove going for a long 
 spell. The hull's as staunch as she was on the day we sailed. 
 Any moment you may see something that will look like ice 
 climbing the sea into a whaler's breast of topsail and stump 
 top-gallant masts. So call things at their worst, miss,' 
 said he, ' for then we may believe that their mending's at 
 hand.' 
 
 Mrs. Burke and I went below ; the captain remained on 
 deck. Between us we dressed the dinner table. She did not 
 want me to help her. She said it was her duty and joy to 
 wait upon me. ' To think of Miss Marie Otway,' she ex- 
 claimed, 'laying a table-cloth and putting knives and forks 
 upon the table that a plain merchant-skipper and his wife 
 may dine.' 
 
 I kissed and went on helping her ; any sort of occupation 
 was welcome : for, argue as the captain and Mrs. Burke 
 might, the abandonment of the wreck by the whole of the 
 sailors had raised a horror in me, and filled my heart with 
 deep secret distress and dread ; so that, whenever I thought 
 of our situation, it was with a shudder at the emptiness of the 
 rolling broken hull. 
 
 I believe the hour was not far from two o'clock. Already 
 the gloom of the early antarctic night was in the cabin, but 
 the lamp swung in flashes through the shadow, and you could 
 only have told that the gloom was gathering when you looked 
 at the portholes. We sat beside the stove waiting for Captain 
 Burke ; by-and-by his wife grew uneasy, and went on deck 
 to seek him and call him down to dinner. 
 
 I was then alone, and sat very cold and wretched. I had 
 been alone in this cabin before — that is, since the masts had 
 gone ; but then there had been the tread of feet overhead, tho 
 knowledge of a plentiful, hearty life in the ship. Now all 
 was as hushed as tha tomb in that way. 
 
 After I had been waiting four or five minutes I saw two 
 small points of light in the gloom where a locker ended and 
 where some few feet of ship's wall ran clear. I stared, sus- 
 pecting an illusion, and then believed it was phosphorus or 
 something jewelled with light by decay as rotten timber is.
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 101 
 
 But on a sudden the two shining spots came stealing out into 
 the whiskers and ribbed shape of a huge, lean, grey rat. I 
 jumped up with a shriek and the thing vanished. 
 
 My nerves gave way, and marvelling at Captain and Mrs. 
 Burke's absence, I went on deck to look for them, trembling 
 with disgust and terror. 
 
 The daylight was small, but the snow along the decks 
 made a whiteness in the air, so that perhaps even in the 
 darkest hour you would be able to detect anything in motion 
 betwixt the rails. Here and there about the leaden rolling 
 ocean broke sudden glares of froth. The shadow had blended 
 the sea-circle with sky, and nothing was visible save a smoky 
 thickness of vapour breaking up to windward where it soared, 
 and ashy in places with rain or snow. I stood in the hatch 
 and looked along the deck and saw nobody. This so frightened 
 me that I shrieked out Mrs. Burke's name. Nothing answered. 
 I trembled with dread and the bitter cold of the wind, and 
 crossing the deck that I might have something to hold by, 
 went forward, occasionally screaming out the name of Mrs. 
 Burke, but never getting an answer. 
 
 The galley door was open : nobody was in it. I was half 
 fainting with terror ; I could not imagine what had become 
 of my companions. Was I alone in the ship? Oh, never 
 could I make you understand what my feelings were whilst I 
 stood running my eyes first forward and then aft, straining 
 along the ghostly slanting glimmer of the decks for a sight 
 of one or another of my friends, hearing nothing but a strange 
 moaning noise of wind in the sky, and the long rolling 
 thunder of moving mountains of water, the early night 
 darkening fast down all round, the closing in upon the 
 ghastly, weary, tumbling hull, lifting its bowsprit and splin- 
 tered stumps of masts in postures of agony defined as exist- 
 ence itself could make them, 
 
 I had just sucked in my breath to send forth another 
 scream, when I saw a figure in the little hatch called the 
 forescuttle, which led into the forecastle. 
 
 ' Who is that ? ' I cried. 
 
 ' Is that you, Miss Marie ? ' called the voice of Mrs. Burke, 
 and she rose through the hatch. 
 
 ' I thought you were lost. I thought I was alone,' I cried, 
 beginning to sob with a sudden passion of hysteric relief. 
 
 4 My husband went down into the forepeak to get some 
 coal,' said she, not perceiving that I cried. ' He asked me to
 
 io2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 help him by pulling up some buckets as he filled them. We 
 are not quite done, but do not stay on deck, my dear. We 
 shall be with you in a very few minutes now.' 
 
 On this I returned to the cabin, but much shaken and so 
 low-spirited, I had never before elt more miserable. 
 
 I entered the cabin with eyes a-search for the rat, and 
 could not sit still beside the stove for thinking of the beast, 
 for at every moment I was coining the lights of its eves, 
 the gaunt crouched shape of it, out of some shadow here or 
 there ; and if I saw it not in imagination, I figured it as 
 under my chair. However, soon after I had returned, the 
 captain and Mrs. Burke entered the cabin, the captain bearing 
 two buckets and his wife one, full of coals. 
 
 ' Now,' he exclaimed, ' for a little wash after that job ! ' 
 and he took a kettle of water off the stove and carried it to 
 his cabin. His wife followed him. 
 
 They came back soon and we sat down at the table. 
 Whilst we ate Mrs. Burke explained how her husband had 
 attached a block to a beam in the forecastle and rove a rope 
 through it with a hook at one end, and how, standing in the 
 forecastle, she had hauled up the buckets as he filled them 
 deep down in the forepeak. 
 
 I told them of the horrible rat I had seen. 
 
 • Don't let it scare you, miss,' said the captain. ' Bats at 
 sea haven't the viciousness of the beasts ashore. They'll drown 
 themselves in a man's savings of molasses. They'll creep 
 into his bunk and nibble his toe-nails. That's about the 
 worst that I can recollect. They may be destructive to ships 
 and cargo, but they've got their instincts, and know when on 
 the ocean they're dependent on sailors.' 
 
 He doubtless said this to hearten me. Mrs. Burke changed 
 the subject by speaking of the melancholy appearance of the 
 forecastle. The hammocks swung, she said, as though every 
 one held a man ; the sailors' chests were scattered about, 
 there was a smell of tobacco in the place as though the sailors 
 had scarcely extinguished their pipes. The captain had put 
 out the forecastle lamp. It was alight when they entered. 
 Not that it would have set fire to the ship. It was sputtering 
 and smelling, with a thick coil of slush rank smoke spreading 
 in a little cloud under the deck out of a small greasy flame. 
 
 ' The silence is shocking,' she said to her husband. ' I 
 looked to see the heads of men peering at me over the edges 
 of the hammocks.'
 
 THE CREW LEAVE ic 
 
 j 
 
 ' There may be heads of men nearer than we think,' said 
 he. ' I'll give ourselves a chance this night.' He looked up at 
 the clock under the skylight and seemed to calculate, and 
 then said, ' The boat went swiftly. She may have run into 
 the ken of the ship — some box-ended waggon of a south sea- 
 man, no doubt, slow as a baulk of timber working to windward 
 on a two-knot tide.' 
 
 ' What will you do ? ' said his wife. 
 
 ' I'll send up a rocket occasionally. If she picks up our 
 people she might stand down to look for us— she might. I'll 
 do more,' he added after a pause. ' I'll give them a flare or 
 anything else that may be a bright light to see us by— a lantern 
 on the stump of the foremast, or, better still, under the bow- 
 sprit where it'll dance.' 
 
 ' Can a hull like this remain long afloat ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Ay, miss.' 
 
 1 1 thought when a vessel was dismasted she became a 
 wreck, and went quickly to pieces.' 
 
 ' Over and over,' said he, ' you may have heard, you must 
 have read, of derelicts, whose log books showed they had been 
 washing about for months, sliding north and south, east and 
 west through the summers and winters of the ocean. A well- 
 built ship is so hard to knock to pieces that when she's 
 abandoned she's as dangerous to navigation as an uncharted 
 rock._ Again and again they talk of sending gunboats to blow 
 derelicts to pieces and clear the road. They're hard to 
 extinguish, even with gunpowder, as hard to expel as a mad- 
 man's fancies. Thi craft is safe, believe me, and will provide 
 us with a secure sea-home until we're fallen in with, which 
 may be to-morrow.' 
 
 This sort of talk did me a world of good, and I began to 
 cheer up and feel something like my old self. I was now 
 used to the motion of the hulk, at least in such a sea as then 
 ran, though a landsman coming on board for the first time 
 would have been instantly thrown, so swift, abrupt, and shooting 
 were the rolls. This afternoon we did not notice any particular 
 weight in the race and lift of the swell and sea ; there had 
 been a dumbness in the looks of the weather throughout the 
 day, though a fresh wind blew with a flaying, razor-like edge 
 of frost in it. Captain Burke said he expected a quiet night ; 
 that is, no more wind than had blown through the day. He 
 built up a good fire for us, and got his wife to boil some 
 coffee, whilst he fetched a number of rockets to carry on deck.
 
 io4 HEART OF OAK 
 
 With the wish to amuse me he asked if I would like to see 
 a rocket fired, and whilst Mrs. Burke made some coffee I 
 followed him above. Night was upon the sea, and its shadoAV 
 was as a wall for the ice spears along our rails to brandish 
 their gleams upon. The captain fitted a candle-shaped thing 
 into a rocket in the bulwarks near the wheel and fired it, and 
 the rocket sprang high in a line of sparkles, leaving a red ball 
 of flame floating close against the clouds, which reflected the 
 radiance as though to a touch of sunset. I watched the red 
 ball float down the wind and expire. 
 
 " We'll send up a second for luck,' said the captain. 
 
 This was a white light, and the dazzle of the flash was 
 lightning-like : a thin long wake of the brilliance dimly 
 glanced serpentine off the peaks and slants of the heaving 
 waters and the sky opened as to a star. But the night was 
 the darker for that light when it went. 
 
 ' Now, who's to tell,' said Captain Burke, ' what eye has 
 seen those rockets ? Never give up heart at sea, miss. We'll 
 go below for a cup of hot coffee, and then the brightest burn- 
 ing lantern aboard shall be made fast in some place where it 
 can be seen.' 
 
 I returned to the cabin with a little spirit of elation working 
 in me, a strange possession in the presence of that reeling 
 shadow of frosted hull and the blackness winding round about, 
 pallid here and there with the wild dim light of froth. It was 
 occasioned, no doubt, by the sending up of the rockets, by some 
 faint hope or fancy of their being seen, with a half-formed 
 vision of the ship the crew that day had pursued staggering 
 down towards us then, a pale shaft aslant, gaunt with lean 
 canvas breasting slowly, with many eyes on the lookout. 
 
 The three of us sat drinking coffee and our talk ran in the 
 way of our deliverance. The captain named our chances. 
 
 ' Yes,' cried I, ' but if a ship should refuse to tow you, you 
 will not surely remain on board this hull and keep us with you ! 
 Sooner ' 
 
 I broke off. 
 
 ' Sooner what, miss ? ' said he, rounding his face upon me,, 
 crimson on one side of it with the fire. 
 
 ' Sooner than that we should remain here in the hope of 
 saving the property you possess in the hull, I would give you 
 under my hand an undertaking that my father will make good 
 the amount of your loss.' 
 
 ' We'll sec you safe ; we'll see you safe,' he exclaimed with
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 105 
 
 a slow smile. ' Anyhow, you're better here than in the long- 
 boat where you'd be if Mr. Owen could have had his way.' 
 
 ' Ah, if they're not aboard a ship they are cold now, I 
 warrant, those poor men in that open boat,' exclaimed Mrs. 
 Burke. ' And if the breeze should come on to freshen so as 
 to fling spray over them, that must be the freezing part. Not 
 to be able to get up and walk, and to feel the brine raining 
 upon your back and hardening into a mask of ice about your 
 neck ! ' 
 
 The captain got up, but as I did not watch him, I know 
 not whether he went on deck or to a cabin. "When he returned 
 he held a large ship's lantern, a globe of white glass framed 
 with metal. He fetched some oil from the pantry, carefully 
 trimmed and then lighted the lantern. 
 
 ' This will handsomely jewel the bowsprit,' said he. ' She'll 
 make a starry dance of it there, toss it as proudly as though it 
 were a gem on her brow, and she was still clothed in her last 
 week's beauty of white wings. Heigh-ho ! 'Tis no time for 
 fine fancies. Sit ye here, miss ; I'll not have you again expose 
 yourself above ; but, wife, you can rig yourself up so as to give 
 me a ten minutes' hand on deck. I may want to seize a block 
 to the bowsprit and run this light out.' 
 
 She clothed herself for the bitter cold, and bidding me not 
 be afraid though a hundred rats should come and stare, she 
 went up the steps after her husband in the almost noontide 
 light of the lantern that swung in his hand. 
 
 The emotion of light-heartedness was ended ; it had 
 been but as the gleam of a star in black water on a cloudy 
 night — the sky was folded up, my heart was dark again ; I 
 found no light nor life of hope in it. They say that hope 
 springs eternal ; I vow to God then I felt as hopeless as if my 
 end was at hand whilst I sat alone when they had gone to 
 show a light on the hull. I closed my eyes that I might not 
 see the rat should it come, and so, sitting with the glow of the 
 fire upon my face, I beheld a vision of my house : it rose upon 
 my darkened gaze ; I saw the wintry scene of channel waters, 
 the glance of foam through the flying clouds of snow ; I saw 
 myself walking with my sweetheart upon the stretch of sands, 
 pausing to gaze at the beauty of the forming breaker and to 
 hearken to the cries of the skyful of blown gulls. I saw my 
 father ; but what I chiefly remembered was the sensation of 
 bitter cold which had sunk chill to heart and marrow, when I 
 entered for the first time the cabin I was now occupying.
 
 io6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 I shivered and buried my face and rocked myself, my eyes 
 still sealed. I may have lost thought of time in musing ; I 
 started, looked round, and found by the hour that they had 
 been on deck nigh twenty minutes. I thought this was a long 
 time for Captain Burke to keep his wife exposed, and still I 
 concluded that the job of securing a lantern to the bowsprit 
 might run into time aboard a dancing, jumping, slippery hulk ; 
 so I continued to wait, all the while straining my ears, till 
 hearing was made an anguish of by the constant cheats of 
 sound. 
 
 I could bear it no longer. They had been absent half an 
 hour and five minutes. I did not expect to hear their footfalls 
 througl the frozen snow on the planks ; nor would their voices 
 reach me if they remained forward ; but why did not they 
 come ? I waited another ten minutes, then went on deck. 
 
 I looked, and was almost paralysed with terror ; had I been 
 an instant sooner, an instant later, it could not have been ; but 
 my eye went to it as I rose through the hatch at the breath- 
 less moment of its happening — and this was it : low over the 
 sea in some quarter I could not name hung the moon, red as 
 the sun in fog ; she had just broken out through a mass of 
 heavy black vapour ; a ragged edge as of scud was floating off 
 her upper limb like a last lingering shadow of eclipse, as I 
 looked ; and right athwart the orb, centering it, was the body 
 of a bird, doubtless an albatross ; and the instant picture was 
 that of some wondrous, gigantic, glowing shield hanging over 
 the sea, and approaching the hull on the back of a huge sea- 
 fowl. But in a heart's beat the deception went ; the bird 
 whose distance created that marvellous illusive perspective 
 curved in its flight and winged out of the illuminated circle 
 and was gone, and in the next breath a lift of black stuff like 
 the dingy smouldering of a candle-wick overspread the moon 
 and hid her. 
 
 I looked along the deck, and as before, so now, I beheld 
 nothing moving. I tried to reason with my terrors by sup- 
 posing tbat the captain had again gone below to shovel up 
 more coal, and that his wife waited in the forecastle to help 
 him. But whilst I looked and strained my ears I heard a 
 moan ; again and yet again it came ; I could not be mistaken. 
 I went forward and heard the moaning whilst I advanced, and 
 when I was close to the galley I saw a figure on the forecastle 
 and heard the moaning again. 
 
 I stepped close, my heart almost stopped, my blood almost
 
 THE CREW LEAVE 107 
 
 frozen. The white of the deck made a light of its own, as I 
 have told you, and I saw Mrs. Burke lying on her side. She 
 lay close to the fluke of an anchor that was stowed upon the fore- 
 castle on the starboard, or right hand side. She moaned and 
 continued to moan ; I dropped on my knees, and grasping her 
 hand cried, with my face close to hers to see if her eyes were 
 open, for her moaning was that of a dying person : ' It is I. 
 What has happened ? Are you ill ? Where's your husband ? ' 
 
 She answered feebly, moaning at every other word : 
 
 ' He has fallen overboard. He went on to the bowsprit 
 with a lantern and slipped. God, my heart breaks, my 
 heart breaks ! I ran and fell and I cannot rise. I have lost 
 him — oh, my heart ! ' 
 
 I cried in a passion of horror and terror. ' Captain Burke 
 drowned ! ' and then figuring him battling for life alongside, I 
 sprang to my feet and went to the rail and looked over. But 
 there was nothing to be seen save an inky cloudiness of mov- 
 ing waters, shaping and dissolving, and a dim light of foam 
 when the ship's bows pitched, and there was no other sound 
 but that of the washing of brine pouring along the side, and 
 a noise of wind overhead. 
 
 I went back to Mrs. Burke and knelt by her again, and 
 cried : 
 
 ' Cannot you rise that I may help you to get to the cabin '? ' 
 
 She moaned, but did not speak. 
 
 Then my heart gave way wholly, and as I knelt by her 
 side I clasped my hands, and looked up into the darkness, and 
 cried out of my loneliness : ' What shall I do ? What shall I 
 do?' 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ME. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 
 
 Having been blown considerably to the southward of our 
 course by a succession of hard northerly gales, the barque 
 ' Planter,' from London to Adelaide, on a dark, bitter, raw 
 morning of July, 18G0, was breaking the seas close hauled, 
 looking up for as much northing as the seating of the wind 
 would allow. 
 
 Our long topgallant masts were down on deck, and we 
 showed nothing above the top-mast cross-trees. Under single- 
 reefed topsails and reefed foresail we rolled sluggishly onwards,
 
 io8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 making small way ; the swell was wide and strong, but the 
 wind blew without spite, save for its edge, and the seas ran 
 small. 
 
 My name is Kalph Selby. I was chief mate of that barque, 
 a vessel of four hundred and sixty tons, Walter Parry, master, 
 John Newman, second mate. I had charge of the forenoon 
 watch, and it was now about nine o'clock, but dark as at any 
 hour of the night. All my sight had been going for ice whilst 
 it remained black ; throughout this had been so with the rest 
 of us, smce seven o'clock of the preceding evening we had 
 nearly fallen foul of ice mountains three times. At midnight, 
 indeed, the air being thenlike fog with snow, a loud andfearfulcry 
 from the forecastle had preserved us by the dark of our nails, 
 we were in time by a few heart beats only ; the whole mass 
 looked aboard us as we surged past with our helm hard up, 
 floating off on a heave of black fold that carried us clear, 
 though it nearly thumped the channels off our sides with the 
 lumps of loose ice it slided us into. The paleness of that 
 mountain went up into the sky high above our mast-heads ; 
 the roar of the sea bursting at its base was louder than any 
 surf I ever heard ashore ; rock-blasting shocks in thunder 
 echoes came out of the heap, which perhaps sank two leagues 
 backwards into the blackness. 
 
 We drove clear and lost it, but for the rest of the night 
 those who had the watch kept staring with all their eyes. 
 
 Whilst I leaned over the side searching the darkness off 
 the bow, there broke over the starboard quarter the cold pale 
 day of that desolate part of the world. The dim light seemed 
 to sift to the zenith through the clouds like steam under the 
 rolling sky. In twenty minutes it was daylight all round, the 
 ocean a dirty freckled green, swollen in folds, and flashful 
 with the short running seas of the then light breeze. The 
 horizon opened into a hard green distance, working like a 
 revolved corkscrew against the stooping soot past it, though 
 overhead it was middling fine weather, streaks of dim green 
 sky veining, into a look of marble, a surface of compacted 
 yellow stuff ; down which the brown scud was sailing south- 
 west. 
 
 Crossing the deck to peer to leeward, I instantly caught 
 sight of a sail, a white square of canvas which, coming and 
 going this side the horizon, puzzled me during the moments 
 I kept my naked eye upon it. I fetched the glass and on 
 pointing it resolved the object into a ship's long-boat, full of
 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 109 
 
 people. She was heading to close us, but did not look as 
 though she lay nearer than we ; I observed no distress signal. 
 I thought I could count eight or nine heads. The gleam of 
 oilskins came off the men as the boat lifted. With the sheet 
 flattened right aft the little fabric shredded through it nobly, 
 flinging the water away in smoke, and rising with the dance 
 and skill of the galley punt of the Downs to the head of every 
 hurdling sea. 
 
 The sight of her put a full spirit of civilisation into the desolate 
 scene ; and yet I guessed that exquisite distress lay dumb for 
 distance only in that open leaping boat, gone now behind a 
 hill of brine, now straining her square of cloths aslant on a 
 rolling peak. 
 
 I sang out to the fellow at the wheel to let her go off by a 
 point, and was going to make my report to the captain when 
 he appeared. His eye caught the boat in a moment, and ex- 
 claiming, ' What have we here ? ' he levelled the glass and 
 said : 
 
 ' Pretty nigh a whole ship's company adrift.' 
 
 We closed her rapidly and were presently within hail. 
 
 ' Take us aboard for God's sake, sir ! Half of us arc dead 
 with the cold,' cried a lamentable voice, no man, whoever he 
 was that spoke, rising nevertheless. 
 
 We manoeuvred that she might sheer alongside ; we then 
 backed our topsail yard and her sail dropped with a run. But 
 the men seemed scarcely to have life enough to catch hold of 
 the coil of rope that was flung to them, and then when she 
 lay hard by you saw by the rise of her to the height of our 
 topgallant sail, then by the fall of her into a hollow twenty 
 feet deep, that if those men were to be rescued they must be 
 whipped aboard. 
 
 So a tackle was secured to the main yard-arm, and the 
 rope slackened away to let the boat soar and sink fair under 
 the whip ; the captain then sang out for the strongest to send 
 the weakest, themselves following. A huge, fine fellow with 
 red whiskers answered with a paralytic flourish of his hand, 
 and without delay the whip end was secured to one of the 
 people and quickly as might be he was swayed aboard. 
 
 I was too busy with superintending these proceedings to 
 do more than glance at the first of them as they hauled him 
 over the side ; and just took notice that he was a short man, 
 cloaked and thickly wrapped, with bushy hair, not a sailor, 
 and he looked frozen to death. He was carried into the cabin
 
 no HEART OF OAK 
 
 and another man was got aboard ; he too seemed lifeless. 
 There were nine or ten, I am not sure. One by one we swayed 
 them over the rail, the last man to come being the big fellow 
 with the red whiskers. 
 
 Those who seemed dead — of these there were four — were 
 carried into the cabin ; the others who were able to crawl were 
 helped into the forecastle. 
 
 ' What's to be done with the boat, sir ? ' said I to the 
 captain. 
 
 ' Oh, what can be done with her ? ' said he, with a shrug 
 and an askant look of longing at the fine little craft. ' We 
 should drown her if we towed her, and we can do nothing with 
 her now. Let her go.' 
 
 I went forward by the captain's orders and saw to the men 
 'who had been sent into the forecastle. Hot grog and food 
 were given to them ; they were partially unclothed and chafed 
 and wrapped in blankets. The only one who did not seem to 
 need this care was the burly, red-whiskered seaman. lie had 
 stripped himself of his waterproofs, and after swallowing a 
 couple of steaming glasses of grog, and eating pretty heartily 
 of cold beef and biscuit, he asked for some warm water to 
 wash the frost out of his face ; which done, he fell to clapping 
 his arms upon his breast, and shooting them out to right and 
 left, kicking his legs about likewise ; then turning upon me 
 who stood watching, he said he was ready to step aft and spin 
 his yarn to the captain. 
 
 We were a barque with a short poop ; I took him into the 
 cuddy, and there left him in order to look after the ship, so 
 that I did not learn the story of this crew until a little while 
 after he had related it to the captain. When I regained the 
 poop the boat was showing and vanishing some distance astern. 
 It made me shudder to think of exposure in her in these seas, 
 and under the wild sky that was stormily sipping the sea-line 
 with its black lips of vapour, though on high, over our stagger- 
 ing mast-heads, the heavens continued to lie a little open. 
 
 I saw them coming and going with steaming stuff from the 
 galley, and guessed they were ministering to the poor frozen 
 wretches in the cuddy. By-and-by the red- whiskered man 
 went forward, and a little later up came Captain Parry. Ho 
 approached me, and with a shocked look on his honest sailorly 
 face said : 
 
 ' I'm afraid three of the four are dead. We can't put any 
 life into them. The fourth man stirred after some chafing,
 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY in 
 
 and when some hot grog had been spooned down his throat, 
 and he's now got his mind. But I don't like to think how 
 it's going to prove with him ; his fingers and thumbs look 
 to be mortified, and if his boots are pulled off his toes '11 
 come away.' 
 
 1 Which man is that, sir ? ' 
 
 ' The first man we got aboard, a man with bushy hair. He 
 was doctor in the ship.' 
 
 ' And the others are dead ? ' 
 
 ' I never saw a frozen to death body. Newman says 
 they're dead. He's been groping after any hint of life and 
 finds none.' 
 
 John Newman, as I have said, was our second mate. He 
 had been bred to medicine, changed his mind, and gone to 
 sea at two-and-twenty, and was now, at the age of thirty, 
 with a master's certificate of competency in his desk, earn- 
 ing five pounds a month as third in charge of a little barque. 
 "\Yc all looked up to Newman as a medical authority; ho 
 had during the passage doctored some of us very skilfully ; 
 in pronouncing the man dead he knew what ho was talking 
 about. 
 
 1 This is their yarn,' said the captain, and now I repeat in 
 brief what he related. 
 
 Their ship was the ' Lady Emma.' She sailed from the 
 Thames April 2. A few days before this time — namely, on 
 July 2 — she was thrown on to her beam ends by a terrific 
 squall ; they cut away to right the ship and all three masts 
 went smack-smooth saving the foremast, of which there re- 
 mained a jagged stump of some twelve foot. To this next 
 clay they secured an arrangement of boom and square-sail, 
 whieh blew over the bows on the wind suddenly freshening. 
 
 The captain was a little broken in his spirits and 
 weakened in his intellect by this calamity ; also it was said 
 forward that it weighed upon him to remember that a 
 strange man wearing his face and aspect had walked on 
 the forecastle one night. His hope was to blow north and 
 fall in with something that would give him a tow to a port, he 
 (it was understood) having a considerable uninsured venture 
 in the vessel. The crew sickened of his notion, seeing no 
 good nor hope in it ; and on catching sight of the topmost 
 canvas of a ship they launched a long-boat, hastily pro- 
 visioned her, and went away in pursuit, leaving behind the 
 master, his wife and a young lady passenger ; but through no
 
 H2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 fault of the men, as the captain and the others declined to 
 accompany them. 
 
 They lost the ship and wore for the hull afresh, missed 
 her, and stood north-east by a compass which did not appear 
 to have been very trustworthy. They were exposed for two 
 nights and very nearly two days, and another night must have 
 killed them all. The dead men were the steward, a Dutch 
 seaman who had been ill for weeks with rheumatism, and 
 another. 
 
 ' How should the wreck bear now, do you think ? ' said 
 Captain Parry. 
 
 I reflected, and after recalling the weather, and estimating 
 the buat's sailing powers and the like, I answered if she was 
 to be sought she might be found about one hundred and 
 fifty miles distant west-south-west. 
 
 'I make her further than that,' said the captain. 
 
 ' Perhaps so, sir.' 
 
 1 But your bearings about tally with mine. I think it's our 
 duty to give those people a chance for their lives. Three of 
 them ! and two of the three, women, Mr. Helby ! And the 
 passenger, I understand from Wall the bo'sun, is the daughter 
 of an English baronet— the skipper's wife was her old nurse- 
 she was sent out for her health.' 
 
 He looked thoughtfully round the sea, then told me to 
 get the yards braced in, and going to the wheel, shifted the 
 course, making a fair wind of the breeze, and the ship drove 
 along. 
 
 The main difficulty lay in the shortness of the time of day- 
 light. "We were not going to hunt for a large becalmed craft, 
 clothed like a pyramid to the trucks, and courting the eye 
 like an iceberg, but for a low dismasted hull, which might 
 slide past us within musket-shot in some hour of blackness, 
 and no man dream it was near. But the captain was resolved 
 to give the poor people a chance : there could be no question 
 that the master of the ship, his wife, and a young lady were 
 alive, locked up, helpless and hopeless, aboard a hull which at 
 any hour might float away in staves from the side of an icehill ; 
 and it was right, it was our duty, it was a service that God 
 would expect of us, that humanity required of us, to search, 
 even at some peril to ourselves— loss of time counting for 
 nothing when the errand is one of mercy— seeing that the 
 hull lay, perhaps, within two hundred miles off, and her in- 
 mates ia a situation to continue alive for a long while, the
 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 113 
 
 boatswain Wall having told Captain Parry that she was 
 plentifully stocked with coal, provisions, and liquor. 
 
 All that day, till night blackened out the scene, we kept 
 an eager watch upon the sea. It held fairly clear, a slender 
 promise overhead in greenish streaks of an opening heaven, 
 though the horizon scowled with snow-clouds. We sighted 
 several icebergs, but saw nothing of the wreck. When it fell 
 dark that afternoon, we shortened sail to two close-reefed top- 
 sails, furling the foresail, and rolled onwards slowly. The swell 
 was high and ran strong from the westward, but the sea 
 curled lightly. A few wan stars blinked in the rifts. The 
 cold was intense. The rigging seemed to take a new thick- 
 ness of ice when the night came, and the running gear was as 
 stiff as bar-iron in the shears. 
 
 I guessed that Captain Burke (as I was told his name was) 
 would show a light every night : he had lanterns and oil and 
 an altitude that, with his freeboard, might give him twenty 
 feet above the water in his stump of foremast. But we 
 searched in vain for a sparkle. For my part, I took but a 
 half-hearted view of the quest ; yet it was a thing net to be 
 omitted by an English seaman: no man of the slenderest 
 mercy of heart would have foregone it. 
 
 I had charge of the middle watch, and being a man of some 
 imagination, I cast my mind into the misery of the poor people 
 who were somewhere out upon those black, swollen waters in 
 a flat wallowing hull, and I shuddered and grieved when I 
 thought of them. The life of a lofty superstructure of masts 
 and spars, with canvas to spread or reduce at will, was in our 
 ship ; I felt the buoyant rise of her on hills of ink rolling in- 
 visible ; I'd step aft to search the gloom astern and on either 
 quarter, and mark the dim snow of the wake sheeting to the 
 taffrail with the droop of her stern, and hear the grind of the 
 wheel-chains, and see the illuminated disc of card trembling 
 the course at the lubber's mark betwixt faithful oscillations, 
 as though it were the spirit of the ship, naked and shining, and 
 revealed in all its sublime guiding and informing motions ; and 
 then my mind would go again to that dismantled hull some- 
 where out in the freezing blackness here or there, a coffin of a 
 ship with three live people locked up in it ! 
 
 It came on to blow in hissing snow-squalls a little before 
 daybreak. I got two hours' sleep after eight o'clock and 
 turned out for a mouthful of breakfast : when that meal was 
 ended, the dull day had whitened through the snow upon the 
 
 1
 
 ii 4 HEART OF OAK 
 
 skylight glass, and in a cabin window I saw the sea, lifting 
 close with the ship's lurches, rolling astern and quickly out of 
 sight into the blowing flakes. 
 
 The captain came below : he shook the snow off him by 
 the stove and said : 
 
 ' No signs of the hull. Nothing can be done if the weather 
 don't clear. It's as thick as smoke all round, and if we go on 
 making southing in this fashion we shall be running down the 
 South Shetlands. 1 
 
 ' To pick up a wreck like this, sir,' said I, ' you may need 
 to cross and re-cross your track a hundred times over.' 
 
 ' I should never be able to sail away with a good conscience 
 cither,' said he. ' To leave three people to wash about down 
 here to perish certainly after a horrible time of it ! Though 
 it should cost a week of cruising to rescue them — 'twould be 
 like murder.' 
 
 He stepped into his cabin with unsettled looks and a face 
 of agitation. 
 
 He was one of the humanest men I ever met whether at 
 sea or ashore. He was not what would be called a gentleman 
 by birth, but he was a man of God's best moulding, a simple, 
 generous, just person, beloved of his crew, his officers' friend 
 and companion, and their kindly counsellor as well as com- 
 mander. I never heard a coarse word escape him nor a harsh 
 one to even the most provoking of his people. He was an 
 honour to the flag of his Service. 
 
 When I went on deck the weather had somewhat cleared 
 round the ship, but the snow was whirling grayly against the 
 soft dark thickness to leeward, whilst the windward sky was 
 black with cloud of a true Horn pattern, low-flying, shredding 
 off its edges, and swollen with burdens of hail and sleet. 
 
 I went to the starboard rail to take a long, careful look 
 round, never knowing but that all on a sudden, in a flying way, 
 the hull might leap into sight out of some green trough dim 
 with salt breeze. Mr. Newman, heavily clad in sea boots and 
 yellow oilskins, was standing for shelter under a square of 
 canvas seized in the mizzen rigging. For my part I never 
 wore an oilskin in my life. I was to-day clothed as I always 
 went in bitter weather, north or south : in a thick pilot coat, 
 thick pilot cloth trousers, a warm fur cap with ear- covers, thick 
 mittens, and a shawl round my neck. 
 
 I was straining my sight into the whirling gray thickness 
 over the bow, the ship then being under two close-reefed top-
 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 115 
 
 sails and stern main trysail, and surging over the high swell 
 and through the broken rugged seas at about five knots ; when 
 a man who was descending the starboard fore-shrouds with a 
 coil of rigging round his neck missed a ratline with his foot 
 and slapped at another with his hand : it parted at the seizing 
 and he fell overboard backwards. 
 
 In the swift glance I had shot, my sight being already bent 
 that way, I saw the ratline he had clapped hold of stand out 
 from the shroud like a bar of steel. 
 
 I roared ' Man overboard ! ' and shouted to the fellow at the 
 wheel to put the helm hard down. In the same breath I 
 caught a lifebuoy off its pin and flung it at the body of the 
 man who was then floating on the top of a swelling fold within 
 a pistol-shot astern, fast sliding off. This buoy, like others in 
 the ship— a device of the captain's — when it struck the water 
 freed a red staff with a length of red bunting attached : the 
 staff stood up on the buoy and the streamer like a tongue of 
 fire blowing out made a beacon for a swimmer as well as for a 
 boat in daylight. 
 
 Meanwhile the second mate was yelling for all hands and 
 bawling ' Man overboard ! ' and shouting for seamen to lay aft 
 and heave the vessel to. The captain came running up on 
 deck. I called the tragic news to him, pointing aft, and then 
 sprang for a jolly-boat as we termed the thing, which hung in 
 davits upon the starboard quarter. A number of men came 
 crowding around ; the boat was swiftly cleared away, and I 
 and three sailors jumped into her. 
 
 ' Keep all fast till way is lost,' shouted the captain. ' Stand 
 by to unhook handsomely or she'll drown ye.' 
 
 In a few minutes, which seemed as long as months, the 
 boat sank to the water's edge and was waterborne : a sea lifted 
 her half-way to her davits again ; in that upward rush we un- 
 hooked, got oars over, and away we went for the red streamer 
 which I could see faintly glimmering through a mist of 
 spume. 
 
 She was a fat lubberly boat, better for this work than our 
 longer whale-ended quarter-boats. She jumped like something 
 alive and distracted, sometimes sped end on, made with headlong 
 plunges into the valleys, sweeping up the acclivity with her 
 nose to the sky, doing her work dryly but so wildly that the 
 men could scarcely plunge their blades for a drag upon her. 
 A couple of spare oars were lashed along her bottom under the 
 thwarts. I had nearly cut them adrift, meaning to help the 
 
 I 2
 
 u6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 others, fisherman-fashion, with one, and I never cease to thank 
 my God I did nothing of the sort. 
 
 I steered for the man but he was not to be seen. I had 
 never from the moment of marking him fall doubted that he 
 had plumbed the bottom like a lead, weighted as he was with 
 heavy sea boots, painted clothes, and a coil of rigging round his 
 neck ; but it was not to be admitted : the man was overboard, 
 the ship was to be hove-to, and the poor fellow searched for 
 and saved if so willed. 
 
 All in a breath when we were within fifty strokes of the 
 streaming red flag the boat was capsized on an apex of 
 pyramidal sea, that poled her sheerly bottom up at the instant 
 that a blinding snow- squall came seething along, whitening 
 the water into hissing salt, and thickening down the sea with- 
 in a biscuit toss. This I had been observing at the very 
 instant the boat was flung keel up, and I recollect that 
 I carried the memory of that scene of snow-squall under 
 water, scarce realising but that I was in a dream, happening 
 as it did too swiftly to give the mind time to catch a hold on 
 reality. 
 
 When I came to the surface I was bubbling and spitting 
 in a smother of froth hard against the side of the boat. There 
 were two others. I got my senses quickly and sputtering the 
 brine out of my mouth roared, ' We must right her. We can't 
 hold on. We shall freeze off her dead men in five minutes. 
 Together now.' 
 
 The three of us got a hold of the keel, and a sea helping 
 us, we righted her, swaying down upon the little fabric with 
 the strength of the madness that fights for life ; but in right- 
 ing she struck one of the men under, and he went down like a 
 shot whilst I and the other got into the boat. 
 
 A large copper baler attached to a lanyard lay at the 
 bottom. I plunged my hand down, groped for, and found 
 it, and fell with fury to casting out the water, the other 
 baling with his sou' -wester with all his might. The sea 
 repeatedly broke over us, but we toiled with superhuman effort 
 for our lives. I believe the filled boat w r ould have sunk under 
 our united w r eight but for a couple of empty breakers secured 
 in the bows and aft. We laboured with rage, flashing the 
 water out of the boat, and presently she w T as showing some 
 little height of side. Then to slenderly provide against a 
 second surprise of capsisal which would signify certain death 
 to us, I lashed the two spare oars that were under the thwarts
 
 MR. SELBY TAKES UP THE STORY 117 
 
 to the painter and chucked them overboard ; this brought the 
 boat head to sea, and we went on baling. 
 
 The spite of the squall had gone out of the wind, but it 
 was snowing heavily, and strain my sight as I would I could 
 see nothing of the ship. In a flaw in the thick feathery fall I 
 caught sight of the red tongue of bunting ; the buoy then was 
 about a cable's length distant ; it was closed out quickly and 
 all became a tumbling, gyrating blackness ; yet I had drawn 
 some faint comfort from the sight of it. I guessed the ship 
 could not be far off and that she must spy us the instant it 
 cleared, which might happen at any minute. Meanwhile we 
 baled for ourlives. 
 
 My companion was an able seaman named Tom Friend. 
 After he had been throwing out the water for some while, when 
 the boat was perhaps still about a quarter full, I meanwhile 
 baling with the same sort of fury that possesses a drowning man 
 when he clutches and catches and beats in the air for life, he 
 said to me : 
 
 'Mr. Selby, if we aren't rescued soon I'm a dead man.' 
 
 ' No, no, keep up your spirits,' I shouted. ' They'll have 
 us. Bale, man. We must keep afloat to be picked up.' 
 
 He went to work afresh with his sou'-wester, stooping and 
 flinging ; the wind smote the brine into smoke as we hove 
 it over the side. We did not cease till but a little water 
 was left in the bottom of the boat, and we sat and gasped 
 and stared about us. 
 
 I know not how long this business had occupied. It 
 seemed to me that the shadow of the night was already in the 
 air. It may have been no more than the darkness of the thick 
 black cloud out of which the snow was tumbling in im- 
 mense flakes. All the time I was expecting to see the dye 
 of the ship's fabric oozing out of the whiteness, plunging 
 out of the smother into her clear shape within easy ear- 
 shot of us ; but that did not happen. 
 
 After we had been in this situation about two hours 
 Friend put his two hands together, and began to waggle his 
 body as he sat on the midship thwart fronting me ; his 
 face was blue. He made shocking grimaces of anguish 
 and fell a-moaning most piteously, crying : ' Oh, the cold ! 
 Oh, the cold ! Oh, Jesus, support me ! I can't stand it ! ' 
 
 Though my own sufferings were inexpressible, I was still 
 sensible of a good stock of vitality; but I cannot tell why 
 I should have better resisted the cold than Friend, who
 
 n3 HEART OF OAK 
 
 was a lump of a man, broad-backed as a table, though a 
 little stout. I was soaked to the skin, and coat and 
 breeches were already frozen hard upon me ; they cracked 
 when I stirred as glass might. The thwarts were glazed 
 and ice half an inch thick sheathed the timber. 
 
 Friend let his sodden and frozen sou' -wester lie; and 
 he looked wild and dreadful with icicles pendent from his 
 hair. In a sudden, sharp leap of the boat to the summit of 
 an ugly sea, that broke and curled white as milk on a line 
 with our gunwales, he pitched towards me, slipped over 
 the thwart he struck, and lay motionless at my feet. He 
 groaned twice but spoke not. 
 
 What could I do ? Chafe his hands ? As well the 
 thwart he had been flung over. I had not a drop of spirit 
 for his throat, and myself felt dying. I could not but let 
 him lie, and I believe he gave up the ghost very shortly 
 after he had uttered his second groan. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE HULL 
 
 After Friend had lain at my feet for about an hour I 
 stripped the oilskins off the body and put them on ; they 
 diminished the sense of deadly cold. I dragged the body 
 into the bows, and after baling hard sat down, sure that 
 my death was at hand, but seeking consolation in the 
 thought that suffering ceases somewhile before you die of 
 cold, and that death from this cause is as easy as drowning 
 after the first agony. 
 
 It never ceased to snow until the night fell, and then 
 when it was black the weather cleared — that is, I could see 
 the flash of froth at a distance ; but stare as I might I 
 beheld nothing of the ship, no smudge nor deeper dye upon 
 the darkness anywhere to indicate her presence. I stood up 
 and looked and looked, waiting for the toss of the sea to 
 strain my gaze ; then, with an awful despair in my heart, 
 and the full rushing weight of my doom upon my spirits, I 
 threw myself down into the etern sheets to die. 
 
 That I should have lived through that night is the miracle 
 of my life. There is no lack of suffering in the maritime
 
 THE HULL 119 
 
 records, but I vow that mine in those hours of darkness 
 which I passed in that open boat is not to be topped, 
 though it may be matched. Perhaps it was that all my 
 organs were sound, whilst Friend perished from the shock 
 of immersion, and from failure of some vital power — doubt- 
 less the heart. 
 
 Be this as it may, I lived through that night and 
 through the icy darkness of the morning, till daylight came 
 crawling in a sallow green over the sky, low, broken and 
 flying. It might be that Friend's oilskins preserved my 
 life by excluding the needle-like tide of frost-black wind 
 from my flesh. When it was fairly daylight I stood up. 
 My sight was clear ; but I felt as though formed of stone. 
 I could poise my figure to the wild leaping of the boat, 
 but I could not lift my arms : each shoulder felt brittle as 
 glass ; it seemed to me that if either limb should be grasped 
 and pulled, it must break short off. 
 
 The body of Friend lay ghastly in the bows. It was on its 
 side, the cheek on the floor of the boat, and every time the 
 little craft dived, the water in her boiled about the figure, 
 which bristled with ice, and the head seemed nailed to the 
 bottom boards by long spikes of crystal. I could not bear it, 
 and made a step to cast it overboard, but, finding my arms 
 helpless, stood still and looked round for the ship. 
 
 No wilder, drearier dawn ever broke over that cold, stormy, 
 and desolate ocean. I guessed the wind about north ; a strong 
 wind, with a shriek as shrill as salt as it fled spray-charged 
 past the ear, flaying as though it were a naked edge of sharp 
 steel. A large squall was darkening the sea to leeward of the 
 boat ; when I was thrown up I saw the dim whiteness of icu 
 in several places. I gazed slowly around in a broken way, 
 for in every other breath there stood a wall of water betwixt 
 me and the horizon. 
 
 All on a sudden when my eyes went astern I saw, not 
 above a mile distant, a dark object : it reared and sank, came 
 and went ; sometimes froth leaped in a light of snow about it. 
 I stared, scarcely daring to hope as yet that it was more than 
 an illusion of the vision, a reappearing shape of green surge, 
 a hard reforming moulding of brine, looking like — looking 
 like 
 
 And then with a short choking cry of transport I recognised 
 it. It was the dismasted hull : that wreck of the ' Lady Emma ' 
 we had been in search of.
 
 120 HEART OF OAK 
 
 I watched her to make sure, dreading some cheat of 
 delirious imagination — but it was the wreck ; I marked her 
 rise with the sea, a firm, defined, black shape against the root 
 of the thick large squall that was blowing to leeward of her. 
 A dim sheen of the gloomy day was in her wet side or sheath- 
 ing as she soared, heeling not above a mile off and dead to 
 leeward. 
 
 The sight gave life to my dead limbs, as it put spirit into 
 my dying heart. I got the use of my arms and hands with a 
 sudden frenzy of resolution, like to the effect of the panic terror 
 that will compel a bedridden man to rise, though till thus 
 started he has lain helpless as the mattress he springs from. 
 I went into the bows, and getting hold of the body of Friend 
 turned it over the gunwale. The corpse as I have said was 
 that of a stout burly man, yet I found it light as a baby. How 
 was that ? Unless it was that the strength of half a dozen 
 had come into me with the passion of life and hope the 
 sight of the wreck had inspired. 
 
 I pulled in the pair of oars the boat had been riding to and 
 took my chance of the broadside send of sea ; the fierce sweep 
 and sharp angle nearly flung me overboard, and thrice whilst I 
 was clearing the oars which were heavy and difficult with ice, 
 the boat was almost capsized. In a few minutes I got an oar 
 over the stern and sculled the boat's head round for the wreck. 
 She shot forward, and I sat square that my back might break 
 any smaller sea which should foam tall and curl faster than 
 the boat could rise. For the rest— for the peril of a great sea, 
 for the swamping by seething waters uniting on either side the 
 gunwale — I was in God's hands. 
 
 The wind and the sea swept me so swiftly onwards that 
 the hull was close ahead all on a sudden, a large black mass, 
 rolling heavily with violently quick recoveries ; she lifted her 
 channels foaming, and again and again a sea shot up her side 
 in a height of white brine, which blew into the water on the 
 other side of her in a cloud like steam. There was nothing 
 for it but to drive for her stem on and take my chance. I tore 
 off the oilskins for the freer use of my limbs, and when I was 
 close to the wreck, having headed the boat fair for the main- 
 chains, I sprang forward and seized the end of the painter ; 
 the boat's nose smote the hull as she was roaring from me. 
 I got a turn with the painter round a chain plate ; the boat 
 swung in, but so swift were the motions of the hull that she 
 was rolling down upon mo even in that time, and, letting go
 
 THE HULL 121 
 
 the painter, I jumped in a single bound into the chains and 
 was stumbling over the rail, spiked with ice, as the hulk swept 
 her streaming side out again from the sea, with such a slant 
 of deck that if I had not flung myself into a squatting posture 
 and made the athwartship run of the hard frozen surface on 
 my hams, I must have broken my neck or fled sheer over- 
 board through the openings where the bulwarks had been 
 smashed level. 
 
 I was crazy with hunger and thirst and cold, and could 
 think of nothing but shelter and food and drink. I took a 
 hurried look along the deck hoping to see smoke from the 
 galley or cabin chimney, for I reckoned of course upon finding 
 the three people the ' Planter ' had searched for alive in this 
 hull. I saw no signs of life. I cautiously crawled aft, and 
 coming to the companion-way tried to open it ; the doors were 
 thickly glazed, whence I judged they had been kept closed for 
 some time. I pulled out my clasp knife — all that I carried 
 was in my pocket as it had been before the boat capsized — ■ 
 and after scraping and dislodging the ice in sheets like plate 
 glass, I got one of the companion-doors open and descended, 
 pulling the door to behind me. 
 
 After the long hours of exposure and the ceaseless crackling 
 noises of warring waters, the shelter, the comparative warmth 
 and stillness down here, were like the gift of a new life. It was 
 dark, yet not so gloomy but that I could see. The daylight 
 lay upon the snow on the skylight, and that large square of 
 whiteness sifted a sort of dim illumination of its own into the 
 dusk. 
 
 My first look was for those whom the boatswain Wall had 
 told us the crew left behind them when they abandoned the 
 hull. Nobody was here. An unlighted lamp swung violently 
 over the table. I beheld a dull gleam of looking-glasses upon 
 the ship's side, and thought in the glance I cast round 
 that I could make out the equipment of a small, comfortable 
 state cabin. I quickly spied a rack half circling the trunk of 
 the mizzen-mast ; in it were some decanters ; three were half 
 full of red and yellow wine. I put the mouth of one to my 
 lips and drank heartily of its contents, but whether it was 
 claret or sherry I could not say ; excessive thirst seemed to 
 have robbed my palate of the power of tasting. I then went 
 straight to the first cabin my eye rested upon, intending to go 
 the rounds for the pantry ; but this cabin proved to be the 
 pantry, where, after a short hunt, I found cheese, oiscuit, pre-
 
 122 HEART OF OAK 
 
 served meat, and jams. I fell to wolfishly, breaking off only 
 to fetch another decanter of the wine from the cabin. 
 
 And now having eaten with a dangerous heartiness, and 
 drank as much as would have brimmed two tumblers, I 
 stepped into the cabin, refreshed and warm, a new man, 
 almost my old self again, needing little more to perfectly com- 
 fort me than a shift of clothes, which might be obtained by 
 seeking. But first I stood still, holding by the table to listen. 
 I heard nothing but the sounds of the labouring of the hull. 
 Had the captain and the two women been taken off the wreck ? 
 I should have believed so but for having found the companion- 
 doors closed and glazed ; ice could not have collected to the 
 thickness I had found it had people been coming and going by 
 the companion-way. And yet it is true they might have been 
 taken off, and before going some one of the rescuing party had 
 closed the companion-door with a kick or a thrust as he 
 stepped on deck. 
 
 I saw no fire in the stove ; the lamp was out ; it did not 
 seem as if there were human life in the hull. I went to a 
 door en the starboard side, the next to or second door past the 
 pantry, and entered a berth. I could scarcely see. The port- 
 hole was submerged every other moment and the sight blinded 
 with a sudden plunge of foam-thick twilight. After gazing 
 awhile I made out that this berth had been occupied by the 
 captain and his wife. I observed a quantity of male and 
 female apparel hanging from a row of pegs running along the 
 bulk-head ; also I made out two bunks, a table with certain 
 navigating appliances upon it, a couple of chronometer cases 
 on a shelf, and sundry other matters not worth cataloguing. 
 I lifted a locker, and after groping came across some flannel 
 garments and under-linen. If the captain were aboard I 
 guessed that in any case he would give me leave to help myself, 
 so, after feeling over the clothes upon the bulk-head, I shifted 
 to the frozen flesh of me. 
 
 Scarcely was I warmly and dryly clothed, when so heavy 
 a drowsiness came upon my eyelids that I could instantly have 
 sunk upon the deck in a sound sleep. But first I was resolved 
 to ascertain the condition of the hull ; likewise whilst it was 
 daylight to see if there were any signs of the ' Planter,' and if 
 the weather gave me any promise of her. The idea of 
 falling into a trance-like sleep which might run into hours, 
 from which, for all I could tell as things stood, I should be 
 awakened by finding myself strangling in a cabin full of water,
 
 THE HULL t23 
 
 and the hull already fathoms under, put such a fear and horror 
 into my spirits as enabled me to thrust back into my brain the 
 heavy, stupifying weight of slumber, that was making my eyes 
 ache as though the balls of vision had been wrung and un- 
 seated. I shook my body as a dog does when fresh from 
 the water, and beat my arms upon my breast with all my 
 strength ; then, with a wild yawn, strode into the state-room 
 and went up the steps. 
 
 The first thing I saw was the boat I had gained the wreck 
 in : she was flinging and leaping upon the seas about a hun- 
 dred fathoms off on the port quarter ; being light and released 
 she had blown away quickly. Every time a surge forked her 
 on high the pouring blast smote and swirled her further yet to 
 leeward. This would go on till she filled. I hardly took 
 thought of her, abhorring her as I did as the theatre of that 
 drama of anguish and hopelessness I had been forced to act in 
 during the long black hours of the past night : and yet I very 
 well understood that she had been bound to go adrift, as I had 
 taken but a slippery turn with the painter round the chain 
 plate at the instant when the hull brought her main chains 
 crushing down upon me for that spring by which I had saved 
 my life. 
 
 I crossed to the port bulwarks to hold on by : t'other side 
 was full of ugly yawns and rents, a dangerous, ragged 
 wreckage of bulwark through which down the ice-hard slant 
 a man would shoot, with a sudden roll, to his death. The 
 galley was standing : all the boats were gone : the wheel and 
 binnacle remained, and the apparatus of the helm looked sound. 
 The decks were littered with frozen gear. Nothing showed of 
 the main and mizzenmasts but a barbed block, scarce a foot 
 high above the mast-coats. But the stump of the foremast 
 rose to perhaps twelve feet. The pumps were frozen : the 
 sounding rod lay close to, but I could do nothing with it. Yet, 
 as an old hand, I could feel the life of a ship in my feet, and I 
 was sure, by the hull's buoyant jumps, her cork-like recovery 
 from the headlong dives, and the loneliness of her rolls that 
 there was nothing in the water she had drained in so far to 
 make me uneasy. 
 
 Cheered by this conviction, I pushed forwards, clawing 
 along by the pins in the rail, by whatever ebe came to my 
 hand, till I was abreast of the galley, whose port sliding-door 
 lay half open, and going to it and looking in, there on the deck 
 I saw lying on her back the body of a woman. I peered close,
 
 124 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the light being weak. The body was warmly but plainly 
 clothed ; the colour of the face fresh as though she slept. I 
 should not have guessed her dead by her looks : it was her 
 lying there that made me know it. She seemed a woman of 
 between forty and forty-five, flat of face, treble-chinned, and 
 she showed as a person that had been fat and heavy in life. 
 
 The sight startled me : I had not thought to find anything 
 dead. Had she been the wife of the captain ? Where was he ? 
 And where the young lady that had sailed as passenger with 
 them ? Were they both lying frozen in other parts of the 
 vessel ? But there yet remained two or three cabins below to 
 look into. 
 
 I came out of the galley shocked and low-spirited, and, still 
 pushing forward, came to the forecastle and called down the 
 hatch. I got no answer and descended. Here I found a 
 number of hammocks, a few sea chests, and some odds and 
 ends of seamen's apparel scattered about the deck. The fore- 
 castle lamp swung black under its grimy beam. I could 
 scarcely see. Water — though no depth of it — seethed over the 
 planks as the vessel pitched and rolled : this water I reckoned 
 had tumbled down the forecastle hatch, and when I returned 
 on deck I drew the slide of the scuttle over. 
 
 I went to the stump of foremast that was ringed with some 
 pins, and holding on by one of them, looked round and round 
 the sea, waiting for every lofty heave to dart my glances ; but 
 there was nothing in sight save ice, the peaks of bergs afar, 
 coming and going past the rounds of the swell, and the rush 
 of the surge flickering into foam. It was blowing half as 
 strong again as it had been an hour before, and the seas were 
 racing with a weight and spite of headlong yeast which must 
 have drowned me out of hand in the jolly-boat. A low sky of 
 thick black cloud coiling, revolving, like sooty pourings from 
 countless factory chimneys, was sweeping southwards. I 
 crawled aft for the shelter of the cabin — the wind was marrow- 
 freezing ; and scarce was I within the comparative warmth 
 and stillness of the interior, when slumber again oppressed 
 me ; and nature now giving out I stretched myself upon a 
 cushioned locker and was asleep in a minute. 
 
 When I awoke I started instantly into an upright posture, 
 beholding a figure gazing at me ; in some muddled fashion I 
 seemed to realise my situation, whilst I imagined that the 
 cabin was half full of people who had come to save me. Then, 
 getting my wits fully, I mado out that the person who stood
 
 THE HULL 125 
 
 close wag a young woman. Her figure was inclined towards 
 me, and so she stood despite the swaying of her with the 
 motions of the deck : it was a posture of fear, incredulity, 
 amazement, incommunicable in words. 
 
 It was too dim in that cabin to note more of her than that 
 incomparable attitude of fright and astonishment. 
 
 It had been past noon when I lay down to sleep : the 
 strong feeling of refreshment within me was assurance, true as 
 the sun's evidence could have been, that I had slept through 
 more than the two remaining hours of daylight. It was day- 
 light now, consequently I understood that whatever might be 
 the hour, I had been sleeping since noon on the previous day. 
 
 I stared at the girl, for a young girl I now perceived her to 
 be, and exclaimed : 
 
 ' Are you Miss Otway ? ' 
 
 • Oh ! ' she shrieked, ' have you come to save me ? ' and 
 she dropped on her knees and grasped my hand. ' Save me ! ' 
 she cried, ' I am alone here. I have been alone for days. I 
 am in darkness. When did you come ? Where are your 
 companions '? Why were you sleeping here ? And take me 
 on deck. Is your ship near ? If the boat that brought you 
 can live in this sea she can carry me on board your vessel.' 
 
 I cannot express the agony of heart in her voice. Her 
 terror at seeing me had been changed into another passion by 
 my naming her. 
 
 ' Where's the captain ? ' said I, obliging her to rise, and 
 seating her on the locker beside me. 
 
 • He is drowned,' she answered. 
 1 When ? ' 
 
 ' A long time ago. Seven or eight days ago. I have lost 
 the day. I do not know how long I have been alone. Why 
 don't we go on deck ? Is the sea too rough for your boat to 
 leave this wreck ? ' 
 
 • Why, poor young lady,' said I, trying to catch a fair view 
 of her face ; but it was too dim for that, and then again she 
 was thickly furred about the neck, and her hat, that seemed of 
 velvet without a brim, sat low. ' I would take you away from 
 this rolling hulk at once if I could. Under God I may yet 
 save you. I am as much shipwrecked as you are. But we 
 needn't despair. This hull dances tightly ; she has been wash- 
 ing about now for some days, and I should doubt by the feel 
 of her jumps if there's two foot of water in her hold. Who's 
 that dead woman in the galley ? '
 
 125 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' The captain's wife,' she answered, staring at me. 
 
 ' How came she to perish there ? ' 
 
 ' She went with her husband to help him affix a lantern to 
 the bowsprit. He slipped overboard with the light and was 
 drowned. I waited for them here and went to find them, and 
 saw Mrs. Burke lying on the deck. She had fallen and broken 
 her leg. I was too weak to carry or drag her into this cabin 
 and I pulled her into the galley for the shelter of it, and there 
 she lay, and I could not help her,' she cried, clasping her 
 hands with strange, piteous, involuntary motions of her head. 
 ' I don't know whether she died of grief, or from the injury of 
 her fall, or whether the cold killed her. It was black in the 
 galley, and I could not see her. I often called her name, but 
 she never answered me. Oh, what an awful time was that 
 night. I stayed by her until long after I knew she was dead, 
 and then came down here, and have remained in this place 
 ever since— no, three times I have been on deck to look for a 
 ship : it was always snowing— it has been enough to drive me 
 mad,' said she, passing her hand with a wild gesture across 
 her eyes. 
 
 ' Mad indeed ! ' said I to myself, all thought of my own 
 situation vanishing in the presence of the anguish of this poor 
 gentle young woman : she had a sweet soft voice : I supposed 
 she had been alone in this labouring hulk for hard upon a 
 week. It was wonderful she should have kept her mind. 
 Indeed it put a sort of craziness even into my seasoned head 
 when I paused in contemplation of her, and realised how it 
 might have been with me had I been alone in this straining, 
 creaking, wallowing fabric with no one aboard beside myself 
 but a dead woman, an atmosphere of stinging cold, nigh 
 twenty hours of blackness every day. 
 
 ' But you've not been starving all this while ? ' said I. 
 ' When there was daylight,' she answered, ' I'd get some 
 food and wine from yonder ; ' she pointed to the pantry. « I 
 took a little stock to my cabin. Where is your ship ? Have 
 you no companions ? Take me on deck to see your boat and 
 the vessel,' and she extended her hand. 
 
 I saw she had not understood me, and I told her how it 
 had come to pass that I was on board the hulk with her. She 
 listened in silence, saying nothing when I spoke of the men who 
 had been lifted aboard the ' Planter ' out of the ' Lady Emma's ' 
 long-boat, frozen to death, and nothing whilst I described 
 what I myself had undergone in the jolly-boat. She seemed
 
 THE HULL 127 
 
 Blow to understand ; but at last, when I was done, after con- 
 tinuing to stare at me, for our faces were a sort of glimmer 
 one to the other in that gloom, she gave a shriek, and crying 
 ' There is no hope for me, then ! there is no hope for me, then ! ' 
 buried her face and shook and swayed in a passion of 
 weeping. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 STILL ADKIFT 
 
 I could do nothing but let her cry ; yet, knowing there is no 
 better medicine for such misery and fear as hers than action 
 and the sight of it, I got up and went to the pantry for 
 materials to trim and light the lamp. I found oil and bundles 
 of wick, but no matches. I returned and asked the poor 
 weeping young lady to tell me if she knew where I might find 
 a box of matches ; she went to a cabin which I supposed was 
 hers, one on the port side, almost aft. I was struck by her 
 walk : not once did she stumble or pause, wild as the play of 
 the plank was. In a few minutes she rejoined me with a box 
 of wax lights, and, unhooking the lamp, I filled and trimmed 
 it and hung it up, and it swung burning brightly. 
 
 Now I could see Miss Otway and as much of her face as 
 showed was remarkable for delicacy and refinement. She was 
 very pale, her eyes light, whether blue or grey I could not then 
 tell ; her hair was of a soft, rather dark amber. She had per- 
 fectly even small white teeth, but her lips were pale and 
 marked a want of red blood. She was of medium height, but 
 of a shape not to be guessed at, heaped as her form was with 
 clothes. What she wore was very rich and fine, and a little 
 diamond sparkled in each ear. She seemed fragile, in de- 
 licate health, just the sort of girl to whom the doctors, despair- 
 ing of their physic, would recommend the breezes of the world's 
 oceans. 
 
 Her eyes were red with weeping, and when I glanced at her 
 after hanging up the lamp I found her staring at me with looks 
 of anxiety and expectation piteous with passion. 
 
 5 This,' said I, casting up my gaze at the lamp, ' makes the 
 cabin cheerful. I hope there is plenty of oil aboard to keep us 
 in light till we arc taken off.'
 
 i 2 8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' When will that be ? ' she cried. 
 
 ' Why, perhaps to-day and perhaps to-morrow,' said I. 
 ' My ship can't be far off ; her captain is one of the humanest 
 hearts afloat. He thinks three of you are aboard here, and 
 he'll cruise for you. If he don't find us the reason will lie in 
 the weather, not in his not hunting.' Then, looking towards 
 the stove, I exclaimed, ' You'll have been ice cold down in 
 this well. Let's build a fire, there's plenty of coal in the hull : 
 the boatswain Wall said so.' 
 
 ' Who were the dead?' she exclaimed. 
 
 ' Two seamen and the steward. A fourth — the doctor — lies 
 fearfully frost bitten. He stands to lose his feet and hands.' 
 
 ' They wanted to take me with them,' she cried. ' Captain 
 Burke would not let me go ; Mrs. Burke was against it : had 
 I gone I might now be safe in your ship.' 
 
 * Don't imagine that,' said I, deeply pitying as I looked at 
 her. ' You capable of enduring two nights of exposure in tke seas 
 in that open boat ! They proved sound friends who kept you 
 here. Here you're alive and you shall be saved — you shall be 
 saved ! ' I exclaimed heartily. 
 
 A faint smile put a look of spirit into her pale face. I 
 went to the stove, and beside it, secured so they should not 
 fetch away, were three or four buckets of coal, but no wood. 
 I was in no temper to rummage the ship for a faggot, and, 
 having noticed a chopper in the pantry, I fetched a bunk-board 
 from the captain's cabin and split it, and presently had a 
 roaring fire. 
 
 ' Did the crew cook their victuals here before leaving ? ' 
 said I, noticing a kettle, a frying-pan, and other galley furni- 
 ture lying near the stove. 
 
 She answered that some cooking had been done for the 
 crew in this cabin. 
 
 ' Pray sit you here,' said I, catching her gently by the 
 wrist and bringing her close to the stove, and seating her on 
 a small cleated sofa beside it. ' I believe a pannikin of hot 
 drink — tea, coffee, or cocoa — and something to eat, will do us 
 both good. Keep you here and thaw through and through 
 whilst I get a kettleful of water.' 
 
 She was watching me with some life : the cuddy fire threw 
 a warm, cheerful colour upon her face, and the flames shone 
 in her eyes, filling them as with a dance of courage. When J 
 epoke of fetching some fresh water, she cried out eagerly, ex- 
 tending her arms :
 
 STILL ADRIFT 129 
 
 ' Oh ! mind you do not slide overboard. The decks are 
 deadly. I can't be left alone again.' 
 
 I smiled and bade her not fear for me, and picking up the 
 kettle and dropping the chopper into my coat pocket — it was an 
 immensely thick pilot-cloth coat I had found in the captain's 
 cabin and put on — I went on deck. 
 
 This was a lead-coloured day with a confusion of ragged 
 black cloud thronging southward where the vapour was 
 crowded and darkening into a look of thunder. I saw no 
 signs of the 'Planter,' nothing but the ice afar. Secretly I 
 had no hope that Captain Parry would persevere in his 
 quest. I made no doubt he would suppose all hands in the 
 jolly-boat had been drowned, which, God knows, was very 
 near the truth ; and this would dispirit him, his forecastle 
 working strength would be weakened also, for, saving Wall, 
 the ' Lady Emma's ' men were of no use, and I reckoned 
 he would be glad to stick his ship north clear of the perils 
 of the ice and the blinding snow-storms. 
 
 But whether it was because I was a young fellow of a heart 
 naturally lively, or whether because I had escaped a dreadful 
 death, so that the being on board this hull was almost as a 
 rescue, 'tis true I felt no depression, no despondency in 
 any marked degree when I looked round on stepping on 
 deck and saw the leaden, rolling, frosting ocean bare, and 
 viewed the tumbling, dismasted, mutilated hull, white fore 
 and aft, bright with a hundred figures in ice, a most forlorn 
 and dismal object as she bowed her naked bowsprit into 
 the sallow trough, wearily leaning off the slant, with cata- 
 racts of foam hissing from the channels and scaling her 
 sloping side. I could not but reflect that, though we were 
 far south, whalers in plenty were to be met with in these 
 seas, and that the hulk was stout and buoyant, and bade 
 fair to last us our time in her, which might not extend 
 beyond the morrow. 
 
 So, with a good heart and a vow besides to do my man- 
 hood's best to cheer up my poor companion, to make her as 
 comfortable as the means of the hulk and my sailor's judg- 
 ment would allow, and to help preserve her life in God's own 
 time, I looked along the deck, and then seeing how it must be, 
 went to a scuttlebutt lashed forwards of the port gangway, and 
 finding it half full, went to work on it with the chopper, 
 knocked the hoops off, and the staves tumbled to the deck, 
 letting slip a mass of fresh-water ice, shaped cask wise. I 
 
 K
 
 i 3 o HEART OF OAK 
 
 struck off as much as would fill a kettle, leaving the rest to lie, 
 and returned to the cabin. 
 
 ' Now,' said I, knowing the tonic worth of work in a time 
 like this, ' melt this for us, if you please. When the kettle 
 boils we'll go to breakfast.' 
 
 ' Is your ship in sight ? ' said she, getting up and taking 
 the kettle and ice. 
 
 ' No,' I answered, ' but something will be coming along 
 soon. This is a great whaling ocean, you know.' 
 
 ' What is your name ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Kalph Selby,' I replied. 
 
 ' How did you know my name ? ' 
 
 ' Wall, the boatswain, was full of you and Captain Burke 
 and his wife when he was brought aboard out of the long-boat.' 
 
 ' Yes, yes, I understand,' said she. ' I should have guessed 
 it.' 
 
 ' There are things to be done whilst you get the kettle to 
 boil,' said I. ' You move about very easily, I see.' 
 
 ' I am used to this dreadful monotonous rolling,' she 
 answered. 
 
 1 Can you lay your hands upon what we may want in the 
 pantry ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, yes. I know what's there. Shall I boil some coffee ? ' 
 
 1 If you please,' said I, smiling to find her talking with a 
 show of life. ' I am going to the captain's cabin to look to 
 one or two matters,' and with that I left her. 
 
 I entered the berth I had shifted myself in, and which I 
 knew had been the captain's by its appointments, and first I 
 looked at the chronometers, and, finding them still going, 
 carefully wound them afresh, guessing by the revolutions of 
 the key that they would have stopped shortly. I then sought 
 for and found the ship's papers, and overhauled them to gather 
 the character of the supplies aboard. The cargo consisted of 
 stout, brandy, and whiskey ; samples of preserved potatoes and 
 articles of potted food, a quantity of theatrical scenery, builders' 
 stuff, such as doors and window frames ; patent fuel, oil cake, 
 india rubber, and certain other commodities. I observed that 
 amongst the samples was a quantity of preserved milk : there 
 was also a consignment of one hundred iron cases, each con- 
 taining two hundred and fourteen biscuits, weighing one pound 
 each, and specified as six inches square by one and a half 
 inches thick. 
 
 In short the paper indicated half a shipload of food and
 
 STILL ADRIFT 131 
 
 liquor. But I made nothing of this then. Such a plenty was 
 not likely to seem of any use to two people who looked to be 
 taken off the wreck in a few days at the outside, and for whom 
 therefore a single cask of beef, a single barrel of ship's bread, 
 along with the little stock of delicacies I had observed in the 
 pantry, would be more than enough. 
 
 I lingered to overhaul the nautical appliances, intending, 
 should a phantom of sun show, to get an observation. It was 
 very gloomy here. I found a small brass clock ticking stoutly, 
 and this I wound up, the plain silver watch in my pocket 
 having stopped when the jolly-boat capsized : the time by the 
 little clock was a quarter after eleven. I went out and set a 
 clock under the skylight to this hour. I guessed it would 
 comfort the girl's eye to see the time. Nothing in such a 
 situation as ours could make one feel more outcast, more 
 hopelessly removed from human reach and sympathy, than a 
 lifeless clock silently telling the same hour always. It would 
 be as though time itself had abandoned one. 
 
 The ice was melted and the kettle boiling, and Miss Otway 
 was making a potful of coffee. She had lifted the fiddles and 
 spread a cioth, and put some preserved meat, cheese, jam, 
 biscuit, and the like upon the table. The lamp and the flames 
 in the grate made a light like noon, and, now looking round, 
 I beheld a very rosy interior, a quantity of books, mirrors for 
 decoration, comfortable armchairs and couches, and sundry 
 fal-lals ; all designed, no doubt, to render the voyage of Miss 
 Otway cheerful and pleasant. 
 
 Turning, she cried out : ' Oh, Mr. Selby, you cannot 
 imagine what it is to see someone — to have someone to speak 
 to. Only God could say how lonely I have felt. The dread- 
 fully long nights ; the endless hours of darkness ' Her 
 
 voice broke and her head drooped. 
 
 ' No need to tell me what you have undergone,' said I. 
 ' Never in all sea story did any girl suffer -upon the ocean as 
 you have. But you've a brave look. You'll keep up your 
 tears now. I'm a sailor and I give you my word we are very 
 well off. We need but patience, and faith in that God who 
 has watched over us both.' 
 
 On this she raised her head and viewed me a little while 
 steadily, as one who stares critically to make sure of another. 
 
 I took the pot of coffee from her and we seated ourselves. 
 She had suffered so long from what I may truly call a very 
 anguish of loneliness— and, indeed, one had need to be locked
 
 1 3 2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 up in that same rolling hull, in the blackness and the cold, 
 with the seas roaring outside, and within always the same 
 soul-maddening noise of creaking bulkheads and harshly 
 strained fastenings, to realise what this poor, gentle, delicate 
 lady had endured — that I was sure she'd find a wonderful ease 
 in talking freely. I therefore questioned her whilst we sat 
 eating, and she told me who she was, where she lived, how 
 the wife of the master of the vessel had been her old nurse, 
 with other matters which she herself relates. 
 
 She warmed up in talking. I think she found a sort of 
 hope in merely speaking of her father and her home and the 
 gentleman, Mr. Archibald Moore, to whom, but for her health, 
 so she told me, she would have been married some months 
 before the date of her sailing. I so questioned her that the 
 early despair in her manner died out when she talked of her 
 father and sweetheart. I took care to converse as though they 
 were within reach, and the meeting a matter of a little waiting 
 only. In short, my resolution to cheer her mastered her fears 
 and perhaps her convictions ; and even whilst we sat I beheld 
 a new life stealing into her, speaking in her raised, hopeful, 
 more eager voice, and softening the haggard, wild look in her 
 eyes. 
 
 Presently she put some question which I had to fence with, 
 
 ' My dread,' she said, ' all the while I was alone here was 
 ice ; the ship lies helpless, I never knew but that an iceberg 
 was close to, and that every next hurl of the sea would dash 
 the wreck against some frozen cliff. Is there any ice in sight ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' I answered, ' but a good way off.' 
 
 ' Suppose we drift towards an iceberg, what shall we do ? ' 
 
 ' No good in supposing at sea,' I said. ' Time enough to 
 deal with a difficulty when it's within hail.' 
 
 ' Does the hull remain in one place ? Or are we being 
 driven by the seas and the wind ? ' 
 
 ' If the sun will put his nose out,' said I, with a glance at 
 the thickly snow-coated skylight, ' I'll find out where we are.' 
 
 ' Do you understand navigation ? ' 
 
 I replied with a grave nod. 
 
 ' If we are moving at all, which way are we driving, do you 
 think ? ' 
 
 ' The sextant will tell us,' said I. 
 
 Thus she plied me, straining her poor eyes with consuming 
 anxiety. I answered warily, but always on the side of hope. 
 
 When I was going on deck she wanted to accompany me,
 
 STILL ADRIFT 133 
 
 but I bade her stop where she was till I had stretched some 
 life lines along. When I looked out I saw there was no chance 
 of obtaining an observation. The sky was near, and thick 
 with rolling clouds : the windy dusk had shrunk the sea-girdle, 
 and the distant ice was out of sight : the leaden surge broke 
 in against the snow-soft gloom. No more desolate ocean- 
 picture had I ever viewed ; its spirit sank into me in a depres- 
 sion that brought me to an idle halt for some minutes whilst 
 I wrestled with myself. I started, and my very soul shrank 
 within me when I asked myself : If we are not fallen in with 
 what is to become of us ? Where are we drifting ? Then I 
 plucked up with the reflection that we were in navigated seas ; 
 any moment might give me the sight of a sail ; and my 
 immediate business therefore was to render our distress a 
 visible thing upon the face of the rolling waters. 
 
 I shut the companion doors that the girl might be warm 
 below, and, that I might move with security, went to work to 
 stretch lines along the deck. A great plenty of gear lay frozen 
 all about ; I got hold of an end and worked a length into some 
 sort of suppleness, and with much hard labour succeeded in 
 setting up life-lines in short scoops, so as to bring them taut, 
 for the winch and capstan were frozen motionless, and I 
 could do nothing with them. 
 
 This business carried me abreast of the galley, where I saw 
 with a sudden recoil once again the body of the captain's wife. 
 She seemed asleep, so fresh, living and breathing she looked, 
 with even a sort of colour in her face, and the expression of 
 her mouth easy and placid. But since she was dead it was fit 
 she should be buried, and as her presence added to the ghast- 
 liness of this picture of wreck, and weighed like an assurance 
 of doom upon the spirits, I resolved to turn her over the side 
 without ado ; so, with averted face — for I could not bear to 
 look upon her, she lay so life-like : it was like drowning rather 
 than burying her — I took the body under the arms, and with 
 all reverence gently dragged it to a great gap of smashed 
 bulwark, when, just whispering, ' May God receive you, poor 
 woman, and may He have mercy upon those who are left,' I 
 slided her overboard, and instantly quitted the side, not choos- 
 ing to get a memory of her as she lay floating ere the drenched 
 clothes sucked her under. 
 
 Constantly I cast my eyes into the north for a sight of the 
 sun ; but he never showed himself. There stood about twelve 
 foot of splintered foremast. I meant to fly a flag by day and
 
 134 
 
 HEART OF OAK 
 
 hoist a lighted lantern by night ; hut how to shin up so as to 
 secure a block at the head ? 
 
 I mused a bit, and then went in search of the carpenter's 
 chest, which I found in the forecastle. It was a huge chest, 
 cleated and lashed down against the bulkhead that divided the 
 men's sea-parlour from the hold, and it lay in such gloom 
 that I could make nothing of it, so I returned to the cabin for 
 a lantern. I found a couple of bull's-eye lamps in the pantry. 
 Whilst I filled and trimmed one of them, Miss Otway came 
 from the stove to the door and stood looking in. 
 
 ' Can't I help you ? ' said she. 
 
 • No,' said I. 
 
 ' What are you going to do ? ' 
 
 ' I am going to hoist a distress signal.' 
 
 ' Is there anything in sight ? ' she shrieked. 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 ' Why won't you let me help you ? ' said she. ' It's 
 horrible to be left alone down here. Make me of use. It will 
 do me good to help you.' 
 
 But I would not allow her to come on deck merely to look 
 on and be frozen to the marrow by the pouring wind ; so, 
 cheerily saying I'd find her employment by-and-by, I carried 
 the lighted bull's-eye on deck and made my way to the fore- 
 castle, holding by the life-lines, so that I moved as briskly as 
 if the hull lay quiet. 
 
 I quickly found what I immediately wanted, namely, a 
 quantity of long iron spikes. I took a handful of these and a 
 hammer on deck and drove a spike deep into the wood, a little 
 above the other ; and thus I made a ladder of spikes, every 
 projection of iron yielding me room for my pot and for a grip 
 cf one hand. When I had driven in the spikes as high as was 
 needful, I came down, and after hunting over the gear upon 
 the deck found a small block through which I rove a line that 
 looked like a length of the fore-royal signal halliards. I 
 climbed the mast again with this block and line and, driving 
 a spike into the head of the stump, I secured the block to it 
 and descended for good, this business being finished. 
 
 I had taken notice of a flag locker under a grating abaft 
 the wheel ; I went to it and found a complete code of 
 Marryat's signals, a large and small ensign, and a jack. 
 There was too much bunting in the big ensign for such 
 weather as this, and for such winds as might burst upon us 
 at any moment : so I bent on the small ensign to my halliards
 
 STILL ADRIFT 135 
 
 and ran it, jack downwards, to the head of the stump of 
 foremast, where it flared bravely chattering like a thing of 
 life. 
 
 Yet I found it hut a mocking signal after all, when I sent 
 my glance from it round the thick swollen and breaking seas, 
 and noticed that even already the dye of the early night seemed 
 in the ah, and that in little more than an hour that streaming, 
 flame-like appeal would, as a call to the eye, be as useless as 
 the stump it blew from. 
 
 I was now extremely anxious to ascertain the depth oi 
 water in the hold, and went to the pumps to see what was to 
 be done with the ice there. The sounding tube was perhaps 
 solid with ice half-way to the hold ; I thought then I would 
 try and draw one of the pumps, and having the pantry chop- 
 per in my hand, let fly, bruising and splintering so as to free 
 the bucket. In the midst of my chopping Miss Otway called 
 out. I stopped and saw her head in the companion-way. 
 
 ' Oh,' she cried, with a note in her voice that sounded 
 almost like joy, pointing with a gesture of rapture to the in- 
 verted ensign, ' that will bring help to us ! That will be seen 
 for miles and miles. How clever ! How did you manage to 
 climb that slippery mast ? ' And then, catching sight of the 
 spikes, she exclaimed, ' I see. I see. It's wonderfully done.' 
 
 1 It's too cold for you on deck,' said I, scarcely keeping 
 grave over this girlish praise. ' Remain below in the warmth. 
 No use taking a voyage for your health only to lose your toes 
 and fingers as your doctor has.' 
 
 But paying no heed to this, she stepped out of the com- 
 panion-way, and putting her thickly-gloved hand upon one 
 of the life-lines, came to where I was letting fly at the pump 
 and watched me. 
 
 It was the best light I had yet viewed her in ; and now 
 indeed I perceived that she was a very delicate, sweet-looking 
 young lady, about two-and-twenty years of age, pale, but 
 of a transparency of complexion that made a beauty of her 
 pallor ; nor were her eyes wanting in expression, though 
 they would be too light to faithfully reflect the deeper and 
 subtler passions and sensations of her spirit. 
 
 I thought her the most refined-looking lady I had ever 
 seen ; which perhaps is not saying much, seeing how many 
 of my years had been passed upon the ocean. I saw the 
 quality and breeding of her in her face and heard it in her 
 voice, and I think anyone, no matter how inexperienced in
 
 136 HEART OF OAK 
 
 such things, but would, on looking at her, have said to 
 himself, this is an English lady. 
 
 After chopping and hammering for some time, I freed 
 the bucket and drew the pump ; and, the sounding-rod lying 
 handily by, I dropped it, and after several casts, so hard did 
 I find it to get the level of the water betwixt the swift 
 abrupt rolls of the hull, I made a little more than a foot 
 and a half. I was astonished, but wonderfully heartened. 
 Here was a hull that had not been pumped out for eight or 
 ten days : she had been straining heavily in the hollow hour 
 after hour : and yet there was no more water in her than a 
 single spell of a watch on deck at the pumps might free 
 her of ! 
 
 I refitted the pump and fell to work at the brake and 
 brought up some water. 
 
 ' Let me help you,' said Miss Otway. 
 
 ' It won't hurt you,' said I, and brought a coil of rope 
 across the deck for her to stand on, that her feet might be 
 clear of the water as it washed with the slant of the planks. 
 We then went to work : the water bubbled, the clank of 
 the brake ran a noise of life through the hulk ; the exer- 
 cise flushed the girl's face, and, in a pause for breath, I 
 told her it would do her more good than sitting by the fire. 
 
 In that same pause whilst she breathed quickly she 
 glanced with a sudden look of pain and consternation in 
 the direction of the galley, and exclaimed : 
 
 ' The body of my poor old nurse lies there. I had for- 
 gotten her.' 
 
 ' I buried her,' said I. 
 
 ' Where ? ' 
 
 I told her. She was shocked and her eyes filled, and 
 she turned her head to hide her face. 
 
 ' It was not a thing to keep,' said I. 
 
 ' Oh no,' she cried looking round at me, eagerly and yet 
 piteously. ' I don't mean that. You threw her into the 
 sea as she lay — without a prayer ' 
 
 ' No,' said I, shortly. 
 
 She viewed me a little gratefully. I grasped the brake : 
 she put her hand upon it, and we fell to afresh. 
 
 We worked in this fashion for above half an hour, and 
 then Miss Otway, glowing with the labour and in no wise 
 distressed by it, saving that her breathing was quick, went 
 below. I fetched the telescope and stayed to carefully 
 search the horizon before it fell dark. But point the tubes
 
 STILL ADRIFT 137 
 
 as I would they gave me nothing. The near sea-line 
 tumbled dimly in long ragged wings of dark vapour, which 
 as they lifted with the wind stretched overhead like lengths 
 of smoke ; and betwixt them I spied a higher platform of 
 cloud, mouse- coloured here and there as though touched by 
 some wild stormy light. I saw no ice, but the wind blew 
 as though ice were close aboard : the sting of it Was in- 
 sufferable when you faced it standing. A noise of rattling 
 sometimes came from the forecastle as though the spray 
 froze in leaping, and fell with the weight of hail in the 
 tropics, and already the pump we had been plying was as 
 thick and hard bound as the other. 
 
 And still I lingered, not indeed with the hope of sighting 
 a sail before the blackness fell upon us, but with the idea 
 of making some sort of blind guess at the drift of the hull. 
 The strong breeze blew out of the north, and the tall coils 
 of sea ran in wide flashings from that quarter, but the 
 large ocean swell was about north-west. I was not very 
 well acquainted with these waters and scarcely knew what 
 to recollect of the currents hereabouts. I was aware that 
 the set of the ice w T as to the northwards. But then the 
 bergs struck deep root into motions of the sea which had 
 no influence atop ; so that there might be very well a sur- 
 face-trend to the southward through wind and surge and 
 swell, when, some fathoms under, the body of the water was 
 slowly streaming in another direction. 
 
 A dismal picture with the sadness of despair coming into 
 me out of it, when I looked at that square of bunting flaming 
 in mute appeal from the stump-head to the blind horizon ! 
 But we had life, and so there must be hope, and rallying my 
 spirits with a will, I strode the length of the life-line to the 
 halliards, hauled the flag down, and went to the cabin to find 
 and trim a lantern to hoist in its place. 
 
 CHAPTEK XV 
 
 THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 
 
 I left a light burning brightly at the masthead : the wild 
 meteoric dance of that gleam was a sort of hope : no ship 
 sighting it but would guess from the rapidity of its oscillations 
 that it danced on an open boat, or shone from some short 
 height upon a dismasted hulk
 
 i 3 3 HEART OF OAK 
 
 The wind was freshening with a long deep moan in the 
 rush of it through the flying dusk when I left the deck : but I 
 gathered from a general atmospheric hardening all round, a 
 firmer line in the curl of the surge, a distincter flash in the 
 foam of it, that it was to be a clear night, with perhaps a star 
 or two by-and-by. The hull made good play : she was like a 
 live thing ; and no helm and no fragment of canvas vexing her, 
 she took up her own position and wallowed dryly, save that 
 now and again in a sharp pitch she'd meet some lateral run of 
 sea and whiten in the air forward into the look of a snow- 
 storm : but the froth mostly blew clear, and the water when it 
 came streaming aft quickly froze into the snow. 
 
 Miss Otway sat beside the stove : she had removed her hat, 
 otherwise was wrapped up to the throat in furs ; her yellow 
 hair was shot with amber light when the swing of the lamp 
 flashed the radiance upon it, but her looks were white, and 
 something wild with grief, anxiety and fear. She asked me 
 if there was any ice in sight. 
 
 1 None that I can see in the dusk,' I answered. 
 
 ' I'm all the while dreading the ice,' said she. ' I should 
 not fear this high sea and our lying dismasted in it, if it were 
 not for the ice.' 
 
 ' There's none near to hurt us just now,' said I. 
 
 ' When I first came into this cabin,' she exclaimed, ' in the 
 Thames, a chill ran through me that was cold as ice itself. It 
 was warm, and yet I shivered as though freezing. Was it an 
 omen ? The memory has been haunting me in my time of 
 loneliness here. A little while before we were dismasted we 
 sighted a huge iceberg that was like a cathedral : it had a 
 beach of frozen foam, and the snow whirled in white dust on 
 one side of it against the dark clouds. Oh, Mr. Selby,' she 
 cried, ' think of this helpless hull striking against such a 
 mountain of ice as that, and our getting upon it and perishing 
 with the cold — the awful cold ! ' 
 
 ' Why, Miss Otway,' said I with a bustle of voice and 
 manner as I got up to set the kettle on the stove. ' This sort 
 of talk is good for neither of us. Do you believe in omens ? 
 But don't be scared till dangers come, and not then. There's 
 plenty to eat and drink in this ship and I'm for faring heartily 
 for the sake of hoping heartily, and working heartily, should 
 work be wanted. Come, you shall fry some ham ; it's my 
 turn to prepare the table.' 
 
 Presently we were seated as before. I talked more re-
 
 THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 139 
 
 assuringly than I had ventured on earlier, for now that her 
 hat was off I saw her face very clearly, how refined she was, 
 how gentle, how well nurtured : my very heart pitied her : I 
 felt as though commanded by God himself to take charge 
 of her, to watch over her, to keep her heart up ; I can't express 
 indeed how she appealed to me out of her gentleness and 
 refinement, the horrible situation she was in, the unspeakably 
 dreadful time she had passed through alone. 
 
 And often I would catch her in the intervals of our speech 
 eyeing me under drooping hds with an eager searching look 
 of enquiry, as though she would comfort her poor little self 
 by finding out what sort of a man was I who had come into 
 this rolling hull where she was alone ! I wished her to find 
 out quickly that she might be easy ; but we both needed time, 
 I to act and she to discover. 
 
 I cleared the table and went on deck. The lantern burned 
 brightly. The night lay black, but the atmosphere was hard 
 as when I had gone into the cabin, and you found a distance 
 in the gloom. All was as well with the hull as one could dare 
 hope for, and, closing the companion doors, I re-entered the 
 cabin. 
 
 It was about six o'clock then. I lighted a bull's-eye and 
 went into the captain's berth for the log-book which I had 
 noticed upon the table, and to overhaul a bag of charts. I 
 brought the log-book and the chart I wanted to the cabin 
 table : Miss Otway, seeing me at this, came opposite and stood 
 there looking on. I wished to see the last entry in the log- 
 book ; which done, I opened the chart, and was startled to 
 observe that, supposing the drift of the vessel to have been 
 continuously to the southward, as somehow I imagined it was, 
 that group of islands called the South Orkneys, stretching 
 some sixty-five miles east and west, could not be farther than 
 twenty-five or thirty leagues. 
 
 ' Are you finding out where we are ? ' said Miss Otway. 
 
 I I shall know exactly when I get an observation,' said I, 
 and carried the log-book and chart back into the captain's 
 cabin. 
 
 But I confess my heart was sunk. To be sure, throughout 
 I had vaguely known our place — could have named it within 
 fifty or eighty miles perhaps — yet the business I had been 
 about ever since I woke up stopped me from realising till I 
 looked on the chart, when of course I understood that if our 
 drift was south we stood to go to pieces upon land that would
 
 i 4 o HEART OF OAK 
 
 be the most God-forsaken on the wide face of the oceans of the 
 globe, if it were not that, hard by them, covering a range of 
 eight or nine degrees of longitude, lay groups of rocks with a 
 range of mountainous continent stretching due south (mag- 
 netic) even more desolate, naked and iron-sheathed. 
 
 But we were not ashore yet : nor could I know certainly 
 that our drift was south ; and then there was to-morrow's 
 daylight with its hope of succour. 
 
 I sat beside the stove and talked with Miss Otway. She 
 spoke of the voyage and of the apparition which had haunted 
 the memory and depressed the spirits of Captain Burke down 
 to the hour of his death. I sought to amuse her by relating 
 certain experiences of my own ; and she forgot her situation 
 whilst listening to some of my yarns. The truth is I had gone 
 to sea at the age of thirteen and had followed the life fourteen 
 years, during which I had served in several capacities in many 
 kinds of vessels, though my experiences lay chiefly in the India 
 and China trade. I had plenty then to talk about : it amused 
 me to yarn, and she listened with more life and intelligence 
 than I should have expected in one with so fixed an expression 
 of dismay, of hearkening consternation and mourning. 
 
 After satisfying myself with a look around on deck, I 
 returned, and going to the book-shelves, read the names of 
 some of the volumes. It was a good collection of books : the 
 best of the poets and novelists were there, with odds and ends of 
 scrappy reading like Hone's and DTsraeli's. Here I found dear 
 old ' Peter Simple,' and carrying the tale to the stove, I read 
 bits aloud, and once or twice she laughed. Then something 
 suggesting the topic, I got telling her about shipwrecks, my 
 notion being to let her understand how much better off were 
 we than others who had suffered from disasters at sea. I 
 talked of the raft of the ' Medusa,' described that pathetic, 
 lamentable scene in the round-house of the ' Abergavenny ' 
 — the wax-lights, the captain clasping his daughters to him 
 — related the loss of the ' Amphitrite,' as told to me by a 
 man I had sailed with who had been one of the survivors 
 of that most tragic of shipwrecks, which littered the Bou- 
 logne sands with scores of bodies of handsome, finely built 
 young women. 
 
 1 Are there instances of people,' she asked, ' who have been 
 wrecked upon icebergs and survived ? ' 
 
 I spun her a few yarns of polar experiences in this way : of 
 Russian seamen found floating on ice ; of a whaler half full
 
 THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 141 
 
 of men stranded on a berg and floating in her giant cradle 
 down into open waters where she was boarded and the people 
 taken out of her. 
 
 ' How long had they been locked up ? ' 
 
 ' Several months.' 
 
 ' Were their sufferings great ? ' 
 
 Not knowing, I had to invent, and to cheer her, said : 'Oh, 
 no. They kept up good fires, had plenty of beef and 
 tobacco, heartened themselves by singing songs, telling stories, 
 playing at games of their own invention, and fashioning orna- 
 ments out of whale ivory. It came right with them. When 
 things come right it's the same as if they never were wrong. 
 Nothing counts but the loss of time whilst you're waiting 
 for the settlement. How soon, when you get well, you for- 
 get that you were ill ! How quickly you forget the weather ! 
 Who's it says it's always too hot or too cold, too wet or too 
 dry, but that God so contrives it, at the end of the year it's 
 all the same ? Keep up your heart, Miss Otway, and reflect 
 that when this is ended and you're safe ashore with your 
 people it'll be no more than an experience to talk about.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said she, with a faint smile, ' it will be all right 
 when I am ashore ; but who's that other person who says, 
 philosophy triumphs over past and future ills, but present ills 
 triumph over philosophy ? ' 
 
 This passed my plain understanding, and I let the sub- 
 ject go. 
 
 I went on deck for more ice to melt and boil, and found 
 it blowing pretty strong. A high sea, ridged in lines of 
 ebony against the light of their own foam, and melted in 
 roaring snowdrifts under the hull that was topping them 
 with a wonderful buoyancy. I looked for a star, but all 
 was sweeping blackness aloft, save the point of light at the 
 stumphead. 
 
 Knowing this hard heave of sea must certainly give us a 
 steady trend southward, helped as the hull was by the blast 
 every time she soared into the icy howl of it, I fetched a 
 bull's-eye, and observing by the binnacle that the hulk's 
 head pointed about east by north, I went to the starboard 
 rail and overlay it, staring with desperate searching eyes 
 into the hard gloom till I was almost frozen. But I could 
 see nothing that looked like ice, no faintness, no spectral 
 sheen, all that glared was foam running from the arched 
 back of the surge ; so I went below, where I boiled some
 
 142 HEART OF OAK 
 
 coffee, and, shortly after eight, Miss Otway withdrew to her 
 berth. 
 
 I took the bull's-eye to find me more clothes in the cap- 
 tain's cabin, and when I was wrapped up to the bigness of a 
 Greenland's-man, I returned to the stove, dimming the lamp 
 to a light that was just enough to see by, and lay down upon 
 a couch. Presently I was startled out of a reverie by seeing a 
 great rat come close to the fire, as though for the warmth. 
 Very quietly putting my hand in my pocket, I pulled out my 
 clasp knife, which I opened ; the blade was dagger- shaped. 
 Then, quick as lightning, I lanced the weapon at the beast 
 and half severed its head. This pleased me, for in the course 
 of our talks Miss Otway had said that in her time of loneliness, 
 a huge rat had come into the cabin and looked at her till she 
 was motionless with disgust and fear. I could not know, how- 
 ever, that this was the rat that had so served her ; though it 
 made one less aboard, and I dropped it into a coal bucket to 
 chuck over the side next day. 
 
 The sight of the bleeding, lifeless beast set my thoughts 
 running on the hours the girl, whilst alone, had spent in 
 this hull, and I wondered when I looked at the rat and 
 listened to the shrieking and grinding noises, that she had 
 not days before gone off her head. I guessed that her mind 
 had been cast in a heroic mould ; never else could she have 
 come through such a term of loneliness with her wits all right. 
 Less had driven strong men overboard, gaping madmen. 
 
 Whilst I sat following the wild and flying motions of the 
 hull, testing them by sensation to gather if the buoyancy 
 diminished, I was addressed. I looked round with a sudden 
 surprise that was nearly fright : it was Miss Otway, furred and 
 clothed from head to foot as she had left me. 
 
 ' Are you going to sit up all night ? ' she exclaimed. 
 
 ' I'm going to sit here,' I answered. ' I shall snooze at 
 intervals.' 
 
 'Let me watch whilst you sleep,' said she. 
 
 'There's nothing to watch,' I answered, 'nothing to keep 
 a look-out for.' 
 
 ' A ship might see our lantern and come down to us.' 
 
 ' She could do nothing in this weather.' 
 
 ' But to think of being asleep whilst a vessel is coming 
 down to see what the light means ! Think of her hailing, 
 getting no answer and passing on. It might be our only 
 chance.'
 
 THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 143 
 
 I told her that might happen even though we both kept 
 watch all night in the cabin. How, down here, should we 
 hear a hail from the water ? "We'd need to keep a look-out on 
 deck, which would kill her quickly and me soon after. 
 
 ' Pray go and rest,' said I, ' and trust me to see anything 
 that may come along and to hear anything that may hail.' 
 
 She looked reluctant, very white, her eyes dim and large 
 with tragic expectancy as though she never knew but that in 
 the next minute something frightful would happen. 
 
 I picked the rat up by the tail. ' Is this your friend ? ' 
 said I. 
 
 She shrieked, believing it alive ; then, shuddering and 
 shuddering, staggered somewhat blindly in the direction of 
 the cabin. 
 
 I jumped up and supported her, encouraging her by every 
 promise and hope my brain could frame. 
 
 ' You have not slept for nights,' said I, pausing at her 
 door. ' Eest now that I am here, if only that you may have 
 strength enough to leave the hull and health enough to carry 
 you to your home.' 
 
 She had removed her gloves : I grasped her ice-cold hand 
 and returned to my couch. 
 
 The night crept away. I dozed at intervals, visiting the 
 deck perhaps half a dozen times. In the morning watch I 
 slept soundly upon the couch by the stove, and when I awoke 
 it was nine by the clock under the skylight, still black as 
 thunder, and the hull rolling heavily. I was cold to the heart, 
 and before quitting the cabin kindled a fire to boil some water 
 for a hot drink, then went up the steps to take a look. 
 
 It was still blowing fresh, but the wind had shifted north- 
 west, and the sky was a clear, sparkling heaven of stars from 
 sea-line to sea-line, the sea running in steady hills of ink to 
 where you saw the horizon throbbing close under the pale 
 lights of the night low down, so clear was the gale. The 
 mast-head lamp burned dimly ; but it would be daybreak 
 shortly. I stared around the sea, and saw nothing north and 
 west and east, but my sight going south was arrested by a low, 
 irregular, dim line ; it rose with the heave of the hull, and it 
 was as far off as the horizon. It looked like the sheen of along 
 face of coast covered with snow : it was a mere attenuated film 
 of faintness stretched where sky and water met, and I looked 
 and looked, believing it a bank of cloud that would dissolve 
 whilst I watched; but it hung steady, and still it was so
 
 144 HEART OF OAK 
 
 elusive that sometimes I saw it, and when the hull sprang from 
 the trough again it was gone ; and yet again, when she 
 roared to the height of a surge, it was there. 
 
 Well, daylight was at hand to resolve it. For my part I 
 had no doubt it was ice ; indeed it had astonished me to find 
 these seas so open at this time of the year ; only, if that sheen 
 out in the morning darkness under the stars was ice, the drift 
 had been ours to carry us to a sight of it : which signified a 
 slide of keel running into knots : for that steamlike hovering 
 down there had not been in sight two or three hours earlier, 
 when my eye, as now, followed the hard curls of sea working 
 into distance, though the sky was not starry. 
 
 I went below, trimmed the lamp, and prepared the table 
 for breakfast. Whilst I was thus occupied, Miss Otway 
 appeared. She came straight to the stove and held her hands 
 to the blaze, and asked me when it would be daylight. I 
 answered, ' Within an hour.' 
 
 ' This almost perpetual darkness,' she exclaimed, 'is one of 
 the most awful parts of this dreadful time.' 
 
 ' I hope you slept well ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, I slept soundly, and awoke only about a quarter of an 
 hour ago. What is the time ? ' I named the hour. « You've 
 seen no signs of a ship during the night, I fear ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing. It has blown hard. It still blows a fresh breeze 
 of wind. This is the most seawardly vessel that was ever 
 launched. It is lucky for us her cargo is a light one. Think 
 of her laden to her chain-plate bolts with some dead weight 
 of iron goods. She would have been under water day and 
 night, and by this time have ceased to be a hull.' 
 
 ' When were you last on deck, Mr. Selby ? ' 
 
 1 I'm just now from the deck.' 
 
 ' Is there anything in sight ? ' 
 
 ' I'm waiting for daybreak to make sure.' 
 
 My answer caused her to make a step from the stove, and 
 to advance her white face whilst she stared at me. 
 
 ' Is there ice near us ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' I find an appearance in the southward that may prove 
 ice,' said I. ' But what else are you to expect in these seas ? ' 
 I added carelessly. ' Here we are somewhere down in sixty 
 degrees, and, since I have been aboard, the horizon has been 
 almost clear. What shall we have for breakfast ? Will you 
 boil some coffee whilst I search the pantry ? Suppose daylight 
 should reveal ice — it may also show us a whaler fishing in the 
 thick of the bergs ! '
 
 THE ICE IN THE SOUTH 145 
 
 And assuming a cheerful, bustling manner I lighted a 
 bull's-eye, whistling some sea tune the while, and went into 
 the pantry, where, after a brief overhaul of the closet and 
 shelves, I laid hands upon a tin of herrings, sardines, and 
 some kind of delicate sausage. 
 
 ' I am making free,' said I, putting the stuff upon the 
 table. 
 
 ' These things were laid in for you. I'll take an inventory 
 of what's left by-and-by ; I allow that everything for cabin 
 use will be stowed in the lazarette. When you're transhipped 
 the delicacies must go along with you. The whaleman's our 
 chance, and his cupboard has no reputation for dainties.' 
 
 I waited for her to sit, attended upon her, then fell to 
 myself. But all the while we remained seated she was strain- 
 ing her eyes at the porthole facing her, then turning to the 
 porthole behind her as though she thought through the gleam- 
 ing ebony of the glass, white with the foam it rose from, to 
 behold the ice I had spoken about. 
 
 Day broke before I had breakfasted ; it lay white in the 
 snow on the skylight ere I rose, and the grey of it in the cabin 
 windows was growing blue when I went on deck accom- 
 panied by Miss Otway. And now I looked at what, for the 
 hour past, I had dreaded to see. The day had dawned in cold 
 splendour ; the sun was flashing in rose, at this moment per- 
 haps two degrees above the horizon ; a number of small clouds 
 were floating near his face and looked like bits of gilt 
 scaling off the rayless target-like luminary ; otherwise the 
 heavens sloped clear in a sheer vault of deeply dark blue, under 
 which ran the sea of the rich hue of the sky, but full of gleams 
 and the snow of melting crests, and here and there spaces of 
 an exquisite ice-like green snaking currentwise over the 
 heaving waters. 
 
 It no longer blew hard, but it was still a fresh breeze, 
 spray-clouded in the frequent guns of it that shrieked in gusts 
 over the bulwarks to the loftier lifts of the hull. But what my 
 sight went to and remained fastened upon, whilst, I own, my 
 breath came and went quickly with the surprise of the mag- 
 nificent, but to us the terrible, sight, was the scene of the 
 southern quarter of the sea. There, stretching for miles and 
 miles, was ice in bergs which to the naked sight looked to lie 
 so close, the picture was that of a compacted coast of alabaster, 
 broken with pinnacles and acclivities of a thousand shapes, 
 curving in places as though in bays, the whole on either hand
 
 1 4 6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 dying out in films of white, whilst over the bows and over the 
 stern, too, every time we rose to the height of a sea I saw ice, 
 plentiful as the breasts of the canvas of a vast fleet ; and 
 through the southern sky low down ran a long glinting line 
 or gleam as though a continent of ice was reflected in its face ; 
 it was like the pearly radiance that hovers just off the edges of 
 sails when lightly swelling in the tropics against a soft blue sky. 
 
 I glanced at Miss Otway : she was staring at the sight with 
 large nostrils and a gaze of terror under the little frown that 
 the strain of her gaze had knitted her brows into. 
 
 ' That is ice,' she cried. 
 
 ' Aye, miles of it,' said I. ' But is there nothing good for 
 us amidst that prodigious huddle of sail-like stuff ? ' 
 
 I took the telescope out of the companion and knelt with 
 it to steady the tubes, and slowly and carefully swept the 
 whole of that wonderful range, from film to film blue in the 
 air. The sun's rosy light was full upon it ; only the brush of 
 an artist could show you what I saw as the surge ran me into 
 a clear view of the horizon. It looked like a hundred cities of 
 marble and alabaster, all of them going to pieces. It was no 
 compact coast. There were many wide gaps, titanic streets 
 fit for the tread of such ocean-giant spirits as would inhabit 
 those colossal structures of crystal. The nearest point seemed 
 about ten miles distant. All was clear sea between, and 
 northwards I saw no ice. 
 
 Miss Otway stood beside me holding by a belaying pin in 
 the rail. Again and again she would say : 
 
 ' Do you see any signs of a ship ? Is not that the canvas 
 of a ship — there, just where your telescope now points ? ' 
 
 I saw no ship, but I looked with impassioned intentness 
 till my'eyeball seemed to melt dim through the lens under the 
 brass it was pressed against, conceiving that in so vast an arm 
 of ice some vessel might lie embayed. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE AUKORA AUSTRALIS 
 
 Whilst slowly sweeping the ice with the glass, I saw, or 
 seemed to see, when the lenses pointed a little to the eastward 
 of south, a blue shadow of land in the air. I took my eye 
 away from the telescope and then the shadow was gone : I
 
 THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 147 
 
 looked again through the glass and there it was, a dim, 
 scarcely distinguishable liquid dye whitening as it climbed till 
 it melted in the azure. 
 
 I very well knew that shadow must be land, probably one 
 of the mountainous rocks of the South Orkneys ; unless indeed 
 it was that group which lies north-east of the South Shetlands 
 — forming one of them, in short : but I could not persuade 
 myself that our drift to the westwards had been so considerable. 
 I said to Miss Otway : 
 
 ' Do you see a shadow in the air yonder ? ' 
 
 She looked, preserving the frown of an intense stare, and 
 replied : 
 
 ' No ; I see no shadow.' 
 
 I directed the glass ; she put her eye to it and cried 
 quickly, < Yes ; I see it. ' 
 
 ' It is land,' said I. 
 
 She looked eagerly at me and said, ' Inhabited land ? ' 
 
 ' I'll not say so, but I believe they go sealing there. I've 
 heard of whalers heaving-to and sending ashore.' 
 
 • For what ? * 
 
 * I don't know.' 
 
 I put away the glass and said : 
 
 1 I've been afraid of that land ; but when I think of it, 
 best after all for us, Miss Otway, it should be there. Only, 
 how to come at it ? What's our drift and where are we ? Shall 
 we wash perhaps round yonder point of film, clearing the 
 whole blocking mass, to light, may be, upon some spouter 
 crawling northwards from ten degrees lower south ? Or — ■ 
 or— — ' But I broke off, for what was the good of conjec- 
 turing unless I could say something to bring a little of the 
 poor girl's heart into her eyes. 
 
 On the chance of something lying hidden round a point of 
 crystal I went forward, lowered the lantern, and ran the red 
 flag aloft, jack down. This done, I fetched a sextant from the 
 captain's cabin and stood with Miss Otway in the shelter of 
 the companion-way waiting for the sun to cross his meridian, 
 meanwhile searching the line of the ice, beholding the phan- 
 tasy of a ship's white sails over and over again, and conver- 
 sing with the girl. 
 
 The sea came ridging steadily out of north-west, the vast 
 westerly swell of the mighty Southern Ocean pulsing through 
 it in rounds so majestically regular, you didn't notice the 
 heave of it. I had never beheld a more glorious breast of 
 
 t, -2
 
 i 4 8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ocean. All was dark blue sparkling billows, heads of froth 
 tossing into silken veils upon the wind, a roaring, flashing 
 scene, deep blue above, looking in its silence down, and the 
 ice southward, like a coast cut in ivory white, motionless, 
 shining, coming and going as the hull sank and soared. 
 
 I got an observation and eagerly went below to work it 
 out. Miss Otway followed me into the captain's cabin and 
 watched me whilst I calculated. I made the latitude sixty 
 degrees ten minutes south, and the longitude exactly forty- 
 five degrees west. Then, looking at the chart, I judged that 
 that shadow of land which was showing miles past the barrier 
 of ice was some central mountain of Coronation Island, tower- 
 ing high four thousand five hundred feet. I marked the hull's: 
 place on the chart, and said : 
 
 ' This is where we are.' 
 
 She peered, and after a pause exclaimed : ' It is all desola- 
 tion down here ! Look how far we are off from Cape Horn. 
 There is no nearer civilisation than the Falkland Islands — 
 how many hundreds of miles distant ! Oh! ' she cried, lifting 
 her head and clapping her hand to her face, ' if we could but 
 hoist even a little sail to save us from drifting to the ice and 
 certain death.' 
 
 ' No,' I exclaimed, ' death's not aboard yet, not even in 
 sight. Sixty degrees south ! The whalers make nothing of 
 that. The Great Circle carries you lower ' ; but I would not 
 add ' not here.' 
 
 Then, my eye going to a bookshelf, I spied a volume which 
 I pulled down quickly. It was a directory to these seas. I 
 searched the pages, and, putting my finger upon a paragraph, 
 said : 
 
 ' See here now, Miss Otway : men have visited this land, 
 they have named it, surveyed it, sounded round about it, 
 described it. Where one has been others may venture. Look 
 at this,' and I read : ' " At daylight on the morning of the 
 12th January 1823, we saw some pigeons and at six o'clock 
 perceived the east end of the islands of South Orkneys bear- 
 ing \V. by S. distant about eleven leagues. We carried all 
 possible sail to get under the land, but the wind soon became 
 light and left us almost at the mercy of a heavy swell in 
 the midst of ice islands, which made our navigation truly 
 hazardous." ' 
 
 ' Their ship had masts and sails,' she exclaimed, ' and was 
 under command.'
 
 THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 149 
 
 I read on, eager to learn all the book could tell me. 
 
 1 " Being now close under the land I sent a boat from each 
 vessel to explore them. We continued to tack the vessels 
 about in a bay. The icebergs which form in the bays in 
 winter and break away in the summer now produced so much 
 drift ice that we had frequently to tack ship to avoid striking 
 it." ' 
 
 ' That's it ! ' she cried. ' Their ship was under com- 
 mand.' 
 
 I proceeded : ' " This coast is, if possible, more terrific in 
 appearance than the South Shetland. The tops of the 
 islands for the most part terminate in craggy towering peaks, 
 and look not unlike the mountain tops of a sunken island. 
 The loftiest of these summits, towering up to a point, I deno- 
 minated Noble's Peak. This peak in a clear day may be seen 
 at the distance of fifteen leagues." ' 
 
 ' Is that the shadow ? ' she asked. 
 
 'Possibly.' 
 
 1 Oh ! look at the book, Mr. Selby, and see if it says that 
 the island's inhabited.' 
 
 ' It's not inhabited,' I answered. 
 
 Then I stood with my finger upon the page musing upon 
 the brief account. There was little to interest outside of what 
 I had read aloud : the rest told of bearings and distances, and 
 what had been brought up by the lead. 
 
 ' But,' said I, looking at the girl, • we are not stranded 
 yet. That we've drifted south is sure ; but how much westing 
 has there been in this tumbling drive ? Here's all about 
 the currents shown here,' and I turned the I«eaves of the book 
 and read : 
 
 ' " Ten miles south of Cape Horn the ocean stream flows 
 east- north-east, half to one mile in the hour." That should 
 be good for us. Let this wind shift south or west, and the 
 swell and the run of the sea will drive the hulk out of sight of 
 the barrier.' 
 
 But I had something more to do just then than talk, 
 basing chat on small hope and weak conjecture. I saw to 
 the fire in the store, then went on deck to sound the well ; 
 the pump was hard frozen as before. I freed it and got a 
 cast, and found that no water had drained in since I last 
 sounded. I'll not swear to an inch or two, but the depth was 
 quite unimportant, and after readjusting the pump I took the 
 glass for another long look at the ice.
 
 150 HEART OF OAK 
 
 It was land, sure enough, at the back of the barrier ; the 
 pearly blue shadow stood a clear shape in the lens, and I 
 seemed to see it now with my bare sight when I looked a little 
 away to right or left of it. I carefully took its bearings, also 
 the bearings of certain defined features of what I call the 
 barrier, though, as I have said, it was a length of dislocated 
 stuff full of yawns and wide winding openings, with a menace 
 of the revelation of many grotesque mighty shapes, startling 
 miracles of form beyond the reach of the dreams of fever, 
 should we be set close. There was a sort of.salt sparkle upon 
 the range in some places ; and now, whilst looking over the 
 side, I saw, streaming up the slant of a surge, a pistol-shot 
 distant, a mass of the giant kelp of these waters : but I ob- 
 served no birds, nothing more than that kelp to hint at the 
 meaning of that distant shadow in the air. 
 
 It was miserable that I could not get the least idea of our 
 drift save by waiting and watching, which presently became a 
 sort of anguish. I sought, but could nowhere find, the deep- 
 sea lead, or certainly I should have dropped it over the side, 
 taking my chance of its landing bottom, and lying there to 
 show by the angle of the line into what quarter of the sea we 
 were drifting — whether we were making straight for the heart 
 of the range, as it looked, or laterally rolling towards the 
 south-western extremity of the ice. 
 
 The weather continued of a clear cold splendour, the 
 horizon sharp- edged against the sky as the rim of a tumbler. 
 The sea ran hard in spiteful foaming slopes which kept on 
 shouldering the hulk dead to leeward, and within an hour the 
 growth of the ice told me we were closing it ; in fact, by the 
 bearings I had taken I saw that the drive of the hull was as 
 fair for the heart of the barrier as if she was being steered 
 for it ! 
 
 What was to be done ? I had been cast in my time in 
 many situations of peril, yet had never known myself despair- 
 ful even in the blackest hour of my troubles : but I own my 
 heart fell now, my spirits sank, hope died when I looked at 
 those leagues of horizon of ice and reflected upon my help- 
 lessness. Could I have summoned the help of but another 
 pair of hands I might have made some desperate effort with 
 capstan and leading-blocks to cap the stump of the foremast 
 with another height of spar, and get a jib stretched that her 
 head might pay off and bring her under some sort of control 
 to enable me to thread the waterways betwixt the bergs.
 
 THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 151 
 
 But, single-handed, I could do nothing. There was no height 
 of foremast for the setting of any sort of rag that would round 
 her head away and keep her before it — I mean, in a fashion 
 to hold her responsive to the helm. 
 
 When I made the discovery that the hull was setting dead 
 on to the ice, Miss Otway was in the cabin boiling some 
 cocoa for a scrambling afternoon meal ; she came up while I 
 stood swaying on the heave of the plank, my arms tightly 
 folded, my eyes rooted to the ice ; instantly it was as clear to 
 her as to me whither our drift was tending, and she uttered a 
 low cry as though she had been struck. 
 
 The mere sight of her, however, did me good — it quickened 
 perception of my obligations as a man. Her face was 
 white as the foam over the side ; her pale lips moved, but the 
 shrill wind sheared with icy- edge through her words as they 
 came to her lips. She sent a blind, staggering glance round 
 the western and northern sea line, and, knitting her face into 
 a look of resolution, she said : 
 
 1 It is God's will. But, Mr. Selby, it is a dreadful death 
 to die.' 
 
 ' I am pleased when you look so,' said I, ' but not when 
 you speak so. It is God's will, as you say. But what is that 
 will ? What's to be our fate ? Look how those blue shadows 
 in the ice open and widen. The bergs appear close together ; 
 hundreds of fathoms separate them in reality, and if we are to 
 drift into the huddle why shouldn't we scrape through ? ' 
 
 ' To where ? ' 
 
 ' To where ? . . . There may be open water beyond, and a 
 ship.' 
 
 ' No, no, land ! ' she cried, ' land ! See the shadow of it. 
 It was visible in the telescope only a little while ago : now I 
 see it like a forming cloud. • It will be all ice to the rocks, 
 and some break will let us in and we shall drift deep and be 
 locked up and left — and left ' 
 
 And now she could scarcely articulate for some spasm in 
 her throat, and her poor white face was all awork with the 
 horrors of her imagination. 
 
 It made me sullen to hear her, she reasoned so well, beyond 
 any trick that I had for cheering her. 
 
 1 We must wait and hope,' said I ; ' we are not in the ice 
 yet ; there may come a ship.' 
 
 And setting my teeth I swung the glass out of its brackets 
 fiery with some passing mood of wrath born of hopelessness
 
 152 HEART OF OAK 
 
 and helplessness ; for no sailor will stand at gaze and be 
 deserted by his spirit as a man whilst there is a chance for 
 life, though it be dim as a corposant in a burst of wet squall ; 
 but put him in my place — as I then was ; aboard a dismasted 
 hull rolling to her waterways in a steady pouring sea, a doom 
 of ice filling the horizon to leeward : how should a sailor act 
 as a man then save by a stony endurance that sounds gallantly 
 if you call it heroic fortitude ? 
 
 But the girl had boiled some cocoa : it waited : so I 
 begged leave to hand her below out of the ceaseless howl 
 of the ice-charged wind. Yet neither of us stayed long. 
 She could not eat, and for my part 'twas as much as I could 
 do to gulp down the steaming cocoa, good as it was. 
 
 I believe the sun set soon after two ; the sky was every- 
 where of a wild crimson, flashing gorgeously where the 
 luminary was ; the sea came running in hard green lines, tall 
 with passing heads, out of the splendour ; then the ice was a 
 wonderful scene indeed, delicately tinctured as it was with 
 the redness. The shadow of the land hung afar in a dim, 
 pink cloud, but though the barrier had been plain in view for 
 some while I could not swear that within the last hour we 
 had sensibly closed it. This gave me a little hope — though I 
 didn't know any : I bade Miss Otway note it and she agreed 
 with me — she had a sailor's eye for atmospheric distance — 
 that the ice looked no nearer than it had within the past 
 hour. 
 
 ' Can we be in the grip of a westerly current ? ' thought I. 
 Then, before the blaze faded in the west, I hauled down the 
 flag and hoisted the burning lantern, for the delicate figures 
 of the ice in the remote recesses where the film of it died out 
 were so cheating in their likeness to ships lifting canvas and 
 heading for us, that I could not persuade myself but one 
 must prove a vessel — if not now, then presently. 
 
 I obliged Miss Otway to go below when the night fell. 
 It was too cold for her. She was like to freeze to death. 
 The ice loomed as a range of snow-covered cliff to leeward : 
 it showed of a savage and deadly paleness under the stars 
 which sheeted down weakly to it, though here and there one 
 brighter than the rest glowed like a lighthouse lantern on 
 some faint point. It was a wonderfully brilliant night, how- 
 ever, no moon that I remember, but overhead the larger stars 
 had the rich tremble you see in the tropics ; I had never seen 
 such a field of brilliants— the Stardust hovered like mist, and
 
 THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 153 
 
 the height of the sky that night was awful to my solitary 
 gaze. 
 
 At about eight o'clock we were, as I reckoned, about five 
 miles distant from the nearest elbow of the ice. But though 
 a tall sea still ran, giving the hull the lofty motions of a 
 stately dancer, the wind was sensibly taking off. A frightful 
 time was this ! for if the hull struck on the hurl of such a 
 surge as still roared under us, she would go to pieces in the 
 twinkling of an eye. I was constantly looking over the side, 
 reckoning to find us setting on to some detached mass of 
 drift stuff, flat, but not the less deadly for being awash, but 
 saw none. Suddenly I perceived a light upon the horizon 
 right over the bows. I fancied my vision deceived me, that 
 the trend of the ice was not as I imagined it to be in that 
 darkness, that the light was some burning mountain far past 
 the barrier, and that a shift of wind or change of stream 
 or tide had altered the bearings : this I conceived and rushed 
 headlong for a bull's-eye, which I flashed upon the compass ; 
 but no ! the indications were as before. 
 
 What, then, was that light ahead ? Miss Otway had 
 followed me when I fled up the companion steps with a 
 lighted bull's-eye. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' she cried. 
 
 ' What's that ? ' I exclaimed, pointing ahead in the star- 
 light. 
 
 But now, looking, I beheld a luminous arched cloud : it 
 soared, always arched, increasing in brightness till the brow 
 of it stood about twenty degrees above the horizon : the 
 brightest of the stars shone wanly through it : then, whilst 
 we watched, flashes of fire, darting like lightning, leapt from 
 it, they changed into spiral columns of the brilliance of sun- 
 light, scores of them, and they went twisting and streaming 
 out of the cloud with the look of the rush of the Milky Way 
 to the Zenith, whirling and winding their strands of fire into 
 a very rope of flame, whose end seemed to search the furthest 
 Stardust. This wonderful, beautiful, sublime scene of joyous 
 dancing, inwreathing lights, faded, but was quickly followed 
 in the same quarter where the fiery curved cloud had shone 
 by rich, straw-coloured arches of flame, linking and sinking 
 and soaring, changing on a sudden with a vast spread of 
 light, exactly fan shaped, and jewelled with colours mani- 
 fold as the rainbow, as though it reflected some giant 
 prism.
 
 154 HEART OF OAK 
 
 c 
 
 What is it ? ' said Miss Ofcway, standing close beside me 
 and speaking in a voice subdued by awe and astonishment. 
 
 ' The Aurora Australia,' I answered, knowing it must be 
 that by descriptions I remembered. 
 
 'We lost all sense of time in watching. In some of the 
 subiimest recesses of that show of fire it was as though the 
 heaven of God were opening : one held one's breath not 
 knowing what the next revelation would be, what spectacle 
 of winged spirit shapes would glance upon one's mortal 
 vision out of those chasms of splendour which looked, with 
 the glory that burned in them, to have been cloven to the 
 very Throne. 
 
 ' Mark this 1 ' I cried, and as I spoke — the vast fan of 
 light then fading and no more lightning-like fire leaping — the 
 wind that had been a fresh breeze dropped as if by magic : 
 the sky over the bows darkened into its night of stars : the 
 sea fell into a sloppy tumble, and within a quarter of an hour 
 the hull was rolling quietly upon the long, wide swell of these 
 seas with so oil- like a calm upon the steady run of the fold3 
 that, close to our port quarter, I watched the image of a 
 bright star lengthen and shrink as it rode, till, but for the 
 intense, dread cold of the atmosphere, you would have 
 thought yourself becalmed near the line. 
 
 1 We may drift north and go clear after all,' said I," 
 taking the lighted bull's-eye out of the companion and looking 
 at the binnacle by it. 
 
 ' Do you hear the thunder ? ' said Miss Otway following me. 
 
 I listened : it was not thunder but the crackling of ice. 
 There was no roar of sea, no howl of gale now to kill that 
 sound ; it rolled up through the night from the southward in 
 bursts and shocks like explosions of heavy artillery ; it swept 
 over the smooth swell which looked like smoking grease as 
 the huge rounds noiselessly floated eastward, and it sounded 
 as though a thunderstorm were raging over the ice. 
 
 And still that brief peace that was in the night, spite of 
 the distant thundering of the ice, was a wonderful refresh- 
 ment to the spirits after the ceaseless flush of the surge to the 
 side and the steady roar of the gale on high, shrieking' as it 
 split upon the barbs of ice the length of bulwarks bristled 
 with. More : a change of weather might now happen to 
 drive us northward, to drift us clear of the bergs, at all 
 events, and so extend our chance of being fallen in with 
 and rescued.
 
 THE AURORA AUSTRALIS 155 
 
 I stayed on deck till after nine watching anxiously for any 
 signs of a change of weather. Miss Otway came and went : 
 she was too restless and fearful to linger helow, but the frost 
 in the night wind was too stinging to allow her to remain 
 long above. When I went into the cabin I left the hull 
 rolling slowly upon a swell of the sea polished as ebony ; 
 nay, so glass-like was that swollen mirror that all about us 
 the water was sprinkled with the images of stars, with one 
 ice-like wake swinging like a pendulum as the silver of it 
 seemed to sink. 
 
 I mixed a tumbler of hot rum and sat down before the 
 stove to smoke a pipe, with the young lady's consent ; there 
 was a good stock of tobacco, cigars, and a little collection of 
 pipes in the cabin that had been occupied by Captain and 
 Mrs. Burke. Our talk was, you will suppose, all about our 
 situation. I assured her there was little to fear saving the 
 ice ; and talked — the thing then coming into my head — of a 
 sailor who had gone sealing for three years»with one Captain 
 Smyley ; this same skipper having spent nearly half a century 
 betwixt the River Plate and the South Shetlands. 
 
 ' These waters are plentifully frequented,' said I. ' A 
 century ago in such a case as this we shouldn't have had much 
 to hope for. What was to come ? In half a year a score 
 of yellow, humpbacked, round bowed waggons blowing away 
 under bladder-like sails, with topmast struck and nothing but 
 the log to tell the longitude — that was about the sum of the 
 navigation. There was no Australia then ; nothing but a 
 Western American coast yielding a month's saunter from 
 Acapulco to the Philippines — wonderful that they should 
 have ever got a Spaniard to face the ics down here.' 
 
 ' Did they ? ' 
 
 ' Why, yes ; they sent treasure to Europe in galleons 
 named after saints, and when they saw a waterspout they 
 held up their swords as crosses, and bade the thing be off in 
 Latin.' 
 
 ' Ships were as safe then as they are now,' said she, 
 pulling off a thick glove and toasting her hand, on which 
 sparkled a diamond or two. ' Why should this vessel have 
 been dismasted? What progress is there to boast of when 
 you think of this hull ? Can't they plant masts which will 
 keep erect ? ' 
 
 ' Had that been, you and all others who were here when 
 the squall struck you would be deeper under water than
 
 156 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the fangs of the biggest iceberg afloat,' I answered, with a 
 half smile at her eager gravity, as though there were nothing 
 to interest us now but shipbuilding ! 
 
 ' If my life is preserved I'll never go to sea again,' she said. 
 
 ' You'll have had enough of it.' 
 
 1 1 came for my health and it seems I have come to die.' 
 
 ' Has your health improved ? ' 
 
 ' Yes — perhaps ; I don't feel whilst I talk as if the voyage 
 had done me much good.' 
 
 ' You'll write an account of these experiences when you 
 return, and the Queen will send for you that she may see and 
 converse with as wonderful a heroine as ever flourished in 
 her reign.' 
 
 ' What have I done to be a heroine ? ' 
 
 I knocked the ashes out of my pipe and turned to lift the 
 tumbler of grog that was yet half full ; when my hand was 
 arrested as though paralysed by an extraordinary noise, 
 smooth, fierce, seething. I listened a moment, then sprang 
 to the companion steps. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII 
 
 THE THICK OF IT 
 
 My instant belief was we were foul of ice, scaling some side 
 of crystal mountain smooth as though chiselled. But when 
 I opened the companion door I was nearly flung to the 
 bottom of the steps by a very volcanic shock of gale, white as 
 a cloud with snow and hail. I sprang again and gained the 
 deck, and, shutting the door, got to leeward of the companion. 
 
 A furious Cape Horn squall was blowing over the ocean in 
 smoke — from what quarter I had then to find out. The still 
 scene of starlight night and sluggish rolling ocean was 
 vanished. Already, with the magical swiftness of the weather 
 of these regions, a sea was got up and beginning to race and 
 foam. There was nothing to see. The night was blind with 
 howling storm. When I had left the deck there was not so 
 much as a rag of cloud to be seen in the sky ; and now it was 
 blowing a whole gale, which looked to boil with the snow 
 that fled with it, and everywhere it was of a midnight black- 
 ness. 
 
 The rush of the wind was over the port quarter ; but then
 
 THE THICK OF IT 157 
 
 the hull would be slewing for the trough, and how her head 
 was when I had gone below I could not have told. Keeping 
 this bearing of the wind in mind, I rushed to the cabin, 
 picked up the burning bull's-eye, and, springing to the captain's 
 berth, darted the flame on to the tell-tale, and saw that this 
 squall or gale was out of about south-south-west. 
 
 "When I took my eyes from the compass I saw Miss Ofcway 
 standing, white as milk, in the doorway. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' A heavy squall — perhaps the first of a gale ; but that,' 
 said I, with a flourish of the bull's-eye to the compass, ' gives 
 us good news ; we shall blow clear of the ice. The wind is 
 sou'-sou'-west. What do you say to that?' and, forcing the 
 noise of a jolly laugh, I came out of the berth and hooked up 
 the bull's-eye ready to my hand. 
 
 "We had seen the ocean all day long, clear of ice north and 
 east ; icebergs we knew were there, but their summits had 
 settled — our drift had put leagues betwixt them and us ; 
 therefore I was not immediately fearful— on the score of ice, 
 I mean. But if it was going to blow as hard as I had just 
 now felt it, what was to become of the hull ? Such fury and 
 weight of wind must speedily raise the seas into cliffs, and 
 then God knows how it would fare with the sheer hulk with 
 not a rag, nor the means of stretching a rag, to enable her to 
 look up to it, to shoulder it off with her bow, to lie hove to, 
 in short, as a ship should. 
 
 In an hour, the dance was wild even to madness ; my own 
 brain reeled to it ; sick I was not in the sense of nausea. 
 Was it sickness of soul then ? But I recollect that many 
 times when the hull fell off the top of a sea into the valley, 
 sliding as though she was shooting off some Niagara-liko 
 edge, a horrible feeling of faintness and prostration attended 
 the descent. Never before had I suffered so at sea ; but then, 
 never before had I been tossed in a dismasted hull in a gale 
 of wind sixty degrees south latitude. 
 
 Miss Otway lay almost lifeless. I shored her up on a 
 couch by backs of chairs which I lashed ; I heaped clothes 
 from her bed on her, and got hot brandy for her, and en- 
 couraged her as best I could. There was nothing to be done 
 on deck. The sea was flying in white sheets over the waist 
 and forecastle ; the glare of the brine breaking close aboard 
 showed you the snow : but looking around was like staring 
 into a well.
 
 158 HEART OF OAK 
 
 It was a strange sort of snow, too, that fell. Once in the 
 cabin I took notice of it on my coat ; it was in small grains, 
 round as shot, of a size from mustard seed to buck-shot ; a 
 dry, pure white : not hail. 
 
 But two hours after the gale began, the snow ceased and 
 the wind lessened ; I watched from the companion-way, 
 and observed but little water flying athwart. With such 
 observations I was forced to be satisfied, and spent the 
 hours in the cabin, keeping an eye on the stove, boiling 
 a hot drink now and again for the life and support of it, 
 tending Miss Otway, from time to time peering through 
 the hatch where the iron sweep of the wind seemed 
 to unflesh the face, wondering, for ever wondering, whether 
 the next hurl would be followed by a crash of the side, 
 and how long we should be in perishing when the hull 
 split. 
 
 I should have imagined myself too anxious — nay, to put 
 it plainly, too alarmed to sleep, and it seemed that I went up 
 many times to take a look around ; and still I must have 
 slept, for I started from my chair in a sudden terror of dream 
 or noise, and with a lurch of the hull fell upon my knees, but 
 was up instantly. 
 
 The motion of the craft had changed ; the moment I had 
 my wits I felt that the sea was pyramidal, which told me 
 there had been a quite recent shift of wind. I cannot 
 imagine anything more dislocating, more unnerving, more 
 brain sickening, than the leaps and rolls of the hull upon the 
 sea that, by the movement, I knew was darting in almost 
 perpendicular thrusts, spear-shaped billows lifting in ebon 
 darts and daggers, and putting a frightful wildness into the 
 flings of the fabric. 
 
 Miss Otway lay with her eyes shut, and seemed asleep ; a 
 small fire glowed in the stove, and the lighted lantern swung 
 in the centre of the cabin as though some invisible hand 
 grasped it, seeking to jerk it off its hook. I took the bull's-eye 
 and went on deck, and found the wind a dry gale, but ob- 
 served a thickness as of fog in it, but it was too dark to make 
 sure. I stapjerered to the binnacle and saw the wind was 
 blowing out of north again : a cruel shift ! I stared and 
 smelt for ice, but saw no loom, and tasted no more than the 
 freezing coldness of the blast. 
 
 What was the hour ? I went below and found it half-past 
 eight o'clock. Oh ! what an interminable darkness was that !
 
 THE THICK OF IT 159 
 
 Where v\ T as the ice ? It could not be far off. What and 
 whither was our drift ? I felt like a madman then. 
 
 Miss Otway slept on. I believe it might have been an 
 hour and a half after I had awakened that, not knowing but 
 that the poor young heart in her had been stopped by terror, 
 or the delicate blood in her frozen, I stooped to view her face, 
 the lamp burning dimly : she showed like a piece of ex- 
 quisitely chiselled marble : I can't tell why, but her whiteness 
 seemed to my mood to exactly fit the bitterness of this time, 
 the frost, the snow, the ice, the wild gale and foaming waters ; 
 was I as mad then as I had felt some time before, to bend 
 over her and get a fancy of her into my head as a spirit of 
 these wild and desolate parts ? Put yourself in my place and 
 you'll not wonder to find your brow hot with fancies more 
 desperately and tragically strange than such a crazy notion as 
 this. 
 
 She opened her eyes whilst I looked, and I stood erect 
 with a sigh of relief, half turning to fling my cap down whilst 
 I ran the length of my sleeve along my forehead for the 
 refreshment of the wet of the snow. She sat up and watched 
 me, whilst I saw in her face she was heeding the extravagant 
 tumbling of the hull. 
 
 ' It seems to be blowing a gale,' she said. 
 
 ' Ay,' said I, ' but we're still alive. Feel these jumps : no 
 empty cask could better them.' 
 
 ' Will you remove these chairs that I may sit up ? ' 
 
 I did so. Whilst I knelt beside her to cast the lashings 
 adrift she eyed me intently, as though she would read my 
 very brain ; she then sighed, but said nothing, and the road 
 being clear she drew her feet out of the covering and sought 
 to rise, but, after a short struggle with the furious deck, sat 
 
 again. 
 
 I stood before the stove waiting for daybreak, my eye 
 glancing from one frothing cabin window to another and 
 thence to the skylight. At last she said : 
 
 ' You've a brave heart, Mr. Selby, but it can hold out no 
 longer ; I read despair in your face. If the end is to come, 
 may it come quickly. You have behaved to me with a noble 
 kindness. I can but thank you — I can but thank you,' and 
 she held out her hand with her eyes full of tears. 
 
 I bowed my head over her hand ; it was an excuse to 
 fetch a breath or two, I would not just then trust myself to 
 speak. Then said I :
 
 !6o HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' I'll not disguise the truth : our situation is perilous, as 
 God, who, let us believe, is watching over us, knows. But I 
 should be no true man to feel the despair you tell me you 
 read in my face. Daylight may find us a sight to hearten 
 
 us.' 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 1 Well, but don't let your spirits die. If a wish could help 
 us I'd be above, if your safety was to he got at so small a 
 cost. But see, now, I'll run up on deck and let you know if 
 there's anything like the loom of ice about. It may prove all 
 right with us— it may end in our lives being preserved.' 
 
 3 But all the same, with a heart as heavy as ever hers could 
 be, I clawed my way to the companion steps for yet another 
 stare into the blackness. 
 
 It was not yet daybreak ; but when some while after the 
 faint, grey light sifted through the blowing, swelling, roaring 
 gloom, the sight struck to my very heart, and I was sure we 
 were doomed. The sea was running in hills of liquid lead ; 
 many clouds of mist were in the wind, and they blew athwart 
 the hull like bursts of steam ; snow in places was rushing in 
 horizontal lines out of dark low clouds flying southwards. 
 Ice was all about us. The first object that dawn revealed, 
 whilst I stood in the companion-way watching, was a moun- 
 tain of ice on the bow ; as features of it stole out a snow 
 squall looked to have fouled a whole stack of pinnacles on the 
 left of the berg ; it was dark as smoke there, with snow whirl- 
 ing in a very maelstrom of froth-like whiteness ; the seas 
 slipped their foam up its side to a height of fifty feet, and the 
 brine flashed in clouds of crystals against the dull, marble- 
 like face, which showed smooth as a wall through the haze 
 and the whirl of flying vapour that shrieked athwart our 
 
 decks to it. 
 
 It was but one. I counted twenty coming and going 
 amid the shadows of the squalls and flying masses of fog. 
 You would have supposed that a fleet somewhere hidden were 
 firing great guns, so thunderous was the splintering of those 
 bergs majestically rocking their mighty masses. The nearest 
 
 that on the starboard bow— was about a mile off. Others 
 
 showed to port and astern : one heap, like an island, darkened 
 the haze on the port bow. The gale had apparently broken 
 up the barrier, and we were in the thick of the floating 
 bodies. 
 
 Miss Otway came to the foot of the companion steps and
 
 THE THICK OF IT i6r 
 
 waited for me to make way for her. I stepped out and she 
 ascended the steps and looked round the sea, but in silence. 
 Her face was hardened into stone by despair. Hours of 
 suspence and grief, hours spent in the most awful kind of 
 loneliness the imagination can figure, with the darkness of 
 the spirit of death for ever upon her heart, had done their 
 work with the poor young lady : sensation was dumb. 
 
 And now there was nothing to do but await the end, 
 come what might. I let her stand a little, looking, then 
 taking her by the arm, gently but firmly, conducted her below 
 and seated her where she had lain during the night. I wag 
 resolved that my own despair should not be visible to her, 
 and partly to cover myself, so to speak, and partly for the 
 good of the thing, I boiled some coffee, and put food on the 
 deck near the stove ; but one looked at such a repast with tbe 
 emotions of a malefactor to whom breakfast is served whilst 
 the hangman waits. 
 
 Whilst I was at this work she addressed me calmly : 
 
 1 There is no doubt, I suppose, that we shall strike the 
 ice?' 
 
 ' It's most inevitable,' I answered. 
 
 ' If it happens, shall we be better off down here than on 
 deck ? ' 
 
 ' Let it happen,' said I. 
 
 ' If we are to strike the ice,' she said, ' I should wish to be 
 drowned quickly. I would rather die at once than be thrown 
 soaked on the ice to lie a little and freeze — it would take time 
 —I fear the sufferings. I am not afraid of death, I wish it to 
 be quick.' 
 
 ' There's no ice nearer to us than a mile, that I can make 
 out,' I said, then handed her a pannikin of coffee. ' Pray 
 drink this.' 
 
 She took it and raised it to her lips. 
 
 ' If the hull strikes, will it go to pieces instantly ? ' she 
 asked. 
 
 ' Who can tell '? She might beach herself and find us a 
 home till the berg floated north, where the smoke of our fire 
 will be seen.' 
 
 She sank into silence with her eyes fastened upon the 
 deck. When I offered her food she shook her head. My 
 breakfast consisted of half a cup of coffee. 
 
 Within a quarter of an hour I was on deck again, but the 
 scene was the same as before, saving that the ice mountain 
 
 51
 
 1 62 HEART OF OAK 
 
 that had been upon our starboard bow was now right ahead, 
 whilst on our starboard quarter, within perhaps half a mile, 
 was a small island of ice, about sixty feet high, not before 
 visible. The compass gave me the wind blowing steadily 
 from one quarter. But then I could make nothing of bear- 
 ings within three or four points on board a helpless hull, 
 swinging in a high sea, with a send of her head when she 
 was rushed out of a hollow that made me sometimes think 
 she was going to give her stern to the weather. 
 
 At one o'clock it was a savage and tremendous scene of 
 warring waters and flying sky of soot, and giant forms of ice 
 vanishing and reappearing amid headlong flights of wool- 
 white vapour, and through all, in deep notes, ran the thunder 
 of the surge-smitten, frozen heights, with frequent rending 
 and crashing noises of dislocation. I was now very sure that 
 our drift was not less than three miles an hour, and perhaps 
 four. This I gathered by observing a vast shape of ice that 
 suddenly showed off the starboard bow. It was nearly a mile 
 long, and I should think two hundred feet high. It was a 
 grand, truly sublime ocean piece, with its numerous lofty 
 arches and caverns, out of which the sea, in recoil, flashed in 
 immense bursts of foam. I spied the white wings of birds 
 glancing upon it, but I had it not often very clear in sight, 
 for the steam-like smother drove down at quick intervals, 
 leaving some pale eminence gleaming on high against the 
 whirl of the clouds, to vanish in some swift outfly of snow, 
 so that the whole thing would be as completely gone to the 
 eye as if it had sunk. 
 
 But by staying and watching it as often as it emerged in 
 whole or in part, I got at the rate of our drift. It was quickly 
 on our port bow with others coming out of the thickness to 
 leeward, all wild and terrific in that dull light of storm, with 
 the glare of the leaping foam at their base and their own 
 ghastly stare through the rent curtains of cloud flying under 
 the dark sky. 
 
 Soon after two, when it was almost dark, I thought we 
 were lost, for I saw the loom of an iceberg right abeam to 
 leeward ; but whether it was God's guidance of the devoted 
 hull, or that the set of the long rolling sea ran a sort of sweep 
 of tide round these floating islands, when we were within a 
 musket shot of the mass, with an occasional shock of loose 
 ice sounding through the hulk, our drift made a little depar- 
 ture. I vow it was for all the world as though the fabric was
 
 THE THICK OF IT 163 
 
 alive and, dreading her fate, avoided it, or as though she were 
 under command, with a cool hand and a critical eye for sea 
 measurement at the helm. Certain it is we drove past clear ; 
 it might be that we owed our preservation to the rebound of 
 the sea. 
 
 It was almost black with the night when that berg was on 
 our lee quarter, but I knew by a sudden enormous roar of 
 water, and by an indescribably hissing sound lasting for a few 
 minutes, as though a thousand locomotives were blowing off 
 steam, that an immense mass of the island had fallen, not 
 very many ships' lengths distant, which I have no genius to 
 do justice to, nor even to communicate, though I need but 
 close my eyes to behold the terrible picture, with its uproar 
 of trampling seas, and howling wind, and cracking masses. 
 A little after four in the morning, whilst I sat in the cabin 
 with Miss Otway, every instant expecting the hull to strike, 
 her motions grew suddenly quiet. I felt her rise and fall 
 upon a long swell, and knew instinctively by the feel of her 
 that she was under the lee of something. 
 
 I sprang to my feet and ran on deck. It was pitch dark, 
 with a strange phantasmal glimmer on either hand, so vague, 
 so indeterminable I couid not see it when I looked at it. The 
 roar of the gale, the hiss and beat of the driven seas, came as 
 from a distance. Thrice as high as the masthead of a ship 
 sounded the low, continuous thunder of the wind, as though 
 it blew over mountain tops ; but down where we were it was 
 calm. Icy gusts came in moans from half a dozen quarters. 
 The long, invisible heave was as rhythmic as the ocean pulse 
 of swell. I understood we were embayed and foresaw cer- 
 tainly now that our being stranded, or being hammered to 
 pieces against the ice, was only a question of minutes. 
 
 I went into the cabin with a loathing of life coming into 
 me out of the sheer despair that was as frost on my heart, 
 caring not a curse how it went, so sick I was of it all after the 
 unendurable hours of watching and expectation I had passed 
 through ; and then again I felt that, whatever was to happen, 
 it was right I should be by the poor girl's side : not that it 
 was in my power to comfort her — not, indeed, if the hull went 
 to pieces, that I could be of the least use to her or myself, but 
 I was company for her and out of me she'd get some solace of 
 companionship in what I reckoned these dying minutes of curs. 
 
 ' Has the wind fallen ? Where are we ? ' she shrieked as 
 I approached her. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' We are embayed,' I answered. ' We are got under the 
 lee of something.' 
 
 Just as I spoke those words a harsh, grating roar ran 
 through the hull ; the vessel trembled as though in the first 
 throe of bursting ; another like roar succeeded ; I felt the 
 thrill of the scraping of the bilge and keel as the fabric was 
 rushed by some ponderous heave of swell. Again, another 
 huge thrust of the sea, another long roar of scraping keel and 
 bilge, another quiver and thrill throughout the hulk as though 
 every timber was straining ere flying to the shock of an explo- 
 sion. She lay right over to starboard. The lamp swung 
 and lay hard against the upper deck. Whatever was movable 
 fetched away. So acute was the angle that Miss Otway, 
 unable to maintain her seat upon the couch, shot from it to 
 me, but I was firmly planted, saw her coming, and received 
 her so that she was not hurt, and with a vigorous swing I 
 cleared and placed her breathless and moaning in a cleated 
 armchair that stood close to where I sat. 
 
 The blind, soft, thunderous thrusts of the sea continued. 
 I heard the water in tons washing over the decks, but every 
 time this happened a roar of grinding and scaling shook the 
 hull as she was driven by the wash of the swell higher and 
 yet higher. The companion was closed and no water de- 
 scended. I knew by the noise of the sea that the hull lay 
 broadside to the swing of the swell. I got out of my chair, 
 but was heavily thrown, and could scarcely regain my feet, so 
 extreme was the slant, and so completely did it pin me against 
 the cabin wall. 
 
 As regular as the rush of the floating folds was the thrust 
 of them, and now I grew sensible that the heave was like to 
 strand us high and dry, the job of it being a different labour 
 than rocks or the grit of the beach of earth would have made, 
 so greasy was the ice. The water poured over the decks every 
 time the swell struck the hull, but in a little while I found 
 each volume to be weakening in weight, and after the fabric 
 had been driven in this grinding way in a sort of pulsing of 
 blows, deafening with the bursts of the brine against the side 
 and over the decks, each onward slide grew shorter and 
 shorter, until presently she lay without motion, with an occa- 
 sional shudder running through her from the beat of the sea, 
 but at intervals so varying as to persuade me she was fairly 
 high and dry, and within the wash of the foam of the larger 
 rollers only.
 
 IMPRISONED 165 
 
 But the list or angle was horrible. I was unable to move 
 without going on all fours. I crawled in this wise to Miss 
 Otway, and told her to remain where she was, not to attempt 
 to stir lest she should break her neck, whilst I crept on deck 
 to take a look at our situation if it was visible. 
 
 ' What has happened do you think ? ' she cried. 
 
 1 We are stranded upon some beach of an ice island I 
 expect,' I replied. 
 
 ' Hark to that ! ' she shrieked, as a sudden sea smote the 
 bilge and roared in foaming recoil. ' If you go on deck you'll 
 be washed away.' 
 
 ' I'll see to it. That blow was weak. We have been 
 thrust high. Feel what a desperate slope it is. I pray God 
 no sudden shock of sea may launch us afresh.' 
 
 With that I crawled to the companion steps, every bone 
 aching like rheumatism with the contortions of my figure in 
 my efforts to move. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 IMPEISONED 
 
 I might have guessed there would be no more to see now 
 than when I had first looked. I stood in the companion with 
 my head just out, holding the door as close shut as it would 
 lie with my body in the way ; and hardly had I put my head 
 through when a whole green sheet of water tumbled over the 
 port bulwarks and roared in a cataractal deluge down the 
 steep, dark, boiling white, through the wreckage of smashed 
 bulwarks. I ducked, but not in time to stop a rush into the 
 cabin. 
 
 I guessed, by the uncommon blackness, that we were in a 
 hollow betwixt high cliffs ; I beheld an illusive paleness, the 
 vague, spectral faintness of rocks of ice or snow-covered accli- 
 vities on either hand, but no features of them were in the 
 least degree discernible. I durst not let go of the companion 
 to look over the side, but I judged by the deep, hollow noise 
 overhead that a strong gale still blew, and from a distance 
 came the strong, coarse seething of a high sea. 
 
 Still, the beat of the swell against the hull was not often 
 now, which made me suspect it was no iceberg we had 
 stranded on, but land, one of the New Orkneys or South
 
 1 66 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Shetlands group, because the bating of the swell told that a 
 tide ran, and I had read in that book about the South Atlantic 
 in the cabin that the rise and fall of the tide down here was 
 very considerable, that gales of wind often swelled the water 
 high above its natural level, as w T as shown by the many 
 skeletons of whales found lying twenty or thirty feet above 
 high-water mark. 
 
 But until the dawn broke nothing could be imagined ; I 
 closed the companion door and crawled back to where Miss 
 Otway sat. 
 
 She was so postured by the angle of the deck that she 
 could not get out of her chair ; she begged me to help her ; 
 I drew her out and held her until she had sunk upon the 
 floor, and then I sat down beside her on the hard plank, the 
 carpet having been rolled up and stowed away when the cabin 
 was flooded in the outfly that had dismasted the ' Lady 
 Emma.' Not so much water as I supposed had tumbled 
 down ; it lay the length of the cabin wall and was fast 
 draining off. 
 
 ' Have you been able to see where we are ? ' she exclaimed. 
 
 ' No. But though there's no doubt we've beached on ice, 
 I believe the land's close aboard.' 
 
 « What land ? ' 
 
 ' Coronation Island, if any. That was the island in the 
 way of our drift ; we've been making a straight course for it.' 
 
 We paused to hearken to a heavy flooding of water over- 
 head, but the blow that had sheeted the brine over the hull 
 was as weak as a summer ripple is to an angry surge com- 
 pared with the thumps which had driven us to where we now 
 lay. 
 
 ' The sea will have made a clean sweep of the decks,' said 
 she. 
 
 ' There was little to go. What but the galley ? The 
 companion has weathered it out, happily for us.' 
 
 ' Oh, Mr. Selby, what can we now do ? What is to 
 become of us ? ' she cried with sudden hysteric passion of 
 grief and terror. 
 
 ' We must find out where we are. Better here, anyway, 
 than knocking about among the ice outside, with the prospect 
 every next minute of being squashed into pulp. Oh, that 
 was too terrible to have gone on bearing ! The perpetual 
 apprehension was like to have driven us overboard, mad. 
 Why, this is peace, this is rest.'
 
 IMPRISONED 167 
 
 ' What a time it has been ! What a time it is ! ' she 
 cried. ' When will the day break '? If we are upon an 
 iceberg ' 
 
 She was arrested by a second thunder-shock of water 
 overhead, yet weak as a blow of the sea, though the hull 
 trembled fore and aft. 
 
 The lamp glowed and shed a good light, the body of it 
 lying hard against the upper deck, so sharp was the angle ; it 
 was strange to see it stirless there, strange to feel the stillness 
 of the hull, save when a blow of swell made her quiver. The 
 fire was out ; but even had not all the fuel fetched away into 
 the wash of the wet, I had not dared kindle a fresh one, lest 
 in the trembling fit then upon me, and on such a roof-like 
 slope as that, I should stumble, or by some helpless flourish 
 set the ship in flames. 
 
 I crawled on my knees to the couch, and pulled the clothes 
 from it and covered Miss Otway with them, swathing her 
 head and so wrapping her that nothing showed but a little 
 piece of the face. The poor girl's teeth chattered, and she 
 shivered ceaselessly. By carefully crawling I got upon the 
 table and managed to get hold of a glass and a decanter of 
 wine. She drank a little and I took a good pull of the wine 
 myself. Indeed it was an extraordinary situation — the hull 
 on her beam ends, the cabin alight, we two crouched on the 
 deck, the stillness after the fury we had come through, the 
 stillness, I say, saving a low roar of distant sea, with an 
 occasional beat of the swell upon the hulk, and the scaling 
 and rushing of water overhead. An amazing situation 
 indeed ; there is nothing like it, nothing stranger in the 
 maritime records, that I can recollect. 
 
 At last the starboard cabin windows, high in the broad- 
 side, showed of a pale steel grey ; I went on my hands and 
 feet to the steps and reached the deck. I stood a little while 
 in the companion-way thunderstruck ; I was confounded and 
 could not credit my sight. The hull lay stranded in a very 
 well of ice. Ahead and astern rose masses of cliffs to an 
 altitude of four or five hundred feet. The vessel lay on a 
 frozen beach ; 'twas a sloping sweep of the stuff, apparently 
 linking the iceberg astern to the ice over the bows. The 
 bight or bay we had drifted into was ramparted by the iceberg 
 which sank from a vast terrace to a point in an arm of natural 
 breakwater like marble ; but the ice ahead was fixed to the 
 face of the land. After looking a little I spied the iron frown
 
 168 HEART OF OAK 
 
 of dusky rocks perpendicular and smooth as though planed, 
 showing amidst the snow. 
 
 Past the hinder ice and beyond the giant limb of marble- 
 like breakwater was the rolling ocean. It still blew hard, the 
 seas raced angrily. Whatever of ice they smote they flashed 
 upon ; over the lower parts of the ice terrace the surge was 
 bursting in lofty clouds, bright as light. The heave came 
 round the point in a wide swell, which did not break in foam 
 upon the beach where we lay, but swept silent, in a glass- 
 green volume, along the slope, just as the foamless lift of the 
 sea washes past the side of a ship ; it broke only where it met 
 with anything rugged, and quickly lost its weight in the curve, 
 soundlessly recoiling from the base of the iceberg astern, 
 though mightily troubling the surface of the water by conflict 
 with the succeeding heave. 
 
 The sky between the cliffs was wild with flying scud and 
 rusty brown masses of vapour rushing southwards. The 
 vessel lay close into the land, she rested on her side at an 
 angle of hard upon fifty degrees. On either hand was open 
 sky, the picture of it to port showing as at the extremity of 
 an immense ravine. Save but for sudden, quick shootings of 
 little short-lived draughts and blasts, the calm and even the 
 repose down here was as though we were in a well. The 
 swell never swept nearer to us than twenty feet. I crept to 
 the side and lay over, watching anxiously, and thus made sure 
 of this after following the quiet sweep of at least twenty suc- 
 cessive heaves of brine. 
 
 The desolation was awful ! The picture savage, for- 
 bidding, terrifying beyond imagination to one immured with 
 its clouded crystal heights over the bows, and the rugged 
 slopes of ice over the stern forking into fifty shapes of pinnacle, 
 turret, spire, column, tower, as though on the fiat of the 
 summit were the ruins of a city of marble. 
 
 The decks were swept of everything save the companion. 
 Wheel, binnacle, capstans, galley, all were gone. I watched 
 the ocean rolling past the arm of ice astern, it was but a bit 
 of it. The great berg that formed the bay blocked the view 
 of the deep ; there was nothing to see but the abrupt white 
 walls ahead and astern, and the flying soot overhead and 
 away down to port, and, on the right, tall cliffs of ice and 
 snow glazing the land, with here and there a space of staring, 
 black rock. 
 
 Our isolation was shocking. My heart seemed to stop
 
 IMPRISONED 169 
 
 whilst I looked around, realising the terrors and hopelessness 
 of this new imprisonment by the granite-hued light that was 
 gaining a little in power. Though a whaler stood within half 
 a mile of the coast how should she see us ? It would be hard 
 enough to discern the speck of wreck we made had the bay of 
 ice in which we rested gaped naked to the sea, but we were 
 as much hidden here as if we had gone to the bottom. We 
 were worse off, indeed, than had we stranded upon a floating 
 berg, because in that case we might have fallen in with the 
 ice, which might have split and freed us ; but now we were 
 aground upon ice hardening into the face of an island and 
 stationary ; months might pass before the body we were upon 
 broke away and became a water-borne bulk, and then, in the 
 throes of the liberation of the frozen cliffs, what of splintering, 
 of volcanic like upheaval and disruption might happen to 
 crush the little toy of hull lying after many months as she 
 lay now ? 
 
 I don't doubt I stared about me with something of a 
 madman's wildness, glancing up at the inaccessible heights, 
 then at the sea rolling in white lines beyond the limb of ice, 
 then into the desolation of the whirling sky on the left, till, 
 recollecting that I had a companion who looked to me for 
 heart and encouragement, whom, by God's mercy, wonderful 
 as it would afterwards appear, I might yet be the means of 
 delivering from this hideous situation, I pulled my wits to- 
 gether and returned to the cabin. 
 
 The poor young lady was on the deck before the black 
 stove as I had left her. She could not have stood upon that 
 angle of plank without danger and distress. She began to 
 question me in a voice that shuddered with the cold. I 
 answered I would talk with her when I had lighted a fire, for 
 I had now some spirit and saw things a little clearly, and 
 was no longer afraid of setting the hull in flames. 
 
 I split up a bunk board, and picked a bucket full of 
 capsized coal out of the wash to leeward, as I may call it, and 
 made a fire ; but I moved with pain and difficulty ; the decks 
 were wet, and as slippery as though coated with ice, and the 
 slope was that of a ship bulwarks under. 
 
 When the fire was blazing I helped the young lady to sit 
 close beside it, and went on deck for some life-lines for this 
 cabin. I moved with less trouble above, for the life-lines I 
 had before set up were still stretched along. Every rope that 
 I handled was like bar iron, but with infinite trouble I sue-
 
 1 7 o HEART OF OAK 
 
 ceeded in getting a length below and stretching it here and 
 there, which done I was able to use my legs with some 
 freedom. 
 
 The stove was violently aslant, but it was possible to boil 
 a kettle, and whilst I waited for a hot drink I crouched beside 
 the girl, grateful for the comforting heat of the flames. I 
 told her plainly that we were stranded and ice-locked ; that 
 we must resolve to exert our patience and make the best of 
 our deplorable situation. She cleared her head of the cover 
 I had wrapped about her, and stared at me dumbly for a 
 minute or two with a face as white as though moonlit, and 
 her fair hair full of sparkles with the light of the lamp that 
 still glowed hard-slanted against the upper deck. 
 
 ' Do I understand,' she exclaimed in a low voice painful 
 to hear with the tremulous gasps that shook it, ' that we are 
 
 to remain in this condition until — until ' She stopped, 
 
 then added, ' but until when ? We are stranded and hidden 
 and must perish.' 
 
 'Listen to me,' said I, ' for this is our chance as I see it 
 as a sailor : suppose us beached for months as we now are— 
 though who's to predict that, for within twenty-four hours 
 may come a gale out of another quarter that shall free us and 
 drive us amongst the ice to our destruction — take it we are to 
 be stranded here : I have read the ship's papers, know the 
 contents of the hold, and promise you, though no chance of 
 rescue should happen for a twelvemonth, nay, for a couple of 
 years, help, when it comes, shall find us alive so far as life 
 may be kept in us by food and drink and warmth.' 
 
 She buried her face : I think it nearly killed her to hear 
 me talk of a twelvemonth or two years. Then, flashing upon 
 me as it were with a sudden dropping of her hands and the 
 stare of her desperate grief and horror, she cried : 
 
 ' Is there no hope beyond the waiting for the deliverance 
 which may never happen ? ' and without stopping for an 
 answer she went on : ' How are we to live even for a week in 
 a hull we cannot move about on ? ' 
 
 ' That's the very least of our troubles,' said I. ' Come, 
 you have spirit — the heart of an Englishwoman beats in you. 
 You must put some face of courage and faith upon this busi- 
 ness. We are alive. Keep on thinking of that. Consider what 
 we have come through. We might have been thrown upon 
 the ice without this shelter. ' 
 
 ' We have stranded on an island, you say ? '
 
 IMPRISONED 171 
 
 ' I think so.' 
 
 • What island ? ' 
 
 I answered her. 
 
 ' Is there no harbour in it, no place where shipc- touch, no 
 place where men are ? If they came fishing down here for 
 whales and seals there should be a port.' 
 
 I put my hand upon a life-line and walked to the captain's 
 cabin. It was as dark as night there, for the heel of the hulk 
 depressed the cabin windows to within arms' reach of the 
 beach, as it looked. I lighted a bull's-eye, and, finding tho 
 chart I required, returned with it. 
 
 It was a chart of the discoveries made in these waters 
 between 1819 and 1843. It outlined Graham Land down to 
 sixty eight degrees south, and a little more than sixty-eight 
 west, and submitted a shaded tracing of the South 
 Shetlands ; but I was very certain that our island was none of 
 them. I put the chart on Miss Otway's knee and threw the 
 lamplight upon it, and said, pointing to Coronation Island and 
 then to Laurie Island : 
 
 ' Which of them this is I can't tell you, but I should guess 
 by our drift that it's the bigger of the two, and that our lodg- 
 ment's here,' and I put my finger upon a bight named Palmer's 
 Bay. ' Here's a mountain at back of it, you see,' said I, 
 ' towering to a height of nigh four thousand five hundred feet ; 
 it was the blue shadow we saw in the air, and our drift was 
 nigh hard straight for that. 
 
 She put her face close to the chart, listening, meanwhile, 
 greedily to me. 
 
 ' But here are many English names,' said she — ' Cape 
 Dundas — Despair Rock — Saddle Island.' She read thus a 
 little ; then went on : ' Surely an island that has been named 
 in this fashion is inhabited.' 
 
 ' Well, it may be. I hope it is,' said I. 
 
 ' Here are big islands,' she cried, pointing to the South 
 Shetlands. ' Aren't there people upon them ? And if so, 
 couldn't we manage to get to the place where they're settled ? 
 It's not far,' she added, looking up at me. 
 
 ' It's a long way,' said I, ' for all it looks but the span of a 
 hand on this paper, and we have no boat.' 
 
 ' People must have been in some such another dreadful 
 situation as this before now,' she exclaimed. ' How did they 
 manage ? ' 
 
 ' We'll manage, depend on't,' said I, with all the hearty
 
 172 HEART OF OAK 
 
 cheerfulness I could summon. ' We'll write letters to the sea, 
 telling our distress, and send them adrift in bottles. I'll fashion 
 rafts out of some of the theatre stuff in the hold and send them 
 afloat with the story of our condition mastheaded on them in 
 cans. It's not for us to be hopeless. Wouldn't you rather be 
 here than knocking about amongst the ice ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes,' she cried ; ' but if we are locked up — hidden 
 away ? ' 
 
 She started as if she would rise, and asked me to take her 
 on deck that she might see where we were, but 1 thought 
 proper to keep her below in the warmth and encourage her, 
 and rouse her spirits by representations of our prospects of 
 deliverance before letting her view the situation of the hull ; 
 in truth I could not look at her and observe how delicate and 
 fragile she was, and reflect on the depressing, heart-subduing 
 influence of the terrors and experiences she had passed through, 
 without fearing the effect of a sudden shock, such as might 
 prove the sight of the savage wildness of the frowning, frozen 
 cradle in which the hull lay as in a tomb. 
 
 I went about to get some breakfast. When I got on deck 
 with a chopper to fill the kettle, I found that the mould of 
 freshwater ice I had split out of the scuttlebutt was gone. I 
 had no mind to enter the hold ; indeed, I had not strength 
 enough then to break open the frozen hatch-covers ; and 
 water being wanted for a cup of hot coffee, I chipped at a 
 spsar of ice on the bulwark and found it sweet, and perhaps 
 sweeter than the water we had been drinking. Why ? Be- 
 cause nearly all those frozen heads and devices of barbs and 
 spikes were frozen snow and mist. But never could we lack 
 fresh water in this part of the world ; the cliffs ahead and 
 astern were fresh ; we were beached in fresh-water ice. Even 
 in that early time of my distress, whilst I sucked a little piece 
 of ice off the bulwarks to learn its quality, I found myself lift- 
 ing up my eyes with amazement at those giant heights, formed, 
 as I knew, of the vapour of the air and the sleet of the cloud 
 and the gale. It was like thinking of some vast, soft fog 
 clinging to the face of the land and freezing there into pre- 
 cipitous iron-hard rocks. 
 
 Whilst making my way to the hatch with the ice, I heard 
 a sudden great roar astern ; a sharp tremble ran through the 
 hull as though a mine had been sprung close alongside ; the 
 noise was exactly that of a broadside from a liner, every great 
 gun discharged at once. Yet I saw no movement in the ice,
 
 IMPRISONED 173 
 
 nor heard any sound as of a fall. This put it into my head 
 to fancy it might not be long before the great berg that was 
 linked astern of us was sundered and on its way to join the 
 rest of the mighty fleet, every one of which had had a like 
 berth and such a despatch as awaited this. 
 
 I clawed my way to the side and looked over. The beach 
 that held the berg to the main was perhaps a quarter of a mile 
 long ; I could not be sure ; it went out of sight in a slope on 
 tbe port hand. But, in comparison with the mighty bulk it 
 yoked to the island, it was a slender tie indeed, to be snapped 
 in any moment of storm as you'd break a clay pipe-stem. I 
 peered down, wondering if the severance happened whether 
 we should go with the berg or be left a-dry under the cliff as 
 we now lay ; but it was a hopeless and therefore a silly specu- 
 lation ; though all the same I prayed heartily whilst I stood 
 staring about me that the berg would go, and speedily, whether 
 it took us or left us, since, whilst we lay hidden by it, there 
 was not the remotest chance, that I could imagine, of our 
 being rescued. 
 
 I remember thinking, as I turned from the rail and made 
 with the ice in my hand towards the companion, that one of 
 the hardest parts of this terrible experience for the poor girl 
 below, though she would have to be dumb on the subject, was 
 the prospect of being locked up with me — alone with a young 
 man, a sailor, who was a stranger without existence to her a 
 few days ago ; to be locked up, I say, it might be for months, 
 with a threat even of }'ears in the run of time, with a person 
 whose character and history she knew nothing about, whose 
 calling sunk him far below her socially. This ran in my head 
 with the swiftness of thought whilst I was going below, and 
 after I was in the cabin going about the business of boiling 
 coffee for a meal. 
 
 How could I make her mind easy, on the score, I mean, of 
 our association, so that something at least of the weight of 
 our distressful tragic situation should be lifted off her poor 
 young heart ? But the answer my good sense gave me was 
 the answer it had before returned, namely, she could only find 
 me out by time, though to be sure I might shorten the period 
 of her fear of me by a behaviour that could leave her in no 
 doubt of my resolution to act as a man. 
 
 I can't express how deeply I pitied her, how my very soul 
 was moved to its depths by the sight of her as she sat in her 
 loneliness and helplessness, a trueborn lady, gentle and fair,
 
 174 HEART OF OAK 
 
 watching me, with her white face turning after me, as I 
 moved ; sitting upon that desperate slope of deck with the red 
 glow of the fire upon her, herself a shapeless bulk of furs and 
 coverings in the lamplight that was growing dim. 
 
 When I drew to the stove she questioned me afresh upon 
 our situation, and begged me to conduct her on deck. I an- 
 swered presently, when she had broken her fast. She said : 
 
 ' Only think how it would be with me if I were alone.' 
 
 I stopped in what I was about, and looking at her a little 
 steadily, but with a smile, I said : 
 
 ' I'm glad my presence is welcome to you. It will be 
 owing to no fault of mine if it's not always so whilst we're 
 together.' 
 
 A grateful look freshened her face with an expression of 
 life that was like colour and a smile. 
 
 ' Think of me alone here ! ' she said in a low voice. ' I 
 should have gone mad days ago. It never could have come 
 to my knowing that this hull had stranded amongst the ice. I 
 should have destroyed myself in my craziness.' 
 
 ' You have gone through too much,' said I, 'to miss of 
 being rescued. You'll be saved and so shall I, and for no 
 other reason, I dare say, than because I'm with you. I have 
 some hope that this hulk will take a more comfortable 
 posture. Did you hear a roar like an explosion just now 
 astern ? ' 
 
 ' Yes. Was it the ice ? ' 
 
 ' Ay. But should it trim us, I hope it will not send us 
 afloat.' 
 
 She listened whilst I told her of the huge berg that lay 
 linked to the island by the beach of ice on which the hull 
 rested. Then I talked as cheerfully as I could of making this 
 interior a tight, dry, warm room for her whilst we lay waiting 
 for that help which was bound in some shape of whaler or 
 sealer to come along. She shuddered and looked around her 
 with a face of sudden imploring grief ; but I went on, speaking 
 as heartily as I could. 
 
 ' We'll make this cabin dry and warm,' said I. ' I'll get 
 that water to leeward there baled out. I'll rout the carpet up 
 on deck and see what the breeze will do for the brine in it. 
 They've managed very well over and over again up in the 
 Arctic latitudes for months and months with meaner accom- 
 modation and a poorer hold. I'll stock this cabin that things 
 may be handy. There's plenty of oil aboard I hope. There'll
 
 IMPRISONED 175 
 
 be coal to last us in the forepeak ; we shall be helped out of 
 this before it's all used up.' 
 
 ' How long,' she asked, ' are we likely to remain here ? ' 
 
 ' It was a saying of Nelson that at sea everything is pos- 
 sible and nothing improbable. It's certain these islands are 
 visited. My intention is, Miss Otway, since we're here, so to 
 provide for ourselves that we may be alive when help comes. 
 Do you see that ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes.' 
 
 ' Don't be scared, then, because I talk of provisioning and 
 securing ourselves as though we were to be locked up for 
 years.' 
 
 Whilst I talked I was at work getting breakfast. The 
 angle of the deck was an abomination and a terrible hindrance, 
 but I made no further trouble of it than my laboured motions 
 expressed. Yet beyond the boiling of the kettle there was 
 nothing to be done in the way of cooking owing to the slant 
 of the stove. The discomfort was incredible. It was like 
 being in a ship poised on her beam ends on the edge of a sea, 
 magically arrested in her downward rush, and hanging fixed, 
 as though capsizing. 
 
 All was as hushed in the interior as though we were in 
 harbour. The seethe coming from the flashes of silent swell, 
 whenever the dark green folds, blindly sweeping, tore them- 
 selves against some edge of ice, was too faint to invade us : 
 the noise of the sea was shut out by the heights of ice astern, 
 and no echo of the booming of the gale sweeping over the 
 frozen summits penetrated. But for the insufferable posture 
 of the hull, my heart might have beaten with some sort of 
 restfulness and even gratitude ; for, dreadful as our situation 
 was, it lacked the terrors of the past days and nights ; we were 
 at least safe for the time being, whilst in any hour gone by we 
 might have been crushed to pieces ; we had a right to look 
 forward with some hope, because we were plentifully supplied 
 with food ; the hull was a stout shelter, and I could not con- 
 ceive, unless there happened some convulsion of ice, that the 
 swell of the bay, however enraged by storm, could hurt us ; it 
 might thump and thrust us high — further out of its reach — 
 that was all ; and trim the vessel by so doing into a habitable 
 structure. 
 
 These were my thoughts as I put some breakfast on the 
 deck for my companion. It was impossible for her to help 
 herself. I had to place the fiddles on the deck to save the
 
 176 HEART OF OAK 
 
 food from slipping from her hand. I talked with so much 
 confidence that, when she had made a light meal, I heard 
 something like a note of her spirit in her voice ; and saw a 
 little light of kindling hope in her eyes. Presently she begged 
 me to take her on deck, on which I helped her to stand, and, 
 catching hold of her arm, conducted her to the companion 
 steps. 
 
 She ascended painfully. I stepped out on deck and brought 
 her to my side ; and then, emerging, she looked around. 
 Never can I forget that poor young lady's face as she gazed at 
 the savage, desolate, frozen scene, realising the significance of 
 it slowly. She shrank, she cowered in the companion-way ; 
 she shuddered violently, whilst her hand, with a wandering 
 gesture, came to my arm. I see her now in memory turning 
 her white face towards the towering mass astern, then looking 
 at the dumb blankness of the ice cliffs ahead, with the bows 
 of the beam-ended hulk rising to them as though upon a lift 
 of sea. 
 
 ' Is this it ? Is this it ? ' she whispered. 
 
 She stared straight up at the flying gloom, blacking off the 
 ghastly white edge of the iceberg in shadows of a ragged, 
 smoke-like stuff; she strained her eyes at the little space of 
 sea showing in angry, dark, flashing ridges past the huge ice 
 projection that made the bay, shutting out from our sight all 
 the rest of the ocean too. Then, turning to me, she tried to 
 speak, swayed, with an effort to cover her face, and fainted. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 ME. MOOEE CONTINUES THE STOEY 
 
 No news of Marie reached us after we received a letter by a 
 brig called the ' Queen of the Night ' which had spoken the 
 ' Lady Emma ' in the North Atlantic. She had sent us a sort 
 of diary or journal : it was meant for her father and me : she 
 wrote in spirits which, the entries showed, were gaining in 
 brightness, and there was no doubt that her health had greatly 
 improved. Some of her descriptions were very fine : she 
 seemed to have thrown herself into the very life of the voyage, 
 and wrote of the sails, rigging, discipline and manoeuvres of 
 the vessel with the easy familiarity of an old sailor. 
 
 "We gathered that she was perfectly happy with Captain
 
 MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 177 
 
 and Mrs. Burke, and of Mr. Owen she spoke with gratitude for 
 his attention and sympathy. 
 
 I was told, however, by one or two sea-going acquaintances 
 not to wonder if we did not hear again from Marie until the 
 ship arrived at her first port, Valparaiso. A vessel might be 
 ninety days upon the ocean and yet not ' speak ' another. A 
 friend spoke of an Indiaman that, in the whole voyage from 
 Bombay to the Thames — not allowing, of course, for the ships 
 seen on touching at Capetown — had sighted nothing but the 
 topmast canvas of a vessel whose hull was sunk out of sight 
 below the horizon. 
 
 I was living in rooms out of Bond Street. One morning 
 in 18G0, it was October 2, and Marie had then been absent 
 from England six months, during which, after the arrival of 
 the Liverpool brig, we had received no news whatever either 
 of her or the ' Lady Emma.' I say, on October 2, wbilst at 
 breakfast, I picked up a morning newspaper and began to turn 
 it about. After reading for some time my eye lighted upon a 
 paragraph headed, 'Loss of the ship " Lady Emma." ' I 
 trembled and felt sick ; I wanted courage to read the para- 
 graph, though the paper was shuddering in my hands, and my 
 eyes were upon the news, yet before reading I caught myself 
 reasoning ; it is another ' Lady Emma ' — it cannot be Marie's 
 ship — there may be ten or twenty ' Lady Emmas ' afloat — 
 and then I read. 
 
 The paragraph — I have not preserved it — was to this 
 effect : 
 
 The barque ' Planter,' being to the eastwards of Cape 
 Horn, fell in with a ship's long-boat full of men. The captain 
 took the unfortunate people on board, but some were found to 
 be lifeless, having been frozen to death during the night. 
 Their story was, they were the boatswain (Wall) and sur- 
 vivors of the ship ' Lady Emma,' Burke, master, that sailed 
 from the Thames bound to Valparaiso on April 2. She had 
 been driven to the southward and eastward by heavy weather, 
 and when she was in about fifty-nine degrees south latitude, 
 she was totally dismasted by a sudden hurricane. After fruit- 
 less efforts to erect a jury-mast, the crew abandoned her in the 
 long-boat. "With them went the ship's doctor (Owen). The 
 master refused to quit the ship, and remained aboard with his 
 wife and a young lady passenger. Very shortly after the long- 
 boat had been met with, one of the crew of the ' Planter ' fell 
 overboard. A boat was lowered in charge of the chief mate, 
 
 N
 
 178 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Mr. Ralph Selby, but before she could reach the man a sea 
 capsized her, and the mate and the three men who were in her 
 were drowned. Within a week of picking up the survivors of 
 the ' Lady Emma's ' crew, the ' Planter ' transferred them 
 to a vessel bound to Monte Video, where they were forwarded 
 by H.B.M. Consul by steamer to this country, arriving yester- 
 day at the West India Docks. Mr. Owen died before the arrival 
 of the vessel at Monte Video, and was buried at sea. It is 
 supposed that the ' Lady Emma ' foundered prior to the 
 rescue of her crew, as Captain Parry of the ' Planter,' which 
 is a barque of four hundred and sixty tons, cruised at great 
 risk amongst the ice in the neighbourhood of the spot where the 
 hull was supposed to be lying without seeing anything of her. 
 
 I sat as one paralysed, read the account through again, 
 scarcely even then believing that the ship was the same that 
 my betrothed had sailed in. Next, thrusting the newspaper 
 into my pocket, I jumped up, ran into the street, and, jumping 
 into a cab, bade the man drive me to Messrs. Butcher and 
 Hobbs, at such and such a number in the Minories. It was 
 about a quarter to ten o'clock. 
 
 Butcher and Hobbs were the owners of the " Lady 
 Emma" — of her and a little fleet of smaller vessels. I had 
 been introduced by Captain Burke to Mr. Hobbs, and now it 
 came to me as I was driven fast, with my brain in a whirl, 
 half mad with consternation, grief, the hundred emotions 
 which must needs throng upon so abrupt a disclosure of dread- 
 ful news as this I had just read — it came to me, I say, that 
 Mr. Hobbs in my presence had very earnestly advised Captain 
 Burke to insure some goods he was taking out as a speculation 
 of his own ; and I recollected the captain replying, with an 
 arch, laughing air, full of strong confidence, that insurance 
 would only render him indifferent : he had no fear as to the 
 safety of the ship. If he insured and she was lost, it would 
 be said he sank or stranded her. 
 
 On my arrival in the Minories I entered an old-fashioned, 
 grimy office, in which sat a tall, stoutly-built seaman with 
 immense whiskers, both hands on his knees ; he stared idly, 
 as though waiting. I went to a desk, and asked for Mr. 
 Butcher or Mr. Hobbs. The clerk may have recollected me ; 
 he instantly rose, entered an inner office, and returning, 
 begged me to step in. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs was alone : a large fat man, yellow-haired and 
 bearded, with staring, watery eyes. As I entered he stood up,
 
 MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 179 
 
 with an air of deep dejection, and, extending his hand, bowed 
 over it, looking down, exclaiming : 
 
 ' I know the business that has brought you here, sir. It 
 
 is terrible — it is shocking ! But ' He then stood erect, 
 
 and shrugged his shoulders, with a roll of his eyes upwards. 
 
 I The report in the paper is true then ? ' said I. 
 
 I I grieve to say it is,' he replied. 
 
 I so trembled with grief I could scarcely speak to the 
 man. 
 
 ' Are we to entertain no hope whatever ? ' I said, leaning 
 upon the table for support. He placed a chair ; I sank into 
 it and proceeded : ' Surely we need not certainly conclude the 
 dismasted ship sunk after the long-boat left her merely 
 
 because ' and here, forgetting the names, I brought out 
 
 the newspaper to refer to — 'the "Planter" failed to find her 
 after a few hours' search in, perhaps, thick weather, and 
 amongst the ice-floes, which may have been numerous ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, of course,' he exclaimed, ' we must not abandon 
 hope. As you justly put it, the "Planter's" search counts 
 for little, considering how brief it was, and the state of the 
 weather. I'll not pretend I have much hope myself, but the 
 sea provides many chances. Again and again you hear of 
 rates rising, till no further risk is taken ; then the ship is 
 posted, her end made sure of, and one fine morning she's 
 signalled off some Channel station, blowing leisurely along 
 with the loss of her foretopmast and her bottom beach- like 
 with weed. I don't despair, sir ; yet I must honestly own my 
 hope is not strong.' He paused, then said, ' I believe one of 
 the crew of the "Lady Emma" 's in the front office.' He 
 walked to the door and looked out. ' Would you like to see 
 him ? He was the boatswain of the ship. His name is 
 Wall.' 
 
 I eagerly begged him to bring him in. He called, and the 
 big sailor I had noticed entered. I immediately recollected 
 that Marie, in the fragment of journal she had sent us, had 
 described and praised him for his civility and his qualities as 
 a seaman. He stood before us, cap in hand, his back slightly 
 arched by years of stooping and hauling and curling of his 
 body over yards and booms ; his weather-coloured face was 
 hard as leather, and rugged and knotted with muscle ; one of 
 those seafaring faces, impenetrable to the chisel of ocean 
 experience which fifty tragedies of the deep would no more 
 mark than the human anguish in shipwreck alters the face of
 
 180 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the rock which stares through the salt smoke down upon the 
 scene. 
 
 ' This gentleman,' said Mr. Hobbs, ' is Mr. Archibald 
 Moore. The young lady passenger aboard the " Lady 
 Emma " was ' he dropped his head and was silent. 
 
 I gazed at the seaman with consuming interest ; he had 
 been among the last— he might have been the last— who had 
 seen, who had spoken to Marie. 
 
 ' You'll not tell me,' said I, in a broken vo:'ce, ' there's no 
 hope for the three you left behind you ? ' 
 
 ' No, sir, I'll not tell you that,' answered the man, in deep 
 tones, which trembled upon the ear with the power of their 
 volume. ' I've said all along that if the ice only lets the hull 
 keep afloat, there was nothen to prevent her being fallen in 
 with. She wasn't so far south,' continued he, looking at 
 Mr. Hobbs, ' as to be out of the way of half a dozen chances 
 a week if the weather opened out the sea, and gave a view of 
 her as she lay flat, with but twelve foot of foremast standing.' 
 
 ' Why were they left behind ? ' I cried. ' Why were they 
 left to wash about in a dismasted hulk amongst ice, to perish 
 horribly after days of suffering perhaps ? ' and I beat the 
 table with my fist. 
 
 • Mr. Moore, the capt'n refused to quit,' said the seaman, 
 speaking calmly in his deep voice, and viewing me with an 
 air of respectful pity. ' My mates '11 tell you I entreated of 
 him and the ladies to enter the boat, likewise did Mr. Owen, 
 the doctor. We wasn't listened to. The captain was all for 
 waiting for something to come alongside and take the hulk in 
 tow. He was for jury-rigging her — on a twelve-foot stump of 
 foremast ! ' said he, slowly regarding Mr. Hobbs. ' The consarn 
 blew over the bows. What in that way was going to stand 
 down there ? ' 
 
 ' You should have used force,' I said. 
 
 ' With the capt'n ? ' he exclaimed, with a slow, astonished 
 shake of his head. 
 
 ' Had you got the captain into the boat, the ladies would 
 have followed.' 
 
 ' Neither 'ud have been alive next morning. The young 
 one would have froze to death in a few hours. You should 
 have heard the strongest amongst us groaning with the cold 
 when we lost sight of the craft we were making for, and when 
 the night drawed down, and we were for the hull, all hands 
 of us mad for the shelter of her and the warmth of our
 
 MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 181 
 
 blankets and the hot drinks to be got. I tell ye, sir,' he 
 added, calmly and respectfully, ' that the captain knew more 
 about it than we did, and was right to keep the ladies aboard, 
 for if they was to die, better comfortably in a warm cabin 
 than in an open boat with spray sheeting over them at every 
 plunge.' 
 
 ' What was the situation of the hull when the crew aban- 
 doned her ? ' I asked. 
 
 Mr. Hobbs pulled open a drawer, and read aloud a copy 
 of an entry in the log-book of the 'Planter' in which the 
 meeting with the long-boat was minuted. The situation as 
 there stated was Latitude 58° 45' S., Longitude 45° 10' W. 
 This copy of the log-book entry had been handed by Captain 
 Parry of the ' Planter ' to the master of the ship to whom the 
 crew had been transferred. 
 
 A yellow glazed map of the world hung in the office over 
 the mantelpiece. My eye went to it, and I made a step, 
 saying to the boatswain Wall : 
 
 ' Show me the place. What land lies nearest to it ? What 
 is the usual track of ships passing Cape Horn ? ' 
 
 He hung back, evidently ignorant of maps and of latitude 
 and longitude. Mr. Hobbs, picking up a ruler, approached 
 the mantelpiece, and, peering close at the dingy map, pre- 
 sently put the end of the ruler upon a part of it and said : 
 
 ' This, as nearly as possible, will be the place where the 
 crew abandoned the hull.' 
 
 ' Is that land there ? ' 
 
 Mr. Hobbs slanted his head to read, and exclaimed : ' Ay ; 
 in this little group we have — my sight is not what it was — 
 ah ! the South Orkneys. These to the left — ' with straining 
 sight and some difficulty he spelt out ' South Shetlands.' 
 
 ' What sort of islands are they ? ' I asked. 
 
 4 About the most desolate, froze-up, oninhabited rocks on 
 that side of the world,' answered Wall. ' There's nothen to 
 be thought of along o' them.' 
 
 « Why ? ' I asked. 
 
 1 Because going ashore there would be like hittin' ice. In 
 the swell that's always a-running, the hull 'ud go to pieces 
 with the first blow, like a loosed faggot. Their one chance,' 
 he added, in a voice of deep conviction, ' lies in their being 
 fallen in with and taken off. That may have happened. If 
 so, it'll be a question of waiting.' 
 
 'If so,' cried Mr. Hobbs, with a raised manner of cheer-
 
 1 82 HEART OF OAK 
 
 fulness that was scarcely sincere, I thought, ' Captain Burke 
 will bear hi mind the suspense and anxiety you and the young 
 lady's father are suffering, and exert his experience as an old 
 seaman to promptly communicate, so that, let us trust, if 
 there be good news in store, we'll get it quickly.' 
 
 ' Suppose the hull should have been thrown upon an ice- 
 berg,' I exclaimed, addressing Wall, * must she inevitably go 
 to pieces ? ' 
 
 'That 'ud depend upon how she took the ice,' he 
 answered. 
 
 'If she stranded and lay dry— such things have hap- 
 pened — could the three live in her ? ' 
 
 * Yes ; sights more comfortably than if she was afloat.' 
 
 ' For how long ? ' 
 
 ' She was freighted,' said Mr. Hobbs, ' with an abundance 
 of the necessaries of life.' 
 
 ' How long could a vessel remain on the ice in a habitable 
 state ? ' 
 
 1 Years,' answered Wall, ' if she's let alone. Give her a 
 snug berth clear of the wash of the sea and tumbling blocks, 
 and what's to hurt her ? ' 
 
 Mr. Hobbs was staring at me earnestly. ' I could wish to 
 persuade you,' he exclaimed, with a melancholy inclination of 
 his head, ' to discard the notion of the hull finding a berth in 
 an iceberg. Our hope must take a practical form. Let us, 
 then, believe that the wreck has been encountered by one of 
 the many whalers and other vessels which frequent those 
 seas, and that Captain Burke and his companions are at this 
 present moment safe.' 
 
 I turned to Wall and plied him with questions. What 
 was the condition of the hull ? What had been the state of 
 Miss Otway's health ? Did he believe, by recalling her looks 
 when he last saw her, that she had the strength to outlive the 
 horrors, trials, suspense, suffering, of even one week of a dis- 
 masted hull, rolling about amidst the ice in dangerous, deso- 
 late seas— the wildest in the world, and in their mid-winter ? 
 Was Captain Burke, single-handed, aboard the wreck, as a 
 man, capable of doing anything to help them into safety ? If 
 not, why had he stuck to the ship ? What madman's_ night- 
 mare of imagination could have induced him to remain with 
 two women aboard a vessel he could do nothing with ? 
 
 I almost raved my questions at the man, so wild grew my 
 heart with grief whilst I listened to his plain answers, full of
 
 MR. MOORE CONTINUES THE STORY 183 
 
 an old practical seaman's good sense, though several times he 
 repeated that the captain was right to keep his wife and Miss 
 Otway aboard, as they never could have survived the first 
 night in the long-boat. 
 
 He increased my distress by hinting somewhat doubtfully 
 that Captain Burke had fallen a little weak in his mind during 
 the voyage ; he spoke of an apparition that had been seen to 
 walk on the ship's forecastle ; it had been clothed in the 
 likeness of the captain, and ever after he had ceased to be 
 quite the same man. 
 
 ' Can you imagine,' I cried, rounding upon Mr. Hobbs, 
 ' that the loss of the ship is owing to Captain Burke having 
 gone mad ? ' 
 
 ' You wouldn't say so ? ' he answered, looking at Wall. 
 
 ' No sir,' answered the seaman, ' there was no madness in 
 that job of dismasting, if it wasn't in the weather.' 
 
 ' But,' I exclaimed, picking up the ruler Mr. Hobbs had 
 used, and laying the end of it upon the map, ' what was the 
 captain's motive in carrying this vessel so far south? See 
 where the Horn is ? What, in God's name, was he doing so 
 high ? ' 
 
 ' He was blowed there,' answered the man. 
 
 ' I understand,' said Mr. Hobbs, ' that a succession of hard 
 northerly gales settled the vessel to the southward and east- 
 ward, considerably out of the usual course.' 
 
 ' The " Planter " was also blowed south,' said Wall. 
 
 I continued to question with impassioned anxiety, eager- 
 ness, and grief, till I found I was likely to become an intruder 
 in the office, on which, asking the boatswain Wall for his 
 address, and ascertaining that he did not mean to look about 
 him for another berth at present, I shook hands with Mr. 
 Hobbs, and walked to my place of business in the City — a 
 private bank near Gracechurch Street. 
 
 Sir Mortimer Otway was at this time at Paris on a visit to 
 some friends. I had heard from him two days before, and 
 understood that he would return on the fourth or fifth. His 
 health was not good. Of late he had become very anxious 
 about his daughter. He thought it was time, after six 
 months, that he should receive news of her, or that the 
 ' Lady Emma ' should be reported. This being so, I resolved 
 not to write, but to wait until his return, when I would tell him 
 of the wreck of the ship, if, indeed, the account of it did not 
 reach him through other hands, or the newspapers in Paris.
 
 1 84 HEART OF OAK 
 
 For my own part I was so shocked, so stunned, there was 
 something so terrible to my imagination in the character of 
 this wreck, in every circumstance of it, having regard to the 
 loneliness of the three, the wild and stormy breast of waters 
 where the hull had been left plunging helpless by her crew, 
 that I could not hold up my head. I could not speak. I sat 
 in a sort of stupor. My father reasoned with me ; he pointed 
 out that the hull was afloat, a stout, seaworthy vessel when 
 the crew left her ; that being dismasted she was less likely to 
 beat against the ice than were she moving through the water 
 under sail ; that a vessel had been seen and pursued by the 
 crew ; that where one was there must be others ; and so on, 
 and so on. 
 
 I heard him and that was all. 
 
 I cannot tell how great was my love for Marie. I felt 
 that I had acted as a wretch, betrayed the darling of my heart 
 to her destruction, in sanctioning her father's scheme of 
 sending her away alone — and she must be alone if she was 
 without me — on a long voyage in a comparatively small sail- 
 ing ship. The fancy of her in that rolling, dismasted hull 
 was a dreadful oppression to my imagination and worked in 
 me like madness itself. I had seen the ship, and so the 
 figure of her as she tumbled dismasted amidst the heavy 
 seas far south of Cape Horn was easy to paint. To think of 
 my Marie, that delicate, fragile, timid girl, imprisoned in such 
 a hulk, enduring hours and perhaps days of anguish in 
 poignant suspense and heartbreaking expectation of death, 
 all alone as she was, countless leagues away from me, from 
 her father, with no other companion than her old nurse, who, 
 let her devotion be what it might, must surely fail her at such 
 a time. 
 
 My mind felt crazed. I could not lift my head nor speak. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 STARTLING NEWS 
 
 Sir Mortimer received the news of the loss of the ship 
 whilst he was in Paris. He had sent his foreign address to 
 the office in the Minories, always hoping to hear from, or of, 
 his daughter, and Mr. Butcher wrote to him, unknown to me, 
 and perhaps to Mr. Hobbs.
 
 STARTLING NEWS 185 
 
 He at once came to London : lie arrived in the afternoon. 
 The bank was closed, and he drove to my rooms, where he 
 found me. He was very pale and looked ill, but whether be 
 had disciplined his mind during his journey, or was a person 
 of more fortitude than I had imagined, his behaviour was 
 almost calm compared to what I had expected to find it on 
 our first meeting. 
 
 1 When we surrendered her,' were almost his first words 
 after holding me by the hand and struggling as though with 
 his tears, ' I had a feeling we should never again meet. I 
 ought not to have permitted her to take so long a voyage. 
 She was too delicate, her health was too poor, she was too 
 used to have comforts ' — he could not proceed for some 
 moments. He then said, ' She was my only child. I am 
 now alone in the world,' and, casting himself into a chair, he 
 hid his face and gave way. 
 
 ' I will not believe there is no hope,' I exclaimed, and, 
 sitting down beside him, I repeated all that I had gathered 
 from my talk with the boatswain Wall, with whom I had 
 conversed for above a couple of hours on the previous day, 
 having brought him to the bank by a letter and taken him 
 into a private room, where, with my father, I had closely 
 questioned him, getting all that his experiences as an old 
 seaman could reveal of the chances a shipwrecked company 
 had in those seas where Marie had been abandoned. 
 
 Sir Mortimer listened to me with passionate interest, 
 dwelling upon every syllable, catching me up if he did not 
 clearly understand. Sometimes his eyes brightened, as with 
 a little struggle of hope, but often he shook his head. 
 
 ' Consider,' he exclaimed, 'the " Lady Emma " was dis- 
 masted July 2.' (I had all necessary notes of dates and the 
 like in my note-book.) ' The crew left her on the fourth. 
 This is October 5 ; you cannot believe that the helpless hull 
 has continued to float in such frightful seas as run off Cape 
 Horn all this while.' 
 
 ' I don't say so. I don't dream it. God forbid, indeed ; 
 for that would put an end to all chance of our ever seeing 
 Marie again. But may we not believe that she was fallen in 
 with long ago ? ' 
 
 ' Why have we not heard ? There has been time ! ' 
 
 ' No. Suppose the vessel that rescued them was proceed- 
 ing to Australia. We might need another three months to 
 hear.'
 
 1 86 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Oh, but think ! ' he exclaimed, ' a dismasted hull, utterly 
 helpless ; the horrors and perils ot ice close to, a wild sea 
 continually running — she has not the strength to meet such 
 sufferings ; they will have broken her poor heart. Oh ! 
 Archie, she has been taken ! She is dead ! We shall never 
 see her again.' 
 
 He had made up his mind to this, and I daresay his com- 
 parative calmness rose from his resolution to accept the worst 
 at once. Though he knew little or nothing about the sea, he 
 could not listen to my version of Wall's story without regard- 
 ing the wreck of the ' Lady Emma ' as hopelessly complete 
 as any in the maritime records. He said that the mere cir- 
 cumstance of the ' Planter ' cruising and finding nothing, 
 was of itself a death-blow to hope. 
 
 ' And what is there to hope for ? ' he exclaimed, rising and 
 moving about the room with something of feebleness. ' We 
 are to wait ; but for what ? This sort of waiting in grief 
 breaks down the intellect — the mourner goes mad. In my 
 youth I knew a woman whose only son had been drowned in 
 a shipwreck. She would not believe it ; she hoped on ; and 
 ten years after his death saw her on the beach with her eyes 
 fixed upon the sea, gazing, with a joyous welcoming face, at 
 the apparition of her child whom, in her craziness, she 
 beheld approaching her in a boat. Oh no ! ' he cried with 
 a sudden, most moving, passionate wringing of his hands, 
 ' Marie has perished ; she is lost to us ! Why did not the 
 good God hinder me from sending her away ? They told me 
 that nothing could save her life but a voyage, and I, who 
 would have given my life for her, despatched her to her 
 death ! ' 
 
 I could not bear this, for I, too, was heart-broken. I 
 grasped him by the hands, and then he became silent, after 
 looking in my face. 
 
 But still, as I have said, his behaviour throughout tbig 
 meeting with me, even when the first horror and shock of the 
 news was renewed to us both by this our first meeting, was 
 calmer than I had expected. He stayed in London that 
 night, and next day accompanied me to the City, where 
 he had an interview with Mr. Butcher. We then drove 
 to a street out of the West India Dock Road, where Wall 
 lodged. 
 
 The substance of Mr. Butcher's talk was that ships home- 
 ward bound from the Australias frequently touched the latitude
 
 STARTLING NEWS 187 
 
 the hull had been left in ; there was, therefore, reason to hope 
 that Captain Burke and the ladies had been rescued by one of 
 the many vessels which every year were navigating those seas. 
 He said he had spoken to several captains of experience on 
 the subject, also two or three underwriters of long standing, 
 and on the whole their opinion was, Burke and his com- 
 panions would be preserved. 
 
 Wall had nothing to add — no further conjectures to offer. 
 He went very fully into the story of the dismasting of the 
 vessel and her abandonment, and answered with intelligence 
 the questions Sir Mortimer put to him about Marie, how she 
 looked, if she had picked up, if he (Wall) considered she 
 was strong enough to outlive the horrors and sufferings of 
 her situation, supposing the hull to be encountered within 
 a reasonable time — say a week — from the date of the men's 
 quitting her. 
 
 Sir Mortimer went to his home by the seaside next day. 
 I promised to visit him on the following Saturday, but fret- 
 ting had done its work — I was too ill to travel. I was cease- 
 lessly haunted by the vision of the hull, white with snow, 
 brilliant with ice, clouded with the foam of beating seas, 
 wearily rolling with my dear one, with my Marie, alone in her. 
 Somehow I could not think of her as associated with the 
 Burkes. She was the one, the solitary, figure in the gloomy 
 interior of that tempest-tossed fabric, as I witnessed the 
 vision awake and in my dreams. I was aware that Mrs. 
 Burke had been a most devoted servant, a faithful and honest 
 nurse and friend to Marie, but I had got it into my head that 
 her husband had lost his reason, which would drain his wife's 
 sympathies from my sweetheart ; and then, again, realising 
 the misery of a time spent in such a hulk, under such cir- 
 cumstances, I could not suppose that poor Mrs. Burke would 
 in her distraction take heed of more outside her husband than 
 the doom that every hour brought closer. 
 
 So the vision of that wreck was always present to the eye 
 of imagination, waking or sleeping, with one figure only in 
 the maimed and beaten fabric. 
 
 On the morning of October 20, I went to the bank, having 
 resumed work there two days before. My father had not 
 arrived. I went into my private room and sat down with a 
 heart of loathing at sight of a pile of letters which it would 
 be my business to read and deal with. 
 
 I had hardly broken the first envelope when a clerk entered
 
 1 88 HEART OF OAK 
 
 and said that a Mr. Norman, an old customer of the bank, 
 wished to see me. I supposed he had called on business, and 
 after reading the letter I held, I opened the glass door and 
 bade Mr. Norman step in. 
 
 He was a merchant doing business with Natal and Cape 
 Colony. He at once said, without offering to sit : 
 
 ' I have not called on business, Mr. Moore. I heard of 
 your trouble, and grieve to find it but too visible in your face. 
 This morning I received a batch of South African newspapers, 
 and met with an account, which — I don't know, I'm sure — it 
 
 may be ill-advised on my part ' He broke off, and his 
 
 hand went nervously to his side pocket. 
 
 I looked at him inquiringly, wondering what his Colonial 
 newspaper account was about. 
 
 ' I think,' said he, his hand still nervously twitching at his 
 breast-pocket, ' that where sorrow is speculative the sooner 
 expectation is ended, one way or the other, the better. This 
 may signify nothing ' — and now he produced a newspaper — 
 ' and yet it may tell everything.' 
 
 He was proceeding ; I extended my arm abruptly, feel- 
 ing a sickness at heart, for now imagination leaped to the 
 very height of fear — I believed I was to read something 
 which would prove that Marie and her companions had 
 perished. 
 
 But Mr. Norman must needs open the paper himself, and, 
 in order to find the passage, he required to put on his glasses. 
 The piece of intelligence in the journal .ran thus : — 
 
 ' Cape Town, August 10. Arrival of the schooner 
 11 Emerald." A strange discovery! Romantic action on the 
 part of the captain! — The three-masted schooner "Emerald" 
 arrived yesterday from the west coast of South America. 
 When in lat. 58° S., long. 48° W., the body of a female was 
 seen floating upon the water. Its appearance was so life-like 
 that, the weather at the time being quiet, the captain ordered 
 a boat to be lowered, and the body was brought on board. 
 Tho master (Goldsmith), on inspecting the corpse, was con- 
 vinced by its appearance that it was the remains of the wife of 
 a friend of his. She had been bound round the Horn to join 
 her husband at Monte Video. Feeling persuaded of this he 
 caused the body to be placed in a cask of spirits, with a view 
 to carrying it to Cape Town, his first port of call, that it 
 might have decent Christian interment; also that the hus- 
 band should, if his wife did actually prove to be missing, be
 
 STARTLING NEWS 189 
 
 able to procure the exhumation of the corpse for identifica- 
 tion. 
 
 ' The body is described as that of one who in life must 
 have been singularly prepossessing and genteel in appearance ; 
 the hair is of a dark amber or gold, the eyes of a light blue or 
 grey, height about 5 ft. 6 in., of a figure that had apparently 
 been full of grace and beauty. No rings were on the hands. 
 Captain Goldsmith conjectures that the rings, including the 
 wedding ring, slipped off the fingers through shrinkage of the 
 flesh by immersion. Owing to the condition of the body, it 
 has been found impossible to form an opinion as to the length 
 of time it was in the water ; it is judged, however, from the 
 appearance of the clothes, which were in a fair state of preser- 
 vation, that the period could not have exceeded three days. 
 The body was attired in a thick serge dress, and a warm 
 jacket, trimmed with a rich fur, of which but a little remained. 
 One garment only was marked : namely, with the letter 0, 
 which Captain Goldsmith believes stands for Olher, his 
 friend's name. The remams will be buried to-day. A ro- 
 mantic mystery nevertheless survives, and it remains to be 
 seen whether Captain Goldsmith is right in his conjectures as 
 to the identity of the poor nameless remains of one who in 
 life must have been "exceeding fair," .found floating far south 
 of the stormiest headland in the world.' 
 
 I read this very slowly, and when I had come to the last 
 word I read it all over again. Mr. Norman's eyes were fixed 
 upon my face. I fell into deep thought, and was silent for 
 many minutes, with my gaze rooted upon the paper. I then 
 pulled out my pocket-book, in which I carried the memoranda 
 I had collected from Mr. Butcher and Wall, and compared 
 the date of the dismasting of the ' Lady Emma ' with the date 
 of the discovery of the body. The ' Lady Emma ' was dis- 
 masted July 2, the body was seen and picked up on July 10 ; 
 the situation of the ' Lady Emma ' when the crew abandoned 
 her, according to the ' Planter's ' log-book, was lat. 58° 45' S. 
 and long. 45° 10' W. ; the body was picked up in lat. 58° S., 
 long. 48 W. ; the minutes and seconds, if any there were, 
 were probably omitted in the newspaper report, or Captain 
 Goldsmith may have given the situation in round numbers. 
 
 Be this as it may, there could be a difference of but a very 
 few miles between the spot where the body was found, and the 
 spot where the hull was deserted by the sailors. 
 
 ' It is extraordinary ! ' I exclaimed, fetching a deep breath.
 
 igo HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' I hope it may not prove conclusive news,' said Mr. 
 Norman. ' But if the body brought to Cape Town be that 
 of the poor young lady, the fact ought to be known to you 
 if only to spare you from the heart-sickness of deferred 
 hope.' 
 
 'Dates and places correspond,' I exclaimed. 'The de- 
 scription is true. She had dark amber hair. Her height 
 might be as it is here stated.' 
 
 ' And then there is the letter 0,' said Mr. Norman, ob- 
 serving that I paused. 
 
 ' How am I to find out if among the clothes she took were 
 such a dress and jacket as the body was found clothed in ? ' 
 
 At this moment my father entered. He immediately 
 observed that I was deeply agitated, and glanced from me 
 to Mr. Norman. The latter bowed, then turned to me and, 
 begging me to keep the newspaper, and to command his 
 services in any direction in which I could render them profit- 
 able, withdrew. 
 
 I handed the paper to my father, who read the account 
 with a face of astonishment and dismay. 
 
 ' Is it credible ? ' he cried. < Is it a hoax, d'ee think ? Or 
 
 some story vamped up, for— for- ? But,' he cried, turning 
 
 his glasses again upon the paper, ' they name the ship and her 
 captain, they give dates, they say that the body was to be 
 buried on that day,' looking at the date of issue. ' Is it con- 
 ceivable that a body would float, apparelled as this woman's 
 was? ' 
 
 1 If the story is no lie, then a body thus apparelled was 
 found floating,' I answered. 
 
 _ ' You had better send the paper at once to Sir Mortimer,' 
 said my father. 
 
 ' I'll run down with it, but first I'll see Mr. Butcher and 
 Wall. How am I to find out if Marie had a serge dress and 
 that sort of jacket ? ' I reflected, and then said, < Father, I 
 must have the whole day, I cannot work, I wish to satisfy 
 myself by some inquiries before seeing Sir Mortimer, and then 
 I may resolve to go to the Cape.' 
 
 He gazed at me with mild astonishment, then put his 
 hand caressingly on my shoulder, and told me I should go 
 where I pleased and do what I liked ; he advised me, however, 
 not to act precipitately ; the Cape was a long way off ! What 
 good could I do there, even supposing the body brought to 
 Cape Town by the schooner should prove to be Marie ? '
 
 STARTLING NEWS 191 
 
 1 What good ? I must know ; I must make sure ! Sup- 
 posing it is Marie — but it might be another.' 
 
 ' The body is buried.' 
 
 'Yes ; but I would get an order for its exhumation. It 
 was buried with a view to disinterment should the man 
 whose wife was to join him at Monte Video arrive in Cape 
 Town.' 
 
 I had heard Mrs. Burke talk of some of the shops Marie 
 had completed her outfit at. Her old nurse had herself at- 
 tended her in most of her shopping excursions before the sail- 
 ing of the ship, and after exchanging a few further sentences 
 with my father, I left the bank, called a cab, and was driven 
 to a dressmaker's near Cavendish Square. 
 
 Here, however, I could not learn that Marie had ordered a 
 serge dress, but on inquiring at a shop in Eegent Street, I 
 discovered, with much pains — they were very busy and very 
 slow — that Miss Otway had, on a day towards the close of 
 March, purchased a jacket trimmed with fur ; the fur was 
 described ; and certainly the 'garment,' as the shopman called 
 it, corresponded with the brief description of the jacket that 
 had been found on the body of the woman. 
 
 I _ could recollect no other shops ; but hoped that Sir 
 Mortimer might be able to tell me if a serge gown had been 
 included in Marie's outfit. This should have been, and no 
 doubt was, known to Marie's maid. But the girl, on the 
 departure of Miss Otway, had gone, I had some recollection 
 of hearing, with a family to Germany. 
 
 In this same day I drove to the offices of Messrs. Butcher 
 and Hobbs, and had scarcely entered the place when Wall 
 came in, greatly to my satisfaction, as I particularly desired 
 his opinion. Both partners were present, and on my showing 
 them the Cape newspaper they called Wall to us, and we 
 thoroughly talked the matter over. To the seaman, who was 
 somewhat illiterate, I read and re-read the newspaper ac- 
 count. 
 
 ' It's wonderful ! ' he exclaimed. ' Most sartinly it answers 
 to the young lady. I've heered of females lying afloat like 
 that. 'Taint so long ago that a woman was picked up alive 
 arter washing about for thirty-six hours on her back.' 
 
 ' But how can the body be Miss Otway's ? ' said Mr. 
 Butcher, ' if the master of a schooner recognises it as a Mrs. 
 Ollier's ? ' 
 
 ' The coincidence would be quite too extraordinary,' said
 
 192 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Mr. Hobbs. J Mr. Moore,' he added, with one of his depres- 
 sing bows, 'it would give me far more pleasure to take a 
 cheerful view; but consider — the body of a lady is found float- 
 ing much about the place where the hull was abandoned ; the 
 description, as I understand, answers to that of Miss Otway ' — 
 he said no more, but buried his hands in his pockets with a 
 very gloomy shake of the head. 
 
 Mr. Butcher, however, inclined to the belief that the body 
 was the person's the schooner's skipper took it to be. He 
 wished to believe Miss Otway alive ; he was by no means for 
 despairing ; whilst they were talking of this body, Miss Otway 
 might be actually on her way home. What did Wall think ? 
 
 The honest seaman faltered ; he saw that Mr. Butcher 
 wished to cheer me up, but there could be no doubt he was of 
 Mr. Hobbs's mind. They were all three agreed, however, that 
 it was a puzzling, most wonderful thing. 
 
 1 There's nothen for Mr. Moore to do,' said Wall, who, 
 having been admitted into this council, considered himself at 
 liberty to talk out, perhaps thinking he was expected to do so. 
 'Let him give the lady's portrait to some respectable man 
 who'll go by steam, afore it's too late, and view the body and 
 settle it.' 
 
 ' To whose satisfaction ? ' inquired Mr. Butcher, looking 
 at me. 
 
 ' Not to mine,' I exclaimed. ' I must decide with my own 
 eyes.' 
 
 " In them warmer climates,' said Wall, ' ye've got to bear 
 a hand in jobs of that sort.' 
 
 Mr. Hobbs admonished the man with a frown. 
 
 ' Surely, Mr. Moore,' exclaimed Mr. Butcher, ' you would 
 be able to identify the young lady by the wearing apparel 
 they removed, and are, of course, preserving at Cape Town ? ' 
 
 I told him I had ascertained that morning that a jacket 
 answering to the one found on the body had been sold to 
 Miss Otway. 
 
 He looked very grave at this, and I saw Mr. Hobbs ex- 
 change a glance with the seaman. Soon after this I thanked 
 them for their sympathy and patience, and took my leave. I 
 could think of nothing but the story of the body found at 
 sea, and next morning went by an early train to the little sea- 
 side town where Sir Mortimer lived. As I drove from the 
 station I passed by the ravine down which Marie and I had 
 gone for a stroll upon the long, hard platform of sands one
 
 STARTLING NEWS 193 
 
 afternoon in the keen grey month that preceded the April she 
 sailed in. It was October now— six months later ; what had 
 happened between ? The blue sea ran up to the sky in a 
 trembling, silken slope streaked with long gleams. I re- 
 membered how Marie had checked me in our walk to look at 
 a passing sail, and how together we had watched the glim- 
 mering white square of her fade like mist in the evening 
 gloom. Many gulls wheeled over the water. I saw them 
 Hying past the edge of the cliff, and remembered how Marie 
 had paused and looked up to admire the marvellous grace of 
 the windward flight of the birds then on the wing — perbaps 
 those I now caught a glimpse of. An ocean life of many 
 months had stretched before her, and whilst we walked I had 
 noticed how she was letting the spirit of the sea sink into 
 her, finding in the coil of the breaker, in the flight of the 
 birds, in the shadowy distance of the horizon, a meaning 
 she had never before heeded, only, perhaps, that she might 
 enter with a little spirit into a scene of life from which I 
 knew her very inmost soul shrank. 
 
 Sir Mortimer was at home ; he was in mourning. The 
 sight of his sombre figure and ashen countenance, of resigned 
 but settled sorrow, startled and even shocked me. It was 
 like a confirmation of fear, an assurance that Marie was 
 dead and that hope must end. My visit was unexpected, and 
 whilst he welcomed me he held my hand and stood looking 
 at me in a posture of eager, sorrowful inquiry. 
 
 Presently, when we were seated, I pulled out the paper 
 and pointed to the story of the discovery. He was a high- 
 bred, fine-looking old gentleman, and I see him now as he 
 sat holding his glasses to his eyes, the paper trembling in his 
 hand, and his face slowly taking what the Scotch call a 
 ' raised ' look as he read. He turned, dropping his glasses 
 and letting the paper sink to his knee, and said in a voice a 
 little above a whisper : 
 
 ' What is this ? ' 
 
 ' What do you think ? ' 
 
 ' You don't believe it was Marie ? ' he said. 
 
 ' If we are to think that, she is dead to us ! ' I exclaimed. 
 'But if it was not Marie, whose was the body that was picked 
 up by the schooner close to the spot where the hull had been 
 abandoned ? ' 
 
 He stared at me, drew a deep breath, and referred again 
 to the paper. 
 

 
 194 HEART OF OAK 
 
 1 Have you seen that seaman — the boatswain — I forget 
 his name — upon this ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' Yes ; and the two owners. But what can their opinion 
 be worth ? How could their ideas help us, Sir Mortimer ? 
 Read the description of that body, the dark amber hair, the 
 
 looks which in life must have been those of a refined ' I 
 
 faltered, controlled myself, and went on : ' I have discovered,' 
 and I named the shop where I had obtained the information, 
 ' that Marie's outfit included such another jacket as the body 
 had on. Can you remember if she took a serge dress with 
 her ? ' 
 
 ' Two or three,' he answered quickly. ' They w r cre of dark 
 blue. Two she had. A third was added at Mrs. Burke's 
 suggestion. What was the colour of the dress described 
 here ? ' 
 
 He looked ; but no colour was named. I got up and paced 
 about the room. 
 
 ' I have made up my mind,' I exclaimed. ' I will go to 
 the Cape. If it be Marie — but I must make sure at all costs. 
 The suspense, the waiting, the not knowing whether she lies 
 dead at Cape Town, whether she has gone down in the hull, 
 v/hether she has been rescued, carried to a distant port, and 
 is lying ill, so that months might elapse before we should get 
 news of her — all this I could not bear ! I am already half 
 mad with the grief of it. I will go to Cape Town,' I cried, 
 ' and see with my own eyes, and settle expectation, so far as 
 that body is concerned, one way or another, for ever.' 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 ME. MOOBB SAILS 
 
 I think, I will not be sure, that the date on which I returned 
 to London from this visit to Sir Mortimer was October 26. In 
 the year 1860 sailing ships bound to the Australias and the 
 East Indies frequently, many of them regularly, touched at 
 the Cape ; small vessels, such as brigs and barques, also 
 traded to that colony. There was steam communication, how- 
 ever, then. I believe the first of the steamers of the Union 
 Steamship Company was despatched three years earlier, 
 namely, in 1857. 
 
 Be this as it may, since steam was to be got I was resolved
 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 195 
 
 to have nothing to do with what the sailor calls tacks and 
 sheets. A sailing ship might keep rue four months upon the 
 ocean in her struggles with head winds and failing catspaws. 
 On the other hand, the Cape, hy steam, was to be reached 
 certainly within forty days. But having made up my mind, 
 I found there was no time to lose, that is, if I resolved on 
 steam ; for, on reaching London, I learnt that the next Union 
 steamer was the ' Cambrian,' sailing from Southampton on 
 November 6. 
 
 It was this obligation of despatch, perhaps, which hardened 
 me in my resolution. I meant to sail by the ' Cambrian ' and 
 there was no leisure for hesitation, no time for second thought. 
 Not, indeed, that I was not passionately resolved ; I had been 
 so from the hour of clearly understanding that I must pro- 
 ceed to the Cape and procure the exhumation of the body if 
 my mind was to be set at rest one way or the other. I mean, 
 if I had been obliged to wait a month, say, for a sailing ship, 
 I might have found myself troubled, my resolution a little 
 unsettled, by the counsels of friends. 
 
 My father, for example, fully sanctioned my going, but 
 advised me to consider how it would be with my memory if, 
 when the coffin was opened, I recognised the body as Marie's. 
 
 I answered I had thought over that, and knew it would 
 prove a terrible ordeal. But it must be worse with me if I 
 stayed at home, never stirring to find out if the body that 
 lay in Cape Town cemetery was indeed that of the girl I 
 loved. 
 
 ' Suppose she is drowned,' I reasoned, ' I should not be- 
 lieve it for months, perhaps years. No man eould persuade 
 me she was dead. Time alone must convince me. But how 
 long should I allow myself ? Meanwhile I must live in 
 expectation. My life would be a torment of suspense. But 
 by going to the Cape I shall satisfy myself at once.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said my father, ' but you will only be able to 
 satisfy yourself that Marie does not lie buried in Cape Town 
 if, when the grave is opened, the remains should prove 
 another's.' 
 
 1 It will satisfy me to know that, at all events,' I ex- 
 claimed. 
 
 ' Will they let you exhume the body ? ' 
 
 This staggered me somewhat ; but I replied I would take 
 my chance of it. The corpse had been brought to Cape Town, 
 and there buried with a view to identification. The case wag 
 
 2
 
 196 HEART OF OAK 
 
 extraordinary; and when the Colonial authorities heard my 
 story they would not refuse to let me disinter the remains. 
 
 Several friends offered like objections. One suggested I 
 should ask that the clothes should be sent home, and sub- 
 mitted to the inspection of those from whom Marie bought 
 her outfit ; the shopmen would know their own wares. If they 
 asserted the clothes had been sold by them — had at any time 
 passed through their hands — there would be something solid 
 to go upon ; I could then sail for the Cape and confirm by 
 inspection what to most would pass as a foregone conclusion. 
 
 But my answer was, it was not very conceivable that those 
 who held the clothes would part with them ; it was no case of 
 suspected murder, so as to admit of the introduction of the 
 machinery of the law ; moreover, if I waited, the remains 
 would become unrecognisable. It was already a question 
 how far the climate would admit of an identification of them. 
 The body arrived at the Cape August 10 — this was the close 
 of October. December would have come before I landed ; 
 and December is the burning midsummer of South Africa. 
 
 But herein, as in all the rest, I was prepared to take my 
 chance. I felt a secret reluctance in one direction only. It 
 shocked me even in imagination to think, if the remains 
 should prove Marie's, of the memory I must return home 
 with and be haunted by to my death-bed. 
 
 On November 5 I travelled to Southampton, and on the 
 following day embarked in the steamship ' Cambrian ' for 
 Cape Town. I had said good-bye to my friends in London 
 and went on board alone. Never did passenger tread a ship's 
 deck with heavier heart than I. The vessel was full of bustle 
 and confusion ; she was taking out a large number of pas- 
 sengers who, with their friends, filled her fore and aft, over- 
 flowing the saloon, and crowding the raised deck or poop. 
 
 It is at such a time as this, and amid such a crowd as 
 littered the ' Cambrian's ' decks, that you learn what real 
 loneliness is. I looked around me and saw not one face I had 
 ever met before. There was much surging and elbowing of 
 figures in the gangway, a constant dragging here and there 
 of baggage, shouts from the ship to the shore, from the shore 
 to the ship, with stewards dodging and shoving in and out, 
 officers of the steamer twinkling and flitting in the finery of 
 the merchant service. 
 
 I contrasted all this noise — threaded by strange groaning 
 rumblings down in the bowels of the metal keel, as though
 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 197 
 
 the giant, steam, lying imprisoned, was beginning to mutter 
 in his impatience and shake his chains — with the peace on 
 board the ' Lady Emma ' when I mounted her side with 
 Marie and her father and Mrs. Burke. All was quiet there, 
 the masts pointed their crossed and knitted heights silent in 
 the breeze as a tree that sleeps in the dead calm of a summer's 
 night ; about was spread a shining scene of river, abounding 
 in life and colour, in gliding and in stately motion ; but the 
 ear was not vexed. 
 
 However, it would not be long before the ' Cambrian ' was 
 under way, and, indeed, whilst I was seeing to my baggage in 
 my berth, and taking a view of the bedroom I was to sleep in 
 for thirty-five or forty days, I heard noises and felt a vibration 
 which satisfied me we were about to start. 
 
 The vessel was something less than nine hundred tons ; 
 she was fitted with a saloon, on either hand of which went a 
 range of sleeping berths, and the amidships was filled with a 
 long table. She was rigged as a schooner, with a couple of 
 yards on each mast, and sat with a promise of swiftness in 
 her posture, her bow being yacht-like and sharp, dominant, 
 that is, with a good spring, whilst the run of her vanished in 
 a very pretty mould of stern. 
 
 She would be laughed at now ; side by side with the Cape 
 white giantess of to-day, thrashing from the top of the North 
 Atlantic to the bottom of the South Atlantic in a trifle more 
 than a fortnight, how meanly would she show ! even as a 
 pinnace or steam launch in the shadow of the man-of-war 
 that owns her. No splendour of internal fittings ; nothing 
 rememberable in the form of smoke-room or bath-room. 
 And still my heart swells with the memory of that little iron 
 steamer, which long since ceased, save as one of the countless 
 spectres of the deep, the true and only phantom ships of 
 the sea. 
 
 It was a bleak, dark November day when we started ; a 
 strong wind blew, and the sky was thick and near with 
 rolling snow-clouds. We passed along Southampton Water 
 in a squall of sleet, and though imagination was never an 
 inactive quality in me, yet then, more keenly than at any 
 previous time, was I able to realise the significance of Wall's 
 story of the dismasted hull, the high foaming seas of the 
 great ocean past the Horn, the mountains of ice rocking their 
 lofty summits in the smoke of flying flakes. 
 It wag blowing fresh in the open, clear of the Isle of
 
 198 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Wight ; the little steamer pitched and sprang and made vile 
 weather of the spiteful snap of that November Channel surge. 
 She drove the most of us to our berths, and for four days I 
 was a prisoner, stupidly sick and helpless. Then I stepped 
 forth, feeling well again, and, making my way on to the poop, 
 found a fine day, a swelling sea, a rattling breeze astern, 
 before which the vessel, with bladder- like canvas swelling 
 hard from her yards, and black funnel pouring smoke over 
 the bows to the horizon ahead, was bowling and rolling, with 
 an occasional kick up astern which drove a shock and vibra- 
 tion of exposed screw through the length of her. 
 
 Abreast on the right was a little ship under full sail 
 braced sharp up, tearing through the seas ; the red flag of 
 England stood liko a board at her mizzen peaks. She was 
 apparently bound home. The water swept in sheets from 
 her steering stem, and every flash of the white brine was 
 magically spanned by a rainbow. She was painted black, and 
 to my land-going eye exactly resembled the ' Lady Emma,' 
 though the practised nautical glance would doubtless have 
 witnessed plenty that distinguished her from the other. I 
 watched her with fascinated gaze, and in deep melancholy, as 
 she swept through the brilliant curls of sea, clouding her path 
 as she dived, and scoring the rolling blue astern of her with 
 an arrow-like line of light. 
 
 Just such sailing as that had Marie described in the 
 fragment of journal we had received. She had named the 
 sails, flung with dexterous pen the very sheen of the lustrous 
 rounds of canvas upon the vision of the mind, painted the 
 picture of the deck, the dark wet length of plank gleaming 
 along the sobbing scuppers at every roll, sailors hanging in 
 the rigging with marling-spikes and coils of small stuff, or 
 stitching on spaces of canvas in the sun, the mate walking 
 the weather side of the deck, her own dear self seated under 
 a short awning talking with her old nurse about the home 
 she was leaving, about the countries she was to visit. I 
 caught my breath with a spasm and turned from the beautiful 
 picture. 
 
 We were a great number of passengers for so small a 
 vessel. When the fine weather came and the people got 
 their stomachs, no more hospitable scene at meal-time was 
 ever afloat than that saloon of over thirty years ago. There 
 is plenty of finery at sea in this age ; but the picturesque is 
 almost dead ; it flourished then. Much of the old Indiaman,
 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 199 
 
 the old Caper and South Spanier survived in the early 
 steamer. You found this in colours and fittings, and in rig ; 
 for, none of us yet making cocksure of the cub of the engine- 
 room, a fabric nigh as spacious and wide as that of the sail- 
 ing ship was reared to draw from the wind £he help the 
 propeller might refuse. 
 
 This little steamer, too, would go along in an ambling way 
 when it was fine, like any large ship with the wind on the 
 quarter, taking the wide heaves of the deep in a procession of 
 curtseys whilst she fanned the sky with her squares of canvas. 
 I see again the dinner-picture of a fine afternoon : a row of 
 well-dressed people filling the long table ; the captain bland 
 and watchful at one end ; someone trembling in brass buttons 
 at the other ; the claret-coloured light of the setting sun 
 ripples in polished bulkhead and makes rubies of diamonds 
 on moving hands ; every shadow sways with slow grace, and 
 the large round cabin windows deepen into dark blue, or 
 glance out in crimson light as the vessel softly rolls them 
 from sea to sky. 
 
 My place at table was at top, on the captain's right : a 
 seat of distinction, but a matter of accident so far as I w r as 
 concerned. The commander of this steamer, to give the 
 worthy skipper a sounding name, was a kindly hearted 
 seaman named Strutt, who had used the sea for many years 
 in sailing ships, and had much to tell about the ocean life. 
 One of the passengers was a retired shipmaster who, I under- 
 stood, was making the voyage to the Cape to seek some 
 w r aterside berth in South Africa ; he was a Newcastle man, 
 and had been bred to the sea in the coal trade ; such was his 
 contempt of steam he could find nothing in his rude and 
 quaint dialect vigorous enough to dress it in. He sat within 
 three or four of the captain on the left, and they often argued, 
 and their speech was my diversion. 
 
 I remember one day, shortly before we made the island of 
 Madeira, that these two men got upon the subject of Polar 
 expeditions. The captain said that the discovery of the North 
 Pole would be as important to navigation and science as the 
 discovery of America was to civilisation. The other replied 
 that the North Pole was of no use to any mortal man. What 
 was it? An imagination. Nothing you could see, or sit 
 upon, or lean against. At this a great many people laughed. 
 
 A middle-aged lady, sitting at a little distance on my 
 right, begged that the North Pole would not be mentioned ;
 
 200 HEART OF OAK 
 
 she had lost a promising nephew in consequence of it. He 
 had sailed in one of the expeditions and had fallen into a 
 deep hole beside the ship when she lay upon the ice, and, 
 marvellous to relate, though the body of the poor young man 
 was not discovered until six weeks afterwards, it was so 
 perfectly fresh, the face so lifelike, the colour on the cheeks 
 so exactly as in health, that all wondered he did not speak 
 and smile. 
 
 ' There's no perishing in ice,' said the retired shipmaster 
 in a deep voice, ' once dead, ye keep arle on. Sir John 
 Franklin was to be found. Nought was wanting but the 
 right sort of men to look for him. He's somewhere up there 
 still, just as he died, poor chap, hard as a statue, him and the 
 rest of them, saving those they fed on.' 
 
 ' What's the action of salt water on a body ? ' said an old 
 gentleman sitting five or six down on the opposite side. 
 
 ' It drowns,' replied the retired shipmaster. 
 
 ' I don't mean that,' said the other, ' does it preserve as 
 ice does ? ' 
 
 ' No, sir,' answered the shipmaster. ' The sea sarves a 
 drowned sailor as the crimps sarve the live ones. It strips 
 him, and when he's naked it tarns to and kicks and beats him 
 till his mother wouldn't know whose child it was.' 
 
 ' Not always,' exclaimed the old gentleman with emphasis. 
 
 The retired shipmaster leaned forward to see him, but 
 made no reply. 
 
 Then the captain, at the head of the table, exclaimed : ' I 
 knew a man years ago who had penetrated far north in a 
 whaler. They were frozen up for a spell, hard bound in 
 white ice, with hills to the horizon, till the season came and 
 they broke adrift, the piece they were on floated round a point 
 and gave them the sight of a little barque stranded on a slope, 
 her topmast was standing, sails furled, everything in its 
 place — she looked as if she had gone ashore the day before. 
 They boarded her, and found by her log and papers she had 
 been in that situation eight years. But that wasn't it,' said 
 he, with a glance down the double line of listening faces 
 turned his way, one of the most eagerly attentive of which I 
 observed was the old gentleman's ; ' in the cabin they found 
 five frozen men ; they looked to have died without a groan, 
 one after the other, every man in the act of doing something, 
 none guessing that the forefinger of the grinning king was 
 on his heart, One sat with a pipe in his hand, another
 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 201 
 
 leaned on the table as though he was meditating, a third lay 
 back in his chair, his eyes on the skylight as if he heard a 
 noise on deck. That's what cold will do,' said he. 
 
 Something at this point diverted the conversation, and 
 the subject was dropped. 
 
 When I left the table I went on deck ; the west was still 
 full of warm splendour, the sea ran heaving in deep blue folds 
 to an horizon crystalline in the delicate sweep of it against 
 the east, on whose violet slope — that looked to thrill with the 
 depth of its own hue as the blue of the calm trembles under 
 the eye — a large star was flashing. 
 
 I lighted a cigar, sunk in thought over the talk about the 
 ice. If the body should not prove Marie's, then supposing 
 the hull had got locked, how long would she be able to 
 support life in the bleak dark cabin. I had often asked that 
 of myself and of others. I asked it again now, and whilst 
 my mind ran upon the dinner talk, Captain Robson, the old 
 retired Newcastle shipmaster, stepped up to me. 
 
 They did not allow you to smoke on the poop ; I stood in 
 what would be called the gangway, and Captain Robson 
 came along with a great meerschaum pipe in his hand, 
 stuffing the bowl with a queer kind of granulated tobacco 
 which he pulled out of a little sack. 
 
 ' This is Zooloo mundungus,' said he with a hoarse, 
 shouting laugh. ' I am learning to like it. They say it is 
 arle a man can get on the coast yon,' and he hove up three 
 stout chins in a measured nod in the direction of the sea 
 over the bows. 
 
 ' Are you going to take charge of a ship ? ' said I. 
 
 ' I'm going to seek a job,' he answered. 
 
 1 "Were you long at sea, captain ? ' 
 
 'Ay, was I? Since I was twelve. D'ee ken,' said he, 
 broadening his accent for my entertainment, ' that I'm the 
 original laddie of this yarn : A boy was holding a candle in 
 the North Sea for the skipper whilst he overhauled his chart, 
 " Eh, sir," says the boy, " if they did but ken war we was at 
 home ! " " If wo kenned oursells," says the skipper, " I'd ne'er 
 heed a dam ! " ' 
 
 ' You seem to know a good deal about the ice,' said I. 
 
 ' I knew too much about most things,' he answered, 
 puffing. ' If you was to turn to and pump out my mind, 
 more'd come up than what the poets call sparkling brine.' 
 
 He looked to right and left to observe if he was over-
 
 2 o2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 heard, and I guessed he was a wag who liked the laughter 
 of many. 
 
 Just then four Italian emigrants hegan to sing together 
 on the forecastle ; their voices swelled in a pleasing concert ; 
 the rude harmonies of the engine-room, dim and deep, as 
 interpretable as human voices, so articulate was the metallic 
 clangour, mingled with the music the singers made without 
 vexing the ear. 
 
 I listened, then looked at Captain Eobson, whose round 
 face was staring deafly seawards. 
 
 ' Captain,' said I, ' figure a dismasted hull in sixty 
 degrees of south latitude and nothing of land nearer than 
 the South Shetlands. When she was abandoned there was 
 plenty of tall ice on the horizon in points, on both bows and 
 astern. What's to become of that wreck ? ' 
 
 ' Are ye speaking of the " Lady Emma " ? ' said he. 
 
 I started and exclaimed, ' Oh, you've heard of her loss ? ' 
 
 ' I've known Jim Hobbs, one of her owners, ever since 
 he was a boy,' he answered. ' A little while afore I left 
 London I met him at a luncheon party and we talked that 
 loss o'er. Loss ! Well, ye've not to call it that yet, neither. 
 The skipper and two females remained aboard, Hobbs told 
 me. The crew was quick in desarting. There was twelve 
 foot of stump forrard, Hobbs said ; they should have given 
 the capt'n a chance. With less than twelve foot of stump 
 when I was a boy, good prizes have been blowed under jury 
 canvas into safety. But when steam came in,' said he, 
 turning to send a gaze of contempt at the funnel, ' the sailor 
 went out. Let the master of the "Lady Emma" have had 
 a collier crew of my time aboard, and they'd ha' made no 
 more of the loss of all three masts — twelve foot of stump and 
 the bowsprit remaining, according to Hobbs — than a dog of 
 his tail.' 
 
 ' What chance do you give the hull ? ' said I. 
 
 He viewed me with an arch lift of his eyebrows, as though 
 his smile at the instant were in them only. 
 
 ' I'll answer you as I answered Hobbs that same question,' 
 said he, after discharging a number of puffs ; ' she'll be heard 
 of again. I don't care about the ice. Dismast your ship and 
 she'll wash round an object. I'm not speaking of a dead-be 
 shore leagues long. Plant an iceberg close aboard a hulk 
 and she'll wallow clear. It's the height of spar, the weight 
 of rigging, plenty of surface of stowed sail for the wind to
 
 MR. MOORE SAILS 203 
 
 shoulder, that keeps a vessel helpless in her drift when she's 
 not under command.' 
 
 ' But if she strikes she's gone, masts or no masts.' 
 ' She'll swim for her life. It's like striking out clear of 
 your clothes.' 
 
 ' You give that hull a chance then, captain ? ' 
 ' I give her this chance : first, as to the ice ; she's a 
 naked swimmer, light as a cask, with the wind for a buffer 
 'twixt her and the ice, and a backwash of sea which she'll 
 make the most of. And then this : if a whaler falls in with 
 her and she's sound they'll tow her clear. She was worth 
 thirty-two thousand pounds ship and cargo when she left the 
 Thames. There's sights of grease, mon, in that money.' 
 
 He ended this talk by giving a loud laugh and walking 
 a little way forward, where he stood, pipe in hand, listening 
 to a German Jew and his wife who were singing a duct. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE PHOTOGBAPHS 
 
 It was three or four days after this conversation with Captain 
 Robson, a soft, blue, glowing afternoon, the sparkling heaves 
 of water lifting south along the course of the steamer, with 
 a pearly feathering of the salt foam going straight as the 
 metals of a railway astern where, in the distant blue air, 
 hung the slowly dissolving shadow of the island of Madeira 
 quitted by us that morning. 
 
 Many had gone ashore ; we were now a thin company 
 aft, the poop and saloon almost yacht-like with room and 
 comparative privacy. 
 
 The name of the master of the steamer was Captain 
 Strutt. I had been having a short chat with Captain 
 Robson on the quarter-deck whilst the skipper of the steamer 
 was on the bridge talking with the first mate ; I went slowly 
 aft and got upon the poop, and whilst I was there, looking 
 over the side into the exquisitely pure liquid recess of ocean 
 on the port-beam, with some orange star of sail glowing in 
 it, whilst all between the burnished swell was working in 
 glassy swathes rich with the gleams of the splendour in the 
 south-west, Captain Strutt joined me.
 
 204 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Kobson,' said lie, with a face of amusement, ' is a comical 
 old gentleman. In my boyhood they called that sort of thing 
 a sea-dog. It's a dying type. The skipper who wears the 
 hat of the London streets and comes on deck in galoshes 
 when the men are washing down, decays apace. We should 
 take a long look at Eobson, for when he is gone we shall not 
 easily behold his like again.' 
 
 ' His is a dry old mind,' said I, ' tough as sailor's beef, 
 with the pickle of his experiences.' 
 
 ' He was telling me last night, Mr. Moore,' said the captain, 
 1 that you're interested in the loss of the " Lady Emma." ' 
 
 'I have asked him, as a seaman, questions on the 
 subject,' said I. 
 
 ' I read the account of her being dismasted in one of the 
 papers,' he exclaimed. ' It was made a bad job of, I thought, 
 by three people being left aboard the hull, two of them 
 women. D'ye ever see the " Shipping Gazette " ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' In a number of it a week or two before we sailed, there 
 was a strange piece quoted out of a Cape paper.' 
 
 ' A strange piece '? ' I exclaimed, scarcely understanding 
 the expression. 'Had it anything to do with the "Lady 
 Emma"?' 
 
 ' Why, no,' he answered, leaning upon the rail and 
 looking with a seaman's level, steady gaze at the orange- 
 coloured sail on the horizon, talking carelessly, in evident 
 intention to amuse me merely, 'a large three-masted 
 schooner picked up the body of a woman much about the 
 parts where the hull of the "Lady Emma" was washing 
 about. The master took it to be the corpse of the wife of 
 a friend of his, and put it into brine or spirit to preserve it 
 for Christian interment ashore. A queer item of cargo, little 
 relished by the jacks in the schooner, I warrant ye ! And 
 yet handsomely done, too, on the part of the master, if you 
 think of it ; for suppose one dear to you drowned, what 
 would you give that the remains should be buried with a 
 memorial atop ? That's always the feeling along-shore, even 
 amongst the humblest ; they'll offer pounds reward for the 
 body. It's sentiment — and only to bury it in earth after all ; 
 as if this,' said he, waving his hand, ' wasn't the freshest, the 
 most spacious, the most splendid of all cemeteries, every white 
 curl of sea a tomustone, and God's voice in the wind to keep 
 ye sleeping and comforted.'
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS 205 
 
 I listened in silence, but intently. 
 
 'The schooner carried the body to the Cape,' he went 
 on, ' where of course it was promptly buried after they had 
 photographed the poor thing.' 
 
 ' Did they photograph the body ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 He whipped upon me quickly, struck by my tone, no 
 doubt, and eyed me keenly. He witnessed a change of face, 
 and perhaps a sudden pallor, but took no further notice, 
 lightly saying : 
 
 'Yes, the body was photographed, and a couple of the 
 pictures are aboard.' 
 
 ' In this steamer ? ' 
 
 He again looked at me ; then, directing his eyes round 
 the poop, said : 
 
 ' Do you see that old gentleman sitting in the easy chair 
 near the skylight ? ' 
 
 It was the old gentleman who some days previously had 
 asked Captain Eobson at the dinner table what was the action 
 of salt water on a body, to which the north-country skipper 
 had drily answered, ' It drowns.' 
 
 'Has that man photographs of the body?' I exclaimed, 
 staring at the old gentleman with nervous tremors running 
 through me, shaking the very voice in my throat, so sudden 
 and unexpected was this. 
 
 ' I can tell you his story ; he makes no secret of it,' said 
 the captain. ' His name's Hoskins ; he is Mrs. Ollier's father. 
 He is going to the Cape to make sure that the body's his child 
 by opening the coffin, if the authorities will permit it. But 
 he's in no doubt ; he showed me the pictures ; the master of 
 the schooner, knowing him very well, sent two by steamer. 
 He says they're the portrait of his girl. She had been stop- 
 ping at Santiago with her sister, a married woman there, and 
 was bound round to Monte Video to join, or await the arrival 
 of her husband, who sailed from the Thames in August in 
 command of the ship "York" — what's there in this? — Mr. 
 Moore, I hope this matter ' 
 
 He began to stutter 1 , and was full of concern, seeing me 
 suddenly lean against the rail, breathing hard with oppression 
 with a face which I might guess by my emotions alarmed 
 him. But guessing that my agitation would speedily take 
 the eye of the many who were walking or sitting about the 
 deck, I asked , after pausing a minute to recover myself, if I 
 could be alone with him for a little while, on which he at once
 
 2o6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 conducted me to the chart-room or some sort of interior dedi- 
 cated to him as commander, but not a bedroom, furnished 
 v.-ith a horsehair couch, a clock, and the several instruments 
 and conveniences for navigating a vessel. 
 
 He hooked the door, leaving it a little way open. Without 
 preface I told him that Miss Marie Otway, only daughter of 
 Sir Mortimer Otway, was my sweetheart : she had gone a 
 voyage for her health in the ' Lady Emma ' ; soon after the 
 news of that ship having been dismasted reached home, there 
 arrived the extraordinary tale of the body of a woman having 
 been picked up in the latitude and longitude the hull was in 
 when abandoned by the crew ; the description of the body, I 
 told him, was that of Miss Otway, and my only motive in 
 making the voyage to the Cape was to examine the remains, 
 if the exhumation would bo permitted. 
 
 He listened with deep interest and a countenance of cordial 
 sympathy. 
 
 ' Now, sir,' said he, ' I can understand your motive in 
 questioning old Captain Eobson.' 
 
 ' If the body be not Miss Otway, I shall want to know 
 what chance she's had aboard that hull. Eobson's an old 
 sailor, and I've drawn a little hope out of his talk, pro- 
 viding ' 
 
 ' Well,' said he, gathering my meaning even from my 
 pause, ' I should say, sir, that a man would know his own 
 child. Old Mr. Hoskins assured me, whilst telling his story, 
 with the tears standing in his eyes, that the portrait sent him 
 was the likeness of Mrs. Oilier, his daughter. That being so, 
 it's reasonable you should ask questions about the wreck.' 
 
 ' Would Mr. Hoskins show me those portraits, do you 
 think ? ' 
 
 ' Show them ? Why yes, sir. When he hears the story, 
 he'll be glad to be of use. If you'll stop here, I'll go and 
 manage the matter out of hand for you.' 
 
 I thanked him, and he departed. 
 
 I continued alone for some time, with my mind tormented 
 by anxiety and expectation. Though old Mr. Hoskins de- 
 clared the portraits to be his daughter's, yet ho might very 
 well be mistaken, too. I waited in dread. The distress of 
 expectation and suspense was complicated by the fear that 
 the action of the sea, the convulsion and agony of drowning, 
 had so wrought as to make a cheat of the face : to the old man 
 it was to be his child, and to me it was to plead dimly as
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS 207 
 
 Mario out of its shrunk, ghastly looks ! How should wo 
 decide then ? Indeed, none might ever get to certainly know 
 who it was, and I should go home fancying I had viewed the 
 face of my beloved in death, and fancying, too, for months to 
 come, that she had been rescued and, by the many strange 
 crosses of travel and adventure, detained, but that she was 
 coming and I should hear. 
 
 Thus I sat, my mind in anguish, starting up sometimes to 
 pace the few feet of charterhouse deck, then flinging myself 
 clown miserable and mad with thought. 
 
 A canary suddenly sang loudly in a cage under the clock ; 
 in every plank was the pulse of the engines, like a tingling of 
 blood in veins : from over the side came a note of stealthy 
 hissing, subtly threading the noises of the deck like someone 
 in a theatre low hissing through the voices of the actors. 
 
 In about twenty minutes the captain arrived with Mr. 
 Hoskins. He brought the old gentleman in and hooked the 
 door ajar. 
 
 Mr. Hoskins was a fresh coloured old man, white bearded, 
 with intensely black eyebrows curling like moustaches over 
 his glittering black eyes : he was dressed in black. I had 
 observed in him a patient way of looking, of speaking ; his 
 voice was a little tremulous with time — he was probably sixty- 
 five years of age. 
 
 He held a large envelope which, on entering, he put down 
 on top of his hat, and making me a bow slowly, he exclaimed, 
 in the broken tones of his years : 
 
 ' It is truly extraordinary, sir, that you and I should ba 
 going Xo the Cape on the same errand, in the same ship.' 
 
 ' Truly indeed,' I answered. ' The captain has told you 
 my story ? ' and here I looked at Captain Strutt, who an- 
 swered ' Yes. Those are the portraits,' and he pointed to tho 
 envelope. 
 
 I glanced at tho package as at a sheet or veil which con- 
 ceals a face you love which your heart shrinks from beholding 
 in death. 
 
 ' She's not your young lady, sir,' said Mr. Hoskins, slowly 
 extending his arm to take up the envelope. ' She is my 
 daughter. My niece instantly recognised the likeness.' 
 
 He sighed heavily, seating himself with a slow movement, 
 whilsi he put the envelope upon his knee to draw a spectacle 
 case from his pocket. Meanwhile he spoke : 
 
 ' She was twenty-four years of age, and had been married
 
 2oS HEART OF OAK 
 
 three years. Her husband took her to Santiago and left her 
 there with her sister. She was to have joined him at Monte 
 Video — but you have heard, sir — you have heard ? ' 
 
 I bowed, trembling with impatience, and still cold at 
 heart, spite of his words, with the dread that had been mine 
 since I heard of those photographs. He put on his spectacles, 
 and laying his hand upon the envelope upon his knee, looked 
 at me with magnified eyes. 
 
 ' It is very wonderful,' said he, ' that your young lady 
 should have been left in a wreck close to the place where my 
 poor child's body was met with.' 
 
 Captain Strutt, with a sudden fidget of his whole figure, 
 said, ' Mr. Hoskins, will you show Mr. Moore the portraits ? ' 
 
 But the old gentleman must first look at them himself. 
 He pulled them out and surveyed them with a countenance of 
 mourning, one in either hand, his underlip working garru- 
 lously, and again and again he sighed, till, lifting my eyes 
 from the portraits to his face, I saw that his cheeks were wet. 
 Then, but with one of his patient gestures, he put the pictures 
 together and extended them to me.' 
 
 I looked first at one, then at the other ; the likenesses were 
 not Marie. I could allow for the changes caused by drowning, 
 by immersion, by the month-long action of spirits or brine ; 
 and still, with a wild throb of joy that half choked me, I saw 
 that the likenesses were not Marie. 
 
 They were two dreadful portraits of one face, dreadful to 
 look upon ; one in profile, the other full, the body mani- 
 festly having been turned to confront the camera. The 
 whiteness of the face in the pictures was as shocking a part 
 as any : the cheeks were so sunk you would have thought she 
 had sucked in her breath, with horrid scorn, a living woman, 
 when the lens of the instrument was turned upon her. They 
 had swept her hair off her brow for a clear view of the face, 
 I supposed it was pale hair by the look of it, but it was not 
 Marie's — it was not grown low on the forehead as hers was ; 
 the eyebrows were not hers — they were too thick ; the ears 
 were too large for Marie's, and, which convinced me abso- 
 lutely, the shape of the nose was not my dear one's ; no 
 wasting by the action of rolling water, no shrinkage by long 
 immersion, whether in brine or spirits, could work any struc- 
 tural change in the nose. 
 
 I have those dreadful photographs in my mind's eye now, 
 I cannot express their ghastliness. It was not only the fore-
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS 209 
 
 head rendered naked by the manner in which the hair had 
 been swept back by the artist, nor a more terrible sort of 
 blindness in the droop and rigidity of the upper lids than any- 
 thing to be imagined in death's cold glazing of the balls of 
 vision, nor the meaninglessness in the look of the mouth, as 
 though it had been some wild man's carving of a grin on an 
 idol, neither human nor yet of the beast most sickening. The 
 deep and subtle horror I found in that face was there through 
 fancy of the terrific ocean solitude it had floated in, the icy 
 surge that had tossed it, the pitiless stars which had looked 
 down upon it, the roaring blasts of sleet and hail which had 
 thundered over it. 
 
 I put the pictures together with a shudder, and a face con- 
 torted by the pain and imaginations of the sight, and in 
 silence handed them to Mr. Hoskins. Both men waited for 
 me to speak. I stopped to fetch a few breaths, then said : 
 
 ' This poor girl is not Miss Otway.' 
 
 ' She is my daughter ! ' exclaimed the old man, again 
 holding up the pictures to view them. ' Oh, my poor child ! ' 
 
 The canary began to sing loudly ; the silencing of it 
 enabled Captain Strutt to turn his back upon us. It was 
 indeed moving to see that old man with his wet cheeks and 
 talking inarticulate underlip, looking at the two portraits. He 
 placed them in his pocket after a minute or two, then, pulling 
 off his glasses, smiled faintly at me and said : 
 
 ' The grief is mine, you see, sir.' 
 
 ' And still mine, Mr. Hoskins,' I replied. ' Since that is 
 your child you certainly know where she is, and therefore 
 what has become of her ; but what can any man tell of Miss 
 Otway ? She was dear to me, aye, even as she was to you,' 
 said I, pointing to the breast of his coat where the pictures 
 lay. ' We were to have been married — oh, pray think, sir ! — 
 the news they brought home, the last news of her, told me of 
 her as abandoned with two companions in a dismasted hull in 
 the wildest ocean in the world — amongst the ice — heavenly 
 God ! ' I cried, springing to my feet, ' am I to believe her as 
 that poor girl is— but never to know— never to be sure that it 
 was so — that it is so ? ' 
 
 And now I know that the sight of those portraits had 
 wrenched me to the very soul, by speaking of Marie as she 
 might be. This, with the reaction ; for it was not my sweet- 
 heart who lay at Cape Town. I had felt an instant's joy 
 on the discovery ; that was past and it was as before — black 
 
 p
 
 2io HEART OF OAK 
 
 uncertainty troubled and thick with a hundred shapeless fears 
 and fancies. 
 
 ' It's a great pity,' said Captain Strutt bluntly, ' that you 
 didn't know Mr. Hoskins had those pictures. You could have 
 gone ashore at Madeira and got home some time before we 
 arrive at the Cape.' 
 
 ' Pray what may have convinced you that my poor girl, as 
 described in the papers, was Miss Otway ? ' said Mr. Hoskins. 
 
 I gave him all the reasons : the description, tallying 
 feature by feature, point by point in hair, stature, refinement 
 of features and the like ; the letter on the garment ; the 
 serge dress and fur-trimmed jacket. The old gentleman 
 lifted his hands and his gaze with one of his patient gestures 
 and look, now of surprise. 
 
 ' It is more than remarkable,' he cried ; ' it exceeds belief.' 
 
 ' Your daughter was married, and therefore wore a wedding 
 ring,' said Captain Strutt. ' That ring's commonly a tight fit.' 
 
 ' It was no doubt as Captain Goldsmith wrote,' said Mr. 
 Hoskins, ' the water shrivelled the fingers and the ring slipped 
 off.' 
 
 ' Miss Otway wore rings,' said I ; ' the lady had none. 
 Therefore its having no rings proves nothing. Plunge your 
 warm living hand into ice-cold water, and your tightest ring 
 will wonderfully slacken.' 
 
 'True,' said Captain Strutt. 'And still, Mr. Moore, if I 
 was in your place, I shouldn't rest satisfied with the evidence 
 of those portraits.' 
 
 ' Oh, but Mr. Hoskins and I are agreed,' said I. * He 
 recognises his child, and I know that it is not Miss Otway.' 
 
 ' It's my intention to exhume the remains — a sorrowful 
 task — if they'll grant me permission,' said Mr. Hoskins. 
 ' Since you must now proceed to the Cape, then, if it would 
 satisfy you to look into the coffin when it is opened, you will 
 be very welcome, sir.' 
 
 I thanked him, adding, however, that I could not be more 
 satisfied than I was. And so, after some further conversa- 
 tion, we quitted the captain's private room. 
 
 I might have supposed this discovery of the body not 
 being Marie — and I was as convinced of it as though I posi- 
 tively knew she was alive — would have comforted me, helped 
 something towards the cheering of my spirits ; instead, I 
 seemed in my heart as much depressed as if the portrait of 
 the dead girl had been hers. This was because had I known
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS 211 
 
 she was dead, the worst would have been reached. But now 
 I was to make a weary journey to the Cape to no imaginable 
 purpose. I was to linger there till a returning steamer sailed, 
 then measure all these leagues of water afresh, to arrive home 
 as ignorant of her fate as though I had never set foot out of 
 London. 
 
 During the rest of the passage, which was absolutely 
 uneventful, I held much aloof from the people ; I was too 
 low-spirited to join in their conversation and amusements ; I 
 begged the captain and Mr. Hoskins to allow my trouble to 
 remain their secret, and they very faithfully obliged me. 
 Captain Strutt would often pace the deck for half an hour at 
 my side, and in such quiet walks our talk nearly always con- 
 cerned the ' Lady Emma.' He by no means gave me the 
 encouragement I had got from old Eobson ; he told me 
 honestly that it was as likely as not the three had been taken 
 off the wreck, but advised me not to hope too much in that 
 way after I returned to England, ' because,' said he, ' the 
 news of such a rescue is bound to come to hand soon ; things 
 are not as they were forty years ago ; you have the telegraph 
 and the steamer and the newspaper. They were wrecked in 
 July,' said he. ' If it was my business, I'd allow eight 
 months, then, hearing nothing, I'd give them up.' 
 
 He flatly differed from old Eobson's notion of the com- 
 parative safety of a dismasted hull amongst icebergs. ' How,' 
 he exclaimed, in a grave wondering voice, ' could any sailor- 
 man talk such stuff ? It's like his prejudice against the 
 North Pole. What's to hinder a dismasted vessel from being 
 flung against ice, and hammered to pieces ? I don't talk to 
 dispirit you, sir, but my reasoning is, if a loss must be a loss, 
 then for God's sake, let it be made and have done.' 
 
 The ' Cambrian ' entered Table Bay, December IB. It 
 was early in the morning, but the sun was already high, and 
 when I went on deck and looked around me, I beheld as 
 flashing and noble a scene of blue water and mountain as this 
 earth has to show. The atmosphere was brimful of white 
 and even splendour, so that the azure of the sky looked cold 
 in it. Wonderful to my eyes was the sight of a gale of wind 
 so local in its fury that the freshing confines of the torn water, 
 curved like a line of beach, this side being smooth and glit- 
 tering, softly fanned with a little air out of the west, where 
 the white light was so lustrous that the leaning sails of the 
 Malay boats flickered in it with a look of frosted silver. 
 
 p 2
 
 5T2 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Afar, and marvellously clear cut in their hundred miles of 
 distance, loomed a range of lofty mountains ; the fierce wind 
 was blowing out of a glorious white mist which veiled, with 
 falling and ascending draperies of vapour, the greater hulk of 
 the tawny mass on the right ; but so marvellously brilliant 
 was the atmosphere through which the gale was rushing, the 
 sense of distance vanished, the huge steep lifting and disap- 
 pearing in its splendour of mist, drew close, I saw the curves 
 of the cloofs, every wrinkle of broken rock, and patches of the 
 bush, though it was all miles off and high in air. The white 
 houses spread like toys of ivory to the base ; and the wide 
 waters of the bay, full of the gleam of the brushing westerly 
 air, and rushing in froth under the shriek and lash of the 
 gale, where the breast of blue rounded to the town, were 
 framed by a sparkling snow-white beach, past which the 
 swelling country showed in reds and greens till the sight died 
 upon the phantom blue of distant heights. 
 
 There were no docks in those days, nor can I recollect 
 that they had begun to build the breakwater. We brought 
 up in the splendid weather outside the thrashing storm, but 
 it seemed we were to be kept aboard till the south-easter had 
 blown itself out. Many ships, a few very large and fine, lay 
 straining at their anchors, some within and some without 
 that spray-white sheet of foul weather. I stood at the rail 
 looking at a little barque which lay within easy hail of the 
 voice ; Mr. Baynton, chief officer of the ' Cambrian,' ap- 
 proached to look at a boat that lay close under alongside. 
 But his seaman's eye went quickly to the barque, and turning 
 to me, he said : 
 
 ' That's what they call a spouter.' 
 
 8 A whaler ? ' 
 
 'Yes. She looks it, sir. See the boats at her cranes. 
 "What sort of daylight filters through those greasy grimy 
 scuttles in her side, I wonder ? She is an American, and 
 draws decently ; three years out by the looks of her, fresh 
 from parts where it's always too hot or always too cold, and 
 with how many barrels aboard, ha ! It's said no seaman 
 thinks anything of a man as a sailor who's learnt his trade in 
 a greaser. For my part I look upon 'em with respect and 
 admiration. What Jack of us all sees the like of their sea- 
 faring ? Let alone the weather, and that touches the ex- 
 tremes. What magnificent work in boats ! what nerve and 
 determination ! To think of one of those egg-shells,' said he,
 
 THE PHOTOGRAPHS 21 
 
 j 
 
 nodding at the boats at the whaler's cranes, ' being in tow of 
 a rushing mountain of stinking black flesh, shooting blood 
 and brine sky high, every thrash of the tail a Niagara drench 
 of rearing white water — ha ! ' 
 
 He sucked in his cheeks, blew thern out again in a low 
 whistle of admiration, and walked off. 
 
 I did not land till four o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. 
 Hoskins, when we parted, put his card into my hand, with an 
 address at Cape Town upon it, and begged me to let him 
 know the house I put up at, that he might communicate in 
 case I should think proper to confirm the revelation of the 
 photographs by an inspection of the remains. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON THE ICE 
 
 I was advised against the two or three bad hotels in Cape 
 Town, and whilst in the ship had obtained the address of a 
 boarding-house. It was a comfortable big Dutch-built house, 
 low, without chimneys ; it stood hi a garden full of moon- 
 lilies, and many lovely flowers, the fairest of them scentless. 
 Here I found a colonel from India for his health, a Dutch 
 couple, and one or two others. From the stoep of this house 
 you saw the grand mass of Table Mountain, seemingly close 
 to ; the shadow of its noble bulk seemed to fill the heavens 
 and swell with sensible, usurping presence into the far reaches 
 of the country. I had travelled in mountainous parts in 
 Europe, but never before witnessed such a tyrannous domina- 
 tion as this. The colossal ramparts caught up the whole 
 prospect whilst you looked in a swinging sweep of their 
 length, till 'twas all mountain with the steam-like vapour 
 shredding away from the boiling whiteness atop and the 
 houses clustering into the base like things of life shuddering 
 back into the giant refuge. 
 
 Such were the fantastic notions I got of the thing as I 
 sat, cigar in mouth, on the stoep of the boarding-house on the 
 first night of my arrival. The full moon was shining over 
 the bay. I saw through the trees a space of the silvered 
 waters, with the black figures and lines of ships anchored in the 
 trembling glow, spotting it with their riding lights. The breeze 
 was falling in sighs down the steep and troubling the vegeta-
 
 2i 4 HEART OF OAK 
 
 l T 
 
 tion into the shedding of some perfume upon the night air ; 
 the tinkling of the crickets spread low, like a noise of fairy 
 bells, over the land, surging up in the warm, damp breeze 
 and dying. I heard a band of music in the distance, but the 
 mountain shone upon by the moon and now radiant at the 
 summit with snow-white mist, looked the tranquillity of its 
 great face into the night, and the peace of its sublime silence 
 dwelt like a spirit everywhere, to the very height of the stars, 
 down to the waters trembling under the moon. 
 
 This rest was grateful and exquisitely refreshing after the 
 ceaseless motions of the ship and the senseless chatter of the 
 engine-room. And yet, though I was but just arrived, I now, 
 after my first meal ashore for many days, sat alone, consider- 
 ing what I should do. 
 
 I had learnt at table there were ships in the bay home- 
 ward bound, also I was aware, and had been long aware, that 
 I must wait a month for the next Union steamer to England. 
 I could not, however, bring myself to endure the prospect of 
 nailing home. The voyage by steam had already proved 
 unendurably long ; and now I might take shipping under a 
 top- sail, make a passage of two months to the line, lie in a 
 month-long trance upon the burnished swathes of the molten 
 silver swell of the Doldrums, then wish myself dead in six 
 weeks of tempest to the Scillies, with a long flounder up 
 Channel to round off all. 
 
 Therefore, on this the first night of my arrival at Cape 
 Town, I resolved to return by steam, taking anything in that 
 way which might come from the Indies, or, failing that, then 
 the monthly Union steamer. 
 
 The colonel came out of the house with a long cheroot in 
 his mouth, and sat down by my side. He was a man with 
 bland manners, and a sarcastic voice. He talked contemptu- 
 ously of Cape Town and its people, and cursed the indisposition 
 that had driven him into such a barbarous hole, where you 
 were distempered by bad cooks, poisoned by dreadful smells, 
 maddened by the horns of the coloured costermongers. I was 
 in no temper to hear him and was glad when he got up and 
 strolled off. 
 
 Here was I, thousands of miles from home — for what 
 purpose ? I was no nearer to Marie ! Would she ever be 
 heard of ? Was she alive ? I looked up at the full moon and 
 asked of God if its splendour rested anywhere upon her. 
 
 But then — but then — and my heart ached again as I re-
 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON THE ICE 215 
 
 fleeted ; it was in July that her ship was dismasted and last 
 heard of, and this was December, almost the middle of it — five 
 whole months ! And the hard part was that I should have 
 to live through another interminable period of expectation 
 before reaching home, where alone I must hope to get news. 
 Why, even whilst I sat there, with the two Atlantics between 
 England and me, she might have arrived, or they might have 
 got news that she was coming, and thus was I sure to go on 
 thinking and hoping until I returned — when they would tell 
 me they had heard nothing ! 
 
 My thoughts went but seldom and lightly to the body of 
 the girl who was resting in her grave somewhere past those 
 trees yonder. She was not Marie. I'd look upon her if the 
 cofiin was lifted and Hoskins invited me ; but she was not 
 Marie ! The wonder and pity of her to my mind now that I 
 had seen the photographs lay in the coincidence of her dis- 
 covery, and in the ghastly vision of her floating figure — so 
 young and fair as she had been — a fancy of ocean loneliness 
 I could somehow realise better here than at sea, maybe because 
 of the height the lofty shadow of the mountain sent the stars 
 to, its blotting presence widening the scene of heaven by 
 exciting imagination of the magnitude of the hidden slope 
 going over and past it to Agulhas and to where the ice was. 
 
 After this, for two or three days, I went about alone, 
 struggling with a mocd of depression that discoloured every- 
 thing I beheld. It robbed all grace of freshness from the 
 beauty and the splendour of the sights which lay about me. 
 My favourite haunt was the waterside, where I'd stand watch- 
 ing the Atlantic comber form, huge and polished, out of the 
 silken swell, arching and rushing onwards in a sparkling 
 bravery of foam and sunlight ; but my thoughts were always 
 with Marie, and again and again I'd catch myself sighing as 
 I brought my eyes away from the remote blue distance past 
 Eobben Island. 
 
 It was on the fourth day of my arrival, in the afternoon, 
 that, strolling slowly under the shade of an umbrella from 
 that part of the waterside close to where the docks now are, I 
 met the colonel who lodged with me in the boarding-house. 
 He turned from gazing at the bay under the sharp of his 
 hand, and approached me. 
 
 ' Were you ever aboard a whaler ? ' he asked. 
 
 1 Never,' I answered. 
 
 ' That ship yonder's a whaler,' said he, pointing.
 
 2 i6 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Yes, I know,' I replied. « I had a good look at her from 
 the side of the steamer — we lay within a biscuit-toss.' 
 
 ' I went aboard of her this morning,' said he, causing me 
 to stop by halting and looking towards the vessel as though 
 he would have me observe her whilst he talked. ' She is well 
 worth a visit. Half of her crew are Kanakas, and the re- 
 mainder Yankees, and a wild, queer, hairy lot they are. The 
 captain's a Quaker, a strange, tall, formal fellow, buttoned 
 up, lean and yellow, and thee's and thou's you ; most unlike 
 a seaman of any I ever saw. He was very_ civil, though 
 mighty communicative. I sat an hour in his little cabin and 
 'twas as good as going awhaling to hear him. Such an array 
 of harpoons and lances, decks dark with the mess of blubber 
 boiling—' trying out ' the captain called it. If you want to 
 agreeably pass an hour and forget that you're in a land of 
 smells and noise, visit her.' 
 
 I answered it was probable I would do so. 
 • Not that she's a nosegay,' said he, with a short, sarcastic 
 laugh, ' but there's nothing Malay in the odour, nothing Dutch. 
 The captain related an odd incident that happened whilst he 
 was off the Horn, a bit south of it I think.' 
 
 Here he stepped out and I strolled by his side, pricking 
 my ears, for there was a magic in the name of Cape Horn 
 that never failed to arrest my attention. 
 
 1 She'd been fishing in the South Seas and finding no 
 quarry was coming into this ocean. She was running before 
 a strong gale of wind off— I forget the name of the island ; it 
 lies south of the Horn. The land, coated with ice, stretched 
 along their starboard beam; the captain had no notion he 
 was so close in. He was looking at the land through his 
 telescope when, in a sudden flaw that thinned the weather 
 out into a momentary brilliance, he caught sight of a large 
 dismasted ship upright on her keel upon a huge projection of 
 ice that fell sheer to the wash of the surf. He reckons the 
 height of the cliff on which that hull was poised about thirty 
 feet. How devilish odd! You can figure ships in many 
 situations, but how in ghosts are they going to cradle them- 
 selves on an elevation of thirty or forty feet ? ' 
 
 When he said this I stopped dead ; a fancy then, at that 
 instant, flashed into me in pang after pang as though every 
 drop of blood in my veins was living fire. It brought me 
 to a stand just as if I had been paralysed, or struck by 
 lightning.
 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON THE ICE 217 
 
 Presently looking at hini and rather gasping than speak- 
 ing, I said : 
 
 ' A dismasted ship, was it ? On an island south of the 
 Horn, did he say ? Why, my God, I wonder — I wonder ' 
 
 ' What's the matter ? What's there in this to I hope 
 
 I Catch hold of my arm ! ' exclaimed the colonel, staring 
 
 at me with astonishment. ' What's it— sunstroke ? Not 
 under your umbrella ? ' 
 
 And he directed his aquiline nose and keen blue eyes right 
 up into the sky ; then put his arm through mine, and we 
 walked slowly /he meanwhile surveying me askant with every 
 mark of amazement. 
 
 After going a little way, during which I thought I should 
 be unable to command my tongue or collect my wits, so 
 heart-staggering had been that leap of fancy in me, I said : 
 
 ' You have given me an extraordinary piece of news. I 
 am deeply interested in a ship that was abandoned in a dis- 
 masted stats in the neighbourhood of the Horn.' 
 
 'By gad! then,' said he, halting me with a violent, 
 nervous pull at my arm, ' you had better go aboard and get a 
 description at first hand, for the whaler's here to refresh only ; 
 she's been in the bay a fortnight and sails to-morrow.' 
 
 Without exchanging a word I walked, almost ran, to the 
 waterside. 
 
 A number of boats lay rippling close in to the beach. _ A 
 couple of Malay or Africander boatmen, seeing me coming, 
 jumped into one of the little craft, and in a few minutes I 
 was being rowed in the direction of the whaler. 
 
 It was about half-past four o'clock in the afternoon ; the 
 light of the high South African midsummer sun fell on the 
 water in a blaze that made one think of a sky-wide bolt of flame ; 
 the scorching heat steamed to the face off the surface in 
 tingling red-hot needles ; there was not a breath of air ; along 
 the polished surface, breathing with the swell of the sea, 
 slipped the small thunder of the distant surf. We drew close 
 to the whaler, and I read her name upon her counter, ' Sea 
 Queen, Nantucket.' Her sides were blistered and honey- 
 combed with heat and conflict ; her cabin scuttles or windows, 
 in a row of three above her green sheathing, stared in their 
 dirt blearedly across the water, like the eyes of a blind man ; 
 a number of seamen of several dyes of complexion and queerly 
 attired overhung the bulwark rails. 
 
 She was a little ship of about four hundred tons, and
 
 2i8 HEART OF OAK 
 
 looked to be dropping to pieces with use, so deeply was she 
 seamed, so ill were her masts stayed, so rusty and pale was 
 her rigging, so worn and ragged the complexion and sugges- 
 tion of the canvas heaped clumsily and negligently bound. 
 "When the boat was alongside I looked up at a copper-coloured 
 face covered with black prickles of hair, and asked if the 
 captain was aboard. 
 
 ' Ay,' was the answer. 
 
 'I wish to see him on very particular business,' said I. 
 
 The man stared stupidly and lounged off. 
 
 ' You gittee on board, boss,' said one of the boatmen. 
 ' You hab welcome allee same as other gents.' 
 
 I took the man's advice, and, putting my foot on to the 
 shelf or projection of main channels, sprang and gained the 
 deck in a jump from the bulwark rail. 
 
 There were probably twenty men lounging forward in 
 every imaginable posture, smoking and talking ; they were 
 black and yellow, and some were of the white man's bronze, 
 long-haired, beards goat-shaped, the figure of them striking, 
 with grass hats, dungaree trousers, brown shanks, and shirts 
 of several dyes exposing their furry breasts. They took no 
 notice of me whatever. The decks were dark with dirt, in- 
 sufferably heaped up with caboose, boats, casks, pumps, and 
 some mid-ship arrangement for boiling blubber. A smell of 
 grease hung cold and nasty in the atmosphere. 
 
 I faced aft, and was moving that way when a tall figure 
 rose through the deck from under a sort of wooden hood which 
 yawned at the wheel. I instantly guessed him the captain by 
 the colonel's description ; he was lean and hollow, with high 
 cheek bones and a clean shaven face, yellow as any of his 
 men forward, buttoned up in an old frock coat, and he wore a 
 grey wideawake, the brim turned down. His eye came to me 
 without any expression of interest ; I judged by his manner 
 his ship had been much visited. 
 
 I went straight up to him, and lifting my cap, asked him 
 if he was the master of this barque. 
 
 ' I am,' he replied, with the usual American drawl. 
 
 ' I have come off,' said I, ' to speak with you on a matter 
 of the deepest interest to myself. I just now met a gentleman 
 who told me that south of the Horn you sighted a large hull, 
 high and dry upon the ice. Last July a ship named the 
 "Lady Emma" was dismasted and abandoned by her crew, 
 who left three people aboard ; the men quitted her much
 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON THE ICE 219 
 
 about the spot where you sighted the wreck. One of the 
 people remaining in her was Captain Burke, her commander ; 
 the others were his wife and a young lady named Miss Otway. 
 I was engaged to be married to that young lady, sir, and came 
 here, having arrived from England on the thirteenth, believing 
 that a body which had been found at sea and brought to Cape 
 Town was Miss Otway's. It is not so. The remains are not 
 hers. God knows but that, if the hull you sighted be the 
 " Lady Emma," the three may be living aboard in a hopeless 
 state ! Will you tell me all you can recollect of her appear- 
 ance and situation ? ' 
 
 In speaking I had insensibly worked myself up, and ended 
 with my voice broken by agitation. He looked me steadily in 
 the face, and when I had ended, after a minute's silence, 
 said : 
 
 ' Friend, follow me into the cabin, and I'll tell thee all I 
 know.' 
 
 He led me down a narrow staircase with a little brown, 
 gloomy interior, whose equipment, glorious as was the day 
 outside, was barely revealed by the light that struggled 
 through the frame of dirty glass overhead. The shaft of 
 mizzenmast pierced the deck and was ringed by a number of 
 polished harpoons, which glanced in the gloom with the blue 
 gleam of the razor. A squab square table was set in the 
 midst of this cabin, and on either hand was a locker, rugged 
 and jagged, as though generations of whalemen had cut up 
 plug tobacco upon the lid. 
 
 The captain told me to sit down, and with a stride or two 
 of his long legs vanished inside a small berth abaft the 
 mizzenmast. He reappeared, holding a volume which proved 
 to be his log-book ; this he placed upon the table, and sat 
 down in front of it. 
 
 ' What might thy name be ? ' he asked, whilst he turned 
 the leaves of the book. 
 
 ' Mr. Moore,' I answered. 
 
 He fastened his eyes on the page, and, after reading 
 awhile, said : 
 
 1 We sighted the ship on the ice on the morning of Octo- 
 ber 13. It had been blowing a hard gale ill through the 
 night, but it slackened down airly in the morning, and we put 
 her before it ; but so high a sea was running that had I seen 
 that thar hull full of men I could have done nothing for them.' 
 He ran his finger along the page, and continued : ' The lati-
 
 220 HEART OF OAK 
 
 tude in which that wreck lies is GO and the longitude — I'm 
 giving it thee by thy Greenwich time — will be 45° 28' W.' 
 
 I pulled out my note-book and entered these figures. 
 
 ' Though,' he went on, ' she looks to be lying on ice, it's 
 land that cradles her. It's what's marked down as Corona- 
 tion Island, and's the westermost of the South Orkneys. She 
 lies plain in sight of the sea, onless the ice since then has 
 come together and blocked her out.' 
 
 1 Did you get a good view of her ? ' 
 
 ' Ho, yes ; I had her clear for ten minutes, watching for 
 smoke for a signal ; and I then gave the glass to the mate, 
 who likewise looked till the run of the land hid her.' 
 
 1 Will you describe her as you remember her ? ' 
 
 ' Ho, yes. She was black, a lump of a ship she looked ; 
 wal, I daresay all seven hundred tons. What was the burthen 
 of thy vessel, Mr. Moore ? ' 
 
 ' Six hundred,' I answered. 
 
 ' Ho, wal, we was a good ways off, and that thar hull 
 might as wal be six as seven hundred tons.' 
 
 ' Was she clean dismasted ? ' 
 
 ' Clean ? — wal, my mate arterwards said there was a 
 Stump of foremast standing. I didn't observe it.' 
 
 'But it must be the ship — the "Lady Emma" herself ! ' 
 I cried, almost shouting in my excitement. ' When her 
 masts went over the side, twelve feet of the foremast re- 
 mained.' 
 
 He nodded gravely ; but his long, hollow, yellow face 
 reflected nothing of my emotion, no more than had he been a 
 sheep. 
 
 ' Did you see nothing whatever to hint at there being life 
 on board ? ' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' Nothin',' he answered ; ' she hung betwixt thirty and forty 
 foot high above the wash of the sea, on a big ledge of ice, with 
 the white cliffs going up behind her. Haow she so perched 
 herself beats all my going a-fishing ; onless the ice jerked her 
 up into it, for when them bergs are took with convulsions 
 their tricks are queerer than their shapes by su'thin', and 
 that's a fact.' 
 
 ' You saw nothing to hint at life on board ? ' I repeated. 
 
 He shook his head with solemn emphasis. 
 
 ' Your mate saw nothing ? ' 
 
 Again he wagged his head. 
 
 ' Captain, tell me — you are an old hand — could people
 
 THE SHIP SEEN ON THE ICE 221 
 
 support life in that craft as she lies there, supposing her to 
 have been stranded since July last ? ' 
 
 ' No, I reckon.' 
 
 ' But would not the people on seeing your ship pass have 
 made a smoke, have shown some signal, that you could 
 report life as helpless there since you could not rescue it ? ' 
 
 ' Wal,' he answered, ' supposing folks aboard, thee's not to 
 reckon they'd be always keeping a look-out. It's mighty cold 
 down thar, an' they'll be mostly sitting under hatches, an' if 
 they've been thar since July, as thee says, they'll have growed 
 a little tired, I guess, by this here time of watching for su' thin' 
 to happen.' 
 
 ' Is she accessible ? ' 
 
 ' Haow ? ' 
 
 'Is she to be got at by the people of a ship sighting hei, 
 or sent to her ? ' 
 
 ' There was a mighty biling of water all along under where 
 she was,' he answered. ' Thee'd need a quiet day ; but quiet 
 days are to be had, bar the swell. Folks have landed afore 
 and they'll land again. Ho, yes ! If thy friends are locked 
 up in that thar hull, they're to be got out of her.' 
 
 ' Suppose her there since July ; will you believe she has 
 been boarded and the people released ? ' 
 
 ' Why,' he answered, ' if she's been lying fair and square, 
 clear in sight as she now is, since that month thee names, it's 
 more'n likely the folks are out of her. But no vessel was 
 ever put by herself in the situation of that craft. I reckon 
 she's been worked up into it arter having lain ice-locked, 
 which may sinnify that for months she's been hid, so that for 
 all we're to know that thar hull may have been the first that 
 passed close in with the island since the ice broke away and 
 exposed her.' 
 
 I listened with a feverish passion of attention, devouring 
 every syllable his drawling tongue dropped. 
 
 ' Have you a chart of that island ? ' I asked. 
 
 He nodded gravely and stood up. 
 
 ' I'm temperance aft, here,' said he. ' I can offer thee 
 nothing stronger than lemonade.' 
 
 I was too violently agitated to thank him decently, and 
 stuttering out an awkward acknowledgment, begged him 
 again to let me see the chart of the island. He took the log- 
 book with him to his berth, and returning, spread before me 
 a chart representing a considerable expanse of the seas off the
 
 222 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Horn. My sight was now used to the gloom ; when he put 
 his finger upon the place where he had seen the wreck I bent 
 close, and observed that he indicated an indent in the tracing 
 marked Palmer's Bay. 
 
 I entered this in my note-book and asked if he would sell 
 the chart. He couldn't spare it, he said, but added I might 
 easily furnish myself with what I wanted in that way at Cape 
 Town. 
 
 My spirits were in such a tumult, my heart beat so wildly, 
 the pulses of my head throbbed so, there was so much feverish 
 confusion of mind and brain, I could scarcely rally my wits to 
 the task of further questioning him ; I seemed, indeed, scarcely 
 able to understand him. I cannot express my amazement, 
 the emotions that swelled my heart. 'Twas as sure as that I 
 lived that the hull seen by this man was the ' Lady Emma,' 
 and even whilst I bent over the chart, whilst I lifted up my 
 eyes to look at him, the thought of the measureless distance 
 at which the wreck lay, of Marie perhaps being at this very 
 time alive in her ; then the imagination of her having been 
 rescued long since, then the fancy of the hull as a huge coffin 
 in which my dear one lay frozen and dead ; all this, I say, 
 worked in me like a madness ; I was beside myself, and I 
 pored upon the chart panting, the sweat streaming from my 
 brows, my hands cold as stone. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 THE BKIG 'ALBATKOSS' 
 
 I remained, nevertheless, in the cabin of the whaler until the 
 captain greAV impatient and showed signs of wishing to be rid 
 of me, on which I thanked him, shook hands, and was rowed 
 ashore. 
 
 I drove to the boarding-house and there found the follow- 
 ing letter — 
 
 « Mowbray : December 17, 1860. 
 
 ' Mr. Hoskins' compliments to Mr. Moore. He has ob- 
 tained leave to open the grave and will, with Mr. Moore's 
 permission, call for him in a closed carriage at five o'clock 
 to-morrow afternoon.' 
 
 This gave a new turn to my thoughts. My first humour 
 was to decline the invitation. It was not Marie who lay in
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 223 
 
 that grave, and I did not like the thought of the memory the 
 sight would create. But after reflecting awhile, I resolved to 
 attend, a glance would give sinews to the confirmation of the 
 pictures. Sir Mortimer would also wish that I should take 
 every measure to satisfy myself as to the identity of the 
 remains. 
 
 Having written an answer, I went downstairs and sent ifc 
 to the post by a servant, by which hour dinner was ready and 
 I took my place. Five of us were at table, including the lady 
 of the house, who carved. The colonel sitting opposite me 
 almost immediately asked what news I had got of the ship 
 seen on the ice. I had made up my mind to talk, partly 
 because it did me good to do so, partly because I never could 
 tell what hints and news might follow upon free speech. 
 
 I answered that the dismasted hull the captain of the 
 whaler had seen was the ' Lady Emma.' 
 
 ' Does he think there are people locked up in her ? ' cried 
 the colonel, with excitement. 
 
 A Dutch gentleman (I will call him Pollak) who sat next 
 him inquired with civil curiosity what we were talking about. 
 On which 1 put down my knife and fork and plainly related 
 the story of the voyage of Marie Otway for her health, the 
 dismasting of the ship, her abandonment by the sailors, the 
 reason of my visiting the Cape, and I told him how I knew 
 by the photographs that the body which had been brought to 
 Cape Town was not Marie's ; but I said nothing about the 
 opening of her grave ; I judged that Mr. Hoskins would not be 
 pleased to find a gaping crowd in the cemetery at such a time. 
 
 They listened to me with deep attention. All saving the 
 colonel had heard of the arrival of the schooner with the 
 body ; indeed — which was extraordinary — the Dutch gentle- 
 man was one of a few who had been present when the 
 remains were taken out of the cask. I had passed several 
 hours a clay since my arrival in this man's company, and now 
 learnt for the first time that he had seen the body. 
 
 It was no season, however, for questioning him, and the 
 conversation of the table went to the wreck seen by the cap- 
 tain of the whaler. 
 
 All could have observed in my manner that I was deeply 
 stirred ; I could scarcely eat ; I felt thirst only. The colonel 
 talked fluently, but not serviceably : but I listened with kind- 
 ness, for I was grateful to him for the accident of this asto- 
 nishing discovery.
 
 224 HEART OF OAK 
 
 After dinner I went on to the stoep to breathe the fresh 
 air and smoke and think ; I hoped that the others, remarking 
 the state of my mind, would leave me alone ; they did so ; the 
 colonel, the Dutch gentleman, and two others, who arrived 
 after dinner, drinking coffee at a table at the other end of the 
 verandah. Their conversation flowed in a low hum, but that 
 it concerned the topic we talked over at dinner, I knew by the 
 occasional looks one or another directed my way. 
 
 At last the Dutch gentleman, Mr. Pollak, came from his 
 party, and pulling a chair to my side, seated himself. He 
 said, speaking with an excellent English accent : 
 
 ' I have thought as I saw the body you would wish me to 
 describe it. It was not to be spoken of at table.' 
 
 ' The photographs were ghastly pictures,' said I. 
 
 • Ach, Gott ! ' he cried, with such a roll of his eyes under 
 the lids as made them balls of porcelain. ' But how should 
 anyone — the handsomest — appear who was five weeks in 
 spirits after having been drowned and lifted out of the sea ? 
 And still her hair was long and fair, and fine, and there was 
 a shadow of beauty in the mask of her face— all saw it. It 
 breathed like a perfume from a dead flower.' 
 
 ' She was not Miss Otway,' said I. 
 
 Ho described every feature, and I continued to shako my 
 head. 
 
 ' No, no,' said I, ' she is not Miss Otway. The girl I want 
 is in that ship on the ice ; yet— is she there ? ' 
 
 ' Well, it must be found out,' said he. 
 
 ' I shall go about it to-morrow.' 
 
 ' Mr. Moore,' said he, after a short silence, ' you are a 
 stranger in Cape Town. I have many friends. If I can be 
 useful, you will, I beg, command me.' 
 
 I thanked him and said I had brought a few letters of 
 introduction, but, conceiving the purpose of my visit ended 
 when I viewed the photographs, I had called nowhere. I 
 slightly referred to my position in London — that is, as a 
 partner in my father's bank — and added that the manager of 
 a South African bank, whose headquarters were in Cape 
 Town, had been a senior clerk in my father's office, but that I 
 had not visited him. 
 
 'Would not the British admiral who is at St. Simon's 
 Town,' said he, ' send out a ship of war to search for the 
 wreck ? ' 
 
 I replied quickly, ' No, I must go myself,' and added,
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 225 
 
 ' You may not have had experience in the ways of British 
 officials.' 
 
 He smiled and answered, ' The admiral might give you 
 leave to go in the ship he sent.' 
 
 ' I can tell you exactly how it would he,' said I. ' I go to 
 the admiral and the admiral demands the log-book of the 
 whaler. The whaler has sailed. The admiral requires full 
 particulars of the wreck before despatching one of his ships to 
 a perilous part of the world ; full particulars can be obtained 
 only in London. By the time the British admiral sees his 
 way, the hull, when sought, has disappeared.' 
 
 He smiled again, stroking his chin. 
 
 ' When I left the whaler,' said I, finding it eased my heart 
 to talk, and pleased with his plain sympathy, ' I had formed a 
 resolution. It may be, sir, that you are able to help me in it.' 
 
 He bowed. 
 
 ' I intend at once — that is, to-morrow, if to-morrow will 
 provide me with the opportunity — to hire a vessel and sail for 
 Coronation Island as promptly as she can be equipped and 
 victualled.' 
 
 ' Ah ! ' he exclaimed, ' that looks like business. It will be 
 expensive ' 
 
 I interrupted him with an exclamation. 
 
 ' Yes,' he exclaimed, a little ruefully, ' that should not be 
 thought of. It will be a marvellous, noble thing to save the 
 life of your young lady and her companions. How can I 
 help, now ? — let me see. I am acquainted with most of the 
 leading merchants here. I believe that my friend Mr. 
 Vanderbyl is expecting a consignment from our Australian 
 port. Perhaps the vessel has arrived. I will inquire. If it 
 is the same brig that was here last spring she will be the very 
 boat for you. Her name is the 'Albatross." Did you observe 
 a brig painted white amongst the shipping when you went on 
 board the whaler ? ' 
 
 < I did not.' 
 
 ' If she comes with the same captain, and can be hired, he 
 will be your man : Captain Christopher Cliffe, a little clever, 
 honest, sober sailor. I know him very well. He was second 
 mate of a ship I sailed to England in. Well, I will inquire 
 and see what is to be done, and you also will inquire. But 
 the " Albatross " is your ship, sir — a clipper. She slides like 
 a knife through the sea, and should put you abreast of the 
 hull as quickly as steam.' 
 
 Q
 
 226 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' But she is not yet arrived.' 
 ' She is due.' 
 
 1 She will need time to discharge her cargo.' 
 ' If she is in the bay,' said he, ' she should be able to sail 
 with you in a fortnight, and that is as quick as gold itself 
 shall let you be in this climate.' 
 
 I was excited by his praise of the brig, and, standing up, I 
 asked him to accompany me to the waterside, and search the 
 bay with his sight for her. But he had an engagement, so I 
 stepped forth alone, there still remaining a long evening of 
 daylight. 
 
 I made my way to the same place I had embarked from 
 that afternoon, and looking at the scene of bay which glowed 
 like the sky with the evening splendour, stretching out from 
 my feet, and brimming into gold trembling into purple to the 
 white beach abreast, which ran in a curve flashing like light 
 against the lip of the brine, I counted no less than twenty- two 
 ships riding to their anchors : vessels of all rigs and of several 
 nationalities, and, as though heaven were on my side in this 
 time of trial and grief, I saw what I guessed was the vessel I 
 was here to look for. She lay, curiously enough, immediately 
 astern of the whaler — a milk-white figure, slightly swaying 
 on the satin-smooth heave, with wet green gleams trembling 
 along her as she lifted her metal sheathing. 
 
 I said to a coloured waterman who stood near, pointing to 
 the brig : 
 
 ' What brig is that, do you know ? ' 
 He answered immediately, ' De " Albatross," boss ! ' 
 'Ha!' 
 
 1 From Sydney, boss.' 
 ' When did she arrive ? ' 
 ' Two yastardays, boss.' 
 
 But it was not wonderful she should have escaped my 
 observation. In going and coming from the whaler I had 
 thought of nothing but what I was to hear and what I had 
 heard ; and earlier, my sight, often as it wandered to the 
 shipping, never paused to distinguish. 
 
 I saw no more of my Dutch friend till next morning, 
 when, at eleven o'clock, whilst I was mailing ready to drive 
 into the town and inquire about the brig ' Albatross,' a ser- 
 vant knocked on the door, and said Mr. Pollak was below 
 with another, and wished to see me. I at once descended. 
 His companion was a little man, almost a dwarf; his nose
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 227 
 
 was as long as Punch's, his mouth much like that puppet's, 
 wide and thin, with the look of a smirk in the curl of the lips 
 at either extremity ; he wore little slips of grey whiskers ; 
 his eyes were deep sunk, grey and kindly, and he blinked 
 them with a nervous fury when he dodged a sort of sea-bow 
 on Mr. Pollak introducing him. He was almost bald, and 
 was perhaps fifty-five years of age, much curved in the back, 
 his shanks slightly arching out. Mr. Pollak called him 
 Captain Christopher Cliffe, and introduced him as master 
 and part-owner of the brig ' Albatross.' 
 
 1 1 know,' said the worthy Dutchman, ' that time is 
 precious to you. I am glad we have found you in. I cannot 
 stay ; but I will leave Captain Cliffe behind me to talk with 
 
 Andvpicking up his hat he nodded and went out. 
 
 I asked the little man if Mr. Pollak had told him my 
 story. 
 
 ' Enough,' he answered, ' to make me understand there 
 is reason to hurry.' 
 
 'The whaler "Sea Queen,"' said I, 'lying just ahead 
 of you ' 
 
 ' She sailed this morning,' he interrupted. 
 
 1 She sighted a hull high and dry on the ice of Coronation 
 Island, New Orkneys,' said I, pulling out my note-book to 
 give him the date. ' That hull, when she was made a raft of 
 by the loss of her masts, was abandoned by the crew in 
 latitude 58° 45' south, longitude 45° 10' west. Three people 
 were left in her — one of them a young lady, dearer to me 
 than my heart's blood. The "Lady Emma" is as surely 
 the hull that was seen by the Yankee as that you who hear 
 me are alive.' 
 
 ' You think to find the people still locked up in her ? ' 
 said he, blinking and snapping his lips with many convulsive 
 grimaces. 
 
 ' I mean to find that out. Is your brig for hire ? ' 
 
 'Ay.' 
 
 ' When will she be ready ? ' 
 
 ' I hope to have the remaining cargo out of her by 
 Monday next ; she's then at your service.' 
 
 ' Have you a crew ? ' 
 
 ' I'll get a good 'un when you're ready, sir.' 
 
 ' What's the tonnage of the vessel ? ' 
 
 ' One hundred and seventy register.' 
 
 Q 2
 
 22 S HEART OF OAK 
 
 • What'll be tlie cost ? ' 
 
 ' Thirty shillings per ton a month, we finding everything, 
 or fifteen shillings per ton a month and you finding everything.' 
 
 I put down the figures, and said, ' How long is it going to 
 take the brig to arrive off the island ? ' 
 
 He talked a little to himself, blinking and grimacing 
 absurdly, and replied, ' Call it a month.' 
 
 I I should like to see the brig, Captain Cliffe.' 
 ' At once, if you will, sir.' 
 
 I sent for a cab and we drove to the waterside. He talked 
 freely when he was out of the house and driving. I found 
 something very honest and diverting in this little man's looks 
 and manner of speech. He had an amazingly brisk and 
 nimble mind, I thought ; I got at that in a very little while. 
 He went behind my questions, fetched a number of new 
 possibilities for hope to feed on out of the scheme of the 
 search, and heartened me vastly by his clear view and state- 
 ment of my wishes and plans — that is, he said that the hull 
 sighted by the whaler was beyond all question the wreck 
 of the ' Lady Emma ' ; everything tallied — colour of sides, 
 situation, time, down to the very stump of foremast. Then, 
 since three were abandoned in her, why shouldn't they still be 
 aboard ? Of course it was my duty, he said, to sail right 
 away. Who wouldn't, to deliver his young lady out of such a 
 scene of horror ? But humanity was in it too. The hull was 
 to be searched for and overhauled, and I was quite right in 
 reckoning that if I left that job to the British Admiral the 
 hulk would have disappeared, or the people inside have 
 perished into statues of ice, before the official mind had 
 settled what to do. 
 
 ' Not unlikely,' said he as we drove along, ' the parties 
 have been taken out. Sealers and whalers are constantly 
 moving about those waters ; but we aren't to think of that. 
 If they're gone, so much the better, for then they're safe 
 elsewhere ; but it's your business to consider that they're still 
 there and to fetch 'em.' 
 
 Thus we talked, and as we rowed to the brig we continued 
 to chat, he entering very fully into the cost and character of 
 the equipment we should require, the time we should occupy, 
 supposing them alive in the hull, whether we returned with 
 them to the Cape or headed for the nearest South American 
 port. 
 
 My spirits rose under the influence of this man's conversa-
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 229 
 
 tion. His practical mind put everything so clearly that in 
 imagination, even whilst we made for the" brig, I had realised 
 my hopes— I had rescued Mario and her companions — we 
 were proceeding home ! 
 
 The brig did not show so milk-white when close to as 
 from the beach ; rusty blood-like stains lay dried in scars 
 under the bolt heads and other metal projections, but her 
 figure gained in beauty when approached. I am no sailor, 
 but when I ran my eye over her moulded shape, observed her 
 keen entry, the swan-like curve of her run lifting to an 
 elliptical stern, with a swell of white side that made me 
 think of a polished heave of sea, I would have wagered there 
 were few swifter vessels of her rig and tonnage then afloat. 
 A lighter or something of that sort was alongside receiving 
 cargo ; a man in a cloth cap and half Wellington boots was 
 perched on the rail close to where the cargo was going over 
 the side ; he made notes with a pencil in a little book ; three 
 or four coloured men were winding at a winch. I had caught, 
 whilst in the boat, the clinking noise of the pawls slipping 
 over the sheet-calm water hi a sort of music that wanted but 
 the accompaniment of a hurricane lung or two to furnish out 
 a fine ocean concert. The man on the rail touched his cap 
 when we gained the deck. 
 
 1 That's my mate, Mr. Bland,' said Captain Cliffe. * He's 
 a good seaman. I can recommend him.' 
 
 I sent a glance of curiosity at the sailer, guessing if I 
 hired this brig he would go with us ; he had the face of a 
 sheep, dark eyes set far back close against his ears, a thick 
 black beard, and a weather-tanned skin, filled with the holes 
 of small- pox. An ugly man indeed ! Yet you saw honesty 
 and intelligence like a light of good humour in the expression 
 of him. 
 
 Captain Cliffe took me round the decks of the little craft 
 first of all. I had no eye for points of marine equipment, 
 yet noticed a smart little galley, with red tiles on the floor, 
 a seat athwartships, and a small array of saucepans, kettles, 
 and the like, all very clean. The windlass looked small, so 
 roomy was the forecastle. The captain then took me aft to 
 the companion, which was painted green, trotting by my side, 
 of the height of a boy, from time to time looking up into my 
 face to observe if I was pleased. 
 
 I halted in the companion and asked how many boats he 
 carried ; he answered two, and pointed to a long-boat stowed
 
 230 HEART OF OAK 
 
 near the galley, this side of it, and then to the water astern, 
 where a small boat was floating. 
 
 ' We ought,' said I, ' to go well provided with boats of an 
 exact form and strength for passing through the breach of the 
 sea. The waves break heavily under the hull, the whaling 
 captain said, and we must be prepared for a high surf the 
 whole length of the coast.' 
 
 ' You're quite right, sir,' said the little man. ' But if we 
 come to terms you've only got to commission me, and what- 
 ever's needful I'll see to. For instance, there's a height of ice 
 cliff, and grappling irons '11 be wanted. And we should carry 
 a few lengths of rope ladder. It isn't as though we had to find 
 her. We knoio she's high and dry. Make the worst of it and 
 call it fifty feet above the wash. That's sure unless the ice 
 had shifted her. And we've got to be provided with machinery 
 .for entering.' 
 
 Thus speaking he descended and I followed. 
 
 The companion steps were almost up and down ; on the 
 right, at the bottom of the ladder, was a sleeping berth, a sort 
 of cupboard with a sliding door like a smacksman's bedroom ; 
 on the left was the main cabin, a larger interior than I ex- 
 pected to see. It was well lighted by a frame of windows 
 overhead and round scuttles in the walls, and furnished with 
 a table, locker seats, and a few camp stools. Forward was a 
 brightly polished brass fireplace. Three small berths were 
 bulkheaded off this living room, one of which the captain told 
 me was a sail and boatswain's locker, and the other a bread 
 and store locker. ' But we can clear 'em out,' said he, ' when 
 they come to be wanted.' 
 
 I was satisfied, and then and there resolved to hire 
 this brig and sail quickly for that far-off ice-clad island. 
 I sat down on one of the lockers and asked the captain 
 to take pen and paper, and we talked about what would 
 be required, making notes, and reckoning up the expenses 
 till I bethought me of my engagement with Mr. Hoskins. 
 And with reluctance and a hearty handshake took my 
 leave. 
 
 I was rowed ashore, and on the way to the boarding-house 
 called at the bank whose manager had been my father's clerk. 
 He was astonished and delighted to see me ; ho had known 
 me, indeed, ever since I was an Eton schoolboy. I had no 
 time on this occasion to enter fully into the cause of my being 
 at the Cape ; my immediate purpose was served when he as-
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 231 
 
 sured me that I was welcome to draw upon the bank to the 
 amount I wanted. 
 
 At five o'clock Mr. Hoskins drove up to the boarding-house, 
 and we at once started for the cemetery. He was alone in a 
 closed carriage, and was dressed in mourning as deep as man's 
 apparel will express grief. I, too, had been careful to clothe 
 myself in black. I had not seen Mr. Hoskins since the arrival 
 of the ' Cambrian,' and his voice and presence carried me on 
 board again, renewed the quiet incidents of the passage, and 
 returned me in imagination to Southampton on that memor- 
 able day of my departure. He was pale and melancholy, and 
 his spirits seemed depressed with thought of the distressing 
 ceremony we were bent upon. 
 
 ' I am sorry now,' said he, as he drove along, ' that I soli- 
 cited permission to inspect the remains. The photographs 
 were perfectly convincing; and still I felt it— I feel it — my 
 duty to make as sure as opportunity admits. Captain Oilier 
 will expect me to tell him all that it was in my power to learn. 
 Nor, perhaps, should I feel perfectly satisfied to erect the 
 monument I intend for my poor child without looking into 
 her coffin to see that it is she herself who will be under it.' 
 
 I answered that this melancholy undertaking was even less 
 needful to me than to him ; but that, like himself, I saw the 
 necessity of confirming my own opinion by every possible tes- 
 timony, for the peace of my own heart as well as for the satis- 
 faction of Miss Otway's father. 
 
 We then talked of my chances of finding Marie in the hull 
 
 upon the island, and I told him how I had hired the brig 
 
 ' Albatross ' and intended myself to sail in her as soon as she 
 
 discharged her cargo and was ready for sea, which I hoped 
 
 would be about the close of the following week. 
 
 I saw little of the scenery we were driven by ; we passed 
 a number of gigantic aloes on the roadside ; the hard blue 
 mountains, towering into the heavens with keenly cut skylines, 
 with great spaces of their sides lustrous with the trembling 
 and delicate foliage of the silver tree, wound with us as we 
 wound, or shadowed us as we drove ; they were an eternal 
 presence, like the cloudless blue over them. 
 
 Whilst Mr. Hoskins was telling me how he contrived to 
 obtain an order for the exhumation of the remains, we arrived 
 at the cemetery, where we alighted, and my companion con- 
 ducted me to the grave, whose situation he was exactly ac- 
 quainted with. A number of persons were beside the grave ;
 
 232 HEART OF OAK 
 
 two were sextons, armed with mattocks, or spades, the others 
 were strangers and remained so to me ; but one, I believe, 
 was a medical man, and another a government official. They 
 raised their hats to us, and after the exchange of a few com- 
 monplace greetings, decorously attuned, the diggers went to 
 work. 
 
 The body had lain in this grave since August— four months. 
 The heat thrilled in a sort of surging wave that closed upon 
 the respiration with a sense of suffocation whilst we stood 
 watching the diggers. I shuddered at the idea of looking. I 
 had come to Cape Town conceiving that this body was Marie's, 
 I now knew it was not hers ; nevertheless, I guessed that the 
 aspect of the dead face, at rest and out of sight under the cleav- 
 ing spades, must become a memory that would be inseparably 
 associated with Marie's image, whether I was to behold her 
 again or not, and my spirits shrunk as I stood watching. 
 
 The soil was red, and the diggers turned it cheerily. Mr. 
 Hoskins talked in a low tone apart with one of the strangers ; 
 that man was probably an undertaker or connected with the 
 firm of buriers. Many rich strange flowers and plants glowed 
 like jewels or glanced like snow upon or about the graves 
 round about ; it was a big tract of ground, all the sculptures, 
 and monuments of several sorts showing at a distance sharp 
 as carvings in ivory through the hot rare blue atmosphere. 
 
 The group of us were the only living occupants of that 
 field of sleepers. Doubtless the order had gone forth for all 
 to be excluded till the coffin had been reburied. They came 
 to it at last ; it was raised with some trouble — a plain black 
 box — and placed upon the edge of the grave, and without an 
 instant's loss of time the person with whom Mr. Hoskins had 
 been conversing, unscrewed the lid — and we looked. 
 
 I had expected to behold something that was to shock the 
 sight, and create a memory of pain and disgust ; instead, there 
 lay before us, her head pillowed, her arms peacefully crossed, 
 the form of a young woman whose face, through chymic 
 changes explicable only by the pen of science, had filled and 
 freshened in complexion to an aspect easily supportable by the 
 most nervous or sensitive eye. The flesh was discoloured ; in 
 the pictures it had shown as an ulcerous ghastly white ; but 
 here, in this coffin, the face was far more defined and dis- 
 tinguishable in lineament, I may even add in expression, than 
 in the photographs. I could almost understand my Dutch 
 friend's reference to a shadow of beauty lurking in this dead
 
 THE BRIG 'ALBATROSS' 233 
 
 mask of countenance. The hair was very fair, and beautifully 
 abundant, but it was not the hair of Marie ; the hands were 
 not Marie's. Now that I looked upon her I observed that she 
 resembled Marie to a less degree even than the pictures ex- 
 pressed the likeness. I shook my head and drew back a pace, 
 covering my face, the sight was pitiful — I could not bear to 
 look beyond a moment or two. I thought of that form in the 
 loneliness of the ocean off the Horn, and then again I was 
 agitated by a violent reaction in my spirits, for though I had 
 been certain it would not prove Marie, yet I knew not what I 
 was to behold either, what tragic, heart-subduing surprise 
 that coffin might have in store for me, and I shrunk back, 
 shaking my head and hiding my face. 
 
 Mr. Hoskins viewed the remains in silence, then sobbed, 
 and I looked at him. Our eyes met across the coffin, and 
 exclaiming, ' It is my daughter, Mr. Moore ! It is Charlotte ; 
 the wife of Captain Henry Oilier,' he sank upon his knees 
 and folded his hands in prayer beside his child. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 
 
 I had arrived at Cape Town on December 13, and on the 26th 
 of the same month the colonial brig ' Albatross ' lay in Table 
 Bay, waiting for me to go aboard in order to sail. This was 
 surely what the shipowners would call ' prompt despatch ' ! 
 
 On the morning of the 26th I said good-bye to my friends 
 in the boarding-house and drove to one of the jetties where 
 Captain Cliffe awaited me. I was accompanied by the colonel 
 and Mr. Pollak. A considerable crowd had assembled to see 
 me embark ; the story had leaked out ; it was in the papers 
 tbat I had come to the Cape to identify the body brought 
 from sea by the ' Emerald,' and that, being satisfied it was 
 not that of the girl I was in search of, I was going to the 
 New Orkneys in the hope of finding her locked up in a wreck 
 described as corresponding in every material detail with the 
 hull of the ' Lady Emma.' 
 
 It was an extraordinary romance ; Mr. Pollak had assured 
 me that all Cape Town was talking about it. For the first 
 time in my life I was made to understand the inconvenience 
 and discomfort of publicity. A number of ladies were in the
 
 234 HEART OF OAK 
 
 crowd, and they thrust most unceremoniously forward to 
 catch sight of me. When I got into the boat the crowd good- 
 naturedly cheered ; I did not feel easy till the oars were dip- 
 ping and the boat under way, for the crowd was bringing 
 others, and as we rowed from the jetty I saw some men and 
 women running towards the water. 
 
 Mr. Pollak and the colonel went on board with me. It 
 was a rich glowing day, a number of white steam-like clouds 
 were circling above Cape Town, but low over the water, brush- 
 ing it into a wide sheet of rippling blue splendour, a hot, fresh 
 breeze was blowing ; it swept straight down the bay, with a 
 brassy light in the air that made you think of the wind 
 as coloured by the yellow glares of the sandy land it had 
 travelled across. 
 
 Mr. Pollak had on several occasions visited the brig ; the 
 colonel had not before viewed her close. He was greatly 
 pleased, and hummed a tune approvingly as he accompanied 
 me about the decks. One detail of furniture, his own sug- 
 gestion, he lingered over ; it was a bright brass cannon 
 mounted on the quarter-deck. 
 
 4 He'll do for you ! ' he exclaimed, slapping the breech of 
 the piece. ' That should fetch an echo Joud enough to 
 awaken the dead.' 
 
 A little further aft stood a mortar, with its round mouth 
 gaping at the sky. 
 
 ' What's that for ? ' asked the colonel. ' Isn't the gun 
 noisy enough to alarm 'em if they're aboard ? ' 
 
 ' It is my idea,' said Mr. Pollak. ' Suppose it should be 
 impossible to scale the slope and reach the ship ; here is an 
 engine that will throw you a ball and line which anyone on 
 board may catch and pull ladders up by.' 
 ' Good ! ' exclaimed the colonel. 
 
 We then examined the two fresh boats which Captain 
 Cliffe had purchased on my behalf ; they were large, strong, 
 handsome whale-boats, strengthened by iron beams or girders 
 under the thwarts ; and made lifeboats of by a quantity of 
 cork fenders carefully laced or otherwise seamed along the 
 sides. 
 
 ' These,' said I, ' together with rope ladders hooked for 
 scaling, and grappling irons, form my machinery.' 
 
 ' It is all you will need,' said Mr. Pollak, ' and I am sure 
 everyone must pray that God will bless and prosper your 
 noble voyage.'
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 235 
 
 I took tlie worthy Dutchman's hand and thanked him 
 with a silent grip. 
 
 At that moment the windlass began to clank ; immedi- 
 ately a hoarse voice bawled out a song whose burthen was 
 caught and flung in thunder into the air by the seven or eight 
 hearts who bowed and rose at the windlass handles. 
 
 ' Come, Mr. Pollak ; come colonel,' I exclaimed ; ' there's 
 time for a bumper.' 
 
 I called to the Captain to send aft the lad who was to 
 wait upon us in the cabin, and descended with my friends. 
 A magnum of champagne was opened, and we filled and 
 drank to the voyage. I obliged Captain Cliffe to come down 
 and drink. He cried through the skylight that he durst not 
 leave the deck for above three minutes ; I told him to come, 
 and the two gentlemen toasted the little man, who delivered, 
 with several grimaces, a brief sailorly speech, full of hope, 
 then rushed on deck. 
 
 I bade Mr. Pollak good-bye with a full heart. The 
 colonel followed him into the boat, which put off, and then 
 hung by on her oars to watch us. At this time the anchor 
 was off the ground, and the crew were making sail on the 
 brig, whose bowsprit, with a white pinion of jib swelling from 
 it, was rounding, finger-like, in a slow, pointing way for the 
 open ; the sheep-faced mate stood on the forecastle shouting 
 orders ; a sailor was at the wheel ; Captain Cliffe crossed the 
 deck from left to right, looking up and around, moving 
 swiftly, a doll of a man, grimacing and blinking at every 
 pause in his nimble trot. 
 
 Some of the ships round about had got our tale, I fancy, 
 or at least the scent of our errand ; since from most of them 
 we were watched by many heads above the rail. Presently 
 the brig's stern was to the wind, her topsails filled, the 
 lighter sails glanced wing-shaped to the yard-arms to the 
 drag of the gear ; I waved my hat from the quarter to my 
 two friends, and they flourished a last farewell. My voyage, 
 strange as any that had ever been undertaken in this world, 
 was begun ! 
 
 We were the only ship at that time leaving the bay, and 
 I think our lonely going must have given a certain majesty 
 and nobleness to the figure of the vessel in the eyes of those 
 who watched us, with the significance of her dangerous, sur- 
 prising, romantic mission going along with her. I don't 
 know what my own sensations were : I was sensible perhaps
 
 236 HEART OF OAK 
 
 of a little triumph of spirits at this getting away so quickly, 
 and then there was the feeling that I was in action, that no 
 time was being lost ; and yet there was a heaviness at my 
 heart too, the chill of doubt, a frosty dread that the errand 
 would prove pi'ofitless, and that if God suffered me to return 
 home it must be as a mourner for Marie. 
 
 But we were sailing through a wide, shining scene of 
 commanding beauty, lofty and gloriously coloured, and the 
 influence of it, I don't doubt, rescued me from the dark mood 
 imagination might have raised. The breeze blew hot, but 
 the sweetness of flowers and fruit was in it, and the scent of 
 the land was brisk with the salt of the sea. In a very little 
 while the seamen had clothed the brig from the main-royal 
 yard to the waterways, and as she floated onwards, now 
 slightly curtseying to a small breathing of swell, the moun- 
 tains went with her, and the ships astern closed into 
 clusters past the tail of our mirror- bright line of wake. The 
 mountains towered on our left ; Cape Town vanished, and we 
 softly drove, with a noise of fountains on either hand, past 
 rich curves of shore on whose margin the huge Atlantic 
 comber formed and fell in snowstorms, with white houses 
 beyond the foam like models in ivory shining amid the 
 greenery. 
 
 And all the time we were alone ! This was the wonderful 
 feature of our departure. I could not see the smallest boat in 
 motion. The water was like a great lonely lake, and the 
 silence on the face of the mountains was in the wind, in a 
 presence that seemed to compel isolation for us, hushing all 
 life off the face of the bay down to where the ships were lying, 
 too far off" to trouble the sense of solitude. 
 
 The crew were now occupied in coiling away the rigging 
 and clearing up the decks, and I had an opportunity of view- 
 ing them. All were white men ; there were eight, together 
 with a cook and a boy to wait upon us aft, making, with cap- 
 tain and mate, twelve of a company, which was plenty. Cliffe 
 had told me he would not ship a certificated second mate ; the 
 man who went as boatswain would relieve the mate and stand 
 a watch. That man was a wiry, middle-aged seaman ; he 
 wore a spread of grey whisker, scissors-trimmed, close to his 
 face, and dark eager eyes which he rolled quickly as a monkey ; 
 he sang out briskly, and sprang about the decks. Little 
 Captain Cliffe, observing that I watched the man, came and 
 stood beside me and spoke up softly to my ear.
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 237 
 
 ' I engaged that cliap because of bis knowledge of the ice. 
 He told me he was seven years whaling in the Pacific and 
 Southern oceans. He is the most wonderful jumper I ever 
 heard of.' 
 
 ' So old as he is ? ' 
 
 ' Forty-five or thereabouts. Men of that sort soon lose 
 the reckoning of their birth. I don't allow their mothers ever 
 enter 'em. They're always the age that suits 'em to be. But 
 look what a life it is, sir ! the iron it will put into a young 
 'un's hair ! the kinks it'll run into a young 'un's back ! All 
 the hard life and the bad food works out through a man's 
 pores after a few years, bows him down, and hardens in his 
 face with a crust of years. He's a marvellous jumper that, 
 sir. Tell ye what he did— and it astonished me. There was a 
 horse and trap standing close beside where we were talking. 
 He turns on a sudden and sings out, " Captain, did yer ever 
 see this done? " and putting his feet together and clenching 
 his fists, he bent his knees, let go of the ground like, and shot 
 as a bolt, clearing the horse till you could see half the length 
 of his own legs of blue sky 'twixt his feet and the animal's 
 back.' 
 
 He gazed up at me blinking and grinning, and added, ' I 
 allow, should it come to any awkward climbing jobs, w T e'll find 
 that covey handy.' 
 
 I lingered a little to watch the brig and the coast. The 
 swell was coming straight out of the wide sea, but the breeze 
 still followed fiery and splendid with the light of that land ; 
 the little ship bowed softly ; the long heave under the bows 
 did not stop her ; she floated with erect spars, her yards 
 square, the canvas breathing like human breasts as her bow- 
 sprit rose and fell ; yet a glance astern showed me she was 
 already whitening the water. 
 
 At every look the high land, purple and hard in that 
 noontide brilliance, yielded new features. It was towering 
 now on to Hont Bay, with a trend which made a mighty 
 shoulder of it as it sounded towards Simon's Town and the 
 Cape of Good Hope. The towering terraces were on our port 
 quarter, with Robben Island to starboard, and ahead was the 
 glittering breast of the Atlantic, with the sea-line hard carved 
 against the faint silvery blue. I looked for a sail, but nothing 
 broke that measureless run of horizon ; the junction of air 
 and water had a wild loveliness, indescribable, thanks perhaps 
 to the violet of the brine that washed the light azure ; though
 
 238 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the fear and mystery of beauty I found in it then doubtless 
 came of the thought of what lay hidden from me hundreds of 
 leagues deep beyond that slope of airy silver. Had we been a 
 ship of ancient explorers the field of ocean could not have 
 shown more barren than my eyes, exploring its recesses under 
 the sharp of my hand, found it. 
 
 Some seamen came aft to spread an awning. They eyed 
 me askew. Of course they knew the brig's mission, and pcr- 
 perhaps thought me a little mad ; but it would be all one to 
 them ; there is worse to be suffered at sea than a cruise off the 
 Horn in the midsummer of this side on such wages as they 
 had signed for, in a tight, well-built brig. In fact, they rolled 
 about their work with a sort of rollicking carriage that made 
 one reckon they had entered upon the voyage with jolly hearts, 
 as on a yachting jaunt, secure from all danger and dirt of 
 cargo ; only it was as likely they'd come on board a little 
 merry, with Jack's custom of farewell. 
 
 I now went below to see to my berth and arrange my traps ; 
 but came to a halt at the cabin table, to lean upon it and think. 
 This interior was wholly unlike the ' Lady Emma's ' ; yet the 
 skylight, the lockers, and several trifling details of cabin fur- 
 niture, brought to my recollection that day in the Thames 
 when I had said good-bye to Marie in her cabin alone. What 
 had been her sufferings since? If she was in the hull she had 
 been imprisoned at this date for five months, and by the time 
 we got to her, six ! For six months she would have been 
 locked up in a motionless hulk, high perched upon a savage 
 island, heavily faced with ice, with a thunder of surf, far down, 
 for ever in her ear, and always the same white, desolate, fierce 
 prospect of frozen cliffs and rolling ocean. Would it not have? 
 killed her ? I clasped my hands in the torment of the thought. 
 Should I be making this voyage to a remote ice-girt island 
 merely to enter the wreck and behold the remains of my 
 Marie as I had looked into that coffin in Cape Town beholding 
 another ? 
 
 I passed into my own berth, a small but comfortable box, 
 and, after busying myself for half an hour, during which I had 
 recalled my mind to something of its former composure, I 
 re-entered the cabin and found the table laid for dinner. The 
 little sea parlour looked cheerful with this hospitable setting. 
 The heel of a windsail buzzed in the skylight. There had 
 happened a little shift of wind whilst I was below, for the 
 brig leaned over and I heard a smart hissing— the seething of
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 239 
 
 foam sliding past ; it was as cooling a noise as the sound of 
 a hard shower of rain on a dusty August day at home. 
 
 I stepped on deck to take a look ; the land was melting 
 into a vast roll of shadow astern and on the port quarter, 
 filming down to the Cape end ; the breeze hung steady, only 
 it came fresher, more fiery and sparkling out here in the wide 
 ocean ; we had changed our course by two or three points, 
 bringing it somewhat abaft the beam ; I saw no cloud, 
 nothing but a glad race of flashing bright blue seas ridging 
 from an horizon that rose into a dome of untarnished blue in 
 the midst of which was the sun, making a dazzling plain of 
 a great surface of water in the north. 
 
 Captain Cliffe came to the compass- stand whilst I stood 
 looking at the card ; I felt his little blinking eyes were upon 
 me when my sight went to the hollow canvas, and to the sea- 
 smoke that from time to time blew away in little puffs from 
 off the lee bow when the brig stooped with a sheering plunge 
 shouldering a knoll of the blue brine into a long roar of foam. 
 
 ' This is good sailing,' said I. 
 
 ' It beats steam, anyhow,' said he, turning to look at the 
 race of wake astern. 
 
 ' What's the speed ? ' 
 
 ' Nine,' he answered with a convulsive grimace of triumph, 
 ' and I understand they never could get more than seven out 
 of the steamer you came out in.' 
 
 The mate walked in the gangway ; I saw but one man 
 forward. The captain told me the crew were at dinner. But 
 whilst I stood first one man and then another came up 
 through a little hole in the fore part of the brig, and in a few 
 minutes half a dozen of them were sprawling and lounging in^ 
 the shadows the canvas made upon the forecastle, smoking** 5 " 
 but scarcely speaking for heat and loathing of movement. 
 
 I could not forbear a smile when I reflected that to all 
 intents and purposes I was veritably the owner of this white 
 brig sweeping south-west, and the master of those people 
 yonder. What would my prosaic friends of the City think of 
 such an adventure as this I was upon ? But put Marie by my 
 side, or bid me know for a God's-truth that she was safe, and 
 I'd have sworn there was nothing in this wide world of 
 delights comparable with such sailing as this. Sickness had 
 been cured by the ' Cambrian.' The heave of the deck, the 
 slant of the hull, the feel of the speeding of the fabric of 
 white cloud through the sun-bright gushing of wind were as
 
 240 HEART OF OAK 
 
 a buoyancy of spirits ; you did not heed thern, yet they 
 worked like wine in the blood. I wanted but peace at my 
 heart, the tranquility of conviction, to have tasted a perfect 
 happiness in this glorious Cape noon of flashing ocean, of 
 rushing brig, and wind filled with the music of the strands. 
 
 My reverie was disturbed — for Cliffe stood silent by my 
 side — by the sight of the boy coming along with the cabin 
 dinner, and presently the captain and I were seated at 
 table. 
 
 This was my first meal aboard, and I often laugh silently 
 when memory returns me the image of my little skipper 
 sitting behind a roast fowl, blinking and stretching his lips at 
 it, then rising and lurching over it, being too short to carve it 
 sitting. He saw amusement in my face, for on beginning to 
 eat he said he often lamented that he had come in at the tail 
 end of his family when nearly all the height had been served 
 out. He was the last born, and arrived when not very many 
 inches were left. He had a brother six foot high, and his 
 mother was a big woman. He told me that he once dined 
 with a company of people when the Queen's health was pro- 
 posed and everyone stood. His neighbour requested him to 
 stand up as the Queen's health was being drunk. He answered 
 he was up. These were the sort of mortifications, he said, to 
 which little men were subjected. 
 
 After a bit, talking always as I now did on the subject of 
 the ' Lady Emma ' and our chances of finding Miss Otway 
 alive in the wreck, I asked if the boatswain of the brig — that 
 jumping seaman who had been whaling seven years — had 
 ever sighted the New Orkneys ? 
 
 ' I didn't think of asking,' he answered, ' but I'll soon find 
 out, sir.' 
 
 ' Would you object to his coming here ? ' 
 
 ' This is your ship, Mr. Moore.' 
 
 ' I'd like to ask him some questions.' 
 
 Ho at once told the boy who waited on us to send Bodkin 
 aft. In a few minutes the man came ; by this time we had 
 dined, but the captain lingered to hear what this boatswain 
 had to say before he went on deck to send the mate to his 
 dinner. 
 
 ' I've been telling this gentleman,' said the captain, lean- 
 ing his little figure against a stanchion a^nd discharging a 
 whole broadside of grimaces at Bodkin, who stood staring at 
 us and around him, astonished at the summons, ' that you've
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 241 
 
 been a-whaling seven years in the Pacific and Southern 
 Ocean.' 
 
 Here Bodkin lifted his hand to his forehead in the seaman's 
 salute to me. 
 
 ' Know anything of the New Orkneys ? ' said the captain 
 with nervous abruptness, like the briskness of a bird. 
 
 ' Well, sir, bin off 'em again and again.' 
 
 ' Sit down,' said I. ' Boy, give Mr. Bodkin a glass of 
 sherry.' 
 
 Bodkin put down his cap and sat ; he had evidently been 
 called from some heavy work, and his face and hairy arms 
 bare to the elbows, and his well-baked throat naked to the 
 iron-grey hairs upon his chest, shone with sweat. He took 
 the glass and tipped down the wine. 
 
 I then said, ' Do you know that we're sailing to the New 
 Orkneys ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes. I signed for that run.' 
 
 ' Is our errand known to you ? ' 
 
 ' It's to search for a wreck, ain't it, sir ? ' 
 
 1 A wreck with live people in it,' said Captain Cliffe. ' I 
 made that clear, didn't I ? ' 
 
 ' Then I hope we shan't find 'em,' said Bodkin. 
 
 ' What ! ' shouted Cliffe, with a hideous face. 
 
 ' For their own sakes. Who'd lock a dog up there ? ' said 
 the man, running the length of his wet bare arm along his 
 streaming forehead. ' 'Tain't imagined here, with the pitch 
 'twixt the seams like suet, and the paint- work blistering into 
 scabs. I've been off the larger of them islands five times. 
 Yer wouldn't know 'em from icebergs, 'cept for here and there 
 a piece of naked black rock, showing where ice hadn't formed 
 or snow couldn't keep a hold of.' 
 
 ' Could a boat land ? ' I exclaimed, scarcely bearing to 
 hear him when he talked like that. 
 
 ' W T hy, yes, sir. This time of the year — watching a 
 smooth — 'tain't always what they calls weather down there ; 
 but it's b cold.' 
 
 ' Were ye ever ashore on them islands ? ' inquired the 
 captain. 
 
 ' No, sir.' 
 
 * Did your ship send a boat ashore ? ' I asked. 
 
 ' The last time I was off them rocks a boat was sent, and 
 she came back again ; they was nearly capsized, and that was 
 all they did.' 
 
 R
 
 242 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Describe the land,' said I. 
 
 His recollection, however, was not very clear. He talked 
 of tall ice-cliffs and of a huge, dim mountain far inland ; and 
 of peaks and projections showing and disappearing amidst 
 storms of snow. 
 
 ' Is there much ice about the island ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Plenty,' he answered. ' The biggest berg I ever see in 
 all my life was close in with that land, third time I wur off it.' 
 
 ' Suppose the hull of a ship was on a ledge of ice, thirty 
 or forty feet above the wash of the sea ; she was lying plain 
 in sight of the ocean ' — I named the date on which the skipper 
 of the whaler ' Sea Queen ' had passed her — ' would you 
 expect to find her still exposed, lying in full view ? ' 
 
 He looked at me with a working mind, his words being too 
 few to help him quickly, then said, turning his eyes upon the 
 captain : 
 
 ' All things considered, I allow it's more'n likely she'd be 
 smothered up.' 
 
 ' What's to smother her ? ' cried Captain Cliffe. 
 
 ' The congregating of bergs,' answered the other. 
 
 ' Is that all ye know of ice ? ' exclaimed the little man. 
 ' Haven't you heard that ice fetches away from the main and 
 works north this time o' year ? ' 
 
 ' I'm asked a question,' said the man, with a note of 
 sullenness in his voice ; ' and I'm expected, I suppose, for to 
 speak the truth, being sent for. All I know is there's nothen 
 so shifting as ice, and therefore nothen so smothering.' 
 
 'But the hull's ashore on an island,' I exclaimed. 
 
 ' That's not going to stop the ice from a-blocking of her 
 out,' he answered. 
 
 ' I'm afraid you won't get much encouragement out of 
 this man,' said Captain Cliffe, turning and grimacing at me. 
 
 ' Yer see, sir,' said Bodkin, directing a languishing look at 
 the decanter of sherry in the hands of the boy as he went to 
 the pantry, ''tain't only the chance of that there hull being 
 hobscurified by the congregating of ice right in front of her ; 
 she lies under slifts which are constantly a-going to pieces and 
 tumbling down in thundering lumps.' 
 
 ' Then,' said I, ' I take it, Mr. Bodkin, that you, who have 
 had plenty of experience of the ice down south, give me little 
 reason to hope that we shall find the wreck whole or the 
 people abandoned in her alive ? ' 
 
 He rolled his monkey eyes briskly at this, fretting first
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 243 
 
 one cropped grey whisker and then the other with the palm of 
 his hand. 
 
 ' I allow,' he answered after a silence, during which little 
 Captain Cliffe viewed him as sternly as his nervous distorting 
 affection permitted, ' that your chance is as good as any chance 
 at sea hever can be. But I don't mind saying,' he added, 
 standing up, catching hold of his cap and revolving it, ' that 
 our number is agin your luck.' 
 
 1 What's that ? ' exclaimed the captain. 
 
 1 Let the gent count us. There's thirteen souls.' 
 
 ' Go forward,' said the captain, ' and get on with your 
 work.' 
 
 The man with a civil flourish of his hand to his brow left 
 the cabin. 
 
 1 There's no fool like Jack fool,' said Captain Cliffe. 
 
 I confess, however, that when I reckoned up to myself the 
 number of people on board and made No. 13, I felt a 
 little uneasy. I said nothing to the captain, but the thing 
 weighed upon me. It was perfectly natural that at such a 
 time I should be superstitious ; certainly a good omen would 
 have heartened me ; why, then, should not so unlucky a cir- 
 cumstance as that of thirteen forming the number of us in 
 the brig prove depressing ? I was so weak in this way that I 
 had serious thoughts of ordering Cliffe to tranship one of the 
 men at the first chance that offered. Also, the boatswain 
 Bodkin's description of the island, his talk of the cliffs, of ice 
 splitting and thundering down in blocks, worried me by exciting 
 new apprehensions. I was sorry I had sent for the man. I 
 had come from the deck to my dinner in tolerably good 
 spirits, and when I returned on deck I felt as melancholy as 
 ever I had been in my gloomiest hour aboard the ' Cambrian.' 
 _ The mood lasted for the remainder of the day, so that, 
 spite of the noble sailing breeze, this, my first start in search 
 of Marie, seemed as inauspicious as though the scheme had 
 failed in the first breath of it. But after a long chat with 
 Cliffe in the evening I grew cheerfuller. The sun was sinking 
 in splendour ; the dark blue sea ran in frothing lines ; the 
 brig was sailing swiftly, heeling down and smoking onwards as 
 though, like something living, she blew the breath of life in 
 steam from the nostrils of her hawsepipcs as she fled. Every 
 hour of such progress shortened the term of expectation ; all 
 might yet be well. I could not but reflect that, until the 
 worst was known, the best might most rationally be hoped 
 
 b 2"
 
 244 HEART OF OAK 
 
 for. I had come to Cape Town thinking to find my sweetheart 
 dead ; it was not she that lay there. Though we should 
 hoard the wreck and find nobody in her, still, I should have a 
 right to believe that the three had been rescued, and perhaps 
 at that very time were at home in safety. 
 
 Thus I reasoned with myself after my talk with Cliffe 
 in the evening, and was somewhat easier at heart ; which, 
 indeed, in this whistling evening, merry with progress, 
 spacious with the splendour of the setting sun, and the dis- 
 tance of the eastern seaboard faintly flushed, might have been 
 at rest but for the gloom of the silly superstition of thirteen. 
 
 About this time, a little before it fell dark, whilst looking 
 towards the forecastle where most of the crew were smoking 
 and talking, I saw a man come out of the hatch, hugging 
 something to his breast. The sailors jumped up and pressed 
 around him. Hands were outstretched to what the fellow 
 held, and I heard some laughter. Cliffe was below. The 
 mate Bland was walking near me abreast of the skylight. He 
 bawled out : 
 
 ' What have you there, my lads ? ' 
 
 On which the boatswain Bodkin, snatching the object 
 from the hold of the man, held it high, shouting : 
 
 'Here's good luck to the brig "Albatross"; and now 
 there's fourteen all told.' 
 
 I started, and saw it was a cat he held. It was black as 
 coal. 
 
 ' Bring it here,' I cried. 
 
 He came, the others grinning as they stood in a huddle 
 looking aft. It was a young cat, and it mewed as the man 
 approached with it. Cliffe came on deck at that moment. 
 
 ' Where was it found ? ' I asked, stroking the thing as it 
 lay mewing in Bodkin's hands. 
 
 ' In one of the men's hammocks, sir.' 
 
 ' It's a cat ! ' exclaimed Cliffe with a grimace. ' W 7 ho 
 brought it aboard ? ' 
 
 'No man owns to it,' responded Bodkin. 
 
 ' But who would bring it aboard if it wasn't its own legs, 
 Mr. Moore ? ' said Cliffe, turning to me. ' D'ye know I'd ask 
 for no better stroke of luck in all my seafaring days than 
 this same beast's presence,' and he advanced his little hand 
 and tickled the cat's head. 
 
 1 There's fourteen of us now, sir,' said Bodkin, with a dart- 
 ing roll of his eyes.
 
 AT SEA AGAIN 245 
 
 1 Fourteen, and a stroke of luck besides, eh ? ' said I, with 
 a foolish laugh of good spirits spite of myself. 
 
 ' Go and give it something to eat, and see that it don't 
 jump overboard,' said Captain Cliffe, and whilst the boat- 
 swain walked forward, handling the cat tenderly enough 
 and talking to it, the little skipper, with a snap of his eyes 
 and a voice of conviction, exclaimed : ' That cat's squared the 
 yards, Mr. Moore. We shall find the wreck, sir, and do your 
 business.' 
 
 CHAPTEK XXVI 
 
 THE ICE 
 
 On the morning of January 29, 1861, Captain Cliffe at dinner 
 told me that our position by dead reckoning — he had not been 
 able to obtain an observation for two days — was latitude 58° 30' 
 S., longitude 45° W. I pulled out my note-book on hearing 
 this and started violently. 
 
 ' Good God ! Cliffe,' cried I, ' do you know that we are 
 within a mile or two of the place where the " Lady Emma " 
 was abandoned by her crew ? ' 
 
 1 Is that so ? ' said the little man after a pause, closing his 
 knife and fork. ' But it's true all the same : I'll back my 
 runs for the last two days, log-reckoned as they are, right, 
 longitude and latitude, within ten mile.' 
 
 It was bitterly cold, and when I had come below so dense 
 a fog overhung the sea that the main-yard was out of sight 
 from the wheel. The brig was lying hove to under small 
 canvas, a large smooth Cape Horn swell was running out of 
 the sallow thickness and the little vessel was rolling horribly, 
 falling into the hollows and swinging to the summits, now on 
 her beam ends, now on a level keel, now with a dip forward 
 that seemed to make her all stem, now with a drop aft that 
 shook the cabin with a hollow roar, every motion being so 
 abrupt and exaggerated that it was almost impossible to walk, 
 to stand, even to eat, the plate flying from your hand, whilst 
 the boy waited with a broken head through a fall down the 
 companion ladder. 
 
 We had passed several icebergs on the previous day, during 
 a very thick morning and afternoon, when the sky had been 
 dark with driving cloud, and the strong wind white with snow,
 
 246 HEART OF OAK 
 
 and throughoul the night a sharp look-out had been kept for 
 ice ; but since daybreak it had been as dense as it was now 
 with an awful silence all round : nothing had once broken the 
 amazing, oppressive stillness upon that sea, sallow as the fog, 
 labouring hi volumes of brine soundlessly, saving a strange, 
 fierce noise of blowing heard close upon the bow, though 
 nothing was to be seen there. Cliffe said it was a whale, and 
 I might have guessed that by the sight of the boatswain Bodkin 
 springing, with an amazing jump, into the fore-shrouds, and 
 leaning away from the ratlin he grasped, with pricked ears, 
 staring as out of love for his old sport into the choking wool 
 the breathless air was filled with. 
 
 I was as anxious and restless on account of the ice as any 
 man aboard, though I was no sailor ; Cliffe had said it didn't 
 follow, though a hurricane blew, that the smother would clear. 
 I knew that ice must be about : for still we had headed south 
 after passing many bergs, and if wind came and gave us a 
 drift without clearing the ocean for us, we might be foul of an 
 ice mountain ere the mass of it was fairly shaped to the sight 
 within toss of a man's cap. 
 
 But I forgot our situation for awhile when Cliffe told me 
 where we were and I looked into my note-book. Deep love, 
 deep grief, consecrated to my heart this scene and place of 
 silent hills of water. Here the ' Lady Emma ' had been 
 abandoned ; here, if the horizon had been visible, then, within 
 the compass of it Marie had been left with her two companions 
 in a dismasted hull amid such floating ice as during the past 
 few days I had gazed at with fear and amazement ; from this 
 point the three in that mere raft of ship had drifted — the 
 vessel on to the ice of Coronation Island ; that, undoubt- 
 edly, she had been seen, described, reported, but her inmates 
 — had they been taken out of her? Or were they frozen 
 corpses in her ? Or were they living, within reach of a day or 
 two's sail from the place of ocean Cliffe had found us in that 
 day? 
 
 A fire glowed in the little brass grate. The cabin was snug 
 and warm enough with the companion doors closed ; but I 
 speedily grew restless after Cliffe had gone on deck. I asked 
 the mate when he came down to dinner how the weather 
 looked. 
 
 ' Thick as muck, sir.' 
 
 ' Any signs of wind, Bland ? ' 
 
 ' None. But there's no trusting the next minute.'
 
 THE ICE 247 
 
 ' Any ice near us, think you ? ' 
 
 ' The boatswain's been a snuffling, and says he can hear 
 the noise of the beating of water. Nary man else do, though. 
 Them whalemen are so clever that they can thread needles 
 with their toes. They can smell grease in a field of grass.' 
 
 Here he began to munch, and I let him eat. 
 
 I put on a thick coat and went on deck. The brig's arrest 
 on the smoke-thickened water, when one thought that if it 
 would but clear and the sun flood the south w r ith the spark- 
 ling splendour of the South Afric parallels from the mastheads 
 of the brig the loom of the huge dim hill past the cliff where 
 the hull was lying might be seen — this, I say, was maddening, 
 I never could have imagined so dense a fog out of London. 
 It was thick as soup, of a sort of dirty yellow, as though 
 charged with the soot of a city of factories. The dripping wet 
 of it froze as it gathered, and our shrouds were swollen with 
 the glazing ; as much of the brig as could be seen was beautiful 
 and novel with fantasies of ice. The topsail clapped in the 
 blankness overhead like shells exploding there ; but you could 
 not see it. That was the only noise saving an occasional long 
 sobbing wash of water when the brig heeled straining from 
 the yearning send of the swell. 
 
 I held by a backstay, Cliffe standing beside me, and rolled 
 my eyes around the sallow blindness, till, all of a moment, I 
 heard a very faint moan like the noise of a sea running into a 
 cave : it sounded afar, and yet not far either, as though some- 
 thing stood between the cause of it and us. 
 
 Cliffe heard nothing, though he grimaced in the direc- 
 tion I indicated, and dropped his head on his shoulder to 
 hearken. 
 
 About this time the mate came up from his dinner. I 
 asked him to listen, suspecting that the noise I had heard was 
 the sound of sea upon ice. After a pretty good spell of silence, 
 the three of us listening with all our might, Bland said : 
 
 ' Sometimes if ice is near and can't be smelt or seen, it may 
 be heard. If you fire off this gun,' said he, putting his hand 
 upon the brass piece, ' and ice is by, it'll answer.' 
 
 < Try it,' said I. 
 
 He promptly went below and returned with the necessary 
 ammunition ; where our powder was kept I never inquired. 
 He and Cliffe loaded the gun, the skipper snapping grimace 
 after grimace with nervous excitement, 
 
 ' Are you all ready,' said I.
 
 248 HEART OF OAK 
 
 Bland said yes, and then shouted to the men forward to 
 stand by to listen for an echo and note its bearings. The 
 forms of the seamen, ioomed in mere smudges in the fog as 
 they lurched to the rolling bulwarks to hearken. 
 
 • Fire ! ' cried I. 
 
 The piece blazed and thundered, lighting up the fog like a 
 volcanic upheaval with a wild crimson glare as though it was 
 the night itself the powder flashed against. But stunning 
 as the roar was, it was not so deafening but that I, for one, 
 caught an echo stinging back through the thickness on the 
 starboard hand like a slap of tall becalmed topsail against 
 a mast. 
 
 ' Hear it ? ' shouted a voice forward. 
 
 1 We were answered yonder,' I cried, pointing. 
 
 1 Ship ahoy ! ' at that instant came in a hoarse but clear, 
 thin, far voice out of the blankness on the port bow. 
 
 ' Good God, we are hailed ! ' cried Cliffe. ' Bland, answer. 
 Your lungs have got more carrying power than mine.' 
 
 ' Hallo ! ' shouted Bland, going to the side in a spring, and 
 sending his voice in the direction of the hail in a deep, roaring, 
 melancholy note. 
 
 ' What ship's that ? ' came back distinct but remote, so 
 wonderful was the hush, so burnished the swell. We made 
 answer, and then roared Bland : 
 
 < What ship's that ? ' 
 
 1 The " Helen MacGregor" of Hull, twenty months out. 
 What's wrong with you that you're firing guns ! ' 
 
 ' All's right with us,' bawled Bland. ' Any ice about, d'ye 
 know ? ' 
 
 ' Not used my eyes since daybreak,' echoed the far, thin, 
 hoarse voice. 
 
 It was strange to hear it, to look into the thickness and see 
 nothing, to know that a ship was there, and listen to a man 
 talking on her ! But conversation all that way off was not to 
 be kept up long. 
 
 After remaining twenty minutes on deck I felt the cold so 
 severely that I returned to the cabin. After I had been below 
 about half an hour the brig heeled sharply on a slant of swell 
 without recovery as before, whence I guessed it had come on to 
 blow suddenly. In fact, I might have known it by the noise 
 of feet overhead and the gushing and hissing of water in 
 motion, shouldered off in foam. I wrapped myself up and 
 went on deck and found the brig lying down close-hauled under
 
 THE ICE 249 
 
 the canvas she had heen brought to with early in the morn- 
 ing — a reefed maintopsail and foresail; she was looking up 
 for a tall, black, full-rigged ship that was lying with her top- 
 sail to the mast on the weather bow as though waiting 
 for us. 
 
 The scene of ocean was wonderfully grand at this hour ; 
 it was not blowing hard, yet the wind out of the heads off the 
 ridges it made, and the swell was rolling now in furrows of 
 foam. The fog was broken up and sailing off in compact masses 
 with the wide white-lived heave of sea gleaming and glanc- 
 ing through the foundations of vapour, till you looked to see 
 the stuff rock as though afloat. Lanes and openings stretched 
 in all directions, and I did not know where to direct my eyes 
 first, so noble, wild, and startling was the picture of that tall 
 black ship showing in a wide, clear space, her canvas waving 
 in squares of light in the framing of the sallow smother, whilst 
 on the starboard quarter hung a stately incomparable spectacle 
 of iceberg, a giant mass, the height vaster to the imagination 
 because the fog showed you bits of it only— in one place 
 marble white cliffs staring through a passage of vapour, a 
 little further on, a grey pinnacle piercing the stuff which 
 streamed off it like torn rag. And now I could hear, but 
 faintly, the noise of the sea breaking along its base. 
 
 We had passed a good deal of ice during the week ; but this 
 was the place where the ' Lady Emma ' was abandoned ; that 
 white vapour-clothed mountain took a significance none other 
 had. I thought of it as ice that had been seen by Marie's own 
 eyes. It was as a revelation, too, of the savage, forbidding, 
 tremendous scene of desolation the brig was bound to, with 
 myself in her, dreaming, hoping, praying to Almighty God I 
 should find my sweetheart in the hull alive. 
 
 Many large white and grey birds flew out of the vapour 
 into the openings ; they glanced against the marble-like abrupt 
 and vanished. In the midst of a wide flaw right abeam to 
 port, another tall berg was floating. It, too, was a sight of 
 terror and awful beauty, with a look as of frozen foam about 
 the brows of it where the fog was flying, the vapour whitening 
 out to the shadow of the ice as though moon-smitten, whilst 
 low down on the right arched a piece of marvellous architec- 
 ture, like a Titanic Gothic doorway, through which every swell 
 of the sea flashed, bursting into a terrible fury and dazzling 
 brightness of foam. 
 
 I looked on in silence, keeping the shelter of the com-
 
 250 HEART OF OAK 
 
 panion, whilst the brig under her little show of cloths broke 
 her way to windward, helped by the tall black ship whose drift 
 was towards us. After some waiting we were within hail- 
 ing distance. She was just such another whaler as the 
 ' Sea Queen,' but bigger by a couple of hundred tons, worn 
 and weedy, rolling dark decks at us with a glimpse of a 
 black-roofed galley and smoking chimney. She was rich 
 with ice device : fathoms of thick crystal hung from her 
 tops, catheads, bowsprit and quarters ; a dull light sank down 
 her glass-like rigging as she swayed. A crowd of men viewed 
 us over her rail, and a man stood awaiting us beside the mizzen 
 rigging, an arm wrapping a back stay, and his figure like a 
 bear's with fur to his heels. 
 
 ' What southing are you from ? ' shouted Cliffe, who, 
 dwarf as he was to the sight, had something bugle-like in the 
 clear, small penetrating note of his throat's delivery. 
 
 ' Sixty-one, sighting Elephant Island. Nothing to the 
 south'ard of it,' shouted back the man in the bear-like coat. 
 
 'Been off the South Orkneys ? ' cried Cliffe. 
 
 ' Just caught a sight of the northwest point of Coronation 
 Island? 'Twas blowing hard, and the weather coming on 
 thick,' answered the other. 
 
 The two vessels rolled at a distance apart not wider than a 
 wide street ; each man's voice rang through the wind in dis- 
 tinct syllables spite of the splashing and groaning sounds and 
 the howling and whistling aloft when the brig's spars sheared 
 to windward on the slope of the sea. When I heard the 
 whaleman speak of Coronation Island, I thought my heart 
 had stopped. I wanted to speak but could not. 
 
 ' How was the ice ? ' bawled Cliffe. 
 
 1 Plentiful to the south'ard and west'ard.' 
 
 ' How was the ice about the New Orkneys ? ' 
 
 ' More'n ye'U want if you're bound there,' was the answer. 
 
 ' D'ye know that land ? ' 
 
 ' Ay,' was the answer that was accompanied by a signifi- 
 cant ironical flourish of the arm. 
 
 ' Where's a man's chance of getting ashore ? ' 
 
 The whaleman seemed to address another, probably the 
 mate, who stood a little distance from him. 
 
 ' There's some landing-places on the south side,' he pre- 
 sently called. ' There's shelter there from the westerly winds. 
 But you must see to your ship, for the ice is plentiful and 
 dangerous.'
 
 THE ICE 251 
 
 1 The wreck lies on the north side of the island,' I called 
 to Cliffe. 
 
 ' Is there no landing on the north of the island ? ' shouted 
 the little fellow. 
 
 The other answered, but the words were lost in a sudden 
 blast or squall of wind which blew betwixt our masts in a 
 shriek like a locomotive's. A moment later I saw the skipper 
 of the whaler, as I presumed the bear-coated man to be, 
 motioning to his crew and heard him, but faintly, shouting ; 
 thereupon the ship's topsail-yard was swung : the man bran- 
 dished his fist in a farewell to us, and whilst we still lay as 
 though hove, with the weather leech-rope of our band of top- 
 sail shaking at every smoking plunge of the brig's head, the 
 ship heeled over, and gathering way, broke the seas off her 
 lee bow with glaring heaps, and melted into a swollen smudge 
 in the heart of a body of vapour when our crew were trimming 
 sail for the course to the New Orkneys. 
 
 The rolling ocean, sallow still, was thick in many places 
 with fog. We saw now that ice lay all about us. There was 
 scarce an opening in the vaporous folds that was not filled 
 with a berg near or distant, a dull, pale, motionless mass ; the 
 vast island that had been off our starboard quarter when the 
 wind broke up the thickness, we had now brought on to our 
 port bow, and were slowly passing ; its loom was more like a 
 blue shadow of land in the dull yellow light of that Antarctic 
 afternoon, summer as it was, than ice : yet it was a vast berg 
 stretching west and east ; its westermost point was nearest 
 and hung like a mass of foreland, wild with the vapour that 
 flew smoking off its face and points, and with the leap of the 
 surf at its base in lofty columns of foam, whose heads the 
 wind swept off in clouds. 
 
 I stood beside Cliffe under the shelter of a large square of 
 canvas in the main rigging; oilskinned figures watched on the 
 forecastle ; we drove very slowly ; the running rigging had 
 been seen to and carefully coiled down ready for instant hand- 
 ling should a sudden cry from the forecastle compel a shift of 
 helm. I saw many birds flying in the hollow seas, and turn- 
 ing to mark the bearings of a small berg which had come and 
 gone and come again on the starboard bow, I observed slowly 
 swinging past about a half-acre of the giant kelp of this part 
 of the world, a huge seaweed, glancing back in the white- 
 ness of the froth, and hissing like shingle as the salt shot 
 through it.
 
 252 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' Now that we are under way again,' I exclaimed, ' I am 
 realising that the end of this cruise is at hand.' 
 
 * Were it all clear water and fine weather,' answered the 
 little man, ' we should be off the island by noon to-morrow.' 
 
 ' What distance do you reckon it ? ' 
 
 ' Eighty miles.' 
 
 ' That ship we have just spoken makes me believe the hull 
 has been sighted again and again.' 
 
 ' Why, perhaps so,' he answered, ' but not of necessity.' 
 
 ' She was off the island, close enough to see the rocks.' 
 
 ' And who's to say that she's not the first that's been off 
 that land this six months — close in with the coast, I mean ? 
 Depend upon it, Mr. Moore,' he went on with his face full 
 of earnestness betwixt his grimaces, ' you're doing the right 
 thing for your own peace of mind, and in the cause of 
 humanity. . . .' 
 
 ' Oh, it goes higher than humanity, man, higher than 
 humanity,' I interrupted. 
 
 ' In finding out for yourself,' he continued, ' whether the 
 hull's the wreck of the " Lady Emma," and whether the cap- 
 tain, and his wife, and your young lady are still aboard ' 
 
 ' By heaven, yes, then ! ' I exclaimed. ' Only to think of 
 her as being on board, and perishing there for the want of my 
 coming to her help ! Whether she's there or not, Cliffe, it 
 was the right thing to do, as you say, and even in that thought 
 I find a sort of comfort. Shall you heave-to when it comes 
 on dark?' 
 
 ' I'm for shoving on, sir, but we'll take no risks.' 
 
 ' None, though the job of heaving the land into view should 
 fill another month.' 
 
 And still expectation and excitement so worked in me, I 
 felt ill with the conflict. I was up and down ceaselessly till 
 the dusk blackened the scene out. The cold drove me below ; 
 restlessness forced me above again. It was always the same 
 picture, the rolling and plunging figure of the brig, gleaming 
 with barbs and spears, and motionless pennons of ice : the 
 glare of her band of topsail dingy against the ice beyond as 
 she swung it through the howling sweep of wind : the quick 
 dazzle of froth recoiling in thunder from the thrust of the 
 bows : the large grey swell coursed by the breaking surge, 
 and to right and left, and ahead and astern, the shadows 
 and clear shapes of ice, some with brows in the flying scud, 
 some table-like and flashing like sunlight as the seas charged
 
 THE ICE 253 
 
 them and burst, one showing a hatchet-like edge till our 
 rolling brig opened it into a coast of marble that vanished in 
 a haze of mist and spray. 
 
 Happily, after it had been dark about an hour, the brig 
 still blowing forward under reefed topsail and foresail, whilst 
 I sat in the cabin warming myself, drinking some hot brandy 
 and water, but always with ears straining to catch a cry on 
 deck, Cliffe came below, and gave me the good news of a shift 
 of wind into the north-west, with a scanting of it and a plenty 
 of starlight, and the Southern Cross looking almost upright. 
 
 ' What does that signify ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Nothing,' he answered with a cheerful grimace. ' Except, 
 that as the Southern Cross is upright at midnight on one day 
 only in the year, the sight of it almost on end now is inte- 
 resting.' 
 
 1 When is it actually upright ? ' 
 
 ' On March 26.' 
 
 ' D'ye know, Cliffe,' said I, getting up, meaning to take a 
 look round, ' that it's comforted me sometimes to think of that 
 symbol of God overhanging these waters. It should be a sight 
 to freshen a man's faith in a time of distress.' 
 
 ' Strange to find it hung up down here where they're all 
 heathens,' said Cliffe. 
 
 1 Much ice ? ' 
 
 ' No more than there was, sir.' 
 
 I went on deck. The dusk of the night was hard and 
 clear, and I observed a keen blue in the trembling gleam of 
 many of the stars. But though there was no wet in the air, 
 I had never felt the cold so bitter as on this night. The sight 
 of the nearer of the ice mountains in the gloom under the 
 light of the stars was marvellously fine and awful ; some 
 shone with a light of tbeir own ; it was the snow upon them, 
 I suppose, that made that sheen. I noticed, however, that 
 though the sea was covered with these fahit and pallid masses, 
 there was plenty of sea-room in the lanes and highways they 
 made. A startling and alarming part was the crackling and 
 crashing noises which came from them, and shortly before I 
 was driven below by the cold, an island on the port quarter, 
 wan as a cloud touched by a corner of moon, vanished; it may 
 have shown in another shape by daylight ; it had overset and 
 perhaps rose flat and invisible in that light. But the spec- 
 tacle was wonderful : it made a deep impression on me. Cliffe 
 who saw it bid me listen, and sure enough after a little there
 
 254 HEART OF OAK 
 
 came slanting through the wind such a prodigious noise of 
 hissing and seething thai, but for knowing what made it, you 
 would have looked in its direction for the foaming waters of a 
 sudden gale. 
 
 There was to be little rest for the crew that night. Cliffe 
 informed me the men had been told that all hands would have 
 to stand by throughout the dark hours, ready to jump to the 
 first call if the brig was to remain a brig. A seaman was 
 stationed on each bow ; a third aloft on the foreyard ; the 
 mate and the boatswain were to relieve each other every two 
 hours in keeping a look-out on the forecastle. A man was 
 stationed aft ready in a breath to help at the helm. The 
 galley fire was kept burning all night, and hot coffee, and at 
 longer intervals small drams of rum, were served out to the 
 crew. 
 
 The chief peril lay in the smaller blocks of ice floating on 
 the water; they were hard to see before they were dangerously 
 close to ; and yet, comparatively small as they were, any one 
 of them was big enough to knock a hole in the brig's bottom, 
 and founder her out of hand. 
 
 Bight through the night we held on. At first the cries of 
 ' Ice ahead,' ' Ice on the port bow,' ' Starboard your helm,' and 
 the like, alarmed me ; but I presently got used to them, nor, 
 indeed, were they so frequent as to be terrifying ; once only, 
 that is, in my hearing, was a cry raised as for life or death in 
 a sudden passion or panic ; then it was an immense flat ragged- 
 edged piece of ice under the bow ; a swift turn of the helm 
 sent the brig clear, giving us a sight of the stuff alongside, and 
 the brave little ship ploughed her way onwards. 
 
 Happily, it was midsummer, and the night comparatively 
 short. The dawn was fair and rosy, and the sun rose upon a 
 dark blue sea, frothing far as the eye could pierce, and magni- 
 ficent with ice. I cannot express the gorgeous scene of colour 
 that sunrise called into being. In all directions the ice lay in 
 a hundred shapes, some of the islands sparkling like prisms ; 
 I beheld floating cities of porcelain, enormous shapes in ala- 
 baster, figures of marble, monstrous and grotesque as those 
 huge forms of rock which stand in a congregation of Titans at 
 the base of some of the precipitous heights of Table Bay. 
 
 But though there was plenty of ice in the south, there was 
 an abundance of room too for our passage ; the mate came 
 down from the fore royal yard with a telescope slung on his 
 back and said he saw no barrier ; he thought, but would not 
 
 "D
 
 THE ICE 255 
 
 then swear, be could make out a faint shadow of land. If he 
 was right, then the mountain that centres Coronation Island 
 was in sight 1 The breeze was fresh out of the north-west, 
 with a high following sea, and soon after the sun was risen 
 and Cliffe had taken a long look round, he ordered sail to be 
 made. The foretopsail was loosed, reefs shaken out, and cloths 
 piled upon the little vessel to the topgallant yards ; then, like 
 something alive and released, the little ship fled southwards. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 
 
 But it was not till next day that we had the land in view, and 
 then it was ten o'clock on February morning, making it a few 
 days above a month since we had sailed out of Table Bay. As 
 on the previous day, so on this, the sun shone brightly, with 
 even some comfort of warmth in its light. Many great clouds 
 of a milk-white softness were sailing into the east ; the wind 
 was fresh out of the west, but though the sea ran briskly, with 
 a shrewd vapour of salt in the shrill fling of the frothing curls, 
 it was not a hollow sea ; it rolled the brig in stately measures, 
 but she was now under small sail, the ice being very plentiful 
 and the sea crowded with bergs of all sizes, whilst right ahead 
 were tall cliffs of ice backed by a blue shadow of mountain 
 rising into a silver faintness where the eternal snows upon it 
 sparkled and died out from the sight in the deep blue. 
 
 I was beside myself with excitement and wretched with 
 distress of expectation, dread, and hope. That height of white 
 cliff right ahead, broken in the foreground by pale floating 
 islands, its face discoloured in places as though the ice that 
 masked the rock had broken from the black and savage ram- 
 part, was Coronation Island, and on the port bow, looming 
 distant but immense, were the mountains of Laurie Island. 
 
 Our anchors were at the cathead, ready for letting go in 
 case of sudden need ; the men hung about on the look-out for 
 ice, ready in an instant to trim sail. We were sailing towards 
 the island through an avenue of bergs ; clear water sparkled 
 from the thrust of our stem to the very wash of the distant 
 surf, with no other obstructions than here and there a lump 
 of the crystal stuff lifting sullenly with the swell, flashing
 
 256 HEART OP OAK 
 
 gloriously, and so proclaiming itself to the sight "when the 
 sunbeam smote the foam that poured off it. 
 
 A chart of the islands lay upon the skylight, and every few 
 minutes I would be dropping the telescope to look at the chart, 
 to gather from the tracing the point of coast we were heading 
 for. Tbe whaleman had said that the wreck lay on a ledge in 
 Palmer's Bay, and Cliffe and I were agreed that that large 
 indent was between the two towering shadows, to the right of 
 the taller peak that soared a thousand feet higher than Table 
 Mountain. 
 
 The icebergs obstructed the view. The line of coast was 
 studded with them ; yet every moment I was sinking my sight 
 through the lenses into each opening betwixt the bergs. The 
 brig's progress under her small canvas was about four knots 
 and a half ; I'd glanced for a moment at some stately frozen 
 pile majestically rocking and slowly veering by, then put my 
 eye to the glass afresh. My very soul was now loathing the 
 sight of the ice. The largest of the islands was no longer an 
 object of splendour and sublimity, but of horror and heart- 
 weariness, charged with a spirit of desolation that subdued me 
 to a sort of numbness of mind if I looked long : it seemed to 
 stonefy the very principle of life in me, as though there 
 was a horrid magic in its bald white stare to look a man into 
 craziness, and emptiness, and into its own frozen lifeless- 
 ness. 
 
 But now, as we approached, the features of the land began 
 to steal out into a brilliant keenness wherever there was space 
 for them to show betwixt the floating ice, and on a sudden, 
 whilst I was looking through the glass, the motion of the brig 
 slided a sea-borne hill away to the left, and exposed a front of 
 cliff that lay with a shadow upon it as though it was a sort of 
 ravine, at the foot of which, though I instantly guessed it 
 would lift to some height above the sea as we got nearer, lay 
 a black speck. I looked again, and cried out, wild with excite- 
 ment : 
 
 1 Cliffe, I have the hull ! I have the hull ! ' 
 
 The little man came headlong to my side, and put his 
 grimacing face to the telescope. 
 
 ' Yes ! I see it ; I have it ! ' he shouted. ' Just as reported 
 — high above the wash — fair in the heart of the bay. It'll be 
 all plain sailing now. Lor, but there ought to be no difficulty 
 in boarding her.' 
 
 He returned the glass to me : I levelled it afresh at the
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 257 
 
 instant that the corner of a big heap of berg floated right into 
 the field of vision. 
 
 It needed another hour of careful sailing to expose the hull 
 anew : then through the glass I saw her clearly. She lay, a 
 large black hulk of ship, upon a projection of ice that was at 
 least thirty feet above the sea. I made out her bowsprit, and 
 the stump of her foremast. The cliffs soared sheer and abrupt 
 at the back of her to a great height. Even at that distance 
 it was not hard to guess that, after having stranded, she had 
 been lifted by some earthquake dislocation of ice into the 
 posture she rested in. Suppose the sea clear, she must have 
 been visible to passing ships for leagues. 
 
 The seamen were congregated in the bows, leaning over 
 the rail, Bodkin amongst them pointing eagerly. The mate 
 roared to them to keep a bright look-out, they then scattered, 
 but the sight of that wreck had brought them heedlessly 
 together as one man. Cliffe's glass was not a powerful one, 
 yet the hull in the lens lay within half a mile, and I saw her 
 plainly. She had her head towards the cliffs, and sat very 
 nearly upon a level keel. A great portion of her starboard 
 bulwarks were gone. She was a mass of ice imder her stern : 
 looked to be fixed there to her bed of white pillars. The sun 
 shot sparkles into her as we advanced, and still she showed 
 black, as though the ice that coated her was as glass. Nothing 
 moved : I strained my vision till my brain reeled and the object 
 swung in the glass and was eclipsed : Cliffe looked, he saw no 
 smoke nor signs of life any more than I. 
 
 ' If there's anyone alive aboard her,' said he, ' now's our 
 time for letting them know we're here.' 
 
 ' Eight,' I answered, speaking with my teeth almost set, 
 ' do what you will, Cliffe ; do what is for the best.' 
 
 He called to Bland and a man, and they fetched a number 
 of blank charges for the cannon. The little skipper left the 
 gun to the mate's handling, himself taking charge of the brig, 
 which needed exquisite watching and management, so crowded 
 was the water here with loose ice. 
 
 ' Let fly fast as you can load, Mr. Bland,' said the captain ; 
 'fire six rounds.' 
 
 As he spoke came a cry from the forecastle : ' Lie close 
 under the port bow, sir ! ' 
 
 Thus was it, thus had it been, saving that now the pack 
 stuff had thickened perilously. 
 
 The gun was fired ; it made a noble thunder, and roared 
 
 s
 
 253 HEART OF OAK 
 
 in dying echoes from near ice crag to ice crag. Again it was 
 fired, yet again ; all tins while the brig was rolling forwards 
 with her helm going up and down to the cries from the fore- 
 castle and to the gestures of the little captain. 
 
 I stood at a backstay with a levelled glass steadied against 
 it, and in the moment of the third explosion I saw smoke rise 
 feathering from the deck of the hull ; still watching, my breath 
 so thick and difficult it was as though a hand was upon my 
 throat, I marked that the smoke thickened ; but I could not 
 see the red of the flame, nor the figure of the person feeding it. 
 I daresay I was as white as any corpse when I stepped over 
 to the captain, and putting the glass into his hand said : 
 1 There is life there.' 
 
 ' There's smoke arising from that wreck,' shouted someone 
 forward. 
 
 ' We're here for some purpose, then, anyway,' cried Cliffe 
 with a small oath, letting fall the glass to his side with the 
 most extravagant grimace I had ever beheld in him. 
 
 One saw the smoke easily now with the naked eye ; it rose 
 black against the whiteness past it, curled featherwise, and 
 blew scattering against the face of the cliff. I levelled the 
 glass again and saw the figure of a man walking toward the 
 stump of the foremast ; I watched him ; in a few moments a 
 square of colour rose to the summit of the mutilated spar, 
 where it blew steadily ; it was a large English ensign, jack 
 down. 
 
 Bland let fly a fourth gun. 
 
 • Stop it ! ' roared Cliffe, ' we are seen ! Hoist the ensign 
 and dip it thrice.' 
 
 The colour soared to the trysail gaff end ; it blew out large 
 on the bight of the halliards when it was dipped, and was 
 easily within the observation of the man on the hull. When 
 I looked through the glass once more I saw a second figure ; 
 it was upon the hull's quarter, where the rail or bulwarks rose to 
 a height that hindered me from perceiving how it was clad. I 
 asked Cliffe to look ; he steadied the glass, and answered with 
 a snap of his whole face, and a voice high-pitched with 
 delight : 
 
 * As God's my hope, Mr. Moore, it's a woman ! ' 
 
 The glass so shook in my hands that I could not use it ; I 
 took a few turns, then looked again. The figure watched us 
 from the same place, but I could not tell whether it was a man 
 or a woman. If it was a woman, then it might be Mrs. Burke.
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 259 
 
 I wanted three figures to make sure of Marie ; I saw but two ; 
 where was the third ? 
 
 I strained my sight at the telescope with a heart of fever, 
 half strangled by conflicting passions. 
 
 The figure that had hoisted the colour went to the side of 
 the other, and they both stood watching, nothing visible of 
 them below their waists. It was blowing a fresh breeze, and 
 before this time Cliffe had taken in certain canvas ; I think the 
 brig was under topsails only, the foresail hauled up and hang- 
 ing in its gear ; the vessel drove slowly with an occasional 
 crackling noise of ice along her sides when she sheared through 
 some thin sludge stuff you could not see till you were in it ; 
 fortunately the drift ice that had threatened a thick surface just 
 now had loosened here and tossed scattered ; as we advanced, 
 moreover, we found that the icebergs which had looked to sit 
 close in with the coast rode with a good offing ; the sea was 
 covered with these floating islands off that part of the island 
 marked Foul Point ; the eastern horizon was also like a terrace 
 of ice, but the face of the cliffs from Foul Point down to where 
 the land rounded into Lewthwaite Strait was fairly open. 
 
 All this while the sun shone brightly and with warmth. 
 The sea streamed in a glorious dye of violet ; we rolled slowly 
 onwards till we were within about three-quarters of a mile of 
 the coast and right abreast of the wreck. The helm was then 
 put down ; the maintopsail laid aback ; the gun again fired, 
 and the ensign dipped. It was now about noon. 
 
 By this time I had made out that one of the figures was a 
 woman ; I saw but two persons. Who the woman was I could 
 not tell, fierce as had been the struggle of my vision to resolve 
 the glimmer of her face into lineaments. 
 
 When the brig had been brought to a stand, Cliffe called a 
 council. We had ample sea room. The nearest floating ice 
 lay about a quarter of a mile distant on the port quarter ; the 
 smaller blocks were not numerous, nor was there weight of 
 sea to make them dangerous. All along the base of the ice- 
 clad cliffs the water was pouring in a thunder of boiling surf ; 
 it was not the breakers but the great breathing swell of this 
 mighty ocean which worked all that noise and fury along the 
 cliff's foot. The white brine sometimes shot twenty feet high, 
 though it blew but a moderate fresh breeze, and the surge ran 
 small. 
 
 Cliffe, myself, Bland, and the boatswain Bodkin came 
 together at the companion hatch to consider. We had swept 
 
 s2
 
 2 6o HEART OF OAK 
 
 with the glass the line of coast from the beach under the hull 
 to as far as we could see on the right, and beheld nothing but 
 lofty coils of frothing combers raging in surf ; there was no 
 chance for a boat anywhere that way. The left presented a 
 like scene, saving that there was a point in Palmer's Bay that, 
 cruising eastwards, shut out the view of perhaps a quarter of a 
 mile of the water it enclosed. Upon that point our eyes were 
 fastened. 
 
 ' We must lower a boat,' said Cliffe, ' and find out how the 
 land lies past that arm of land.' 
 
 ' It's the only sheltered bit along the whole boiling, I 
 allow,' said Bland. 
 
 Bodkin, putting down the telescope, exclaimed : 
 
 ' She lies about forty feet high above the wash. The 
 ice is broke and irregular from the water to where she sits, 
 and I reckon a man might walk upon it if there's a landing- 
 place round the point. But I won't swear to it till I'm close 
 in. Ice is deceitful stuff. Capt'n, there'll be nothen to say till 
 we've taken a look round. 'Tis certain there's to be no getting 
 at the hull from the bottom of the height she rests on, even if 
 the boat could land there.' 
 
 ' Then lower away, Mr. Bland, as quickly as possible, and 
 be off and back with a report, that we may make up our minds 
 what to do before it falls dark.' 
 
 Whilst some hands were getting one of the whale-boats over, 
 others were busy with the deep-sea lead : but we were away, 
 pulling for the shore, before they sounded. I went in the 
 boat, taking the telescope with me. She was a five-oared boat ; 
 Bodkin pulled stroke ; one of our smartest seamen was in the 
 bows. The fellows bent their backs, and the buoyant little 
 craft swift of model with the whale-hunter's lines, flashed over 
 the blue ridges ; often I sought to bring the glass to bear 
 upon the two figures watching us ; to no purpose. The mate 
 would not let me stand up, and I put down the telescope in 
 despair. 
 
 ' That vessel,' said the mate, ' never berthed herself like 
 that. She's been chucked right up by the ice, and 'twas sud- 
 den too, bet yer heart, Bodkin.' 
 
 The picture grew amazing as we advanced. The cliffs 
 behind the hull rose to about two hundred feet ; I call them 
 cliffs, they were a solid, precipitous, rugged face of ice, how 
 deeply sheathing the black rock of the island no man could 
 tell ; the whole stretch of land resembled a gigantic iceberg.
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 261 
 
 The hull lay upon a huge block, the top about forty feet high ; 
 it projected in a wide ledge, then fell sheer. You might know 
 it had been snapped from some parent monster by the smooth 
 side it showed to the sea, so clean cut to the eye, it might have 
 been done by the chisel and hammer of a giant big as the blue 
 shadow of mountains beyond. 
 
 My eyes were fixed on the wreck, and on the figures 
 standing at her bulwark rail. Now again I tried to bring the 
 telescope to bear : the jumping of the boat made the effort 
 useless. All in a minute one of the figures sprang on to the 
 bulwark ; flourished his arms, and then motioned frantically 
 towards the part of the bay concealed by the curve of the ice. 
 
 ' Hail him, in God's name! ' I cried. ' Try him with your 
 voice, Mr. Bland.' 
 
 The mate stood up and roared, the full volume of his lungs 
 trumpeting into the inshore wind like a soldier's call, the 
 sweep and lift of the whale-boat to the summit of a large swell 
 helping. 
 
 1 How many are there of you ? ' 
 
 1 Two,' came back the answer, dull through the roar of the 
 surf but distinguishable. 
 
 1 Who is the other ? ' 
 
 The men were now resting on their oars, the boat sinking 
 and lifting in the sea that was great and hollow for so small a 
 fabric ; we were within a pistol-shot of the base of the cliff on 
 which the hull sat, but so high perched was the craft, so 
 bewrapped the two people, I could not make out their faces. 
 The man held up his hand as though he had not heard. 
 
 The mate roared again, ' Who is the other ? ' 
 
 'A young lady.' 
 
 ' Is it Miss Otway ? ' 
 
 He brandished an assent, and his figure stiffened in a posture 
 of amazement. 
 
 ' Is that her alongside of you ? ' 
 
 Again the figure nourished an affirmative. 
 
 ' Then here's Mr. Moore come to take her home,' thundered 
 the mate. 
 
 When he said that, Marie — for it was she — leaned forward : 
 she was motionless whilst you might have counted twenty ; 
 she then stretched out her arms. I pulled off my hat and 
 flourished it, that she might know me among the crowd we 
 made in that boat, then lifted up my hands to her. But even 
 had my voice possessed Bland's carrying power I could not
 
 262 HEART OF OAK 
 
 have called. There, high above, upon the rail of the wreck, 
 flanked by towering walls of ice, stood, with arms outstretched 
 in appeal to me, the figure of my beloved. I had thought to 
 find her dead — she was there ; I had thought to find her 
 lying in an African grave— and there, on that high-poised 
 wreck she stood in silent appeal. For weoks and weeks I had 
 been mourning for her, asking of God that I might behold 
 her, seeing her in my dreams, a frozen corpse upon the deck 
 of that hull there : and now she stood up yonder, alive, full in 
 sight. 
 
 The boiling of the surf ran a maddening noise of thunder 
 round the bay. But one saw what the man, whoever he might 
 be, had frantically pointed to. The water was smooth from 
 the end of the point to away round for some hundreds of paces. 
 The sea could not get at the frozen beach there : it flashed at 
 the point, and recoiled in clouds. 
 
 ' Put me ashore,' I exclaimed, ' I can climb those crags. 
 Look how they wind to the ledge, Bodkin will help me. I 
 must go on board that wreck.' 
 
 ' Sit down, I beg, sir,' exclaimed the mate, catching me by 
 the arm as I toppled half-delirious. ' Tumbling overboard's 
 an easy job. "Your eyes deceive you, you could no more climb 
 those rocks than jump ashore from where you sit. What d'ye 
 say, Bodkin ? ' 
 
 The man had already and quickly made up his mind. He 
 glanced at the fall of crags of headlong abruptness in places, 
 huge and nodding, yet so blending in their whiteness with the 
 whiteness they stood out on as to cheat the unpractised eye 
 with an appearance of easy road-way, and answered firmly, 
 ' There's no mortal legs and arms as is a-going to carry a 
 man to the wreck by them rocks.' 
 
 ' Why did the man motion to that landing-place ? ' I 
 said. 
 
 The mate turned his sheep-eyed face round the bay, and 
 answered, ' He didn't know who we were. He was afraid that 
 boiling,' said he, pointing to the surf, ' would drive us away.' 
 
 ' How is the wreck to be entered ? ' I asked, looking up 
 and waving my hat, and then again stretching forth my arms. 
 
 ' It's a sailor's job. Have no fear. We'll get 'em out of 
 that,' answered the mate, and standing up he hailed the man. 
 The other flourished his arm. 'We're here to take you off,' 
 bellowed Bland, ' and we'll do it. Don't take any notice of 
 our leaving you. It won't be for long. D'ye hear me ? '
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 263 
 
 ' Ay, ay ! ' came the answer, feebly through the ceaseless 
 thunder. 
 
 It tore my heart to look up at the wreck, as we pulled 
 away, and see Marie there, sundered from me by that curse 
 of roaring foam, inaccessible, to be come at only by patience, 
 naval skill, efforts which might have to be again and again 
 repeated, always perilous. I cannot express how marvellously 
 strange this ice-ramparted bay looked, with that wreck cradled 
 on high, like a huge model in glass, tinted black, smoke lifting 
 still clouldily from her deck, and the red inverted flag streaming 
 like a square of fire against the marble white beyond. Many 
 large pieces of ice floated in this sweep of water : but they 
 showed plain, and the boat went securely. One piece was 
 almost a berg : a miniature island. Here and there the sea 
 broke over it. It was almost in the middle of the bay, and 
 exactly abreast of the wreck. I observed that Mr. Bland ran 
 his eye curiously over it as we pulled past. 
 
 Who was the man on the hull that had answered us ? He 
 was not Captain Burke. My sight had not distinguished his 
 face, yet I should have known him by his voice had he been 
 Burke. Three had been left, so Wall the boatswain reported : 
 Burke and his wife, and Miss Otway ; I saw but two. The 
 man had said there were two only : one was Marie : where 
 were the others, and who was that stranger ? 
 
 We arrived alongside the brig, and with little difficulty I 
 got aboard. The pull had occupied so short a while there had 
 been scarce time to talk : but in any case the hurry and wild- 
 ness of my spirits, my deep agitation, amazement and delight, 
 mingled with dark wonder and jealous alarm, must have held 
 me mute. 
 
 Cliffe impatiently awaited us : Bland and Bodkin came 
 on board, leaving the men in the boat. Bland immediately 
 said: 
 
 ' We must get them out with a cradle. There's no other 
 way.' 
 
 ' No landing then, round that point there ? ' said Cliffe._ 
 
 ' Ay, sir, but the rocks are not to be climbed by anything 
 wanting hoofs and horns.' 
 
 ' Who are they ? ' 
 
 ' One's the young lady,' said the mate. 
 
 Cliffe spun round and stretched his hand to me. 
 
 1 1 do congratulate you,' he cried, convulsing his counte- 
 nance. ' It's a noble errand nobly rounded off. Hurrah ! '
 
 264 HEART OF OAK 
 
 and in a sudden ecstasy he pulled off his hat and whirled it 
 three or four times over his head. He then cried, ' But two 
 only ? The third ain't dead, I hope ? ' 
 
 1 Captain Burke and his wife are not there,' said I. 
 
 He grimaced at me, and said, ' Who's the man, then ? 
 But asking questions won't get them out of it. What d'ye 
 propose ? ' 
 
 As he spoke he whipped out his watch : as it lay in his 
 hand I saw the hour ; the time was two, we had therefore a 
 long afternoon of daylight before us. 
 
 ' We must take the mortar in the boat and communicate 
 with it,' answered Bland. ' There's a big piece of ice to 
 anchor the boat to,' said he, pointing to the lump I had 
 observed him look at. ' We shall want a cradle.' 
 
 ' A cask '11 answer,' said Cliffe. 
 
 ' Better have both boats in the water,' said Bland. 
 
 They exchanged further remarks to this effect, but I was 
 no sailor and could not follow them. No time, however, was 
 lost. In less than half-an-hour both boats were alongside, 
 rising and falling singly under the lee of the brig. In one 
 boat was the mortar, with a complete apparatus of gear and 
 cradle for connection with the wreck. The cradle consisted 
 of a large cask cleverly slung, and so contrived as to slide 
 along a line when the rope attached to it was pulled. We 
 were nobly favoured by the weather. The send of the swell 
 was as steady as the tick of a clock : the seas ran short and 
 small, with a rich sunny feathering of foam that made a 
 wonder of the ice, so tropic was it with the blue overhead 
 where floated a few large white clouds of a coppery effulgence 
 of swollen breast. 
 
 We got away by a quarter to three, one boat in tow of the 
 other ; the wind and seas helped us, and we quickly entered 
 the bay. We were of the same number as before, and the 
 same people. We drove with lifted oars to the former talking 
 place, and Bland hailed the man, and, with his loudest roar, 
 told him we were going to fire the end of a line to the wreck 
 and send him a tackle by it for a cradle. Did he understand ? 
 
 The man responded with a peculiar flourish of his arm, and 
 Bland instantly said to me, ' He is a sailor.' 
 
 I had no eyes save for Marie. She had showed on a sudden 
 at the rail on the quarter as we entered the bay, and stood as 
 still as a statue watching us. Before Bland hailed I kissed 
 my hand and flourished my hat to her, and extended my arms;
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 265 
 
 and she then stretched her hands, lifting them immediately 
 afterwards. 
 
 The surf held us several hundreds of feet away from the 
 beach : the hull stood about forty feet above ; no cry I was 
 capable of could have reached her through the noise of the 
 trembling combers ; but the wind, however, was brilliant, and 
 Marie's form stood clear cut against the white background ; 
 nevertheless, I could not distinguish her features. 
 
 The boat, with the other in tow, now pulled for the lee of 
 the large mass of ice that lay floating abreast of the wreck, 
 The water swung foamless and quiet under the shelter of this 
 block. A couple of men jumped out, and between them 
 carried an anchor to some near crevice in which they half 
 sank it. Thus were the boats solidly secured. 
 
 The mortar was then loaded : I saw the man on the wreck 
 turn as though addressing Marie, who immediately withdrew 
 and disappeared. When all was ready, Bland with many 
 wild gestures and flourishes signalled to the man to stand by. 
 Our seamen were deeply interested and greatly excited, parti- 
 cularly Bodkin, who had the handling of the mortar. 
 
 ' Fire ! ' roared Bland. 
 
 The uncouth piece exploded in flame and smoke. Coil 
 after coil of the heap of small stuff of the thickness of lead- 
 line standing beside it flew off into the air. 
 
 ' He has it ! ' bawled a man. 
 
 ' Pay out now, pay out ! ' cried Bland. ' Light out hand- 
 somely, my lads. It may come as too much dead weight for 
 one man, which'll be a bad job if winch is froze.' 
 
 'It's for his life, and that's a three man-power, aye, 
 though yare should be just out of horspital too,' exclaimed a 
 seaman. 
 
 ' Pay out. Ease him all you can, lads,' shouted the mate. 
 
 The man had got hold of the end of the line, and was 
 dragging it inboard, hand over hand, bringing to him as he 
 hauled the end of a stout rope, to which a little block was 
 attached with a line rove through it. This was the gear the 
 mate was calling upon the seamen to pay out handsomely. He 
 was but one man to three, and the tackle and rope must needs 
 grow heavier and heavier as its smoking, steaming, up-curving 
 bight lengthened. I watched almost breathless ; if the man's 
 strength failed before his end of the rope came to his hand 
 what should we do ? We could not assist. Now, indeed I 
 saw it would be impossible for any one of us to scale those
 
 266 HEART OF OAK 
 
 rugged crystal boulders and cavernous ruins of ice which yet 
 from the level of the water painted a practicable ascent from 
 the sheltered curve of the bay where the sea was silent, 
 
 Foot by foot the sailors veered out the gear, and hand 
 over hand, with admirable endurance and patient courage, the 
 man on the wreck hauled the stuff in : till on a sudden one of 
 our men called out, ' The lady's helping,' and I caught a 
 glimpse of Marie past the man, dragging as he dragged. 
 
 ' It's all right ! ' after a long pause, exclaimed Bland, 
 letting out his words in the note of a deep-chested sigh of 
 relief, and a hearty cheer sprang from the lips of the seamen. 
 
 ' He knows what to do. He's a sailor ! ' cried Bodkin. 
 
 He had vanished behind the bulwarks, but quickly re- 
 appeared signalling to us with a flourish, whilst Marie stood 
 as before, motionless, watching. 
 
 ' Now get it taut, for God's sake ! ' cried the mate. ' In 
 with the slack.' 
 
 The men toiled on, and dragged till the bight of the rope 
 was clear of the water : the gear then described a curve from 
 the stump of fore-mast to the boat. 
 
 ' Now clap on the watch tackle.' 
 
 A machinery of blocks and lines was applied to the rope, 
 which tautened to the strain till the mate cried ' Belay ! If 
 we don't mind our eye we shall start the wreck ! ' 
 
 Then swiftly, but without hurry or confusion, the empty 
 cask was got over the bow and slung to a bowling or traveller. 
 
 ' Haul out ! ' cried the mate, and nimbly, with quick steady 
 pulls, the cask was run up the rope. It travelled smoothly. 
 The man sprang on the bulwark rail and received it, and 
 putting his hand on the edge of it, jumped in. 
 
 ' By thunder, no, then ! The lady first, or you stop there ! ' 
 groaned the mate, his face suddenly dark with disgust and 
 temper, and the others looked along the rope to the cask with 
 frowns eloquent of curses. But in a moment the man got 
 out, and I said, ' He was testing it.' 
 
 We now saw him, in the sharp white light the air was 
 brimful of, help Marie on to the rail : he put his hands 
 under her arms, and carefully sank her into the cask ; then 
 pulling off his cap flourished a signal of ' all's ready ' to us. 
 Instantly, one end of the line was slackened away whilst the 
 other end was hauled upon, and the cask travelled towards 
 us. 
 
 1 Stand by to lift the lady out,' bawled the mate, whilst
 
 CORONATION ISLAND 267 
 
 the cask was still coming. ' Into the bows two of you. Mr. 
 Moore, you'll keep your seat, I beg, sir, till the lady's in the 
 boat.' 
 
 The cask came sliding to the drag of the line down to the 
 very stern of the boat : there it was water-borne, and began 
 to roll and leap with the boat : but strong hands were ready, 
 and in a minute Marie was lifted over the gunwale, brought 
 right aft, and seated beside me. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 MS. MOORE ENDS HIS STOEY 
 
 I took her by the hands and looked her in the face, and 
 brought her to my heart, and a sob shook me as I kissed her. 
 For some moments she merely pronounced my name, strain- 
 ing from my grasp to look at me. There was something wild 
 in the light of her soft eyes then. Maybe the passions and 
 sensations which in a sudden surprise of meeting would have 
 forced us into transports had abated ; we had long both known 
 that we were near to each other, she that I had come to rescue 
 her, I that she was alive on that wreck up there. But for all 
 that, and as long as they were bringing the man from the 
 wreck, it remained a sort of unreality, a mission too marvel- 
 lous to have been fulfilled, a hope too daring, too defiant of 
 death itself and all the terrors of this barbarous, savage scene, 
 to have been humanly possible. 
 
 A wonder too, lay in her beauty and healthful looks. My 
 imaginations of her state, now as lying in her coffin at Cape 
 Town, now as dead of the cold in that same wreck we had 
 brought her from, had coloured tome a ghastly portrait of my 
 memory of her ; or, even when figuring her alive in the hull, 
 I conceived her bloodless, gaunt, sunk-eyed, a sad, heart-sick- 
 ening spectre of herself. Instead I found her fairer, healthier, 
 plumper by a hundredfold than she had shown when she left 
 England. She was dressed in furs : her hat was a turban of 
 sealskin ; her hair was a little wild, but its dishevelment was 
 a grace. 
 
 When at last I began to speak to her, it was in mere ejacu- 
 lation, a babble of joy and devotion — that I should have got 
 l ier ; — that I should be holding her after months of fearing 
 and of believing that she was dead ; that God should have
 
 2 68 HEART OF OAK 
 
 directed me through thousands of leagues of sea to this lonely 
 scene of ice ; and so on, and so on ; whilst her speech was 
 little more than exclamation too. For, put yourself in our 
 place and judge how it would go with your heart, and tongue, 
 till use had softened amazement and incredulity, sobering 
 the flow of feeling into a gentle language of passion and 
 pleasure. 
 
 Meanwhile they were bringing the man to the boat. The 
 cask travelled safely to the bows : he sprang out with the 
 assistance of a man's hand, and then stood on a thwart looking 
 about him for a minute with a face of ecstasy. 
 
 Now it was I grew a bit rational, and said to Marie : 
 
 4 Who is he ? ' 
 
 ' Mr. Selby. His conduct has been noble. Oh, Archie, his 
 manly treatment of me, his patient care, the encouragement, 
 the encouragement ! ' 
 
 ' Jump on to the ice there, two of you, and get that anchor,' 
 sung out Mr. Bland. 
 
 ' Where's Captain Burke ? ' I said. 
 
 1 He was drowned months ago — months ago.' 
 
 ' And his wife.' 
 
 ' I found her frozen to death and dragged her into the 
 ship's kitchen and watched beside her, and then I was alone 
 in that wreck in a heavy, rolling ocean for a week till he came,' 
 and she looked towards Selby, ' sent by God, for without him 
 — alone up there — oh, think, Archie ! ' 
 
 As she said this she put her hands together and her face 
 whitened like the ice ; her eyes rolled their pupils out of sight, 
 and with a little moan she fainted. 
 
 I held and pillowed her, groping for and finding a flask 
 of brandy in my pockets, she continued in a dead faint 
 until, the anchor having been got, the boats were clear of 
 the bay close in with the brig. 
 
 Selby sat in the bows. I never addressed him : I could 
 think of nothing but the lifeless figure I clasped. She 
 came to just as we drew alongside the vessel, and my grati- 
 tude, when she fetched a breath, and opened her eyes, was 
 scarcely less than that I had felt when I knew she was on 
 board the wreck. In truth, so fixed was her trance, I had 
 believed her dead. 
 
 She was helped over the side by Cliffe and others. The 
 brig shoAved a low side when the gangway was unshipped, 
 and Marie was handed on deck easily and without risk. I
 
 MR. MOORE ENDS HIS STORY 269 
 
 followed. She was very weak, yet could walk leaning on my 
 arm, and thus supporting her I took her into the cabin. 
 Then it was I strained her to my heart again, kissing her, 
 blessing her, thanking God for suffering me to discover and 
 rescue her. * 
 
 It would be idle to set down what now passed between 
 us in this first half-hour of our being alone. Our hurry of 
 speech, the tender interruption of caresses was as a printed 
 page broken into sentences without sequence. Looks will 
 give continuity to meaning when the tongue is still, but 
 how to describe those passages of eloquent silence ? 
 
 We had both of us a thousand things to ask and 
 answer, and often we'd break off to gaze at each other, 
 scarcely realising even yet that we were together, and that 
 the end of my heaven-directed quest was come. By the 
 time we had settled down into sober talk, sitting hand in 
 hand in front of the glowing brass stove, whilst the boy in 
 obedience to my orders was preparing the table for dinner, 
 it was about five o'clock ; they had got way upon the brig ; 
 she was heeling over, and I guessed that Cliffe was press- 
 ing her, getting every inch of northing that was to be 
 clawed out of the bow surge whilst it was daylight. The 
 afternoon was glowing with more than tropic splendour ; 
 indeed, never had I observed such mellow richness of 
 glory under the line, or north or south of 23° as I had 
 noticed in this Antarctic sunshine whilst in the bay. But 
 however delivered — whispered at times — sometimes inter- 
 rupted by tears, by sudden impassioned embraces, as though 
 nothing even now could be true but the presence and 
 reality of the long months of her imprisonment ; but how- 
 ever brokenly uttered, I say her story was known, and her 
 relation persuaded me that in the person of Mr. Selby lived 
 one of the finest characters that ever graced the manliest 
 of all the callings. My love, my joy — though my spirits 
 seemed to know no other passions whilst I held her and 
 looked at her — did not extinguish in me for long whilst we 
 conversed the cold dark dread that lurked in the thought 
 of her having been locked up with Selby for months. But 
 whilst I listened the jealous fear, the gloomy dislike for the 
 extraordinary association vanished. My heart grew hot with 
 admiration and gratitude. She told me of her joy at the 
 sight of him, when, after being alone for a week in the dis- 
 masted hull of the ' Lady Emma ' with no other companion
 
 270 HEx^RT OF OAK 
 
 on board than the dead body of Mrs. Burke, she groped her 
 way from her berth to the cabin and found him lying asleep 
 on a locker. She told me how he had comforted her and 
 raised her spirits by every hope that a sailor could invent. 
 She instanced many fine, subtle, delicate traits of conduct ; I 
 was impressed by the refinement and native exquisite breeding 
 of the man whilst I listened to her. I witnessed the gentle- 
 man, the nobleman of nature's own handiwork, in all she told 
 me of him. Without his inspiring companionship her spirits 
 would have sunk, her heart must have broken. He fetched 
 and carried, cooked, and toiled for her comfort ; he devised a 
 dozen schemes to divert her. Every day he promised that a 
 ship would come to take them off. He never lost heart. 
 Often he would sing with a sailor's notion of brightening her 
 melancholy. 
 
 No one intruded upon us, saving the boy ; but our talk 
 was not to be overheard by him, sitting as Ave did close 
 together beside the fire. And all the while I was admiring 
 the improved sweetness of her looks, the plumpness of her 
 cheeks and throat, the firmer clearer tones of her voice, and 
 what shone to my sight as a soft gay light of health in her 
 eyes. 
 
 'Is it the ice,' said I, 'that has worked this miracle of 
 change in you ? Or were you looking even better than you 
 now do before your shipwreck ? ' 
 
 ' I cannot tell how I look,' she answered. ' What I have 
 suffered I know.' 
 
 She talked of the Burkes, and wept when she spoke of her 
 old nurse. She said she believed Captain Burke committed 
 suicide ; his end was sudden ; he did not need to go upon the 
 bowsprit to hang up the lantern — a height of foremast stocd ; 
 he went on a dangerous errand, she thought, meaning to die, 
 and his getting his wife to accompany him into the bows 
 might have signified no more than lunatic cunning. 
 
 Whilst we conversed the boy came down and asked if he 
 should put dinner upon the table. We had forgotten time in 
 talking and I jumped up and took Marie to my berth, which 
 was to be resigned to her. I then went on deck to make 
 Mr. Selby's acquaintance and to bring him into the cabin to 
 dinner. 
 
 The wind was on the beam, a steady pouring breeze, and 
 the heeling brig was washing onwards, but warily and under 
 little canvas ; I had been misled by the angle of the deck.
 
 MR. MOORE ENDS HIS STORY 271 
 
 The ice rode lofty and glaring about us on all sides in huge 
 groups ; and masses of the stuff littered the ocean directly 
 in our path ; the utmost vigilance was needful. 
 
 I stood a moment in the companion-way, looking at 
 the island we were leaving astern. It was already some miles 
 distant, and the wreck invisible. The far inland mountain 
 hung solemn and sublime in the blue air with the majestic 
 loneliness of it. You thought of it as lifting its height at the 
 extreme end of the world, and the melting of its shimmering 
 peak into the silver azure was such a blending as made the 
 shadow seem as high as the heavens themselves. 
 
 Cliffe stood in earnest talk with Selby. I regarded the 
 man awhile before he saw me. He was dressed in the plain 
 clothes of his calling ; doubtless he made good his wants out 
 of Captain Burke's wardrobe ; he was rather short and very 
 broad-shouldered ; his hair was black, and of a true cast- 
 away man's length, falling and curling in plenty down upon 
 his back as though it had been a woman's ; he was of a sallow 
 complexion and newly bearded, as though used to shave when 
 all was well. 
 
 When I went to him with my hands outstretched, he faced 
 me with a smile, and then it was I saw a wonderful spirit 
 of goodness and kindness in his countenance. I had never 
 before witnessed a man's nature so plainly pictured in his 
 looks. I will not admit that I was prejudiced in his favour by 
 what Marie had told me and found a soul of candour and 
 good humour where perhaps I should otherwise have seen 
 nothing but an average sailorly countenance. No matter 
 what the causes which should have brought this man and me 
 accmamted ; let me have met him how, when, where you will, 
 one glance would have persuaded me that he was a heart of 
 oak. You saw a manly simplicity and gentleness in every 
 line. His eyes looked at you full, yet gently, with a charm- 
 ing, winning frankness ; his smile was a grace, there was 
 something sweet in it ; and yet he was by no means good 
 looking. His face was overcharged by the length of its 
 aquiline nose. His mouth, too, was out of proportion, his 
 eyes were something too deep set and close together to please ; 
 nevertheless when he turned, smiling to receive me, I found 
 a beauty in his looks that was far above all gift of flesh. 
 
 I held him by both hands, but in what terms I thanked 
 him for his goodness to Miss Otway I'll not set down, because 
 they must needs look cold and insufficient, when in reality
 
 272 HEART OF OAK 
 
 the tribute lay in that part that cannot be communicated oil 
 paper, I mean in the tone of voice, the expression of coun- 
 tenance, the clinging pressure of the hands. 
 
 He said, ' It's been a bad time for her, sir. The beginning 
 was the hardest. That week when she was alone, washing 
 about here, much where we now are, in the winter time when 
 it was nearly all night, and nobody else aboard but the corpse 
 of Mrs. Burke, would have hilled a lady of less spirit.' 
 
 I broke in by asking him to step below with me. Cliffe 
 said he would remain on deck and watch the brig. I took 
 notice that as in making for the island, so now, a keen look- 
 out was being kept. Hands were stationed in the bows and 
 on the foreyard ; the rigging lay ready for instant use. Two 
 men were at the wheel. 
 
 Selby stopped and looked at the island astern. The whole 
 soul of the man seemed to rush into his face as he gazed, 
 colouring it with memory and a passion of gratitude and 
 pathetic joy. He breathed deep and said, ' Thank God, I've 
 seen the end of it ! Seven months is it, sir ? The sufferings 
 of the sea will make a year of a week. It seems as long as a 
 lifetime.' 
 
 He sighed again, or rather fetched a breath as of relief 
 and ease of heart, and followed me into the cabin. 
 
 Whilst we waited for Marie, he explained how it came 
 about that the hull was shelved forty feet above the wash. 
 
 He said when she first took the ice she was beaten a con- 
 siderable distance by blow upon blow of foamless swell, rolling 
 into the shelter out of the heavy weather beyond ; she lay on 
 her bilge. He could not express the misery they suffered 
 from the angle her posture sloped her into ; till, early one 
 night, a noise of thunder roared through the cabin as though 
 the whole island was splitting to pieces ; shock followed 
 shock. These volcanic throes went on for hours. He expected 
 every moment that the hull would be crushed to powder. 
 Sometimes they felt the fabric under their feet SAvept upwards. 
 It was pitch dark on deck ; nothing was to be seen ; but the 
 uproar of splitting ice was at moments deafening. He said he 
 could compare it to nothing but to being in a boat betwixt two 
 line-of-battle ships when they were firing their whole broad- 
 side artillery at each other. 
 
 It might have been about four o'clock when the hellish com- 
 motion ceased as abruptly as it had commenced ; at this hour the 
 hull was, as she had been for some time, resting on an almost
 
 MR. MOORE ENDS HIS STORY 273 
 
 level keel. At break of day he went on deck, and was amazed 
 to find the sea lying open, but at a considerable distance below. 
 The great ice peninsular whose bay had been the salvation of 
 the hull had broken away and become a majestic island, 
 nodding stately upon a high sea about a quarter of a mile 
 distant. The wreck rested upon a wide ledge with a sheer 
 fall of ice, smooth as though chiselled, to the wash of the surf. 
 How it had befallen he could not tell. Perception had lain 
 entirely in sensation and bearing. 
 
 When Marie came out of her berth I was struck afresh by 
 her improved looks. I turned to Selby and said : 
 
 • This lady sailed for her health. Such distresses, such 
 trials of mind and body as she has suffered, should pinch the 
 face as fire wastes wax, and she looks so much better that her 
 father will scarcely know her ! ' 
 
 « I told Mr. Moore,' she said, ' that I don't know how I 
 may look ; but that I am alive and with him again,' 
 stealing her hand into mine, ' is wholly owing to you.' Then 
 raising her voice, heated into a higher clearness by emotion, 
 she exclaimed, ' In the presence and hearing of my betrothed, 
 I thank you with my heart of hearts for all your goodness to 
 me, for your hundred acts of noble unselfishness, for the 
 splendid courage and faith which supported us both through 
 the awful time that is now ended.' 
 
 He bowed to her in silence. 
 
 ' Mr. Selby,' said I, grasping him by the hand, then putting 
 my other upon his, and so holding him, ' Miss Otway has 
 spoken her gratitude ; my own I have already attempted to 
 express. The profession of the sea has produced some splendid 
 characters ; but it seems to me that you are one of the finest 
 compliments that nature ever paid to your calling.' 
 
 • I thank you for your kind words, sir,' he said, with colour 
 and embarrassment, ' and for yours, Miss Otway. I felt very 
 sorry for you when I found you alone on that dismasted hulk, 
 and I swore to myself I would so act that, come what might, 
 if you were spared, you should be able to say of me, He was a 
 man.' 
 
 I could have hugged him. 
 
 We seated ourselves, and all our talk ran upon the hull, and 
 upon my own adventures. I particularly noticed Selby's 
 respectful manner to Marie. That was as satisfying to every 
 instinct within me as though I had shared their imprisonment. 
 It was not a thing he just put on ; it sat with the unconscious
 
 274 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ease of an old and fixed habit. I heard it in his voice, I 
 marked it in his manner of attention when she spoke ; in 
 twenty subtle ways it was expressed as something abiding ; it 
 was, in short, the man's, the seaman's, and the gentleman's 
 recognition of her claims as a woman and of her station ; I 
 knew it had been with him from the beginning, and I loved 
 him from that moment with a heart unshadowed by the faintest 
 anxiety or misgiving. 
 
 I asked him how they had managed for food. 
 
 4 The hold was full of good things, sir,' he answered. ' We 
 did not stint ourselves, Miss Otway,' said he, smiling. 
 
 1 Mr. Selby cooks charmingly,' said Marie. ' I shall never 
 forget the delicious dishes of broth you used to make for me.' 
 
 ' The ship's cargo,' said he, ' consisted of a quantity of 
 articles of potted food with drink enough in stout, brandy and 
 whisky to fill the half of London with uproar and murder.' 
 
 ' We had biscuits as big as bricks,' said Marie. ' I used to 
 make bread and milk with them.' 
 
 ' Milk ! ' I ejaculated. 
 
 ' Preserved milk, sir,' said Selby. ' I found some hundred- 
 weights of the stuff.' 
 
 ' But your fuel ? ' said I. 
 
 ' There was about twelve ton of coal in the forepeak when 
 we got on the ice,' he answered. ' I never reckoned upon a 
 long stay ; the young lady was to be kept warm, and I was a 
 bit extravagant at the start. Then, as the days passed and 
 nothing came along, I began to stint, with the result that I've 
 left about half the stock behind.' 
 
 ' Did nothing heave in sight ? ' 
 
 ' Oh yes, sir ; but never close in. I must have consumed 
 half the cargo of theatrical scenery, and pounds worth of 
 patent fuel and indiarubber in burning flares at night and 
 making smokes by day. I reckon the smoke was taken for 
 something in the volcanic line. For a long time the ice hid 
 us from the sea. The island whose rupture threw us aloft 
 drifted away and gave us a clear view for a bit, but others came 
 cruising along with the stream of the tide, if it was not the 
 wind that brought them, and one moored itself right abreast 
 — grounded, I allow — it stuck so long.' 
 
 'The whaler that reported you,' said I, 'was close in 
 enough to get a good sight of the wreck.' 
 
 ' I did not see her,' he answered. ' I must have been below 
 when she passed.'
 
 MR. MOORE ENDS HIS STORY 275 
 
 c It was cruelly cold, Archie,' said Marie. • Weeks would 
 pass without my going on deck. Oh, how I loathed the sight 
 of those cliffs of ice ! And then the ceaseless boiling of the 
 surf.' 
 
 *■ I caulked the cabin into a middling warm living room,' 
 said Selby, ' yet the cold would creep through. Water that had 
 been boiled and left to stand on the table within the sphere of 
 the heat of the stove, as I could have sworn, would take a 
 mask of ice. I cleared the cabin to give Miss Otway walking 
 room. The exercise helped her. It gave her a little spirit 
 as well as warmth. I didn't care to see her sit drooping 
 hour after hour beside that little stove.' 
 
 ' At such times you sang ? ' said I. 
 
 ' Well, coming below after taking a look round, and seeing 
 her like that, I'd tune up my pipes, certainly,' he answered. 
 ' It was unpleasant to have to keep on answering her question 
 with a "No, there's nothing in sight." ' 
 
 Thus ran our talk, and again and again whilst we con- 
 versed, I'd see Marie stealing looks around her of delight and 
 amazement, and often when our gaze met, an expression of 
 solemn joy would light up her face. For months she had 
 lived in the cabin of a motionless ship ; now the life of the 
 ocean was in the fabric, whose deck her foot rested on. She 
 was as one who had been called from the grave to renew life, 
 and love, and health. It was a miracle, and I saw the mar- 
 velling of her spirit in her eyes whenever she looked at me. 
 
 ' I'll go and take a look round,' said Selby. ' I hope 
 Captain Cliffe will make me useful.' 
 
 He rose, respectfully bowed to us, and went on deck. 
 
 I drew Marie to the stove and sat beside her. From time 
 to time as we talked, we heard the sharp warning cries of the 
 look-out men on deck re-echoed by Cliffe and the mate aft, 
 accompanied sometimes by a hurried tread of feet when the 
 braces were handled. But we were together, too happy, too 
 much engrossed, to heed what passed above. Through the 
 hum of our talk — our continuous talk — for how much had we 
 to tell each other ?— ran the shrill sound of salt water seeth- 
 ing. The boy came below to take some dinner on deck to 
 Captain Cliffe. He then cleared the table, and Marie and I 
 were alone again. The sunshine blazed red upon the skylight, 
 faded slowly, the glass grew grey, then blackened, and a star 
 flashed in a cabin window as a reel of the brig brought the 
 bright spark with a leap into the orifice.
 
 276 HEART OF OAK 
 
 ' I remember,' Marie said, ' when I found Mrs. Burke lying 
 dead on the deck of the hull, that I fell upon my knees in the 
 agony of my distress and terror, and cried out that I was alone, 
 asking what I should do — what I should do? And now I 
 am with you,' she cried, throwing her arms round my neck 
 and sobbing slightly. ' But what a time has lain between ! ' 
 
 • • • • • • • 
 
 At this point, Mr. Moore ends his narrative ; he doubtless 
 considered that the interest of his strand of the story ceased 
 at the rescue of his sweetheart. 
 
 It had been arranged that the brig should return to the 
 Cape of Good Hope, whatever might be the issue of her search ; 
 the little vessel, with ceaseless vigilance, was navigated clear of 
 the ice into open waters, and under warmer skies, and thanks 
 to strong westerly winds which chased her day after day, she 
 anchored in Table Bay in a little more than three weeks from 
 the hour of hoisting in her boats and making sail from 
 Coronation Island. The lovers' reception at Cape Town was 
 a memorable incident, and is still talked of by old people there. 
 They stayed until Miss Otway had provided herself with a 
 wardrobe, then embarked in a Union steamer and safely arrived 
 at Southampton on the morning of May 1, 1861. 
 
 Mr. Selby was presented by Sir Mortimer Otway and the 
 banking firm of Moore, Son & Duncan, with an interest in a 
 ship of thirteen hundred and forty tons, amounting to half her 
 value, and four months after his arrival in England, he sailed 
 in command of her on her second voyage to Bombay. 
 
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 Saint Mungo's City. 
 Disappeared. 
 Lady Bell. 
 Buried Diamonds. 
 The Blackball Ghosts. 
 
 BY C. C. FRASER-TYTLER. 
 
 Mistress Judith. 
 
 BY ALLEN UPWARD. 
 
 The Queen against Owen. 
 The Prince of Balkistan. 
 
 BY ARTEMUS WARD. 
 
 Artemus Ward Complete. 
 
 BY AARON WATSON AND 
 
 LILLIAS WASSERKANN. 
 
 The Marquis of Carabas. 
 
 BY WILLIAM WESTALL. 
 
 Trust-Money. 
 
 3Y MRS. F. H. WILLIAMSON. 
 
 A Child Widow. 
 
 BY J. S. WINTER. 
 
 Cavalry Life. 
 Regimental Legends. 
 
 BY H, F. WOOD. 
 
 Passenger from Scotland Yard 
 Englishman of the Rue Gala 
 
 BY LADY WOOD. 
 Sabina. 
 
 BY CELIA PARKER WOOLLEY. 
 
 Rachel Armstrong. 
 
 BY EDMUND YATES. 
 
 Castaway. 
 
 The Forlorn Hope. 
 
 Land at Last. 
 
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