THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 FOUL PLAY.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES READE 
 
 AND 
 
 DION BOUCICAULT. 
 
 IN THEEE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 BRADBURY, EVANS, & CO., 11, BOUVERIE STREET. 
 
 18G8. 
 [^Riijht of Translation reserved.]
 
 LONDOX : 
 BnADBURT, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIABS.
 
 
 0085 ); i<» 
 
 NOTICE TO MANAGERS. 
 
 A Dkama entitled " Foul Play " has been 
 written by the Authors of the Story, and 
 produced at the Theatre Royal, Leeds. So 
 that no other person can legally dramatise 
 the Story.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 There are places ^Yllicll appear at first sight 
 inaccessible to romance : and such a place was Mr. 
 Wardlaw's dining room in Russell Square. It was 
 ver}' large, had sickl}' green walls, picked out with 
 aldermen, full length ; heavy maroon curtains ; 
 mahogany chairs ; a turke}' carpet an inch thick : 
 and was lighted with wax candles only. 
 
 In the centre, bristling and gleaming with silver 
 and glass, was a round table, at which fourteen 
 could have dined comfortably ; and at opposite sides 
 of this table sat two gentlemen, who looked as 
 neat, grave, precise, and unromantic, as the place : 
 Merchant Wardlaw, and his son. 
 
 Wardlaw senior was an elderly man, tall, thin, 
 iron-grey, with a round head, a short thick neck, a 
 
 TOr.. I. B
 
 2 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 good brown eye, a square jowl that betokened reso- 
 lution, and a complexion so sallow as to be almost 
 cadaverous. Hard as iron : but a certain stiff dignity 
 and respectability sat upon liim, and became him. 
 
 Arthur Wardlaw resembled his father in figure, 
 but his mother in face. He had, and has, hay- 
 coloured hair, a forehead singularlj^ white and deli- 
 cate, pale blue eyes, largish ears, finely chiselled 
 features, the under lip much shorter than the upper ; 
 his chin oval and pretty, but somewhat receding ; 
 his complexion beautiful. In short, what nineteen 
 people out of twenty would call a handsome young 
 man, and think they had described him. 
 
 Both the Wardlaws were in full dress, according 
 to the invariable custom of the house ; and sat in a 
 dead silence, tliat seemed natural to the great, sober 
 room. 
 
 This, however, was not for want of a topic ; on 
 the contrary, they had a matter of great importance 
 to discuss, and in fact this was why they dined tete- 
 a-tete : but their tongues were tied for the 
 present ; in the first place, there stood in the mid- 
 dle of the table an epergne, the size of a Putney 
 laurel tree ; neither Wardlaw could well see the 
 other, without craning out his neck like a rifleman
 
 FOUL TLAT. 6 
 
 from behind his tree : and then there were three 
 live suppressors of confidential intercourse, two 
 gorgeous footmen, and a sombre, sublime, and, in 
 one word, episcopal, butler ; all three went about as 
 softly as cats after a robin, and conjured one plate 
 away, and smoothly insinuated another, and seemed 
 models of grave discretion ; but were known to be 
 all ears, and bound by a secret oath to carry down 
 each crumb of dialogue to the servants' hall, for 
 curious dissection, and boisterous ridicule. 
 
 At last, however, those three smug hypocrites 
 retired, and, by good luck, transferred their suffo- 
 cating epergne to the sideboard ; so then father and 
 son looked at one another with that conscious air 
 which naturally precedes a topic of interest ; and 
 Wardlaw senior invited his son to try a certain de- 
 canter of rare old port, by way of preliminary. 
 
 While the young man fills his glass, hurl we in 
 his antecedents. 
 
 At school till fifteen, and then clerk in his father's 
 office till twenty-two, and showed an aptitude so 
 remarkable, that John Wardlaw, who was getting 
 tired, determined, sooner or later, to put the reins 
 of government into his hands. But he conceived a 
 desire that the future head of his office should be 
 
 B 2
 
 4 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 an university man. So he announced Lis resolu- 
 tion, and to Oxford went young Wardlaw, though 
 he had not looked at Greek or Latin for seven 
 years. He was, however, furnished with a private 
 tutor, under whom he recovered lost ground rapidly. 
 The Ileverend Eobert Penfold was a first-class man, 
 and had the gift of teachhig. Tlie house of Ward- 
 law had peculiar claims on him, for he was the son 
 of old Michael Penfold, Wardlaw's cashier ; he 
 learned from young Wardlaw the stake he was play- 
 ing for, and, instead of merely giving him one 
 hour's lecture per day, as he did to his other pupils, 
 he used to come to his rooms at all hours, and force 
 him to read, by reading with him. He also stood 
 his friend in a serious emergency. Young Ward- 
 law, you must know, was blessed, or cursed, with 
 Mimicry; his powers in that way really seemed to 
 have no limit, for he could imitate any sound you 
 liked with his voice, and any form with his pen or 
 pencil. Now, we promise you, he was one man 
 under his father's eye, and another down at Oxford; 
 so, one night, this gentleman, being warm with 
 wine, opens his window, and, seeing a group of un- 
 dergradutes chattering and smoking in the quad- 
 rangle, imitates the peculiar grating tones of Mr.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Champion, vice-president of the college, and gives 
 them various reasons why they ought to disperse to 
 their rooms and study. " But, perhaps," says he, 
 in conclusion, "you are too blind drunk to read 
 Bosh in crooked letters by candle-light ? In that 
 
 case " And he then gave them some very 
 
 naughty advice how to pass the evening, still in the 
 exact tones of Mr. Champion, who was a very, very 
 strict moralist; and this unexpected sally of wit 
 caused shrieks of laughter, and mightily tickled all 
 the hearers, except Champion ipse, who was listen- 
 ing, and disapproving, at another window. He com- 
 plained to the president. Then the ingenious 
 Wardlaw, not having come down to us in a direct 
 line from Bayard, committed a great mistake — he 
 denied it. 
 
 It was brought home to him, and the president, 
 who had laughed in his sleeve at the practical joke, 
 looked very grave at the falsehood ; Eustication 
 was talked of, and even Expulsion. Then Wardlaw 
 came sorrowfully to Penfold, and said to him, " I 
 must have been awfully cut, for I don't remember 
 all that ; I had been wining at Christchurch. I do 
 remember slanging the fellows, but how can I tell 
 what I said ? I say, old fellow, it will be a bad job
 
 6 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 for me if they expel me, or even rusticate me ; my 
 father -will never forgive me ; I shall he his clerk, 
 but never his partner ; and then he will fnicl out 
 what a lot I owe clown here. I'm done for ! I'm 
 done for ! " 
 
 Penfold uttered not a word, hut grasped his hand, 
 and went off to the coresident, and said his pupil 
 had wined at Christchurch, and could not he ex- 
 pected to remember minutely. Mimicry was, un- 
 fortunatelj^ a habit with him. He then pleaded for 
 the milder construction, with such zeal and elo- 
 quence, that the high-minded scholar he was ad- 
 dressing admitted that construction was possible, 
 and therefore must be received. So the affair ended 
 in a written apology to Mr. Champion, which had 
 all the smoothness and neatness of a merchant's 
 letter. Arthur "Wardlaw was already a master in 
 that style. 
 
 Six months after this, and one fortnight before 
 the actual commencement of our tale, Arthur Ward- 
 law, well crammed by Penfold, went up for his final 
 examination, throbbing with anxiety. He passed ; 
 and was so grateful to his tutor that, when the ad- 
 vowson of a small living near Oxford came into the 
 market, he asked Wardhaw senior to lend Robert
 
 FOUL PLAY. 7 
 
 Penfold a sum of money, much more than was 
 needed ; and Wardlaw senior declined without a 
 moment's hesitation. 
 
 This slight sketch will serve as a key to the 
 dialogue it has postponed, and to subsequent in- 
 cidents. 
 
 " Well, Arthur, and so you have really taken your 
 degree ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; hut I have passed my examination : 
 the degree follows as a matter of course — that is a 
 mere question of fees/' 
 
 " Oh, then now I have something to say to you. 
 Try one more glass of the '4.7 port. Stop ; you'll 
 excuse me ; I am a man of business ; I don't doubt 
 3^ourword; Heaven forbid ! but, do you happen to 
 have any document you can produce in further con- 
 firmation of what you state ; namely, that you have 
 passed your final examination at the University ? " 
 
 " Certainly, sir ;" replied young AVardlaw. " ISIy 
 Testamur." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 The young gentleman put his hand in his pocket, 
 and produced his Testamur, or " ^Ve bear witness ;" 
 a short printed document in Latin, which may be 
 thus translated : —
 
 b FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " We hear icltness that Arthur Wardlaiv, of St. 
 Luke's College, lias ansivered our questions in humane 
 letters. 
 
 " Geo. Eichardson, 
 " Artlmr Smythe, 
 " Edward Merivale, 
 
 Examiners." 
 
 AYardlaw senior took it, laid it beside liim on the 
 table, inspected it with his double eye-glass, and, 
 not knowing a word of Latin, was mightily im- 
 l^ressed, and his respect for his son rose 40, or 45, 
 per cent. 
 
 " Very well, sir ; " said he. " Now listen to me. 
 Perhaps it was an old man's fancy; but I have 
 often seen in the world what a stamp these Univer- 
 sities put upon a man. To send you back from 
 commerce to Latin and Greek, at two-and-twenty, 
 was trying you rather hard ; it was trying you 
 doubly ; your obedience, and your ability into the 
 bargain. Well, sir, you have stood the trial, and I 
 am proud of you. And so now it is my turn : from 
 this day and from this hour, look on j'ourself as my 
 l^artner in the old established house of Wardlaw. 
 My balance-sheet shall be prepared immediatel}', 
 and the partnership deed drawn. You will enter
 
 FOUL PLAY. y 
 
 on a flourishing concern, sir; and you will virtually 
 conduct it, in written communication with me ; for I 
 have had five-and-forty years of it: and then my 
 liver, you know ! Watson advises me strongly to 
 leave my desk, and try country air, and rest from 
 business and its cares." 
 
 He paused a moment ; and the young man drew 
 a long breath, like one who was in the act of being 
 relieved of some terrible weight. 
 
 As for the old gentleman, he was not observing 
 his son just then, but thinking of his own career : a 
 certain expression of pain and regret came over his 
 features ; but he shook it off with manly dignity. 
 " Come, come," said he, " this is the law of Nature, 
 and must be submitted to with a good grace. 
 Wardlaw junior, fill your glass." At the same time 
 he stood up and said, stoutly, " The setting sun 
 drinks to the rising sun ; " but could not maintain 
 that artificial style, and ended with, " God bless 
 you, my boy, and ma}' you stick to business ; avoid 
 speculation, as I have done ; and so hand the con- 
 cern down healthy to your son, as my father there 
 (pointing to a picture) handed it down to me, and I 
 to you." 
 
 His voice wavered slightly in uttering this bene-
 
 10 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 diction; but only for a moment: lie then sat quietly- 
 down, and sijjped his wine composedly. 
 
 Not so the other : his colour came and went 
 violently all the time his father was speaking, and, 
 when he ceased, he sank into his chair with another 
 sigh deeper than the last, and two half-hysterical 
 tears came to his pale eyes. 
 
 But presently, feeling he was expected to say 
 something, he struggled against all this mysterious 
 emotion, and faltered out that he should not fear 
 the responsibilitj', if he might have constant re- 
 course to his father for advice. 
 
 " "Why, of course," was the reply. " My country 
 house is but a mile from the station : you can tele- 
 graph for me in any case of importance." 
 
 " When would you wish me to commence my new 
 duties ? " 
 
 " Let me see ; it will take six weeks to prepare a 
 balance-sheet, such as I could be content to submit 
 to an incoming partner. Say two months." 
 
 Young Wardlaw's countenance fell. 
 
 " Meantime you shall travel on the continent, 
 and enjoy yourself." 
 
 " Thank you," said young Wardlaw, mechanically, 
 and fell into a brown study.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 11 
 
 The room now returned to what seemed its na- 
 tural state. And its silence continued until it was 
 hroken from without. 
 
 A sharp knocking was heard at the street-door, 
 and resounded across the marble hall. 
 
 The "Wardlaws looked at one another in some 
 little surprise. 
 
 " I have invited nobody," said the elder. 
 
 Some time elapsed, and then a footman made his 
 appearance, and brought in a card. 
 
 " Mr. Christopher Adams." 
 
 Now that Mr. Christopher Adams should call on 
 John "Wardlaw, in his private room, at nine o'clock 
 in the evening, seemed to that merchant irregular, 
 presumptuous, and monstrous. " Tell him he will 
 find me at my place of business to-morrow, as 
 usual," said he, knitting his brows. 
 
 The footman went off with this message ; and, 
 soon after, raised voices were heard in the hall, and 
 the episcopal butler entered the room with an in- 
 jured countenance. 
 
 " He says he must see you ; he is in great 
 anxiety." 
 
 " Yes, I am in great anxiety," said a quavering 
 voice at his elbow ; and Mr. Adams actually pushed
 
 12 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 by the butler, and stood, bat in hand, in tbose 
 sacred precincts. " Pray excuse me, sir," said he, 
 " but it is very serious ; I can't be easy in my mind 
 till I have put you a question." 
 
 " This is very extraordinary conduct, sir," said 
 Mr. Wardlaw. " Do you think I do business here, 
 and at all hours ? " 
 
 *' Oh no, sir; it is my own business. I am 
 come to ask you a very serious question. I 
 couldn't wait till morning with such a doubt on 
 my mind." 
 
 " Well, sir, I repeat this is irregular and extra- 
 ordinary ; but, as you are here, pray what is the 
 matter ? " He then dismissed the lingering butler 
 with a look. Mr. Adams cast uneasy glances on 
 young Wardlaw. 
 
 " Oil," said the elder, " you can speak before him. 
 This is my partner ; that is to say, he will be as 
 soon as the balance-sheet can be prepared, and the 
 deed drawn. Wardlaw junior, this is Mr. Adams, a 
 very respectable bill discounter." 
 
 The two men bowed to each other, and Arthur 
 Wardlaw sat down motionless. 
 
 " Sir, did you draw a note of hand to-day ? " in- 
 quired Adams of the elder merchant.
 
 FOUL rLAY. 13 
 
 " 1 dare say I did. Did you discount one signed 
 by me ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, we did." 
 
 " Well, sir, you have only to present it at matu- 
 rity. Wardlaw & Son will provide for it, I dare say." 
 This with the lofty nonchalance of a rich man, who 
 had never broken an engagement in his life. 
 
 " Ah, that I know they will if it is all right ; but 
 suppose it is not ? " 
 
 " What d'ye mean ? " asked Wardlaw, with some 
 astonishment. 
 
 " Oh, nothing, sir. It bears your signature, that 
 is good for twenty times the amount ; and it is 
 endorsed by your cashier. Only what makes me a 
 little uneasy, your bills used to be always on your own 
 forms, and so I told my partner : he discounted it. 
 Gentlemen, I wish 3'ou would just look at it." 
 
 " Of course we will look at it. Show it Arthur 
 first ; his ej'es are younger than mine." 
 
 Mr. Adams took out a large bill-book, extracted 
 the note of hand, and passed it across the table to 
 Wardlaw junior. He took it up with a sort of 
 shiver, and bent his head very low over it ; then 
 handed it back in silence. 
 
 Adams took it to Wardlaw senior, and laid
 
 14 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 it before liim, by the side of Arthur's Testa- 
 mur. 
 
 The merchant inspected it with his glasses. 
 
 " The writing is mine, apparently." 
 
 " I am very glad of it," said the bill-broker, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Stop a bit," said Mr. Wardlaw. " Why, what 
 is this ? For two thousand pounds ! and, as you 
 say, not my form. I have signed no note for two 
 thousand pounds this week. Dated yesterday. 
 You have not cashed it, I hope ? " 
 
 " I am sorry to say my partner has." 
 
 " Well, sir, not to keep you in suspense, the 
 thing is not worth the stamp it is written on.^* 
 
 " Mr. Wardlaw !— Sir !— Good heavens ! Then 
 it is as I feared. It is a forgery." 
 
 " I should be puzzled to find any other name for 
 it. You need not look so pale, Arthur. We can't 
 help some clever scoundrel imitating our hands; 
 and as for you, Adams, you ought to have been 
 more cautious." 
 
 " But, sir, your cashier's name is Tenfold," fal- 
 tered the holder, clinging to a straw. " May he not 
 have drawn — is the indorsement forged as well ? " 
 
 Mr. Wardlaw examined the back of the bill, and
 
 FOUL TLAY. 15 
 
 looked puzzled. *' No," said he. " My cashier's 
 name is jMichael Penfold, but this is endorsed * Ro- 
 bert Penfold.' Do you hear, Arthur ? Why, what 
 is the matter with you ? You look like a ghost. I 
 say there is your tutor's name at the back of this 
 forged note. This is very strange. Just look, and 
 tell me who wrote these two words ' Robert Pen- 
 fold.' " 
 
 Young Wardlaw took the document, and tried to 
 examine it calmly, but it shook visibly in his hand, 
 and a cold moisture gathered on his brow. His 
 pale eyes roved to and fro in a very remarkable 
 way ; and he was so long before he said anything, 
 that both the other persons present began to eye 
 him with wonder. 
 
 At last he faltered out, " This ' Robert Penfold ' 
 seems to me very like his own hand-writing. But 
 then the rest of the writing is equally like yours, 
 sir. I am sure Robert Penfold never did anything 
 wrong. Mr. Adams, pray oblige me. Let this go 
 no further till I have seen him, and asked him 
 whether he indorsed it." 
 
 " Now don't you be in a hurry," said the elder 
 "SYardlaw. " The first question is, who received the 
 money ? "
 
 ]6 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Mr. Adams replied that it was a respectable look- 
 ing man, a j'oimg clerg3'man. 
 
 " Ah ! " said WarJlaw, with a world of meaning. 
 
 " Father ! " said j^oung Wardlaw, imploringly, 
 " for my sake, say no more to-night. Robert Pen- 
 fold is incapable of a dishonest act." 
 
 " It becomes your years to think so, young man. 
 But I have lived long enough to see what crimes 
 respectable men are betrayed into in the hour of 
 temptation. And, now I think of it, this Robert 
 Penfold is in want of monej'. Did he not ask me 
 for a loan of two thousand pounds ? Was not that 
 the very sum ? Can't j^ou answer me ? Why, the 
 application came through 3'ou." 
 
 Receiving no repl}'^ from his son, but a sort of 
 agonised stare, he took out his pencil and wrote 
 down Robert Pen fold's address. This he handed 
 the bill-broker, and gave him some advice in a 
 whisper, which Mr. Christopher Adams received 
 with a profusion of thanks, and bustled away, leav- 
 ing Wardlaw senior excited and indignant, Ward- 
 law junior ghastly pale, and almost stupefied. 
 
 Scarely a word was spoken for some minutes, 
 and then the younger man broke out suddenly. 
 " Robert Penfold is the best friend 1 ever had ; I
 
 FOUL PLAY. 17 
 
 should liave been expelled, but for him, and I 
 should never have earned that Testamur but for 
 him." 
 
 The okl merchant interrupted him. " You ex- 
 aggerate : but to tell you the truth, I am sorry now 
 I did not lend him the money you asked for. For, 
 mark my words, in a moment of temptation, that 
 miserable young man has forged my name, and will 
 be convicted of the felony, and punished accord- 
 ingly." 
 
 " No, no ; oh, God forbid ! " shrieked young Ward- 
 law. " I couldn't bear it. If he did, he must have 
 intended to replace it. I must see him ; I will see 
 him directly.'^ He got up all in a hurry, and was 
 going to Penfold to warn him, and get him out of 
 the way till the money should be replaced. But 
 his father started up at the same moment and for- 
 bade him, in accents that he had never yet been 
 able to resist. 
 
 " Sit down, sir, this instant," said the old man, 
 with terrible sternness. " Sit down, I say, or you 
 will never be a partner of mine. Justice must take 
 it^ course. "What business and what ri<jht have we 
 
 O 
 
 to protect a felon ? I would not take your part if 
 you were one. Indeed it is too late now, for the 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 18 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 detectives ■will be with him before you could reach 
 him. I crave Adams his address." 
 
 At this last piece of information AYardlaw junior 
 leaned his head on the table, and groaned aloud, 
 and a cold perspiration gathered in beads upon his 
 white forehead.
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 That same evening sat over tlieir tea, in Norfolk 
 Street, Strand, another couple, who were also father 
 and son; but, in this pair, the Warcllaws were 
 reversed. Michael Tenfold was a reverend, gentle 
 creature, with white hair, blue eyes, and great 
 timidit}' ; why, if a stranger put to him a question, 
 he used to look all round the room before he 
 ventured to answer. 
 
 Robert, his son, was a young man, with a large 
 brown eye, a mellow voice, square shoulders, and a 
 prompt and vigorous manner. Cricketer. Scholar. 
 Parson. 
 
 They were talking hopefully together over a 
 
 living Robert was going to buy ; it was near Oxford, 
 
 he said, and would not prevent his continuing to 
 
 take pupils. " But, father," said he, " it will be a 
 
 place to take my wife to if I ever have one ; and, 
 
 meantime, I hope you will run down now and then, 
 
 Saturday to Monday." 
 
 c 2
 
 20 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " That I NYill, Robert. Ali ! how proud she 
 would have been to hear you preach ; it was alwa^'s 
 her dream, poor thing." 
 
 " Let us think she can hear me," said Eobert. 
 " And I have got you still ; the proceeds of this 
 living will help me to lodge you more comfortably.^* 
 
 " You are very good, Robert ; I would rather see 
 you spend it upon yourself; but, dear me, what a 
 manager you must be to dress so beautifully as you 
 do, and send your old father presents as you do, 
 and yet put by fourteen hundred pounds to buy this 
 living." 
 
 " You are mistaken, sir, I have only saved four 
 
 hundred ; the rest but that is a secret for the 
 
 present." 
 
 " Oh, I am not inquisitive : I never was." 
 
 They then chatted about things of no importance 
 whatever, and the old gentleman was just lighting 
 his candle to go to bed, when a visitor was ushered 
 into the room. 
 
 The Penfolds looked a little surprised, but not 
 much. They had no street door all to themselves ; 
 no liveried dragons to interpose between them and 
 unseasonable or unwelcome visitors. 
 
 The man was well dressed, with one exception :
 
 FOUL PLAY. 21 
 
 he wore a gold chain. He had a hooked nose, and 
 a black, piercing eye. He stood at the door and 
 observed every person and thing in the room 
 minutely, before he spoke a word. 
 
 Then he said quietly, " Mr. Michael Penfold, I 
 believe." 
 
 " At your service, sir." 
 
 " And Mr. Robert Penfold." 
 
 " I am Robert Penfold. What is your business ?" 
 
 " Pray is the ' Robert Penfold ' at the back of 
 til is note your writing ? " 
 
 " Certainly it is ; they would not cash it without 
 that." 
 
 " Oh, you got the money, then ? " 
 
 " Of course I did." 
 
 " You have not parted with it, liave you ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " All the better." He then turned to IMichael 
 and looked at him earnestly a moment. " The fact 
 is, sir,^' said he, " there is a little irregularity about 
 this bill, which must be explained, or your son 
 might be called on to refund the cash." 
 
 "Irregularity about — a bill?" cried Michael 
 Penfold, in dismay. " "Who is the drawer ? Let 
 me see it. Oh, dear me, something wrong about a
 
 22 rOUL PLAT. 
 
 bill emlorsed by you, Eobert ? " and the old man 
 began to slnike piteously. 
 
 " Why, father," said Eobert, " what are yoti 
 afraid of? If the bill is irregular, I can but return 
 the money. It is in the house." 
 
 " The best way will be for Mr. Robert Penfold to 
 go at once with me to the bill-broker ; he lives but 
 a few doors off. And you, sir, must stay here, and 
 be responsible for the funds, till we return." 
 
 Robert Penfold took his hat directly, and went off 
 with this mysterious visitor. 
 
 Thej had not gone many steps, when Robert's 
 companion stopped, and, getting in front of him^ 
 said,. " YVe can settle this matter here." At the 
 same time a policeman crossed the way, and joined 
 them ; and another man, who was in fact a police- 
 man in plain clothes, emerged from a door-wa.y and 
 stood at Robert Penfold's back. 
 
 The Detective, having thus surrounded him,, 
 threw off disguise. " My man," said he, " I ought 
 to have done this job in your house. But I looked 
 at the worthy old gentleman, and his grey hairs. I 
 thought I'd spare him all I could. I have a 
 warrant to arrest you for forgery." 
 
 " Forgery ! arrest me for forgery ! " said Eobert
 
 FOUL PLAY. 23 
 
 Peufold, with some amazement, but little emotion ; 
 for he hardly seemed to take it in, iu all its horrible 
 significance. 
 
 The next moment, however, he turned pale, and 
 almost staggered under the blow. 
 
 " We had better go to Mr. Wardlaw,^' said he. 
 " I entreat you to go to him with me." 
 
 " Can't be done," said the Detective. " Ward- 
 law has nothing to do with it. The bill is stop^jed. 
 You are arrested by the gent that cashed it. Here 
 is the warrant : will you go quietly with us, or must 
 I put the darbies on ? " 
 
 Eobert was violently agitated. *' There is no 
 need to arrest me;" he cried: "I shall not run 
 from my accuser. Hands off, I say. I'm a clergy- 
 man of the Church of England, and you shall not 
 lay hands on nie." 
 
 But one of the policemen did lay hands on him. 
 Then the Reverend Eobert Penfold shook him 
 furiously off, and, with one active bound, sprang 
 into the middle of the road. 
 
 The officers went at him incautiousl}^ and the 
 head-detective, as he rushed forward, received a 
 heavy blow on the neck and jaw, that sounded 
 along the street, and sent him rolling in the mud;
 
 24 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 this was followed by a quick succession of stagger- 
 ing facers, administered right and left, on the eyes 
 and noses of the subordinates. These, however, 
 though bruised and bleeding, succeeded at last in 
 grappling their man, and all came to the ground 
 together, and there struggled furiously ; ever}'- 
 window in the street was open by this time, and at 
 one the white hair and reverend face of Michael 
 Penfold looked out on this desperate and unseemly 
 struggle, with hands that beat the air in helpless 
 agon}', and inarticulate cries of terror. 
 
 The Detective got up and sat upon Eobert Pen- 
 fold's chest ; and at last the three forced the hand- 
 cuffs upon him, and took him in a cab to the 
 station-house. * 
 
 Next day, before the magistrate, Wardlaw senior 
 proved the note was a forgery, and Mr. Adams's 
 partner swore to the prisoner as the person who 
 had presented and endorsed the note. The officers 
 attended, two with black eyes a-piece, and one with 
 his jaw bound up, and two sound teeth in his 
 pocket, which had been driven from their sockets 
 by the prisoner in his desperate attempt to escape. 
 Their evidence hurt the prisoner, and the magistrate 
 refused bail.
 
 FOUL I'LAY. 2o 
 
 The Reverend Eobert Penfokl wiis committed to 
 prison, to be tried at the Central Criminal Court on 
 a charge of felony. 
 
 Wardlaw senior returned home, and told Wardlaw 
 junior, who said not a word. He soon received a 
 letter from Eobert Tenfold, which agitated him 
 greatly, and he promised to go to the prison and see 
 him. 
 
 But he never went. 
 
 He was very miserable, a prey to an inward 
 struggle. He dared not offend his father on the 
 eve of being made partner. Yet his heart bled for 
 Eobert Penfold. 
 
 He did what might perhaps have been expected 
 from that pale eye and receding chin — he tem- 
 porised. He said to himself, " Before that horrible 
 trial comes on, I shall be the house of Wardlaw, 
 and able to drav/ a cheque for thousands. I'll 
 buy off Adams at any price, and hush up the whole 
 matter." 
 
 So he hoped, and hoped. But the accountant 
 Avas slow, the public prosecutor unusually quick, 
 and, to young Wardlaw's agony, the partnership 
 deed was not read}', when an imploring letter was 
 put into his hands, urging him, by all that men
 
 26 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 hold sacred, to attend at the court as the prisoner's 
 witness. 
 
 This letter almost drove young Wardlaw mad. 
 He went to Adams, and intreated him not to carry 
 the matter into court. But Adams was inexorable. 
 He had got his money, but would be revenged for 
 the fright. 
 
 Baffled here, young Wardlaw went down to 
 Oxford and shut himself up in his own room, a 
 prey to fear and remorse. He sported his oak, and 
 never went out. All his exercise was that of a 
 wild beast in its den, walking restlessly up and 
 down. 
 
 But all his caution did not prevent the prisoner's 
 solicitor from getting to him. One morning, at 
 seven o'clock, a clerk slipped in at the heels of his 
 scout, and, coming to young Wardlaw's bedside, 
 awoke him out of an uneasy slumber by serving 
 him with a subpoena to appear as Bobert Penfold's 
 witness. 
 
 This last stroke finished him. His bodily health 
 gave way under his mental distress. Gastric fever 
 set in, and he was lying tossing and raving in 
 delirium, while Bobert Penfold was being tried at 
 the Central Criminal Court.
 
 rOUL PLAY. 27 
 
 The trial occupied six hours, and could easil}' be 
 made rather interesting. But, for various reasons, 
 Avitli which it would not be good taste to trouble the 
 reader, we decide to skim it. 
 
 The indictment contained two counts ; one for 
 forging the note of hand, the other for uttering it, 
 knowino" it to be forged. 
 
 On the first count, the Crown was weak, and had 
 to encounter the evidence of Undercliff, the dis- 
 tinguished Expert, who swore that the hand which 
 wrote " Eobert Penfold " was not, in his opinion, 
 the hand that had written the bod}' of the instru- 
 ment. He gave many minute reasons, in support 
 of this; and nothing of any Aveiglit was advanced 
 contra. The judge directed the juiy to acquit the 
 prisoner on that count. 
 
 But, on the charge of uttering, tlie evidence was 
 clear, and, on the question of knowledge, it was, 
 perhaps, a disadvantage to the prisoner that he was 
 tried in England, and could not be heard in person, 
 as he could have been in a foreign court ; above all, 
 his resistance to the officers eked out the presump- 
 tion that he knew the note had been forged by 
 some person or other, who was probably his accom- 
 plice.
 
 28 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 The absence of his witness, Wavdlaw junior, was 
 severely commented on b}' his counsel ; indeed, he 
 appealed to the judge to commit the said Wardlaw 
 for contempt of court. But Wardlaw senior was 
 recalled, and swore that he had left his son in a 
 burning fever, not expected to live ; and declared, 
 with genuine emotion, that nothing but a high 
 sense of public dut}'- had brought liim hither from 
 his d^'ing son's bedside. He also told the court 
 that Arthur's inability to clear his friend had reall}"- 
 been the first cause of his illness, from which he 
 was not expected to recover. 
 
 The jury consulted together a long time; and, 
 at last, brought in a verdict of "Guilty;" but 
 recommended him to mercy, on grounds which 
 might fairly have been alleged in favour of his 
 innocence ; but, if guilty, rather aggravated his 
 crime. 
 
 Then an officer of the court inquired, in a sort of 
 chant or recitative, whether the prisoner had any- 
 thing to say why judgment should not be given in 
 accordance witlx the verdict. 
 
 It is easy to divest words of their meaning by 
 false intonation; and prisoners in general receive 
 this bit of sing-song in dead silence. For why ?
 
 FOUL PLAY. 29 
 
 tlie chant conveys no idea to their ears, and the}' 
 would as soon think of rephjing to the notes of a 
 cuckoo. 
 
 But the Reverend Robert Penfold was in a keen 
 agony that sharpened all his senses ; he caught the 
 sense of the words in spite of the speaker, and 
 clung wildly to the straw that monotonous machine 
 held out. " My Lord ! my Lord ! " he cried, " I'll 
 tell you the real reason wh}' young Wardlaw is not 
 here." 
 
 The judge put up his hand with a gesture that 
 enforced silence: — "Prisoner," said he, " I cannot 
 go back to facts; the jury have dealt with them. 
 Judgment can he arrested only on grounds of law. 
 On these you can he heard. But, if you have none 
 to offer, you must he silent, and submit to your 
 sentence." He then, after a slight pause, proceeded 
 to point out the heinous character of the offence, but 
 admitted there was one mitigating circumstance : 
 and, in conclusion, he condemned the culprit to five 
 years' penal servitude. 
 
 At this the poor wretch uttered a cry of anguish 
 that was fearful, and clutched the dock con- 
 vulsively. 
 
 Now a prisoner rarely speaks to a judge with-
 
 30 FOUL r-LAY. 
 
 out revolting liim by bad law, or bad logic, or 
 hot words. But this wild crj^ was innocent of 
 all these, and went straight from the heart in 
 the dock to the heart on the judgment seat. And 
 so his lordship's voice trembled for a moment, 
 and then became firm again, but solemn and 
 humane. " But," said he, " my experience tells me 
 this is your first crime, and may possibly be your 
 last. I shall therefore use my influence that 
 you may not be associated with more hardened 
 criminals, but ma}' be sent out of this country 
 to another, where you may begin life afresh, 
 and, in the course of years, efface this dreadful 
 stain. Give me hopes of you ; begin your repent- 
 ance, where now you stand, by blaming yourself, 
 and no other man. No man constrained you to 
 utter a forged note, and to receive the money ; it 
 was found in your possession. For such an act 
 there can be no defence in law, morality, or 
 religion." 
 
 These words overpowered the culprit. He burst 
 out crying with great violence. 
 
 But it did not last long. He became strangely 
 composed all of a sudden ; and said, " God forgive 
 all concerned in this — but one — but one."
 
 FOUL PLAT. 31 
 
 He then bowed respectfully, and like a gentle- 
 man, to the judge, and the jury, and walked out of 
 the dock with the air of a man who had parted with 
 emotion, and would march to the gallows now with- 
 out flinching. 
 
 The counsel for the Crown required that the 
 forged document should be impounded. 
 
 " I was about to make the same demand/' said 
 the prisoner's counsel. 
 
 The judge snubbed them both, and said it was a 
 matter of course. 
 
 Robert Peufold spent a year in separate confine- 
 ment, and then, to cure him of its salutary effect (if 
 any), was sent on board the hulk " Vengeance," and 
 was herded with the greatest miscreants in creation. 
 They did not reduce him to their level, but they 
 injured his mind; and, before half his sentence had 
 expired, he sailed for a penal colony, a man with a 
 hot coal in his bosom, a creature embittered, 
 poisoned; hoping little, believing little, fearing 
 little, and hating much. 
 
 He took with him the prayer-book his mother 
 had given him when he was ordained deacon. But 
 he seldom read bej'ond the fly-leaf: there the poor 
 lad}'' had written at large her mother's heart, and
 
 32 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 her pious soul aspiring heavenwards for her darling 
 son. This, when all seemed darkest, he would 
 sometimes run to with moist eyes ; for he was sure 
 of his mother's love, but almost doubted the justice 
 of his God.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Mr. Wardlaw went down to his son and nursed 
 him. He kept the newspapers from him, and, on 
 his fever abating, had him conveyed by easy stages 
 to the seaside, and then sent him abroad. 
 
 The young man obeyed in gloomy silence. He 
 never asked after Eobert Penfold, now ; never men- 
 tioned his name. He seemed, somehow, thankful 
 to be controlled mind and body. 
 
 But, before he had been abroad a month, he 
 wrote for leave to return home and to throw himself 
 into business. There was, for once, a nervous im- 
 patience in his letters, and his father, who pitied 
 him deeply, and was more than ever inclined to 
 reward and indulge him, yielded readily enough; 
 and, on his arrival, signed the partnership deed, 
 and, Polonius-like, gave him much good counsel 
 then retired to his country seat. 
 
 At first he used to run up every three daj-^s, and 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 examine the clay-book and ledger, and advise his 
 junior; but these visits soon became fewer, and 
 at last he did little more than correspond occa- 
 sionally. 
 
 Arthur Wardlaw held the reins, and easily paid 
 his Oxford debts out of the assets of the firm. Not 
 being happy in his mind he threw himself into 
 commerce with feverish zeal, and very soon ex- 
 tended the operations of the house. 
 
 One of his first acts of authority was to send for 
 Michael Penfold into his room. Now poor old 
 Michael, ever since his son's misfortune, as he 
 called it, had crept to his desk like a culprit, 
 expecting every day to be discharged. When he 
 received this summons he gave a sigh and went 
 slowly to the young merchant. 
 
 Arthur Wardlaw looked up at his entrance, then 
 looked down again, and said coldly, "Mr. Penfold, 
 you have been a faithful servant to us many years ; 
 I raise your salary oOL a year, and you will keep 
 the ledger." 
 
 The old man was dumfoundered at first, and 
 then began to give vent to his surprise and grati- 
 tude ; but Wardlaw cut him short, almost fiercely. 
 " There, there, there," said he, without raising his
 
 FOUL PLAY. 35 
 
 eyes, " let me hear no more about it, and, above all, 
 never speak to me of that cursed business. It was 
 no fault of yours, nor mine neither. There — go — 
 I want no thanks. Do you hear? leave me, Mr. 
 Penfold, if you please." 
 
 The old man bowed low and retired, wondering 
 much at his employer's goodness, and a little at his 
 irritabilit}\ 
 
 AVardlaw junior's whole soul was given to busi- 
 ness night and day, and he soon became known for 
 a very ambitious and rising merchant. But, by- 
 and-by, ambition had to encounter a rival in his 
 heart. He fell in love ; deeply in loye ; and with a 
 worthy object. 
 
 The young lady was the daughter of a distin- 
 guished officer, whose merits were universally 
 recognised, but not rewarded in proportion. Ward- 
 law's suit was favourably received by the father, 
 and the daughter gradually 5delded to an attach- 
 ment, the warmth, sincerity, and singleness of 
 which were manifest ; and the pair would have been 
 married, but for the circumstance that her father 
 (partly through Wardlaw's influence, by-the-bye) had 
 obtained a lucrative post abroad, which it suited his 
 
 means to accept, at all events for a time. He was 
 
 D 2
 
 36 rOUL PLAY. 
 
 a widower, and his daughter could not let him go 
 alone. 
 
 This temporary separation, if it postponed a 
 marriage, led naturally to a solemn engagement; and 
 Arthur "Wardlaw enjo3'ed the happiness of writing 
 and receiving affectionate letters by every foreign 
 post. Love, worthily bestowed, shed its balm upon 
 his heart, and, under its soft but powerful charm, 
 he grew tranquil and complacent, and his character 
 and temper seemed to improve. Such virtue is 
 there in a pure attachment. 
 
 Meanwhile the extent of his operations alarmed 
 old Penfold ; but he soon reasoned that worthy 
 down with overpowering conclusions and superior 
 smiles. 
 
 He had been three years the ruling spirit of 
 Wardlaw & Son, when some curious events took 
 place in another hemisphere; and in these events, 
 wliich we are now to relate, Arthur Wardlaw was 
 more nearly interested than may appear at first 
 sight. 
 
 Robert Penfold, in due course, applied to Lieu- 
 tenant-General Eolleston for a ticket of leave. 
 That functionary thought the application prema-
 
 FOUL PLAT. 37 
 
 ture, the crime being so grave. He complained 
 tliat the system had become too bx, and for his 
 part he seldom gave a ticket of leave mitil some 
 suitable occupation was provided for the applicant. 
 " Will anybod}' take you as a clerk ? If so — I'll 
 see about it." 
 
 Eobert Penfold could find nobody to take him 
 into a post of confidence all at once, and wrote the 
 General an eloquent letter, begging hard to be 
 allowed to labour with his hands. 
 
 Fortunately, General Rolleston's gardener hud 
 just turned him off: so he offered the post to his 
 eloquent correspondent, remarking that he did not 
 much mind employing a ticket-of-leave man him- 
 self, though he was resolved to protect his neigh- 
 bours from their relapses. 
 
 The convict then came to General Rolleston, and 
 begged leave to enter on his duties under the name 
 of James Seaton. At that General Rolleston hem'd 
 and haw'd, and took a note. But his final decision 
 was as follows : — " If you really mean to change 
 your character, why the name you have disgraced 
 might hang round your neck. Well, I'll give you 
 every chance. But," said tliis old warrior, suddenly 
 compressing his resolute lips just a little, " if you
 
 38 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 go a yard off the straiglit path now, look for no 
 mere}' — Jemmj'^ Seaton." 
 
 So the convict was re-christened at the tail of a 
 threat, and let loose among the warrior's tulips. 
 
 His appearance was changed as effectually as his 
 name. Even before he was Seatoned he had grown 
 a silky moustache and beard of singular length and 
 beauty ; and what with these, and his working man's 
 clothes, and his cheeks and neck tanned by the sun, 
 our readers would never have recognised in this 
 hale, bearded labourer the pale prisoner that had 
 trembled, raged, wept, and submitted in the dock 
 of the Central Criminal Court. 
 
 Our Universities cure men of doing things by 
 halves, be the things mental or muscular ; so Seaton 
 gardened much more zealously than his plebeian 
 predecessor : up at five, and did not leave till eight. 
 
 But he was unpopular in the kitchen — because 
 he was always out of it : taciturn and bitter, he 
 shunned his fellow-servants. 
 
 Yet working among the flowers did him good ; 
 these his pretty companions and nurslings had no 
 vices. 
 
 One day, as he was rolling the grass upon the 
 lawn, he heard a soft rustle at some distance, and,
 
 FOUL PLAY. 39 
 
 looking round, saw a young lady on the gravel path, 
 whose calm but bright face, coming so suddenly, 
 literally dazzled him. She had a clear cheek bloom- 
 ing with exercise, rich brown hair, smooth, glossy, 
 and abundant, and a very light hazel eye, of singular 
 beauty and serenity. She glided along, tranquil as 
 a goddess, smote him with beauty and perfume, and 
 left him staring after her receding figure, which was, 
 in its way, as captivating as her face. 
 
 She was walking up and down for exercise, 
 briskly, but without effort. Once she passed within 
 a few yards of him, but her eyes did not rest an 
 instant on her gardener; and so she passed and re- 
 passed, unconsciously sawing this solitary heart 
 with soft but penetrating thrills. 
 
 At last she went indoors to luncheon, and the 
 lawn seemed to miss the light music of her rustling 
 dress, and the sunshine of her presence, and there 
 was a painful void ; but that passed, and a certain 
 sense of happiness stole over James Seaton — an 
 unreasonable joy, that often runs before folly and 
 trouble. 
 
 The young lady was Helen Eolleston, just re- 
 turned home from a visit. She walked in the 
 garden every day, and Seaton watched her, and
 
 40 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 peeped at bei", unseen, behind trees and bushes. 
 He fed his eyes and his heart upon her, and, by de- 
 grees, she became the sun of his solitary existence. 
 It was madness; but its first effect was not un- 
 wholesome. The daily study of this creature, who, 
 though by no means the angel he took her for, was 
 at all events a pure and virtuous woman, soothed 
 his sore heart, and counteracted the demoralising 
 influences of his late companions. Every day he 
 drank deeper of an insane, but purifying and 
 elevating passion. 
 
 He avoided the kitchen still more ; and that, by- 
 the-bye, was unlucky; for there he could have 
 learned something about Miss Helen Rolleston, 
 that would have warned him to keep at the other 
 end of the garden, whenever that charming face 
 and form glided to and fro amongst the minor 
 flowers. 
 
 A beautiful face fires our imagination, and we see 
 higher virtue and intelligence in it, than we can de« 
 tect in its owner's head or heart when we descend to 
 calm inspection. James Seaton gazed on Miss Rol- 
 leston day after day, at so respectful a distance, that 
 she became his goddess. If a day passed without 
 his seeing her, he was dejected. When she was
 
 FOUL PLAT. 41 
 
 behind her time, he was restless, anxious, and his 
 work distasteful ; and then, when she came out at 
 last, he thrilled all over, and the lawn, ay, the world 
 itself, seemed to fill with sunshine. His adoration, 
 timid by its own nature, was doubly so by reason of 
 his fallen and hopeless condition. He cut nose- 
 gays for her ; but gave them to her maid Wilson for 
 her. He had not the courage to offer them to 
 herself. 
 
 One evening, as he went home, a man addressed 
 him familiarly, but in a low voice. Seaton looked 
 at him attentively, and recognised him at last. It 
 was a convict called Butt, who had come over in 
 the ship with him. The man offered him a glass of 
 ale ; Seaton declined it. Butt, a very clever rogue, 
 seemed hurt : so then Seaton assented reluctantly. 
 Butt took him to a public -house in a narrow street, 
 and into a private room. Seaton started as soon as 
 he entered, for there sat two repulsive ruffians, and, 
 by a look that passed rapidly between them and 
 Butt, he saw plainly ihey were waiting for him. He 
 felt nervous ; the place was so uncouth and dark, 
 the faces so villainous. 
 
 However, they invited him to sit down, roughly, 
 but with an air of good fellowship ; and very soon
 
 42 
 
 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 opened their busiDess over their ale. We are all 
 bound to assist our fellow-creatures, when it can be 
 done without trouble ; and what they asked of him 
 was a simple act of courtes}^ such as in their 
 opinion no man worthy of the name could deny to 
 his fellow. It was to give General Eolleston's 
 watch-dog a piece of prepared meat upon a certain 
 evening : and in return for this trifling civility, they 
 were generous enough to offer him a full share of 
 any light valuables they might find in the General's 
 house. 
 
 Seaton felt the danger of refusing, and put his 
 face in his hands a moment. " I cannot do it," 
 said he. 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " He has been too good to me." 
 
 A coarse laugh of derision greeted this argu- 
 ment; it seemed so irrelevant to these pure ego- 
 tists. Seaton, however, persisted, and on that one 
 of the men got up and stood before the door, and 
 drew his knife gently. 
 
 Seaton glanced his eyes round in search of a 
 weapon, and turned pale. 
 
 " Do you mean to split on us, mate ? " said one 
 of the ruffians in front of him.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 43 
 
 " No, I don't. But I won't rob my benefactor : 
 you shall kill me first." And with that he darted 
 to the fire-place, and in a moment the poker was 
 high in air, and the way he squared his shoulders 
 and stood ready to hit to the on, or cut to the ofi", 
 was a caution. 
 
 " Come drop that," said Butt, grimly ; " and put 
 up your knife. Bob. Can't a pal be out of a job, 
 and yet not split on them that is in it ? " 
 
 "Why should I split?" said Eobert Penfold. 
 " Has the law been a friend to me ? But I wonH 
 rob my benefactor — and his daughter." 
 
 " That is square enough," said Butt. *' Why, 
 pals, there are other cribs to be cracked besides 
 that old bloke's. Finish the ale, mate, and part 
 friends." 
 
 " If you will promise me to ' crack some other 
 crib,' and let that one alone." 
 
 A sullen assent was given, and Seaton drank 
 their healths, and walked away. Butt followed him 
 soon after, and affected to side with him, and inti- 
 mated that he himself was capable of not robbing a 
 man's house who had been good to him, or to a pal 
 of his. Indeed this plausible person said so much, 
 and his sullen comrades had said so little, that
 
 44 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 Seaton, rendered keen and anxious by love, in- 
 yested bis savings in a Colt's revolver and ammu- 
 nition. 
 
 He did not stop tbere ; after the bint about tbe 
 watcb-dog, be would not trust tbat faitbful but too 
 carnivorous animal; be brougbt bis blankets into 
 tbe little tool-bouse, and lay tbere every nigbt in a 
 sort of dog's sleep. Tbis tool-bouse was erected 
 in a little back garden, separated from tbe lawn 
 only by some young trees in single file. Now Miss 
 Piolleston's window looked out upon tbe lawn, so 
 tbat Seaton's watcb-tower was not many yards from 
 it; tben, as tbe tool-bouse was only lighted from 
 above, be bored a bole in tbe wooden structure, and 
 tbrougb tbis be watcbed, and slept, and watcbed. 
 He used to sit studying theology by a farthing rush- 
 light till the lady's bed-time, and then be watched 
 for her shadow. If it appeared for a few moments 
 on the blind, be gave a sigh of content, and went to 
 sleep, but awaked every now and tben to see that all 
 was well. 
 
 After a few nights, bis alarms naturally ceased, 
 but bis love increased, fed now from tbis new 
 source, the *sweet sense of being tbe secret pro- 
 tector of her he adored.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 45 
 
 Meantime, Miss Rolleston's lady's maid, Wilson, 
 fell in love with him after her fashion ; she had 
 taken a fancy to his face at once, and he had en- 
 couraged her a little, unintentionally ; for he brought 
 the nosegays to her, and listened complacently to 
 her gossip, for the sake of the few words she let 
 fall now and then about her young mistress. As he 
 never exchanged two sentences at a time with any 
 other servant, this flattered Sarah Wilson, and she 
 soon began to meet and accost him oftener, and in 
 cherrier-coloured ribbons, than he could stand. So 
 then he showed impatience, and then she, reading 
 him by herself, suspected some vulgar rival. 
 
 Suspicion soon bred jealousy, jealous}' vigilance, 
 and vigilance detection. 
 
 Her first discovery was, that, so long as she 
 talked of Miss Helen RoUeston, she was always 
 welcome ; her second was, that Seaton slept in the 
 tool-house. 
 
 She was not romantic enough to connect her two 
 discoveries together. They lay apart in her mind, 
 until circumstances we are about to relate supplied 
 a connecting link. 
 
 One Thursday evening James Seaton's goddess 
 sat alone with her papa, and — being a young lady of
 
 46 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 fair abilities, who had gone through her course of 
 music and other studies, taught brainlessl}', and 
 who was now going through a course of monotonous 
 pleasures, and had not accumulated any great store 
 of mental resources — she was listless, and languid, 
 and would have yawned forty times in her papa's 
 face, only she Avas too well bred. She always 
 turned her head away when it came, and either 
 suppressed it, or else hid it with a lovely 
 white hand. At last, as she was a good girl, she 
 blushed at her behaviour, and roused herself 
 up, and said she, " Papa, shall I play you the 
 new quadrilles ? " 
 
 Papa gave a start and a shake, and said, with 
 well-feigned vehemence, " Ay, do, my dear," and so 
 composed himself — to listen; and Helen sat down 
 and played the quadrilles. 
 
 The composer had taken immortal melodies, 
 some gay, some sad, and had robbed them of their 
 distinctive character, and hashed them, till they 
 were all one monotonous rattle. But General Kol- 
 leston was little the worse for all this. As Apollo 
 saved Horace from hearing a poetaster's rhymes, so 
 did Somnus, another beneficent little deity, rescue 
 our warrior from his daughter's music.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 47 
 
 She was neither angry nor surprised. A deUcious 
 smile illumined her face directly ; she crept to him 
 on tip-toe, and bestowed a kiss, light as a zephyr, 
 on his grey head. And, in truth, the bending atti- 
 tude of this supple figure, clad in snowy muslin, 
 the virginal face and light hazel eye beaming love 
 and reverence, and the airy kiss, had something 
 angelic. 
 
 She took her candle, and glided up to her bed- 
 room. And, the moment she got there, and could 
 gratify her somnolence without offence, need we say 
 she became wide-awake ? She sat down and wrote 
 long letters to three other young ladies, gushing 
 affection, asking questions of the kind nobody 
 replies to, painting, with a young lady's colours, the 
 male being to whom she was shortly to be married, 
 wishing her dear friends a like demi-god, if per- 
 chance earth contained two ; and so to the last new 
 bonnet, and preacher. 
 
 She sat over her paper till one o'clock, and 
 Seaton watched and adored her shadow. 
 
 ^Vhen she had done writing, she opened her 
 window and looked out upon the night. She lifted 
 those wonderful hazel eyes towards the stars, and 
 her watcher might well be pardoned if he saw in
 
 48 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 her a celestial being looking up from an earthly- 
 resting-place towards her native sky. 
 
 At two o'clock she was in bed, but not asleep. 
 She lay calmly gazing at the Southern Cross, and 
 other lovely stars shining with vivid, but chaste, 
 fire in the purple vault of heaven. 
 
 While thus employed she heard a slight sound 
 outside that made her turn her eyes towards a 
 young tree near her window. Its top branches 
 were waving a good deal, though there was not a 
 breath stirring. This struck her as curious, very 
 curious. 
 
 Whilst she wondered, suddenly an arm and a 
 hand came in sight, and after them the whole 
 figure of a man, going up the tree. 
 
 Helen sat up now, glaring with terror, and was 
 so paralysed she did not utter a sound. About a 
 foot below her window was a lead flat that roofed 
 the bay window below. It covered an area of 
 several feet, and the man sprang on to it with 
 perfect ease from the tree. Helen shrieked with 
 terror. At that very instant there was a flash, a 
 pistol shot, and the man's arms went whirling, 
 and he staggered and fell over the edge of the flat, 
 and struck the grass below with a heavy thud.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 49 
 
 Shots and blows followed, and all the sounds of 
 fierce fighting rung in Helen's ears as she flung 
 herself screaming from the bed and darted to the 
 door. She ran and clung quivering to her sleepy- 
 maid, Wilson. The house was alarmed, lights 
 flashed, footsteps pattered, there was universal 
 commotion. 
 
 General Rolleston soon learned his daughter's 
 story from Wilson, and aroused his male servants, 
 one of whom was an old soldier. They searched 
 the house first ; but no entrance had been effected ; 
 so they went out on the lawn with blunderbuss and 
 pistol. 
 
 They found a man lying on his back at the foot 
 of the bay window. 
 
 They pounced on him, and, to their amazement, 
 it was the gardener, James Seaton. Insensible. 
 
 General Eolleston was quite taken aback for a 
 moment. Then he was sorry. But after a little 
 reflection, he said very sternly, " Carry the black- 
 guard in-doors ; and run for an officer." 
 
 Seaton was taken into the hall, and laid flat on 
 the floor. 
 
 All the servants gathered about him, brimful of 
 curiosity, and the female ones began to speak all 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 50 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 together; but General Rolleston told them sharply 
 to hold their tongues, and to retire behind the man. 
 " Somebody sprinkle him with cold water," said he ; 
 " and be quiet, all of you, and keep out of his sight, ', 
 while I examine him." He stood before the insen- 
 sible figure with his arms folded, amidst a dead 
 silence, broken only by the stifled sobs of Sarah 
 Wilson, and of a sociable housemaid who cried with 
 her for company. 
 
 And now Seaton began to writhe and show signs 
 of returning sense. 
 
 Next he moaned piteously, and sighed. But 
 General Rolleston could not pity him ; he waited 
 grimly for returning consciousness, to subject him 
 to a merciless interrogatory. 
 
 He waited just one second too long. He had to 
 answer a question instead of putting one. 
 
 The judgment is the last faculty a man recovers 
 when emerging from insensibilit}' ; and Seaton, 
 seeing the General standing before him, stretched 
 out his hands, and said, in a faint but earnest voice, 
 before eleven witnesses, " Is she safe ? Oh, is she 
 safe ? "
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Sarah "Wilson left off crying, and looked down 
 on the ground with a very red face. General 
 Rolleston was amazed. " Is she safe ! Is who 
 safe ? " said he. " He means my mistress," replied 
 Wilson, rather brusquely ; and flounced out of the 
 hall. 
 
 "She is safe, no thanks to you," said General 
 Rolleston. " What were you doing under her win- 
 dow at this time of night ? '^ And the harsh tone 
 in which this question was put showed Seaton he 
 was suspected. This wounded him, and he replied, 
 doggedly, " Lucky for you all I was there." 
 
 " That is no answer to my question," said the 
 General, sternly. 
 
 " It is all the answer I shall give you.'' 
 
 " Then I shall hand you over to the officer, with- 
 out another word.'' 
 
 " Do, sir, do," said Seaton, bitterly ; but he added 
 
 E 2 
 
 •
 
 62 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 more gently, "you will be sorry for it when you 
 come to your senses." 
 
 At this moment Wilson entered with a message. 
 " If you please, sir, Miss' Eolleston says the robber 
 had no beard. Miss have never noticed Seaton's 
 face, but his beard she have ; and oh ! if you please, 
 sir, she begged me to ask him — Was it you that 
 fired the pistol and shot the robber ? " 
 
 The delivery of this ungrammatical message, but 
 rational quer}^ was like a ray of light streaming 
 into a dark place : it changed the whole aspect of 
 things. As for Seaton, he received it as if Heaven 
 was speaking to him through Wilson. His sullen 
 air relaxed, the water stood in his eyes, he smiled 
 affectionately, and said in a low, tender voice, " Tell 
 her I heard some bad characters talking"" about this 
 house — that was a month ago — so, ever since then, 
 I have slept in the tool-house to watch. Yes, I 
 shot the robber with my revolver, and I marked 
 one or two more ; but they were three to one ; 
 I think I must have got a blow on the head; for 
 
 I felt nothing " 
 
 Here he was interrupted by a violent scream 
 from Wilson. She pointed downwards, with her 
 eyes glaring; and a little blood was seen to
 
 FOUL PLAY. 53, 
 
 I 
 
 be trickling slowly over Seaton's stocking and 
 shoe. 
 
 " Wounded," said the General's servant, Tom, in 
 the business-like accent of one who had seen a 
 thousand wounds. 
 
 " Oh ! never mind that," said Seaton. " It can't 
 be very deep, for I don't feel it;" then, fixing his 
 eyes on General Rolleston, he said, in a voice that 
 broke down suddenly, " There stands the only man 
 who has wounded me to-night, to hurt me." 
 
 The way General Rolleston received this point 
 blank reproach surprised some persons present, 
 who had observed only the imperious and iron side 
 of his character. He hung his head in silence a 
 moment; then, being discontented with himself, he 
 went into a passion with his servants for standing 
 idle. " Run away, you women," said he, roughly. 
 " Now, Tom, if you are good for anything, strip 
 the man and staunch his wound. Andrew, a bottle 
 of port, quick ! " 
 
 Then, leaving him for a while in friendly hands, 
 he went to his daughter and asked her if she saw 
 any objection to a bed being made up in the house 
 for the wounded convict. 
 
 "Oh, papa," said she, "why of course not. I
 
 54 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 am all gratitude. What is he like, Wilson ? for 
 it is a most provoking thing, I never noticed his 
 face, only his beautiful beard glittering in the sun- 
 shine ever so far oif. Poor young man ! Oh yes, 
 papa ! send him to bed directly, and we will all 
 nurse him. I never did any good in the world yet, 
 and so why not begin at once ?" 
 
 General Bolleston laughed at this squirt of en- 
 thusiasm from his staid daughter, and went off to 
 give the requisite orders. 
 
 But Wilson followed him immediately and 
 stopped him in the passage. " If you please, sir, 
 I think you had better not. I have something to 
 tell you." She then communicated to him by 
 degrees her suspicion that James Seaton was in 
 love with his daughter. He treated this with due 
 ridicule at first ; but she gave him one reason after 
 another till she staggered him, and he went down 
 stairs in a most mixed and puzzled frame of mind, 
 inclined to laugh, inclined to be angry, inclined to 
 be sorry. 
 
 The officer had just arrived, and was looking 
 over some photographs to see if James Seaton 
 was " one of his birds." Such, alas ! was his 
 expression.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 55 
 
 At sight of this, HoUeston coloured up ; but 
 extricated himself from the double difficulty with 
 some skill. " Hexham," said he, " this poor fellow 
 has behaved like a man, and got himself wounded 
 in my service. You are to take him to the in- 
 firmary; but mind, they must treat him like my 
 own son, and nothing he asks for denied him." 
 
 Seaton walked with feeble steps, and leaning on 
 two men, to the infirmary'- ; and General Rolleston 
 ordered a cup of coffee, lighted a cigar, and sat 
 cogitating over this strange business, and asking 
 himself how he could get rid of this young madman, 
 and yet befriend him. As for Sarah AVilson, she 
 went to bed discontented, and wondering at her 
 own bad judgment. She saw, too late, that, if she 
 had held her tongue, Seaton would have been her 
 patient and her prisoner; and as for Miss Rolleston, 
 when it came to the point, why she would never 
 have nursed him except by proxy, and the proxy 
 would have been Sarah Wilson. 
 
 However the blunder, blind passion had led her 
 into, was partially repaired by Miss Rolleston her- 
 self. When she heard next day where Seaton was 
 gone, she lifted up her hands in amazement. 
 "What could papa be thinking of to send our
 
 56 rOUL TLAY. 
 
 benefiictor to a hospital?" And, after meditating 
 awhile, she directed Wilson to cut a nosegay and 
 carry it to Seaton. " He is a gardener," said she, 
 innocently. " Of course he will miss his flowers 
 sadly in that miserable place." 
 
 And she gave the same order every day with a 
 constancy that, you must know, formed part of this 
 young lady's character. Soup, wine, and jellies 
 were sent from the kitchen every other day with 
 equal pertinacity. 
 
 Wilson concealed the true donor of all those 
 things, and took the credit to herself. By this 
 means she obtained the patient's gratitude, and 
 he showed it so frankly, she hoped to steal his 
 love as well. 
 
 But no ! his fancy and liis heart remained true 
 to the cold beauty he had served so well, and she 
 had forgotten him, apparently. 
 
 This irritated Wilson at last, and she set to work 
 to cure him with wholesome but bitter medicine. 
 She sat down beside him one day, and said, cheer- 
 fully, "We are all 'on the key-feet' just now. Miss 
 Ptolleston's beau is come on a visit." 
 
 The patient opened his eyes with astonishment.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 57 
 
 " Miss Rolleston's beau ?" 
 
 " Ay, her Intended. What, didn't you know she 
 is engaged to be married ?" 
 
 " She engaged to be married?" gasped Seaton. 
 
 Wilson watched him with a remorseless eye. 
 
 " Why, James," said she, after a while, " did j'ou 
 think the likes of her would go through the world 
 without a mate ? " 
 
 Seaton made no reply but a moan, and lay 
 back like one dead, utterly crushed by this cruel 
 blow. 
 
 A buxom middle aged nurse now came up, and 
 said, with a touch of severity, "Come, my good 
 girl, no doubt you mean well, but you are doing ill. 
 You had better leave him to us for the present." ; 
 
 On this hint Wilson bounced out, and left the 
 patient to his misery. 
 
 At her next visit she laid a nosegay on his bed, 
 and gossiped away, talking of everything in the 
 world except Miss Kolleston. 
 
 At last she came to a pause, and Seaton laid his 
 hand on her arm directl}^ and looking piteously 
 in her face spoke his first word. 
 
 " Does she love him ? " 
 
 "What, still harping on her?'' said Wilson;
 
 58 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 "well, she doesn't hate him, I suppose, or she 
 would not marry him." 
 
 " For pity's sake don't trifle with me ! Does she 
 love him?" 
 
 " La, James, how can I tell ? She mayn't love 
 him quite as much as I could love a man, that 
 took my fancy " (here she cast a languishing glance 
 on Seatou) ; " but I see no difference between her 
 and other young ladies. Miss is very fond of her 
 papa, for one thing; and he favours the match. 
 Ay, and she likes her partner well enough : she is 
 brighter like now he is in the house, and she reads 
 all her friends' letters to him ever so lovingly ; 
 and I do notice she leans on him out walking, a 
 trifle more than there is any need for." 
 
 At this picture James Seaton writhed in his bed 
 like some agonised creature imder vivisection ; but 
 the woman, spurred by jealousy, and also by ego- 
 tistical passion, had no mercy left for him. . 
 
 " And why not ? " continued she ; " he is young, 
 and handsome, and rich, and he dotes on her. If 
 you are really her friend, you ought to be glad she 
 is so well suited." 
 
 At this admonition the tears stood in Seaton's 
 eyes, and, after a while, he got strength to say, "I
 
 FOUL PLAY. 59 
 
 know I ought, I know it. If he is only wortliy of 
 her : as worthy as any man could be." 
 
 " That he is, James. Why, I'll be bound you 
 have heard of him. It is young Mr. Wardlaw." 
 
 Seaton started up in bed. " Who ? Wardlaw ? 
 what AVardlaw ? " 
 
 " What Wardlaw ? why the great London mer- 
 chant, his son. Leastways he manages the whole 
 concern now, I hear; the old gentleman, he is 
 retired, by all accounts." 
 
 " Arthur Wardlaw ! He is a villain ! " yelled 
 James Seaton, with his eyes glaring fearfully, and 
 both hands beating the air. 
 
 Sarah Wilson recoiled with alarm. 
 
 " That angel marry him ! " shrieked Seaton. 
 " Never, while I live : I'll throttle him with these 
 hands first." 
 
 AVhat more his ungovernable fury would have 
 uttered was interrupted by a rush of nurses and 
 attendants, and Wilson was bundled out of the 
 place with little ceremony. 
 
 He contrived however to hurl a word after her, 
 accompanied with a look of concentrated rage and 
 resolution that haunted her for years. 
 
 " Never, I tell you — while I live."
 
 60 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 At her next visit to the hospital, "Wilson was 
 refused admission, by order of the Head Surgeon. 
 She left her flowers daily all the same. 
 
 After a few days, she thought the matter might 
 have cooled, and, having a piece of news to com- 
 municate to Seaton, with respect to Arthur Ward- 
 law, she asked to see that patient. 
 
 "Left the hospital this morning," was the reply. 
 
 " What, cured ? " 
 
 " Why not ? We have cured worse cases than his." 
 
 " Where has he gone to ? Pray tell me." 
 
 " Oh, certainly." And inquiry was made. But 
 the reply was, " Left no address." 
 
 Sarah Wilson, like many other women of high 
 and low degree, had swift misgivings of mischief to 
 come. She was taken with a fit of trembling, and 
 had to sit down in the hall. 
 
 And, to tell the truth, she had cause to tremble ; 
 for that tongue of hers had launched two wiLl 
 beasts — Jealousy and Revenge. 
 
 When she got better she went home, and, coward- 
 like, said not a word to living souL 
 
 That day, Arthur Wardlaw dined with General 
 Rolleston and Helen. They were to be alone for a
 
 FOUL PLAT. 61 
 
 certain reason ; and he came half an hour before 
 dinner. Helen thought he would, and was ready 
 for him on the lawn. 
 
 They walked arm-in-arm, talking of the happi- 
 ness before them, and regretting a temporary sepa- 
 ration that was to intervene. He was her father's 
 choice, and she loved her father devotedly ; he was 
 her male property ; and young ladies like that sort 
 of property, especially when they see nothing to 
 dislike in it. He loved her passionately, and that 
 was her due, and pleased her, and drew a gentle 
 affection, if not a passion, from her in return. Yes, 
 that lovely forehead did come very near young 
 Wardlaw's shoulder, more than once or twice, as 
 they strolled slowly up and down on the soft mossy 
 turf. 
 
 And, on the other side of the hedge that bounded 
 the lawn, a man lay crouched in the ditch, and saw 
 it all with gleaming eyes. 
 
 Just before the affianced ones went in, Helen 
 said, " I have a little favour to ask you, dear. The 
 poor man, Seaton, who fought the robbers, and was 
 wounded — papa says he is a man of education, and 
 wanted to be a clerk or something. Could you find 
 him a place ? "
 
 62 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " I think I can," said Wardlaw ; " indeed, I am 
 sure. A line to White & Co. will do it ; they want 
 a shipping clerk." 
 
 " Oh, how good you are ! " said Helen ; and lifted 
 her face all beaming with thanks. 
 
 The opportunity was tempting ; the lover fond : 
 two faces met for a single moment, and one of the 
 two burned for five minutes after. 
 
 The basilisk eyes saw the soft collision ; but the 
 owner of those eyes did not hear the words that 
 earned him that torture. He lay still and bided 
 his time. 
 
 « 
 
 General Pcolleston's house stood clear of the 
 town, at the end of a short, but narrow and tortuous 
 lane. This situation had tempted the burglars 
 whom Seaton baffled ; and now it tempted Seaton. 
 
 Wardlaw must pass that way on leaving General 
 Piolleston's house. 
 
 At a bend of the lane two twin elms stood out a 
 foot or two from the hedge. Seaton got behind 
 these at about ten o'clock, and watched for him with 
 a patience and immobility that boded ill. 
 
 His preparations for this encounter were singular. 
 He had a close -shutting inkstand and a pen, and
 
 FOUL PLAY. 63- 
 
 one sheet of paper, at the top of whicli he had 
 written " Syclnej'," and the day of the month and 
 year, leaving the rest bhmk. And he had the 
 revolver with which he had shot the robber at 
 Helen Rolleston's window.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The moou Avent down ; the stars shone out 
 clearer. 
 
 Eleven o'clock boomed from a church clock in 
 the town. 
 
 Wardlaw did not come, and Seaton did not move 
 from his ambush. 
 
 Twelve o'clock boomed, and Wardlaw never 
 came, and Seaton never moved. 
 
 Soon after midnight, General Eolleston's hall- 
 door opened, and a figure appeared in a flood of 
 light. Seaton's eyes gleamed at the sight, for it 
 was young Wardlaw, with a footman at his back 
 liolding a lighted lamp. 
 
 Wardlaw, however, seemed in no hurry to leave 
 the house, and the reason soon appeared; he was 
 joined by Helen Rolleston, and she was equipped 
 for walking. The watcher saw her serene face 
 shine in the light. The General himself came
 
 FOUL PLAY. 65 
 
 next; and, as they left the door, out came Tom 
 with a blunderbuss, and brought up the rear. 
 Seaton drew behind the trees, and postponed, but 
 did not resign, his purpose. 
 
 Steps and murmurings came, and passed him, 
 and receded. 
 
 The only words he caught distinctly came from 
 Wardlaw, as he passed. "It is nearly high tide. 
 I fear we must make haste." 
 
 Seaton followed the whole party at a short dis- 
 tance, feeling sure they would eventually separate 
 and give him his opportunity with Wardlaw. 
 
 They went down to the harbour and took a boat ; 
 Seaton came nearer, and learned they were going 
 on board the great steamer bound for England, that 
 loomed so black, with monstrous eyes of fire. 
 
 They put off, and Seaton stood baffled. 
 
 Presently, the black monster, with enormous eyes 
 of fire, spouted her steam like a Leviathan, and 
 then was still; next the smoke puffed, the heavy 
 paddles revolved, and she rushed out of the har- 
 bour; and Seaton sat down upon the ground, and 
 all seemed ended. Helen gone to England ! Ward- 
 law gone with her ! Love and revenge had alike 
 eluded him. He looked up at the sky, and played 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 with the pebbles at his feet, stupidl}', stupidly. He 
 wondered wliy he was ever born ; why he consented 
 to live a single minute after this. His angel and 
 his demon gone home together ; and he left here ! 
 
 He wrote a few Imes on the paper he had in- 
 tended for Wardlaw, sprinkled them with sand, and 
 put them in his bosom, then stretched himself out 
 with a wearj'^ moan, like a dying dog, to wait the 
 flow of the tide and, with it. Death. Whether or 
 not his resolution or his madness would have car- 
 ried him so far cannot be known, for even as the 
 water rippled in and, trickling under his back, 
 chilled him to the bone, a silvery sound struck his 
 ear. He started to his feet, and life and its joys 
 rushed back upon him. It was the voice of the 
 woman he loved so madly. 
 
 Helen Eolleston was on the water, coming ashore 
 again in the little boat. 
 
 He crawled, like a lizard, among the boats ashore 
 to catch a sight of her : he did see her, was near 
 her, unseen himself. She landed with her father. 
 So Wardlaw was gone to England without her. 
 Seaton trembled with joy. Presently his goddess 
 began to lament in the prettiest way. " Papa ! 
 Papa ! " she sighed, " Why must friends part, in
 
 FOUL PLAY. 67 
 
 this sad world ? Poor Arthur is gone from me : 
 and, by-and-by I shall go from you, my own papa." 
 And at that prospect she wept gently. 
 
 " Why, you foolish child ! " said the old General, 
 tenderly, " what matters a little parting, when we 
 are all to meet again, in dear old England. Well 
 then, there, have a cry; it will do you good." He 
 patted her head tenderly, as she clung to his war- 
 like breast ; and she took him at his word ; the 
 tears ran swiftly and glistened in the very star- 
 light. 
 
 Seaton's heart yearned at all this. 
 
 What ? musn't he say a word to comfort her ; he 
 who, at that moment, would have thought no more 
 of dying to serve her, or to please her, than he 
 would of throwing one of those pebbles into that 
 slimy water. 
 
 Well, her pure tears somehow cooled his hot 
 brain, and washed his soul, and left him wondering 
 at himself and his misdeeds this night. His guar- 
 dian angel seemed to go by and wave her dewy 
 wings, and fan his hot passions as she passed. 
 
 He kneeled down and thanked God he had not 
 met Arthur Wardlaw in that dark lane. 
 
 Then he went home to his humble lodgings, and
 
 QB FOUL PLAY. 
 
 there buried himself; and from that day seldom 
 went out, except to seek emploj'ment. He soon 
 obtained it as a copyist. 
 
 Meantime the police were on his track, employed 
 by a person with a gentle disposition, but a tenacity 
 of purpose truly remarkable. 
 
 Great was Seaton's uneasiness when one day he 
 saw Hexham at the foot of his stair ; greater still, 
 when the officer's quick eye caught sight of him, 
 and his light foot ascended the stairs directly. He 
 felt sure Hexham had heard of his lurking about 
 General Eolleston's premises. However, he pre- 
 pared to defend himself to the uttermost. 
 
 Hexham came into his room without ceremony, 
 and looking mighty grim. " Well, my lad, so we 
 have got you, after all." 
 
 " What is my crime, now ? " asked Seaton, 
 sullenly. 
 
 " James," said the officer, very solemnly, " it is 
 an unheard of crime this time. You have been- 
 running-away-from a pretty girl. Now that is a 
 mistake at all times ; but, when she is as beautiful 
 as a angel, and rich enough to slip a fiver into Dick 
 Hexham's hands, and lay him on your track, what 
 Is the use ? Letter for you, my man."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 60 
 
 Seaton took the letter with a iiuzzled air. It was 
 written in a clear but feminine hand, and slightly 
 scented. 
 
 The writer, in a few polished lines, excused her- 
 self for taking extraordinary means to find Mr. 
 Seaton ; but hoj^ed he would consider that he had 
 laid her under a deep obligation, and that gratitude 
 7vill sometimes be importunate. She had the 
 pleasure to inform him that the office of shipping 
 clerk, at Messrs. "White & Co.'s, was at his service, 
 and she hoped he would take it without an hour's 
 further delay, for she was assured that many 
 persons had risen to wealth and consideration in 
 the colony from such situations. 
 
 Then, as this wary but courteous young lad}^ had 
 no wish to enter into a correspondence with her 
 ex-gardener, she added — " Mr. Seaton need not 
 trouble himself to reply to this note. A simple 
 ' yes ' to Mr. Hexham will be enough and will give 
 sincere pleasure to Mr. Seaton's 
 
 " Obedient servant and well wisher, 
 
 "Helen Anne Eolleston." 
 
 Seaton bowed his head over this letter in silent 
 but deep emotion.
 
 70 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Hexham respected that emotion and watched him 
 ■with a sort of vague S3nnpathy. 
 
 Seaton hfted his head, and the tears stood thick 
 in his eyes. Said he, in a voice of exquisite soft- 
 ness, scarce above a whisper, " Tell her ' yes,* and 
 ' God bless her.' Good-bye. I want to go on my 
 knees, and pray God to bless her as she deserves." 
 
 Hexham took the hint, and retired softly.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 White & Co. stumbled on a treasure in James 
 Seaton. Your colonial clerk is not so narrow and 
 apathetic as j-our Loudon clerk, whose two objects 
 seem to be, to learn one department only, and not 
 to do too much in that; but Seaton, a gentleman 
 and a scholar, eclipsed even colonial clerks in this, 
 that he omitted no opportunit}' of learning the 
 whole business of White & Co., and was also 
 animated by a feverish zeal, that now and then 
 provoked laughter from clerks, but was agreeable, 
 as well as surprising, to White & Co. Of that 
 zeal, his incurable passion was partly the cause. 
 Fortunes had been made with great rapidity in 
 Sydney; and Seaton now conceived a wild hope of 
 acquiring one, by some lucky hit, before Wardlaw 
 could return to Helen Eolleston. And yet his 
 common sense said, if I was as rich as Croesus, how 
 could she ever mate with me, a stained man ? And
 
 72 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 yet liis burning heart said, don't listen to reason ; 
 listen only to me. Try. 
 
 And so he Avorked double tides ; and, in virtue of 
 his University education, had no snobbish notions 
 about never putting his hand to manual labour : he 
 would lay down his pen at any moment, and bear a 
 hand to lift a chest, or roll a cask. Old White saw 
 him thus multiply himself, and was so pleased that 
 he raised his salary one-third. 
 
 He never saw Helen Kolleston, except on Sun- 
 day. On that day he went to her church, and sat 
 half behind a pillar, and feasted his eyes and his 
 heart upon her. He lived sparingly, saved money, 
 bought a strip of land, by payment of 10/. deposit, 
 and sold it in forty hours for 1001. profit, and 
 watched keenly for similar opportunities on a larger 
 scale; and all for her. Struggling with a moun- 
 tain : hoping against reason, and the world. 
 
 White Sc Co. were employed to ship a valuable 
 cargo on board two vessels chartered by Wardlaw & 
 Son, the Shannon, and the Proserpine. 
 
 Both these ships lay in Sydney harbour, and had 
 taken in the bulk of their cargoes ; but the supple- 
 ment was the cream. For Wardlaw, in person, had
 
 FOUL PLAY. 73 
 
 warehoused eighteen cases of gold dust and ingots, 
 and forty of lead and smelted copper. They were 
 all examined and branded by Mr. White, who had 
 duplicate keys of the gold cases. But the contents, 
 as a matter of habit and prudence, were not de- 
 scribed outside : but were marked Proserpine and 
 Shannon, respectively ; the mate of the Proserpine, 
 who was in Wardlaw's confidence, had written in- 
 structions to look carefully to the stowage of all 
 these cases, and was in and out of the store one 
 afternoon just before closing, and measured the 
 cubic contents of the cases, with a view to stowage 
 in the respective vessels. The last time he came 
 he seemed rather the worse for liquor ; and Seaton, 
 who accompanied him, having stepped out a minute 
 for something or other, was rather surprised on his 
 return to find the door closed, and it struck him 
 Mr. Wylie (that was the mate's name) might be 
 inside ; the more so as the door closed very easily 
 with a spring bolt, but could only be opened by a 
 key of peculiar construction. Seaton took out his 
 key, opened the door, and called to the mate, but 
 received no reply. However, he took the pre- 
 caution to go round the store, and see whether 
 W3-lie, rendered somnolent by liquor, might not be
 
 74 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 lying oblivious among the cases : W^-lie, however, 
 was not to be seen, and Seaton, finding himself 
 alone, did an unwise thing; he came and contem- 
 plated Wardlaw's cases of metal and specie. (Men 
 will go too near the thing that causes their pain.) 
 He eyed them with grief and with desire, and could 
 not restrain a sigh at these material proofs of 
 his rival's vrealth: the wealth that probably had 
 smoothed his way to General Eolleston's home, and 
 to his daughter's heart; for wealth can pave the 
 way to hearts, ay even to hearts that cannot be 
 downright bouglit. This reverie no doubt lasted 
 longer than he thought, for presently he heard 
 the loud rattle of shutters going up below : it 
 was closing time; he hastily closed and locked 
 the iron shutters, and then went out and shut the 
 door. 
 
 He had been gone about two hours, and that part 
 of the street, so noisy in business hours, was 
 hushed in silence, all but an occasional footstep on 
 the flags outside, when something mysterious 
 occurred in the warehouse, now as dark as pitch. 
 
 At an angle of the wall stood two large cases in a 
 vertical position, with smaller cases lying at their 
 feet; these two cases were about eight feet high.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 75 
 
 more or less. Well, behind these cases suddenly 
 flashed a feeble light, and the next moment two 
 brown, and sinewy, hands appeared on the edge of 
 one of the cases — the edge next the wall ; the case 
 vibrated and rocked a little, and the next moment 
 there mounted on the top of it, not a cat, nor a 
 monkey, as might have been expected, but an 
 animal that in truth resembles both those quadru- 
 peds, vi2., a sailor ; and need we say that sailor was 
 the mate of the Proserpine. He descended lightly 
 from the top of the case, behind which he had been 
 jammed for hours, and lighted a dark lantern; and 
 went softly groping about the store with it. This 
 was a mysterious act, and would perhaps have 
 puzzled the proprietors of the store even more than 
 it would a stranger : for a stranger would have said 
 at once this is burglary, or else arson ; but those 
 acquainted with the place would have known that 
 neither of those crimes was very practicable. The 
 enterprising sailor could not burn down this par- 
 ticular store without roasting himself the first 
 thing ; and indeed he could not burn it down at all : 
 for the roof was flat, and was in fact one gigantic 
 iron tank, like the roof of Mr. Goding's brewery m 
 London : and by a neat contrivance of American
 
 76 FOUL TLAY. 
 
 origin, the Avliole tank could be turned in one 
 moment to a shower bath, and drown a confla- 
 gration in thirty seconds or thereabouts : nor could 
 lie rifle the place ; the goods were greatly protected 
 by tlieir weight, and it was impossible to get out 
 of the store without raising an alarm, and being 
 searched. 
 
 But, not to fall into the error of writers who un- 
 derrate their readers' curiosity and intelligence^ and 
 so deluge them with comments and explanations, 
 we will now simply relate what Wylie did, leaving 
 you to glean his motives as this tale advances. 
 
 His jacket had large pockets, and he took out of 
 them a bunch of eighteen bright steel keys, num- 
 bered, a set of new screw-drivers, a flask of rum, 
 and two ship biscuits. 
 
 He unlocked the eighteen cases marked Proser- 
 pine, &c., and, peering in with his lantern, saw the 
 gold dust and small ingots packed in parcels and 
 surrounded by Australian wool of the highest pos- 
 sible quality. It was a luscious sight. He then 
 proceeded to a heavier task ; he unscrewed, one 
 after anotlicr, eighteen of the cases marked Shan- 
 non, and tlic eighteen so selected, perhaps by 
 private marks, proved to be packed close, and on a
 
 FOUL PLAY. 77 
 
 different system from the gold, viz., in pigs, or 
 square blocks, three, or in some cases four, to each 
 chest. Now, these two ways of packing the specie 
 and the baser metal respectively, had the effect of 
 producing a certain uniformity of weight in the 
 thirty-six cases Wylie was inspecting : otherwise 
 the gold cases would have been twice the weight of 
 those that contained the baser metal: for lead is 
 proverbially heavy, but under scientific tests is to 
 gold as five to twelve, or thereabouts. 
 
 In his secret and mysterious labour AVylie was 
 often interrupted. Whenever he heard a step on 
 the pavement outside, he drew the slide of his 
 lantern and hid the light. If he had examined the 
 iron shutters, he would have seen that his light 
 could never pierce through them into the street. 
 But he was not aware of this. Notwithstanding 
 these occasional interruptions, he worked so hard 
 and continuously, that the perspiration poured 
 down him ere he had unscrewed those eighteen 
 chests containing the pigs of lead. However, it 
 was done at last, and then he refreshed himself 
 with a draught from his flask. The next thing 
 was, he took the tlu'ee pigs of lead out of one of the 
 cases marked Shannon, &c., and numbered fifteen.
 
 78 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 and laid them veiy gently on the floor. Then he 
 transferred to that empty case the mixed contents 
 of a case branded Proserpine 1, &c., and this he did 
 with the utmost care and nicety, lest gold dust 
 spilled should tell tales. And so he went on and 
 shifted the contents of the whole eighteen cases 
 marked Proserpine, &c., into eighteen cases marked 
 Shannon, &c., and refilled them with the Shannon's 
 lead. Frolicsome ]\Ir. Wylie ! Then he sat down 
 on one of the cases Proserpine, and ate a biscuit 
 and drank a little rum ; not much : for at this 
 part of his career he was a very sober man, though 
 he could feign drunkenness, or anything else. 
 
 The gold was all at his mercy, yet he did not 
 pocket an ounce of it; not even a penny-weight 
 to make a wedding-ring for Nancy Rouse. Mr. 
 Wylie had a conscience, and a very original one 
 it was ; and, above all, he was very true to those 
 he worked with. He carefully locked the gold cases 
 up again, and resumed the screw-driver, for there 
 was another heavy stroke of work to be done ; and 
 he went at it like a man. He carefully screwed 
 down again, one after another, all those eighteen 
 cases marked Shaunon, which he had filled with 
 gold-dust, and then, heating a sailor's needle red-
 
 FOUL PLAY. 79 
 
 hot over his burning wick, he put his own secret 
 marks on those eighteen cases — marks that no eye 
 but his own could detect. By this time, though 
 a very powerful man, he felt much exhausted, and 
 would gladly have snatched an hour's repose. But 
 consulting his watch by the light of his lantern, 
 he found the sun had just risen. He retired to 
 his place of concealment in the same cat-like way 
 he had come out of it — that is to say, he mounted 
 on the high cases, and then slipped down behind 
 them, into the angle of the wall. 
 
 As soon as the office opened, two sailors, whom 
 he had carefully instructed over-night, came with 
 a boat for the cases ; the warehouse was opened 
 in consequence, but they were informed that Wylie 
 must be present at the delivery. 
 
 " Oh, he won't be long," said they ; " told us he 
 would meet us here." 
 
 There was a considerable delay, and a good deal 
 of talking, and presently Wylie was at their backs, 
 and put in his word. 
 
 Seaton was greatly surprised at finding him there, 
 and asked him where he had sprung from. 
 
 " Me ! " said Wylie, jocosely, " why, I hailed from 
 Davy Jones's locker last.^'
 
 80 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 "I never heard you come in," said Seaton, 
 thouglitfull}'. 
 
 " Well, sir," replied Wylie, civilly, " a man does 
 learn to go like a cat on board ship, that is the 
 truth, I came in at the door like my betters; 
 but I thought I heard j'ou mention my name, so 
 I made no noise. Well, here I am, any way, and 
 
 Jack, how many trips can we take these 
 
 thundering chests ,in ? Let us see, eighteen for 
 the Proserpine, and forty for the Shannon. Is that 
 correct, sir ? " 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 "Then, if you will deliver them, I'll check the 
 delivery a-board the lighter there ; and then we'll 
 tow her alongside the ships." 
 
 Seaton called up two more clerks, and sent one 
 to the boat, and one on board the barge. The 
 barge was within hail ; so the cases were checked 
 as they passed out of the store, and checked again 
 at the small boat, and also on board the lighter. 
 When they were all cleared out, Wylie gave Seaton 
 his receipt for them, and, having a steam-tug in 
 attendance, towed tlic lighter alongside the Shannon 
 first. 
 
 Seaton carried the receipt to his employer.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 81 
 
 "But, sir," said he, "is tliis regular for an officer 
 of the Proserpine to take tlie Shannon's cargo from 
 us?" 
 
 " No, it is not regular," said the old gentleman ; 
 and he looked through a window, and summoned 
 Mr. Hardcastle. 
 
 Hardcastle explained that the Proserpine shipped 
 the gold, which was the more valuable consign- 
 ment; and that he saw no harm in the officer, who 
 was so highly trusted by the merchant (on this and 
 on former occasions), taking out a few tons of lead 
 and copper to the Shannon, 
 
 " Well, sir," said Seaton, " suppose I was to go 
 out and see the chests stowed in those vessels ?" 
 
 " I think you are making a fuss about nothing," 
 said Hardcastle. 
 
 Mr. White was of the same opinion, but, being 
 too wise to check zeal and caution, told Seaton he 
 might go for his own satisfaction. 
 
 Seaton, with some difficulty, got a little boat and 
 pulled across the harbour. He found the Shannon 
 had shipped all the chests marked with her name ; 
 and the captain and mate of the Proserpine were 
 beginning to ship theirs. He paddled under the 
 Proserpine's stern. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 Captain Hudson, a rough salt, sang out, and 
 asked him roughly what he wanted there. 
 
 " Oh, it is all right," said the mate; "he is come 
 for your receipt and Hewitt's. Be smart, now, 
 men ; two on hoard, sixteen to come." 
 
 Seaton saw the chests marked Proserpine stowed 
 in the Proserpine, and went ashore with Captain 
 Hewitt's receipt for forty cases on board the 
 Shannon, and Captain Hudson's of eighteen on 
 hoard the Proserpine. 
 
 As he landed he met Lloyd's agent, and told 
 him what a valuable freight he had just shipped. 
 That gentleman merely remarked that both ships 
 were underwritten in Sydney by the owners; but 
 the freight was insured in London, no doubt. 
 
 There was still something about this business 
 Seaton did not quite like ; perhaps it was in the 
 haste of the shipments, or in the manner of the 
 mate. At all events, it was too slight and subtle 
 to be communicated to others with any hope of 
 convincing them ; and, moreover, Seaton could not 
 but own to himself that he hated Wardlaw, and 
 was, perhaps, no fair judge of his acts, and even 
 of the acts of his servants. 
 
 And soon a blow fell that drove the matter out
 
 FOUL PLAY. 83 
 
 of his head and his heart. Miss Helen RoUeston 
 called at the office, and, standing within a few feet 
 of him, handed Hardcastle a letter from Arthur 
 Wardlaw, directing that the lady's cabin on board 
 the Shannon should be placed at her disposal. 
 
 Hardcastle bowed low to Beauty and Station, 
 and promised her the best possible "^accommoda- 
 tion on board the Shannon, bound for England 
 next week. 
 
 As she retired, she cast one quiet glance round 
 the office in search of Seaton's beard. But he had 
 reduced its admired luxuriance, and trimmed it to 
 a narrow mercantile point. She did not know his 
 other features from Adam, and little thought that 
 young man, bent double over his paper, was her 
 preserver and 'proUg^ ; still less that he was at this 
 moment cold as ice, and quivering with misery 
 from head to foot, because her own lips had just 
 told him she was going to England in the 
 Shannon. 
 
 Heart-broken, but still loving nobly, Seaton 
 
 dragged himself down to the harbour, and went 
 
 slowly on board the Shannon to secure Miss Eol- 
 
 leston every comfort. 
 
 o2
 
 84 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Then, sick at heart as he was, he made inquiries 
 into the condition of the vessel which was to be 
 trusted with so precious a freight; and the old 
 boatman who was rowing him, hearing him make 
 these inquiries, told him he himself was always 
 about, and had noticed the Shannon's pumps were 
 going every blessed night. 
 
 Seaton carried this intelligence directly to Lloyd's 
 agent ; he overhauled the ship, and ordered her into 
 the graving dock for repairs. 
 
 Then Seaton, for White & Co., wrote to Miss 
 Rolleston that the Shannon was not seaworthy, and 
 could not sail for a month, at the least. 
 
 The lady simply acknowledged Messrs. White's 
 communication, and Seaton breathed again. 
 
 Wardlaw had made Miss Rolleston promise him 
 faithfully to sail that month in his ship the Shan- 
 non. Now she was a slave to her word, and 
 constant of purpose ; so, when she found she could 
 not sail in the Shannon, she called again on Messrs. 
 White, and took her passage in the Proserpine. 
 The essential thing to her mind was to sail when 
 she had promised, and to go in a ship that belonged 
 to her lover. 
 
 The Proserpine was to sail in ten days.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 85 
 
 Seaton inquired into the state of the Proserpine. 
 She was a good, sound vessel, and there was no 
 excuse for detaining her. 
 
 Then he wrestled long and hard with the selfish 
 part of his great love. Instead of turning sullen, 
 he set himself to carry out Helen Eolleston^s will. 
 He went on hoard the Proserpine and chose her the 
 best stern cabin. 
 
 General RoUeston had ordered Helen's cabin to 
 be furnished, and the agent had put in the usual 
 things, such as standing bedstead with drawers 
 beneath, chest of drawers, small table, two chairs, 
 wash-stand, looking-glass, and swinging lamp. 
 
 But Seaton made several visits to the ship, and 
 effected the following arrangements at his own cost. 
 He provided a neat cocoa-mat for her cabin-deck 
 for comfort and foot-hold ; he uushipped the regular 
 six-paned stern windows, and put in single pane 
 plate glass ; he fitted Venetian blinds, and hung two 
 little rose-coloured curtains to each of the windows ; 
 all so arranged as to be easily removed in case it 
 should be necessary to ship dead lights in heavy 
 weather. He glazed the door leading to her bath- 
 room and quarter gallery with plate glass ; he pro- 
 vided a light, easy chair, slung and fitted with
 
 86 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 grummets, to be hung on hooks screwed into the 
 beams in the midship of the cabin. On this Helen 
 could sit and read, and so become insensible to 
 the motion of the ship. He fitted a small case 
 of books, having a batten, secured from falling out 
 by a button, which could be raised when a book 
 might be wanted; he fixed a strike-bell in her 
 maid's cabin, communicating with two strikers in 
 Helen's cabin ; he selected books, taking care that 
 the vo3'ages and travels were prosperous ones. No 
 " Seaman's Recorder," " Life-boat Journal," or 
 " Shipwrecks and Disasters in the British Navy." 
 
 Her cabin was the after-cabin on the starboard 
 side : was entered through the cuddy ; had a door 
 communicating with the quarter gallery; two stern 
 windows, and a dead-eye on deck. The maid's 
 cabin was the port after-cabin ; doors opened into 
 cuddy and quarter gallery. And a fine trouble Miss 
 Pvolleston had to get a maid to accompany her ; but 
 at last a young woman offered to go with her for 
 high wages, demurely suppressing the fact that she 
 had just married one of the sailors, and would have 
 gladly gone for nothing. Her name was Jane Holt, 
 and her husband's Michael Donovan. 
 
 In one of Seaton's visits to the Proserpine he
 
 FOUL PLAY. 87 
 
 detected the mate and the captain talking together, 
 and looking at him with unfriendly eyes — scowling 
 at him would hardly be too strong a word. 
 
 However, he was in no state of mind to care 
 much how two animals in blue jackets received his 
 acts of self-martyrdom. He was there to do the 
 last kind offices of despairing love for the angel 
 that had crossed his dark path, and illumined it for 
 a moment, to leave it now for ever. 
 
 At last the fatal evening came ; her last in Sydney. 
 
 Then Seaton's fortitude, sustained no longer by 
 the feverish stimulus of doing kindly acts for her, 
 began to give way, and he desponded deeply. 
 
 At nine in the evening he crept upon General 
 Eolleston's lawn, where he had first seen her. He 
 sat down in sullen despair, upon the very spot. 
 
 Then he came nearer the house. There was a 
 lamp in the dining room ; he looked in and saw her. 
 
 She was seated at her father's knee, looking up at 
 him fondly ; her hand was in his. The tears were 
 in their eyes : she had no mother ; he no son ; thej^ 
 loved one another devotedly. This, their tender 
 gesture, and their sad silence, spoke volumes to any 
 one that had known sorrow. Poor Seaton sat
 
 88 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 down on the dewy grass outside, and wept, because 
 she was weeping. 
 
 Her father sent her to bed early. Seaton watched, 
 as he had often done before, till her light went out ; 
 and then he flung himself on the wet grass, and 
 stared at the sky in utter misery. 
 
 The mind is often clearest in the middle of the 
 night ; and all of a sudden he saw, as if written on 
 the sky, that she was going to England expressly to 
 marry Arthur AVardlaw. 
 
 At this revelation he started up, stung with hate 
 as well as love, and his tortured mind rebelled furi- 
 ously. He repeated his vow that this should never 
 be ; and soon a scheme came into his head to pre- 
 vent it; but it was a project so wild and dangerous, 
 that, even as his heated brain hatched it, his cooler 
 judgment said, " Fly, madman, fly ! or this love will 
 destroy you ! " 
 
 He listened to the voice of reason, and in another 
 minute he was out of the premises. He fluttered 
 to his lodgings. 
 
 When he got there he could not go in ; he turned 
 and fluttered about the streets, not knowing or 
 caring wLither; his mind was in a whirl; and, what 
 with his bodily fever, and his boiling heart, passion
 
 FOUL PLAY, 89 
 
 began to overpower reason, that had held out so gal- 
 lantly till now. He found himself at the harbour, 
 staring with wild and blood-shot eyes at the Proser- 
 pine, he, who an hour ago, had seen that he had but 
 one thing to do — to try and forget young Wardlaw's 
 bride. He groaned aloud and ran wildly back into 
 the town. He hurried up and down one narrow street, 
 raging inwardly, like some wild beast in its den. 
 
 By-and by, his mood changed, and he hung round 
 a lamp -post, and fell to moaning and lamenting his 
 hard fate, and hers. 
 
 A policeman came up, took him for a maudlin 
 drunkard, and half-advised, half-admonished him, 
 to go home. 
 
 At that he gave a sort of fierce, despairing snarl, 
 and ran into the next street, to be alone. 
 
 In this street he found a shop open, and lighted, 
 though it was but five o'clock in the morning. It 
 was a barber's, whose customers were working 
 people. Hair-cutting, sixpence. Easy shaving. 
 
 THREEPENCE. HoT COFFEE, FOURPENCE THE CUP. 
 
 Seaton's eye fell upon this shop. He looked at it 
 fixedly a moment from the opposite side of the way, 
 and then hurried on. 
 
 He turned suddenly and came back. He crossed
 
 90 rOUL PLAY. 
 
 the road and entered the shop. The barber was 
 leaning over the [stove, removing a can of boiling 
 water from the fire to the hob. He turned at the 
 sound of Seaton's step, and revealed an ugly coun- 
 tenance, rendered sinister by a squint. 
 
 Seaton dropped into a chair, and said, " I want 
 my beai'd taken off." 
 
 The man looked at him, if it could be called 
 looking at him, and said, drily, " Oh, do ye ? How 
 much am I to have for that job ? " 
 
 " You know 3'our own charge." 
 
 " Of course I do ; three-pence a chin." 
 
 '* Very well. Be quick then." 
 
 " Stop a bit : that is my charge to working folk. 
 I must have something more off you." 
 
 " Very well, man, I'll pay you double." 
 
 " My price to you is ten shillings." 
 
 " Wh)', what is that for ? " asked Seaton, in some 
 alarm ; he thought in his confusion, the man must 
 have read his heart. 
 
 " I'll tell ye why," said the squinting barber. 
 "No I won't; I'll show ye." He brought a small 
 mirror, and suddenly clapped it before Seaton's 
 eyes. Seaton started at his own image; wild, 
 ghastly, and the eyes so blood-shot. The barber
 
 FOUL PLAY. 91 
 
 chuckled. This start was an extorted compliment 
 to his own sagacitj'. " Now wasn't I right ? " said 
 he ; " did I ought to take the heard off such a mug 
 as that — for less than ten shillings ? " 
 
 "I see," groaned Seaton; " j'ou think I have 
 committed some crime. One man sees me weeping 
 with misery ; he calls me a drunkard : another sees 
 me pale with the anguish of my breaking heart ; he 
 calls me a felon. May God's curse light on him 
 and you, and all mankind ! " 
 
 " All right," said the squinting barber, apatheti- 
 cally ; " my price is ten bob, whether or no." 
 
 Seaton felt in his pockets. " I have not got the 
 money about me," said he. 
 
 " Oh, I'm not particular; leave your watch." 
 
 Seaton handed this squinting vampire his watch 
 without another word, and let his head fall upon his 
 breast. 
 
 The barber cut his beard close with the scissors, 
 and made trivial remarks from time to time ; but 
 received no reply. 
 
 At last. Extortion having put him in a good 
 humour, he said, " Don't be so down-hearted, my 
 lad. You are not the first that has got into trouble, 
 and had to change faces."
 
 92 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Seatou vouchsafed no reply. 
 
 The barber shaved him clean, and was astonished 
 at the change, and congratulated him. " Nobody 
 will ever know yon," said he ; " and I'll tell you 
 why; your mouth it is inclined to turn up a 
 little ; now a moustache it bends down, and that 
 alters such a mouth as yours entirely. But, I'll 
 tell you what, taking off this beard shows me some- 
 thing: you are a gentleman. Make it a sovereign, 
 sir." 
 
 Seaton staggered out of the place without a 
 word. 
 
 " Sulky, eh ? " muttered the barber. He gathered 
 up some of the long hair he had cut off Seaton's 
 chin with his scissors, admired it, and put it away 
 in paper. 
 
 While thus employed, a regular customer looked 
 in for his cup of coffee. It was the policeman who 
 had taken Seaton for a convivial soul.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 General Eolleston's servants made several 
 trips to the Proserpine, carrying boxes, &c. 
 
 But Helen herself clung to the house till the last 
 moment. " Oh, papa ! " she cried, " I need all my 
 resolution, all my good faith, to keep my word with 
 Arthur, and leave you. Why, why did I promise ? 
 Why am I such a slave to my word ? '' 
 
 " Because," said the old General, with a voice 
 not so firm as usual, " I have always told you that 
 a lady is not to be inferior to a gentleman in any 
 virtue, except courage. I've heard my mother say 
 so often; and I've taught it to my Helen. And, 
 my girl, where would be the merit of keeping 
 our word, if we only kept it when it cost us 
 nothing ? " 
 
 He promised to come after, in three months at 
 farthest ; and the brave girl dried her tears, as well 
 as she could, not to add to the sadness he fought
 
 94 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 against as gallantly as he had often fought the 
 enemies of his country. 
 
 The Proserpine was to sail at two o'clock : at a 
 little before one, a gentleman hoarded her, and 
 informed the captain that he was a missionary, 
 the Eev. John Hazel, returning home, after a fever ; 
 and wished to take a berth in the Proserpine. 
 
 The mate looked him full in the face ; and then 
 told him there was very little accommodation for 
 passengers, and it had all been secured by White 
 &, Co., for a young lady and her servants. 
 
 Mr. Hazel replied that his means were small, 
 and moderate accommodation would serve him ; but 
 he must go to England without delay. 
 
 Captain Hudson put in his gracious word ; 
 " Then jump off the jetty at high tide and swim 
 there ; no room for black coats in my ship." 
 
 Mr. Hazel looked from one to the other piteously. 
 *' Show me some mercj', gentlemen ; my very life 
 depends on it." 
 
 " Very sorry, sir," said the mate ; " but it is 
 impossible. There's the Shannon, you can go 
 in her.'* 
 
 " But she is under repairs ; so I am told." 
 
 " Well, there are a hundred and fifty carpenters
 
 FOUL PLAY. 95 
 
 on to her; and she will come out of port in our 
 wake." 
 
 "Now, sir," said Hudson, roughly, "bundle down 
 the ship's side again, if you please ; this is a busy 
 time. Hy ! — rig the whip ; here's the lady coming 
 off to us." 
 
 The missionary heaved a deep sigh, and went 
 down into the boat that had brought him. But 
 he was no sooner seated than he ordered the boat- 
 men, somewhat peremptorily, to pull ashore as fast 
 as they could row. His boat met the Rollestons, 
 father and daughter, coming out, and he turned his 
 pale face, and eyed them as he passed. Helen 
 Eolleston was struck with that sorrowful coun- 
 tenance, and, when the boats had passed each 
 other, she whispered her father, " That poor clergy- 
 man has just left the ship." She made sure he 
 had been taking leave of some beloved one, bound 
 for England. General Eolleston looked round, but 
 the wan face was no longer visible. 
 
 They were soon on board, and received with 
 great obsequiousness. Helen was shown her cabin, 
 and, observing the minute and zealous care that 
 had been taken of her comfort, she said, " Some- 
 body, who loves me, has been here," and turned
 
 96 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 her brimming eyes on her father. He looked a 
 Httle puzzled, and said nothing. 
 
 Father and daughter were then left alone in the 
 cabin, till the ship began to heave her anchor 
 (she lay just at the mouth of the harbour), and 
 then the boatswain was sent to give General Eol- 
 leston warning. Helen came up with him, pale 
 and distressed. They exchanged a last embrace, 
 and General Eolleston went down the ship's side. 
 Helen hung over the bulwarks and waved her 
 last adieu, though she could hardly see him for 
 her tears. 
 
 At this moment a four-oared boat swept along- 
 side; and Mr. Hazel came on board again. He 
 presented Hudson a written order to give the 
 Rev. John Hazel a passage in the small berth 
 abreast the main hatches. It was signed " For 
 White & Co., James Seaton ;" and was endorsed 
 with a stamped acknowledgment of the passage 
 money, twenty-seven pounds. 
 
 Hudson and Wylie, the mate, put their heads 
 togetlier over this. The missionary saw them 
 consulting, and told them he had mentioned their 
 mysterious conduct to Messrs. White & Co., and 
 that Mr. Seaton had promised to stop the ship
 
 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 97 
 
 if their authority was resisted. " And I have paid 
 my passage mone}', and will not be turned out 
 now except by force," said the reverend gentleman, 
 quietl3\ 
 
 W3'lie's head was turned away from Mr. Hazel's, 
 and on its profile a most gloomy, vindictive look, 
 so much so, that Mr. Hazel was startled when the 
 man turned his front face to hini with a jolly, 
 genial air, and said, " Well, sir, the truth is we 
 seamen don't want passengers aboard ships of this 
 class : they get in our way whenever it blows a 
 capful. However, since you are here, make your- 
 self as comfortable as you can.^^ 
 
 " There, that is enough palaver," said the 
 captain, in his offensive way. " Hoist the parson's 
 traps aboard, and sheer off, you shore boat ! 
 Anchor's apeak." 
 
 He then gave his orders in stentorian roars ; 
 the anchor was hove up, catted, and fished ; one 
 sail went up after another, the Proserpine's head 
 came round, and away she bore for England with 
 a fair wind. 
 
 General Rolleston went slowly and heavily home, 
 and often turned his head and looked wistfully at 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 FOUL TLAY. 
 
 the ship putting out wing upon ^Ylng, and carrying 
 off his child Uke a tiny pre}'. 
 
 To change the comparison, it was only a tender 
 vine detached from a great sturdy elm : yet the 
 tree, thus relieved of its delicate encumbrance, felt 
 hare ; and a soft thing was gone, that, seeking 
 protectio]!, had bestowed warmth ; had nestled and 
 curled between tlie world's cold wind and that 
 stalwart stem. 
 
 As soon as he got home he lighted a cigar, and 
 set to work to console himself by reflecting tliat 
 it was but a temporary parting, since he had 
 virtually resigned his post, and was only waiting 
 in Sydne}' till he should have handed his pai)ers- 
 in order over to his successor, and settled one 
 or two private matters that could not take three 
 months. 
 
 AVhen he had smoked his cigar, and reasoned 
 away his sense of desolation, Nature put out her 
 hand, and took him by the breast, and drew him 
 gently up-stairs to talce a look at his beloved 
 daughter's bed-room, by way of seeing the last 
 of her. 
 
 The room had one window looking north and 
 another west : the latter commanded a view of the
 
 FOUL PLAY. 09 
 
 bay. General Eolleston looked down at the floor, 
 littered with odds and ends — the dead leaves of 
 dress that fall about a lady in the great process 
 of packing — and then gazed through the vdndov/ 
 at the flying Proserpine. 
 
 He sighed, and lighted another cigar. Before 
 he had half finished it, he stooped down and took 
 up a little bow of ribbon that lay on the ground, 
 and put it quietly in his bosom. In this act he 
 was surprised by Sara Wilson, who had come up 
 to sweep all such waifs and strays into her own 
 box. "La, sir," said she, rather crossl}-, " why 
 didn't you tell me, and I'd have tidied the room : 
 it is all hugger-mugger, with miss a leaving." 
 
 And with this she went to tidying the room. 
 General KoUeston's eye followed her movements, 
 and he observed amongst the litter a white hand- 
 kerchief stained with blood. "What!" said he, 
 " has she had an accident : cut her finoer ?" 
 
 " No, sir," said Wilson, and with a certain air of 
 restraint that made him uneasy. 
 
 He examined the girl's face narrowly, and then 
 the handkerchief; the blood was of a pale red 
 colour. Eolleston had seen a similarly stained 
 handkerchief fifteen years before, in tlie hands 
 
 . H 2
 
 100 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 of his 3'oung wife a few months before she died 
 of consumption. 
 
 " Sara," faltered Rolleston, "in God's name, wh}-- 
 was I never told of this ?" 
 
 "Indeed, sir," said Wilson, eagerly, "you must 
 not blame me, sir. It was as much as my place 
 was worth to tell 3'ou. Miss is a young lady that 
 will be obeyed ; and she give me strict orders not 
 to let 3'ou know: but she is gone now; and I 
 always thought it was a pity she kept it so dark ; 
 but as I was saying, sir, she woidd be obeyed." 
 
 " Kept what t>o dark ?" 
 
 " "Wh}', sir, her spitting of blood at times : and 
 turning so thin by what she used to be, poor dear 
 young lady." 
 
 General Ilolleston groaned aloud. He said no 
 more, but kept looking bewildered and helpless, 
 first at the handkerchief and then at the Proser- 
 pine that was carrying Helen away, perhaps for ever : 
 and his iron features worked with cruel distress ; 
 anguish so mute and male, that the woman Wilson, 
 though not good for much, sat down and shed 
 genuine tears of pit}'. 
 
 But he summoned all his fortitude, told Wilson 
 he could not say she was to blame, she had but
 
 FOUL PLAY. 101 
 
 obeved her mistress's orders ; and we must all 
 obey orders. "But now," said he, "it is me you 
 ought to obey : tell me, does any doctor attend 
 her ? " 
 
 " None ever comes here, sir. But, one da}', she 
 let fall that she went to Dr. Valentine, him that has 
 the name for disorders of the chest." 
 
 In a very few minutes General BoUeston was at 
 Doctor Valentine's house, and asked him bluntly 
 what was the matter with his daughter. 
 
 " Disease of the lungs," said the doctor, simply. 
 
 The unhappy father then begged the doctor to 
 give him his real opinion as to the degree of 
 danger; and Dr. Valentine told him, with some 
 feeling, that the case was not desperate, but was 
 certainly alarming. 
 
 Remonstrated with for letting the girl undertake 
 a sea voyage, he replied rather evasivel}' at first ; 
 that the air of Australia disagreed with his patient, 
 and a sea voyage was more likely to do her good 
 than harm. 
 
 General Bolleston pressed the doctor's hand, and 
 went away without another word. 
 
 Only he hurried his matters of business, and 
 took his passage in the Shannon.
 
 102 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 It was in sometliing of a warrior's spirit that he 
 prepared to follow Lis daughter and protect her; 
 but often he sighed at the invisible, insidious 
 nature of the foe, and wished it could have been a 
 fair fight of bullets and bayonets, and his own the 
 life at stake. 
 
 The Shannon was soon ready for sea. • 
 
 Wardlaw was at home before this, with his hands 
 full of business ; and it is time the reader should 
 be let into one secret at least, which this merchant 
 had contrived to conceal from the City of London, 
 and from his own father, and from every human 
 creature, except one poor, simple, devoted soul, 
 called Michael Penfold. 
 
 There are men, who seem stupid, yet generally 
 go right ; there are also clever men, who appear to 
 have the art of blundering wisely : " sapienter de- 
 scendunt in infernum," as the ancients have it; and 
 some of these latter will even lie on their backs, 
 after a fall, and lift up their voices, and prove to 
 you that in the nature of things they ought to have 
 gone up, and their being down is monstrous ; 
 illusory. 
 
 Arthur Wardlaw was not quite so clever as all
 
 FOUL PLAY, 103 
 
 tliat; but still lie nusconclucted the business of tlie 
 linu ■ttith perfect ability from the first month he 
 entered on it. Like tliose ambitious railwaj's, which 
 ruin a goodly trunk with excess of branches, not to 
 say twigs, he set to work extending, and extending, 
 and sent the sap of the healthy old concern a,- flying 
 to the ends of the earth. 
 
 He was not only too ambitious, and not cool 
 enough; he was also unlucky, or under a curse, or 
 something ; for things, well conceived, broke down, 
 in his hands, under petty accidents. And, besides, 
 his new correspondents and agents hit him cruelly 
 hard. Then what did he ? Why, shot good money 
 lifter bad, and lost both. He could not retrench, 
 for his game was concealment ; his father was kept 
 in the dark, and drew his four thousand a 3'ear, as 
 usual, and, upon any hesitation in that respect, 
 would have called in an accountant and wound up 
 the concern. But this tax upon the receipts, though 
 inconvenient, was a trifle compared with the series 
 of heavy engagements that were impending. The 
 future was so black, that Wardlaw junior w\as sore 
 tempted to realise twenty thousand pounds, which a 
 man in his position could easil}'' do, and fly the 
 <;ountry. But this would have been to give up
 
 lO-i ' FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Helen Eolleston ; and lie loved her too well. His 
 brain was naturally subtle and fertile in expedients ; 
 so he brought all its powers to bear on a double 
 problem : how to marr}' Helen ; and restore the 
 concern he had mismanaged to its former state. 
 For this, a large sum of money was needed, not 
 less than £'90,000. 
 
 The difficulties were great; but he entered on 
 this project with two advantages. In the first 
 place, he enjoyed excellent credit ; in the second, 
 he was not disposed to be scrupulous. He had 
 been cheated several times ; and nothing under- 
 mines feeble rectitude more than that. Such a 
 man as Wardlaw is apt to establish a sort of 
 account current with humanity. 
 
 " Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. 
 Well, I must get as much back, by hook or by 
 crook, from several fellow-creatures." 
 
 After much hard thought, he conceived his 
 double master-stroke : and it was to execute this 
 he went out to Australia. 
 
 "We have seen that he persuaded Helen Eolleston 
 to come to England and be married : but, as to the 
 other part of his project, that is a matter for the 
 reader to watclj, as it dcvelopes itself.
 
 rOUL PLAY. 105 
 
 His first act of business, on reacliing England, 
 was to insure the freights of the Proserpine and 
 the Shannon. 
 
 He sent Michael Penfold to Lloyd's, with the 
 requisite vouchers, including the receipts of the 
 gold merchants. Penfold easily insured the Shan- 
 non, whose freight was valued at onl}' six thousand 
 pounds. The Proser^jine, with her cargo, and a 
 hundred and thirty thousand pounds of specie to 
 hoot, was another matter. Some underwriters had 
 an objection to specie, being subject to theft as well 
 as shipwreck; other underwriters, applied to by 
 Penfold, acquiesced ; others called on \Yardlaw 
 himself, to ask a few questions, and he replied to 
 them courteousl}', but with a certain nonchalance, 
 treating it as an affair which might be big to them, 
 but was not of particular importance to a merchant 
 doing business on his scale. 
 
 To one underwriter, Condell, with whom he was 
 on somewhat intimate terms, he said, " I wish I 
 could insure the Shannon, at her value; but that is 
 impossible : the City of London could not do it. 
 The Proserpine brings me some cases of specie, 
 but my true treasure is on board the Shannon. 
 She carries my bride, sir."
 
 106 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " Oh indeed ! INIiss Rolleston ? " 
 
 "Ah, I remember; 3'ou hctve seen her. Then 
 you will not be surprised at a proposal I shall 
 make yon. Underwrite the Shannon a million 
 pounds, to be paid by you if harm befalls my 
 Helen. You need not look so astonished ; I was 
 only joking; you gentlemen deal with none but 
 substantial values ; and, as for me, a million would 
 no more compensate me for losing her, than for 
 losing my own life." 
 
 Tiie tears were in Iiis pale eyes as he said these 
 words ; and Mr. Condell eyed him with sympathy. 
 But he soon recovered himself, and was the man of 
 business ngain. " Oh, the specie on board the 
 Proserpine ? Well, I was in Australia, you know, 
 and bought that specie myself of the merchants 
 whose names arc attached to the receipts. I de- 
 posited the cases with White & Co., at Sydnej'. 
 Penfold will show you the receipt. I instructed 
 Joseph Wylie, mate of the Proserpine, and a trust- 
 worthy person, to sec them stowed away in the 
 Proserpine, by White & Co. Hudson is a good 
 seaman ; and the Proserpine a new ship, built by 
 Mare. Wc bave nothing to fear but the ordinary 
 perils of tbe sea."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 107 
 
 " So one would think/' said Mr. Condell, iiiul 
 took his leave ; hut, at the door, he hesitated, and 
 then, looking down a little sheepishly, said, "Mr. 
 Wardlaw, may I offer you a piece of advice ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Then, double the insurance on the Shannon, it' 
 you can." 
 
 With these words he slipped out, evidently to 
 avoid questions he did not intend to answer. 
 
 Wardlaw stared after him, stupidly at first, and 
 then stood up and put his hand to his head in a 
 sort of amazement. Then he sat down again, ashy 
 pale, and vrith the dew on his forehead, and mut- 
 tered faintly, "Double — the insurance — of the — 
 Shannon ! " 
 
 Men who walk in crooked paths are very subject 
 to such surprises ; doomed, like Aliab, to be 
 pierced, through the joints of their armour, by 
 random shafts ; by words uttered in one sense, 
 but conscience interprets them in another. 
 
 It took a good many underwriters to insure the 
 Proserpine's freight ; but the business was done at 
 last. 
 
 Then Wardlaw, who had feigned insouciance so
 
 108 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 admirably in that part of his interview with Con- 
 dell, went, without losing an hour, and raised a 
 large sum of money on the insured freight, to meet 
 the bills that were coming due for the gold (for he 
 had paid for most of it in paper at short dates), and 
 also other bills that were approaching maturity. 
 This done, he breathed again, safe for a month or 
 two from everything short of a general panic, and 
 full of hope from his coming master-stroke. But 
 two months soon pass when a man has a flock of 
 kites in the air. Pass? They fly. So now he 
 looked out anxiously for his Australian ships ; and 
 went to Lloyd^s every day to hear if either had 
 been seen, or heard of by steamers, or by faster 
 sailing vessels than themselves. 
 
 And, though Condell had underwritten the Pro- 
 serpine to the tune of £8,000, yet still his myste- 
 rious words rang strangely in the merchant's ears 
 and made him so inieasy, that he employed a dis- 
 creet person to sound Condell as to what lie meant 
 by " double the insurance of the Shannon." 
 
 It turned out to be the simplest affair in the 
 world ; Condell had secret information that the 
 Shannon was in bad repair; so he had advised 
 liis friend to insure lier heavil}'. For the same
 
 FOUL PLAY. 100 
 
 reason, be declined to underwrite her freight him- 
 self. 
 
 With respect to tliose ships, onr readers already 
 know two things, of which Wardlaw himself, nota 
 bene, had no idea ; namcl}', that the Shannon had 
 sailed last, instead of first, and that Miss Rolleston 
 was not on board of her, but in the Proserpine, two 
 thousand miles ahead. 
 
 To that, your superior knowledge, we, posters of 
 the sea and land, are about to make a large addition, 
 and relate things strange, but true. While that 
 anxious and plotting merchant strains his ej^es sea- 
 ward, trying hard to read the future, we carry you, 
 in a moment of time, across the Pacific, and board 
 the leading vessel, the good ship Proserpine, home- 
 ward bound. 
 
 The ship left Sydney with a fair wind, but soon 
 encountered adverse weather, and made slow pro- 
 gress, being close hauled, which was her worst point 
 of sailing. She pitched a good deal, and that had 
 a very ill effect on Miss Eolleston. She was not 
 sea-sick, but thoroughly out of sorts ; and, in one 
 week, became perceptibl}'' paler and thinner than 
 when she started. 
 
 The young clergyman, Mr. Hazel, watched lier
 
 110 
 
 FOUL PLAY, 
 
 with respectful anxiety, and this did not escape her 
 feminine observation. She noted quietl}' that those 
 dark ej-es of his followed her with a mournful ten- 
 derness, but withdrew their gaze when she looked at 
 him. Clearly, he was interested in her, but had no 
 desire to intrude upon her attention. He would 
 bring up the squabs for her, and some of his own 
 wraps, when she staj^ed on deck, and was prompt 
 Avith his arm when the vessel lurched ; and showed 
 her those other little attentions, which are called for 
 on board ship ; but without a word. Yet, when she 
 thanked him in tlie simplest and shortest wa}-, his 
 great eyes flashed with pleasure, and the colour 
 mounted to his very temples. 
 
 Engaged young ladies are, for various reasons, 
 more sociable with the other sex, than those who 
 are still on the universal mock-defensive; a ship, 
 like a distant country, thaws even English reserve, 
 and women in general are disposed to admit eccle- 
 siastics to certain'privileges. No wonder then that 
 Miss PtoUeston, after a few days, met Mr. Hazel 
 half-way ; and they made acquaintance on board the 
 Proserpine; in monosyllables at first; but, the ice 
 once fairly broken, the intercourse of mind became 
 rather rapid.
 
 FOUL PLAY. Ill 
 
 At first it was a mere intellectual exchange, but 
 one very agreeable to Miss llolleston ; for a fine 
 niemor}', and omnivorous reading from his very boy- 
 hood, with the habit of taking notes, and reviewing 
 them, had made Mr. Hazel a walking dictionary, 
 and a walking essayist if required. 
 
 But, when it came to something, which most of 
 all the young lady had hoped from this temporary 
 acquaintance, viz., religious instruction, she found 
 him indeed as learned on that as on other topics, 
 but cold, and devoid of unction : so much so, that 
 one day she said to him, " I can hardly believe you 
 have ever been a missionary." But at that he 
 seemed so distressed, that she was sorry for him, 
 and said, sweetly, " Excuse me, Mr. Hazel, my re- 
 mark was in rather bad taste, I fear." 
 
 " Not at all," said he. " Of course I am unfit 
 for missionary work, or I should not be here." 
 
 Miss Eolleston took a good look at him, but said 
 nothing. Hovv'ever, his reply and her perusal of 
 his countenance, satisfied her that he was a man 
 with very little petty vanity and petty irritability. 
 
 Day succeeded day, with a monotony which had 
 been unendurable to Helen but for the variety she 
 found in her fellow-pass eager. The true modesty
 
 112 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 of learning made his mind, like a library, mute 
 until consulted. Shallow streams are garrulous. 
 She had studied botan}- ; she observed that he was 
 studious to conceal that he was her master in that 
 science. A conversation between him and the 
 ship's surgeon, drew from the latter an expression 
 of surprise to find the clergyman's knowledge of 
 chemistry exceeded his own. Helen did not un- 
 derstand a word of the discussion, but she read 
 the faces of the two men, and saw which was out of 
 his depth. 
 
 One morning, after ten days' murky weather, the 
 sky suddenly cleared, and a rare opportunity oc- 
 curred to take an observation. Hazel suggested to 
 Wylie, the mate, the propriety of taking advantage 
 of the moment, as the fog bank out of whicli they 
 had just emerged, would soon envelope them again, 
 and they had not more than an hour or so of such 
 weather available. The man gave a shufflinc: 
 answer. So Hazel sought the captain in his cabin. 
 He found him in bed. He was dead drunk. 
 
 On a shelf lay the instruments. These Hazel 
 took, and then looked round for the chronometers. 
 They were safely locked in their cases. 
 
 He carried the instruments on deck, together witli
 
 FOUL PLAY. 113 
 
 a book of Tables, and quietly began to make prepa- 
 rations, at which Wylie, arresting his walk, gazed 
 with utter astonishment. 
 
 " Now, Mr. Wylie, I want the key of the chrono- 
 meter cases." 
 
 "Here is a chronometer, Mr. Hazel," said Helen, 
 very innocently, " if that is all you want." 
 
 Hazel smiled, and explained that a ship's clock is 
 made to keep the most exact time ; that he did not 
 require the time of the spot where they were, but 
 Greenwich time. 
 
 He took the w^atch, however. It was a large one 
 for a lady to carry; but it was one of Frodsham's 
 masterpieces — for was it not Arthur Wardlaw's gift ? 
 
 " Why, Miss Rolleston," said he, " this watch 
 must be two hours slow. It marks ten o'clock ; it 
 is now nearly midday. Ah, I see," he added, with 
 a smile, " you have wound it regularly every da}' ; 
 but you have forgotten to set it daily. Indeed, you 
 may be right ; it would be a useless trouble, since 
 we change our longitude hourl}'. Well, let us pre- 
 sume that this watch shows the exact time at 
 Sydney, as I presume it does ; I can work the ship's 
 reckoning from that meridian, instead of that of 
 
 Greenwich. ' 
 
 vor,. I, I
 
 1 ] 4 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 And he set about doing it. He looked up, and 
 saw that the crew were assembling as near the 
 quarter-deck as discipline permitted. 
 
 " Mr. Wylie, would you kindly 'obtain a chart 
 for me ? " 
 
 The mate betrayed some curiositj^ at first; but 
 now, when he perceived that the crew had be- 
 come witnesses of the captain's incapacity to fulfil 
 this important duty, he answered doggedly, — 
 
 *' I think, sir, you took a great liberty in over- 
 hauling the skipper's books and tackle." 
 
 " We have not had an observation for ten davs. 
 Surely it is necessary to find the position of the 
 ship," remonstrated Hazel. 
 
 " He'll make you find yours, when he comes on 
 deck," muttered the man. 
 
 Hazel stepped up to him and whispered, — 
 
 " The captain is drunk, senselessly drunk. Do 
 not compel me to remember the fact, and report it 
 at Lloyd's, and to the owners, when we arrive in 
 England." 
 
 Wylie gazed stupidly for a moment into Hazel's 
 face, and then shuffled off and disappeared into the 
 captain's cabin. In a few moments he emerged 
 with the chronometers and the charts, bearing also
 
 FOUL PLAY. 115 
 
 -the thanks of Captain Hudson, who was clown with 
 bilious fever. Hazel received the message and the 
 instruments without remark. He verified Miss 
 Rolleston's chronometer, and allowing for difference 
 •of time, found it to be accurate. He returned it to 
 her, and proceeded to work on the chart. The men 
 looked on ; so did Wj'lie. After a few moments 
 Hazel read as follows: — West longitude, 146° 53' 18". 
 South latitude, 35° 24'. The Island of Oparo and 
 the Four Crowns, distant 420 miles on the N^N.E. 
 The white banks of fog iirevailing on the south 
 seem to indicate ice-floes in that quarter ; Barometer 
 
 Thermometer in the sea as compared with 
 
 yesterday, . " There," said he, handing the 
 
 paper to Wylie, '* I leave these to be filled in 
 by the captain. I presume he keeps some such 
 record in his log." 
 
 "Wvlie removed the instruments, the men retired 
 to the forecastle, and Miss Rolleston fixed her large 
 •soft eyes on the young clerg^mian with the undis- 
 guised, admiration a woman is apt to feel for what 
 she does not understand. 
 
 One clay they were discoursing of gratitude ; and 
 Mr. Hrzel said he had a poor opinion of those per- 
 sons, who sp3ak of " the burden of gratitude," and 
 
 I 2
 
 lie rOTJL TLAY. 
 
 make a fass about being " laid under an obli- 
 gation." 
 
 " As for me," said he, " I have owed such a debt, 
 and found the sense of it ver}^ sweet." 
 
 " But perhai^s you Avere always hoping to make a 
 return," said Helen. 
 
 " That I was : hoping against hope." 
 
 " Do you think people are grateful, in general ? " 
 
 " No, Miss Rolleston, I do not." 
 
 " Well, I think they are. To me, at least. Why, 
 I have experienced gratitude, even in a convict. It 
 was a poor man, who had been transported, for 
 something or other, and he begged Papa to take 
 him for his gardener. Papa did, and he was so 
 grateful that, do you know, he suspected our house 
 was to be robbed, and he actually watched in the 
 garden niglit after night : and, what do you think ? 
 the house teas attacked by a whole gang; but poor 
 Mr. Seaton confronted them and shot one, and was 
 wounded cruellj' ; but he beat them off for us ; and 
 was not that gratitude ? " 
 
 While she was speaking so earnestly Mr. Hazel's 
 blood seemed to run through his veins like heavenly 
 fire, but he said nothing, and the lady resumed, 
 with gentle fervour: "Well, we got him a clerk's
 
 rOUL PLAY. 117 
 
 place in a shipping-office, and heard no more of 
 him; but he did not forget us : my cabin here was 
 fitted up with every comfort and every delicacy. 
 I thanked Papa for it; but he looked so blank, I 
 saw directly he knew nothing about it ; and now, I 
 think of it, it was ]Mr. Seaton. I am positive it 
 was. Poor fellow ! And I should not even know 
 him if I saw hini.^' 
 
 Mr. Hazel observed, in a low voice, that Mr. 
 Seaton's conduct did not seem wonderful to him. 
 " Still," said he, " one is glad to find there is some 
 good left even in a criminal." 
 
 " A criminal ! " cried Helen Rolleston, firing up. 
 " Pray, who says he was a criminal ? ^Ir. Hazel, 
 once for all, no friend of mine ever deserves such a 
 name as that. A friend of mine may commit some 
 great error or imprudence ; but that is all. The 
 poor grateful soul was never guilty of any down- 
 right wickedness : that stands to reason." 
 
 Mr. Hazel did not encounter this feminine logic 
 with his nsual ability; he muttered something or 
 other, with a trembling lip, and left her so abruptly, 
 that she asked herself whether she had inadvertently 
 said anything that could have oftended him ; and 
 awaited an explanation. But none came. The
 
 118 FOUL PLx\.Y. 
 
 topic >Yas never revived Ly Mr. Hazjl; and iiis 
 manner, at their next meeting, showed he liked her 
 none the worse that she stood up for her friends. 
 
 The -wind steady from the "West for two whole 
 days, and the Troserpine showed her best sailing 
 qualities, and ran four hundred and fifty miles in 
 that time. 
 
 Then came a dead calm, and the sails flapped 
 lazily, and the masts described an arc : and the sun 
 broiled ; and the sailors whistled ; and the captain 
 drank ; and the mate encouraged him. 
 
 During this calm. Miss Eolleston fell downright 
 ill, and quitted the deck. Then Mr. Hazel was 
 very sad : borrov/ed all the books in the shij^, and 
 read them, and took notes; and when he had done 
 this, he was at leisure to read men, and so began to 
 study Iliram Hudson, Joseph AVylie, and others, 
 and take a few notes about them. 
 
 From these we select some that are better worth 
 the reader's attention, than anything we could relate 
 in our own persons at this stagnant part of the- 
 story.
 
 FOUL i'LAY. 119 
 
 PASSAGES FROM MR. HAZEI.'s DIARY. 
 
 " Characters on hoard the Proserpine. 
 
 " There are two sailors, messmates, who have 
 formed an antique friendship; their names are 
 John Welch, and Samuel Cooper. ^Yelcll is a very 
 able seaman and a chatterbox. Cooper is a good 
 sailor, but very silent; only what he does say is 
 much to the purpose. 
 
 " The gabble of Welch is agreeable to the silent 
 Cooper; and Welch admires Cooper's taciturnity. 
 
 "I asked Welch what made him like Cooper so 
 much. And he said, ' Why, yon see, sir, he is my 
 messmate, for one thing, and a seaman that knows 
 his work; and then he has been well eddj'cated, 
 and he knows when to hold his tongue, does 
 Sam.' 
 
 " I asked Cooper why he was so fond of Welch. 
 He only grunted in an uneasy wa}-" at first; but 
 when I pressed for a reply, he let out two words — 
 ' Capital company.' And got awaj' from me. 
 
 " Their friendship, though often roughly ex- 
 pressed, is really a tender and touching sentiment. 
 I think either of these sailors would bare his back 
 and take a dozen lashes in place of his messmate.
 
 120 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 I too once thought I had made such a friend. 
 Eheu! 
 
 " Both Cooper and "Welch seem, by their talk, to 
 consider the ship a living creature. Cooper chews. 
 ^Velch only smokes, and often lets his pipe out : he 
 is so voluble. 
 
 " Captain Hudson is quite a character : or, I 
 might say, two characters ; for he is one man when 
 lie is sober, and another when he is the worse for 
 liquor: and that I am sorr}' to see is very often. 
 Captain Hudson, sober, is a rough, bearish seaman, 
 with a quick, experienced eye, that takes in every 
 rope in the ship, as he walks up and down his 
 quarter-deck. He either evades, or bluntly declines 
 conversation, and gives his whole mind to sailing 
 his ship. 
 
 " Captain Hudson, drunk, is a garrulous man, 
 wlio seems to have drifted back into the past. He 
 comes up to you and talks of his own accord, and 
 always about himself, and what he did fifteen or 
 twenty years since. He forgets whatever has oc- 
 curred half-an-hour ago ; and his eye, which was an 
 eagle's, is now a mole's. He no longer sees what 
 his sailors are doing alow or aloft; to be sure he no 
 longer cares ; his present ship may take care of
 
 FOUL PLAY. 121 
 
 lierself while he is talking of his past ones. But 
 the surest indicia of inehriet}' in Hudson are these 
 two. First, his nose is red. Second!}', he dis- 
 courses upon a seaman's dat>j to Jus employers. 
 Ebrius rings the changes on his ' duty to his 
 employers ' till drowsiness attacks his hearers. 
 Cicero de Officiis was all xevy well at a certain 
 period of one's life : but ' bibulus nauta de officiis ' 
 is rather too much. 
 
 " N.B. Except when his nose is red, not a word 
 about his * duty to his employers.' That phrase, 
 like a fine lad}'-, never ventures into the morning 
 air. It is purely post-prandial, and sacred to occa- 
 sions when he is utterly neglecting his duty to his 
 employers, and to everybody else. 
 
 "All this is ridiculous enough, hut somewhat 
 alarming. To think that Iter precious life should 
 be entrusted to the care and skill of so unreliable 
 a captain ! 
 
 " Joseph W3-lie, the mate, is less eccentric, but 
 even more remarkable. He is one of tliose power- 
 fully built fellows, whom Nature, one would think, 
 constructed to gain all their ends by force and 
 directness. But no such thing; he goes about as 
 softly as a cat ; is always popping up out of holes
 
 122 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 and corners ; and I can see lie ^vatelles me, and 
 tries to hear what I say to her. He is civil to nie 
 when I speak to him ; yet, I notice, he avoids nie 
 quietly. Altogether, there is something about him 
 that puzzles me. AYhy was he so reluctant to let 
 me on hoard as a passenger ? Why did he tell a 
 downright falsehood ? For he said there was no 
 room for me ; yet, even now, there are two cabins 
 vacant, and he has taken possession of them. 
 
 " The mate of this ship has several barrels of 
 spirits in his cabin, or rather, cabins, and it is he 
 who makes the captain drunk. I learned this from 
 one of the boys. This looks ugly. I fear Wylie 
 is a bad, designing man, who wishes to ruin the 
 captain, and so get his place. But, meantime, the 
 ship might be endangered by this drunkard's mis- 
 conduct. I shall watch Wjdie closely, and perhaps 
 put the captain on his guard against this false 
 friend. 
 
 " Last night, a breeze got up about sunset, and 
 
 11 K came on deck for half an hour. I 
 
 welcomed her as calmly as I could ; but I felt my 
 voice tremble and ray heart throb. She told rae 
 the voyage tired her much ; but it was the last she
 
 I'OUL PLAY. 123 
 
 should liave to nip.ke. How strange, Low liellisli 
 (God forgive me for saying so !) it seems that she 
 should love Jam. But, does she love him? Can 
 she love him '? Could she love him if she knew 
 all? Know him she shall before she marries him. 
 For the present, bo still, my heart. 
 
 " She soon went below and left me desolate. I 
 wandered all about the shij), and, at last, I came 
 upon the inseparables, AVelch and Cooper. The}' 
 were squatted on the deck, and AVclcli's tongue was 
 going as usual, lie v^'as talking about this Wylie, 
 and saying that, in all his ships, he had never 
 known such a mate as this ; why the captain was 
 under his thumb. He then gave a string of cap- 
 tains, each of whom would have given his mate a 
 round dozen at the gangway, if he had taken so 
 much on him, as this one does. 
 
 " ' Grog ! ' suggested Cooper, in extenuation. 
 
 " Welch admitted AVylie was liberal with that, 
 and friendly enough ^Yith the men ; but, still, he 
 preferred to see a ship commanded by the captain, 
 and not by a lubber like Wylie. 
 
 " I expressed some surprise at this term, and 
 said I had envied Wylie's nerves in a gale of wind 
 ■we encountered early in the voyage.
 
 124 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " The talking sailor expliiiued, ' In course, he 
 has been to sea afore this, and weathered many a 
 sale. But so has the cook. Tliat don't make a 
 man a sailor. You ask him how to send down a 
 to'-gallant yard, or gammon a bowsprit, or even 
 mark a lend line, and he'll stare at ye, like Old 
 Nick, Avhen the angel caught him with the red-hot 
 tongs, and questioned him out of the Church Cate- 
 chism. Ask Sam there, if ye don't believe me. 
 Sara, what do you think of this Wylie for a sea- 
 
 man ? 
 
 '* Cooper could not afford anything so precious, 
 in his estimate of things, as a word ; but he lifted a 
 great brawny hand, and gave a snap with his finger 
 and thumb, that disposed of the mate's pretensions 
 to seamanship more expressively than words could 
 have done it. 
 
 " The breeze has freshened, and the ship glides 
 rapidly through tlie water, bearing us all homeward. 
 
 II Pt — — has resumed her place upon the deck ; 
 
 and all seems briglit again. 1 ask myself how we 
 existed without the sight of her. 
 
 " This morning the wind shifted to the south- 
 west; the captain surprised us by taking in sail.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 125 
 
 But Lis sober eye had seen something more than 
 ours; for at noon it blew a gale, and by sunset it 
 was deemed prudent to bring the ship's head to the 
 wind, and we are now lying-to. The sliip lurches, 
 and the wind howls through the bare rigging; but 
 she rides buoyantly, and no danger is apprehended. 
 
 " Last night, as I lay in my cabin, nnable to 
 sleep, I heard some heavy blows strike the ship's 
 side repeatedly, causing quite a vibration. I felt 
 alarmed, and went out to tell the captain. But I 
 Avas obliged to go on my hands and knees, such was 
 the force of the wind. Passing the mate's cabin, I 
 heard sounds that made me listen acutely ; and I 
 then found the blows were being struck inside the 
 ship. I got to the captain and told liim. ' Oh,' 
 said he, 'ten to one it's the mate nailing down his 
 chests, or the like.' But I assured him the blows 
 struck the side of the ship, and, at my earnest 
 request, he came out and listened. lie swore a 
 great oath, and said the lubber would be through 
 the ship's side. He then tried the cabin door, but 
 it was locked. 
 
 " The sounds ceased directly. 
 
 " We called to the mate, but received no reply
 
 12G FOUL PLAT. 
 
 for fx long time. At last Wj'Iie came out of the 
 gun-room, looking ratlier pale, and asked Tvhat was 
 the matter. 
 
 " I told him he ought to know best, for the blows 
 were heard where he had just come from. 
 
 " ' Blows ! ' said he ; 'I believe you. Why, a 
 tierce of butter had got adrift, and was bumping up 
 and down the hold like thunder.' He then asked us 
 whether that was what we had disturbed him for, 
 entered his cabin, and almost slammed the door in 
 our faces. 
 
 " I remarked to the captain on his disrespectful 
 conduct. The captain was civil, and said I was 
 right ; he was a cross-grained, unmanageable brute, 
 and he wished he was out of the ship. ' But you 
 see, sir, he has got the ear of the merchant ashore ; 
 and so I am obliged to hold a candle to the devil, 
 as the saying is.' He then fired a volley of oaths 
 and fibuse at the offender; and, not to encourage 
 foul language, I retired to my cabin. 
 
 " The wind dechned towards day-break, and the 
 ship recommenced her voyage at 8 a.m. ; but under 
 treble reefed topsails, and reefed courses. 
 
 " I caught the captain and mate talking together 
 in the friendliest way possible. Tbat Hudson is a
 
 FOUL PLAY. 127 
 
 humbng; there is some mystery between him and 
 the mate. 
 
 " To-day IT R was on deck for several 
 
 hours, conversing sweetly, and looking like the 
 angel she is. But happiness soon flies from me : a 
 steamer came in sight, bound for Sydney. She sig- 
 nalled us to lieave-to, and send a boat. This was 
 done, and the boat brought back a letter for her. 
 It seems they took us for the Shannon, in which 
 ship she was expected. 
 
 " The letter was from him. How her cheek 
 flushed and her e5''e beamed as she took it. And oh 
 the sadness, the agony, that stood beside her un- 
 heeded. 
 
 " I left the deck; I could not have contained my- 
 self. WhnL a thing is wealth ! By wealth, that 
 wretch can stretch out his hand across the ocean, 
 and put a letter into licr hand under my very 
 eye. Awny goes all that I have gained by being 
 near her, while he is far away. He is not in Eng- 
 land now — he is here. His odious presence has 
 driven me from her. Oh that I could be a child 
 again, or in my grave, to get away from this Hell of 
 Love and Hate."
 
 128 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 At this point, we beg leave to take the narrative 
 into our own hands again. 
 
 Mr. Hazel actually left the deck to avoid the 
 sight of Helen Eolleston's flushed cheek and beam- 
 ing ej'es, reading Arthur Wardlaw's letter. 
 
 And here we may as well observe that he retired 
 not merely because the torture was liard to bear. 
 He had some disclosures to make, on reaching Eng- 
 land ; but his good sense told him this was not the 
 time, or the place, to make them, nor Helen Kolles- 
 ton the person to whom, in the first instance, they 
 ought to be made. 
 
 "While he tries to relieve his swelling heart by 
 l)utting its throbs on paper (and, in truth, this is 
 some faint relief, for want of which many a less un- 
 happy man than Hazel has gone mad), let us stay 
 by the lady's side, and read her letter with her. 
 
 " Russell Squake, 
 
 " Dec. 15ih, 1864. 
 
 " My Dear Love, — Hearing that the Antelope 
 steam-packet was going to Sydney, by way of Cape . 
 Horn, I have begged the captain, who is under 
 some obligations to me, to keep a good look-out for 
 the Shannon, homeward bound, and board her with 
 these lines, weather permitting.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 129 
 
 " Of course, the chances are you will not receive 
 them at sea ; but still you possibly may ; and my 
 heart is so full of you, I seize any excuse for over- 
 flowing ; and then I picture to myself that bright 
 face reading an unexpected letter in mid ocean, and 
 so I taste beforehand the greatest pleasure ray mind 
 can conceive — the delight of giving you pleasure, 
 my own sweet Helen. 
 
 " News, I have very little. You know how deeply 
 and devotedly you are beloved — know it so well that 
 I feel words are almost wasted in repeating it. In- 
 deed, the time, I hope, is at hand when the word 
 love will hardly be mentioned between us. For my 
 part, I think it will be too visible in every act, and 
 look, and word of mine, to need repetition. AVe do 
 not speak much about the air we live in. We 
 breathe it, and speak with it, not of it. 
 
 " I suppose all lovers are jealous. I think I should 
 go mad if you were to give me a rival ; but then 
 I do not understand that ill-natured jealousy which 
 would rob the beloved object of all affections but 
 the one. I know my Helen loves her father — loves 
 him, perhaps, as well, or better, than she does me. 
 Well, in spite of that, I love him too. Do you 
 know, I never see that erect form, that model of 
 
 VOL. I. *
 
 130 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 courage and probit}'- come into a room, but I say to 
 myself, ' Here comes my benefactor ; but for this 
 man there would be no Helen in the world.' Well, 
 dearest, an unexpected circumstance has given me 
 a little military influence (these things do happen in 
 the City) ; and I really believe that, what with his 
 acknowledged merits (I am secretly informed that u 
 very high personage said, the other da}"", he had not 
 received justice), and the influence I speak of, a post 
 will shortly be ofi'ered to your father, that will 
 enable him to live, henceforth^ in England, with 
 comfort, I might sa}', afftuence. Perhaps he might 
 live with us. That depends upon himself. 
 
 " Looking forward to this, and my own still 
 greater happiness, diverts my mind awhile from the 
 one ever-pressing anxiety. But, alas ! it will return. 
 By this time my Helen is on the seas, the terrible, 
 the treacherous, the cruel seas, that spare neither 
 beauty nor virtue, nor the longing hearts at home. 
 I have conducted this office for some years, and 
 thought I knew care and anxiety ; but I find I knew 
 neither till now. 
 
 " I have two ships at sea, the Shannon and the 
 Proserpine. The Proserpine carries eighteen chests 
 of specie, worth a hundred and sixty thousand
 
 FOUL PLAY. 131 
 
 pounds. I don't care one straw wlietlier she sinks 
 or swims. But the Shannon carries ni}^ darling ; 
 and everj'' gust at night awakens me, and every day 
 I go into the great room at Lloyd's and watch the 
 anemometer. Oh God ! be merciful, and bring my 
 angel safe to me ! Oh Godi be just, and strike her 
 not for my offences ! 
 
 " Besides the direct perils of the sea are some 
 others you might escape by prudence. Pray avoid 
 the night air, for my sake, who could not live if any 
 €vil befell you ; and be careful in your diet. You 
 were not looking so well as usual, when I left. 
 Would I had words to make you know your own 
 value. Then you would feel it a duty to be prudent. 
 
 " But I must not sadden you with my fears ; let 
 me turn to my hopes. How bright they are ; what 
 joy, what happiness, is sailing towards me, nearer 
 and nearer every day. I ask myself what am I that 
 such paradise should be mine. 
 
 " My love, when we are one, shall we share every 
 thought, or shall I keep commerce, speculation, and 
 its temptations away from your pure spirit? Some^ 
 times I tliink I should like to have neither thought 
 nor occupation unshared by you ; and that you would 
 
 purify trade itself by your contact ; at other times I 
 
 K 2
 
 \ 
 
 132 rOUL PLAY. 
 
 say to m3-self, ' Oh, never soil that angel with 3'our 
 miserable business ; but go home to her as if you 
 were going from earth to heaven, for a few blissful 
 hours.' But you shall decide this question, and 
 every other. 
 
 " Must I close this letter ? Must I say no more, 
 though I have scarcely begun ? 
 
 " Yes, I will end it, since, perhaps, you will never 
 see it. 
 
 " When I have sealed it, I mean to hold it in my 
 
 clasped hands, and so pray the Almighty to take it 
 
 safe to you, and to bring you safe to him, who can 
 
 never know peace nor joy till he sees you once 
 
 more. 
 
 " Your devoted and anxious lover, 
 
 " Arthur Wardlaw." 
 
 Helen Eolleston read tliis letter more than once. 
 She liked it none the less for being disconnected 
 and unbusiness-like. She had seen her Arthur's 
 business letters ; models of courteous conciseness. 
 She did not value such compositions. This one she 
 did. She smiled over it, all beaming and blushing; 
 she kissed it, and read it again, and sat with it in 
 her lap.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 133 
 
 But, by-iind-b}', her mood clianged, and, when 
 j\Ir. Hazel ventured upon deck again, he found her 
 with her forehead sinking on her extended arm, and 
 the lax hand of that same arm holding the letter. 
 She was crying. 
 
 The whole drooping attitude was so lovely, so 
 feminine, yet so sad, that Hazel stood irresolute, 
 looking wistfully at her. 
 
 She caught sight of him, and, by a natural im- 
 pulse, turned gently away, as if to hide her tears. 
 But, the next moment, she altered her mind, and 
 said, with a quiet dignity that came naturally to her 
 at times, " Why should I hide my care from you, 
 sir ? Mr. Hazel, may I speak to you as a clergy- 
 
 n It 
 
 man / 
 
 " Certainl}^" said Mr. Hazel, in a somewhat faint 
 
 voice. 
 
 She pointed to a seat, and he sat down near 
 her. 
 
 She was silent for some time ; her lip quivered a 
 little ; she was struggling inwardly for that decent 
 composure, which, on certain occasions, distin- 
 guishes the lady from the mere woman ; and it was 
 with a pretty firm voice she said what follows : — • 
 
 " I am going to tell you a little secret, one I have
 
 134 rOUL PLAY. 
 
 kept from my own father. It is — tbat I Lave not 
 very long to live." 
 
 Her hazel eye rested calmly on his face while she 
 said these words quietl3\ 
 
 He received them with amazement, at first ; 
 amazement, that soon deepened into horror. " "What 
 do you mean ? " he gasped. " What words are 
 these ? " 
 
 " Thank you for minding so much," said she, 
 sweetly. " I will tell you. I have fits of coughing, 
 not frequent, hut violent ; and then blood very often 
 comes from my lungs. That is a* bad sign, you 
 know. I have been so for four months now, and I 
 am a good deal wasted ; my hand used to be very 
 plump, look at it now. — Poor Arthur ! " 
 
 She turned away her head to drop a gentle 
 unselfish tear or two ; and Hazel stared w4th 
 increasing alarm at the lovely, but wasted hand 
 she still held out to him, and glanced, too, at 
 Arthur Wardlaw's letter, held slightly by the 
 beloved fingers. 
 
 He said nothing, and, when she looked round 
 again, he was pale and trembling. The revelation 
 was so sudden. 
 
 " Pray be calm, sir," said she. "We need speak
 
 rOUL PLAY. 135 
 
 of this no more. But, now, I think, .you will not 
 be surprised that I come to you for religious advice 
 and consolation, short as our acquaintance is/' 
 
 "I am in no condition to give them," said Hazel, 
 in great agitation. "I can think of nothing but 
 how to save you. May heaven help me and give 
 me wisdom for that." 
 
 " This is idle," said Helen Eolleston, gently, but 
 firmly. " I have had the best advice for months, 
 and I get worse ; and, Mr. Hazel, I shall never be 
 better. My mother died at my age, and of the 
 same fatal disorder. So aid me to bow to the will 
 of Heaven. Sir, I do not repine at leaving the 
 world; but it does grieve me to think how my 
 departure will affect those whose happiness is very, 
 very dear to me. Especially it will affect one who 
 now is awaiting my arrival in England. But I feel 
 I shall never reach home. Well, you will see him 
 Avhen he comes on board this ship only to hear — 
 
 to fiiitl ." She stopped — her face fell until it 
 
 touched the paper. 
 
 She then looked at the letter, blushed, and hesi- 
 tated a moment; but ended by giving it to him 
 whom she had applied to as her religious adviser. 
 It was wet with tears.
 
 136 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " Oblige me by reading that. And when you 
 have, I think you ^vill grant me a fkvour I wish 
 to ask 3'ou. Poor fellow! so full of hopes that 
 I am doomed to disappoint." 
 
 She rose to hide her emotion, and left Arthur 
 Wardlaw^s letter in the hands of him who loved 
 her, if possible, more devotedly than Arthur Ward- 
 law did ; and she walked the deck pensively, little 
 dreaming how strange a thing she had done. 
 
 As for Hazel, he was in a situation poignant with 
 agony; only the heavy blow that had just fallen 
 had stunned and benumbed him. He felt a natural 
 .repugnance to read this letter. But she had given 
 him no choice. He read it. In reading it he felt 
 a mortal sickness come over him, but he perse- 
 vered; he read it carefully to the end, and he was 
 examining the signature keenly, when Miss Rol- 
 leston rejoined him. 
 
 "He loves me; does he not?" said she, wist- 
 fully. 
 
 Hazel looked half-stupidly in her face for a 
 moment; then, with a candour which was part of 
 liis character, replied, doggedly, " Yes, the man 
 who wrote this letter loves you." 
 
 " Then you can pity him, and I may venture
 
 FOUL PLAY. 137 
 
 to ask you the favour to It will be a bitter grief 
 
 and disappointment to him. Will you break it to 
 him as gently as you can; will you say that his 
 Helen ?" 
 
 He handed her the letter, almost thrusting it 
 iipon her, and turned away. 
 
 "Mr. Hazel! will you not grant me so small 
 a favour?" 
 
 The man faced her, his features convulsed with 
 passion. He covered them for a moment with his 
 trembling hands, then, with unutterable love in the 
 gaze he fixed upon her, he answered her pleading 
 with one word. 
 
 "No.
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 This point-blank refusal surprised Helen Rol- 
 leston ; all the more that it was uttered with a 
 certain sullenness, and even asperity, she had never 
 seen till then in this gentle clergyman. 
 
 It made her fear she had done wrong in asking 
 it; and she looked ashamed and distressed. 
 
 However, the explanation soon followed. 
 
 " My business," said he, " is to prolong your 
 precious life ; and making up your mind to die is 
 not the way. You shall have no encouragement 
 in such weakness from me. Pray let me be your 
 physician." 
 
 " Thank you," said Helen, coldly ; " I have my 
 own physician." 
 
 " No doubt ; but he shows me his Incapacity, 
 by allowing you to live on pastry and sweets ; 
 tilings that are utter poison to you. Disease of 
 the lungs is curable, but not by drugs and un- 
 wholesome food."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 13y 
 
 "Mr. Plazel," said the lady, "we will drop the 
 subject, if you please. It has taken an unin- 
 teresting turn."" 
 
 " To you, perhaps ; but not to me." 
 
 "Excuse me, sir, if you took that real friendly 
 interest in me and my condition I was vain enough 
 to think you might, you would hardly have refused 
 me the first favour I ever asked you ; and/' drawing 
 lierself up proudly, " need I say the last ?" 
 
 "You are unjust," said Hazel, sadl}^; "unjust 
 beyond endurance. I refuse you anything that is 
 for your good ? I who would lay down my life with 
 unmixed joy for you ? " 
 
 " Mr. Hazel ! " And she drew back from him 
 with a haughty stare. Then she trembled violently; 
 but soon recovering herself, she said, with over- 
 powering spirit and dignity, — " Sir, you have taught 
 me a lesson — a bitter one. You have abused your 
 position, and the confidence it gave me ; from this 
 moment, of course we are strangers." 
 
 After this, Helen Eolleston and Mr. Hazel never 
 spoke. She walked past him on the deck with cold 
 and haughty contempt. 
 
 He quietly submitted to it; and never presumed 
 
 /
 
 140 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 to sav one word to her acfain. Onlv, as his deter- 
 mination was equal to his delicac}-, Miss Eolleston 
 found, one da}', a paper on her table, containing 
 advice as to the treatment of disordered lungs, 
 expressed with apparent coldness, and backed by 
 a string of medical authorities, quoted memoriter. 
 
 She sent this back directly, endorsed with a line, 
 in pencil, that she would try hard to live, but 
 should use her own judgment as to the means. 
 
 He replied, " Live, with whatever motive you 
 please ; only live." 
 
 To this she vouchsafed no answer ; nor did this 
 unhappy man trouble her again, until an occasion 
 of a very different kind arose. 
 
 One fine night he sat on the deck, with his back 
 against the mainmast, in deep melanchol}' and list- 
 lessness, and fell, at last, into a doze, from which 
 he was awakened by a peculiar sound below. It 
 was a beautiful and stilly niglit; all sounds were 
 magnified ; and the father of all rats seemed to be 
 gnawing the ship down below. 
 
 Hazel's curiosity was excited, and he went softly 
 down the ladder to see what the sound really was. 
 But that was not so easy, for it proved to be below 
 decks ; but he saw a light glimmering through a
 
 FOUL PLAY. 141 
 
 small scuttle abaft the mate's cabin, and the sounds 
 were in the neighbourhood of that light. 
 
 It now flashed upon Mr. Hazel that this was the 
 very quarter where he had heard that mysterious 
 knocking when the ship was lying-to in the gale. 
 
 Upon this, a certain degree of vague suspicion 
 began to mingle with his curiosity. 
 
 He stood still a moment, listening acutely; then 
 took off his shoes very quietly, and moved with 
 noiseless foot towards the scuttle. 
 
 The gnawing still continued. 
 
 He put his head througli the scuttle, and peered 
 into a dark, dismal place, whose very existence was 
 new to him. It was, in fact, a vacant space between 
 the cargo and the ship's run. This wooden cavern 
 was very narrow, but not less than fifteen feet long. 
 The candle was at the farther end, and between it 
 and Hazel, a man was working, with his flank 
 turned towards the spectator. This parti}' inter- 
 cepted the light; but still it revealed in a fitful 
 way the huge ribs of the ship, and her inner skin, 
 that formed the right hand partition, so to speak, 
 of this black cavern ; and close outside those gaunt 
 timbers was heard the wash of the sea. 
 
 There was something solemn in the close prox-
 
 142 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 imity of that tremendous element, and the narrow- 
 ness of the wooden barrier. 
 
 The hare place, and the gentle, monotonous 
 wash of the liquid monster, on that calm night, 
 conveyed to Mr. Hazel's mind a thought akin to 
 David's. 
 
 " As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there 
 is but a step between me and death." 
 
 Judge whether that thought grew weaker or 
 stronger, when, after straining his eyes for some 
 time to understand what was going on at that 
 midnight hour, in that hidden place, he saw who 
 was the workman, and what was his occupation. 
 It was Joseph Wylic, the mate. His profile was 
 illuminated by the candle, and looked ghastly. 
 He had in liis hands an auger of enormous size, 
 and with this he was drilling a great hole through 
 the ship's side, just below the water-mark; an act, 
 the effect of wliich would be to let the sea bodily 
 into the sliip, and sink her, witli every soul on 
 board, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 " I was stupefied ; and my hairs stood on end, 
 and my tongue clove to my jaws." 
 
 Thus docs one of Virgil's cliaracters describe
 
 FOUL PLAY. 143 
 
 the effect Lis mind produced on bis body, in a 
 terrible situation. 
 
 Mr. Hazel had always ridiculed that trite line 
 as a pure exaggeration ; but he altered his opinion 
 after that eventful night. 
 
 When he first saw what Wylie was doing — ob- 
 stupuit ; he was merely benumbed ; but, as his 
 mind realized the fiendish nature of the act, and 
 its tremendous consequences, his hair actually 
 bristled, and, for a few minutes at least, lie could 
 not utter a word. 
 
 In that interval of stupor, matters took another 
 turn. The auger went in up to the haft: then 
 Wylie caught up with his left hand a wooden plug 
 he had got rcad^', jerked the auger away, caught up 
 a hammer, and swiftly inserted the plug. 
 
 Ptapid as he was, a single jet of water came 
 squirting viciously' in. But Wylie lost no time, 
 he tapped the plug smartl}' with his hammer several 
 times, and then, lifting a mallet with both hands, 
 rained heavy blows on it that drove it in, and shook 
 the ship's side. 
 
 Then Hazel found his voice, and he uttered 
 an ejaculation that made the mate look round; 
 he glared at the man, wlio was glaring at him,
 
 V 
 
 144 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 and, staggering backward, trod on the light, and 
 all was darkness and dead silence. 
 
 All but the wash of the sea outside, and that 
 louder than ever.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 But a short interval sufficed to restore one of 
 the parties to his natural self-possession. 
 
 " Lord, sir," said Wylie, " how you startled me ! 
 You should not come upon a man at his work like 
 that. We might have had an accident." 
 
 " What were you doing ? " said Hazel, in a voice 
 that quivered in spite of him. 
 
 " Repairing the ship. Found a crack or two in 
 her inner skin. There, let me get a light, and I'll 
 explain it to you, sir." 
 
 He groped his way out, and invited Mr. Hazel 
 into his cabin. There he struck a light, and, with 
 great civility, tendered an explanation. The ship, 
 he said, had laboured a good deal in the last gale, 
 and he had discovered one or two flaws in her, 
 which were of no immediate importance: but ex- 
 perience had taught him that in calm weather a 
 
 VOL. I. ^
 
 146 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 ship ought to be kept tight. " As they say ashore^ 
 a stitch in time saves nine." 
 
 " But drilling holes in her is not the way," said 
 Hazel, sternl}'. 
 
 The mate laughed. " Why, sir," said he, " what 
 other way is there '? AYe cannot stop an irregular 
 crack; we can frame nothing to fit it. The way is 
 to get ready a plug, measured a trifle larger than 
 the aperture you are going to make ; then drill a 
 round hole, and force in the plug. I know no other 
 way than that ; and I was a ship's carpenter for ten 
 years before I was a mate." 
 
 This explanation, and the manner in which it 
 was given, removed Mr. Hazel's apprehensions for 
 the time being. "It was very alarming," said he;. 
 " but I suppose you know your business." 
 
 " Nobody better, sir," said AVylie. " Why, it is 
 not one seaman in three that would trouble his 
 head about a flaw in a ship's inner skin ; but I'm 
 a man that looks ahead. Will you have a glass of 
 grog, sir, now you are here ? I keep that under 
 my eye too : between ourselves, if the skipper had 
 as much in his cabin as I have here, that might be 
 worse for us all than a crack or two in the ship's 
 inner skin."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 147 
 
 Mr. Hazel declined to drink grog at that time in 
 the morning, but wished him good-night, and left 
 him with a better opinion of him than he ever had 
 till then. 
 
 Wylie, when he was gone, drew a tumbler of 
 neat spirits, drank half, and carried the rest back 
 to his work. 
 
 Yet Wylie was a very sober man in a general way. 
 Eum was his tool ; not his master. 
 
 "When Hazel came to think of it all next day, he 
 did not feel quite so easy as he had done. The 
 inner skin ! But, when Wylie withdrew his auger, 
 the water had squirted in furiousl}'. He felt it 
 hard to believe that this keen jet of water could be 
 caused by a small quantity that had found its way 
 between the skin of the ship and her copper, or her 
 top booting ; it seemed rather to be due to the 
 direct pressure of the liquid monster outside. 
 
 He went to the captain that afternoon, and first 
 told him what he had seen, offering no solution. 
 The captain, on that occasion, was in an amphibious 
 state; neither wet nor dry; and his repl}'' was alto- 
 gether exceptional. He received the communica- 
 tion with pompous civility; then swore a great 
 oath, and said he would put the male in irons : 
 
 L 2
 
 148 FOUL TLAY. 
 
 " Confound the lubber ! he ^vill be through the 
 ship's bottom." 
 
 "But, stop a moment/' said Mr. Hazel, "it is 
 cnl}' fair j-ou should also hear how he accounts for 
 his proceeding." 
 
 The captain listened attentively to the explana- 
 tion, and altered his tone. " Oh, that is a different 
 matter," said he. " You need be under no alarm, 
 sir; the thundering lubber knows what he is about 
 at that work. Wh}', he has been a ship's carpenter 
 all his life. Him a seaman ! If anj'thing ever 
 happens to me, and Joe Wylie is set to navigate 
 this ship, then j'ou ma}" say your prayers. He isn't 
 fit to sail a wash-tub across a duck-pond. But I'll 
 tell you what it is," added this worthy, with more 
 pomposity than neatness of articulation, " here's a 
 respeckable passenger brought me a report ; do ray 
 duty m'emplo3-crs, and — take a look at the well." 
 
 He accordingly chalked a plumb-line, and went 
 and sounded the well. 
 
 There were eight inches of water. Hudson told 
 liim that was no more than all ships contained from 
 various causes ; " in fact," said he, our pumps suck, 
 and will not draw, at eight inches." Then suddenly 
 grasping Mr. Hazel's hand, he said, in tearful
 
 FOUL FLAY. 149 
 
 accents, " Don't you trouble your head about Joe 
 Wj'lie, or any such scum. I'm skipper of the 
 Proserpine, and a man that does his duty to z'em- 
 ployers. Mr. Hazel, sir, I'd come to my last anchor 
 in that well this moment, if my duty to m'employers 
 required it. I'd lie down there this minute, and 
 never move to all eternity, and a day after, if it was 
 my duty to m'employers." 
 
 " No doubt," said Hazel, drily. *' But I think 
 you can serve your employers better in other 'parts 
 of the shijJ." He then left him, with a piece of 
 advice ; " to keep his eye upon that Wylie." 
 
 Mr. Hazel kept his own eye on AVylie so con- 
 stantly, that at eleven o'clock p.m., he saw that 
 worthy go into the captain's cabin with a quart 
 bottle of rum. 
 
 The coast was clear; the temptation great; these 
 men were still deceiving him with a feigned anta- 
 gonism ; he listened at the keyhole, not without 
 some compunction ; which, however, became less 
 and less as fragments of the dialogue reached his 
 ear. 
 
 For a long time the only speaker was Hudson, 
 and his discourse ran upon his own exploits at sea. 
 But suddenly Wylie's voice broke in with an un-
 
 150 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 mistakeable tone of superiorit}-. " Belay all that 
 chat, and listen to me. It is time we settled some- 
 thing. I'll hear what you have got to say : and 
 then you'll do what I say. Better keep your hands 
 off the bottle a minute ; you have had enough for 
 the present ; this is business. I know you are good 
 for jaw ; but what are ycu game to do for the 
 governor's money ? An3"thing ? " 
 
 " More than you have ever seen or heard tell of, 
 ye lubber," replied the irritated skipper. "Who 
 has ever served his employers like Hiram Hudson?" 
 
 " Keep that song for your quarter deck," retorted 
 the mate, contemptuously. " No ; on second 
 thoughts, just tell me how you have served your 
 employers, you old humbug. Give me chapter and 
 verse to choose from. Come now, the Neptune ?" 
 
 " Well, the Neptune ; she caught fire a hundred 
 leagues from land. Soviehody set a lighted candle 
 on a gallon of turpentine. Well, I put her head 
 before the wind, and ran for the Azores ; and I 
 stuck to her, sir, till she was as black as a coal, 
 and we couldn't stand on deck, but kept hopping 
 like parched peas ; and fire belching out of her 
 port-holes forward : then we took to the boats, and 
 saved a few bales of silk by way of sample of her
 
 FOUL PLAY. 101 
 
 cargo, and got ashore ; and she'd have come ashore 
 too next tide and tohl tales ; but somebody left a 
 keg of gunpowder in the cabin, with a long fuse, 
 and blew a hole in her old ribs, that the water came 
 in, and down she went, hissing like ten tliousand 
 serpents, and nobod}' the wiser/* 
 
 " Who lighted the fuse, I wonder ? " said "Wylie. 
 
 " Didn't I tell ye it was Somehochj ? " said Hud- 
 son. " Hand me tlie stiff." He replenished his 
 ghass, and after taking a sip or two, asked AVylie 
 if he had ever had the luck to be boarded by 
 pirates. 
 
 " No," said Wylie. " Have you ? '' 
 
 " Ay ; and they rescued me from a watery grave, 
 as the lubbers call it. Ye see, I was employed by 
 Downes & Co., down at the Havannah, and cleared 
 for Vera Cruz with some boxes of old worn-out 
 printers' type." 
 
 " To print psalm-books for the darkies, no doubt," 
 suggested Wylie. 
 
 " Insured as specie," continued Hudson, ignoring 
 the interruption. " Well, just at day-break one 
 morning, all of a sudden there was a rakish-looking 
 craft on our weather-bow : lets fly a nine-pounder 
 across our fore-foot, and was alongside before my
 
 152 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 men could tumble up from below. I got knocked 
 into the sea by the boom, and fell between the ships; 
 and the pirate he got hold of me, and poured hot 
 grog down my throat to bring me to my senses." 
 
 "That is not what 3'ou use it for in general," said 
 "NVylie, " Civil sort of pirate, though." 
 
 " Pirate be blowed. That was my consort, rigged 
 out with a black flag, and mounted with four nine- 
 jiounders on one side, and five dummies on the 
 other. He blustered a bit, and swore, and took 
 our type and our cabbages, (I complained to Downes 
 ashore about the vagabond taking the vegetables,) 
 and ordered us to leeward under all canvas, and 
 we never saw him again — not till he had shaved off 
 liis mustaches, and called on Downes to condole, 
 and say the varmint had chased his ship fifty leagues 
 out of her course; but he had got clear of him. 
 Downes complimented me publicly. Says he, 
 * This skipper boarded the pirate single handed ; 
 only he jumped short, and fell between the two 
 ships; and here he is by a miracle.' Then he 
 takes out his handkerchief, and flops his head on 
 my shoulder. ' His merciful preservation almost 
 reconciles me to the loss of my gold,' says the 
 thundering crocodile. Cleared 70,000 dollars he
 
 FOUL PLAY. 153 
 
 did out of the Manhattan Marine, and gave the 
 pirate and me but £200 between us both." 
 
 *' The Rose ? " said Wylie. 
 
 " What a huriy you are in ! Pass the grog. 
 "Well, the Rose; she la}^ off Ushant. "We canted 
 her to wash the decks ; lucky she had a careful 
 commander ; not like Kempenfelt, whose eye was in 
 his pocket, and his fingers held the pen, so he 
 went to the bottom, with lord knows how man}' 
 men. I noticed the squalls came yery sudden ; 
 so I sent most of my men ashore, and got the 
 boats read}' in case of accident. A squall did 
 strike her, and she was on her beam-ends in a 
 moment : we pulled ashore with two bales of silk 
 by way of salyage, and sample of what wasn't 
 in her hold when she settled down. "We landed ; 
 and the Frenchmen were dancing about with 
 excitement. * Captain,' says one, ' you have 
 much sang fraw.' ' Insured, mounseer,' says I. 
 * Bone,' says he. 
 
 " Then there was the Antelope, lost in charge 
 of a pilot off the Hooghly. I knew the water as 
 well as he did. We were on the port tack, stand- 
 ing towards the shoal. Weather it, as we should 
 have done next tack, and I should have failed in
 
 ]54 FOUL riAY. 
 
 Ill}' duty to any employers. Anything but that 
 ' Look out ! ' said I, ' Pilot, she forereaches in 
 stays.' Pilot was smoking : those Sandhead pilots 
 smoke in bed and asleep. He takes his cigar out 
 of his mouth for one moment. ' Pvead}^ about,' 
 says he. ' Hands 'bout ship. Helm's a-lee. 
 Ptaise tacks and sheets.' Kound she was coming 
 like a top. Pilot smoking. Just as he was going 
 to haul the mainsail, Somebody tripped against 
 him, and shoved the hot cigar in his 'eye. He 
 sung out and swore, and there was no mainsail 
 haul. Ship in irons, tide running hard on to the 
 shoal, and before we could clear away for anchor- 
 ing, bump ! — there she was hard and fast. A stiff 
 breeze got up at sunrise, and she broke up. Next 
 day I was sipping my grog and reading the 
 * Bengal Courier,' and it told the disastrous wreck 
 of the brig Antelope, wrecked in charge of a 
 pilot ; ' but no lives lost, and the owners fully 
 insured.' Then there was the bark Sail}'. Why, 
 you saw her yourself distressed, on a lee shore." 
 
 "Yes," said Wylie. "I was in that tub, the 
 Grampus, and we contrived to claw off the Scillies, 
 yet you in your smart Sally got ashore. "What 
 luck ! "
 
 FOUL PLAY. 155 
 
 " Luck be blowerl ! " cried Hudson, angrily. 
 " Somebody got into the chains to sound ; and cut 
 the lee halyards. Next tack the masts went over 
 the side ; and I had done my duty." 
 
 " Lives were lost that time, eh ? " said AVyhe, 
 gravely. 
 
 " What is that to you ? " replied Hudson, with 
 the sudden ire of a drunken man. " Mind your 
 own business. Pass the bottle." 
 
 "Yes, lives was lost: and always will be lost in 
 sea-going ships, where the skipper does his duty. 
 There was a sight more lost at Trafalgar, owing to 
 <?rer?/ man doing his duty. Lives lost, ye lubber! 
 And wh}'' not mine ? Because their time was come, 
 and mine wasn't. For I'll tell you one thing, Joe 
 Wylie, — if she takes hre and runs before the wind 
 till she is as black as a coal, and belching flame 
 through all her portholes, and then explodes, and 
 goes aloft in ten thousand pieces no bigger than my 
 hat, or your knowledge of navigation, Hudson is 
 the last man to leave her : Duty ! — If she goes on 
 her beam ends and founders, Hudson sees the last 
 of her, and reports it to his employers : Duty ! — 
 If she goes grinding on Scilly, Hudson is the last
 
 156 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 man to leave her bones : Duty ! — Some day perhaps 
 I shall be swamped myself along with the craft : I 
 have escaped till now, all owing to not being 
 insured ; but if ever my time should come, and 
 you should get clear, promise me, Joe, to see the 
 owners, and tell 'em Hudson did his duty." 
 
 Plere a few tears quenched his noble ardour for a 
 moment. But he soon recovered, and said, with 
 some little heat, " You have got the bottle again. 
 I never saw such a fellow to get hold of the bottle. 
 Come, here's ' Duty to our employers ! ' And now 
 I'll tell you how we managed with the Carysbrook 
 and the Amelia." 
 
 This promise was followed by fresh narratives : in 
 particular, of a vessel he had run upon the Florida 
 reef at night, where wreckers had been retained in 
 advance to look out for signals, and come on board 
 and quarrel in pretence and set fire to the vessel, 
 insured at thrice her value. 
 
 Hudson got quite excited with the memory of 
 these exploits, and told each successive feat louder 
 and louder. 
 
 But now it was Wylie's turn. " Well," said he, 
 gravely, " all this was child's play." 
 
 There was a pause that marked Hudson's as-
 
 FOUL PLAY. 157 
 
 toiiishment. Then he broke out, " Child's phiy, ye 
 lubber ! If you had been there your gills 
 would have been as white as your Sunday 
 shirt." 
 
 " Come, be civil," said Wylie. " I tell you all 
 the ways you have told me are too suspicious. 
 Our governor is a high-flyer ; he pays like a prince, 
 and, in return, he must not be blown on, if it is 
 ever so little. ' Wylie,' sa3's he, ' a breath of sus- 
 picion would kill me.' ' Make it so much,' saj^s I, 
 'and that breath shall never blow on you.' No, 
 no, skipper ; none of those ways will do for us : 
 they have all been worked twice too often. It must 
 be done in fair weather, and in a way — fill your 
 glass, and I'll fill mine — Capital rum this. You 
 talk of my gills turning white; before long, we 
 shall see whose keeps their colour best, mine or 
 yours, ray Bo." 
 
 There was a silence, during which Hudson was 
 probablj' asking himself what Wylie meant : for, 
 presently, he broke out into a loud, but somewhat 
 unstead}'- voice, " Win-, you mad, drunken devil of 
 a ship's carpenter, red-hot from hell, I see what 
 you are at, now ; you are going " 
 
 " Hush ! " cried W^ylie, alarmed in his turn.
 
 158 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " Is this the sort of thing to bellow out for the 
 watch to hear ? Whisper, now." 
 
 This was followed by the earnest mutterings of 
 two voices. In vain did the listener send his very- 
 soul into his ear to hear. He could catch no 
 single word. Yet he could tell, by the very tones 
 of the speakers, that the dialogue was one of 
 mystery and importance. 
 
 Here was a situation at once irritating and 
 alarming ; but there was no help for it. The best 
 thing, now, seemed to be to withdraw unobserved, 
 and wait for another opportunity. Pie did so : and 
 he had not long retired, when the mate came out 
 staggering, and flushed with liquor, and that was a 
 thing that had never occurred before. He left 
 the cabin door open, and went into his own 
 room. 
 
 Soon after, sounds issued from the cabin, 
 peculiar sounds, something between grunting and 
 snoring. 
 
 Mr. Hazel came and entered the cabin. There 
 he found the captain of the Proserpine in a position 
 very unfavourable to longevity. His legs were 
 crooked over the seat of his chair, and his head 
 was on tlie ground. His handkerchief was tight
 
 rOUL PLAY. 159 
 
 round his neck, and the man himself dead drunk, 
 and purple in the face. 
 
 Mr. Hazel instantly undid his stock on ; Avhich 
 the gallant seaman muttered inarticulately. He 
 
 CD *J 
 
 then took his feet off the chair, and laid them on 
 the ground, and put the empty bottle under the 
 animaFs neck. He gave the prostrate figure a 
 heavy kick that almost turned it over, and the 
 words, " Duty to m'employers," gurgled out of its 
 mouth directly. 
 
 It reall}' seemed as if these sounds were in- 
 dependent of the mind, and resided at the tip of 
 Hudson's tongue ; so that a thorough good kick 
 could, at any time, shake them out of his inanimate 
 body. 
 
 Thus do things ludicrous, and things terrible, 
 mingle in the real world ; only, to those who are 
 in the arena, tlie ludicrous passes unnoticed, being 
 overshadowed by its terrible neighbour. 
 
 And so it was with Hazel. He saw nothing 
 absurd in all this ; and in that prostrate, insensible 
 hog, commanding the sliip, forsooth, and carrying 
 all their lives in his hands : he saw the mysterious 
 and alarming only ; saw them so, and felt them, 
 tliat he lay awake all night thinking what he should
 
 160 FOUL TLAY. 
 
 do, and early next day lie went into the mate's 
 cabin, and said to liim, '' Mr. Wylie, in any other 
 ship I should speak to the captain, and not to the 
 mate ; but here that would be no use, for you are 
 the master, and he is your servant." 
 
 " Don't tell him so, sir, for he doesn't think 
 small beer of himself." 
 
 " I shall waste no more words on him. It 
 is to you I speak, and you know I speak the 
 truth. Here is a ship, in which, for certain 
 reasons known to yourself, the captain is under the 
 mate." 
 
 "Well, sir," said Wylie, good-humouredly, "it 
 is of no use trying to deceive a gentleman like 
 you. Our skipper is an excellent seaman, but 
 he has got a fault." Then Wylie imitated, with 
 his hand, the action of a person filling his glass. 
 
 " And you are here to keep him sober ? eh ? " 
 
 Wylie nodded. 
 
 " Then why do you ply him with liquor ? " 
 
 " I don't, sir." 
 
 " You do. I have seen you do it a dozen times : 
 and last night you took rum into his room, and 
 made him so drunk, he would have died where he 
 lay if I had not loosed liis handkerchief."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 161 
 
 " I am sorry to hear that, sir ; but he was sober 
 when I left him. The fool must have got to the 
 bottle the moment I was gone." 
 
 " But that bottle you put in his way ; I saw you : 
 and what was your object? to deaden his conscience 
 with liquor, his and your own, while you made him 
 your fiendish proposal. Man, man, do you believe 
 in God, and in a judgment to come for the deeds 
 done in the bod}^ that you can plan in cold blood 
 to destroy a vessel with nineteen souls on board, 
 besides the live stock, the innocent animals that 
 God pitied and spared, when he raised his hand in 
 wrath over Nineveh of old ? " 
 
 While the clergyman was speaking, with flashing 
 eyes and commanding voice, the seaman turned 
 ashy pale ; and drew his shoulders together like a 
 cat preparing to defend her life. 
 
 " I plan to destroy a vessel, sir ! You never 
 heard me say such a word ; and don't you hint 
 such a thing in the ship, or you will get yourself 
 into trouble." 
 
 " That depends on you." 
 
 " How so, sir ? " 
 
 " I have long suspected you." 
 
 " You need not tell me that, sir." 
 
 VOL. I. ^
 
 162 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " But I have not communicated my suspicions. 
 And now that they are certainties, I come first to 
 you. In one word, will you forego your intention, 
 since it is found out ? " 
 
 " How can I forego what never was in my 
 head ? " said Wylie. " Cast away the ship ! Why 
 there's no land within three thousand miles. 
 Founder a vessel in the Pacific ! Do you think 
 my life is not as sweet to me as yours is to 
 
 you ? " 
 
 AVylie eyed him keenly to see the effect of these 
 words, and by a puzzled expression that came over 
 his face, saw at once he had assumed a more exact 
 knowledge than he really possessed. 
 
 Hazel rej)lied that he had said nothing about 
 foundering the ship ; but there were many ways of 
 destroying one. " For instance," said he, *' I know 
 how the Neptune was destroyed — and so do you ; 
 how the Rose and the Antelope were cast away — 
 and so do you." 
 
 At this enumeration, Wylie lost his colour and 
 self-possession for a moment; he saw Hazel had 
 been listening. Hazel followed up his blow. 
 *' Promise me now, by all you hold sacred, to 
 forego this villany; and I hold my tongue. Attempt
 
 FOUL PLAY. 1G3 
 
 to defj'' me, or to throw dust in my eyes, and I go 
 instantly among the crew, and denounce both you 
 and Hudson to them." 
 
 " Good Heavens ! " cried Wylie, in unfeigned 
 terror. " Why, the men would mutiny on the 
 spot." 
 
 " I can't help that," said Hazel, firmly ; and took 
 a step towards the door. 
 
 " Stop a bit," said the mate, and, springing 
 before the clergyman, he set his back against the 
 door. "Don't be in such a nation hurry: for, if 
 you do, it will be bad for me, but worse for you." 
 The above was said so gravely, and with such 
 evident sincerity, that Mr. Hazel was struck, and 
 showed it. Wylie followed up that trifling ad- 
 vantage. " Sit down a minute, sir, if you please, 
 and listen to me. You never saw a mutiny on 
 board ship, I'll be bound. It is a worse thing than 
 any gale that ever blew : begins fair enough, some- 
 times ; but how does it end ? In breaking into the 
 spirit room, and drinking to madness, plundering 
 the ship, ravishing the women, and cutting a throat 
 or so for certain. You don't seem so fond of the 
 picture, as you was of the idea. And then they 
 
 might turn a deaf ear to you, after all. Ship is well 
 
 M 2
 
 164 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 found in all stores ; provisions served out freel}' ; 
 men in good humour ; and I have got their ear. 
 And now I'll tell you why it won't suit your little 
 game to blacken me to the crew, upon the bare 
 chance of a mutiny." He paused for a moment, 
 then resumed in a lower tone, " You see, sir, when 
 a man is very ready to suspect me, I always suspect 
 him. Now you was uncommon ready to suspect 
 me. You didn't wait till you came on board ; you 
 began the game ashore. Oh ! that makes you open 
 one eye, does it ? You thought I didn't know you 
 again. Knew you, my man, the moment you came 
 aboard. I never forget a face ; and disguises don't 
 pass on me." 
 
 It was now Hazel's turn to look anxious and 
 discomposed. 
 
 " Well, then, the moment I saw you suspected 
 me I was down upon you. You come aboard under 
 false colours. We didn't want a chap like you in 
 the ship ; but you would come. ' What is the bloke 
 after ? ' says I, and watches. You was so intent 
 suspecting me of this, that and t'other, that you 
 unguarded yourself : and that is common too. ' I'm 
 blowed if it isn't the lady he is after,' says I. With 
 all my heart : only she might do better, and I don't
 
 FOUL PLAY. 1C5 
 
 see how she could do worse, unless she went to old 
 Nick for a mate. Now, I'll tell you what it is, my 
 Ticket o' Leave. I've heen in trouble myself, and 
 don't want to be hard on a poor devil, just 
 because he sails under an alias, and lies as near the 
 wind as he can, to weather on the beaks and the 
 bobbies. But one good turn deserves another : 
 keep your dirty suspicions to yourself ; lor if you 
 dare to open your lips to the men, in five minutes, 
 or less than that, you shall be in irons, and confined 
 to your cabin ; and we'll put you ashore at the first 
 port that flies a British flag, and hand you over to 
 the authorities, till one of Her Majesty's cruisers 
 sends in a boat for 3'ou." 
 
 At this threat Mr. Hazel hung his head in 
 confusion and dismay. 
 
 " Come, get out of my cabin. Parson Alias," 
 shouted the mate ; " and belay your foul tongue 
 in this ship, and don't make an enemy of Joe Wylie, 
 a man that can eat you up and spit you out again, 
 
 and never brag. Sheer off, I say, and be d d 
 
 to you." 
 
 Mr. Hazel, with a pale face and sick heart, looked 
 aghast at this dangerous man, who could be fox, or 
 tiger, as the occasion demanded.
 
 166 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Surprised, alarmed, outwitted, and out-menaced, 
 he retired with disordered countenance and uneven 
 steps, and hid himself in his own cabin. 
 
 The more he weighed the whole situation, the 
 more clearly did he see that he was utterly power- 
 less in the hands of Wylie. A skipper is an 
 emperor ; and Hudson had the power to iron him, 
 and set him on shore at the nearest port. The 
 right to do it was another matter ; but even on that 
 head, Wylie could furnish a plausible excuse for 
 the act. Retribution, if it came at all, would not be 
 severe, and would be three or four years coming : 
 and who fears it much, when it is so dilatory, and 
 so weak, and doubtful into the bargain ? 
 
 He succumbed in silence for two days; and 
 then, in spite of Wylie's threat, he made one timid 
 attempt to approach the subject with Welch and 
 Cooper, but a sailor came up instantly, and sent 
 them forward to reef topsails. And whenever he 
 tried to enter into conversation with the jpair, some 
 sailor or other was sure to come up and listen. 
 
 Then he saw that he was spotted ; or, as we say 
 now-a-days, picketed. 
 
 He was at his wits' end. 
 
 He tried his last throw. He wrote a few lines
 
 FOUL PLAY. 167 
 
 « 
 
 to Miss RoUeston, requesting an interview. Aware 
 of the difficulties he had to encounter here, he 
 stilled his heart by main force, and wrote in terms 
 carefully measured. He begged her to believe he 
 had no design to intrude upon her, without absolute 
 necessity, and for her own good. Eespect for her 
 own wishes forbade this, and also his self-respect. 
 
 " But," said he, " I have made a terrible dis- 
 covery. The mate and the captain certainly intend 
 to cast away this ship. No doubt they will try and 
 not sacrifice their own lives and ours ; but risk 
 them they must, in the very nature of things. 
 Before troubling you, I have tried all I could, in 
 the way of persuasion and menace ; but am defeated. 
 So now it rests with you. You, alone, can save us 
 all. I will tell you how, if you will restrain your 
 repugnance, and accord me a short interview. Need 
 I say that no other subject shall be introduced by 
 me. In England, should we ever reach it, I may 
 perhaps try to take measures to regain your good 
 opinion ; but here, I am aware, that is impossible ; 
 and I shall make no attempt in that direction, upon 
 my honour." 
 
 To this there came a prompt and feminine 
 
 reply.
 
 168 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " The ship is Mr. Arthur Wardlaw's. The captain 
 and the mate are able men appointed by him ; 
 I shall hand them j'our letter : and I request, sir, 
 this may be your last communication of any kind 
 with 
 
 " Helen Anne Eolleston." 
 
 That night "Wylie came to his cabin and laid on 
 the table before him his letter to Miss Rolleston. 
 
 *' Now, lookye here, mate," said the man, " what's 
 to be the game between you and me ? Has love 
 for this gal druv you off your head ? Take warning, 
 and a last one, mind ye ! If you stir your eye to 
 cross my business, I blow the gaff. Til introduce 
 you to the lady under your true colours, and 
 introduce your reverend ancles to the irons atween 
 decks ! "What's got into ye ? " hissed the mate, 
 advancing his face close to Hazel's. And the rogue 
 looked down the honest man's eye that quailed 
 before him. "When Hazel looked uj), he was gone. 
 The poor fellow gazed on the letter, which Helen 
 had handed to the captain ; he saw that resistance 
 was useless ; his eyes wandered about in despair ; 
 His arms Imug listlessly by his side. He was 
 beaten.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 169 
 
 His mental distress brought on an attack of that 
 terrible malady, jaundice. 
 
 He crept about, yellow as a guinea ; a very scare- 
 crow. 
 
 He took no exercise ; he ate little food. He lay, 
 listless and dejected, about the deck. 
 
 The ship now encountered an adverse gale, and, 
 for three whole days, was under close-reefed top- 
 sails; she was always a wet ship under stress of 
 weather ; and she took in a good deal of water on 
 this occasion. On the fourth day it fell calm, and 
 Captain Hudson, having examined the well, and 
 found three feet of water, ordered the men to the 
 pumps. 
 
 After working through one watch, the well was 
 sounded again, and the water was so much reduced 
 that the gangs were taken off; and the ship being 
 now becalmed, and the weather lovely, the men 
 were allowed to dance upon deck to the boatswain's 
 fiddle. 
 
 While this pastime went on, the sun, large and 
 red, reached the horizon, and diffused a roseate 
 light over the entire ocean. 
 
 Not one of the current descriptions of heaven 
 approach the actual grandeur and beauty of the
 
 170 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 blue sky flecked with ruby and gold, and its liquid 
 mirror that lay below, calm, dimpled, and glorified 
 by that translucent, rosy tint. 
 
 While the eyes were yet charmed with this en- 
 chanting bridal of the sea and sky, and the ear 
 amused with the merry fiddle and the nimble 
 feet, that tapped the sounding deck so deftly at 
 every note, Cooper, who had been sounding the 
 well, ran forward all of a sudden, and flung a 
 thunderbolt in the midst. 
 
 "A Leak!"
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The fiddle ended in mid-tune, and the men 
 crowded aft with anxious faces. 
 
 The captain sounded the well, and found three 
 feet and a half water in it. He ordered all hands 
 to the pumps. 
 
 They turned to with a good heart, and pumped, 
 watch and watch, till day-hreak. 
 
 Their exertions counteracted the leak, but did 
 no more ; the water in the well was neither more 
 nor less perceptibly. This was a relief to their 
 minds, so far ; but the situation was a very serious 
 one. Suppose foul weather should come, and the 
 vessel ship water from above as well ! 
 
 Now, all those who were not on the pumps, set 
 to work to find out the leak and stop it if possible. 
 With candles in their hands, they crept about the 
 ribs of the ship, narrowly inspecting every corner, 
 and applying their ears to every suspected place,
 
 172 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 if liaply they might hear the water coining in. The 
 place where Hazel had found Wylie at work was 
 examined, along with the rest ; but neither there 
 nor anywhere else could the leak be discovered. 
 Yet the water was still coming in, and required un- 
 remitting labour to keep it under. It was then sug- 
 gested by Wylie, and the opinion gradually gained 
 ground, that some of the seams had opened in the 
 late gale, and were letting in the water by small but 
 numerous apertures. 
 
 Faces began to look cloudy; and Hazel, throwing 
 off his lethargy, took his spell at the main pump 
 with the rest. 
 
 When his gang was relieved he went away, 
 bathed in perspiration, and, leaning over the well, 
 sounded it. 
 
 While thus employed, the mate came behind him, 
 with his cat-like step, and said, " See what has 
 come on us with your forebodings ! It is the un- 
 luckiest thing in the world to talk about losing a 
 ship when she is at sea." 
 
 " You are a more dangerous man on board a ship 
 than I am," was Hazel's prompt reply. 
 
 The Avell gave an increase of three inches. 
 
 ]\Ir. Hazel now showed excellent qualities. He
 
 FOUL PLAY. 173 
 
 worked like a horse ; and, finding the mate skulk- 
 ing, he reproached him before the men, and, strip- 
 ping himself naked to the waist, invited him to do 
 a man's duty. The mate, thus challenged, complied 
 with a scowl. 
 
 They laboured for their lives, and the quantity of 
 water they discharged from the ship was astonish- 
 ing; not less than a hundred and ten tons every 
 hour. 
 
 Tliey gained upon the leak — only two inches; 
 but, in the struggle for life, this was an immense 
 victory. It was the turn of the tide. 
 
 A light breeze sprung up from the south-west, 
 and the captain ordered the men from the buckets 
 to make all sail on the ship, the pumps still 
 going. 
 
 'When this was done, he altered the ship's course, 
 and put her right before the wind, steering for the 
 island of Juan Fernandez, which, though distant, 
 was the nearest known land. 
 
 Probably it was the best thing he could do, in 
 that awful waste of water. But its effect on the 
 seamen was bad. It was hke giving in. They 
 got a little disheartened and flurried ; and the cold, 
 passionless water seized the advantage. It is pos-
 
 174 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 sible, too, that the motion of the ship through the 
 sea, aided the leak. 
 
 The Proserpine glided through the water all 
 night, like some terror-stricken creature, and the 
 incessant pumps seemed to he her poor heart heat- 
 ing loudly with breathless fear. 
 
 At day-break she had gone a hundred and twenty 
 miles. But this was balanced by a new and alarm- 
 ing feature. The water from the pumps no longer 
 came up pure, but mixed with what appeared to be 
 blood. 
 
 This got redder and redder, and struck terror 
 into the more superstitious of the crew. 
 
 Even Cooper, whose heart was stout, leaned over 
 the bulwarks, and eyed the red stream, gushing 
 into the sea from the lee scuppers, and said 
 aloud, " Ay, bleed to death, ye bitch ! We shan't 
 be long behind ye." 
 
 Hazel inquired, and found the ship had a quan- 
 tity of dye-wood amongst her cargo ; he told the 
 men this, and tried to keep up their hearts by his 
 words and his example. 
 
 He succeeded with some : but others shook their 
 heads. And by-and-by, even while he was work- 
 ing double tides, for them as well as for himself,
 
 FOTTL PLAY. 175 
 
 ominous murmurs met bis ear. " Parson aboard ! " 
 "Man aboard, witb t'otber world in bis face!" 
 And tbere were sinister glances to matcb. 
 
 He told tbis, with some alarm, to Welcb and 
 Cooper. Tbey promised to stand by bim; and 
 Welcb told bim it was all the mate's doing; 
 be bad gone amongst tbe men, and poisoned 
 tbem. 
 
 Tbe wounded vessel, witb ber ever-beating beart, 
 had run three hundred miles on tbe new tack. 
 She had almost ceased to bleed ; but what was as 
 bad, or worse, small fragments of her cargo and 
 stores came up with tbe water, and their miscel- 
 laneous character showed bow deeply tbe sea bad 
 now penetrated. 
 
 This, and their great fatigue, began to demoralise 
 the sailors. Tbe pumps and buckets were still plied, 
 but it was no longer with tbe uniform manner of 
 brave and hopeful men. Some stuck doggedly to 
 their work, but others got flurried, and ran from 
 one thing to another. Now and then a man would 
 stop, and burst out crying ; then to work again in 
 a desperate way. One or two lost heart altogether, 
 and had to be driven. Finally, one or two suc- 
 cumbed under tbe unremitting labour. Despair
 
 176 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 crept over others : their features began to change, 
 so much so, that several countenances were 
 hardly recognisable, and each, looking in the 
 other's troubled face, saw his own fate pictured 
 there. 
 
 Six feet water in the hold ! 
 
 The captain, who had been sober beyond his 
 time, now got dead drunk. 
 
 The mate took the command. On hearing this, 
 "Welch and Cooper left the pumps. "Wylie ordered 
 them back. They refused, and coolly lighted their 
 pipes. A violent altercation took place, which was 
 brought to a close by Welch. 
 
 " It is no use pumping the ship," said he. " She 
 is doomed. D'ye think we are blind, my mate and 
 me ? You got the long-boat ready for yourself 
 before ever the leak was sprung. Now get the 
 cutter ready for my mate and me." 
 
 At these simple words Wylie lost colour, and 
 walked aft without a word. 
 
 Next day there were seven feet water in the hold, 
 and quantities of bread coming up through the 
 pumps. 
 
 Wylie ordered the men from the pumps to the 
 boats. The long-boat was provisioned and lowered.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 177 
 
 While she was towing astern, the cutter was pre- 
 pared, and the ship left to fill. 
 
 All this time Miss Rolleston had heen kept in 
 the dark, not as to the danger, but as to its ex- 
 tent. Great was her surprise when Mr. Hazel 
 entered her cabin, and cast an ineffable look of pity- 
 on her. 
 
 She looked up surprised, and then angry. " How 
 dare you ? " she began. 
 
 He waved his hand in a sorrowful but command- 
 ing way. " Oh, this is no time for prejudice or 
 temper. The ship is sinking : we are going into 
 the boats. Pray make your preparations. Here 
 is a list I have written of the things you ought 
 to take : we may be weeks at sea, in an open 
 boat." 
 
 Then, seeing her dumb-foundered, he caught up 
 her carpet-bag, and threw her workbox into it for 
 a beginning. He then laid hands upon some of 
 her preserved meats, and marmalade, and carried 
 them off to his own cabin. 
 
 His mind then flew back to his reading, and 
 passed in rapid review, all the wants that men had 
 endured in open boats. 
 
 He got hold of Welch, and told him to be 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 sure and see there was x>lenty of spare canvas 
 on board, and sailing needles, scissors, &c.: 
 also three bags of biscuit, and, above all, a cask of 
 water. 
 
 He himself ran all about the ship, including the 
 mate's cabin, in search of certain tools he thought 
 would be wanted. 
 
 Then to his own cabin, to fill his carpet-bag. 
 There was little time to spare ; the ship was low 
 in the water, and the men abandoning her. He 
 flung the things into his bag, fastened and locked 
 it, strapped up his blankets for her use, flung on 
 his pea-jacket, and ran across to the starboard side. 
 There he found the captain lowering Miss Kol- 
 lestou, with due care, into the cutter, and the young 
 lady crying; not at being shipwrecked, but at being 
 deserted by her maid. Jane Holt, at this trymg 
 moment, had deserted her mistress for her husband. 
 This was natural ; but, as is the rule with persons 
 of that class, she had done it in the silliest and 
 crudest way. Had she given half-an-hour's notice 
 of her intention, Donovan might have been on 
 board the cutter with her and her mistress. But 
 no ; being a liar and a fool, she must hide her 
 husband to the last moment, and then desert her
 
 FOUL PLAY. 179 
 
 mistress. The captain, then, was comforting Miss 
 Rolleston, and telling her she should have her maid 
 with her eventually, when Hazel came ; he handed 
 down his own bag, and threw the blankets into the 
 stern-sheets ; then went down himself, and sat 
 on the midship thwart. 
 
 "Shove off," said the captain; and they fell 
 astern. 
 
 But Cooper, with a boat-hook, hooked on to 
 the long-boat ; and the dying ship towed them both. 
 Five minutes more elapsed, and the captain did 
 not come down, so Wylie hailed him. 
 
 There was no answer. Hudson had gone into 
 the mate's cabin. Wylie waited a minute, then 
 hailed again. " Hy ! on deck there ! " 
 " Hullo ! " cried the captain, at last. 
 " Why didn't you come in the cutter ? " 
 The captain crossed his arms, and leaned over 
 the stern. 
 
 " Don't you know that Hiram Hudson is always 
 the last to leave a sinking ship ? " 
 
 " Well, you are the last," said Wylie. " So now 
 come on board the long-boat at once. I dare not 
 tow in her wake much longer, to be sucked in when 
 she goes down." 
 
 N 2
 
 ISO FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " Come on board j-our craft, and desert my 
 own ? " said Hudson, disdainfully. " Know my 
 duty to m'employers better." 
 
 These words alarmed the mate. " Curse it all ! " 
 be cried ; " the fool has been and got some more 
 rum. Fifty guineas to the man that will shin up 
 the tow-rope, and throw that madman into the sea ; 
 then we can pick him up. He swims like a 
 cork." 
 
 A sailor instantly darted forward to the rope. 
 But, unfortunately, Hudson heard this proposal, and 
 it enraged him. He got to his cutlass. The sailor 
 drew the boat under the ship's stern, but the drunken 
 skipper flourished his cutlass furiously over his 
 head. " Board me ? ye pirates ! the first that lays 
 a finger on my bulwarks, off goes his hand at the 
 wrist." Suiting the action to the word, he hacked 
 at the tow-rope so vigorously that it gave way, and 
 the boats fell astern. 
 
 Helen Ilolleston uttered a shriek of dismay and 
 pity. " Oh, save him ! " she cried. 
 
 " Make sail ! " cried Cooper ; and, in a few 
 seconds, they got all her canvas set upon the 
 cutter. 
 
 It seemed a hopeless chase for these shells to
 
 FOUL TLAT. 181 
 
 sail after that (lying monster ^\ith lier cloud of 
 canvas all drawing, alow and aloft. 
 
 But it did not prove so. The gentle breeze was 
 an advantage to light craft, and the dying Proser- 
 pine was full of water, and could only crawl. 
 
 After a few moments of great anxiety, the boats 
 crept up, the cutter on her port, and the long-boat 
 on her starboard quarter. 
 
 Wylie ran forward, and, hailing Hudson, im- 
 plored him, in the friendliest tones, to give him- 
 self a chance. Then tried him by his vanity, 
 " Come, and command the boats, old fellow. How 
 can we navigate them on the Pacific, without 
 you ? " 
 
 Hudson was now leaning over the taffrail utterly 
 drunk. He made no reply to the mate, but merely 
 waved his cutlass feebly in one hand, and his 
 bottle in the other, and gurgled out, "Duty to 
 m'employers." 
 
 Then Cooper, without a word, double reefed the 
 cutter's mainsail, and ordered "Welch to keep as 
 close to the ship's quarter as he dare. Wylie in- 
 stinctively did the same, and the three craft crawled 
 on, in solemn and deadly silence, for nearly twenty 
 minutes.
 
 182 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 The wounded ship seemed to receive a death- 
 blow. She stopped dead, and shook. 
 
 The next moment she pitched gently forward, and 
 her bows went under the water, while her after- 
 part rose into the air, and revealed to those in the 
 cutter two splintered holes in her run, just below 
 the water-line. 
 
 Welch started up and gripped Cooper by the 
 shoulder ; he pointed to the holes, from which the 
 water was pouring in jets. 
 
 The next moment her stern settled down; the sea 
 yawned horribly ; the great waves of her own 
 making rushed over her upper deck ; and the lofty 
 masts and sails, remaining erect, went down with 
 sad majesty into the deep : and nothing remained 
 but the bubbling and foaming of the voracious 
 water, that had swallowed up the good ship and her 
 cargo, and her drunken master. 
 
 All stood up in the boats, ready to save him. 
 But the suction of the timber leviathan drew him 
 down. He was seen no more in this world. 
 
 A loud sigh broke from every living bosom that 
 witnessed that terrible catastrophe. 
 
 It was beyond words : and none were uttered, 
 except by Cooper, who spoke so seldom ; yet now
 
 FOUL PLAY. 183 
 
 • 
 
 three words of terrible import burst from him, 
 and, uttered in his loud deep voice, rang like 
 the sunk ship's knell over the still bubbling 
 water, — 
 
 "scuttled — BY god!"
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 " Hold your tongue," said Welch, witli an oath. 
 
 Mr. Hazel looked at Miss Rolleston, and she at 
 him. It was a momentary glance, and her eyes 
 sank directly, and filled with patient tears. For 
 the first few minutes after the Proserpine went 
 down, the survivors sat benumbed, as if awaiting 
 their turn to be engulfed. 
 
 They seemed so little, and the Proserpine so big; 
 3'et she was swallowed before their eyes, like a 
 crumb. They lost, for a few moments, all idea 
 of escaping. 
 
 But, true it is, that, " while there's life there's 
 hope : " and, as soon as their hearts began to beat 
 again, their eyes roved round the horizon, and their 
 elastic minds recoiled against despair. 
 
 This was rendered easier by the wonderful beauty 
 of the weather. There were men there, who had 
 got down from a sinking ship, into boats heaving
 
 FOUL PLAY. 185 
 
 and tossing against her side in a gale of wind, and 
 yet been saved : and here all was calm and delight- 
 ful. To be sure, in those other shipwrecks, land 
 had been near, and their greatest peril was over 
 when once the boats got clear of the distressed ship 
 Avithout capsizing. Here was no immediate peril ; 
 but certain death menaced them, at an uncertain 
 distance. 
 
 Their situation was briefly this. Shoukl it come 
 on to blow a gale, these open boats, small and 
 loaded, could not hope to live. Therefore they 
 had two chances for life, and no more : they must 
 either make land, — or be picked up at sea, — before 
 the weather changed.; 
 
 But how ? The nearest known land was the 
 group of islands called Juan Fernandez, and they 
 lay somewhere to leeward ; but distant more than 
 one thousand miles : and should they prefer the 
 other chance, then they must beat three hundred 
 miles and more, to windward ; for Hudson, under- 
 rating the leak, as is supposed, had run the Proser- 
 pine fully that distance out of the track of trade. 
 
 Now the ocean is a highwaj^ — in law : but, in 
 fact, it contains a few highways, and millions of 
 by-ways ; and once a cockle-shell gets into those
 
 186 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 by-ways, small indeed is its chance of being seen 
 and picked up by any sea-going vessel. 
 
 Wylie, who was leading, lowered his sail, and 
 hesitated between the two courses we have indicated. 
 However, on the cutter coming up with him, he 
 ordered Cooper to keep her head north-east, and so 
 run all night. He then made all the sail he could 
 in the same direction, and soon outsailed the cutter. 
 AVhen the sun went down, he was about a mile 
 ahead of her. 
 
 Just before sunset, Mr. Hazel made a discovery 
 that annoyed him very much. He found that Welch 
 had put only one bag of biscuit, a ham, a keg of 
 spirit, and a small barrel of water, on board the 
 cutter. 
 
 He remonstrated with him sharply. Welch re- 
 plied that it was all right ; the cutter, being small, 
 he had put the rest of her provisions on board the 
 long-boat. 
 
 " On board the long-boat 1 " said Hazel, with a 
 look of wonder. " You have actually made our 
 lives depend upon that scoundrel AVylie again. You 
 deserve to be flung into the sea. You have no 
 forethought yourself : yet you will not be guided by 
 those that have it."
 
 FOUL PLAY. 187 
 
 "Welch hung his head a little at these reproaches. 
 However, he replied, rather sullenly, that it was 
 only for one night ; they could signal [the long- 
 boat in the morning, and get the other bags, 
 and the cask, out of her. But Mr. Hazel was not 
 to be appeased. " The morning ! Wh}^ she sails 
 three feet to our two. How do you know he won't 
 run away from us ? I never expect to get within 
 ten miles of him again. We know him ; and he 
 knows we know him." 
 
 Cooper got up, and patted Mr. Hazel on the 
 shoulder, soothingly. " Boat-hook aft," said he 
 to Welch. 
 
 He then, by an ingenious use of the boat-hook, 
 and some of the spare canvas, contrived to set out a 
 studding-sail on the other side of the mast. 
 
 Hazel thanked him warmly. " But, oh, Cooper ! 
 Cooper ! " said he, " I'd give all I have in the world 
 if that bread and water were on board the cutter 
 instead of the long-boat." 
 
 The cutter had now two wings, instead of one ; 
 the water bubbling loud under her bows marked 
 her increased speed ; and all fear of being greatly 
 outsailed by her consort began to subside. 
 
 A slight sea-fret came on, and obscured the sea
 
 188 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 in part ; but they had a good lantern and compass, 
 and steered the course exactly, all night, according 
 to Wylie's orders, changing tlie helmsman every 
 four hours. 
 
 Mr. Hazel, without a word, put a rug round Miss 
 Rolleston's shoulders, and another round her feet. 
 
 " Oh, not both, sir, please," said she. 
 
 " Am I to be disobeyed by everybody ? " said he. 
 
 Then she submitted in silence, and in a certain 
 obsequious way that was quite new, and well 
 calculated to disarm anger. , 
 
 Sooner or later, all slept, except the helmsman. 
 
 At day-break, Mr. Hazel was wakened by a loud 
 hail from a man in the bows. 
 
 All the sleepers started up. 
 
 "Long-boat not in sight ! " 
 
 It was too true. The ocean was blank : not a 
 sail, large or small, in sight. 
 
 Many voices spoke at once. 
 
 " He has carried on till he has capsized her." 
 
 " He has given us the slip." 
 
 Unwilling to believe so great a calamity, every 
 eye peered and stared all over the sea. In vain.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 189 
 
 Not a streak that could be a boat's hull, not a speck 
 that could be a sail. 
 
 The little cutter was alone upon the ocean. Alone, 
 with scarcely two days* provisions, one thousand 
 miles from land, and four hundred miles to leeward 
 of the nearest sea-road. 
 
 Hazel, seeing his worst forebodings realised, sat 
 down in moody, bitter, and boding silence. 
 
 Of the other men some raged, and cursed. Some 
 wept aloud. 
 
 The lady, more patient, put her hands together, 
 and prayed to Him, who made the sea, and all that 
 therein is. Yet her case was the cruelest. For 
 she was by nature more timid than the men, yet 
 she must share their desperate peril. And then 
 to be alone with all these men, and one of them had 
 told her he loved her ! Shame tortured this delicate 
 creature, as well as fear. Happy for her, that of 
 late, and only of late, she had learned to pray in 
 earnest. "Qui precari novit, premi potest, non 
 potest opprimi." 
 
 It was now a race between starvation and drown- 
 ing, and either way death stared them in the face.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The long-boat was, at this moment, a liundred 
 miles to windward of the cutter. 
 
 The fact is, that Wylie, the evening before, had 
 been secretly perplexed as to the best course. He 
 had decided to run for the island; but he was not 
 easy under his own decision ; and, at night, he got 
 more and more discontented with it. Finally, at 
 nine o'clock p.m., he suddenly gave the order to 
 luff, and tack ; and by day-break he was very near 
 the place where the Proserpme went down : where- 
 as the cutter, having run before the wind all night, 
 was, at least, a hundred miles to leeward of him. 
 
 Not to deceive the reader, or let him, for a mo- 
 ment, think we do business in monsters, we will 
 weigh this act of "Wylie's justly. 
 
 It was a piece of iron egotism. He preferred, 
 for himself the chance of being picked up by a 
 vessel. He thought it was about a hair's-breadth
 
 FOUL PLAT. 191 
 
 better than running for an island, as to whose 
 hearing he was not very clear, after all. 
 
 But he was not sure he was taking the best or 
 safest course. The cutter might be saved, after all, 
 and the long-boat lost. 
 
 Meantime he was not sorry of an excuse to shake 
 off the cutter. She contained one man at least who 
 knew he had scuttled the Proserpine ; and therefore 
 it was all important to him to get to London before 
 her, and receive the two thousand pounds, which 
 was to be his reward for that abominable act. 
 
 But the way to get to London before Mr. Hazel, 
 or else to the bottom of the Pacific before him, was 
 to get back into the sea-road, at all hazards. 
 
 He was not aware that the cutter^s water and 
 biscuit were on board his boat ; nor did he discover 
 this till noon next day. And on makmg this fearful 
 discovery, he showed himself human : he cried out 
 with an oath, " What have I done ? I have damned 
 myself to all eternity ? " 
 
 He then ordered the boat to be put before the 
 wind again; but the men scowled, and not one 
 stirred a finger ; and he saw the futiUty of this, and 
 did not persist : but groaned aloud : and then sat, 
 staring wildly : finally, like a true sailor, he got to
 
 19~ FOUL PLAY. 
 
 the rum, and stupified his agitated conscience for a 
 time. 
 
 While he lay drunk, at the bottom of the boat, his 
 sailors carried out his first instructions, beating 
 southward right in the wind's eye. 
 
 Five days they beat to windward, and never saw 
 a sail. Then it fell dead calm; and so remained 
 for three days more. 
 
 The men began to suffer greatly from cramps, 
 owing to their number and confined position. 
 During the calm, they rowed all day, and with 
 this, and a light westerly breeze that sprung up, 
 they got into the sea-road again : but having now 
 sailed three hundred and fifty miles to the south- 
 ward, they found a great change in the tempera- 
 ture : the nights were so cold they were fain to 
 huddle together, to keep a little warmth in their 
 bodies. 
 
 On the fifteenth day of their voyage it began to 
 rain and blow, and then they were never a whole 
 minute out of peril. Hand for ever on the sheet, 
 eye on the waves, to ease her at the right moment : 
 and, with all this care, the spray eternally flying 
 half way over her mast, and often a body of water 
 making a clean breach over her, and the men balinfr
 
 FOUL PLAY, 19(j 
 
 night and day with their veiy hats, or she could not 
 have lived an hour. 
 
 At last, when they w^ere almost dead with Avet, 
 cold, fatigue, and danger, a ship came in sight, and 
 crept slowly up, about two miles to windward of the 
 distressed boat. With the heave of the waters they 
 could see little more than her sails ; but they ran 
 up a bright bandana handkerchief to their mast- 
 head ; and the ship made them out. She hoisted 
 Dutch colours, and — continued her course. 
 
 Then the poor abandoned creatures wept, and 
 raved, and cursed, in their phrenzy, glaring after 
 that cruel, shameless man, who could do such an 
 act, yet hoist a colour, and show of wliat nation he 
 was the native — and the disgrace. 
 
 But one of them said not a word. This was 
 AVylie. He sat shivering, and remembered how he 
 had abandoned the cutter, and all on board. Loud 
 sighs broke from his labouring breast ; but not a 
 word. Yet one word was ever present to his mind ; 
 and seemed written in fire on the night of clouds, 
 and howled in his ears by the wind — Retribution ! 
 
 And now came a dirty night — to men in ships ; 
 a fearful night to men in boats. The sky black, the 
 sea on fire with crested billows, that broke over 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 FOUL TLAY. 
 
 tliem every minute ; their light was washed out ; 
 their provisions drenched and spoiled : bale as they 
 would, the boat was always filling. Up to their 
 knees in water; cold as ice, blinded with spray, 
 deafened with roaring billows, they tossed and 
 tumbled in a fiery foaming hell of waters, and still, 
 though despairing, clung to their lives, and baled 
 with their hats unceasingly. 
 
 Day broke, and the first sight it revealed to them 
 was a brig to windward staggering along, and pitch- 
 ing under close-reefed topsails. 
 
 They started up, and waved their hats, and cried 
 aloud. But the wind carried their voices to leeward, 
 and the brig staggered on. 
 
 They ran up their little signal of distress ; but 
 still the vessel staggered on. 
 
 Then the miserable men shook hands all round, 
 and gave themselves up for lost. 
 
 But, at this moment, the brig hoisted a vivid flag 
 all stripes and stars, and altered her course a point 
 or two. 
 
 She crossed the boat's track a mile ahead, and 
 her people looked over the bulwarks, and waved 
 their hats to encourage those tossed and desperate 
 men.
 
 FOUL TLAY. 195 
 
 Having tlms given tliem the weather gage, she 
 hove-to for them. 
 
 They ran down to her, and crept under her 
 lee ; down came ropes to them, hehl by friendly 
 hands, and friendly faces slione down at them ; 
 eager grasps seized each as he went up the ship's 
 side, and so, in a very short time, they sent the 
 woman up, and the rest being all sailors, and 
 clever as cats, they were safe on board the whaling 
 brig Maria, Captain Slocum, of Nantucket, U. S. 
 
 Their log, compass, and instruments, were also 
 saved. 
 
 The boat was cast adrift, and was soon after seen 
 bottom upwards on the crest of a wave. 
 
 The good Samaritan in command of the Maria 
 supplied them with dry clothes out of the ship's 
 stores, good food, and medical attendance, which 
 was much needed, their legs and feet being in 
 a deplorable condition, and their own surgeon 
 crippled. 
 
 A south-easterly gale induced the American 
 skipper to give Cape Horn a wide berth, and the 
 Maria soon found herself three degrees south of 
 that perilous coast. There she encountered field- 
 ice. In this labyrinth they dodged and worried 
 
 2
 
 196 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 for eighteen days, until n sudden chop in the wind 
 gave the captain a chance of which he promptly 
 availed himself; and in forty hours sighted Terra 
 del Fuego. 
 
 During this time, the rescued crew having 
 recovered from the effects of their hardships, fell 
 in to the work of the ship, and took their turns with 
 the Yankee seamen. The brig was short-handed ; 
 but trimmed and handled by a full crew, — and the 
 Proserpine's men, who were first-class seamen, 
 worked with a will because work was no longer 
 a duty, — she exhibited a speed the captain had 
 almost forgotten was in the craft. Now speed at 
 sea means economy, for every day added to a voyage 
 is so much off the profits. Slocum was part owner 
 of the boat, and shrewdly alive to the value of the 
 seamen. When about three hundred miles south of 
 Buenos Ayres, Wylie proposed that they should be 
 landed there, from whence they might be tran- 
 shipped to a vessel bound for home. This was 
 objected to by Slocum, on the ground that by such 
 a deviation from his course he must lose three 
 days, and the port dues at Buenos Ayres were 
 heavy. 
 
 Wylie undertook that the house of Wardlaw &,
 
 FOUL I'LAY. 197 
 
 Son should indemnify the brig for all expenses and 
 losses incurred. 
 
 Still the American hesitated ; at hist he honestly 
 told Wylie he wished to keep the men ; he liked 
 them, they liked him. He had sounded them, and 
 they had no objection to join his ship, and sign 
 articles for a three years' wlialing voyage, provided 
 they did not thereby forfeit the wages to which they 
 would be entitled on reaching Liverpool. "NVylie 
 went forward and asked the men if they would take 
 service with the Yankee captain. All but three 
 expressed their desire to do so ; these three had 
 families in England, and refused. The mate gave 
 the others a release, and an order on "Wardlaw &, Co. 
 for their full wages for the voyage ; then they signed 
 articles with Captain Slocum, and entered the 
 American Mercantile Navy. 
 
 Two days after this they sighted the high lands 
 at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata at 10 p.m., 
 and lay-to for a pilot. After three hours' 
 delay they were boarded by a pilot-boat, and 
 then began to creep into the port. The night 
 was very dark, and a thin white fog la}' on the 
 water. 
 
 Wylie was sitting on the taffrail, and conversing
 
 198 JQUL PLAY. 
 
 •with Slocum, when the look-out forward sung out^ 
 " Sail ho ! " 
 
 Another voice almost simultaneousl}' yelled out 
 of the fog, " Port your helm ! " 
 
 Suddenl}'', out. of the mist, and close aboard the 
 Maria, appeared the hull and canvas of a very large 
 ship. The brig was crossing her course, and the 
 ship's great bowsprit barely missed the brig's main- 
 sail. It stood for a moment over Wylie's head. He 
 looked up, and there was the figure-head of the ship 
 looming almost within his reach. It was a colossal 
 green woman ; one arm extended grasped a golden 
 harp, the other was pressed to her head in the 
 attitude of holding back her wild and flowing hair. 
 The face seemed to glare down upon the two men : 
 in another moment the monster, gliding on, just 
 missing the brig, was lost in the fog. 
 
 " That was a narrow squeak," said Slocum. 
 
 Wylie made no answer, but looked into the dark- 
 ness after the vessel. 
 
 He had recognised her figure-head. 
 
 It was the Shannon.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Befoke the Maria sailed again with the men 
 who formed a part of Wylie's crew, he made them 
 sign a declaration hefore the English Consul at 
 Buenos Ayres. This document set forth the 
 manner in which the Proserpine foundered ; it was 
 artfull}' made up of facts, enough to deceive a 
 careless listener; but when Wylie read it over to 
 them, he slurred over certain parts, which he took 
 care, also, to express in language above the com- 
 prehension of such men. Of course, they assented 
 eagerly to what they did not understand, and signed 
 the statement conscientiously. 
 
 So Wylie and his three men were shipped on 
 board the Boadicea, bound for Liverpool, in Old 
 England, while the others sailed with Captain 
 Slocum, for Nantucket, in New England. 
 
 The Boadicea was a clipper laden with hides and 
 a miscellaneous cargo. For seventeen da3-s she
 
 200 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 flew before a soutlierl}' gale, being on her best 
 sailing point, and after one of the shortest passages 
 she had ever made, she lay-to outside the bar, 
 off the Mersey. It wanted but one hour to 
 daylight, the tide was flowing ; the pilot sprang 
 aboard. 
 
 " What do you draw ? " he asked of the master. 
 
 " Fifteen feet, barely," w'as the reply. 
 
 " That wall do," and the vessel's head was laid 
 for the river. 
 
 They passed a large barque, with her top-sails 
 backed. 
 
 " Ay," remarked the pilot, " she has waited 
 since the half-ebb ; there ain't more than four 
 hours in the twent^'-four that such craft as that 
 can get in." 
 
 " What is she ? An American liner ? " asked 
 Wylie, peering through the gloom. 
 
 " No," said the pilot ; " she's an Australian ship. 
 The Shannon, from Sydney." 
 
 The mate started, looked at the man, then at the 
 vessel. Twice the Shannon had thus met him, as if 
 to satisfy him that his object had been attained, and 
 each time she seemed to him not an inanimate 
 thing, but a silent accomplice. A chill of fear
 
 FOUL PLAY. -01 
 
 struck through the man's frame as he lookeel at 
 her. Yes, there she lay, and in her hold were safely- 
 stowed £100,000 in gold, marked lead and copper. 
 
 Wylie had no luggage nor effects to detain him 
 on hoard ; he landed, and having bestowed his three 
 companions in a sailors' hoarding-house, he was 
 hastening to the shipping agents of Wardlaw & Son 
 to announce his arrival and the fate of the 
 Proserpine. He had reached their offices in Water 
 Street before he recollected that it was barely half- 
 past five o'clock, and though broad daylight on that 
 July morning, merchants' offices are not open at 
 that hour. The sight of the Shannon had so 
 bewildered him that he had not noticed that the 
 shops were all shut, the streets deserted. Then a 
 thought occurred to him — why not be the bearer of 
 his own news ? He did not require to turn the 
 idea twice over, but resolved for many reasons to 
 adopt it. As he hurried to the railway-station, he 
 tried to recollect the hour at which the early train 
 started ; but his confused and excited mind refused 
 to perform the function of memory. The Shannon 
 dazed him. 
 
 At the railway-station he found that a train had 
 started at i a.m., and there was nothing until 7'.30.
 
 202 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 This check sobered him a little, and he went back 
 to the docks : he walked out to the further end of 
 that noble line of berths, and sat down on the verge 
 with his legs dangling over the water. He waited 
 an hour : it was six o'clock by the great dial at 
 St. George's Dock. His eyes were fixed on the 
 Shannon, which was moving slowly up the river ; 
 she came abreast to where he sat. The few sails 
 requisite to give her steerage, fell. Her anchor-chain 
 rattled, and she swung round with the tide. The 
 clock struck the half-hour : a boat left the side of 
 the vessel, and made straight for the steps near 
 where he was seated. A tall, noble looking man 
 sat in the stern sheets, beside the coxswain ; he was 
 put ashore, and, after exchanging a few words with 
 the boat's crew, he mounted the steps which led 
 him to Wj'lie's side, followed by one of the sailors, 
 who carried a portmanteau. 
 
 He stood for a single moment on the quay, and 
 stamped his foot on the broad stones ; tlien heaving 
 a deep sigh of satisfaction, he murmured, — " Thank 
 God!" 
 
 He turned towards Wylie. 
 
 " Can you tell me, my man, at what hour the 
 first train starts for London ? "
 
 rouL PLxVY. 20i> 
 
 " There is a slow train at 7-30, and an express 
 at 9." 
 
 " Tlie express will serve me, and give me time 
 for breakfast at the Adelphi. Thank you — good 
 morning;" and the gentleman passed on, followed 
 b}^ the sailor. 
 
 Wylie looked after him; he noted that erect 
 military carriage, and crisp, grey hair, and thick 
 white moustache : he had a vague idea that he 
 had seen that face before, and the memory troubled 
 him. 
 
 At 7-30 Wylie started for London ; the military 
 man followed him in the express at 9, and caught 
 him up at Watford; together they arrived at the 
 station at Euston Square; it wanted a quarter to 
 three. Wylie hailed a cab, but, before he could 
 struf^sle through the crowd to reach it, a railway 
 porter threw a portmanteau on its roof, and his 
 military acquaintance took possession of it. 
 
 " All right," said the porter. " What address, 
 sir .'' 
 
 Wylie did not hear what the gentleman said, but 
 the porter shouted it to the cabman, and then he 
 did hear it. 
 
 " No. — , Russell Square."
 
 204 FOUL ]'LAY. 
 
 It was the house of Arthur Wardlaw ! 
 
 Wylie took off his hat, rubbed his frowsy hair, 
 and gaped after the cab. 
 
 He entered another cab and told the driver to 
 go to " No. — , Fenchurch Street." 
 
 It was the office of Wardlaw & Son.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Our scene now changes from the wikl ocean and 
 its perils, to a snug room in Fenchurch Street ; the 
 inner office of Wartllaw & Son : a large apartment, 
 panelled with fine old mellow Spanish oak ; and all 
 the furniture in keeping : the carpet, a thick Ax- 
 minster of sober colours; the chairs, of oak and 
 morocco, very substantial ; a large office table, with 
 oaken legs like very columns, substantial ; two 
 Milner safes ; a globe of unusual size, with a hand- 
 some tent over it, made of roan leather, figured ; 
 the walls hung with long oak boxes, about eight 
 inches broad, containing rolled maps of high qua- 
 lity, and great dimensions ; to consult which, oaken 
 sceptres tipped with brass hooks stood ready : 
 with these, the great maps could be drawn down and 
 inspected ; and, on being released, flew up into their 
 wooden boxes again. Besides these were hung up 
 a few drawings, representing outlines, and inner
 
 206 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 sections, of vessels : and on a smaller table, lay- 
 models, almanacks, etc. The great office-table was 
 covered with writing materials and papers, all but a 
 square space enclosed with a little silver rail, and 
 inside that space lay a purple morocco case about 
 ten inches square : it was locked, and contained an 
 exquisite portrait of Helen Piolleston. 
 
 This apartment was so situated, and the frames 
 of the plate ghiss windows so well made and sub- 
 stantial, that, let a storm blow a thousand ships 
 ashore, it could not be felt, nor heard, in Wardlaw's 
 inner office. 
 
 But appearances are deceitful ; and who can wall 
 out a sea of troubles, and the tempests of the 
 mind ? 
 
 The inmate of that office was battling for his 
 commercial existence, under accumulated difficulties 
 and dangers. Like those who sailed the Proser- 
 pine's long-boat upon that dirty night, which so 
 nearly swamped her, his eye had now to be on every 
 "wave, and the sheet for ever in his hand. 
 
 His measures had been ably taken ; but, as will 
 happen when clever men are driven into a corner, 
 he had backed events rather too freely against time ; 
 had allowed too slight a margin for unforeseen de-
 
 FOUL PLAY. 207 
 
 lays. For instance, lie had averaged the Shannon's 
 previous performances, and had calculated on her 
 arrival too nicely. She was a fortnight over-due. 
 and that delay brought peril. 
 
 He had also counted upon getting news of the 
 Proserpine. But not a word had reached Lloyd's 
 as yet. 
 
 At this very crisis came the panic of 'GG. Over- 
 end & Gurney broke ; and Wardlaw's experience led 
 him to fear that, sooner or later, there would be a 
 run on every bank in London. Now he had bor- 
 rowed ^680,000 at one bank, and £35,000 at an- 
 other : and, without his ships, could not possibly 
 pay a quarter of the money. If the banks in 
 question were run upon, and obliged to call in all 
 their resources, his credit must go ; and this, in his 
 precarious position, was ruin. 
 
 He had concealed his whole condition from his 
 father, b}^ false book-keeping. Indeed, he had only 
 two confidants in the world ; poor old Michael Pen- 
 fold, and Helen Rolleston's portrait; and even to 
 these two he made half confidences. He dared not 
 tell either of them all he had done, and all he was 
 going to do. 
 
 His redeeming feature was as bright as ever. He
 
 208 FOUL PLAY'. 
 
 still loved Helen Rolleston with a chaste, constant, 
 and ardent affection, that did him honour. He 
 loved money too well : but he loved Helen better. 
 In all his troubles and worries, it was his one con- 
 solation, to unlock her portrait, and gaze on it, and 
 purify his soul for a few minutes. Sometimes he 
 would apologise to it, for an act of doubtful morality. 
 " How can I risk the loss of you ? " was his favourite 
 excuse. No : he must have credit. He must have 
 money. She must not suffer by his past im- 
 prudences. They must be repaired, at any cost 
 — for her sake. 
 
 It was ten o'clock in the morning : Mr. Penfold 
 was sorting the letters for his employer, when a 
 buxom young woman rushed into the outer office, 
 crying " Oh, Mr. Peufolds ! " and sank into a chair, 
 breathless. 
 
 *' Dear heart ! what is the matter now ? " said the 
 old gentleman. 
 
 " I have had a dream, sir : I dreamed I saw Joe 
 Wylie out on the seas, in a boat; and the wind it 
 was a blowing and the sea a roaring to that degree 
 as Joe looked at me, and says he, ' Pray for me, 
 Nancy Ptouse.'' 
 
 " So I says, * Oh dear, Joe, what is the mat-
 
 FOIL PLAY. 200 
 
 ter? and wluvtever is become of the Proser- 
 pines ? " 
 
 " Says he again, ' Pray for me, Nanc}' Rouse ! ' 
 With that, I tries to pray in my dream, and screams 
 instead, and wakes myself. Mr. Penfolds, do tell 
 me, have you got any news of the Proserpines this 
 morning ? " 
 
 " "What is that to you ? " inquired Arthur Ward- 
 law, who had entered just in time to hear this last 
 query. 
 
 " What is it to me ! " cried Nancy, firing up ; 
 " it is more to me, perhaps, than it is to you, for 
 that matter." 
 
 Penfold explained, timidly, " Sir, Mrs. Rouse is 
 my landlady." 
 
 " Which I have never been to church with any 
 man yet of the name of Rouse, leastways, not in 
 my waking hours," edged in the lady. 
 
 " Miss Rouse, I should say : " said Penfold, apolo- 
 gising. " I beg pardon, but I thought Mrs. might 
 sound better in a landlady. Please sir, Mr. Wylie 
 the mate of the Proserpine is her — her — sweet- 
 heart." 
 
 " Not he. Leastways, he is only on trial, after a 
 manner." 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 " Of course, sir — only after a manner," added 
 Penfold, sadly perplexed. " Miss Rouse is inca- 
 pable of anything else. But, if you please m'm, I 
 don't presume to know the exact relation : " — and 
 then with great reserve — " but, you know you are 
 anxious about him." 
 
 Miss Eouse sniffed, and threw her nose in the 
 air — as if to throw a doubt even on that view of the 
 matter. 
 
 " Well, madam," said Wardlaw, " I am sorry to 
 say I can give you no information. I share your 
 anxiety, for I have got ^6160, 000 of gold in the 
 ship. You might inquire at Lloyd's. Direct 
 her there, Mr. Penfold, and bring me ray 
 letters." 
 
 "With this he entered his inner office, sat down, 
 took out a golden key, opened the portrait of Helen, 
 gazed at it, kissed it, uttered a deep sigh, and pre- 
 pared to face the troubles of the day. 
 
 Penfold brought in a leathern case, like an enor- 
 mous bill-book : it had thirty vertical compartments : 
 and the names of various cities and sea-ports, with 
 which Wardlaw & Son did business, were printed 
 in gold letters on some of these compartments ; on 
 others, the names of persons ; and on two compart-
 
 FOUL PLAY. 211 
 
 ments, the word " Miscellaneous." Michael brought 
 this machine in, filled with a correspondence, 
 enough to break a man's heart to look at. 
 
 This was one of the consequences of Wardlaw's 
 position. He durst not let his correspondence be 
 read, and filtered, in the outer office : he opened 
 the whole mass ; sent some back into the outer 
 office : then touched a hand-bell, and a man emerged 
 from the small apartment adjoining his own. This 
 was Mr. Atkins, his short-hand writer. He dictated 
 to this man some twent}' letters, which were taken 
 down in short-hand ; the man retired to copy them, 
 and write them out in duplicate from his own liotes, 
 and this reduced the number to seven : these Ward- 
 law sat down to write, himself, and lock up the 
 copies. 
 
 "While he Avas writing them, he received a visitor 
 or two, whom he despatched as quickly as his 
 letters. 
 
 He was writing his last letter, when he heard in 
 
 the outer office a voice he thought he knew. He 
 
 got up and listened. It was so. Of all the voices 
 
 in the city, this was the one it most dismayed him 
 
 to hear, in his office, at the present crisis. 
 
 He listened on, and satisfied himself that a fatal 
 
 I' 2
 
 212 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 blow was coming. He then walked quietly to his 
 table, seated himself, and prepared to receive the 
 stroke with external composure. 
 
 Penfold announced, " Mr. Burtenshaw." 
 
 " Show him in," said Wardlaw, quietly. 
 
 Mr. Burtenshaw, one of the managers of Mor- 
 land's bank, came in, and Wardlaw motioned him 
 courteously to a chair, while he finished his letter, 
 which took only a few moments. 
 
 While he was sealing it, he half turned to his 
 visitor, and said, "No bad news? Morland's is 
 safe, of course." 
 
 " Well," said Burtenshaw, " we could not hope 
 to escape the effects of the panic. There is a run 
 upon our bank — a severe one." 
 
 He then, after an uneasy pause, and with appa- 
 rent reluctance, added, "I am requested by the 
 other directors to assure you it is their present 
 extremity alone, that — in short, we are really com- 
 pelled to beg you to repay the amount advanced to 
 you by the bank." 
 
 Wardlaw showed no alarm, but great surprise. 
 This was clever; for he felt great alarm, and no 
 surprise. 
 
 "The £80,000," said he. "Why, that advance
 
 FOUL PLAY, 213 
 
 was upon the freight of the Proserphie. Forty-five 
 thousand ounces of gohl. She ought to be here by 
 this time. She is in the Channel at this moment, 
 no doubt." 
 
 " Excuse me ; she is overdue, and the under- 
 writers uneasy. I have made inquiries." 
 
 " At any rate, she is fully insured, and you hold 
 the policies. Besides, the name of Wardlaw on 
 j^our books should stand for bullion." 
 
 Burtenshaw shook his head. "Names are at a 
 discount to-day, sir. AVe can't pay them across 
 our counter. Why, our depositors look cross at 
 Bank of England notes." 
 
 To an inquix'y, half ironical, whether tlie mana- 
 gers really expected him to find j£80,000 cash, at a 
 few hours' notice, Burtenshaw replied, sorrowfully, 
 that they felt for his difficulty whilst deploring 
 their own; but that, after all, it was a debt: and, 
 in short, if he could find no means of i)aying it, 
 they must suspend payment for a time, and issue a 
 statement — and " 
 
 He hesitated to complete his sentence, and Ward- 
 law did it for him. " And ascribe your suspension 
 to my inability to refund this advance ? " said he, 
 bitterly.
 
 214 . FOUL PLAT. 
 
 " I am afraid that is tlie construction it will 
 bear.-" 
 
 Wardlaw rose, to intimate lie had no more to say. 
 
 Burtenshaw, however, was not disposed to go 
 without some clear understanding. " May I say 
 we shall hear from you, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 And so they wished each other good-morning; 
 and Wardlaw sank into his chair. 
 
 In that quiet dialogue, ruin had been inflicted 
 and received without any apparent agitation ; ay, 
 and worse than ruin — exposure. 
 
 Morland's suspension, on account of money lost 
 by Wardlaw & Son, would at once bring old Ward- 
 law to London, and the affairs of the firm would be 
 investigated, and the son's false system of book- 
 keeping be discovered. 
 
 He sat stupefied awhile, then put on his hat, and 
 rushed to his solicitor ; on the way, he fell in with 
 a great talker, who told him there was a rumour the 
 Shannon was lost in the Pacific. 
 
 At this he nearly fainted in the street ; and his 
 friend took him back to his office in a deplorable 
 condition. All this time he had been feigning 
 anxiety about the Proseri^ine, and concealing his
 
 FOUL PLAY. 215 
 
 real auxiet}' about the Shannon. To do him jus- 
 tice, he lost sight of everything in the world now 
 but Helen. He sent old Penfold in hot haste to 
 Lloyd's, to inquire for news of the shij); and then 
 he sat down sick at heart; and all he could do now 
 was to open her portrait, and gaze at it through 
 eyes blinded with tears. Even a vague rumour, 
 which he hoped might be false, had driven all his 
 commercial manoeuvres out of him, and made all 
 other calamities seem small. 
 
 And so they all are small, compared with the 
 <leath of the creature we love. 
 
 While he sat thus ia a stupor of fear and grief, 
 he heard a well-known voice in the outer office ; 
 and, next after Burtenshaw's, it was the one that 
 caused him the most apprehension. It was his 
 father's. 
 
 Wardlaw senior rarely visited the office now ; and 
 this was not his hour. So Arthur knew something 
 extraordinary had brought him up to town. And 
 he could not doubt that it was the panic, and that 
 lie had been to Morland's, or would go there in 
 course of the day; but, indeed, it was more pro- 
 bable that he had already heard something, and 
 was come to investigate.
 
 21 G FOUL PLAY. 
 
 "Wardlaw senior entered the room. 
 
 " Good morning, Arthur," said he. " I've got 
 good news for you." 
 
 Arthur was quite startled by an announcement 
 that accorded so little with his expectations. 
 
 " Good news — for me ? " said he, in a faint, 
 incredulous tone. 
 
 " Ay, glorious news ! Haven't you been anxious 
 about the Shannon ? I have ; more anxious than I 
 ■would own," 
 
 Artliur started up. " The Shannon ! God bless 
 you, father." 
 
 " She lies at anchor in the Mersey," roared the 
 old man, with all a father's pride at bringing such 
 good news. " AVhy, the Rollestons will be in 
 London at 2"30. See, here is liis telegram." 
 
 There was hearty shaking of hands, and Arthur 
 Wardlaw was the happiest man in London. 
 
 " Got the telegram at Elmti-ees, this morning. 
 and came up by the hrst express.'' 
 
 The telegram Avas from Sir Edward Rolleston. 
 "Reached Liverpool last nifflit; will he at Euston, 
 tico-thirty" 
 
 "Not a word from Jier ! " said Arthur.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 217 
 
 " Oh, there was no time to write ; and ladies do 
 not use the telegram." He added, slily, " Perhaps 
 she thought coming in person would do as well, or 
 better, eh?" 
 
 " But why does he telegraph you instead of 
 me?" 
 
 " I am sure I don't know. "What does it matter ? 
 Yes, I do know. It is settled he and Helen are to 
 come to me at Elmtrees, so I was the proper person 
 to telegraph. I'll go and meet them at the station ; 
 there is plenty of time. But, I say, Arthur, have 
 you seen the papers ? Bartley Brothers obliged to 
 wind up. Maple & Cox, of Liverpool, gone ; At- 
 lantic trading. Terry & Brown, suspended; Inter- 
 national credit gone. Old friends, some of these. 
 Hopley & Timms, railway contractors, failed, sir ; 
 liabilities, seven hundred thousand pounds and 
 more." 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Arthur, pompously ; "1866 will 
 long be remembered for its revelations of com- 
 mercial morality." 
 
 The old gentleman, on this, asked his sou, with 
 excusable vanity, whether he had done ill in steer- 
 ing clear of speculation; he then congratulated 
 him on having listened to good advice, and stuck
 
 218 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 to legitimate business. " I must say, Arthur," 
 added lie, "j'our books are models for any trading 
 firm." 
 
 Arthur winced in secret viuder this praise, for it 
 occurred to him, that in a few days his father would 
 discover those books were all a sham, and the 
 accounts a fabrication. 
 
 However, the unpleasant topic avus soon inter- 
 rupted, and effectually, too ; for ^Michael looked in, 
 with an air of satisfaction on his benevolent coun- 
 tenance, and said, " Gentlemen, such an arrival ! 
 Here is Nancy Rouse's sweetheart, that she 
 <lreamed was drowned." 
 
 ""What is the man to me?" said Arthur, 
 peevishly. He did not recognise Wylie under 
 that title. 
 
 " La, Mr. Arthur ! why he is the mate of the 
 Proserpine," said Penfold. 
 
 " What ! Wylie ! Joseph Wylie ? " cried Arthur, 
 in a sudden excitement, that contrasted strangely 
 with his previous indifference. 
 
 "What is that?" cried Wardlaw senior; "the 
 Proserpine ! Show him in at once." 
 
 Now this caused Arthur Wardlaw considerable 
 anxiety; for obvious reasons he did not Avant his
 
 FOUL PLAY. 219 
 
 father and this sailor to exchange a word together. 
 However, that was inevitable now : the door opened, 
 and the bronzed face and sturdy figure of Wylie, 
 clad in a rough pea-jacket, came slouching in. 
 
 Arthur went hastily to meet him, and gave him 
 an expressive look of warning, even while he 
 welcomed him in cordial accents. 
 
 "Glad to see you safe home," said Wardlaw 
 senior. 
 
 " Thank ye, guv'nor," said Wylie. " Had a 
 squeak for it, this time." 
 
 " Where is your ship ?'' 
 
 Wylie shook his head sorrowfully. '" Bottom of 
 the Pacific." 
 
 " Good heavens ! What ; is she lost ? " 
 
 " That she is, sir : foundered at sea, 1200 miles 
 from the Horn, and more." 
 
 " And the freight ? the gold ? " put in Arthur, 
 with well-feigned anxiety. 
 
 " Not an ounce saved," said Wylie, disconsolately. 
 " A hundred and sixty thousand pounds gone to the 
 bottom." 
 
 " Good heavens.'*' 
 
 " Ye see, sir, said Wylie, " the ship encountered 
 one gale after another, and laboured a good deal.
 
 220 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 first and last ; and we all say lier seams must have 
 opened ; for we never could find the leak that sunk 
 her/* and he cast a meaning glance at Arthur 
 Wardlaw. 
 
 "No matter how it happened;" said the old 
 merchant : " are we insured to the fall ? that is the 
 first question." 
 
 " To the last shilling." 
 
 " Well done, Arthur." 
 
 " But still it is most unlucky. Some weeks must 
 elapse before the insurances can be realised, and a 
 portion of the gold was paid for in bills at short 
 date." 
 
 " The rest in cash ?" 
 
 " Cash and merchandise." 
 
 " Then there is the proper margin. Draw on my 
 private account, at the Bank of England." 
 
 These few simple words showed the struggling 
 young merchant a way out of all his difficulties. 
 
 His heart leaped so, he dared not reply, lest he 
 should excite the old gentleman's suspicions. 
 
 But, ere he had well drawn his breath for joy, 
 came a freezer. 
 
 " Mr. Burtenshaw, sir." 
 
 "Bid him wait," said Arthur aloud, and cast a
 
 FOUL PLAY. 221 
 
 look of gi-eat anxiety on Penfolcl, which the poor 
 old man, with all his simplicity, comprehended well 
 enough. 
 
 " Burteushaw, from Morland's. AVhat does he 
 want of us?" said Wardlaw senior, knitting his 
 hrows. 
 
 Arthur turned cold all over. " Perhaps to ask 
 me not to draw out my halance. It is less than 
 usual : hut they are run upon ; and, as you are 
 
 good enough to let me draw on you by the bye, 
 
 perhaps you will sign a cheque before you go to 
 the station." 
 
 " How much do you want ? " 
 
 "I really don't know, till I have consulted Pen- 
 fold : the gold was a large and advantageous 
 purchase, sir." 
 
 " No doubt ; no doubt. I'll give you my sig- 
 nature ; and you can fill in the amount." 
 
 He drew a cheque in favour of Arthur Wardlaw, 
 signed it, and left him to fill in the figures. 
 
 He then looked at his watch, and remarked 
 they would only just have time to get to the 
 station. 
 
 " Good Heavens ! " cried Arthur ; " and I can't 
 go. I must learn the particulars of the loss of the
 
 222 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Proserpine, and prepare the statement at once for 
 the nnclerwriters." 
 
 " Well, never mind. I can go." 
 
 " But what will she think of me ? I ought to be 
 the first to Avelcome her.'' 
 
 " I'll make your excuses." 
 
 " No, no ; say nothing : after all it was you who 
 received the telegram : so you naturally meet her : 
 but you will bring her here, father : you won't 
 whisk my darling down to Elmtrees, till you have 
 blest me with the sight of her ? " 
 
 " I will not be so cruel, fond lover," said old 
 Wardlaw, laughing, and took up his hat and gloves 
 to go. 
 
 Arthur went to the door with him, in great 
 anxiety, lest he should question Burtenshaw : but, 
 peering into the outer ofiice, he observed Burten- 
 shaw was not there. Michael had caught his 
 employer's anxious look, and conveyed the Banker 
 into the small room, where the short-hand writer 
 was at work. But Burtenshaw was one of a 
 struggling firm ; to him every minute was an 
 hour : he had sat, fuming with impatience, so long 
 as he heard talking in the inner office; and, the 
 moment it ceased, he took the liberty of coming
 
 FOUL I'LAY. 223 
 
 in : so that lie opened the side door, just as 
 Wardlaw senior was passing through the centre 
 door. 
 
 Instantly Wardlaw junior whipped before him, 
 to hide his figure from his retreating father. 
 
 "Wylie, who all this time had been sitting silent, 
 looking from one to the other, and quietly puzzling 
 out the game, as well as he could, observed this 
 movement, and grinned. 
 
 As for Arthur Wardlaw, he saw his father safe 
 out, then gave a sigh of relief, and walked to his 
 office table, and sat down, and began to fill in 
 the cheque. 
 
 Burtenshaw drew near, and said, " I am in- 
 structed to say that fifty thousand pounds on 
 account will be accepted." 
 
 Perhaps if this proposal had been made a few 
 seconds sooner, the ingenious Arthur would have 
 availed himself of it : but, as it was, he preferred 
 to take the high and mighty tone. " I decline any 
 concession," said he. "Mr. Penfold, take this 
 cheque to the Bank of England. 81,647/. 10s. 
 That is the amount, capital and interest, up to 
 noon this day : hand the sum to Mr. Burtenshaw, 
 taking his receipt, or, if he prefers it, pay it across
 
 224 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 the counter, to my credit. That will perhaps arrest 
 tlie run." 
 
 Burtenshaw stammered out his thanks. 
 
 Wardlaw cut him short. " Good morning, sir," 
 said he. " I have business of imijortance. Good 
 day," and bowed him out. 
 
 " This is a Highflyer," thought Burtenshaw. 
 
 Wardlaw then opened the side door, and called 
 his short-hand writer. 
 
 "Mr. Atkins, please step into the outer office, 
 and don't let a soul come in to me. Mind, I am 
 out for the da3\ Except to Miss Eolleston and her 
 father." 
 
 He then closed all the doors, and sunk exhausted 
 into a chair, muttering " Thank Heaven ! I have 
 got rid of them all for an hour or two. Now, 
 Wylie." 
 
 Wylie seemed in no hurry to enter upon the 
 required subject. 
 
 Said he, evasively, " Why guv'nor, it seems to me 
 you are among the breakers here, yourself." 
 
 " Nothing of the sort, if you have managed your 
 work cleverly. Come, tell me all, before we are 
 interrupted again." 
 
 " Tell ye all about it ! Why there's part on't
 
 FOUL PLAY. 225 
 
 I am afraid to think on ; let alone talk about 
 it. 
 
 " Spare me your scruples, and give me your 
 facts," said Wardlaw, coldly. " First of all, did 
 you succeed in shifting the bullion as agreed ? " 
 
 The sailor appeared relieved by this question. 
 
 "Oh, that is all right," said he. "I got the 
 bullion safe aboard the Shannon, marked for lead." 
 
 "And the lead on board the Proserpine ?" 
 
 " A}', shipped as bullion." 
 
 *' Without suspicion ? " 
 
 " Not quite." 
 
 " Great Heaven ! Who ? " 
 
 " One clerk at the shipping agent's scented 
 something queer, I thinlc. His name was James 
 Seaton." 
 
 " Could he prove anything ? " 
 
 "Nothing. He knew nothing for certain; and 
 what he guessed won't never be known in England 
 now." And W3die fidgeted in his chair. 
 
 Notwithstanding this assurance Wardlaw looked 
 grave, and took a note of tliat clerk's name. Then 
 he begged Wylie to go on. " Give me all the 
 details," said he. " Leave me to judge their 
 relative value. You scuttled the ship ?" 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 rOTJL PLAY. 
 
 *' Don't say that ! don't say tliat ! " cried Wylie, 
 in a low but eager voice. " Stone walls have ears." 
 Then rather more loudly than was necessary, " Ship 
 sprung a leak, that neither the captain, nor I, nor 
 anybody could find, to stop. Me and my men, we 
 all think her seams opened, with stress of weather." 
 " Then, lowering his voice again, " Try and see it 
 as we do ; and don't you ever use such a word as 
 that, what come out of your lips just now." Then, 
 raising his voice suddenly, "We i^umped her hard ; 
 but 'twarn't no use. She filled, and we had to take 
 to the boats." 
 
 " Stop a moment. Was there any suspicion 
 excited ? " . 
 
 " Not among the crew : and, suppose there was, 
 I could talk 'em all over, or buy 'em all over, what 
 few of 'em is left. I'll keep 'em all with me in one 
 house : and they are all square, don't you fear." 
 
 '' Well, but you said ' among the crew I ' Whom 
 else can we have to fear ?" 
 
 " Why, nobody. To be sure, one of the pas- 
 sengers was down on me; but what does that 
 matter now?" 
 
 " It matters greatly — it matters terribly. Who 
 was this passenger ? "
 
 FOUL PLAY. 227 
 
 " He called himself the Eeverend John Hazel. 
 He suspected sometluDg or other ; and what with 
 listening here, and watching there, he judged the 
 ship was never to see England, and I always fancied 
 he told the lady/' 
 
 " "What, was there a lady there ?" 
 
 " Ay, worse luck, sir ; and a pretty girl she was : 
 coming home to England to die of consumption; 
 so our surgeon told me." 
 
 " Well, never mind her. The clergj-man ! This 
 fills me with anxiety. A clerk suspecting us at 
 Sydney, and a passenger suspecting us in the vessel. 
 There are two witnesses against us already." 
 
 "No; only one." 
 
 " How do you make that out ? " 
 
 " Why, White's clerk and the parson, they was 
 one man." 
 
 Wardlaw stared in utter amazement. 
 
 " Don't ye believe me ? " said Wylie. " I tell ye 
 that there clerk boarded us under an alias. He 
 had shaved off his beard; but, bless your heart, 
 I knew him directly." 
 
 "He came to verify his suspicions,'' suggested 
 Wardlaw, in a faint voice. 
 
 " Not he. He came for love of the sick girl, and
 
 228 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 nothing else; and 3'ou'll never see either him or 
 her, if that is any comfort to you." 
 
 "Be good enough to conceal nothing. Facts 
 must be faced." 
 
 " That is too true, sir. Well, the ship went down 
 
 in latitude hut you have got a chart there 
 
 before you. She went down hereabouts.^^ 
 
 " Why, that was a long way from land," said 
 Arthur. 
 
 "You may say that, sir. Well, we abandoned 
 her, and took to the boats. I commanded one." 
 
 "And Hudson the other?" 
 
 "Hudson! No." 
 
 " Why, how was that ? and what has become of 
 him?" 
 
 "What has become of Hudson?" said Wylie, 
 with a start. " There's a question ! And not a 
 drop to wet my lips, and warm my heart. Is this 
 a tale to tell, dry? Can't ye spare a drop of 
 brandy to a poor devil that has earned ye £100,000, 
 and risked his life, and wrecked his soul to do it?" 
 
 AVardlaw cast a glance of contempt on him, but 
 got up, and speedily put a bottle of old brandy, 
 a tumbler, and a caraffe of water, on the table 
 before him.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 229 
 
 Wylie drank a wine-glassful neat, and gave a 
 sort of sigh of satisfaction. And then ensued a 
 dialogue, in which, curiously enough, the brave 
 man was agitated, and the timid man was cool 
 and collected. But one reason was, the latter had 
 not imagination enough to realize tilings unseen, 
 though he had caused them. 
 
 Wylie told him how Hudson got to the bottle, 
 and would not leave the ship. " I think I see him 
 now, with his cutlass in one hand, and his rum 
 bottle in the other, and the waves running over 
 his poor, silly face, as she went down. Poor 
 Hiram ! he and I had made many a trip together, 
 before we took to this." 
 
 And Wylie shuddered, and took another gulp at 
 the brand3\ 
 
 Wliile he was drinking to drown the picture, 
 Wardlaw was calmly reflecting on the bare fact. 
 " Hum," said he, " we must use that circumstance. 
 I'll get it into the journals. Heroic captain. Went 
 down with the ship. Who can suspect Hudson in 
 the teeth of such a fact ? Now, pray go on, my 
 good Wylie. The boats?" 
 
 " Well, sir, I had the surgeon, and ten men, and 
 the lady's maid, on board the]^long-boat ; and there
 
 230 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 ■was the parson, the sick lacly, and five sailors 
 aboard the cutter. We sailed together, till night, 
 steering for Juan Fernandez ; then a fog came on 
 and we lost sight of the cutter, and I altered my 
 mind and judged it best to beat to win'ard, and get 
 into the track of ships. Which we did, and were 
 nearly swamped in a sou'wester ; but, by good luck, 
 a Yankee whaler picked us up, and took us to 
 Buenos Ayres, where we shipped for England, what 
 was left of us, only three, besides myself; but I got 
 the signatures of the others to my tale of the wreck. 
 It is all as square as a die, I tell 3'ou." 
 
 " Well done. Well done. But, stop ! the other 
 boat, with that sham parson on board who knows 
 all. She will be picked up, too, perhaps." 
 
 " There is no chance of that. She was out of 
 the tracks of trade ; and, I'll tell ye the truth, sir " 
 — He poured out half a tumbler of brandy, and 
 drank a part of it; and, now, for the first time, his 
 hand trembled as he lifted the glass. — " Some fool 
 had put the main of her provisions aboard the 
 long-boat ; that is what sticks to me, and won't let 
 me sleep. We took a chance, but we didn't give 
 one. I think I told you there was a woman aboard 
 the cutter, that sick girl, sir. O, but it w^as hard
 
 FOUL PLAY. 231 
 
 lines for her, poor thing ! I see her face, pale and 
 calm ; oh, Lord, so pale and calm ; every night of 
 my life; she kneeled aboard the cutter with her 
 white hands a clasped together, praj'iug." 
 
 " Certainly, it is all very shocking," said Ward- 
 law; "but then, you know, if they had escaped, 
 they would have exposed us. Believe me, it is all 
 for the best." 
 
 Wyhe looked at him with wonder. " Ay," said 
 he, after staring at him a long time ; " you can sit 
 here at your ease, and doom a ship, and risk her 
 people's lives. But if you had to do it, and see it, 
 and then lie awake thinking of it, you'd wish all the 
 gold on earth had been in hell, before you put your 
 hand to such a piece of work." 
 
 "SVardlaw smiled a ghastly smile. " In short," 
 said he, " you don't mean to take the two thousand 
 pounds I pay you for this little job." 
 
 " Oh yes, I do ; but, for all the gold in Victoria, I 
 wouldn't do such a job again. And, you mark my 
 words, sir, we shall get the money, and nobody will 
 ever be the wiser." — Wardlaw rubbed his hands 
 complacently, his egotism, coupled with his want of 
 imagination, nearly blinded him to everything but 
 the pecuniary feature of the business. — " But,"
 
 232 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 con Inuecl "Wylie, " we shall never tlirive on it. ^Ye 
 hav sunk a good ship, and we have as good as 
 mu? dered a poor dying girL" 
 
 " Hold your tongue, ye fool ! " cried Wardlaw, 
 losing his sangfroid in a moment, for he heard 
 somebody at the door. 
 
 It opened, and there stood a military figure in a 
 travelling cap — General Rolleston.
 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 As some eggs have actually two j'olks, so Arthur 
 Wardlaw had two hearts ; and at sight of Helen's 
 father, the baser one ceased to beat for a while. 
 
 He ran to General Rolleston, shook him warml}'' 
 by the hand, and welcomed him to England with 
 sparkling eyes. 
 
 It is plesant to be so welcomed, and the stately 
 soldier returned his grasp in kind. 
 
 " Is Helen with you, sir ? " said Wardlaw, making 
 a movement to go to the door : for lie thought she 
 must be outside in the cab. 
 
 " No, she is not," said General Rolleston. 
 
 " There now," said Arthur, " that cruel father of 
 mine has broken his promise, and carried her off to 
 Elmtrees." 
 
 At this moment Wardlaw senior returned, to tell 
 Arthur he had been just too late to meet the
 
 234 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Rollestons. " Oh, here he is ! " said he ; and 
 there were fresh greetinc;s. 
 
 " Well, but," said Arthur, " where is Helen ? " 
 
 " I think it is I who ought to ask that question," 
 said EoUeston, gravely. " I telegraphed you at 
 Elmtrees, thinking of course she would come with 
 you to meet me at the station. It does not much 
 matter, a few hours : but her not coming makes me 
 uneasy, for her health was declining when she left 
 me. How is my child, Mr. Wardlaw ? Pray tell 
 me the truth." 
 
 Both the "Wardlaws looked at one another, and at 
 General Rolleston, and the elder "Wardlaw said 
 there was certainl}^ some misunderstanding here. 
 
 " We fully believed that your daughter was 
 coming home with you in the Shannon." 
 
 " Come home with me ? AVhy, of course not. 
 She sailed three weeks before me. Has she not 
 arrived?" 
 
 ** No/' replied old Wardlaw, " we have neither 
 seen nor heard of her." 
 
 " AVhy, what ship did she sail in ? " said Arthur. 
 
 " In one of your own ships — the Proserpine." 
 
 Arthur Wardlaw fixed on the speaker a gaze
 
 FOUL PLAY. 235 
 
 full of horror ; his jaw fell ; a livid pallor spread 
 over his features ; he echoed in a hoarse whisper, 
 " the Proserpine ! " and turned his scared eyes upon 
 Wylie, who was himself leaning against the wall, 
 his stalwart frame beginning to tremble. 
 
 " The sick girl," murmured Wylic, and a cold 
 sweat gathered on his brow. 
 
 General Rolleston looked from one to another 
 with strange misgivings, which soon deepened into 
 a sense of some terrible calamity ; for now a strong 
 convulsion swelled Arthur Wardlaw's heart; his 
 face worked fearfully ; and with a sharp and sudden 
 cry, he fell forward on the table, and his father's 
 arm alone prevented him from sinking like a dead 
 man on the floor. Yet though crushed and helpless, 
 he was not insensible ; that blessing was denied 
 him. 
 
 General llolleston implored an explanation. 
 
 Wylie, v.ith downcast and averted face, began to 
 stammer a few disconnected and unintelligible 
 words; but old AVardlaw silenced him and said, 
 with much feeling, " Let none but a father tell him. 
 M}^ poor, poor friend — The Proserpine ! How can 
 I say it ? " 
 
 " Lost at sea," groaned Wylie.
 
 236 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 At these fatal words the old warrior's countenance 
 grew rigid ; his large, bony hands gripped the back 
 of the chair, on which he leaned, and were white 
 with their own convulsive force ; and he bowed his 
 head under the blow, without one word. 
 
 His was an agony too great and mute to be 
 spoken to ; and there was silence in the room, 
 broken onl}^ by the hj^sterical moans of tlie miser- 
 able plotter, who had drawn down this calamity on 
 his own head. He was in no state to be left alone ; 
 and even the bereaved father found pity in his de- 
 solate heart for one who loved his lost child so well ; 
 and the two old men took him home between them, 
 in a helpless and pitiable condition.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 — ♦ — 
 
 But this utter prostration of his confederate 
 began to alarni Wylie, and rouse him to exertion. 
 Certainly, he was very sorry for what he had done, 
 and would have undone it and forfeited his £2,000 
 in a moment, if he could. But, as he could not 
 undo the crime, he was all the more determined 
 to reap the reward. "Why that .£2,000, for aught 
 he knew, was the price of his soul ; and he was not 
 the man to let his soul go gratis. 
 
 He finished the rest of the brandy, and went 
 after his men, to keep them true to him by 
 promises ; but the next day he came to the office 
 in Fenchurch Street, and asked anxiously for 
 AVardlaw. Wardlaw had not arrived. He waited, 
 but the merchant never came ; and Michael told 
 him, with considerable anxiety, that this was the 
 first time his young master had missed coming this 
 five years.
 
 238 FOUL PLAY. ■ 
 
 In course of tlie day, several underwriters came 
 in, viith long faces, to verify the report which had 
 now reached Lloyd's, tliat the Proserpine had 
 foundered at sea. 
 
 "It is too true," said Michael; "and poor Mr. 
 AVylie here has barely escaped with his life. He 
 was mate of the ship, gentlemen."' 
 
 Upon this, each visitor questioned "VVylie, and 
 Wylie returned the same smooth answer to all 
 inquiries: one heavy gale after anotlier had so 
 tried the ship that her seams had opened, and let 
 in more water than all the exertions of the crew 
 and passengers could discharge ; at last, they had 
 taken to the boats ; the long-boat had been picked 
 up : the cutter had never been heard of since. 
 
 They nearly all asked after the ship's log. 
 
 "I have got it safe at home," said he. It was 
 in his pocket all the time. 
 
 Some asked him where the other survivors were. 
 He told them five had shipped on board the Maria, 
 and three were with him at Poplar, one disabled by 
 the hardships they had all endured. 
 
 One or two complained angrily of Mr. Wardlaw's 
 absence at such a time. 
 
 "Well, good gentlemen," said Wylie, "I'll tell
 
 FOUL TLAY. 239 
 
 ye. Mr. Wardlaw's sweetheart was aboard the 
 ship. He is almost broken-hearted. He vallied 
 her more than all the gold, that you may take 
 your oath on." 
 
 This stroke, coming from a rough fellow in a 
 pea-jacket, who looked as simple as he was cunning, 
 silenced remonstrance, and went far to disarm 
 suspicion ; and ^so pleased Michael Tenfold, that 
 he said, " Mr. Wylie, you are interested in this 
 business, would you mind going to Mr. Wardlaw's 
 house, and asking what we are to do next ? I'll 
 give you his address, and a line, begging him to 
 make an effort and see you. Business is the 
 heart's best ointment. Eh, dear Mr. Wylie, I 
 have known grief too ; and I think I should have 
 gone mad when they sent my poor son away, but 
 for business, especially the summing-up of long 
 columns, &c." 
 
 This commission suited Mr. "Wylie, who was 
 alarmed on his own account at Arthur Wardlaw's 
 absence from business. He called at the house in 
 Eussell Square, and asked to see Mr. "Wardlaw. 
 
 The servant shook his head. "You can't see 
 him ; he is very ill.' 
 
 "Very ill," said AVylie. "I'm sorry for that.
 
 240 rOUL PLAY. 
 
 Well, but I shallot make liim any worse ; and 
 Mr. Penfokl says I must see him. It is very 
 particular, I tell you. He won't thank you for 
 refusing me, when he comes to hear of it." 
 
 He said this verj' seriously; and the servant, 
 after a short hesitation, begged him to sit down 
 in the passage a moment. He then went into the 
 dining-room, and shortly reappeared, holding the 
 door open. Out came, not Wardlaw junior, but 
 Wardlaw senior. 
 
 " My son is in no condition to receive you," said 
 he, gravely; "but I am at your service. What is 
 your business ? " 
 
 W^ylie was taken off his guard, and stammered 
 out something about the Shannon. 
 
 " The Shannon ! AVhat have you to do with 
 her ? You belonged to the Proserpine." 
 
 "Ay, sir; but I had his orders to ship forty 
 chests of lead and smelted copper on board the 
 Shannon." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Ye see, sir," said Wylie, " Mr. Wardlaw was 
 particular about them, and I feel responsible like, 
 having shipped them aboard another vessel." 
 
 " Have you not the captain's receipt ? "
 
 FOUL PLAY. 241 
 
 "That I have, sir, at home. But you could 
 hardly read it for salt-water." 
 
 "Well," said Wardlaw senior, "I will direct our 
 agent at Liverpool to look after them, and send 
 them up at once to my cellars in Fenchurch Street. 
 Forty chests of lead and copper, I think you said." 
 And he took a note of this directly. Wylie was not 
 a little discomfited at this unexpected turn things 
 had taken ; hut he held his tongue now, for fear of 
 making had worse. Wardlaw senior went on to say 
 that he should have to conduct the business of the 
 firm for a time, in spite of his old age and failing 
 health. 
 
 This announcement made Wylie perspire with 
 anxiety, and his £2,000 seemed to melt away from 
 him. 
 
 "But never mind," said old Wardlaw; "I. am 
 very glad you came. In fact, you are the very man 
 I wanted to see. My poor afflicted friend has asked 
 
 after you several times. Be good enough to follow 
 
 I) 
 me. 
 
 He led the way into the dining-room, and there 
 
 sat the sad father in all the quiet dignity of calm, 
 
 unfathomable sorrow. 
 
 . Another gentleman stood upon the rug with his 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 back to the fire, waiting for Mr. AVarcllaw ; this was 
 the family i^hysician, who had just come down from 
 Arthur's bedroom, and had entered by another door, 
 through the drawing-room. 
 
 " Well, doctor," said Wardlaw, anxiously, " what 
 is your report ? " 
 
 "Not so good as I could wish; but nothing to 
 excite immediate alarm. Overtaxed brain, sir; 
 weakened and unable to support this calamity. 
 However, we have reduced the fever ; the symptoms 
 of delirium have been checked, and I think we shall 
 escape brain-fever, if he is kept quite quiet. I 
 could not have said as much this morning." 
 
 The doctor then took his leave, with a promise 
 to call next morning ; and as soon as he was gone, 
 Wardlaw turned to General liolleston, and said, 
 " Here is Wylie, sir. Come forward, my man, and 
 speak to the General. He wants to know if j'ou 
 can point out to him on the chart the very spot 
 where the Proserpine was lost ? " 
 
 " Well, sir," said Wylie, " I think I could." 
 The great chart of the Pacific was then spread 
 out upon the table, and rarely has a chart been 
 examined as this Avas, with the bleeding heart as 
 well as the straining eye.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 243 
 
 The rough sailor became an oracle ; the others 
 hung upon his words, and followed his brown finger 
 on the chart with fearful interest. 
 
 " Ye see, sir," said he, addressing the old mer- 
 chant, for there was something on his mind that 
 made him avoid speaking directly to General Rol- 
 leston, "when we came out of Sydney, the wind 
 being south and by east, Hudson took the easterly 
 course, instead of running through Cook's straits. 
 The weather freshened from the same quarter, so 
 that, with one thing and another, by when we were 
 a month out, she was five hundred miles or so 
 nor'ard of her true course. But that wasn't all; 
 when the leak gained on us, Hudson ran the ship 
 three hundred miles by my reckoning to the nor'- 
 east; and, I remember, the day before she foun- 
 dered, he told me she was in latitude forty, and 
 Easter Island bearing due north." 
 
 " Here is the spot, then," said General KoUeston, 
 and placed his finger on the spot. 
 
 " Ay, sir," said Wylie, addressing the merchant ; 
 " but she ran about eighty-five miles after that, on 
 an easterly course — no — wind on her starboard 
 quarter— and being deep in the water, she'd make 
 lee way — say eighty-two miles, nor'-east by east."
 
 244 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 The General took eiglity-two miles off the scale, 
 uith a pair of dividers, and set out that distance on 
 the chart. He held the instrument fixed on the 
 point thus obtained. 
 
 Wylie eyed the point, and after a moment's 
 consideration, nodded his head. 
 
 " There, or thereabouts," he said, in a low voice, 
 and looking at the merchant. 
 
 A pause ensued, and the two old men examined 
 the speck pricked on the map, as if it were the 
 waters covering the Proserpine. 
 
 " Now sir," said Rolleston, " trace the course of 
 the boats ; " and he handed AVyhe a pencil. 
 
 The sailor slowly averted his head, but stretched 
 out his hand and took it, and traced two lines, the 
 one short and straight, running nearly north-east. 
 " That's the way the cutter headed when we lost 
 her in tlie night." 
 
 The other line ran parallel to the first for half an 
 inch, then turning, bent backwards, and ran due 
 south. 
 
 " This was our course," said Wylie. 
 
 General Piolleston looked up, and said, " Why 
 did you desert the cutter ? " 
 
 The mate looked at old Wardlaw, and, after some
 
 FOUL PLAY. 245 
 
 hesitation, replied, " After we lost sight of her, the 
 men with me declared that we could not reach 
 either Juan Fernandez or Valparaiso with our stock 
 of provisions, and insisted on standing for the sea 
 track of Australian liners between the Horn and 
 Sydney." 
 
 This explanation was received in dead silence. 
 Wylie fidgetted, and his eye wandered round the 
 room. 
 
 General Rolleston applied his compasses to the 
 chart, " I find that the Proserpine was not 1000 
 miles from Easter Island. Why did you not make 
 for that land ? " 
 
 " We had no charts, sir," said Wylie to the 
 merchant, " and I'm no navigator." 
 
 " I see no land laid down hereaway, north-east of 
 the spot where the ship went down.''^ 
 
 " No," replied WyUe, " that's what the men said 
 when they made me 'bout ship." 
 
 " Then why did you lead the way north-east at 
 all ? '' 
 
 " I'm no navigator," answered the man, sullenly. 
 
 He then suddenly stammered out. " Ask my 
 men what ice went through. Why, sir, (to Ward- 
 law) I can hardly believe that I am alive, and si
 
 24 G FOUL PLAY. 
 
 here talking to you about tliis cursed business. 
 And nobody offers me a drop of anything.'*' 
 
 Wardlaw poured him out a tumbler of wine. His 
 brown hand trembled a little, and he gulped the 
 wine down like water. 
 
 General Eolleston gave Mr. Wardlaw a look, and 
 AVylie was dismissed. He slouched down the street 
 all in a cold perspiration ; but still clinging to his 
 £2,000, though small was now his hope of ever 
 seeing it. 
 
 When he was gone. General Eolleston paced 
 that large and gloomy room in silence. Wardlaw 
 eyed liim with the greatest interest, but avoided 
 speaking to him. At last he stopped short, and 
 stood erect, as veterans halt, and pointed down at 
 the chart. 
 
 " I'll start at once for that spot," said he. " I'll 
 go in the next ship bound to Valparaiso : there I'll 
 charter a small vessel, and ransack those waters for 
 some trace of my poor lost girl." 
 
 " Can you think of no better way than that ? " 
 said old Wardlaw, gentl^^, and with a slight tone of 
 reproach. 
 
 "No — not at this moment. Oh, yes, by the bye, 
 the Greyhound and Dreadnought are going out to
 
 FOUL TLAY. 247 
 
 survey the islands of the Pacific. I have interest 
 enough to get a berth in the Greyhound." 
 
 " What ! go in a Government ship ! under the 
 orders of a man, under the orders of another man, 
 under the orders of a Board. Wh}', if you heard 
 our poor girl was alive upon a rock, the Dread- 
 nought would be sure to run up a bunch of red- 
 tape to the fore that moment to recall the Grey- 
 hound, and the Greyhound would go back. No," 
 said he, rising suddenly, and confronting the 
 General, and with the colour mounting for once in 
 his sallow face, " You sail in no bottom but one 
 freighted by AVardlaw & Son, and the captain shall 
 be under no orders but yours. We have bought 
 the steam sloop Springbok, 700 tons. I'll victual 
 her for a year, man her well, and you shall go out 
 in her in less than a week. I give you my hand 
 on that." 
 
 They grasped hands. 
 
 But this sudden warmth and tenderness coming 
 from a man habitually cold, overpowered the stout 
 general. " What, sir," he faltered; " your own son 
 lies in danger, yet your heart goes so with me — 
 such goodness — it is too much for me." 
 
 " No, no," faltered the merchant, affected in his
 
 248 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 turn ; " it is nothing. Your poor girl \vas coming 
 liome in that cursed ship to marry my son. Yes, 
 he lies ill for love of her; God help him and 
 me too ; hut you most of all. Don't, General ; 
 don't ! ^Ve have got work to do ; we must he 
 hrave, sir; hrave I say, and compose ourselves. 
 Ah, my friend, you and I are of one age ; and this 
 is a heavy hlow for us : and we are friends no more; 
 it has made us brothers : she was to be my child as 
 well as yours ; well, now she is my child, and our 
 hearts they bleed together." At this, the truth 
 must he told, the two stout old men embraced one 
 another like two women, and cried together a little. 
 
 But that was soon over with such men as these. 
 They sat together and plunged into the details of 
 the expedition, and they talked themselves into 
 hope. 
 
 In a week the Springbok steamed down the 
 Channel on an errand inspired by love not reason ; 
 to cross one miglity ocean, and grope for a lost 
 daughter in another.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 We return to the cutter, and her Hving freight. 
 
 After an anxious but brief consultation, it was 
 agreed that their best chance was to traverse as 
 many miles of water as possible, while the wind 
 was fair ; by this means they would increase their 
 small chance of being picked up, and also of falling 
 in with land, and would, at all events, sail into a 
 lovely climate where intense cold was unknown, and 
 gales of wind uncommon. 
 
 Mr. Hazel advised them to choose a skipper, and 
 give him absolute power, especially over the provi- 
 sions. They assented to this. He then recom- 
 mended Cooper for that post. But they had not 
 fathomed the sterling virtues of that taciturn sea- 
 man ; so they offered the command to Welch, 
 instead. 
 
 " Me put myself over Sam Cooper ! " said he ; 
 " not likelv."
 
 250 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Then their choice fell upon Michael Morgan. 
 The other sailors' names were Prince, Fenner, and 
 Mackintosh. 
 
 Mr. Hazel urged Morgan to put the crew and 
 passengers on short allowance at once, viz. : two 
 biscuits a day, and four table-spoonsful of water : 
 but Morgan was a common sailor ; he could not see 
 clearly very far ahead ; and, moreover, his own ap- 
 petite counteracted this advice ; he dealt out a 
 pound of biscuit and an ounce of ham to each 
 person, night and morning, and a pint of water in 
 the course of the day. 
 
 Mr. Hazel declined his share of the ham, and 
 begged jMiss Eolleston, so earnestly, not to touch 
 it, that she yielded a silent compliance. 
 
 On the fourth day the sailors were all in good 
 spirits, though the provisions were now very low. 
 They even sang, and spun yarns. This was partly 
 owing to the beauty of the weather. 
 
 On the fifth day Morgan announced that he 
 could only serve out one biscuit per day : and this 
 sudden decline caused some dissatisfaction and 
 alarm. 
 
 Next day, the water ran so low, that only a tea- 
 spoonful was served out night and morning.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 251 
 
 There were murmurs and forebodings. 
 
 In all heavy trials and extremities some man or 
 other reveals great qualities, that were latent in 
 him, ay, hidden from himself. And this general 
 observation was verified on the present occasion, as 
 it had been in the Indian mutiny, and many other 
 crises. Hazel came out. 
 
 He encouraged the men, out of his multifarious 
 stores of learning. He related at length stories of 
 wrecks and sufferings at sea ; which, though they 
 had long been in print, were most of them new to 
 these poor fellows. He told them, among the rest, 
 what the men of the Bona Dea, waterlogged at sea, 
 had suffered — twelve days without any food but a 
 rat and a kitten — yet had all survived. He gave 
 them some details of the Wager, the Grosvenor, 
 the Corbin, the Medusa ; but, above all, a most 
 minute account of the Bounty, and Blights wonder- 
 ful voyage in an open boat, short of provisions. He 
 moralised on this, and showed his fellow-sufferers it 
 was discipline and self-denial from the first, that 
 had enabled those hungry spectres to survive, and 
 to traverse two thousand eight hundred miles of 
 water, in those very seas; and that in spite of 
 hunger, thirst, disease, and rough weather.
 
 252 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 By these means he diverted their minds, in some 
 degree, from their own calamity, and taught them 
 the lesson they most needed. 
 
 The poc-r fellows listened with more interest than 
 you could have thought possible under the pressure 
 of bodily distress. And Helen Eolleston's hazel 
 eye dwelled on the narrator with unceasing 
 wonder. 
 
 Yes, learning and fortitude, strengthened by those 
 great examples learning furnishes, maintained a 
 superiority, even in the middle of the Pacific ; and 
 not the rough sailors only, but the lady, who had 
 rejected and scorned his love, hung upon the brave 
 student's words : she was compelled to look up, 
 with wonder, to the man she had hated and 
 despised in her hours of ease. 
 
 On the sixth day the provisions failed entirely. 
 Not a crust of bread : not a drop of water. 
 
 At 4 p. M., several flying fish, driven into the air 
 by the dolphins and cat fish, fell into the sea again 
 near the boat, and one struck the sail sharply, and 
 fell into the boat. It was divided, and devoured 
 raw, in a moment. 
 
 The next morning the wind fell, and, by noon, 
 the ocean became like glass.
 
 FOUL PLAY. 253 
 
 The horrors of a storm Lave been often painted ; 
 but who has described, or can describe, the horrors 
 of a cahn, to a boat-load of hungry, thirsty crea- 
 tures, whose only chances of salvation or relief, are 
 wind and rain ? 
 
 The beautiful, remorseless, sky, was one vault 
 of purple, with a great flaming jewel in the centre, 
 whose vertical rays struck, and parched, and 
 scorched, the living sufferers; and blistered, and 
 baked, the boat itself, so that it hurt their hot 
 hands to touch it : the beautiful, remorseless ocean 
 was one sheet of glass, that glared in their blood- 
 shot eyes, and reflected the intolerable heat of 
 heaven upon these poor wretches, who were gnawed 
 to death with hunger ; and their raging thirst was 
 fiercer still. 
 
 Towards afternoon of the eighth day. Mackintosh 
 dipped a vessel in the sea, with the manifest in- 
 tention of drinking the salt water. 
 
 "Stop him!" cried Hazel, in great agitation; 
 and the others seized him, and overpowered him : 
 he cursed them with such horrible curses, that 
 Miss Kolleston put her fingers in her ears, and 
 shuddered from head to foot. Even this was new 
 to her, to hear foul language.
 
 254 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 A calm voice rose in the midst, and said : — 
 " Let us pray." 
 
 There was a dead silence, and Mr. Hazel kneeled 
 down and prayed loud and fervently ; and, while he 
 prayed, the furious cries subsided for a while, and 
 deep groans only were heard. He prayed for food, 
 for rain, for wind, for Patience. 
 
 The men were not so far gone but they could 
 just manage to say "Amen," 
 
 He rose from his knees, and gathered the pale 
 faces of the men together in one glance ; and saw 
 that intense expression of agony, which physical 
 pain can mould with men's features : and then he 
 strained his eyes over the brassy horizon ; but no 
 cloud, no veil of vapour was visible. 
 
 " Water, water everj'where, but not a drop to drink." 
 
 "We must be mad," he cried, "to die of thirst, 
 with all this water round us." 
 
 His invention being stimulated by this idea, and 
 his own dire need, he eagerl}'- scanned every thing 
 in the boat, and his eyes soon lighted on two 
 objects, disconnected in themselves, but it struck 
 him he could use them in combination. These 
 were a common glass bottle, and Miss Eolleston's
 
 FOUL PLAY. 255 
 
 life-preserving jacket, that served her for a couch, 
 He drew this garment over his knees, and con- 
 sidered it attentive!}' ; then untwisted the brass 
 nozzle through whicli the jacket was inflated, and 
 so left a tube, some nine inches in length, hanging 
 down from the neck of the garment. 
 
 He now applied his breath to the tube, and the 
 jacket swelling rapidly proved that the whole re- 
 ceptacle was air-tight. 
 
 He then allowed the air to escape. Next, he 
 took the bottle and filled it with w^ater from the 
 sea; then he inserted, with some difficulty, and 
 great care, the neck of the bottle into the orifice 
 of the tube : this done, he detached the wire of the 
 brass nozzle, and whipped the tube firmly round 
 the neck of the bottle. 
 
 " Now, light a fire," he cried ; " no matter what 
 it costs." 
 
 The fore thwart was chopped up, and a fire soon 
 spluttered and sparkled, for ten eager hands were 
 feeding it : the bottle was then suspended over it, 
 and, in due course, the salt-water boiled and threw 
 off vapour, and the belly of the jacket began to 
 heave and stir. Hazel then threw cold water upon 
 the outside, to keep it cool, and, while the men
 
 256 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 eagerly watched the bubbling bottle and swelling 
 bag, his spirits rose, and he took occasion to 
 explain that what was now going on under their 
 eyes was, after all, only one of the great processes 
 of Nature, done upon a small scale. " The clouds," 
 said he, " are but vapours drawn from the sea, by 
 the heat of the sun : these clouds are composed of 
 fresh water, and so the steam we are now raising 
 from salt-water will be fresh. "We can't make 
 whiskey, or brew beer, lads; but, thank Heaven, 
 we can brew water ; and it is worth all other liquors 
 ten times told." 
 
 A wild " Hurrah ! " greeted these words. 
 But every novel experiment seems doomed to 
 fail, or meet with some disaster. The water in the 
 bottle had been reduced too low, by vaporisation, 
 and the bottle burst suddenly, with a loud report. 
 That report was followed by a piteous wail. 
 
 Hazel turned pale at this fatal blow : but re- 
 covering himself, he said, " That is unfortunate : 
 but it was a good servant while it lasted : give me 
 the baler ; and. Miss Eolleston, can you lend me 
 a thimble?" 
 
 The tube of the life-preserver was held over the 
 baler, and out trickled a small quantity of pure
 
 FOUL I'LAY. 207 
 
 water, two tlumblesfiil a-piece. Even that, as it 
 passed over their swollen tongues and parched 
 swallows, was a heavenly relief; but, alas, the 
 supply was then exhausted. 
 
 Next day hunger seemed uppermost, and the 
 men gnawed and chewed their tobacco pouches : 
 and two caps, that had been dressed with the hair 
 on, were divided for food. 
 
 Xone was given to Mr. Hazel or Miss PioUeston ; 
 and this, to do the poor creatures justice, was the 
 first instance of partialit}' the sailors had shown. 
 
 The lady, though tormented with hunger, was 
 more magnanimous; she offered to divide the 
 contents of her little medicine chest; and the 
 globules were all devoured in a moment. 
 
 And now their tortures were aggravated by the 
 sight of abundance. They drifted over coral rocks, 
 at a considerable depth, but the water was so 
 exquisitely clear that they saw five fathoms down. 
 They discerned small fish drifting over the bottom ; 
 they looked like a driving cloud, so vast was their 
 number; and every now and then there was a 
 scurry among them, and porpoises and dog-fish 
 broke in and feasted on them. All this they saw, 
 yet could not catch one of those billions for their 
 
 YUL. I. S
 
 258 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 lives. Thus they Avere tantalized as well as 
 starved. 
 
 The next day was like the last, with this dif- 
 ference, that the sufferers could no longer endure 
 their torments in silence. 
 
 The lady moaned constantly: the sailors groaned, 
 lamented, and cursed. 
 
 The sun baked, and blistered ; and the water 
 glared. 
 
 The sails being useless, the sailors rigged them 
 as an awning, and salt water was constantly thrown 
 over them. 
 
 Mr. Hazel took a baler and drenched his own 
 clothes and j\liss Eolleston's upon their bodies. 
 This relieved the hell of thirst in some degree : 
 but the sailors could not be persuaded to prac- 
 tise it. 
 
 In the afternoon Hazel took Miss Rolleston's 
 Bible from her wasted hands, and read aloud the 
 forty-second Psalm. 
 
 "When he had done, one of the sailors asked 
 him to pass the Bible forward. He did so ; and in 
 half-an-hour the leaves were returned him ; the 
 vellum binding had been cut off, divided, and 
 eaten.
 
 FOUL TLAY. "259 
 
 He looketl piteously at the leaves, and, after a 
 while, fell upon his knees, and prayed silently. 
 
 He rose, and, with Miss Eolleston's consent, 
 offered the men the leaves as well. "It is the 
 Bread of Life for men's souls, not their bodies," 
 said he. "But God is merciful; I think he will 
 forgive you ; for your need is bitter." 
 
 Cooper replied that the binding was man's, 
 but the pages were God's ; and, either for this 
 or another more obvious reason, the leaves were 
 declined for food. 
 
 All that afternoon Hazel was making a sort of 
 rough spoon out of a fragment of wood. 
 
 The night that followed was darker than usual, 
 and, about midnight, a hand was laid on Helen 
 Ilolleston's shoulder, and a voice whispered, 
 " Hush ! say nothing. I have got something for 
 you." 
 
 At the same time, something sweet and de- 
 liciously fragrant, was put to her lips ; she opened 
 her mouth, and received a spoonful of marmalade. 
 Never did marmalade taste like that before. It 
 dissolved itself like Ambrosia over her palate, and 
 even relieved her parched throat in some slight 
 degree b^^ the saliva it excited. 
 
 s 2
 
 2 GO FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Nature could not be resisted ; her body took 
 whatever he gave. But her high mind rebelled. 
 
 " Oh, how base I am/' said she, and wept. 
 
 "Why, it is your own," said he, soothingly; "I 
 took it out of your cabin expressly for you." 
 
 "At least, oblige me by eating some yourself, 
 sir," said Helen, " or (with a sudden burst) I will 
 die ere I touch another morsel." 
 
 " I feel the threat, Miss Eolleston ; but I do not 
 need it, for I am very, very hungry. But no ; if I 
 take any, I must divide it all with them. But if 
 you will help me unrip the jacket, I will suck the 
 inside — after you." 
 
 Helen gazed at him, and wondered at the man, 
 and at the strange love which had so bitterly 
 offended her, when she was surrounded by com- 
 forts; but now it extorted her respect. 
 
 They unripped the jacket, and found some mois- 
 ture left. They sucked it, and it was a wonderful, 
 an incredible relief to their parched gullets. 
 
 The next day was a fearful one. Not a cloud in 
 the sky to give hope of rain ; the air so light, it 
 only just moved them along; and the sea glared, 
 and the sun beat on the poor wretches, now tortured 
 into madness with hunger and thirst.
 
 FOUL PLAY. '2G1 
 
 The body of man, in this dire extremity, can 
 suffer internal agony as acute as any that can be 
 inflicted on its surface by the knife ; and the cries, 
 the screams, the groans, the prayers, the curses, 
 intermingled, that issued from the boat, were not to 
 be distinguished from the cries of men horribly 
 wounded in battle, or wiitiihii;- under some terrible 
 o])eration in hospitals. 
 
 Oh, it was terrible and piteous to see and hear 
 the boat-load of ghastly victims, Avith hollow cheeks, 
 and wild -beast eyes, go groaning, cursing, and 
 shrieking loud, upon that fair glassy sea, below that 
 purple vault and glorious sun. 
 
 Towards afternoon, the sailors got together, for- 
 ward, and left Hazel and Miss Eolleston alone in 
 the stern. This gave him an opportunity of speak- 
 ing to her confidentially. He took advantage of it, 
 and said, " Miss Eolleston, I wish to consult you. 
 Am I justified in secreting the marmalade any 
 longer ? There is nearly a spoonful a-piece." 
 
 " No," said Helen, " divide it amongst them all. 
 Oh, if I had only a woman beside me, to pray with, 
 and cry with, and die witli : for die we must." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that," said Hazel, faintly, 
 but with a cool fortitude all his own. " Experience
 
 262 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 proves that the human bod}'' can subsist a prodigious 
 time on ver}' little food : and saturating the clothes 
 with Avater is, I know, the best way to alia)'- thirst. 
 And women, thank heaven, last longer than men^ 
 under privations." 
 
 " I shall not last long, sir," said Helen. " Look 
 at their ej-es." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 *' I mean that those men there are going to kill 
 me."
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 Hazel tliouglit lier reason -was going; and, in- 
 stead of looking at the men's eyes, it was hers he 
 examined. But no ; the sweet cheek was white, the 
 eyes had a fearful hollow all round them, hut, out of 
 that cave, the light hazel eye, pveternaturally large, 
 but calm as ever, looked out, full of fortitude, resig- 
 nation, and reason. 
 
 " Don't look at ?7if ," said she, quietly ; " but take 
 an opportunity and look at them. They mean to 
 kill me." 
 
 Hazel looked furtively round; and, being en- 
 lightened in part by the woman's intelligence, he 
 observed that some of the men were actually 
 glaring at himself and Helen RoUeston, in a 
 dreadful way. There was a remarkable change 
 in their eyes since he looked last. The pupils 
 seemed diminished, the whites enlarged; and, in 
 a word, the characteristics of humanity had, some-
 
 264 FOCL PLAY. 
 
 how, died out of those bloodshot orbs, and the 
 animal alone shone in them now ; the wild beast, 
 driven desperate by hunger. 
 
 What he saw, coupled with Helen's positive 
 interpretation of it, was truly sickening. 
 
 These men were six, and he but one. They had 
 all clasp knives ; and he had only an old penknife 
 that would be sure to double up, or break oflf, if a 
 blow were dealt with it. 
 
 He asked himself, in utter terror, what on earth 
 he should do. 
 
 The first thing seemed to be to join the men, and 
 learn their minds : it might also be as well to 
 prevent this secret conference from going further. 
 
 He went forward boldl}^ though sick at heart, 
 and said, " Well, my lads, what is it ? " 
 
 The men were silent directly, and looked sullenl}' 
 down, avoiding his eye ; yet not ashamed. 
 
 In a situation so terrible, the senses are 
 sharpened ; and Hazel dissected, in his mind, this 
 sinister look, and saw that Morgan, Prince, and 
 Mackintosh were hostile to him. 
 
 But Welch and Cooper he hoped were still 
 friendly. 
 
 " Sir," said Fenner, civilly but doggedly, " we
 
 FOUL TLAY. 265 
 
 are come to this now, that one must die, for the 
 others to live : and the greater part of us are for 
 casting lots all round, and let every man, and every 
 woman too, take their chance. That is fair, Sam, 
 isn't it ? " 
 
 " It is fair," said Cooper, witli a terrible dogged- 
 ness. " But it is hard," he added. 
 
 " Harder that seven should die for one," said 
 Mackintosh. " No, no : one must die for the 
 seven." 
 
 Hazel represented, with all the force language 
 possesses, that what they meditated was a crime, 
 the fatal result of which was known by experience. 
 
 But they heard in ominous silence. 
 
 Hazel went back to Helen EoUeston : and sat 
 down right before her. 
 
 " Well ! " said she, with supernatural calmness. 
 
 " You were mistaken," said he. 
 
 *' Then why have you placed yourself between 
 them and me. No ; no : their eyes have told me 
 they have singled me out. But what does it 
 matter ? AVe poor creatures are all to die ; and 
 that one is the happiest that dies first, and dies 
 unstained by such a crime. I heard every ivord 
 you said, sir ! "
 
 2G6 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 Hazel cast a piteous look on her, and, finding he 
 could no longer deceive her as to their danger, and 
 heing weakened by famine, fell to trembling and 
 crying. 
 
 Helen Eolleston looked at him with calm and 
 gentle pity. For a moment, the patient fortitude of 
 a woman made her a brave man's superior. 
 
 Night came, and, for the first time. Hazel claimed 
 two portions of the rum ; one for himself, and one 
 for Miss Rolleston. 
 
 He then returned aft, and took the helm. He 
 loosened it, so as to be ready to unship it in a 
 moment, and use it as a weapon. 
 
 The men huddled together forward ; and it was 
 easy to see that the boat was now divided into two 
 hostile camps. 
 
 Hazel sat quaking witli his hand on the helm, 
 fearing an attack every moment. 
 
 Both he and Helen listened acutely, and about 
 three o'clock in the morning, a new incident 
 occurred, of a terrible nature. 
 
 Mackintosh was heard to say " Serve out the 
 rum, no allowance," and the demand was instantly 
 comi)lied with by Morgan. 
 
 Then Hazel touched Miss llolleston on the
 
 FOUL PLA.Y. 267 
 
 shoulder, and insisted on her taking half what was 
 left of the marmalade : and he took the other half. 
 The time was gone by for economy: what they 
 wanted now was strength, in case the wild beasts, 
 maddened by drink, as well as hunger, should 
 attack thorn. 
 
 Already the liquor had begun to tell, and wild 
 hallos and yells, and even fragments of ghastly 
 songs, mingled with the groans of misery, in the 
 doomed boat. 
 
 At sunrise there was a great swell upon the 
 water, with sharp gusts at intervals; and on the 
 horizon, to windward, might be observed a black 
 spot in the sky, no bigger than a fly. But none 
 saw that ; Hazel's eye never left the raving wretches 
 in the forepart of the boat ; Cooper and Welch sat 
 in gloomy despair amidships ; and the others were 
 huddled together forward, encouraging each other 
 to a desperate act. 
 
 It was about eight o'clock in the morning, Helen 
 EoUeston awoke from a brief doze, and said, " Mr. 
 Hazel, I have had a strange dream. I dreamed 
 there was food, and plenty of it, on the outside of 
 this boat." 
 
 AVhile these strange words were yet in her mouth,
 
 268 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 three of the sailors suddenly rose up with their 
 knives drawn, and e^'^cs full of murder, and stag- 
 gered aft as fost as their enfeebled bodies could. 
 
 Hazel uttered a loud cr}', "Welch! Cooper! will 
 3'ou see us butchered ? " and rose to his feet. 
 
 Cooper put out his arm to stop j\Iackintosh , but 
 was too late. He did stop Morgan, however, and 
 said, " Come, none of that ; no foul play ! " 
 
 Irritated by this unexpected resistance, and mad- 
 dened b}'' driuk, Morgan turned on Cooper and 
 stabbed him ; he sank down with a groan. On this 
 Welch gave Morgan a fearful gash, dividing his 
 jugular, and was stabbed, in return, by Prince, but 
 not severely : these two grappled and rolled over 
 one another, stabbing and cursing at the bottom of 
 the boat ; meantime, Hazel had unshipped the helm, 
 and Mackintosh was received bj' him with a point 
 blank thrust in the face from it that staggered him, 
 though a very powerful man, and drove him back- 
 wards against the mast; but, in delivering this 
 tlirust, Hazel's foot slipped, and he fell with great 
 violence on his head and arm ; Mackintosh recovered 
 himself, and sprang upon the stern thwart with his 
 knife up and gleaming over Helen Kolleston. Hazel 
 writhed round where he lay, and struck him despe-
 
 FOUL PLAY. 269 
 
 rately on the knee \Yith the helm. The poor woman 
 knew only how to suffer ; she cowered a little, and 
 put up two feeble hands. 
 
 The knife descended. 
 
 But not upon that cowering figure.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 A PURPLE rippling line upon the water had for 
 some little time been coming down from the east 
 with great rapidity : but, bent on bloody work, the 
 crew had not observed it. The boat heeled over 
 under the sudden gust ; but Mackintosh had already 
 lost his footing under Hazel's blow, and the boom 
 striking him suddenly almost at the same moment, 
 he went clean over the gunwale into the sea ; he 
 struck it with his knife first. 
 
 All their lives were now gone if Cooper, who had 
 already recovered his feet, had not immediately cut 
 the sheet with his knife ; there was no time to slack 
 it ; and, even as it was, the lower part of the sail 
 was drenched, and the boat full of water. 
 
 " Ship the helm," he roared. 
 
 The boat righted directly the sheet was cut, the 
 wet sail flapped furiously, and the boat having way
 
 FOUL PLAT. 271 
 
 on her yielded to the hehn and wriggled slowly away 
 before the whistling wind. 
 
 Mackintosh rose a few yards astern, and swam 
 after the boat, with great glaring eyes ; the loose 
 sail was not drawing, but the wind moved the boat 
 onward. However, Mackintosh gained slowly, and 
 Hazel held up an oar like a spear, and shouted to 
 him that he must promise solemnly to forego all 
 violence, or he should never come on board alive. 
 
 Mackintosh opened his mouth to^ reply ; but, at 
 the same moment, his eyes suddenly dilated in a 
 fearful way, and he went under water, with a 
 gurgling cr3\ Yet, not like one drowning, but 
 with a jerk. 
 
 The next moment there was a great bubbling 
 of the water, as if displaced by some large crea- 
 tures struggling below, and then the surface was 
 stained with blood. 
 
 And, lest there should be any doubt as to the 
 -wretched man's fate, the huge back lin of a mon- 
 strous shark came soon after, gliding round and 
 round the rolling boat, awaiting the next victim. 
 
 Now, while the w'ater was yet stained with his 
 life blood, who, hurrying to kill, had met a violent 
 death, the unwounded sailor, Fenner, excited by the
 
 272 FOUL PLAT. 
 
 fracas, broke forth into singing, and so completed 
 the horror of a wild and awful scene : for still while 
 he shouted, laughed, and sang, the shark swam 
 calmly round and round, and the boat crept on, 
 her white sail bespattered with blood — which was 
 not so before — and in her bottom lay one man dead 
 as a stone ; and two poor wretches, Prince and 
 "Welch, their short-lived feud composed for ever, 
 sat openly sucking their bleeding wounds, to quench, 
 for a moment, their intolerable thirst. 
 
 Oh, little do we, who never pass a single day 
 without bite or sup, know the animal, Man, 'in these 
 dire extremities.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 At last Cooper ordered Fernier to hold bis jaw, 
 and come aft, and help sail the boat. 
 
 But the man, being now stark mad, took no 
 notice of the order. His madness grew on him, 
 and took a turn by no means uncommon in 
 these cases. He saw before him sumptuous 
 feasts, and streams of fresh water flowing 
 These he began to describe with great volu- 
 bility and rapture, smacking his lips, and ex- 
 ulting : and so he went on tantalizing them til 
 noon. 
 
 Meantime, Cooper asked Mr. Hazel if he could 
 sail the boat. The squall had passed, and the 
 breeze was now steady from the south-west. 
 
 *' I can steer," said Hazel, " but that is all. My 
 right arm is benumbed." 
 
 The silver}'^ voice of Helen RoUeston then uttered 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 274 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 brave and welcome words. " I will do whatever 
 3'ou tell me, Mr. Cooper." 
 
 "Long life to you, Miss!" said the wounded 
 seaman. He then directed her how to reef the sail, 
 and splice the sheet which he had been obliged to 
 cut ; and in a word, to sail the boat ; which she did 
 with some little assistance from Hazel. 
 
 And so they all depended upon her, whom some 
 of them had been for killing : and the blood-stained 
 boat glided before the wind. 
 
 At two P.M. Fenner jumped suddenly up, and 
 looking at the sea with rapture, cried out, " Aha ! 
 my boys, here's a beautiful green meadow ; and 
 there's a sweet brook with bulrushes : green, green, 
 green ! Let's have a roll among the daisies." And, 
 in a moment, ere any of his stiff and wounded 
 shipmates could put out a hand, he threw him- 
 self on his back upon the water, and sunk for 
 ever, with inexpressible rapture on his corpse- 
 like face. 
 
 A feeble groan was the only tribute those who 
 remained behind could afford him. 
 
 At three p.m. Mr. Hazel happened to look over
 
 FOUL PLAY. 275 
 
 the weather-side of the boat, as she heeled to lee- 
 ward under a smart breeze, and he saw a shell or 
 two fastened to her side, about eleven inches above 
 her keel. He looked again, and gave a loud hurrah. 
 " Barnacles ! barnacles ! " he cried. " I see them 
 sticking." 
 
 He leaned over, and, with some difficulty, de- 
 tached one, and held it up. 
 
 It was not a barnacle, but a curious oblong shell- 
 fish, open at one end. 
 
 At sight of this, the wounded forgot their wounds, 
 and leaned over the boat's side, detaching the shell- 
 fish with their knives. They broke them with the 
 handles of their knives, and devoured the fish. 
 They were as thick as a man's finger, and about an 
 inch long, and as sweet as a nut. It seems that in 
 the long calm these shell-fish had fastened on the 
 boat. More than a hundred of them were taken off 
 her weather-side, and evenly divided. 
 
 Miss Kolleston, at Hazel's earnest request, ate 
 only six, and these very slowly, and laid the rest 
 by. But the sailors could not restrain themselves ; 
 and Prince, in particular, gorged himself so fiercely 
 that he turned purple in the face, and began to 
 breathe very hard. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 FOUL PLAY. 
 
 That black speck on the horizon, had grown by 
 noon to a beetle, and by three o'clock to something 
 more like an elephant, and it now diffused itself 
 into a huge black cloud, that gradually overspread 
 the heavens ; and, at last, about half-an-hour before 
 sunset, came a peculiar chill, and then, in due 
 course, a drop or two fell upon the parched 
 wretches. They sat, less like animals than 
 like plants, all stretching towards their pre- 
 server. 
 
 Their eyes were turned up to the clouds, so were 
 their open mouths, and their arms and hands held 
 up towards it. 
 
 The drops increased in number, and praise went 
 up to heaven in return. 
 
 Patter, patter, patter; down came a shower, a 
 rain — a heavy, steady rain. 
 
 With cries of joy, they put out every vessel to 
 catch it ; they lowered the sail, and putting ballast 
 in the centre, bellied it into a great vessel to catch 
 it. They used all their spare canvas to catch 
 it. They filled the water cask with it ; they 
 filled the keg that had held the fatal spirit; and 
 all the time they were sucking the wet canvas 
 and then- own clothes, and their very hands
 
 FOUL PLAY. 277 
 
 and garments on which tlie life-giving drops 
 kept falling. 
 
 Then they set their little sail again, and prayed 
 for land to Him who had sent them wind and 
 rain. 
 
 END OF VOL. L 
 
 PRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WIIirEFRlARS.
 
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