THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 IRVINE 
 
 Commander 
 
 C. E. F. Cunninghame Graham, 
 M. V.O., Royal Navy
 
 THE GREEN HAND
 
 Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE CUPPLES 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE TWO FRIGATES " 
 
 SANDS & COMPANY 
 
 23 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C. 
 
 AND EDINBURGH.
 
 PR 
 
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 Czs
 
 LIFE OF GEORGE CUPPLES 
 
 (AUTHOR OF " THE GREEN HAND ") 
 
 rpXCEPTING for one short episode that, indeed, to 
 which we owe "The Green Hand" the life of 
 George Cupples was almost devoid of those external 
 incidents and vicissitudes which lend the interest of 
 romance to biographical narrative. It is therefore possible, 
 even within the narrow limits assigned to the present 
 sketch, to satisfy reasonable curiosity regarding the mere 
 facts of this distinguished author's career. 
 
 Cupples was, by virtue of two or three generations, a 
 son of the manse. His grandfather, the Rev. George 
 Cupples, was the minister of Swinton ; and his father, who 
 bore the same name, was also a minister. The George 
 Cupples with whom we have to do was born at Legerwood, 
 in Berwickshire, on the 2nd of August 1822. He was the 
 eldest of the family, which consisted, including George, of 
 three sons and one daughter. The father was a clergyman 
 of orthodox views, and from the descriptions of him that 
 have been left we may infer that the severity of his 
 Calvinism had imparted a decided severity to his character. 
 "He was much respected," says his son Joseph, "and, in- 
 deed, a good deal feared." The children were accordingly 
 treated by him with rigid strictness, modified by their 
 mother's greater leniency. 
 
 This stern master was George's only teacher during the 
 first ten years of his life. His books were an Arithmetic, 
 Cordery, Ruddiman's Rudiments, and Cornelius Nepos. In 
 his tenth year he and his brother Joseph went to school 
 at Earlston, "walking daily a weary four and a half miles 
 and back again to lessons at home ! " 
 
 George was in his twelfth year when his father was 
 
 " translated " to Stirling. While the family was settled 
 
 b v
 
 vi LIFE OF GEORGE CUPPLES 
 
 here, the wish to go to sea seems to have grown in the 
 boy's mind to a settled determination, fostered, it appears, 
 by his reading of novels, of which he was extremely fond. 
 He was sixteen years of age when his father, probably much 
 against his will, allowed him to be apprenticed as a sailor. 
 So it came about that the minister's son, nurtured on the 
 classics and Calvinism with quite different purposes in view, 
 made a voyage to India and back an eighteen months' 
 affair it turned out as a ship's boy. 
 
 On the nature of his experiences we need not speak 
 here, for whoever reads " The Green Hand " will under- 
 stand it without further aid. As his biographer strikingly 
 says : " It had a physical effect on him . . . made him 
 quiet and still in every expression, in every externality 
 of life afterwards." At all events, the young adventurer 
 returned home perfectly cured of his taste for the sea, 
 petitioned his father to get his indentures cancelled, and 
 declared he would content himself for the future on land. 
 
 Resuming his interrupted studies, he proceeded to Edin- 
 burgh University, where he took the Arts course. One of 
 the professors was Wilson, the famous " Christopher North," 
 for whom Cupples felt an admiration scarcely short of hero- 
 worship, and of whom he afterwards wrote a ' Memorial 
 Sketch." Later on he went through the Divinity course, 
 and had the privilege of sitting at the feet of the great 
 Chalmers, of whom he always writes with enthusiasm. 
 
 But though prepared and equipped for the paternal calling, 
 Cupples "recoiled from the stairs of the pulpit," more, it 
 would seem, from a growing inclination to literature than 
 from any heterodoxy in his religious views. He became a 
 contributor to Blackwood's Magazine, where his essay on 
 Emerson appeared in 1848. In Maga also was first published 
 " The Green Hand," that magnificent story of the sea which 
 we are now sending forth, to delight and enthral, we feel 
 sure, a new generation of readers. Two opinions may here
 
 LIFE OF GEORGE CUPPLES vii 
 
 be quoted of the story, to which each of our readers may 
 afterwards add his own. George MacDonald pronounced it 
 " the best sea-novel I have ever read " ; and Clark Russell, 
 whose right to speak on such a subject will scarcely be 
 disputed, declares " it is the colours of ' The Green Hand ' 
 that I have nailed to my mast." 
 
 Cupples was a constant and unwearied writer. Much of 
 his work was done for newspapers and periodicals, but even 
 the most ephemeral of his productions bore testimony to the 
 earnest and solid qualities of the man. That these qualities 
 were duly appreciated is proved by the frequent kindly 
 mention of him by men of the highest literary repute. 
 
 He was married, in 1858, to Ann Jane Douglas, an 
 Edinburgh lady, who, though much younger than her 
 husband, was singularly congenial in her tastes and pursuits. 
 She has written a large number of books, mostly for children. 
 
 Even before the time of his marriage, Cupples suffered 
 from the sequelce of hip^joint disease, and all the remainder 
 of his life he seems never to have been quite free from the 
 burden of ill-health. His home during his literary career 
 was in different parts of Edinburgh or its vicinity, latterly in 
 Newhaven, where he succumbed to heart-disease on the 17th 
 of October 1891. His tombstone testifies to the admiration 
 of his friends for his " varied literary gifts, and his simple, 
 upright, and reverent character." 
 
 One of the literary projects which Cupples had long 
 cherished has been happily carried out since his death in 
 the publication, by Messrs Blackwood, of a splendid volume 
 on "Scotch Deerhounds and their Masters." This volume 
 contains a fine portrait of the author, and also an interesting 
 memoir, written by Dr Hutchison Stirling, which is in itself 
 at once a tribute and a testimony to the lasting impression 
 which both the works and the character of George Cupples 
 made upon cultured and critical minds.
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 THE popularity of "The Green Hand," both among seamen 
 and others, as being true to life, has been wide. It has, 
 however, been thought desirable to issue a revised edition, 
 freed from various expressions now to a certain extent obso- 
 lete or otherwise unsuitable, so as to make it more thoroughly 
 fit for juvenile readers. 
 
 Some considerable time has now elapsed since the period 
 to which these adventures refer, not without producing a 
 good deal of alteration in much that goes on at sea, most 
 especially in the outward accessories of nautical life. The 
 spanking frigate of former days, for instance, is now no 
 more ; her place being, to the eye at any rate, ill taken up 
 by the ironclad screw-steamer. The mechanical appliances 
 have been improved, particularly in the merchant service, as, 
 for example, by the Patent-Reefing-Topsail, which is only one 
 of the countless new helps to the seaman. In navigation, 
 instead of now taking five, six, or seven months to reach 
 Australia from this country, the captain of any clipper-line 
 sailing ship would be ashamed of himself if he did not do 
 it within three. Not to multiply cases, Jack himself has, as 
 a rule, added the moustache to his exuberance of whisker ; 
 he thinks better than he used to do of these excellent insti- 
 tutions, the Sailors' Homes ; he is frequently a temperance 
 man, and has even been known to take the chair at a meet- 
 ing for vindication of sailors' rights. 
 
 But the state of the case, from a plain practical point of 
 view, is pretty well illustrated by an anecdote current at sea 
 among forecastle story-tellers. According to them, a singular 
 discovery was made, some forty years or so back, in Ports- 
 mouth harbour, aboard no less conspicuous a craft than that 
 immortal three-decker hulk, H.M.S. Victory herself, when 
 some alterations were being made down in her lower decks. 
 There certain of the dockyard people, having occasion to lift
 
 x AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 a small out-of-the-way lazarette hatch, down on the after- 
 part of the orlop, which had been long covered with old coils 
 of hawsers or the like, were surprised to find a man lying 
 beneath, who rubbed his eyes, stretched himself as if waking 
 out of sleep, and was finally brought up on deck. From 
 undoubted evidence, it turned out that he had been shut 
 down in joke, under the effect of some strange potion, his 
 rough messmates having, of course, intended to release him 
 before long ; but a sudden commotion of a more important 
 nature had arisen, owing to which they had forgotten him 
 until too late, being themselves appointed on active service 
 abroad. Hence it occurred that he had been left there, fast 
 enclosed and asleep, ever since shortly after Trafalgar, when 
 the Victory had come home with Nelson's body, and been 
 paid off, dismantled, and moored in her place as a hulk. 
 From a young reefer, this gentleman had meanwhile grown 
 into a grizzled oldster, on midshipman's half-pay, not likely 
 to have his services further required, seeing that the French 
 had long ceased to offer battle afloat. He was, however, 
 freely invited into professional society, where his opinions on 
 the changes that had taken place were naturally much looked 
 to. The things he is said to have principally remarked as 
 new, were that pigtails had gone out of fashion ; the midship- 
 men's messes were supplied with silver forks ; boatswains 
 in stimulating the men at work put more force into their 
 language, less into their rattans, and that the leading-blocks of 
 the mizzen-topsail-reef-tackles hung at the slings of the yard 
 instead of being as formerly at the rim of the round-top ; nor 
 did he ever feel sure that such changes were for the better. 
 This yarn, with a good moral tacked on at the end, in one 
 form or another, still affords entertainment to many a tarry 
 audience in ships outward bound, at second dog-watch time, 
 when rolling down the Trades ; particularly if spun by some 
 fluent ex-man-o'-war's-man from any of Her Majesty's iron- 
 clads. The said moral generally being to the effect, that 
 little difference is made in essentials at sea by progress in 
 the mere shoregoing world. 
 
 In the following story no great amount of correction 
 requires to be made in bringing it up to date ; and, except in 
 a few minor points, I have left this to be done by each 
 juvenile reader for himself, supposing the case that he should
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi 
 
 ever find reason in his own professional experience. The 
 terms larboard and starboard are both left in use throughout 
 the book, although the former has long been replaced by the 
 word port which, in my time, was chiefly confined to the 
 helm, when the resemblance of sound would always have 
 been dangerous at a sudden emergency. The cry " All lar- 
 bowlins ahoy ! " no longer is added to the summons that 
 rouses the sleepy watch below. But after everything is said, 
 the main realities of sea-life continue to be what they were. 
 There is constant truth in those grand words known to us all : 
 
 Thy shores are empires, changed in all save Thee 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play, 
 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow. 
 
 The strangeness of foreign sights and tropical wonders has 
 not altered ; nor the thrill of excitement amid tempest ; 
 wind and weather are no- way different ; the sailor feels as 
 much pride as ever in his ship's good qualities ; the occasion 
 of danger still brings out his manhood ; hearts-of-oak will 
 always be ready to man our floating bulwarks so long as 
 Britain remains. 
 
 If it were only in order to express a hearty belief in this, 
 I am glad to have had the opportunity afforded by the few 
 words prefixed to a fresh edition of "The Green Hand." 
 And to all you young readers who must ere long embark 
 upon the troubled sea of life, success and a good voyage to 
 you is the cordial wish of your sincere friend, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Edinburgh, August 31, 1878.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PACK 
 
 CHAPTER I . . ., .1 
 
 CHAPTER II . ^ . . . . 19 
 
 CHAPTER III . . . . . .38 
 
 CHAPTER IV ... .58 
 
 CHAPTER V .... .69 
 
 CHAPTER VI . . . . .79 
 
 CHAPTER VII . > . . . .89 
 
 CHAPTER VIII ...... 98 
 
 CHAPTER IX . . , . . . 10.9 
 
 CHAPTER X . .' . . . . 125 
 
 CHAPTER XI .. . . . . 135 
 
 CHAPTER XII . . . . .162 
 
 CHAPTER XIII . . . . . .170 
 
 CHAPTER XIV . . . . . 188 
 
 CHAPTER XV .... . . . 203 
 
 CHAPTER XVI . . . . . .218 
 
 CHAPTER XVII . v . . . 234 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII . . . . .248 
 
 CHAPTER XIX . . . . . .260 
 
 CHAPTER XX 270
 
 xi, CONTENTS 
 
 FAGB 
 
 CHAPTER XXI . 2 ^0 
 
 CHAPTER XXII . .310 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII . . 328 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV . . - 346 
 
 CHAPTER XXV ... .357 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI . . 372 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII . .390 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII ... 401 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX . .413 
 
 CHAPTER XXX ... 42 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI . . .429 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII . . .436
 
 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 H! Come, old ship, give us a yarn!" said 
 the younger forecastlemen to an old one, 
 on board of an Indiaman then swiftly 
 cleaving the waves of the western Atlantic 
 before the trade-wind, and outward-bound, 
 with a hearty crew and a number of 
 [passengers. It was the second of the two 
 dog-watches ; and, the ship being still in the region of evening 
 twilights, her men, in a good humour and with leisure, were 
 then usually disposed, as on this occasion, to make fast their 
 roaming thoughts by help of a good yarn, when it could be 
 got. Thertr were plenty of individuals, amongst a crew of 
 forty, calculated by their experience, or else by their flow of 
 spirits and fancy, to spin it. Each watch into which they 
 were divided had its especial story-teller, with whose merits 
 it twitted the other, and on opportunity of a . general re- 
 union, they were pitted against one another like two fighting- 
 cocks. The one was a grave, solemn, old North-Sea whaler, 
 with one eye, who professed to look down with contempt 
 upon all raw head-work, on navigation compared with sea- 
 manship, and fiction against fact. As for himself, he rested 
 all his fame upon actual experience, and told long dry 
 narratives of old shipmates, of his voyages and adventures, 
 and sometimes of the most incredible incidents, with a 
 genuine briny gusto, which pleased the veteran stagers be- 
 yond expression. They were full of points of seamanship 
 expedients for nice emergencies, tacks, knots, and splices ; 
 he gave the very conversation of his characters, with all the 
 " says he " and " says I " ; and one long recital of the old
 
 2 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 fellow's turned upon the question between himself and a new- 
 fangled second-mate, about the right way to set up back- 
 stays, in which he, the sailor, was proved correct by the loss 
 of the ship. The other story-teller, again, was a Wapping 
 man ; a lively, impudent young Cockney, who had the most 
 miraculous faculty of telling lies not only palpable lies, but 
 lies absolutely impossible ; yet they were so sublimely told 
 often, and he contrived to lug into them such a quantity of 
 gorgeous tinsel ornament, as, in his happier efforts, decidedly 
 to carry the day against his opponent. The London hand 
 had seen life too, of which, with respect to what is called the 
 world, his competitor was as ignorant as a child. He had his 
 sentimental vein, accordingly, in which he took the last love- 
 tale out of some "Penny Story-Teller" or fashionable novel he 
 had spelled over below, and made of it a parody that would 
 have thrown its unfortunate author into convulsions of horror, 
 and his critics into shrieks of laughter. The fine language of 
 lords and ladies, of romantic heroines, or of foreign counts and 
 bandits, was gravely retailed, and gravely listened to by a 
 throng of admiring jack-tars ; while the old whaler smoked 
 his pipe sulkily apart, gave now and then a scornful glance 
 out of his weather-eye, and called it "all high-die and soger's 
 gammon." 
 
 On this occasion, however, the group for'ard did not solicit 
 the services of either candidate, as they happened to have 
 present among them a shipmate who, by general confession, 
 " took the shine " out of both, although it was rarely they 
 could get hold of him. " Old Jack," the captain's private 
 steward, was the oldest seaman on board, and having known 
 the captain when the latter went to sea, had sailed with him 
 almost ever since he commanded a ship, as well as lived in his 
 house on shore. He did not now keep his watch, nor take 
 his "trick at the helm," except when he chose, and was 
 altogether a privileged sort of person, or one of " the idlers." 
 His name was Jacobs, which afforded a pretext for calling him 
 "Old Jack," with the sailor's fondness for that Christian 
 cognomen, which it is difficult to account for, unless because 
 Jonah and St John were seafaring characters, and the Roman 
 Catholic holy clerk St Nicholas was baptised " Davy Jones," 
 with sundry other reasons good at sea. But Old Jack was, at 
 any rate, the best hand for a yarn in the Gloucester Indiaman,
 
 A SEA STORY 3 
 
 and had been once or twice called upon to spin one to the 
 ladies and gentlemen in the cuddy. It was partly because of 
 his inexhaustible fund of good-humour, and partly from that 
 love of the sea which looked out through all that the old tar 
 had seen and undergone, and which made him still follow the 
 bowsprit, although able to live comfortably ashore. In his 
 blue jacket, his white canvas trousers edged with blue, and 
 glazed hat, coming forward to the galley to light his pipe, 
 after serving the captain's tea of an evening, Old Jack looked 
 out over the bulwarks, sniffed the sharp sea-air, and stood 
 with his shirt-sleeve fluttering as he put his finger in his pipe, 
 the very embodiment of the scene the model of a prime old 
 salt who had ceased to " rough it," but could do so yet if 
 needful. 
 
 " Come, old ship ! " said the men near the windlass, as 
 soon as Old Jack came forward, "give us a yam, will ye?" 
 " Yarn ! " said Jack, smiling " what yarn, mates ? 'Tis a 
 fine night, though, for that same the clouds flies high, and 
 she 's balling off a good ten knots sin' eight bells." "That 
 she is, bo' so give us a yarn now, like a reg'lar old Al, as 
 you are ! " said one. "'Vast there, mate," said a man-o'-war's- 
 man, winking to the rest " you 're always a-cargo-puddling, 
 Bill ! D' ye think Old Jack answers to any other hail nor the 
 Queen's ? I say, old three-decker in or'nary, we all wants one 
 o' your close-laid yarns this good night. Whaling Jim here 
 rubs his down with a thought overmuch o' the tar, an' young 
 Joe dips 'em in y allow varnish so if you says nay, why, we '11 
 all save our grog, and get slewed as soon as may be." " Well, 
 well, mates," said Jack, endeavouring to conceal his flattered 
 feelings, "what's it to be, though?" "Let's see," said the 
 man-o'-war's-man " ay, give us the Green Hand ! " " Ay, 
 ay, the Green Hand ! " exclaimed one and all. This " Green 
 Hand " was a story Old Jack had already related several times, 
 but always with such amusing variations, that it seemed on 
 each repetition a new one the listeners testifying their satis- 
 faction by growls of rough laughter, and by the emphatic way 
 in which, during a pause, they squirted their tobacco-juice on 
 the deck. What gave additional zest to this particular yarn, 
 too, was the fact of its hero being no less than the captain 
 himself, who was at this moment on the poop quarter-deck ot 
 the ship, pointing out something to a group of ladies by the
 
 4 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 round-house a tall good-looking man of about forty, with all 
 the mingled gravity and frank good-humour of a sailor in his 
 firm weather-tinted countenance. To have the power of 
 secretly contrasting his present position and manners with 
 those delineated by Old Jack's episode from the " skipper's " 
 previous biography, was the acme of comic delight to these 
 rude sons of Neptune, and the narrator just hit this point. 
 
 "Ye see," began he, "'tis about six-an' -twenty year gone 
 since I was an able seaman before the mast, in a small Indy- 
 man they called the Chester Castle, lying at that time behind 
 the Isle of Dogs in sight of Greiinidge Hospital. She was full 
 laden, but there was a strong breeze blowing up that wouldn't 
 let us get under weigh ; and, besides, we waited for the most 
 part of our hands. I had sailed with the same ship two 
 voyages before ; so, says the captain to me one day, ' Jacobs, 
 there 's a lady over at Greenwich yonder wants to send her 
 boy to sea in the ship for a sickening I s'pose. I 'm a-going 
 up to town myself,' says he, ' so take the small quarter-boat 
 and two of the boys, and go ashore with this letter, and see the 
 young fool. From what I 've heard,' says the skipper, ( he 's a 
 jackanapes as will give us more trouble than thanks. However, 
 if you find the lady 's bent on it, why she may send him aboard 
 to-morrow if she likes. Only we don't carry no young gentle- 
 men, and if he slings his hammock here, you must lick him 
 into shape. I '11 make a sailor of him, or else a cabin boy." 
 ' Ay, ay, sir/ says I, shoving the letter into my hat ; so in 
 half-an-hour's time I knocks at the door of the lady's house, 
 rigged out in my best, and hands over the screed to a fat 
 fellow with red breeches and yaller swabs on his shoulders, 
 like a captain of marines, that looked frightened at my hail, 
 for I thou't he 'd been deaf by the long spell he took before he 
 opened the door. In five minutes I hears a woman's v'ice ask 
 at the footman if there was a sailor a-waiting below. ' Yes, 
 marm,' says he ; and ( show him up/ says she. Well, I gives 
 a scrape with my larboard foot, and a tug to my hair, when I 
 gets to the door of sick a fine room above decks as ever you see, 
 all full o' tables, an' chairs, an' sofers, an' piangers, an' them 
 sort o' highflying consarns. There was a lady all in silks and 
 satins on one of the sofers, dressed out like a widow, with a 
 pretty little girl as was playing music out of a large port- 
 mankey and a picter of a man upon the wall, which I at
 
 A SEA STORY 5 
 
 once logged it down for his as she 'd parted company from. 
 ' Sarvint, marm/ says I. ' Come in, my good man/ says the 
 lady. 'You're a sailor?' says she asking, like, to be sure 
 if I warn't the cook's mate in dish-guise, I fancy. 'Well, 
 marm,' I raps out, ' I make bould to say as I hopes I am ! '- 
 an' I catches a sight o' myself in a big looking-glass behind 
 the lady, as large as our sky-sail and, being a young fellow 
 in them days, thinks I, ' Blow me, if Betsy Brown axed me 
 that now, I 'd up an' hax her if she war a woman ! ' ' Well,' 
 says she, ' Captain Steel tells me, in this here letter, he 's a-- 
 going to take my son. Now,' says she, ' I 'm sore against it 
 couldn't you say some'at to turn his mind ? ' ' The best way 
 for that, yer ladyship,' says I, ' is for to let him go, if it was 
 only the length of the Nore. The sea '11 tuni his stomich for 
 him, marm/ I says, 'an' then we can send him home by the 
 pilot.' ' He wanted for to go into the navy/ says the lady 
 again, ' but I couldn't think on that for a moment, on account 
 of this here fearful war ; an', after all, he '11 be safer in sailing 
 at sea nor in the army or navy doesn't you think so, my 
 good man ? ' 'It's all you knows about it/ thinks I ; 
 hows'ever, I said there wasn't a doubt on it. ' Is Captain 
 Steel a rash man ? ' says she. ' How so, marm ? ' says I, 
 some'at taken aback. ' I hope he does not sail at night, or 
 in storms, like too many of his profession, I 'in afeard/ says 
 she ; ' I hope he always weighs the anchor in such cases, very 
 careful.' ' Oh, in course/ says I, not knowin', for the life of 
 me, what she meant. I didn't like to come the rig over the 
 poor lady, seein' her so anxious like ; but it was no use, we 
 was on such different tacks, ye see. ' Oh yes, marm,' I says, 
 'Captain Steel al'ays reefs taups'ls at sight of a squall brewing 
 to wind'rd ; and then we 're as safe as a church, ye know, 
 with a man at the wheel as knows his duty.' 'This relieves 
 my mind/ the lady says, ' wery much ' ; but I couldn't think 
 why she kept sniffing all the time at her smelling-bottle, as 
 she wor agoin' to faint. ' Don't take it to heart so, yer lady- 
 ship/ I says at last ; ' I '11 look after the young gentleman till 
 he finds his sea-legs.' 'Thank you/ says she; 'but I beg 
 your parding, would ye be kind enough for to open the 
 winder, and look out if you see Edward ? I think he 's in 
 the garding I feel sich a smell of pitch and tar ! ' I hears 
 her say to the girl ! and says she to me again, ' Do you see
 
 6 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 Edward there f give a call to him, please. Accordently, I 
 couldn't miss sight of three or four young slips alongside, for 
 they made plenty of noise one of 'em on top of a water- 
 barrel smoking a sea-gar ; another singing out inside of it for 
 mercy ; and the rest roaring round about it, like so many 
 Bedlamites. ' No wonder the young scamp wants off to sea,' 
 thinks 1, f he 's got nothin' arthly to do but mischief.' 
 'Which be 's the young gentleman, marm ? ' says I, lookin' back 
 into the room ' is it him with the sea-gar and the red skull- 
 cap ? ' ' Yes,' says the lady ' call him up, please.' * Hallo ! ' 
 I sings out, and all runs off but him on the barrel, and 
 ' Hallo ! ' says he. ' You 're wanted on deck here, sir,' I says ; 
 and in five minutes in comes my young gemman, as grave as 
 you please. l Edward,' says his mother, ' this is one of Captain 
 Steel's men.' ' Is he going to take me ? ' says the young 
 fellow, with his hands in his pockets. ' Well, sir,' I says, ' 'tis 
 a very bad look-out, is the sea, for them as don't like it. 
 You '11 be sorry ten times over you 've left sich a berth as this 
 here, afore you 're down Channel.' The young chap looks 
 me all over from clue to earing, and says he, ' My mother told 
 you to say that ! ' ' No, sir,' says I, ' I says it on my own 
 hook.' f Why did you go yourself, then?' says he. 'I 
 couldn't help it,' answers I. ' Oh,' says the impertinent 
 little beggar, ' but you 're only one of the common sailors, 
 ain't you ? ' ' Split me ! ' thinks I, ' if I doesn't show you the 
 odds betwixt a common sailor, as ye call it, and a lubber of a 
 boy, before long ! ' But I wasn't goin' to let him take the 
 jaw out o' me, so I only laughed, an' says I, ' Why, I 'm 
 captain of the foretop at sea, anyhow.' ' Where's your 
 huniform, then ? ' says the boy, lowering his tone a bit. ' Oh,' 
 I says, ' we doesn't al'ays wear huniform, ye know, sir. This 
 here 's what we call ondress.' ' I 'm sorry, sir,' says the lady, 
 * I didn't ax you to sit down.' ' No offence at all, marm,' I 
 says, but I took a couple o' glasses of brandy as was brought 
 in. I saw 'twas no use goin' against the young chap ; so, 
 when he asked what he'd have to do aboard, I told him 
 nothing to speak of, except count the sails now and then, 
 look over the bows to see how the ship went, and go aloft 
 with a spy-glass. ' Oh,' says his mother at this, ' I hope 
 Captain Steel won't never allow Edward to go up those 
 dangerous ladders ! It is my pertic'lar request he should be
 
 A SEA STORY 7 
 
 punished if he does.' ' Sartinly, marm, I '11 mention it to the 
 captain/ I says, ' an' no doubt he '11 give them orders as you 
 speak on. The captain desired me to say the young gentleman 
 could come aboard as soon as he likes/ says I before goin' out 
 of the door. ' Very well, sir,' says the lady, ' I shall see the 
 tailor this same arternoon, and get his clothes, if so be it 
 must.' The last word I said was, I puts my head half in again 
 to tell 'em, ' There was no use gettin' any h uniforms at present, 
 seein' the ship's sailmaker could do all as was wanted arter- 
 wards, when we got to sea.' 
 
 " Well, two or three days after, the captain sent word to say 
 the ship would drop down with the morning tide, and Master 
 Collins had better be aboard by six o'clock. I went ashore 
 with the boat, but the young gemman's clothes warn't ready 
 yet ; so it was reg'lar made up he was to come on board from 
 Gravesend the day after. But his mother and an old lady, a 
 friend of theirs, would have it they'd go and see his bedroom, 
 and take a look at the ship. There was a bit of a breeze with 
 the tide, and the old Indyman bobbed up and down on it 
 in the cold morning ; you could hear the wash of the water 
 a-poppling on to her counter, with her running-gear blown out 
 in a bend ; and Missus Collins thought they'd never get up the 
 dirty black sides of the vessel, as she called 'em. The other 
 said her husband had been a captain, an' she laid claim to a 
 snatch of knowledge. ' Sailor,' says she to me, as we got 
 under the quarter, ' that there tall mast is the main-bowsprit, 
 ain't it? and that other is the gallant bowling you call it, 
 don't you ? ' says she. ' No doubt, marm/ says I, winking to 
 the boys not to laugh. ' It 's all right/ I says. Howsoever, 
 as to the bedroom, the captain showed 'em over the cabin, and 
 put 'em off by saying the ship was so out of order he couldn't 
 say which rooms was to be which yet, though they needn't fear 
 Master Ned would get all comfortable ; so ashore the poor 
 woman went, pretty well pleased, considerin' her heart was 
 against the whole consarn. 
 
 " Well, the next afternoon, lying off Gravesend, out comes 
 a wherry with young master. One of the men said there was 
 a midshipman in it. ' Midshipman be blowed ! ' says I ; ' did 
 ye ever see a reefer in a wherry, or sitting anywheres out o' 
 the starn-sheets ? It 's neither more nor less nor this precious 
 greenhorn as we 've got.' ' Why don't the bo'sun pipe to man
 
 8 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 side-ropes for him?' says t'other; but, 'my eye, Bob/ says he 
 to me, ' what a sight of traps the chap 's got in the boat ! 
 'twill be enough to heel the Chester Castle to the side he berths 
 upon, on an even keel. Do he mean to have the captain's 
 cabin, I wonder ! ' Up the side he scrambles, with the help 
 of a side-ladder, all togged out to the nines in a span-new blue 
 jacket and anchor buttons, a cap with a gould band, and white 
 ducks made to fit as jemmy-jessamy a looking fellow as you 'd 
 see of a cruise along London parks with the waterman sing- 
 ing out alongside to send down a tackle for the dunnage, 
 which it took a pair of purchase-blocks to hoist them out on 
 board. ' What 's all this ? ' says the mate, coming for'ard 
 from the quarter-deck. e 'Tis the young gemmari's traps, 
 sir,' I says. Says the mate, ' D' ye think we 've got spare 
 room to stow all this lumber ? Strike it down into the fore- 
 hold, Jacobs and get out a old blue shirt or two, and a Scotch 
 cap, for the young whelp first, if he wants to save that smooth 
 toggery of his for his mammy. You 're as green as cabbage, 
 I 'm feared, my lad ! ' says he. By this time the boy was 
 struck all of a heap, an' didn't know what to say when he 
 saw the boat pulling for shore, except he wanted to have a 
 sight of his bedroom. ' Jacobs,' says the mate, laughing like 
 an old bear, ' take him below, and show him his bedroom, as 
 he calls it ! ' So down we went to the half-deck, where the 
 carpenter, bo'sun, and three or four of the 'prentices, had 
 their hammocks slung. There I leaves him to overhaul his 
 big donkey of a chest, which his mother had stowed it 
 with clothes enough for a lord ambassador, but not a 
 blessed thing fit to use I wouldn't 'a given my bit of 
 a black locker for the whole on it, ten times over. There 
 was another choke-full of gingerbread, pots o' presarves, 
 pickles, and bottles ; and, thinks I, 'The old lady didn't 
 know what shares is at sea I reckon. 'Twill all be gone 
 for footing, my boy, before you 've seen blue water, or 
 I 'm a Dutchman.' 
 
 " In a short time we was up anchor, going down with a fast 
 breeze for the Nore ; and we stood out to sea that night, 
 having to join a convoy off Spithead. My gentleman was 
 turned in all standing, on top o' some sails below ; and next 
 day he was as sick as a greenhorn could be, cleaning out his 
 land-ballast where he lay, nor I didn't see him till he 'd got
 
 A SEA STORY 9 
 
 better. 'Twas blowing a strong breeze, with light canvas all 
 in aloft, and a single reef in the tops'ls ; but fine enough for 
 the Channel, except the rain when what does I see but the 
 1 Green Hand ' on the weather quarter-deck, holding on by 
 the belaying pins, with a yumbereller over his head. The 
 men for'ard was all in a roar, but none of the officers was on 
 deck save the third mate. The mate goes up to him, and 
 looks in his face. ' Why/ says he, ' you confounded long- 
 shore, picked-up son of a greengrocer, what are you after ? ' 
 an' he takes the article a slap with his larboard-flipper, as 
 sent it flying to leeward like a puff of smoke. ' Keep off the 
 quarter-deck, you lubber,' says he, giving him a wheel down 
 into the lee-scuppers ' it 's well the captain didn't catch ye ! 
 Come aft here, some of ye,' sings out the third mate again, 
 * to brace up the mainyard ;~ahd you, ye lazy beggar, clap on 
 this moment and pull ! ' At this the greenhorn looks round 
 doubtful, like, then at last he takes out a pair o' double gloves, 
 shoves his fingers into 'em, and tails on to the rope behind. 
 ' Well ! ' says the mate, ' if I ever see the likes o' that ! 
 Jacobs, get a tar-bucket and dip his fists in it ; larn him what 
 his hands were made for ! I never could a-bear to see a fellow 
 ashore with his flippers shoed like his feet ; but at sea, con- 
 found me, it would make a man green-sick over again.' If 
 you 'd only seen how Master Collins looked when I shoved his 
 missy fingers into the tar, and chucked them gloves o'board ! 
 The next moment he ups fist and made a slap at me, when in 
 goes the brush in his mouth ; the mate gives him a kick 
 astarn ; and the young chap went sprawling down into the 
 half-deck ladder, where the carpenter had his shavin' -glass 
 rigged to crop his chin and there he gets another clip across 
 the jaws from Chips. ' Now,' says the mate, ' the chap '11 be 
 liker a sailor to-morrow. He 's got some spunk in him, though, 
 by the way he let drive at you, my lad,' says he ; ' that fellow '11 
 either catch the cat or spoil the monkey. Look after him, 
 Jacobs, my lad,' says the third mate ; ' he 's in my watch, and 
 the captain wants him to rough it out ; so show him the 
 ropes, and let him taste an end now an' then. Ha, ha, ha ! ' 
 says he, again, laughing, ' 'tis the first time I ever see a 
 embrella loosed out at sea, and but the second I 've seen 
 brought aboard even. He 's the greenest hand, sure enough, 
 it 's been my luck to come across ! But green they say 's
 
 10 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 nigh to blue, so look out if I don't try to make a sailor of 
 the young spark ! ' 
 
 " Well, for the next three or four days the poor fellow was 
 knocked about on all hands ; he 'd got to go aloft to the 
 'gallant cross-trees, and out on the yard foot-ropes the next 
 morning, before breakfast ; and, coming down, in course, ye 
 know, the men made him fast till he sent down the key of his 
 bottle-chest to pay his footing. If he closed his eyes a 
 moment in the watch, slash comes a bucketful o' Channel water 
 over him. The third mate would keep him two hours on end, 
 larnin' to rig out a sterns'l boom, or grease a royal mast. He 
 led a dog's life of it, likewise, in the half-deck ; bein' last 
 come, in course, he had al'ays to go and fill the bread-barge, 
 scrub the planks, an' do all the dirty jobs. Them owners' 
 'prentices, sich as he had for messmates, is always worse to their 
 own kind by far nor the ' camming sailors,' as the longshore 
 folks calls a foremast-man. I couldn't help takin' pity on the 
 poor lad, bein' the only one as had known the way of his up- 
 bringing, and I feels a sort of a charge of him like ; so one 
 night I gets a quiet spell with him in the watch, an' as soon 's 
 I fell to speak kind-ways, there I seed the water stand i' the 
 boy's eyes. ' It 's a good thing,' says he, tryin' to gulp it 
 down ' it 's a goo good thing mother don't see all this ! ' 
 ' Ho, ho ! ' says I, ' my lad, 'tis all but another way of bein' 
 sea-sick ! You doesn't get the land cleared out, and sniff the 
 blue breeze nat'ral like, all at once ! Hows'ever, my lad,' says 
 I, ' take my advice bring your hammock an' chest into the 
 foc'sle ; swap half your fine clothes for blue shirts and canvas 
 trousers ; turn to, ready and willing, an' do all that's asked 
 you you '11 soon find the differings betwixt the men and a few 
 petty officers an' 'prentices half out their time. The men '11 
 soon make a sailor of you ; you '11 see what a seaman is ; you '11 
 larn ten times the knowledge ; an', add to that, you '11 not be 
 browbeat and looked jealous on ! ' 
 
 " Well, next night, what does he do but follers what I said, 
 and afore long most of his troubles was naterally over ; nor 
 there wasn't a willin'er nor a readier hand aboard, and every 
 man was glad to put Ned through anything he 'd got to do. 
 The mates began to take note on him ; and though the 
 'prentices never left off calling him the Green Hand, before 
 we rounded the Cape he could take his wheel with the best
 
 A SEA STORY 11 
 
 of them, and clear away a sternsail out of the top in handsome 
 style. We were out ten months, and Ned Collins stuck to the 
 foc'sle throughout. When we got up the Thames, he went 
 ashore to see his mother in a check shirt and canvas trousers 
 made out of an old royal, with a tarpaulin hat I built for him 
 myself. He would have me to come the next day over to the 
 house for to have a supper ; so, havin' took a kindness to the 
 young chap, why, I couldn't say nay. There I finds him in 
 the midst of a lot o' soft-faced slips and young ladies, a 
 spinning the wonderfullest yarns about the sea and the East 
 Ingees, makin' em swallow all sorts of horse-marines' non- 
 sense, about marmaids, sea-serpents, and sich like. ' Hallo, my 
 hearty ! ' says he, as soon as he saw me, ( heave a-head here, 
 and bring to an anchor in this here blessed chair. Young 
 ladies,' says he, ' this is Bob Jacobs, as I told you kissed a 
 marmaid his-self. He's a wonderful hand, is Bob, for the 
 fair ones ! ' You may fancy how flabbergasted I w r as at this, 
 though the young scamp was as cool as you please, and 
 wouldn't ha' needed much to make him kiss 'em all round ; 
 but I was al'ays milk-and-water alongside of women, if they 
 topped at all above my rating. ' Well,' thinks I, ' my lad, I 
 wouldn't ha' said five minutes agone, there was anything of 
 the green about ye yet, but I see 'twill take another voy'ge to 
 wash it all out.' For to my thinkin', mates, 'tis more of a 
 land-lubber to come the rig over a few poor creaters that 
 never saw blue water, than not to know the ropes you warn't 
 told. ' Oh, Mister Jacobs ! ' says Missus Collins to me that 
 night, before I went off, ' d' ye think Edward is tired of that 
 'ere horridsome sea yet ? ' ' Well, marm,' I says, ' I 'm afeared 
 not. But I '11 tell ye, marm,' says I, ' if you wants to make 
 him cut the consarn, the only thing ye can do is to get him 
 bound apprentice to it. From what I 've seen of him, he 's a 
 lad that won't bear aught again his liberty ; an' I do believe, 
 if he thought he couldn't get free, he 'd run the next day ! ' 
 Well, after that, ye see, I didn't know what more turned up 
 of it ; for I went round to Hull, myself, and ships in a timber- 
 craft for the Baltic, just to see som'at new. 
 
 " Now, one day, the third voy'ge from that time, no sooner 
 does we get up to Blackwall than we hears of a strong press 
 from the men-o'-war ; and as I 'd got a desperate mislike to 
 the sarvice, there was a lot of us marchantmen kept stowed
 
 12 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 away close in holes an' corners till we could suit ourselves. 
 At last we got well tired, and a shipmate o' mine and I 
 wanted to go and see our sweethearts over in the town. So 
 we hired the slops from a Jew, and makes ourselves out to be 
 a couple o' watermen, with badges to suit, a-carrying of a 
 large parcile and a ticket on it. In the afternoon we came 
 back again within sight of the Tower, where we saw the 
 coast was clear, and makes a fair wind along Rosemary Lane 
 and Cable Street. Just then we saw a tall young fellow, in 
 a brown coat, an' a broad-brim hat, a-standing in the door of 
 a shop, with a paper under his arm, on the lookout for some- 
 one. ' Twig the Quaker, Bob ! ' my shipmate says to me. 
 As soon as he saw us, out the Quaker steps, and says he to 
 Bill, in a sleepy sort of a v'ice, ' Friend, thou 'rt a waterman, 
 I b'lieve ? ' -' Yes,' says Bill, with an oath, ' that 's what we 
 hails for. D' ye want a boat, master ? ' ' Swear not, friend,' 
 says the broad-brim ; ' but what I want is this, you see. We 
 have a large vessel, belonging to our house, for to send to 
 Havannah, and willin' to give double wages, but we can't 
 find any marineers at this present time for to navigate. 
 Now/ says he, ' I s'pose this onfortunate state o' things is on 
 account of the sinful war as is a-goin' on they 're afraid of 
 the riskses. Hows'ever, my friends,' says he, 'perhaps, as 
 you knows the river, thee could put us upon a way of engagin' 
 twenty or more bold marineers, as is not afeared of venturing 
 for good pay ? ' and with this he looks into his papers ; and 
 says Bill, ' Well, sir, I don't know any myself do you, Bob ? ' 
 and he gives me a shove, and says under the rose, ' No fear, 
 mate,' says Bill, ' he 's all over green don't slip the chance 
 for all hands of us at Jobson's.' ' Why, master/ I says, ' what 
 'ud ye give them marineers you speaks on, now ? ' ' Four 
 pound a month, friend/ says he, looking up ; ' but we gives 
 tea in place of spirits, and we must have steady men. We 
 can't wait, neither/ says he, 'more nor three days, or the 
 vessel won't sail at all.' 'My eye! ' says Bill, ''twon't do to 
 miss, Bob ! stick to him, that 's all/ ' Well, sir/ I says, ' I 
 thinks I does have a notion of some'at of the sort. If you 
 sends your papers to Jobson's Tavern to-night, second lane 
 'twixt Barnaby Street and the Blue Anchor Road, over the 
 water, why, I might get ye as many hands for to sign as you 
 wants.' ' Thanks, friend/ says the young broad-brim, ' I will
 
 A SEA STORY 13 
 
 attend to thine advice.' So he bids us good-day, and stepped 
 into his door again. 'Bill,' says I, as we went off, 'now I 
 think on it, I can't help a notion I 've seen that chap's face 
 afore.' 'Very like/ says Bill ; 'for the matter o' that, 'tis the 
 same with me them broad-brims is so much of a piece. But 
 that 'ere fellow don't know nothin' of ships, sure enough, or 
 he wouldn't offer what he did, and the crimps' houses all of a 
 swarm with hands ! ' 
 
 " ' Take my word, mate,' says I, ' it 's a paying trip, or he 
 wouldn't do it leave a Quaker alone for that. Why, the 
 chap 's a parfit youngster, but I am blessed if he don't look as 
 starched as if he ''d sat over a dask for twenty year ! ' 
 
 "Well, strike me lucky, mates all, if the whole affair warn't 
 a complete trap ! Down comes a clerk with the papers, sure 
 enough ; but in ten minutes more the whole blessed lot of us 
 was puckalowed, and hard an' fast, by a strong press-gang. 
 They put us into a cutter off Redriff Stairs, and the next noon 
 all hands was aboard of the Pandora frigate at Sheerness. 
 The first time of being mustered on deck, says Bill to me, 
 'Cuss my eyes, Bob, if there isn't the 'farnal Quaker!' I 
 looked, and sees a midshipman in uniform like the rest, and 
 so it was. ' The sly, soft-sawderin' beggar ! ' says I. ' All 
 fair in war, and a press, mate!' says one o' the frigate's men. 
 All the while I kept looking and looking at the midshipman ; 
 and at last I says to Bill when we got below, giving a slap to 
 my thigh, ' Blessed if it ain't ! it 's the Green Hand himself! ' 
 ' Green Hand ! ' says Bill, sulky enough, ' who 's the Green 
 Hand ? Blow me, Bob, if I don't think we 're the green 
 hands ourselves, if that 's what you 're upon !' So I told him 
 the story about Ned Collins. 'Well,' says he, 'if a fellow was 
 green as Chinee rice, cuss me if the reefers' mess wouldn't 
 take it all out on him in a dozen watches. The softest thing 
 I know, as you say, Bob, just now, it's to come the smart 
 hand when you 're a lubber ; but to sham green after that 
 style, ye know, why, it is a mark or two above either you or 
 I, messmate. So, for my part, I forgives the young scamp, 
 'cause I ought to ha' known better.' 
 
 " By the time the frigate got to sea the story was blowed 
 over the whole main-deck ; many a good laugh it gived the 
 different messes ; and Bill, the midshipman, and me, got the 
 name of the ' Three Green Hands.'
 
 14 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 "One middle-watch Mister Ned comes for'ard by the booms 
 to me, and says he, 'Well, Bob Jacobs, you don't bear a 
 grudge, I hope ? ' ' Why,' says I, ' Mister Collins, 'twould be 
 mutiny now, I fancy, you being my officer.' So I gave a 
 laugh ; but I couldn't help feelin' hurt a little, 'twas so like a 
 son turnin' against his father, as 'twere. 'Why, Bob,' says 
 he, ' did ye think me so green as not to know a seaman when 
 I saw him ? I was afeared you 'd know me that time.' ' Not 
 I, sir,' I answers ; ' why, if we hadn't sailed so long in com- 
 pany, I wouldn't know ye now ! ' So Master Ned gived me 
 to understand it was all for old times he wanted to ship me 
 in the same craft ; but he knew my misliking to the sarvice, 
 though he said he 'd rather ha' lost the whole haul of 'em 
 nor myself. So many a yarn we had together of a dark 
 night, and for a couple of years we saw no small sarvice in 
 the Pandora. But if ye 'd seen Ned, the smartest reefer 
 aboard, and the best liked by the men, in the fore-tops'l bunt 
 in a gale, or over the main-deck hatch, with an enemy's 
 frigate to leeward, or on a spree ashore at Lisbon or Naples, 
 you wouldn't ha' said there was anything green in his eye, I 
 warrant ye ! He was made acting-leftenant of a prize he 
 cut out near Chairboorg, before he passed examination ; so he 
 took me for his prize-bo'sun, and carried her into Plymouth. 
 Soon after that the war was ended, and all hands of the 
 Pandora paid off. Master Ned got passed with flying colours, 
 and confirmed leftenant besides, but he had to wait for a 
 ship. He made me say where I 'd be found, and we parted 
 company for about a year. 
 
 "Well, I was come home from a short trip, and one day 
 Leftenant Collins hunts me up at Wapping Docks, where I 'd 
 had myself spliced, six years before, to Betsy Brown, an' was 
 laid up for a spell, having seen a good deal of the sea. Ye 
 must know the young leftenant was fell deep in love with a 
 rich Indy naboob's daughter, which had come over to take 
 her back to the East Ingees. The old fellow was hard close- 
 hauled again the match, notwithstanding of the young folks 
 makin' it all up ; so he 'd taken out berths aboard of a large 
 company's ship, and bought over the captain on no account 
 to let any king's navy man within the gangways, nor not a 
 shoulder with a swab upon it, red or blue, beyond the ship's 
 company. But, above all, the old tyrant wouldn't have a
 
 A SEA STORY 15 
 
 blue-jacket, from stem to starn, if so be he 'd got nothing ado 
 but talk sweet ; I s'pose he fancied his girl was mad after the 
 whole blessed cloth. The leftenant turns over this here log 
 to me, and, says he, 'I'll follow her to the world's end, if 
 need be, Bob, and cheat the old villain ! ' ' Quite right, too, 
 sir/ says I. ' Bob,' says he, ' I '11 tell you what I wants you 
 for to do. Go you and enter for the Seringapatam at Blackwall, 
 if you 're for sea just now ; I 'm goin' for to s'cure my passage 
 myself, an' no doubt doorin' the voy'ge something '11 turn up 
 to set all square; at any rate, I'll stand by for a rope to pull!' 
 ' Why, here 's a rum go! ' thinks I to myself. ' Is Ned Collins 
 got so green again, spite of all that 's come and gone, for to 
 think the waves is a-goin' to work wonders, or ould Neptune 
 under the line 's to play the parson and splice all ! ' ' Well, 
 sir,' I says, ' but don't you think the skipper will smoke your 
 weather-roll, sir, at sea, as you did Bill Pikes an' me, you 
 know, sir ? ' says I. ' Oh, Bob, my lad,' says the leftenant, 
 ' leave you that to me. The fellow most onlikest to a sailor 
 on the Indyman's poop will be me, and that 's the way you '11 
 know me.' 
 
 "Well, ship I does with the Seringapatam for Bombay 
 plenty of passengers she had ; but only clerks, naboobs, old 
 half-pay fellows, and ladies, not to speak o' children and 
 nurses, black and white. She sailed without my seem' 
 Leftenant Collins, so I thought I was to hear no more on it. 
 W T hen the passengers began to muster on the poop, by the 
 time we got out o' Channel, I takes a look over the ladies, in 
 coilin' up the ropes aft, or at the wheel ; I knowed the said 
 girl at once by her good looks, and the old fellow by his 
 grumpy, yallow frontispiece. All on a sudden I takes a note 
 of a figger coming up from the cuddy, which I made out at 
 once for my Master Ned, spite of his wig and a pair o' high- 
 heeled boots, as gave him the walk of a chap a-treading 
 amongst eggs. When I hears him lisp out to the skipper at 
 the round-house if there was any fear of wind, 'twas all I 
 could do to keep the juice in my cheek. Away he goes up to 
 windward, holding on by everything, to look over the bul- 
 warks behind his sweetheart, givin' me a glance over his 
 shoulder. At night I see the two hold a sort of collogue 
 abaft the wheel, when I was on my trick at the helm. After 
 awhile there was a row got up amongst the passengers, with
 
 16 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 the old naboob and the skipper, to find out who it was that 
 kept a-singing every still night in the first watch, alongside 
 of the ladies' cabin, under the poop. It couldn't be cleared 
 up, hows' ever, who it was. All sorts o' places they said it 
 corned from mizzen - chains, quarter - galleries, lower - deck 
 ports, and davit-boats. But what put the old hunks most in 
 a rage was, the songs was every one on 'em such as ' Rule 
 Britannia,' ' Bay of Biscay,' ' Britannia's Bulwarks,' and ' All 
 in the Downs.' The captain was all at sea about it, and none 
 of the men would say anything, for by all accounts 'twas the 
 best pipe at a sea-song as was to be heard. For my part, I 
 knowed pretty well what was afloat. One night a man corned 
 for'ard from the wheel, after steering his dog-watch out, and 
 'Well, I'm blessed, mates,' says he on the foc'sle, 'but that 
 chap aft yonder with the lady he 's about the greenest hand 
 I 've chanced to come across. What d' ye think I hears him 
 say to old Yallow-chops an hour agone ? ' ' What was it, 
 mate ? ' I says. ' Says he, " Do you know, Sar Chawls, is the 
 hoshun reelly green at the line green ye know, Sar Chawls, 
 reelly green?" "No, sir," says the old naboob, "'tis blue." 
 " Whoy, ye don't sa ay so ! " says the young chap, pullin' a 
 long face.' f Why, Jim,' another hand drops in, ' that's the 
 very chap as sings them first-rate sea-songs of a night. I 
 seed him myself come out o' the mizzen-chains ! ' ' Hallo ! ' 
 says another at this, ' then there 's some'at queer i' the wind ! 
 I thought he gave rather a weather-look aloft, comin' on deck 
 i' the morning. I '11 bet a week's grog that chap 's desarted 
 from the king's flag, mates ! ' Well, ye know, hereupon I 
 couldn't do no less nor shove in my oar, so I takes word from 
 all hands not to blow the gaff,* an' then gives 'em the whole 
 yarn to the very day, about the Green Hand for somehow or 
 another I was al'ays a yarning sort of a customer. As soon 
 as they heard it was a love consarn, not a man but swore to 
 keep a stopper on his jaw ; only, at findin' out he was a 
 leftenant in the Royal Navy, all hands was for touching hats 
 when they went past. 
 
 " Hows' ever, things went on till we 'd crossed the line a 
 
 good while ; the leftenant was making his way with the girl 
 
 at every chance. But, as for the old fellow, I didn't see he 
 
 was a fathom the nearer with him ; though, as the naboob 
 
 * Let out the secret.
 
 A SEA STORY 17 
 
 had never clapped eyes on him to know him like, 'twan't 
 much matter before heaving in sight o' port. The captain of 
 the Indyman was a rum, old-fashioned codger, all for plain 
 sailing and old ways I shouldn't say overmuch of a smart 
 seaman. He read the sarvice every Sunday, rigged the 
 church an' all that, if it was anything short of a reef-taups'l 
 breeze. 'Twas queer enough, ye may think, to hear the old 
 
 boy drawling out, ' As 'twas in the beginning ' then, in 
 
 the one key, ' Haul aft the mainsheet ' ' is now, and ever 
 
 shall be ' ' Small pull with the weather brace ' ' Amen 
 
 ' ' Well the mainyard ' ' The Lord be with you ' 
 
 ' Taups'l yard well ! ' As for the first orficer, he was a dandy, 
 know-nothing young blade, as wanted to show off before the 
 ladies ; and the second was afraid to call the nose on his face 
 his own, except in his watch ; the third was a good seaman, 
 but ye may well fancy the craft stood often a poor chance of 
 being rightly handled. 
 
 " 'Twas one arternoon watch, off the west coast of Africay, 
 as hot a day as I ever mind on, we lost the breeze with a swell, 
 and just as it got down smooth, land was made out, low upon 
 the starboard bow, about south-east-and-by-sou', as near as 
 may be. The captain was turned in sick below, and the first 
 orficer on deck. I was at the wheel myself, and I hears him 
 say to the second as how the land breeze would come off at 
 night. A little after, up comes Leftenant Collins, in his black 
 wig and his 'long-shore hat, an' he begins to squint over the 
 starn to nor' west' ard. 'Jacobs, my lad,' whispers he to me, 
 ' how do ye like the looks o' things ? ' ' Not overmuch, sir,' 
 says I ; e small enough sea-room, leastways for a sky like that 
 'ere.' Up goes he to the first officer, after a bit. ' Sir,' 
 says he, ' do ye notice how we 've risen the land within 
 the last hour and a half? ' ' No, sir,' says the first mate. 
 ' What d'ye mean ? ' * Why, there 's a current here, takin* 
 us inside the point/ says he. 'Sir,' says the Company's 
 man, ' if I didn't know what 's what, d' ye think I 'd 
 learn it off a gentleman as is so confounded green ? 
 There's nothing of the sort,' he says. 'Look on the 
 starboard quarter, then,' says the leftenant, 'at the man- 
 o'-war bird afloat yonder with its wings spread. Take 
 three minutes' look ! ' says he. Well, the mate did take 
 a minute or two's squint through the mizzen-shroud, and
 
 18 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 pretty blue he got, for the bird came abreast of the ship 
 by that time. 
 
 " 'It's a underdrift,' says the leftenant, wonderful know- 
 ing-like 'though it's nothing on the surfage, look ye, why, 
 with the draught the ship has it 's a-taking her along like a 
 tideway, below ! Now, d'ye think you 'd weather that there 
 point two hours after this, if a gale come on from the nor'- 
 west, sir ? ' ' Well,' says the first mate, ' I dare say we 
 shouldn't but what of that ? ' ' Why, if you 'd cruised for 
 six months off the coast of Africa, as I 've done,' says the 
 leftenant, ' you 'd think there was something ticklish about 
 that white spot in the sky, to nor'-west ! But on top o' that, 
 the weather-glass is fell a good bit since four bells.' 
 'Weather-glass!' the mate says, 'why, that don't matter 
 much in respect of a gale, I fancy.' Ye must understand, 
 weather-glasses wan't come so much in fashion at that time, 
 except in the Royal Navy. ' Sir,' says the mate again, ' mind 
 your business, if you 've got any, and I '11 mind mine ! ' ' If 
 I was you,' the leftenant says, ' I 'd call the captain.' ' Thank 
 ye,' says the mate ' call the captain for nothing ! ' Well, 
 in an hour more the land was quite plain on the starboard 
 bow, and the mate comes aft again to Leftenant Collins. 
 The clouds was beginning to grow out of the clear sky 
 astarn too. l Why, sir,' says the mate, ' I 'd no notion you 
 was a seaman at all ! What would you do yourself now, 
 supposin' the case you put a little ago ? ' ' Well, sir,' says 
 Mr Collins, ' if you '11 do the thing, I '11 put ye up to it at 
 once 
 
 At this point of Old Jack's story, however, a cabin-boy 
 came from aft, to say that the captain wanted him. The old 
 seaman knocked the ashes out of his pipe, which he had 
 smoked at intervals in short puffs, put it in his jacket pocket, 
 and got up off the windlass end. " Why, old ship ! " said 
 the man-o'-war's-man, <e are ye goin' to leave us in the lurch 
 with a short yarn again ? " " Can't help it, bo'/' said old 
 Jack ; " orders must be obeyed, ye know," and away he went. 
 "Well, mates," said one, "if the yarn's been overhauled 
 before, what was the upshot of it ? I didn't hear it myself." 
 "Blessed if I know," said several "Old Jack didn't get the 
 length last time he's got now." "More luck!" said the 
 man-o'-war's-man ; "'tis to be hoped he '11 finish it next time!"
 
 A SEA STORY 19 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 "IT7"E left the forecastle group of the Gloucester disappointed 
 * * by the abrupt departure of their story-teller, Old Jack, 
 at so critical a thread of his yarn. As old Jacobs went aft on 
 the quarter-deck, where the binnacle-lamp before her wheel 
 was newly-lighted, he looked in with a seaman's instinct upon 
 the compass-boxes, to see how the ship headed ; ere ascend- 
 ing to the poop, he bestowed an approving nod upon his friend 
 the steersman, hitched up his trousers, wiped his mouth with 
 the back of his hand in a proper deference to female society, 
 and then proceeded to answer the captain's summons. The 
 passengers, in a body, had left the grand cabin to the bustling 
 steward and his boys, previously to assembling there again 
 for tea not even excepting the little coterie of inveterate 
 whist-players, and the pairs of inseparable chess-men, to 
 whom an Indian voyage is so appropriately the school for 
 future nice practice in etiquette, war, and commerce. Every- 
 body had at last got rid of sea-sickness, and mustered for a 
 promenade ; so that the lofty poop of the Indiaman, dusky as 
 it was, and exposed to the breeze, fluttered with gay dresses 
 like the midway battlement of a castle by the waves, upon 
 which its inmates have stolen out from some hot festivity. 
 But the long heave from below, raising her stern-end slowly 
 against the western space of clear-obscure, in the manner 
 characteristic of a sea abaft the beam, and rolling her to either 
 hand, exhibited to the eyes on the forecastle a sort of alto 
 relievo of figures, amongst whom the male, in their blank 
 attempts to appear nautical before the ladies, were distin- 
 guished from every other object by their variety of ridiculous 
 postures. Under care of one or two bluff, good-humoured 
 young mates officers polished by previous opportunities of a 
 kind unknown either to Navy-men or mere " cargo-fenders," 
 along with several roguish little quasi-midshipmen the ladies 
 were supported against the poop-rail, or seated on the after- 
 gratings, where their contented dependence not only saved 
 them from the ludicrous failures of their fellow-passengers, 
 but gained them, especially the young ones, the credit of being 
 better sailors. An accompaniment was contributed to this 
 lively exercise on the part of the gentlemen promenaders, 
 which otherwise in the glimmering sea-twilight, would have
 
 20 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 been striking in a different sense ; by the efforts, namely, of a 
 little band of amateur musicians under the break of the poop, 
 who, with flute, clarionet, bugles, trombone, and violin, after 
 sundry practisings by stealth, had for the first time assembled 
 to play "Rule Britannia." What, indeed, with the occasional 
 abrupt checks, wild flourishes, and fantastic variations caused by 
 the ship's roll; and what with the attitudes overhead, of holding 
 on refractory hats and caps, of intensely resisting and staggering 
 legs, or of sudden pausing above the slope which one moment 
 before was an ascent, there was additional force in the 
 designation quaintly given to such an aspect of things by the 
 foremast Jacks that of a "cuddy jig." As the still increasing 
 motion, however, shook into side-places this central group of 
 cadets, civilians, and planters adrift, the grander features of 
 the scene predominated : the broad mass of the ship's hull 
 looming now across and now athwart the streak of sinking 
 light behind drawn out by the weltering outline of the 
 waters ; the entire length of her white decks ever and anon 
 exposed to view, with their parallel lines, their nautical appur- 
 tenances, the cluster of hardy men about the windlass, the two 
 or three "old salts" rolling to and fro along the gangway, 
 and the variety of forms blending into both railings of the 
 poop. High out of, and over all, rose the lofty upper outline 
 of the noble ship, statelier and statelier as the dusk closed in 
 about her the expanse of canvas whitening with sharper edge 
 upon the gloom ; the hauled-up clues of the main-course, with 
 their huge blocks, swelling and lifting to the fair wind and 
 the breasts of the topsails divided by their tightened bunt- 
 lines, like the shape of some full-bosomed maiden, on which 
 the reef-points heaved like silken fringes, as if three sisters, 
 shadowy and goddess-like, trod in each other's steps towards 
 the deeper solitude of the ocean ; while the tall spars, the 
 interlacing complicated tracery, and the dark top-hamper 
 showing between gave graceful unity to her figure ; and her 
 three white trucks, far overhead, kept describing a small clear 
 arc upon the deep blue zenith as she rolled : the man at the 
 wheel midway before the doors of the poop-cabin, with the 
 light of the binnacle upon his broad throat and bearded chin, 
 was looking aloft at a single star that had come out beyond 
 the clue of the main-topsail. 
 
 The last stroke of " six bells," or seven o'clock, which had
 
 A SEA STORY 21 
 
 begun to be struck on the ship's bell when Old Jack broke off 
 his story, still lingered on the ear as he brought up close to 
 the starboard quarter-gallery, where a little green shed or 
 pent-house afforded support and shelter to the ladies with the 
 captain. The erect figure of the latter, as he lightly held one 
 of his fair guests by the arm, while pointing out to her some 
 object astern, still retained the attitude which had last caught 
 the eyes of the forecastle group. The musical cadets had 
 just begun to pass from "Rule Britannia" to "Shades of 
 Evening " ; and the old sailor, with his glazed hat in his hand, 
 stood waiting respectfully for the captain's notice. The ladies, 
 however, were gazing intently down upon the vessel's wake, 
 where the vast shapes of the waves now sank down into a 
 hollow, now rose seething up into the rudder-trunk, but all 
 marked throughout with one broad winding track, where the 
 huge body of the ship had swiftly passed. From foaming 
 whiteness it melted into yesty green, that became in the 
 hollow a path of soft light, where the sparks mingled like 
 golden seed ; the wave-tops glimmered beyond ; star-like 
 figures floated up or sank in their long undulations ; and the 
 broad swell that heaped itself on a sudden under the mount- 
 ing stern bore its bells, and bubbles, and flashes upwards to 
 the eye. When the ship rose high and steady upon it, and 
 one saw down her massy taffrail, it looked to a terrestrial eye 
 rather like some mystic current issuing from the archway 
 under a tall tower, whose foundations rocked and heaved ; and 
 so said the romantic girl beside the captain, shuddering at the 
 vividness of an image which so incongruously brought together 
 the fathomless deep and the distant shores of solid old England. 
 The eye of the seaman, however, suggested to him an image 
 more akin to the profession, as he directed his fair companion's 
 attention to the trough of the ship's furrow, where, against 
 the last low gleam of twilight, and by the luminous wake, 
 could be seen a little flock of black petrels, apparently running 
 along it to catch what the mighty ploughshare had turned 
 up ; while a grey gull or two hovered aslant over them in the 
 blue haze. As he looked round, too, to aloft, he exchanged 
 glances with the old sailor who had listened an expression 
 which even the ladies understood. "Ah! Jacobs," said the 
 captain, " get the lamp lighted in my cabin, and the tea-kettle 
 aft. With the roll she has on her, 'twill be more ship-shape
 
 22 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 there than in the cuddy." "Ay, ay, sir," said the old seaman. 
 <c How does she head just now, Jacobs ? " te Sou'-west-and-by- 
 south, sir." "She'd lie easier for the ladies though," said the 
 captain, knowing his steward was a favourite with them, 
 " were the wind a point or two less fair. Our old acquaint- 
 ance, Captain Williamson of the Seringapatam now, Jacobs, old- 
 fashioned as he was, would have braced in his lee-yard only to 
 steady a lady's tea-cup." " Ay, your honour," replied Jacobs, 
 and his weather-eye twinkled, "and washed the foc'sle under, 
 too ! But ye know, sir, he 'd got a reg'lar-built naboob aboard, 
 and a beauty besides !" "Ah, Mr Jacobs!" exclaimed the 
 romantic young lady, "what was that? Is it one of your 
 stories ? " " Well, your ladyship, 'tis a bit of a yarn, no 
 doubt, and some' at of a cur'ous one." "Oh!" said another 
 of the captain's fair protdgkes, " I do love these l yarns,' as you 
 call them ; they are so expressive, so and all that sort of 
 thing." "Nonsense, my love," said her mother; "you don't 
 understand them, and 'tis better you should not they are low, 
 and contain a great many bad words, I fear." " But think of 
 the imaginative feeling, aunt," rejoined the other girl, "and 
 the adventures ! Oh, the ocean of all places for that ! Were 
 it not for sea-sickness, I should dote upon it ! As for the 
 storm just now, look how safe we are, and see how the dear old 
 ship rises up from the billows, with all her sails so delight- 
 fully mysterious one over another ! " " Bless your heart, 
 marm, yess," responded Old Jack, chuckling ; " you talks just 
 like a seaman, beggin' your pardon. As consarns the tea, sir, 
 I make bold to expect the '11 be a shift o' wind directly, and a 
 slant deck, as soon as we get fair into the stream, rid o' this 
 bit of a bubble the tail of it kicks up hereabouts." " Bear a 
 hand then, Jacobs," said the captain, "and see all right below 
 for the party in the cabin we shall be down in a few minutes." 
 The captain stood up on the quarter-gallery, to peer round 
 into the dusk and watch the lifting of the main-royal ; but the 
 next minute he called to the ladies, and their next neighbours, 
 to look towards the larboard bow, and see the moon rise. A 
 long edge of gray haze lay around the eastern horizon, on 
 which the dark rim of the sea was defined beyond the roll of 
 the waves, as with the sweep of a soft brush dipped in indigo; 
 while to westward it heaved up, weltering in its own watery 
 light against the gloom. From behind this low fringe of
 
 A SEA STORY 23 
 
 vapour was silently diffusing, as it were, a pool of faint 
 radiance, like a brook bubbling from under ice ; a thread of 
 silver ran along the line of haze, growing keener at one point, 
 until the arch of the moon shot slowly up, broad and fair : the 
 wave-heads rising between were crested here and there with 
 light ; the bow of the ship, the bellies of her fore-canvas, her 
 bowsprit with the jibs hanging idly over it, and the figurehead 
 beneath, were tinged by a gentle lustre, while the hollow 
 shadows stole out behind. The distant horizon, meanwhile, 
 still lay in an obscure streak, which blended into the dark 
 side of the low fog-bank, so as to give sea and cloud united 
 the momentary appearance of one of those long rollers that 
 turn over on a beach, with their glittering crest : you would 
 expect to see next instant what actually seemed to take place 
 the whole outline plashing over in foam, and spreading it- 
 self clearly forward, as soon as the moon was free. With the 
 airy space that flowed from her came out the whole eastern 
 sea-board liquid and distinct, as if beyond either bow of the 
 lifting Indiaman one sharp finger of a pair of compasses had 
 flashed round, drawing a semi-circle upon the dull background, 
 still cloudy, glimmering, and obscure. From the waves that 
 undulated towards her stern, the ship was apparently entering 
 upon a smoother zone, where the small surges leapt up and 
 danced in moonshine, resembling more the current of some 
 estuary in a full tide. To north-westward, just on the skirts 
 of the dark, one wing of a large, soft-grey vapour was newly 
 smitten by the moon-gleam ; and over against it on the south- 
 east, where the long fog-bank sank away, there stretched an 
 expanse of ocean which, on its farthest verge, gave out a tint 
 of the most delicate opal blue. The ship, to the south-west- 
 ward of the Azores, and going large before the trade-wind, 
 was now passing into the great Gulf Stream, which there runs 
 to the south-east ; even the passengers on deck were sensible 
 of the rapid transition with which the lately cold breeze be- 
 came warmer and fitful, and the motion of the vessel easier. 
 They were surprised, on looking into the waves alongside, to 
 perceive them struggling, as it were, under a trailing net-work 
 of sea-weed; which, as far as one could distinctly see, appeared 
 to keep down the masses of water, like so much oil flattening 
 their crests, neutralising the force of the wind, and communi- 
 cating a strangely sombre green to the heaving element. In
 
 24 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the winding track of the ship's wake the eddies now absolutely 
 blazed ; the weeds she had crushed down rose to the surface 
 again in gurgling circles of flames, and the showers of sparks 
 came up seething on either side amongst the stalks and 
 leaves ; but as the moonlight grew more equally diffused, it 
 was evident that she was only piercing an arm of that local 
 weed-bed here formed, like an island, in the bight of the 
 stream. Farther ahead were scattered patches and bunches 
 of the true Florida Gulf-weed, white and moss-like ; which, 
 shining crisp in the level moonlight, and tipping the surges 
 as it floated past, gave them the aspect of hoary-bearded 
 waves, or the garlanded horses of Neptune. The sight still 
 detained the captain's party on deck, and some of the ladies 
 innocently thought these phenomena indicative of the 
 proximity of land. 
 
 "I have seldom seen the Stream so distinct hereabouts," 
 said Captain Collins to his first officer, who stood near, having 
 charge of the watch. " Nor I, sir," replied the chief mate ; 
 " but it no doubt narrows with different seasons. There goes 
 a flap of the fore-topsail, though ! The wind fails, sir." 
 " 'Tis only drawing ahead, I think," said the captain ; " the 
 stream sucks the wind with its heat, and we shall have it 
 pretty near from due nor'-west immediately." " Shall we 
 round in on the starboard hand, then, sir, and keep both 
 wind and current aft ? " " I think not, Mr Wood," said the 
 captain. " 'Twould give us a good three knots more every 
 hour of the next twenty-four, sir," persisted the officer eagerly 
 and chief mates generally confine their theories to mere 
 immediate progress. "Yes," rejoined the captain, "but we 
 should lose hold of the ' trade ' on getting out of the stream 
 again. I intend driving her across, with the nor' wester on 
 her starboard beam, so as to lie well up afterwards. Get the 
 yards braced to larboard as you catch the breeze, Mr Wood, 
 and make her course south-west by west." "Very well, sir." 
 " Ladies," said the captain, " will you allow me to hand you 
 below, where I fear Jacobs will be impatient with the tea ? " 
 
 "What a pity, Captain Collins," remarked the romantic 
 Miss Alicia, looking up as they descended the companion 
 " what a pity that you cannot have that delicious moonlight 
 to shine in at your cabin windows just now ; the sailors yonder 
 have it all to themselves." "There is no favour in these
 
 A SEA STORY 25 
 
 things at sea, Miss Alicia/' said the captain, smiling. "Jack 
 shares the chance there, at least, with his betters ; but I can 
 promise those who honour my poor suite of apartments this 
 evening both fine moonshine and a steadier floor." On 
 reaching the snug little after-cabin, with Its swinging lamp 
 and barometer, its side "state-room," seven feet long, and 
 its two stern-windows showing a dark glimpse of the rolling 
 waters, they found the tea-things set, nautical style, on the 
 hard-a-weather, boxed-up table the surgeon and one or 
 two elderly gentlemen waiting, and old Jacobs still trimming 
 up the sperm-oil lights. Mrs St Clair, presiding in virtue of 
 relationship to their host, was still cautiously pouring out the 
 requisite half-cups, when, above all the bustle and clatter in 
 the cuddy, could be heard the sounds of ropes thrown down 
 on deck, of the trampling watch, and the stentorian voice 
 of the first officer. " Jacobs ! " said the captain, a minute or 
 two afterwards ; and that worthy factotum instantly appeared 
 from his pantry alongside of the door from whence, by-the- 
 way, the old seaman might be privy to the whole conversation 
 "stand by to dowse the lamp when she heels," an order 
 purposely mysterious to all else but the doctor. Everyone 
 soon felt a change in the movement of their wave-born 
 habitation ; the rolling lift of her stern ceased ; those who 
 were looking into their cups saw the tea apparently take a 
 decided inclination to larboard as the facetious doctor 
 observed, a " tendency to port." The floor gradually sloped 
 down to the same hand, and a long, wild, gurgling wash was 
 suddenly heard to run careering past the timbers of the 
 starboard side. 
 
 " Dear me ! " fervently exclaimed every lady at once ; when 
 the very next moment the lamps went out, and all was dark- 
 ness. Captain Collins felt a little hand clutch his arm in 
 nervous terror, but the fair owner of it said nothing ; until, 
 with still more startling effect than before, in a few seconds 
 there shot through both stern windows the full rays of the 
 moon, pouring their radiance into the cabin, shining on the 
 backs of the books in the hanging shelves by the bulkhead, 
 on the faces of the party, and the bald forehead of old Jacobs 
 "standing by" the lamp lastly, too, revealing the pretty 
 little Alicia with her hand on the captain's arm, and her pale, 
 terrified face. " Don't be alarmed, ladies ! " said the surgeon,
 
 26 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 "she's only hauled on the starboard tack!" "And her 
 counter to the east," said the captain. 
 
 " But who put out the lamp ? " rejoined the doctor. " Ah, 
 I see, sir ! ' But when the moon, refulgent lamp of night.' " 
 " Such a surprise ! " exclaimed the ladies, laughing, although 
 as much frightened for a moment by the magical illumination 
 as by the previous circumstances. "You see," said the 
 captain, " we are not like a house we can bring round our 
 scenery to any window we choose." "Very prettily imagined 
 it was, too, I declare ! " observed a stout old Bombay officer, 
 " and a fine compliment to the ladies, by Jingo, sir ! " " If 
 we had any of your pompous Bengal e Quy hies ' here though, 
 colonel," said the doctor, " they wouldn't stand being choused 
 so unceremoniously out of the weather side, I suspect." " As 
 to the agreeable little surprise I meant for the ladies," said 
 Captain Collins, " I fear it was done awkwardly, never having 
 commanded an Indiaman before, and laid up ashore these 
 half-a-dozen years. But one's old feelings get freshened up, 
 and without knowing the old Gloucester's points, I can't help 
 reckoning her as a lady too a very particular old ' Begum/ 
 that won't let anyone else be humoured before herself 
 especially as I took charge of her to oblige a friend." " How 
 easily she goes now !" said the doctor, "and a gallant sight 
 at this moment, I assure you, to anyone who chooses to put 
 his head up the companion." " Ah, mamma ! " said one of 
 the girls, " couldn't you almost think this was our own little 
 parlour at home with the moonlight coming through the 
 window on both sides of the old elm, where we were sitting 
 a month ago hearing about India and papa ? " 
 
 " Ah ! " responded her cousin, standing up, "but there was 
 no track of moonshine dancing beyond the track of the ship 
 yonder ! How blue the water is, and how much warmer it 
 has grown of a sudden ! " 
 
 "We are crossing the great Gulf Stream," said the 
 captain " Jacobs ! open one of the stern-ports." " 'Tis the 
 very place and time, this is," remarked a good-humoured 
 cotton-grower from the Deccan, "for one of the colonel's 
 tiger-hunts, now ! " " Sir ! " answered the old officer, rather 
 testily, " I am not accustomed to thrust my tiger-hunts, as you 
 choose to call my humble experiences, under people's noses ! " 
 " Certainly not, my dear sir," said the planter " but what do
 
 A SEA STORY 27 
 
 you say, ladies, to one of the captain's sea-yarns, then? 
 Nothing better, I 'm sure, here now, sir eh ? " Captain 
 Collins smiled, and said he had never spun a yarn in his life, 
 except when a boy, out of matter-of-fact old junk and tar. 
 "Here is my steward, however," continued he, "who is the 
 best hand at it I know, and I daresay he '11 give you one." 
 " Charming!" exclaimed the young ladies; and "What was 
 that adventure, Mr Jacobs," said Miss Alicia, " with a beauty 
 and a nabob in it, that you alluded to a short time ago ? " 
 "I didn't to say disactly include upon it, your ladyship," 
 replied old Jacobs, with a tug of his hair, and a bow not just 
 & la maitre ; " but the captain can give you it better nor I 
 can, seeing as his honour were the Nero on it, as one may 
 say." "Oh!" said the surgeon, rubbing his hands, "a lady 
 and a rupee-eater in the case ! " " There seems something 
 curious about this said adventure of yours, my dear captain," 
 said Mrs St Clair, archly, " and a beauty too ! It makes me 
 positively inquisitive, but I hope your own fair lady has heard 
 the story?" "Why, not exactly, ma'am," replied Captain 
 Collins, laughing as he caught the doctor looking preter- 
 naturally solemn, after a sly lee-wink to the colonel, who, 
 having his back to the moonlight, stretched out his legs and 
 indulged in a grim, silent chuckle, until his royal-tiger coun- 
 tenance was unhappily brought so far flush* in the rays as to 
 betray a singular daguerreotype, resembling one of those cut- 
 paper phantasmagoria thrown on a drawing-room wall, unmis- 
 takably black and white, and in the character of Malicious 
 Watchfulness. The rubicund, fidgety little cotton-grower 
 twiddled his thumbs, and looked modestly down on the deck, 
 with half-shut eyes, as if expecting some bold revelation of 
 nautical depravity ; while the romantic Miss Alicia coloured 
 and was silent. "However," said the captain, coolly, "it is 
 no matrimonial secret, at any rate ! We both talk of it some- 
 times when we read the Church Service of a Sunday night at 
 home, with Jacobs for the clerk." " Do, Mr Jacobs, oblige 
 us ! " requested the younger of the girls. "Well, miss," said 
 he, smoothing down his hair in the doorway, and hemming, 
 "'tain't neither for the likes o' me to refuse a lady, nor 
 accordin' to rules for to give such a yarn in presence of a 
 supperior officer, much less the captain ; with a midship 
 * Flush i.e. level.
 
 28 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 helm, ye know, marm, ye carn't haul upon one tack nor the 
 
 other. Not to say but next forenoon watch " " I see, 
 
 Jacobs, my man," interrupted Captain Collins, "there's 
 nothing for it but to fore-reach upon you, or else you '11 
 be ' Green-Handing ' me aft as well as forward ; so I must 
 just make the best of it, and take the winch in my own 
 fashion at once ! " " Ay, ay, sir ay, ay, your honour ! " 
 said Old Jack demurely, and concealing his gratification 
 as he turned off into the pantry, with the idea of for the 
 first time hearing the captain relate the incidents in question. 
 " My old shipmate," said the latter, " is so fond of having 
 trained his future captain, that it is his utmost delight to spin 
 out everything we ever met with together into one endless 
 yarn, which would go on from our first acquaintance to the 
 present day, although no ship's company ever heard the last 
 of it. Without falling knowingly to leeward of the truth, he 
 makes out every lucky coincidence almost to have been a feat 
 of mine, and puts in little fancies of his own, so as to give the 
 whole thing more and more of a marvellous air the farther it 
 goes. The most amusing thing is, that he almost always 
 begins each time, I believe, at the very beginning, like a cap- 
 stan without a paul sticking in one thing he had forgot be- 
 fore, and forgetting another ; sometimes dwelling longer on 
 one part a good deal like a ship making the same voyages 
 over again. I knew, now, this evening, when I heard the men 
 laughing, and saw Old Jack on the forecastle, what must be in 
 the wind. However, we have shared so many chances, and 
 I respect the old man so much, not to speak of his having 
 dandled my little girls on his knee, and being butler, steward, 
 and flower-gardener at home, that I can't really be angry at 
 him, in spite of the sort of every man's rope he makes of me ! " 
 " How very amusing a character he is ! " said one young lady. 
 "A thought too tarry, perhaps?" suggested the surgeon. 
 ' ' So very original and like a a seaman ! " remarked Miss 
 Alicia, quietly, but as if some other word that crossed her 
 mind had been rejected, as descriptive of a different variety, 
 probably higher. " Original, by Jove ! " exclaimed the colonel ; 
 "if my Khansa-man, or my Abdar* were to make such a danc- 
 ing dervish and tumasha\ of me behind back, by the holy 
 Vishnu, sir, I 'd rattan him myself within an inch of his life ! " 
 * Steward and butler. t Sport.
 
 A SEA STORY 29 
 
 " Not an unlikely thing, colonel/' put in the planter ; " I 've 
 caught the scoundrels at that trick before now." "What did 
 you do?" inquired the colonel, speculatively. "Couldn't 
 help laughing, for my soul, sir ; the puckree-bund* rascals did 
 it so well, and so funnily ! " The irascible East-Indian almost 
 started up in his imaginative fury, to call for his palkee, and 
 chastise his whole verandah, when the doctor reminded him 
 that it was a long way there. " Glorious East ! " exclaimed 
 the medico, looking out astern, " where we may cane our foot- 
 men, and whence, meanwhile, we can derive such Sanscrit- 
 sounding adjurations, with such fine moonlight!" 
 
 The presence of the first officer was now added to the 
 party, who came down for a cup of tea, fresh from duty, and 
 flavouring strongly of a pilot cheroot. " How does she head, 
 Mr Wood ? " asked the captain. " Sou'-west-by-west, sir a 
 splendid night, under everything that will draw spray up to 
 the starboard cathead ! " 
 
 " But as to this story, again, Captain Collins ? " said Mrs St 
 Clair, as soon as she had poured out the chief mate's cup. 
 " Well," said the captain, " if you choose to listen till bedtime 
 to a plain draught of the aifair, why I suppose I must tell it 
 you ; and what remains then may stand over till next fine 
 night. It may look a little romantic, being in the days when 
 most people are such themselves, but, at any rate, we sailors 
 or else we should never have been at sea, you know ; so 
 you '11 allow for that, and a spice to boot of what we used to 
 call at sea ' lovemaking ' ; happily there were no soft speeches 
 in it, like those in books, for then I shouldn't tell it at all. 
 
 " By the time I was twenty-four, I had been nine years at 
 sea, and at the end of the war, was third lieutenant of a crack 
 twenty-eight, the saucy Iris as perfect a sloop-model, though 
 over-sparred certainly, as ever was eased off the ways of Chat- 
 ham, or careened to a north-easter. The Admiralty had 
 almost learned to build by that day, and a glorious ship she 
 was, made for going after the small fry of privateers, pirates, 
 and slavers, that swarmed about the time. Though I had 
 roughed it in all sorts of craft, from a first-rate to a dirty 
 French lugger prize, and been eastward, so as to see the sea 
 in its pride at the Pacific, yet the feeling you have depends 
 * Turban-wearing.
 
 30 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 on the kind of ship you are in. I never knew so well what it 
 was to be fond of a ship and the sea ; and when I heard of 
 the poor Iris, that had never been used to anything but blue 
 water on three parts of the horizon at least, laying her bones 
 not long after near Wicklow Head, I couldn't help a gulp in 
 the throat. I once dreamt I had gone down in her, and 
 risen again to the surface with the loss of my brains, such as 
 I had had ; while at the same moment, there I was, still 
 sitting below on a locker in the wardroom, with the arms of 
 her beautiful figure-head around me, and her mermaid's tail 
 like the best-bower cable, with an anchor at the end of it far 
 away out of soundings, over which I bobbed and dipped for 
 years and years, in all weathers, like a buoy. We had no 
 Mediterranean time of it, though, in the Iris, off the Guinea 
 coast, from Cape Palmas to Cape Negro; looking out to wind- 
 ward for white squalls, and to leeward for black ones, and 
 inshore for Spanish cattle-dealers, as we called them, had 
 made us all as sharp as so many marling-spikes; and our captain 
 was a man that taught us seamanship, with a trick or two 
 beyond. The slavers had not got to be so clever then, either, 
 with their schooners and clippers : they built for stowage, and 
 took the chance, so that we sent in bale after bale to the 
 West India admiral, made money, and enjoyed ourselves now 
 and then at the Cape de Verdes. However, this kind of thing 
 was so popular at home, as pickings after the great haul was 
 over, that the Iris had to give up her station to a post-frigate, 
 and be paid-off. The war was over, and nobody could expect 
 to be promoted without a friend near the blue table-cloth, 
 although a quiet hint to a secretary's palm would work 
 wonders, if strong enough. But most of such lucky fellows 
 as ourselves dissipated their funds in blazing away at balls 
 and parties, where the gold band was everything, and the 
 ladies wore blue ribbons and anchor brooches in honour of 
 the navy. The men spent everything in a fortnight, even to 
 their clothes, and had little further chance of eating the 
 king's biscuit with hopes of prize-money ; I used to see knots 
 of them, in red shirts and dirty slops, amongst the foremast 
 Jacks in outward-bound ships, dropping past Greenwich, and 
 waving their hats to the Hospital. You knew them at once 
 by one of them giving the song for the topsail-halliards, 
 instead of the merchantmen's bull's chorus ; indeed, I could
 
 A SEA STORY 31 
 
 always pick off the dashing men-o'-war's-men, by face and eye 
 alone, out from among the others, who looked as sober and 
 solitary, with their serious faces and way of going about a 
 thing, as if everyone of them was the whole crew. I once 
 read a bit of poetry called the 'Ancient Mariner,' to old 
 Jacobs, who by-the-by is something of a breed betwixt the 
 two kinds, and his remark was : ' That old chap warn't used 
 to hoisting altogether with a run, your honour ! By his looks 
 I 'd say he was bred where there was few in a watch, and 
 the watch-tackle laid out pretty often for an eke to drag 
 down the fore-tack.' 
 
 " As I was riding down to Croydon in Surrey, where my 
 mother and sister had gone to live, I fell in with a sample of 
 the hard shifts the men-o'-war's-men were put to in getting 
 across from harbour to some merchant port, when all their 
 money was chucked away. It was at a little town called 
 Bromley, where I brought to by the door of a tavern and had 
 a pail for the horse, with a bottle of cider for myself at the 
 open window, the afternoon being hot. There was a crowd of 
 townspeople at the other end of the street, country bumpkins 
 and boys women looking out at the windows, dogs barking, 
 and children shouting the whole concern bearing down 
 upon us. 
 
 ' What 'a all this?' said I to the ostler. 
 
 " ' Don't know, sir,' said he, scratching his head ; ' 'tis very 
 hodd, sir ! That corner is rather a sharp turn for the coach, 
 sir, and she do sometimes run over a child there, or some- 
 think. But 'tain't her time yet ! Nothink else hever 'appens 
 'ere, sir.' 
 
 "As soon as I could hear or see distinctly for the confusion, 
 I observed the magnet of it to be a party of five or six regular 
 blue-jackets, a good deal battered in their rig, who were roar- 
 ing out sea-songs in grand style as they came along, leading 
 what I thought at first was a bear. The chief words I heard 
 were what I knew well. 'We'll disregard their tommy- 
 hawks, likewise their scalping-knives and fight alongside of 
 our mates to save our precious lives like British tars and 
 sowldiers in the North Americay ! ' 
 
 " On getting abreast of the inn door, and finding an offing 
 with good holding-ground, I suppose, they hove to and struck 
 up the ' Buffalo,' that finest of chants for the weather fore-
 
 32 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 castle with a spanking breeze, outward bound, and the pilot 
 lately dropped : 
 
 "Come, all you young men and maidens, that wishes for to sail, 
 
 And I will let you hear of where you must a-roam ; 
 We '11 embark into a ship which her taups'ls is let fall, 
 
 And all unto an ileyand where we never will go home ; 
 Especiallye you ladies that 's anxious for to rove 
 
 There 's jiskes in the sea, my love, likewise the buck an' doe, 
 We '11 lie down on the banks of yon pleasant shadye gro-ove, 
 Through the wild woods we '11 wander and we '11 chase the buffalo ho 
 
 ho 
 We '11 chase the buffalO ! 
 
 " I really couldn't help laughing to see the slapping, big- 
 bearded fellows, like so many foretopmen, showing off in this 
 manner one mahogany-faced thoroughbred leading, the rest 
 thundering in at the chorus, with a tremendous stress on the 
 f Lo ho ho,' that made the good Bromley folks gape. As 
 to singing for money, however, I knew no true tar with his 
 members whole would do it ; and I supposed it to be merely 
 some 'spree ashore,' until the curious -looking object from 
 behind was lugged forward by a couple of ropes, proving to 
 be a human figure above six feet high, with a rough canvas 
 cover as far as the knees. What with three holes at the face, 
 and the strange colour of the legs, which were bare with a 
 pair of turned-up India shoes, and the whole shape like a 
 walking smoke-funnel over a ship's caboose I was puzzled 
 what they would be at. The leading tar immediately took off 
 his hat, waved it round for a clear space, and gave a hem ! 
 while he pointed to the mysterious creature. 'Now my lads!' 
 said he, 'this here wonderful bein' is a savitch we brought 
 aboard of us from the Andyman Isles, where he was caught 
 one mornin' paddling round the ship in a canoe made out of 
 the bark of a sartain tree. Bein' the ownly spice of the sort 
 brought to this country as yet is, and we havin' run short of 
 the needful to take us to the next port, we expects every lady 
 and gemman as has the wherewithal will give us a lift by 
 
 consideration of this same cur'ous sight, and doesn't ' 
 
 ' Heave ahead, Tom, lad ! ' said another encouragingly, as the 
 sailor brought up fairly out of breath. 'Doesn't want no 
 man's money for nou't d' ye see, but all fair an' above board. 
 We 're not agoin' to show this ere sight excep' you makes up 
 half-a-guinea amongst ye arter that all hands may see shot-
 
 A SEA STORY 33 
 
 free them 's the articles ! ' f Ay, ay, Tom, well said, old 
 ship ! ' observed the rest ; and, after a considerable clinking of 
 coin amongst the crowd, the required sum was poured, in 
 pence and sixpences, into Tom's hat. ' All right !' said he, as 
 soon as he had counted it ' hoist away the tarpaulin, mates!' 
 For my part, I was rather surprised at the rare appearance of 
 this said savage, when his cover was off his legs and arms 
 naked, his face streaked with yellow, and both parts the 
 colour of red boom-varnish ; his red hair done up in a tuft, 
 with feathers all round it, and a bright feather tippet over 
 his shoulders, as he stood, six feet in his yellow slippers, and 
 looking sulkily enough at the people. ' Bobbery puckalow ! ' 
 said the nautical head-showman, and all at once up jumped 
 the Andaman islander, dancing furiously, holding a little 
 Indian punkah over his head, and flourishing with the other 
 hand what reminded me strongly of a ship's top-maul shout- 
 ing 'Goor goor gooree!' while two of the sailors held on 
 by the ropes. The crowd made plenty of room, and Tom 
 proceeded to explain to them very civilly, that f in them parts 
 'twas so hot the natives wouldn't fight, save under a portiable 
 awning.' Having exhibited the points of their extraordinary 
 savage, he was calmed again by another uncouth word of 
 command, when the man-o'-war's-man attempted a further 
 traverse on the good Bromley folks, for which I gave him 
 great credit. ' Now, my lads and lasses,' said he, taking off 
 his hat again, ' I s'pose you're all British subjects and English- 
 men ! ' at which there was a murmur of applause. ( Very 
 good, mates all ! ' continued the foretopman, approvingly. 
 'Then, in course, ye knows as how whatsomever touches 
 British ground is free!' 'Britons never, never shall be slaves!' 
 sung out a boy, and the screaming and hurrahing was uni- 
 versal. Tom stuck his tongue in his cheek to his messmates, 
 and went on : ' Though we was all pressed ourselves, and has 
 knocked about in sarvice of our king and country, an' bein' 
 poor men, we honours the flag, my lads ! ' ' Hoorah ! hoorah ! 
 hoor-r-ray ! ' 'So you see, gemmen, my shipmates an' me has 
 come to the resolve of lettin' this here wild savidge go free 
 into the woods though bein' poor men, d' ye see, we hopes 
 ye '11 make it up to us a bit first ! What d' ye say, all hands ? 
 slump together for the other guinea, will ye, and off he 
 goes this minute, and Eh ? what d' ye say, shipmates ? '
 
 34 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 e Ay, ay, Tom, sink the damage, too!' said his comrades; <we'L 
 always get a berth at Blackwall, again ! ' 
 
 " ' Stand by to ease off his tow-lines, then,' said Tom 
 'now look sharp with the shiners there, my lads ownly a 
 guinea ! ' ' No, no ! ' murmured the townspeople, ' send for 
 the constable we'll all be scalped and murdered in our beds! 
 no, no, for God's sake, mister sailors ! ' A grocer ran out 
 of his door to beg the tars wouldn't think of such a thing, 
 and the village constable came shoving himself in with the 
 beadle. 'Come, come,' said the constable, in a soothing 
 style, while the beadle tried to look big and blustering, ' you 
 mustn't do it, my good men not on no desideration, here 
 in his majesty's name. Take un on to the next parish I 
 horder all good subjects to resist me! ' ' What!' growled the 
 foretopman, with an air of supreme disgust, 'han't ye no 
 feelin's for liberty hereaway ? Parish be blowed ! Bill, my 
 lad, let go his moorings, and give the poor wretch his nat'ral 
 freedom ! ' ' I 'm right down ashamed on my country,' said 
 Bill. ' Hullo, shipmates, cast off at once, an' never mind the 
 loss I hasn't slept easy myself sin' he wor cotched ! ' ' Nor 
 me either,' said another ; ' but I 'm feared he '11 play old 
 Harry when he 's loose, mate.' 
 
 " I had been watching the affair all this time from inside, a 
 good deal amused, in those days, at the trick especially so 
 well carried out as it was by the sailors. ' Here, my fine 
 fellows,' said I at last, ' bring him in, if you please, and let me 
 have a look at him.' Next minute in came the whole party, 
 and supposing from my plain clothes I was merely some long- 
 shore traveller, they put their savage through his dance with 
 great vigour. ' Wonderfully tame he 's got, your honour ! ' 
 said the topman ; ' it 's nothing to what he does if you 
 freshens his nip.' ' What does he eat ? ' I asked, pretending 
 not to understand the hint. ' Why, nought to speak on, sir,' 
 said he ; ' but we wonst lost a boy doorin' the cruise, nobody 
 know'd how though 'twas thought he went o' board, some on 
 us had our doubts.' ' Curiously tatooed, too,' I said ; ' I 
 should like to examine his arm.' ( A bit obstropolous he 
 is, your honour, if you handles him.' ' Never mind,' said I, 
 getting up and seizing the wrist of the Andaman islander, in 
 spite of his grins ; and my suspicions were immediately ful- 
 filled by seeing a whole range of familiar devices marked in
 
 A SEA STORY 35 
 
 blue on the fellow's arm amongst them an anchor with a 
 heart transfixed by a harpoon, on one side the word ' Sal/ 
 and on the other ' M. O., 1811.' 'Where did you steal this 
 top-maul, you rascal ? ' said I, coolly looking in his face ; 
 while I noticed one of the men overhauling me suspiciously 
 out of his weather-eye, and sliding to the door. ' I didn't 
 stale it at all/ exclaimed the savage, giving his red head a 
 scratch, ' 'twas Bill Green there by japers ! whack pillalew, 
 mates, I'm done!' 'Lor! oh lor!' said Bill himself, quite 
 crestfallen, ' if I didn't think 'twas him. We 're all pressed 
 again, mate, it 's the leftenant.' ' Pressed, bo' ? ' said Tom ; 
 'more luck, I wish we was but they wouldn't take ye now 
 for a bounty, you know.' Here I was fain to slack down and 
 give a hearty laugh, particularly at recognising Bill, who had 
 been a shipmate of Jacobs and myself in the old Pandora, 
 and was nicknamed ' Green ' I believe from a small adventure 
 of ours so I gave the men half-a-guinea a piece to carry them 
 on. ' Long life to your honour/ said they ; and said Tom, 
 ' If I might make so bould, sir, if your honour has got a ship 
 yet, we all knows ye, sir, and we 'd enter, if 'twas for the 
 North Pole itself.' ' No, my lad/ said I, ' I 'm sorry to say 
 I have not got so far yet. Dykes, my man, can you tell me 
 where your old messmate Jacobs has got to ? ' ' Why, sir,' 
 replied Bill, ' I did hear he was livin' at Wapping with his 
 wife, where we means to give him a call too, sir.' ' Good 
 day, your honour/ said all of them, as they put on their hats 
 to go, and covered their curiosity again with his tarpaulin. 
 ' I 'm blessed, Bill/ said Tom, ' but we '11 knock off this here 
 carrivanning now, and put before the wind for Blackwall.' 
 ' Won't you give your savage his freedom, then ? ' I asked. 
 ' Sartinly, your honour/ replied the roguish foretopman, his 
 eye twinkling as he saw that I enjoyed the joke. 'Now, 
 Mick, my lad, ye must run like the devil so soon as we casts 
 ye off.' ' Oh, by the powers, thry me ! ' said the Irishman ; 
 ' I 'm sick tired o' this cannible minnatchery. By the holy 
 Moses, though, I must have a dhrop o' dew in me, or I '11 
 fall ! ' Mick accordingly swigged off a noggin of gin, and 
 declared himself ready to start. ' Head due nor'-east from 
 the sun, Mick, and we '11 pick you up in the woods, and rig 
 you out all square again/ said the captain of the gang, before 
 presenting himself to the mob outside. ' Now, gemmen and
 
 36 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 ladies all/ said the sailor coolly, ' ye see we 're bent on givin' 
 this here poor unfort'nate his liberty an' bein' tould we 've 
 got the law on our side, why, we means to do it. More by 
 token, there 's a leftenant in the Roy'l Navy aboard there, as 
 has made up the little salvage-money, bein' poor men, orderin' 
 us for to do it so look out. If ye only gives him a clear 
 offing, he '11 not do no harm. Steady, Bill slack off the star- 
 board sheet, Jack let go all ! ' ' Oh ! oh ! no ! no ! for 
 God's sake ! ' screamed the bystanders, as they scuttled off to 
 both hands 'shame, shame knock un down, catch un 
 tipstaff, beadle ! ' ' Hurrah ! ' roared the boys, and off went 
 Mick O'Hooney in fine style, flourishing his top-maul, with a 
 wild 'hullaloo,' right away over a fence, into a garden, and 
 across a field towards the nearest wood. Everybody fell out 
 of his way as he dashed on ; then some running after him, 
 dogs barking, and the whole of the seamen giving chase with 
 their tarpaulins in their hands, as if to drive him far enough 
 into the country. The whole thing was extremely rich, seen 
 through the open air from the tavern window, where I sat 
 laughing till the tears came into my eyes, at Jack-tars' 
 roguishness and the stupefied Kent rustics, as they looked to 
 each other ; then at the sailors rolling away full speed along 
 the edge of the plantation where the outlandish creature had 
 disappeared ; and, lastly, at the canvas cover w r hich lay on the 
 spot where he had stood. They were actually consulting how 
 to guard against possible inroads from the savage at night, 
 since he might be lurking near, when I mounted and rode 
 off; I daresay even their hearing that I was a live and real 
 lieutenant would cap the whole story. 
 
 " Croydon used to be a pretty, retired little town, you know, 
 so quiet and old-fashioned that I enjoyed the unusual rest of 
 it, and the very look of the canal, the market-place, the old 
 English trees and people by comparison with even the Iris's 
 white decks, and her circumference of a prospect, so different 
 every morning or hour of the day. My mother and my sister 
 Jane were so kind they petted me so, and were so happy to 
 have me down to breakfast and out walking, even to feel the 
 smell of my cigar that I hardly knew where I was. I 
 gave them an account of the places I had seen, with a few 
 tremendous storms and a frigate-fight or two, instead of the 
 horse-marine stories about mermaids and flying Dutchmen I
 
 A SEA STORY 37 
 
 used to pass upon them when a conceited youngster. Jane, 
 the little gipsy, would listen with her ear to a large shell, 
 when we were upon sea matters, and shut her eyes, saying she 
 could fancy the things so well that way. Or was it about 
 India, there was a painted sandal-wood fan carved in open- 
 work like the finest lace, which she would spread over her 
 face, because the seeing through it, and its scent, made her 
 feel as if she were in the tropics. As for my mother, good 
 simple woman, she was always between astonishment and 
 horror, never having believed that lieutenants would be so 
 heartless as to masthead a midshipman for the drunkenness 
 of a boat's crew, nor being able tc understand why, with a 
 gale brewing to seaward, a captain tried to get his ship as far 
 as he could from land. The idea of my going to sea again 
 never entered her head, the terrible war being over, and the 
 rank I had gained being invariably explained to visitors as at 
 least equal to that of a captain amongst soldiers. To the 
 present day, this is the point with respect to seafaring matters 
 on which my venerated and worthy parent is clearest : she 
 will take off her gold spectacles, smoothing down her silver 
 hair with the other hand, and lay down the law as to reform 
 in naval titles, showing that my captain's commission puts me 
 on a level with a military colonel. However, as usual, I got 
 tired by little and little of this sort of thing ; I fancy there 's 
 some peculiar disease gets into a sailor's brain that makes him 
 uneasy with a firm floor and no offing beyond ; certainly the 
 country about Croydon was to my mind, at that time, the worst 
 possible all shut in, narrow lanes, high hedges and orchards, 
 no sky except overhead, and no horizon. If I could only have 
 got a hill, there would have been some relief in having a look- 
 out from it. Money I had no want of; and as for fame or 
 rank, I neither had the ambition, nor did I ever fancy myself 
 intended for an admiral or a Nelson ; all my wish was to be up 
 and driving about, on account of something that was in me. 
 I always enjoyed a good breeze as some do champagne ; and 
 the very perfection of glory, to my thinking, was to be the 
 soul of a gallant ship in a regular Atlantic howler : or to play 
 at long bowls with one's match to leeward, off the ridges of a 
 sea, with both weather and the enemy to manage. Accord- 
 ingly, I wasn't at all inclined to go jogging along in one of 
 your easy merchantmen, where you have nothing new to find
 
 38 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 out ; and I only waited to hear, from some friends who were 
 bestirring themselves with the Board, of a ship where there 
 might be something to do. These were my notions in those 
 days, before getting sobered down, which I tell you for the 
 sake of not seeming such a fool in this said adventure. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 " "\T7ELL, one evening my sister Jane and I went to a race- 
 * * ball at Epsom, where, of course, we saw all the 
 ' beauty and fashion,' as they say, of the country round, with 
 plenty of the army men, who were in all their glory, with 
 Waterloo and all that ; we two or three poor nauticals being 
 quite looked down upon in comparison, since Nelson was dead, 
 and we had left ourselves nothing at the end to fight with. I 
 even heard one belle ask a dragoon ' what uniform that was 
 was it the horse-artillery corps ? ' ' Haw ! ' said the dragoon^ 
 squinting at me through an eyeglass, and then looking with 
 one eye at his spurs, and with the other at his partner, ' not at 
 
 all sure ! I do think, after all, Miss , 'tis the the marine 
 
 body a sort of amphibious animals! They weren't with us, 
 though, you know couldn't be, indeed, though it was Water- 
 loo ! Haw ! haw ! you '11 excuse the joke, Miss ?' ( Ha ! 
 
 ha! how extremely witty, Captain !' said the young lady, 
 
 and they whirled away towards the other end of the hall. I 
 never felt more inclined to pull a fellow's nose, till all of a 
 sudden my head turned, and I forgot there was such a thing as 
 a dragoon in the world, for I saw what I thought the loveliest 
 young creature ever crossed my eyes, coming out of the re- 
 freshment-room with two ladies, an old and an elderly one. 
 The first was finely dressed out, and I set her down for an 
 aunt, she was so unlike ; the other for a governess. The 
 young lady was near sixteen to appearance, all in white. 
 There were many beauties in the ball-room you would have 
 called handsomer; but there was something about her 
 altogether I could compare to nothing else but the white 
 figure-head of the Iris, sliding gently along in the first curl 
 of a breeze, with the morning sky far out on the bow curious 
 as you may think it, ladies ! Her hair was brown, and her
 
 A SEA STORY 39 
 
 complexion remarkably pale notwithstanding ; while her eyes 
 were as dark blue, too, as as the ocean near the line, that 
 sometimes, in a clear calm, gets to melt till you scarcely know 
 it from the sky. ' Look, Edward ! ' whispered my sister, 
 ' what a pretty creature ! She can't be English, she looks so 
 different from everybody in the room. And such pearls in 
 her hair ! such a beautifully large diamond in that brooch ! 
 Who can she be, I wonder ? ' I was so taken up, however, 
 that I never recollected at all what Jane said till at night, 
 in thinking the matter over ; and then a whole breeze of 
 whisperings seemingly came from every corner of the cloak- 
 room, of ' Who is she ? ' ' Who can she be ? ' ' Who 's her 
 father ? ' and so on, which I remembered to have heard. I only 
 noticed at the time that somebody said she was the daughter 
 of some rich East India nabob or other, just come home. A 
 post - captain who was present one of Collingwood's flag- 
 lieutenants went up to the old chaperon, whom he seemed 
 to know, and got into talk with her : I found afterwards she 
 was an admiral's "widow. In a little I saw him introduced 
 to the young lady, and ask her to dance ; I fancied she hung 
 back for a moment, but the next she bowed, gave a slight 
 smile to the captain's gallant sea-fashion of deep respect to 
 the sex, and they were soon swimming away in the first set. 
 Her dancing was more like walking with spread wings upon 
 air than upon planks with one's arms out, as the captain did. 
 I 'd have given my eyes, not to speak of my commission and 
 chances to come, to have gone through that figure with her. 
 When the captain had handed her to her seat again, two or 
 three of the dragoons sauntered up to Lady Somers's sofa : 
 it was plain they were taken ; and after conversing with the 
 old lady, one of them, Lord Somebody, as I understood, got 
 introduced, in his turn, to the young beauty. As may be 
 supposed, I kept a look-out for his asking her to dance, 
 seeing that, if she had done so with one of the embroidered 
 crew, and their clattering gear, I 'd have gone out that 
 instant, found out the Waterloo fellow next day, and, if not 
 shot myself, have drilled him with an anchor button for a 
 bullet, and run off in the first craft I could get. The cool, 
 easy, impertinent way this second man made his request, 
 though just as if he couldn't be refused, and didn't care 
 about it it was as different from the captain of the Diomede's
 
 40 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 as red from blue ! My heart went like the main-tack blocks 
 thrashing when you luff too much ; so you may guess what I 
 felt to see the young lady, who was leaning back on the 
 sofa, give her head a pettish sort of turn to the old one, 
 without a word, as much as to say she didn't want to. ' My 
 love ! ' I heard the old lady say, ' I fear you are tired ! My 
 Lord, your lordship must excuse Miss Hyde on this occasion, 
 as she is in delicate health ! ' The dragoon was a polite 
 nobleman, according to his cloth ; so he kept on talking and 
 smiling, till he could walk off without seeming as if he'd got 
 his sabre betwixt his feet ; but I fancied him a little down 
 by the head when he did go. All the time the young beauty 
 was sitting with her face as quiet and indifferent as may be, 
 only there was a sparkle in her blue eyes, and in nothing 
 else but the pearls in her hair, as she looked on at the 
 dancing ; and, to my eye, there was a touch of the rose came 
 out on her pale cheek, clear though it was before the dragoon 
 spoke to her. Not long after, an oldish gentleman came out 
 with a grey-haired old general from the refreshment-room : a 
 thin yellow-complexioned man he was, with no whiskers and 
 bald forehead, and a bilious eye, but handsome, and his face 
 as pompous and solemn-looking as if he 'd been First Lord, 
 or had got a whole court-martial on his shoulders for next 
 day. I should have known him from a thousand for a man that 
 had lived in the East, were it nothing but the quick way he 
 looked over his shoulder for a servant or two, when he wanted 
 his carriage called no doubt just as one feels when he for- 
 gets he 's ashore, like I did every now and then, looking up 
 out to windward, and getting a garden-wall or a wood slap 
 into one's eyesight, as 'twere. I laid down the old gentleman 
 at once for this said nabob ; in fact, as soon as a footman told 
 him his carriage was waiting, he walked up to the young lady 
 and her companions, and went off with them, a steward and a 
 lady patroness convoying them to the break of the steps. The 
 only notion that ran in my head, on the way home that night 
 with my sister, was, ' By heavens ! I might just as well be 
 in love with the bit of sky at the end of the flying-jibboom ! ' 
 and all the while the confounded wheels kept droning it into 
 me, till I was as dizzy as the first time I looked over the fore- 
 royal-yard. The whole night long I dreamt I was mad after 
 the figurehead of the Iris, and asked her to dance with me, on
 
 A SEA STORY 41 
 
 which she turned round with a look as cold as water, or plain 
 ' No.' At last I caught firm hold of her and jumped over- 
 board ; and next moment we were heaving on the blue swell 
 in sight of the black old Guinea coast when round turned 
 the figure and changed into Miss Hyde ; and the old nabob 
 hauled us ashore upon a beautiful island, where I woke and 
 thought I was wanted on deck, although it was only my 
 mother calling me. 
 
 "All I had found out about them was, that Sir Charles 
 Hyde was the name of the East Indian, and how he was a 
 Bengal judge newly come home ; where they lived, nobody at 
 the ball seemed to know. At home, of course, it was so 
 absurd to think of getting acquainted with a rich Indian judge 
 and his daughter, that I said no more of the matter ; although 
 I looked so foolish and care-about-nothing, I suppose, that 
 my mother said to Jane she was sure I wanted to go to sea 
 again, and even urged me to ' take a trip to the Downs, per- 
 haps.' As for going to sea, however, I felt I could no more 
 stir, then, from where I was, than with a best bower down, and 
 all hands drunk but the captain. There was a favourite lazy 
 spot of mine near the house, where I used to lie after dinner, 
 and puff away amongst the grass, at the back of a high garden- 
 wall with two doors in it, and a plank across a little brook 
 running close under them. All round was a green paddock 
 for cows ; there was a tall tree at hand, which I climbed now 
 and then half-mast high, to get a look down a long lane that 
 ran level to the sky, and gave you a sharp gush of blue from 
 the far end. Being a luxurious dog in those days, like the 
 cloth in general when hung up ashore, I used to call it ' The 
 Idler's Walk,' and ' The Lazy Watch,' where 1 did duty some- 
 what like the famous bo'sun that told his boy to call him 
 every night and say the captain wanted him, when he turned 
 over with a polite message, and no good to the old tyrant's 
 eyes. 
 
 " Well, one afternoon I was stretched on the softest bit of 
 this retreat, feeling unhappy all over, and trying to think of 
 nothing in particular, as I looked at the wall and smoked my 
 cheroot. Excuse me if I think that, so far as I remember, 
 there is nothing so consolatory, though it can't of course cure 
 one, as a fine Manilla for the 'green sickness,' as our foremast 
 fellows would say. My main idea was that nothing on earth
 
 42 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 could turn up to get me out of this scrape, but I should stick 
 eternally, with my head sails shivering aback, or flapping in 
 a sickening dead calm. It was a beautiful hot summer after- 
 noon, as quiet as possible, and I was weary to death of seeing 
 that shadow of the branch lying against the white wall, down 
 to the key-hole of the nearest door. All of a sudden I heard 
 the sweetest voice imaginable, coming down the garden as it 
 were, singing a verse of a Hindostanee song I had heard the 
 Bengal girls chant with their pitchers on their heads at the 
 well, of an evening : 
 
 La li ta la, ta perisi, 
 
 La na comalay ah sahm-re, 
 
 Madna, ca rahm 
 
 Ram li ta, co-ca-la lir jhi ! 
 
 La li ta la, vanga-la ta perisi. 
 
 ' Coc-coka-cokatoo ! ' screamed a harsh voice, which I certainly 
 could distinguish from the first. ' Pretty cockatoo ! ' said the 
 other coaxingly ; and the next minute the large pink-flushed 
 bird itself popped his head over the top-stones above the 
 door, floundering about with his throat foul of the silver chain 
 fast to his leg, till he hung by his beak on my side of the 
 wall, half-choked, and trying to croak out ' Pretty pretty 
 cocky ! ' Before I had time to think, the door opened, and, 
 by heavens ! there was my very charmer herself, with the 
 shade of the green leaves showered over her distressed face. 
 She had scarcely seen me before I sprang up and caught the 
 cockatoo, which bit me like an imp incarnate, till the blood 
 ran down my fingers as I handed it to its mistress, my heart 
 in my mouth, and more than a quarter-deck bow in my cap. 
 The young lady looked at me first in surprise, as may be 
 supposed, and then, with a smile of thanks that set my brain 
 all afloat, ' Oh, dear me ! ' exclaimed she, ' you are hurt ! ' 
 ' Hurt ! ' I said, looking so bewildered, I suppose, that she 
 couldn't help laughing. ' Tippoo is very stupid/ continued 
 she, smiling, ' because he is out of his own country, I think. 
 You shall have no sugar to-night, mister cockatoo, for biting 
 your friends.' 
 
 " ' Were you ever in India madam ? ' I stammered out. 
 'Not since I was a child,' she answered; but just then I saw 
 the figure of the nabob sauntering down the garden, and said 
 I had particular business and must be off. ' You are very
 
 A SEA STORY 43 
 
 busy here, sir ? ' said the charming young creature archly. 
 e You are longing till you go to sea, I daresay like Tippoo and 
 me.' ' You ? ' said I, staring at the keyhole whilst she caught 
 my eye, and blushed a little, as I thought. ' Yes, we are going 
 I long to see India again, and / remember the sea, too, like 
 a dream.' 
 
 " Oh, heavens ! thought I, when I heard the old gentleman 
 call out 'Lota! Lota, beebee-lee ! Kabultah, meetoorvah?'* and 
 away she vanished behind the door, with a smile dropped to 
 myself. The tone of the judge's voice, and his speaking 
 Hindoo, showed he was fond of his daughter at any rate. Off 
 I went, too, as much confused as before, only for the new 
 thought in my head. ' The sea, the sea ! ' I shouted, as soon 
 as out of hearing, and felt the wind, as 'twere, coming from 
 aft at last, like the first ripple. ' Yes, by George ! ' said I, 
 ' outward bound for a thousand. I '11 go, if it was before the 
 mast.' All at once I remembered I didn't know the ship's 
 name, or when. Next day, and the next again, I was skulking 
 about my old place, but nobody appeared not so much as a 
 shadow inside the keyhole. At last one evening, just as I was 
 going away, the door opened ; I strolled slowly along, when, 
 instead of the charming Lota, out came the flat brown turban 
 of an ugly kitmagar, with a moustache, looking round to see 
 who was there. ' Salaam, sah'b,' said the brown fellow, holding 
 the door behind him with one paw. ' Burra judge sahib bhote 
 bhote salaam send uppiserf sah'b 'ope not dekhe \ after sahib 
 cook-maid.' ' Joot baht, hurkut-jee^ said I, laughing. 'Sah'b 
 been my coontree ? ' inquired the Bengalee more politely. 
 ' Jee, yes,' I said, wishing to draw him out. 'I Inglitsh can 
 is-peek,' continued the dark footman, conceitedly ; ' ver well 
 sah'b, but one misfortune us for come i-here. Baud carry make 
 plenty too much poork too much graug drink. Termeric 
 chili banana not got not coco-tree got pah ! Baud 
 coontree, too much i-cold, sah'b ? ' ' Curse the rascal's impu- 
 dence,' I thought, but I asked him if he wasn't going back. 
 ' Yis, sah'b, such baht.\\ Al-il alah ? Mohummud burra Meer-kea. 
 Bote too much i-smell, my coontree.' ' When are you going ? ' 
 I asked, carelessly. 'Two day this time, sah'b.' ' Can you tell 
 me the name of the ship?' I went on. The kitmagar looked at 
 
 * Little girl ! Do you hear, sweet one ? t Officer. 
 
 t Look. 'Tis a lie, you scoundrel. || That is true.
 
 44 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 me slyly, stroked his moustache, and meditated ; after which 
 he squinted at me again, and his lips opened so as to form 
 the magic word, Buckshish ? ' Jee,' said I, holding out a 
 crown piece, ' the ship's name and the harbour ? ' ' Se,' 
 began he; the coin touched his palm 'ring'; his fingers 
 closed on it, and ' patahm/ dropped from his leathery lips. 
 ' The Seringapatam ? ' I said. ( Ahn, sah'b.' ' London, eh ? ' 
 I added ; to which he returned another reluctant assent, as 
 if it wasn't paid for, and I walked off. However, I had not 
 got round the corner before I noticed the figure of the old 
 gentleman himself looking after me from the doorway ; his 
 worthy kitmagar salaaming to the ground, and no doubt 
 giving information how the 'cheep uppiser' had tried to 
 pump him to no purpose. The nabob looked plainly as 
 suspicious as if I had wanted to break into his house, since 
 he held his hand over his eyes to watch me out of sight. 
 
 " At night, I told my mother and sister I should be off to 
 London next day for sea. What betwixt their vexation at 
 losing me, and their satisfaction to see me more cheerful, 
 with talking over matters, we sat up half the night. I was so 
 ashamed, though, to tell them what I intended, considering 
 what a fool's chase it would seem to anyone but myself, that 
 I kept all close ; and, I am sorry to say, I was so full of my 
 love-affair, with the wild adventure of it, the sea, and every- 
 thing besides, as not to feel their anxiety enough. How it 
 was to turn out I didn't know ; but somehow or other I was 
 resolved I 'd contrive to make a rope if I couldn't find one ; 
 at the worst, I might carry the ship, gain over the men, or 
 turn pirate and discover an island. Early in the morning I 
 packed my traps, drew a cheque for my prize-money, got the 
 coach, and bowled off for London, to knock up Bob Jacobs, 
 my sea godfather ; this being the very first step, as it seemed 
 to me, in making the plan feasible. Rough sort of confidant 
 as he may look, there was no man living I would have trusted 
 before him for keeping a secret. Bob was true as the topsail 
 sheets ; and if you only gave him the course to steer, without 
 any of the 'puzzlement/ as he called the calculating part, he 
 would stick to it, blow high, blow low. He was just the fellow 
 I wanted for the lee brace, as it were, to give my weather one 
 a purchase, even if I had altogether liked the notion of setting 
 off all alone on what I couldn't help suspecting was a sufficiently
 
 A SEA STORY 45 
 
 harebrained scheme as it stood ; and, to tell the truth, it was 
 only to a straightforward, simple-hearted tar like Jacobs that 
 I could have plucked up courage to make it known. I knew 
 he would enter into it like a reefer volunteering for a cutting 
 out, and make nothing of the difficulties especially when a 
 love matter was at the bottom of it : the chief question was 
 how to discover his whereabouts, as Wapping is rather a wide 
 word. I adopted the expedient of going into all the tobacco- 
 shops to inquire after Jacobs, knowing him to be a more than 
 commonly hard smoker, and no great drinker ashore. I was 
 beginning to be tired out, however, and give up the quest, 
 when, at the corner of a lane near the docks, I caught sight 
 of a little door adorned with what had apparently been part 
 of a ship's figure-head the face of a nymph or nereid, four 
 times as large as life, with tarnished gilding, and a long wooden 
 pipe in her mouth that had all the effect of a bowsprit, being 
 stayed up by a piece of marline to a hook in the wall, probably 
 in order to keep clear of people's heads. The words painted 
 on its two head-boards, as under a ship's bow, were ' Betsy 
 Jacobs,' and ' licensed ' on the top of the door ; the window 
 was stowed full of cakes of cavendish, twists of negrohead, and 
 coils of pigtail ; so that, having heard my old shipmate speak 
 of a certain Betsy, both as sweetheart and partner, I made at 
 once pretty sure of having lighted, by chance, on his very dry- 
 dock, and went in without more ado. I found nobody in the 
 little shop, but a rough voice, as like as possible to Jacobs' own, 
 was chanting the sea-song of ' Come, cheer up, my lads, 'tis to 
 glory we steer,' in the back-room, in a curious sleepy kind of 
 drone, interrupted every now and then by the suck of his pipe, 
 and a mysterious thumping sound, which I could only account 
 for by the supposition that the poor fellow was mangling 
 clothes, or gone mad. I was obliged to kick on the counter 
 with all my might, in competition, before an eye was applied 
 from inside to the little window ; after which, as I expected, 
 the head of Jacobs was thrust out of the door, his hair rough, 
 three days' beard on his chin, and he in his shirt and trousers. 
 ' Hisht ! ' said he, in a low voice, not seeing me distinctly for 
 the light, ' you 're not calling the watch, my lad ! Hold on a 
 bit, and I '11 serve your orders directly.' After another stave 
 of ' Hearts of oak are our ships,' etc., in the same drawl, and a 
 still more vigorous thumping than before, next minute out
 
 46 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 came Bob again ; with a wonderful air of importance, though, 
 and drawing in one hand, to my great surprise, the slack of a 
 line of ' half-inch,' on which he gave now and then a tug and 
 an ease off, as he came forward, like a fellow humouring a 
 newly-hooked fish. ' Now, then, my hearty ! ' said he, shading 
 
 his eyes with the other hand, ' bear a ' ' Why, Jacobs, 
 
 old ship,' I said, ' what 's this you 're after ? Don't you know 
 your old apprentice, eh ? ' 
 
 " Jacobs looked at my cap and epaulette, and gave out his 
 breath in a whistle, the only other sign of astonishment being 
 that he let go his unaccountable-looking piece of cord. ' Lord 
 bless me, Master Ned ! ' said he ' I axes pardon, Lieutenant 
 Collins, your honour ! ' ' Glad you know me this time, Bob, 
 my lad,' said I, looking round 'and a comfortable berth 
 you 've got of it, I daresay. But what the deuce are you about 
 in there ? You haven't a savage, too, like some friends of 
 yours I fell in with a short time ago ! Or perhaps a lion or a 
 tiger, eh, Jacobs ? ' ' No, no, your honour lions be blowed ! ' 
 replied he, laughing, but fiddling with his hands all the while, 
 and standing between me and the room, as if half-ashamed. 
 ' "Tis ownly the tiller-ropes of a small craft I am left in charge 
 of, sir. But won't ye sit down, your honour, till such time as 
 my old 'ooman comes aboard to relieve me, sir ? Here 's a cheer, 
 and may be you 'd make so free for to take a pipe of prime 
 Americane, your honour ? ' ' Let 's have a look into your cabin 
 though, Bob, my man,' said I, curious to know what was the 
 secret ; when all at once a tremendous squall from within let 
 me sufficiently into it. The old salt had been rocking the 
 cradle, with a fine little fellow of a baby in it, and a line made 
 fast to keep it in play when he served the shop. ' All the pitch 
 is in the fire now, your honour,' said he, looking terribly non- 
 plussed ; ' I 've broached him to, and he 's all aback till his 
 mammy gets a hold of him.' ' A good pipe the little rogue's 
 got though,' said I ; ( and a fine child he is, Jacobs do for a 
 bo'sun yet.' ' Why, yes, sir,' said he, rubbing his chin with a 
 gratified smile, as the urchin kicked, threw out his arms, and 
 roared like to break his heart ; ' I 'm thinking he 's a sailor all 
 over, by natur', as one may say. He don't like a calm no more 
 nor myself; but that's the odds of being ashore, where you 
 needs to keep swinging the hammocks by hand, instead of 
 havin' it done for you, sir.' In the midst of the noise, however,
 
 A SEA STORY 47 
 
 we were caught by the sudden appearance of Mistress Jacobs 
 herself a good-looking young woman, with a market-basket 
 full of bacon and greens, and a chubby little boy holding by 
 her apron, who came through the shop. The first thing she 
 did was to catch up the baby out of the cradle, and begin 
 hushing it, after one or two side-glances of reproach at her 
 husband, who attempted to cover his disgrace by saying, 
 ' Betsy, my girl, where 's your manners ? why don't you off 
 hats to the leftenant? it's my wife, your honour.' Mrs 
 Jacobs curtsied twice very respectfully, though not particu- 
 larly fond of the profession, as I found afterwards ; and I soon 
 quite gained her smiles and good graces by praising her child, 
 with the remark that he was too pretty ever to turn out a 
 sailor ; for, sharp as mothers are to detect this sort of flattery 
 to anybody else's bantling, you always find it take wonderfully 
 with respect to their own. Whenever Jacobs and I were left 
 to ourselves, I struck at once into my scheme the more 
 readily for feeling I had the weather hand of him in regard of 
 his late appearance. It was too ridiculous, the notion of one of 
 the best foretopmen that ever passed a weather-earing staying 
 at home to rock his wife's cradle and attend the shop ; and he 
 was evidently aware of it as I went on. It was a little selfish, 
 I daresay, and Mrs Jacobs would perhaps have liked me none 
 the better for it ; but I proposed to him to get a berth in the 
 Indiaman, sail with me for Bombay, and stand by for a foul 
 hitch in something or other. ' Why, sir,' said he, ' it shan't be 
 said of Bob Jacobs he were ever the man to hang back where 
 a matter was to be done that must be done. I doesn't see the 
 whole bearings of it as yet, but ownly you give the orders, sir, 
 and I '11 stick to 'em.' ' 'Tis a long stretch between this and 
 Bombay, Jacobs,' said I, 'and plenty of room for chances.' 
 ' Ay, ay, sir, no doubt,' said he, 'your honour can talk the 
 length of the best bower cable.' ' More than that, Bob, my 
 lad,' said I, ' I know these Company men ; if they once get 
 out of their regular jog, they 're as helpless as a pig adrift on 
 a grating ; and before they grow used to sailing out of convoy, 
 with no frigates to whip them in, depend upon it Mother 
 Carey will have to teach them a new trick or two.' ' Mayhap, 
 sir,' put in Jacobs, doubtfully, ' the best thing 'ud be if they 
 cast the ship away altogether, as I 've seen done myself for 
 the matter of an insurance. Ye know, sir, they lets it pass at
 
 48 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Lloyd's now the war's over, seein' it brings customers to the 
 underwriters, if so be ownly it don't come over often for the 
 profits. Hows' ever it needs a good seaman to choose his lee- 
 shore well, no doubt.' ( Oh ! ' answered I, laughing, ' but the 
 chances are, all hands would want to be Robinson Crusoe at 
 once ! No, no only let 's get aboard, and take things as they 
 come.' ' What 's the ship's name, sir ? ' inquired Jacobs, 
 sinking his voice, and looking cautiously over his shoulder 
 toward the door. ' The Seringapatam do you know her ? ' 
 I said. ' Ay, ay, sir, well enough,' said he, readily ' a lump 
 of a ship she is, down off Blackwall in the stream, with two 
 more country-built, and tumbles home rather much from 
 below the plank-sheer for a sightly craft, besides being flat in 
 the eyes of her, and round in the counter, just where she 
 shouldn't, sir. Them ParcAee Bombay shipwrights does clap 
 on a lot of onchristien flummeries and gilt mouldings, let 
 alone quarter-galleries fit for the king's castle ! ' 'In short, 
 she's tea-waggon all over/ said I, 'and just as slow and as 
 leewardly, to boot, as teak can make her ? ' ' Her lines is not 
 that bad, though, your honour,' continued Jacobs, ' if you just 
 knocked off her poop and she 'd bear a deal o' beating for a 
 sea-boat. They 've got a smart young mate, too ; for I seed 
 him t'other day a-sending up the yards, and now she 's as 
 square as a frigate, all ready to drop down river.' The short 
 and long of it was, that I arranged with my old shipmate, 
 who was fully bent on the cruise, whether Mrs Jacobs should 
 approve or not, that, somehow or other, we should both ship 
 our hammocks on board of the Seringapatam he before the 
 mast, and I wherever I could get. On going to the agent's, 
 however which I did as soon as I could change my uniform 
 for plain clothes I found, to my great disappointment, from 
 a plan of the accommodations, that not only were the whole of 
 the poop-cabins taken, but those on the main-deck also. Most 
 of the passengers, I ascertained, were ladies, with their 
 children and nurses, going back to India, and raw young 
 cadets, with a few commercial and civilian nondescripts ; 
 there were no troops or officers, and room enough, except 
 for one gentleman having engaged the entire poop, at an 
 immense expense, for his own use. This I, of course, supposed 
 was the nabob, but the clerk was too close to inform me. 
 ' You must try another ship, sir,' said he, coolly, as he shut
 
 A SEA STORY 49 
 
 the book. ' Sorry for it, but we have another booked to sail 
 in a fortnight. Al, sir ; far finer vessel couple of hundred 
 tons larger and sails faster.' ' You be hanged ! ' muttered 
 I, walking out ; and a short time after I was on board. The 
 stewards told me as much again ; but on my slipping a guinea 
 into the fingers of one, he suddenly recollected there was a 
 gentleman in state-room No. 14, starboard side of the main 
 skylight, who, being alone, might perhaps be inclined to take 
 a chum, if I dealt with him privately. ' Yankee, sir, he is/ 
 said the steward, by way of a useful hint. However, I didn't 
 need the warning, at sight of the individual's long nose, thin 
 lips, and sallow jaw-bones, without a whisker on his face, and 
 his shirt-collar turned down, as he sat overhauling his traps 
 beside the carronade, which was tethered in the state-room, 
 with its muzzle through the port. He looked a good deal 
 like a jockey beside his horse ; or, as a wit of a schoolboy 
 cadet said afterwards, the Boston gentleman, calling himself 
 Daniel C. Snout, Esquire like Daniel praying in the lion's 
 den, and afraid it might turn round and roar. I must say the 
 idea didn't quite delight me, nor the sight of a fearful 
 quantity of baggage which was stowed up against the bulk- 
 head ; but after introducing myself and objecting to the first 
 few offers, I at last concluded a bargain with the American 
 for a hundred guineas, provisions exclusive, which, he re- 
 marked, was ' considerable low, I prognosticate, mister ! ' 
 ' However/ said he, ' I expect you 're a conversationable in- 
 dividual a little : I allowed for that, you know, mister. 
 One can't do much of a trade at sea that 's a fact ; and I 
 calculate we '11 swap information by the way. I 'm water- 
 pruff, I tell you, as all our nation is. You '11 not settle at 
 Bumbay, I reckon, mister ? ' But though I meant to pay my 
 new messmate in my own coin at leisure afterwards, and be 
 as frank and open as day with him the only way to meet 
 a Yankee I made off at present as fast as possible to bring 
 my things aboard, resolving to sleep at Blackwall, and then 
 to stow myself out of sight for sick, until there was somebody 
 to take off the edge of his confounded talk. 
 
 " Next afternoon, accordingly, I found myself once more 
 afloat, the Indiaman dropping down with the first breeze. 
 The day after, she was running through the Downs with it 
 pretty strong from north-east, a fair wind the pilot-boat
 
 50 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 snoring off close-hauled to windward, with a white spray over 
 her nose ; and the three dungaree topsails of the Seringapatam 
 lifting and swelling, as yellow as gold, over her white courses 
 in the blue Channel haze. The breeze freshened till she 
 rolled before it, and everything being topsyturvy on deck, 
 the lumber in the way, the men as busy as bees setting her 
 ship-shape it would have been as much as a passenger's toes 
 were worth to show them from below ; so that I was able to 
 keep by myself, just troubling my seamanship so much as to 
 stand clear of the work. Enjoy it I did, too ; the first sniff 
 of the weather was almost enough to make me forget what 
 I was there for. I was every now and then on the point of 
 fisting a rope, and singing out to the men ; till at length I 
 thought it more comfortable, even for me, to run up the 
 mizzen shrouds when everybody was forward, where I stowed 
 myself out of sight in the cross-trees. 
 
 " About dusk, while I was waiting to slip down, a stronger 
 puff than ordinary made them clue up the mizzen-royal from 
 deck, which I took upon myself to furl off-hand quick 
 enough to puzzle a couple of boys that came aloft for the 
 purpose, especially as, in the meantime, I had got down upon 
 the topsail-yardarm out of their notice. When they got on 
 deck again, I heard the little fellows telling some of the 
 men, in a terrified sort of way, how the mizzen-royal had 
 either stowed itself, or else it was Dick Wilson's ghost, that 
 fell off the same yard last voyage more by token, he used 
 always to make fast the gaskets just that fashion. At night, 
 however, the wind having got lighter, with half moonlight, 
 there was a muster of some passengers on deck, all sick and 
 miserable, as they tried to keep their feet, and have the 
 benefit of air the Yankee being as bad as the worst. I 
 thought it wouldn't do for me to be altogether free, and 
 accordingly stuck fast by Mr Snout, with my head over the 
 quarter-deck bulwarks, looking into his face, and talking 
 away to him, asking all sorts of questions about what was 
 good for sea-sickness, then giving a groan to prevent myself 
 laughing, when the spray splashed up upon his 'water-pruff' 
 face, he responding to it as Sancho Panza did to Don Quixote, 
 when the one examined the other's mouth after a potion. 
 All he could falter out was, how he wondered I could speak 
 at all when sick. ' Oh ! oh dear ! ' said I with another howl.
 
 A SEA STORY 51 
 
 ' Yes 'tis merely because I can't think ! And I daresay you 
 are thinking so much you can't talk the sea is so full of 
 
 meditation, as Lord Byron oh oh this water will be 
 
 the death of me ! ' ' I feel as if the whole tarnation 
 Atlantic was inside of my bowels ! ' gasped he through 
 his nostrils. ' Oh ! ' I could not help putting in, as the 
 ship and Mr Snout both gave a heave up, ' and coming out 
 of you ! ' 
 
 " During all this time I had felt so sure of my ground as 
 scarcely to trouble myself about the Bengal judge and his 
 treasure of a daughter ; only in the midst of the high spirits 
 brought up by the breeze, I hugged myself now and then at 
 the thought of their turning out by degrees as things got 
 settled. Nobody would suspect the raw chap I looked, with 
 smooth hair and a high collar, of any particular cue : I must 
 say there was a little vanity at the bottom of it, but I kept 
 thinking more and more how snug and quietly I 'd enjoy all 
 that went on, sailing on one tack with the passengers and the 
 old nabob himself, and slipping off upon the other when I 
 could come near the charming young Lota. The notion looks 
 more like what some scamp of a reefer, cruising ashore, would 
 have hit upon, than suits my taste nowadays ; but the cock- 
 pit had put a spice of the imp in me, which I never got clear 
 of till this very voyage, as you '11 see, if we get through the 
 log of it. 
 
 "The first time I went down into the cuddy was that 
 evening to tea, where all was at sixes and sevens like the 
 decks ; the lamps ill-trimmed, stewards out of the way, and a 
 few lads trying to bear up against their stomachs by the help 
 of brandy and biscuits. The main figure was a jolly-looking 
 East Indian, an indigo-planter, as he turned out, with a bald 
 forehead, a hook nose, and his gills covered with white 
 whiskers that gave him all the cut of a cockatoo. He had 
 his brown servant running about on every hand, and being an 
 old stager, did his best to cheer up the rest ; but nothing I 
 saw showed the least sign of the party I looked after. I was 
 sure I ought to have made out something of them by this 
 time, considering the stir such a grandee as Sir Charles Hyde 
 would cause aboard ; in fact, there didn't seem to be many 
 passengers in her, and I began to curse the lying scoundrel 
 of a kitmagar for working ' Tom Cox's traverse ' on me, and
 
 52 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 myself for being a greater ass than I 'd fancied. Indeed, I 
 heard the planter mention by chance that Sir Charles Hyde, 
 the district judge, had come home last voyage from India in 
 this very Seringapatam, which, no doubt, I thought, put the 
 Mahommedan rascal up to his trick. 
 
 " I was making up my mind to an Indian trip, and the pure 
 pleasure of Daniel Catoson Snout, Esquire's, company for two 
 blessed months, when all of a sudden I felt the ship bring her 
 wind a-quarter, with a furious plunge of the Channel water 
 along her bends, that made every landman's bowels yearn as 
 if he felt it gurgle through him. One young fellow, more 
 drunk than sick, gave a wild bolt right over the cuddy table, 
 striking out with both arms and legs as if afloat, so as to 
 sweep half of the glasses down on the floor. The planter, 
 who was three cloths in the wind himself, looked down upon 
 him with a comical air of pity as soon as he had got cushioned 
 upon the wreck. ' My dear fellow,' said he, ' what do you 
 feel eh ? f Feel, you old blackguard ! ' stammered the 
 griffin, ' I feel everything! Goes through through my vitals 
 as if I was a con founded whale! C can't stand it!' 
 ' You 've drunk yourself aground, my boy ! ' sung out the 
 indigo-man ; ' stuck fast on the coral eh ? Never mind, 
 we'll float you off, only don't flounder that way with your 
 tail! by George, you scamp, you've ruined my toe oh dear!' 
 I left the planter hopping round on one pin, and holding the 
 gouty one in his hand, betwixt laughing and crying ; on deck 
 I found the floating Nab Light bearing broad on our lee-bow, 
 with Cumberland Fort glimmering to windward, and the half- 
 moon setting over the Isle of Wight, while we stood up for 
 Portsmouth Harbour. The old captain, and most of the 
 officers, were on the poop for the first time, though as stiff 
 and uncomfortable from the sort of land-sickness and lumber- 
 qualms that sailors feel till things are in their places, as the 
 landsmen did until things were out of them. The skipper 
 walked the weather side by himself and said nothing; the 
 smart chief officer sent two men, one after another, from the 
 wheel for 'cows' that didn't know where their tails were; and 
 as for the middies, they seemed to know when to keep out of 
 the way. In a little, the spars of the men-of-war at Spithead 
 were to be seen as we rose on a sea ; before the end of the 
 first watch, we were running outside the Spit Buoy, which
 
 A SEA STORY 53 
 
 was nodding and plashing with the tide in the last slant of 
 moonshine, till at last we rounded to, and down went the 
 anchor in five fathoms, off the Motherbank. What the India- 
 man wanted at Portsmouth I didn't know ; but, meantime, I 
 had given up all hopes of the nabob being in her, and the 
 only question with me was, whether I should take the oppor- 
 tunity of giving all hands the slip here, even though I left 
 my Yankee friend disconsolate, and a clear gainer by dollars 
 beyond count. 
 
 "Early next morning there were plenty of wherries looking 
 out for fares ; so, as the Indiaman was not to sail before the 
 night-ebb, when the breeze would probably spring up fair 
 again, I hailed one of them to go ashore at the point, for a 
 quiet stroll over Southsea Common, where I meant to over- 
 haul the whole bearings of the case, and think if it weren't 
 better to go home, and wait the Admiralty's pleasure for a 
 ship. I hadn't even seen anything of Jacobs, and the whole 
 hotel-keeping ways of the Indiaman began to disgust me, or 
 else I should have at once decided to take the chance of 
 seeing Lota Hyde somehow or other in India ; but, again, one 
 could scarcely endure the notion of droning on in a frigate 
 without so much as a Brest lugger to let drive at. It was 
 about six o'clock ; the morning-gun from the guard-ship off 
 the dock-yard came booming down through the harbour, the 
 blue offing shone like silver, and the green tideway sparkled 
 on every surge, up to where they were flashing and poppling 
 on the copper of the frigates at Spithead. I noticed them 
 crossing yards and squaring ; the farthest out hove up anchor, 
 loosed foretopsail, cast her head to starboard, and fired a gun 
 as she stood slowly out to sea under all sail, with a light air 
 freshening abeam. The noble look of her almost reconciled 
 me of itself to the service, were it for the mere sake of having 
 a share in driving such a craft between wind and water. Just 
 then, however, an incident turned up in spite of me, which 
 I certainly didn't expect, and which had more, even than I 
 reckoned at the time, to do with my other adventure ; seeing 
 that it made me, both then and afterwards, do the direct 
 opposite of what I meant to do, and both times put a new 
 spoke in my wheel, as we say at sea here. 
 
 " I had observed a seventy-four, the Stratton, lying opposite 
 the Spit Buoy, on board of which, as the waterman told me, a
 
 54 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 court-martial had been held the day before, where they broke 
 a first lieutenant for insulting his captain. Both belonged to 
 one of the frigates : the captain I had seen, and heard of as 
 the worst tyrant in the navy ; his ship was called a ' perfect 
 hell afloat ' ; that same week one of the boys had tried to 
 drown himself alongside, and a corporal of marines, after 
 coming ashore and drinking a glass with his sweetheart, had 
 coolly walked down to the point, jumped in between two boats 
 and the jetty, and kept himself under water till he was dead. 
 The lieutenant had been dismissed the service, and as I recog- 
 nised the name, I wondered whether it could actually be my 
 schoolfellow, Tom Westwood, as gallant a fellow and as merry 
 as ever broke biscuit. Two sail-boats, one from around the 
 Strattoris quarter, and the other from over by Gosport, steer- 
 ing on the same tack for Southsea, turned my attention as I 
 sauntered down to the beach. The bow of the nearest wherry 
 grounded on the stones as I began to walk quicker towards 
 the town-gates, chiefly because J was pretty ready for an early 
 breakfast at the old Blue Posts, and also because I had a slight 
 notion of what these gentlemen wanted on Southsea Beach at 
 odd hours. Out they jumped, however one man in naval 
 undress, another a captain in full fig, the third a surgeon 
 coming right athwart my course to bring me to. The first I 
 almost at once remembered for the notorious captain of the 
 Orestes, or N'Oreste, as the midshipmen called her, from her 
 French build and her character altogether. ' Hallo, you sir ! ' 
 said the other captain, decidedly, 'you must stand still.' 
 ' Indeed,' said I ; ' and why so, if you please ? ' ( Since you 
 are here, we don't intend allowing you to pass for some few 
 minutes.' ' And what if I should do as I choose, sir?' I 
 asked. ' If you stir two steps, sir, I shall shoot you,' replied 
 the captain, who was one of the bullying school. ' Oh, very 
 well,' I said, rather confounded by his impertinence, ' then I 
 shall stay'; and I accordingly stood stock-still, with my arms 
 folded, until the other boat landed a party of two. They were 
 in plain clothes ; nor did I give them any particular heed till 
 the seconds had stationed their men, when the captain of the 
 Orestes had his back to me, and his antagonist stood directly 
 facing. As his pale resolved features came out before me with 
 the morning sun on them, his lips together, and his nostrils 
 large, I recognised my old friend Westwood. The captain had
 
 A SEA STORY 55 
 
 broke him the day before, and now had accepted his challenge, 
 being a known dead shot, while the lieutenant had never fired 
 a bullet in cold blood ; there was, no doubt, a settled purpose 
 iu the tyrant to crush the first man that had dared to thwart 
 his will. Westwood's second came forward and mentioned to 
 the other that his friend was still willing to withdraw the 
 words spoken in first heat, and would accordingly fire in the 
 air. ' Coward ! ' shouted the captain of the Orestes imme- 
 diately, ' 1 shall shoot you through the heart ! ' ' Sir,' said I 
 to his second, ' I will not look on ; and if that gentleman is 
 shot, I will be witness against you both as murderers.' I 
 dropped down behind a stone out of the line of fire, and to 
 keep my eyes off the devilish piece of work, though my blood 
 boiled to knock the fellow down that I was speaking to. 
 Another minute, and the suspense was too great for me to 
 help looking up. Just at that moment I saw how set West- 
 wood's face was ; he was watching his enemy with an eye that 
 showed to me what the other's must be seeking for his life. 
 The seconds gave the word to each other in the middle, and 
 dropped two white handkerchiefs at once with their hands 
 together; I caught the flash of Westwood's pistol, when, to 
 my astonishment, I saw the captain of the Orestes next moment 
 jerk up his arm betwixt me and the sky, fire in the air, and 
 slowly fall back he was dead ! shot through the heart. One 
 glance at his face gave you a notion of the devilish meaning 
 he had had ; but what was my surprise when his second 
 walked up to Westwood, and said to him, ' Sir, you are the 
 murderer of Captain Duncombe my friend fired in the air as 
 you proposed.' ' You are mistaken, sir,' answered Westwood, 
 coldly ; ' Captain Duncombe sought my life, and I have used 
 the privilege of self-defence.' ' The surgeon is of my opinion,' 
 said the other ; ' and I am sorry to say that we cannot allow 
 you to depart.' ' I shall give myself up to the authorities at 
 once,' said Westwood. ' We have only your word for that, 
 which I must be permitted, in such a case, to doubt,' replied 
 the captain, whose evident wish it was to detain Westwood by 
 force or threats while he sent off his surgeon. The worst of it 
 was, as I now found, that since the court-martial and the 
 challenge, an Admiralty order had arrived, in consideration of 
 several gallant acts during the war, as well as private repre- 
 sentation, restoring him to the service ; so that he had, in fact,
 
 56 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 called out and shot his superior officer. As for the charge now 
 brought forward, it was too absurd for any to believe it, unless 
 from rage or prejudice ; the case was bad enough, at any rate, 
 without it. 
 
 " In the meantime I had exchanged a word or two with 
 Westwood's friend ; after which, lifting a second pistol which 
 lay on the sand, I went up to the captain. 'Sir/ said I, 
 ' you used the freedom, a little ago, of forcing me into your 
 concerns, and I have seen the end of it. I have now got to 
 tell you, having watched your conduct, that either you must 
 submit to be made fast here for a bit, else, by the God that 
 made me, I '11 shoot you through the head.' The captain 
 looked at me, his surgeon sidled up to him ; and being a man 
 near my own size, he suddenly tried to wrench the pistol out 
 of my hands. However, I had him the next moment under 
 my knee, while Westwood's second secured the little surgeon, 
 and took a few round sea-turns about his wrists and ankles 
 with a neckerchief. My companion then gave me a hand to 
 do the same with his superior officer the medico all the time 
 singing out like a bull, and the captain threatening while the 
 dead body lay stark and stiff behind us, the eyes wide, the 
 head down, and the breast up, the hand clenching a pistol, 
 just as he had fallen. Westwood stood quite unconscious of 
 everything we did, only he seemed to be watching the knees 
 drawn up as they stiffened, and the sand-flies gathering about 
 the mouth. ' Shall we clap a stopper between their teeth ? ' 
 said the second to me he had been at sea, but who he was I 
 never knew 'the surgeon will be heard on the walls, he 
 bellows so!' 'Never mind,' said I, 'we'll just drop them 
 beyond tide-mark the lee of the stones yonder.' In fact, 
 from the noise the tide was making, I question if the shots 
 could have been heard even by the watermen, who had 
 prudently sheered out of sight round a point. I couldn't help 
 looking, when we had done this, from the captain's body to 
 his own frigate, as she was sluing round head on to us, at 
 single anchor, to the turn of tide, with her buoy dancing on 
 the brisk blue sweep of water, and her figurehead shining in 
 the sunlight. As soon as we had covered over the corpse 
 with tangle, Westwood started as if we had taken something 
 away from him, or freed him of a spell. ' Westwood ! ' said I, 
 laying my hand on his shoulder, ' you must come along with
 
 A SEA STORY 57 
 
 me.' He said nothing, but followed us quietly round to the 
 wherries, where I told the watermen that the other party 
 had gone a different way to keep clear, and we wanted them 
 to pull for Gosport. At Gosport we had Westwood rigged 
 out in black clothes, his hair cropped, and whiskers shaved 
 off as I thought it the fittest thing for his case, and what he 
 could best carry out, to go aboard of the Indiaman with me 
 as if he were a missionary. Poor fellow ! he didn't well know 
 what he was. So, having waited till dusk, to let the water- 
 men lose our track, and his friend having posted off for Dover, 
 he and I both got safe over to the Seringapatam, where I had 
 him stowed in the first convenient state-room I could find. 
 I had actually forgot, through the excitement, all about 
 having missed my first chase ; from one hour to another I 
 kept watching the tide-marks ashore, and the dog-vane on the 
 ship's quarter, all impatience to hear the word given for 'all 
 hands up anchor,' and hoping our worthy friends on Southsea 
 Beach were still lying within hearing of the Channel flood. 
 At last the order did come ; round went the capstan merrily 
 enough, till she had hove short and up with foretopsail set ; 
 the anchor was catted, and off went the lumbering old craft 
 through the Solent about midnight, before a fine rattling 
 breeze, in company with six or seven others, all running for 
 the Needles. They were loosing the Indiaman's royals when 
 I heard a gun from the guardship in harbour ; and a little 
 after up went a rocket, signalling to some frigate or other at 
 Spithead ; away they kept at it, with lights from the telegraph 
 to her masthead, for several minutes. ' All 's up ! ' thought I, 
 ' and both Westwood and myself are in for it ! ' 
 
 " Next morning at daybreak, accordingly, no sooner did the 
 dawn serve to show us Portland Light going out on the 
 weather quarter, with a whole fleet of Channel craft and 
 Mediterranean brigs about us, we surging through it as fast 
 as the Indiaman could go than there was a fine forty-four 
 standing off and on right in our course, in fact the very 
 identical Orestes herself ! She picked us out in a moment bore 
 up, stood across our weather-bow, and hailed. ' What ship's 
 that ? ' said the first luff in her mizzen rigging, 
 
 "'The Seringapatam, Honourable Company's ship, Captain 
 Williamson ! ' sung out our first officer, with his cap off. 
 * Heave to, till I send a boat aboard of you,' hailed the naval
 
 58 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 man, and there we bobbed to each other with mainyards 
 backed. In a few minutes a master's mate with gig's crew 
 was under our lee-quarter, and the mate came on deck. ' Sir,' 
 said he, ' the Port Admiral will thank you to deliver these 
 despatches for Sir Charles Hyde, who I believe is aboard.' 
 ' Certainly, sir/ said the first officer, ' they shall be given to 
 him in an hour's time.' 
 
 "'Good morning, and a fine voyage.' said the master's 
 mate politely ; and I took the occasion of asking if Captain 
 Duncombe were on board the Orestes. ' No, sir,' answered 
 the midshipman, f he happens to be ashore at present ' I have 
 seldom felt so relieved as when I saw the frigate haul round 
 her mainyard, and go sweeping off to leeward, while we re- 
 sumed our course. By noon we had sunk the land about 
 Start Point, with a breeze which it was no use wasting at that 
 season to take ' departures ' ; and as the afternoon set in hazy, 
 we were soon out of sight of old England for good. For my 
 part, I was bound eastward at last with a witness, and, like a 
 young bear again, ' all my troubles before me.' 
 
 "There is two bells though," interrupted the narrator, 
 starting. " Let us see what sort of night it is before the 
 ladies retire." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PHE evening after that on which the commander of the 
 -* Gloucester Indiaman introduced his adventures, nearly 
 the same party met on the poop to hear them continued. 
 
 " Well then," began Captain Collins, leaning back against 
 a stanchion of the quarter-rail, with folded arms, legs crossed, 
 and his eyes fixed on the weather-leech of the mizzen-topsail to 
 collect his thoughts; "well then, try to fancy the Seringapatam 
 in chase of the Gloucester ; and if I do use a few extra sea- 
 terms, I consider the ladies good enough sailors for them 
 already. At any rate, just throw a glance aloft now and 
 then, and our good old lady will explain herself ; to her own 
 sex, she ought to be as good as a dictionary, with signs for the 
 hard words ! 
 
 " The second day out we had the wind more from seaward,
 
 A SEA STORY 59i 
 
 which broke up the haze into bales of cloud, and away they 
 went rolling in for the Bay of Biscay ; with a longer wave and 
 darker water, and the big old Indiaman surged over it as easily 
 as might be, the blue breeze gushing right into her main-tack 
 through the heave of the following seas, and the tail of the 
 trade- wind flying high above her trucks in shreds and patches. 
 Things got more ship-shape on deck ; anchor-flukes brought 
 in-board on the head-rail, and cables stowed away the very 
 best sign you can have of being clear of the land. The first 
 officer, as they called him, was a good-looking fellow, that 
 thought no small-beer of himself, with his glossy blue jacket 
 and Company's buttons, white trousers, and a gold thread 
 round his cap ; he had it stuck askew to show how his hair 
 was brushed ; and changed his boots every time he came on 
 deck. Still he looked like a sailor, if but for the East-India 
 brown on his face, and there was no mistake about his know- 
 ing how to set a sail, trim yards, or put the ship about ; so that 
 the stiff old skipper left a great deal to him, besides trusting 
 him for a first-rate navigator that had learned head-work at a 
 naval school. The crew were to be seen all mustering before 
 tea-time in the dog-watch, with their feet just seen under the 
 foot mat of the fore-course, like actors behind a playhouse 
 curtain men that I warrant you had seen every country under 
 heaven amongst them as private as possible, and ready to 
 enjoy their pots of tea upon the forecastle, as well as their 
 talk. 
 
 " However, all this was nothing to me, as I saw no sign of 
 the passengers I had counted on. I could do little for poor 
 Westwood but leave him to mope below, over his own 
 thoughts. 
 
 " If the Indian judge really chanced to be on board after 
 all, he evidently fought shy of company, and perhaps meant 
 to have his own mess-table under the poop as long as the 
 voyage lasted ; scarcely any of the ladies had apparently got 
 their sea-qualms over yet, and, for all I knew, she might not 
 be with him, even if he were there ; or, if she were, her father 
 seemed quite Turk enough to keep her boxed up with jalousie- 
 blinds, Calcutta fashion, and give her a walk in the middle 
 watch, with the poop talbooed till morning. The jolly, red- 
 faced indigo-planter was the only one that tried to get up 
 anything like spirit at the table ; indeed, he would have
 
 60 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 scraped acquaintance with me, if I had been in a mood for it ; 
 all I did was to say ( Yes ' and ' No/ and to take wine with 
 him. e Poor fellow ! ' said he, turning to three or four of the 
 cadets, that stuck by him like pilot-fish to an old shark, ' he 's 
 thinking of his mother at home, I daresay.' The fools thought 
 this was meant for a joke, and began to laugh. 'Why, you 
 unfledged griffins you/ said the planter, ' what d' ye see to 
 nicker at, like so many jackals in a trap ? D' ye suppose one 
 thinks the less of a man for having a heart to be sick in, 
 as well as a stomach eh ? ' ' Oh, don't speak of it, Mr 
 Rollock ! ' said one. ' Come, come, old boy/ said another, 
 with a white moustache on his lip, ' 'twon't do for you to go 
 the sentimental, you know.' ' Capsize my main-spanker, 'tis 
 too funny, though/ put in a fellow who wore a glazed hat on 
 deck, and put down all the ropes with numbers on paper, as 
 soon as he had done being sick. The planter leant back in 
 his chair, looked at them coolly, and burst out a-laughing. 
 ' Catch me ever " going home " again,' said he. ' Of all the 
 absurd occasions for impudence with the egg-shell on its head 
 coming out, hang me if these fifteen thousand miles of infernal 
 sea-water ain't the worst. India for ever ! that 's the place 
 to try a man. He 's either sobered or gets room to work 
 there ; and just wait, my fine fellows, till I see you on the 
 Custom-house Bunda at Bombay, or setting off up country 
 you 're all of you the very food for sircars and coolies. That 
 quiet lad there, now, soft as he looks ' meaning me ' I can 
 tell by his eye he won't be long a griff he '11 do something. 
 I tell you what, as soon as he 's tasted his first mango-fish, 
 he '11 understand the country. Why, sir/ said he again, 
 smacking his lips, ' 'tis worth the voyage of itself you begin 
 a new existence so to speak. I '11 be bound all this lot o' 
 water don't contain one single mango-fish. Remember, boys, 
 I promised you all a regular blow-out of mango-fish, and 
 Jlorican with bread-sauce, whenever you can get across to 
 Chuckbully Factory.' ' Blow, good breeze, then ; blow away 
 the main jib ! ' said the nautical young gentleman ; ( I '11 join 
 you, old fellow ! ' ' Not the best way to bring it about, 
 though/ said the indigo-planter, good-naturedly, not know- 
 ing but there was such a sail on the ship. 
 
 "The yellow setting sun was striking over the starboard 
 quarter-boat, and the Bay of Biscay lay broad down to leeward
 
 A SEA STORY 61 
 
 for a view a couple of large craft, with all studding-sails set 
 before the wind, making for landj far enough off to bring their 
 canvas in a piece, and begin to look blue with the air one 
 like a milk-woman with pitchers and a hoop ; the other like 
 a girl carrying a big bucketful of water, and leaning the 
 opposite way to steady herself. There was one far to north- 
 east, too, no more than a white speck in the grey sky ; and 
 the land-cloud went up over it into so many sea-lions' heads, 
 all looking out of their manes. The children clapped their 
 hands and laughed ; and the ladies talked about the vessels, 
 and thought they saw land Spain or the Pyrenees, perhaps. 
 However, it wasn't long before my American friend Snout 
 caught sight of me in the midst of his meditations, as he 
 turned bolt round on his toes to hurry aft again. ' The fact 
 is, mister,' said he, 'I'm riled a little at the tarnation pride 
 of you Britishers. There now,' said he, pointing at the blaze of 
 the sun to westward, with his chin, ' there 's a consolation. I 
 calculate the sun's just over Noo-York, which I expect to 
 give you old country folks considerable pain.' 
 
 " ' No doubt,' said I, with a sigh ; ' one can't help thinking 
 of a banker run off with ever so much English gold.' 'You're 
 a sensible chap, you are. It's a right-down asylum for 
 oppressed Europains that can't be denied.' ' And Africans, 
 too,' I put in. 'Indy, now,' said he ; ' I reckon there's a sight 
 of dollars made in that country you don't s'pose I 'm goin' 
 out there for nothing? We'll just take it out o' your hands 
 yet, mister. I don't ought to let you into the schim till I 
 know you better, you see ; but I expect to want a sort o' 
 company got up before we land. There 's one of your nabobs 
 now came into the ship at Possmouth, with a whole tail of 
 
 niggurs dressed up ' And a lady with him, I think ? ' 
 
 said I, as coolly as I could. ' I '11 somehow open on that chap 
 about British tyranny, I guess, after gettin' a little knowledge 
 out of him. We 'd just rise the niggurs, if they had not such 
 a right-down cur'ous myihullogy but I tell you now, mister, 
 that 's one of the very p'ints I expect to meet. Miss'naries 
 won't do it so slick off in two thousand years, I kinder think, 
 as this identical specoolation will in ten besides payin' like 
 Peruvain mines, which the miss'nary line don't. I 'm a 
 regoolar down-easter, ye see kinder piercin' into a subject, 
 like our nation in gin'ral and the whull schim hangs together
 
 62 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 a little, I calculate, mister ? ' f So I should think, Mr Snout, 
 indeed,' I said. Here the American gave another chuckle, 
 and turned to again on his walk, double quick, till you'd have 
 thought the whole length of the poop shook, when who 
 should I see with the tail of my eye but my friend the 
 kitmagar salaaming to Mr Snout by the break of the quarter- 
 deck. The Yankee seemed rather taken aback at first, and 
 didn't know what to make of him. ' S'laam sah'b,' said the 
 dark servant with an impudent look, and loud enough for me 
 to hear, as I stepped from aft. 'Judge sahib i-send genteeman 
 salaam say too much hivvy boot he get all same as illim- 
 phant. S'pose master not so much loud walk t his side ? ' 
 e Well ! ' broke out the American, looking at the Bengalee's 
 flat turban and moustache, as if he were too great a curiosity 
 to be angry with, then turning on his heel to proceed with 
 his walk. ' Now, mister,' said he to me, ' that's what I call 
 an incalculable impudent black ; but he 's the first I ever saw 
 with hair on his lip, it 's a fact.' ' Master not mind ? ' said the 
 kitmagar, raising his key next time Mr Snout wheeled round. 
 ' Judg sahib burra burra buhadoorkea ! ver' great man ! ' 
 ' Low niggur ! ' said Mr Snout, tramping away aft ; ' there 's 
 your British regoolations, I say, young man niggurs baaing 
 on the quarter-deck, and free-born citizens put off it ! ' 
 ' Bhote khoob, mistree ! ' squeaked out the native again ; ' burra 
 judge sahib not to i-sleep apter he dine, eh ? Ver? well ; I 
 tell the sahib, passiger mistree moor stamp-i-stamp all the 
 moor I can say ! ' So off he went to report in the poop-cabin. 
 A little after up shot a head wrapped in a yellow bandana, 
 just on the level of the poop-deck, looking through the 
 breast-rail ; and the next thing I saw was the great East- 
 Indian himself, with a broad-flapped Manilla hat over his top- 
 gear, and a red-flowered dressing-gown, standing beside the 
 binnacle with Captain Williamson. ' What the deuce, Captain 
 Williamson,' said the judge, with an angry glance up to the 
 poop, ( cannot I close my eyelids after dinner for one instant 
 in my own private apartments, sir for his hideous noise? 
 Who the deuce is that person there eh, eh ? ' ' He 's an 
 American gentleman, I believe, Sir Charles,' replied the 
 captain. 'Believe, sir,' said the judge; 'you ought to know 
 every individual, I think, Captain Williamson, whom you 
 admitted into this vessel. I expressly stipulated for quiet,
 
 A SEA STORY 63 
 
 sir I understood that no suspicious or exceptionable persons 
 should travel in the same conveyance with my suwarry. I 'd 
 have taken the whole ship, sir ! ' 'I 've no more to do than 
 tell him the regulations aboard, Sir Charles,' said the captain, 
 ' and the annoyance will cease.' ' Tell him, indeed ! ' said the 
 judge, a little more good-humouredly. 'Why, captain, the 
 man looks like a sea-pirate. You should have taken only 
 such raw griffins as that young lad on the other side. Ho, 
 kitmagar ! ' ' Maharaj ? ' said the footman, bowing down to 
 the deck. 'Slippers loo!' ' Jee khodabund,' answered the 
 native, and immediately after he reappeared from the round- 
 house door, with a pair of turned-up yellow slippers. ' Take 
 them up with my salaam to that gentleman there,' said Sir 
 Charles, in Hindoostanee, 'and ask him to use them.' 
 ' Hullo ! ' sung out Mr Snout, on being hove-to by the kit- 
 magar, with one hand on his breast, and the other holding 
 the slippers, ' this won't do ! You 'd better not rile me again, 
 you cussed niggur you. Out o' my way ! ' There they went 
 at it along the poop together, Mr Snout striding right for- 
 ward with his long legs, and the kitmagar hopping backward 
 out of his way, as he tried to make himself understood ; till, 
 all at once, the poor darkey lost his balance at the ladder- 
 head, and over he went with a smash fit to have broken his 
 neck, if the captain's broad back hadn't fortunately been 
 there to receive it. The rage of Sir Charles at this was 
 quite beyond joking ; nothing else would satisfy him but 
 the unlucky Yankee's being shoved off the poop by main 
 force, and taken below the one stamping and roaring like 
 an old buffalo, and the other testifying against all f aristo- 
 cratycal tyranny.' 
 
 " At eight bells again I found it a fine, breezy night, the 
 two upper mates walking the weather quarter-deck in blue- 
 water style, six steps and a look to windward, then a wheel 
 round, and, now and then, a glance into the binnacle. 
 I went aft and leant over the Seringapatam's lee quarter, look- 
 ing at the white back-wash running aft from her bows, in 
 green sparks, into the smooth alongside, and the surge coming 
 round her counter to meet it. Everything was set aloft that 
 could draw, even to a starboard main-topmast stunsail ; the 
 high Indiaman being lighter than if homeward-bound, and 
 the breeze strong abeam, she had a good heel-over to port ;
 
 64 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 but she went easily through the water, and it was only at 
 the other side you heard it rattling both ways along the 
 bends. The shadow of her went far to leeward, except 
 where a gleam came on the top of a wave or two between the 
 sails and under their foot. Just below the sheer of the 
 hull, aft, it was as dark as night, though now and then the 
 light from a port struck on it and went in again ; but every 
 time she sank, the bight of her wake from astern swelled up 
 away round the counter, with its black side as smooth as 
 a looking-glass. I kept peering into it, and expecting to 
 see my own face, while all the time I was very naturally 
 thinking of one quite different, and felt uneasy till I should 
 actually see her. ' Confound it,' I thought, ' were it only 
 a house, one might walk round and round it till he found 
 out the window.' I fancied her bewitching face through 
 the garden-door, as clearly as if I saw it in the dark head 
 of the swell ; but I 'd have given more only to hear that imp 
 of a cockatoo scream once whereas there was nothing but 
 the water working up into the rudder-case ; the pintles creak- 
 ing, and the tiller-ropes cheeping as they traversed ; and the 
 long welter of the sea when the ship eased down, with the 
 surgeon and his friends walking about and laughing up to 
 windward. From that again, I ran on putting things together, 
 till, in fact, Jacobs' notion of a shipwreck seemed by far the 
 best. No doubt Jacobs and West wood, with a few others, 
 would be saved, while I didn't even object much to the old 
 nabob himself, for respectability's sake, and to spare crape. 
 But, by Jove, wouldn't one bring him to his bearings soon 
 enough there ? Every sailor gets hold of this notion some 
 night-watch or other, leaning over the side, with pretty 
 creatures aboard he can scarce speak to otherwise ; and I was 
 coiling it down so fast myself, at the moment, that I had just 
 begun to pitch into the nabob about our all being Adam's 
 sons and daughters, under a knot of green palm-trees, at the 
 door of a wooden house, half thatched with leaves, when I 
 was brought up with a round turn by seeing a light shining 
 through the hazy bull's-eye in the deck where I stood. No 
 doubt the sweet girl I had been thinking of was actually there, 
 and going to bed ; I stretched over the quarter, but the heavy 
 mouldings were in the way against seeing more than the green 
 bars of the after window all turned edgeways to the water,
 
 A SEA STORY 65 
 
 where the gallery hung out like a corner turret from the ship's 
 side. Now and then, however, when she careened a little 
 more than ordinary, and the smooth lee swell went heaping 
 up opposite, I could notice the light through the Venetians 
 from the state-room come out upon the dark water in broad 
 bright lines, like the grate across a fire, then disappearing in a 
 ripple, till it was gone again, or somebody's shadow moved in- 
 side. It was the only lighted window in the gallery, and I 
 looked every time it came as if I could see in ; when at last, 
 you may fancy my satisfaction, as, all of a sudden, one long 
 slow heave over of the ship showed me the whole bright 
 opening of the port, squared out of her shadow, where it shone 
 upon the glassy round of the swell. 'Twas as plain as from a 
 mirror in a closet the lighted gallery window with its frame 
 swung in, a bit of the deck-roof I was standing on, and two 
 female figures at the window mere dark shapes against the 
 lamp. I almost started back at the notion of their seeing me, 
 but away lengthened the light on the breast of the swell, and 
 it sank slowly down into a black hollow, as the Indiaman eased 
 up to windward. Minute by minute, quite breathless, did I 
 watch for such another chance ; but next time she leant over 
 as much, the port had been closed, and all was dark ; although 
 those few moments were enough to send the heart into my 
 mouth with sheer delight. The figure I had seen, holding with 
 one hand by the portsill, and apparently keeping up her dress 
 with the other, as if she were looking down steadily on the 
 heave of the sea below it couldn't be mistaken. The line of 
 her head, neck, and shoulders, came out more certain than if 
 they hadn't been filled up with nothing but a black shadow ; 
 it was just Lota Hyde's, as she sat in the ballroom amongst 
 the crowd, I 'd have bet the Victory to a bumboat on it ; only 
 her hair hung loose on one side, while the girl behind seemed 
 to be dressing the other, for it was turned back, so that I saw 
 clear past her cheek and neck to where the lamp was, and her 
 ear gleamed to the light. For one moment nothing could be 
 plainer than the glimpse old Davy Jones gave me by one of 
 his tricks ; but the old fellow was quite as decorous in his way 
 as a chamber-blind, and swallowed his pretty little bit of blab as 
 quickly as if it had been a mermaid caught at her morning toilet. 
 Whenever I found there was to be no more of it for the night, 
 the best thing to calm one's feelings was to light a cigar and
 
 66 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 walk out the watch ; but I took care it should rather be over the 
 nabob's head than his daughter's, and went up to the weather 
 side, where there was nobody else by this time, wishing her the 
 sweetest of dreams, and not doubting I should see her next day- 
 
 " I daresay I should have walked out the first watch, and 
 the second too, if Westwood hadn't come up beside me before 
 he turned in. 
 
 " ' Why, you look like the officer of the watch, Ned ! ' said 
 my friend, after taking a glance round at the night. ' Yes 
 what? a a I don't think so,' stammered I, not knowing 
 what he said, or at least the meaning of it, though certainly 
 it was not so deep. ' I hope not though, Tom ! ' said I again ; 
 ' 'tis the very thing I don't want to look like ! ' ' You seem 
 bent on keeping it up, and coming the innocent, at any rate/ 
 said he ; ' I really didn't know you the first time I saw you in 
 the cuddy/ 'Why, man, you never saw our theatricals in the 
 dear old Iris, on the African station ! I was our best female 
 actor of tragedy there, and did Desdemona so well that the 
 black cook, who stood for Othello, actually cried. He said, 
 " Nobody but 'ee dibble umself go for smudder Missee Dasde- 
 moner!" e \ daresay/ said Westwood; f but what is the 
 need for it now, even if you could serve as a blind for me ? ' 
 ' My dear fellow,' said I, ' not at all you 've kept it up very 
 well so far just go on.' ' Keep it up, Ned?' inquired he 
 ' what do you mean? I 've done nothing except keep qir'et 
 from mere want of spirits.' 'So much the better/ I said; ' I 
 never saw a man look more like a prophet in the wilderness ; 
 it doesn't cost you the least trouble why you 'd have done 
 for Hamlet in the Iris, if for nothing else ! After all, though, 
 a missionary don't wear blue pilot cloth trousers, nor tie his 
 neckerchief as you do, Tom. You must bend a white neck- 
 cloth to-morrow morning ! I 'm quite serious, Westwood, I 
 assure you/ continued I. ' Just think of the suspicious look 
 of two navy men being aboard an Indiaman, nobody knows 
 how ! Why, the first frigate we speak, or port we touch at, 
 they 'd hand one or both of us over at once which I, for my 
 part, shouldn't at all like ! ' ' Indeed, Collins/ said Tom, turn- 
 ing round, f I really cannot understand why you went out in 
 her ! It distresses me to think that here you 've got yourself 
 into this scrape on my account ! At least you '11 put back in 
 the first home-bound ship we
 
 A SEA STORY 67 
 
 " ' Oh ! ' exclaimed I, blushing a little in the dark though, 
 both at Westwood's simplicity, and my not wishing to tell 
 him my secret yet ' I 'm tired of shore I want to see India 
 again I 'm thinking of going into the army ! ' ' The army, 
 indeed ! ' said Westwood, laughing for the first time, ' and you 
 still midshipman all over. No, no that won't do ! I see 
 your drift, you can't deceive me \ You 're a true friend, Ned, 
 to stand by an old schoolmate so ! ' ' No, Tom ! ' said I ; ''tis 
 you yourself that has too kind a heart, and more of a sailor's, 
 all fair and above-board, than I can manage ! I wont humbug 
 you, at any rate I tell you I 've got a scheme of my own, and 
 you '11 know more of it soon.' Tom whistled ; however I went 
 on to tell him, ' The long and the short of it is, Westwood, 
 you '11 bring both of us down by the head if you don't keep up 
 the missionary.' ' Missionary ! ' repeated he ; ' you don't mean 
 to say you and Neville intended all that long toggery you 
 supplied my kit with, for me to sail under missionary colours ? 
 I tell you what, Ned, it 's not a character 1 like to cut jokes 
 upon, much less to sham.' ' Jokes!' said I; 'there's no 
 joking about it; 'tis serious enough.' f Why,' said Westwood, 
 ' now I know the reason of a person like a clergyman sighting 
 me through his spectacles for half an hour together, these two 
 evenings below ! This very afternoon he called me his brother, 
 and began asking me all manner of questions, which I could 
 no more answer than the cook's mate/ 'Clergyman be 
 hanged ! ' said I, ' you must steer clear of him, Tom take 
 care you don't bowse up your jib too much within hail of 
 him ! Mind, I gave your name, both to the head-steward and 
 the skipper, as the Reverend Mr Thomas, going back to 
 Bombay. There was nothing else for it, Westwood,' I said, 
 ' when you were beyond thinking for yourself. All you 've 
 got to do with that solemn dissenting chap in the spectacles 
 is just to look as wise as possible, and let him know you 
 belong to the Church. And as for shamming, you needn't 
 sham a bit take to it, my dear fellow, if that will do you 
 good.' I said this in joke, but Westwood seemed to ponder 
 on it for a minute or two. ' Indeed, Collins,' said he gravely, 
 ' I do think you 're right. What do we sailors do but give up 
 everything in life for a mere schoolboy notion, and keep 
 turning up salt water for years together like the old monks 
 did the ground ; only they grew corn and apples for their
 
 68 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 pains, and we have nothing but ever so many dull watches 
 and wild cruises ashore to remember ! How many sailors 
 have turned preachers and missionaries, just because some- 
 thing, by accident, as it were, taught them to put to account 
 what you can't help feeling now and then in the very look of 
 the sea. What does it mean in the Scriptures, Ned, about 
 "seeing the wonders of the Lord in the deep?" As West- 
 wood said this, both of us stopped on the taffrail, and, some- 
 how or other, a touch of I didn't well know what went through 
 me. I held my breath, with his hand on my arm, just at the 
 sight I had seen a thousand times the white wake running 
 broad away astern, with a mark in the middle as if it had 
 been torn, on to the green yeast of the waves, then right to 
 their black crests plunging in the dark. It was midnight 
 ahead, and the clouds risen aloft over .where I had been 
 looking half-an-hour before ; but the long ragged split to 
 westward was opened up, and a clear glaring glance of the 
 sky, as pale as death, shot through it on the horizon. ' I can't 
 be sorry for having gone to sea,' said Westwood again ; ' but 
 isn't it a better thing to leave home and friends, as those men 
 do for the sake of carrying the Gospel to the heathen ? ' As 
 soon as we wheeled round, with the ship before us, leaning 
 over and mounting to the heave, and her spread of canvas 
 looming out on the dark, my thoughts righted. 'Well,' said 
 I, ' it may be all very well for some everyone , to his rope ; 
 but, for my part, I think if man hadn't been made for the 
 sea, he couldn't have built a ship, and where would your 
 missionaries be then ? You 're older than I am, Westwood, or 
 I 'd say you let some of your notions run away with you, like 
 a Yankee ship with her short-handed crew ! ' ' Oh, Ned,' 
 said he, ' of all places in the world for one's actions coming 
 back on him the sea is the worst, especially when you 're an 
 idler, and have nothing to do but count the sails or listen to 
 the passengers' feet on deck. These two days, now, I 've 
 thought more than I ever did in my life. I can't get that 
 man's death out of my head ; every time the sea flashes round 
 me as I come from below, I think of him it seems to me he 
 is lying yet by the side of the Channel. I can't help having 
 the notion he perhaps fired in the air ! ' ' 'Twas a base lie ! ' 
 said I ; 'if he weren't there, you wouldn't be here, I can tell 
 you, Westwood.' ' I don't know how I shall ever drag through
 
 A SEA STORY 69 
 
 this voyage/ continued he. ' If there were a French gunboat 
 to cut out to-morrow morning, or if we were only to have a 
 calm some day in sight of a Spanish slaver 'tis nothing but 
 a jogging old Indiaman though ! I shall never more see the 
 flag over my head with pride every respect I had was in the 
 service ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 " "VTEXT morning was fine, and promised to be hot ; the 
 -*-^ ship still with a side-wind from near south-west, 
 which 'twas easy to see had slackened since midnight with 
 a pour of rain, the sails being all wet, and coats hung to 
 dry in the fore -rigging ; she was going little more than 
 five or six knots headway. The water was bluer, lifting in 
 long waves, scarce a speck of foam except about the ship > 
 but instead of having broke up with the sun, or sunk below 
 the level, the long white clouds were risen high to leeward, 
 wandering away at the top, and facing us steady below out 
 of the sky, a pretty sure sign they had more to do. However, 
 the Indiaman was all alive from stem to stern ; decks drying 
 as clean as a table ; hens and ducks clucking in the coops 
 at their food ; pigs grunting ; stewards and cabin-boys going 
 fore and aft, below and above, and the men from aloft coming 
 slowly down for breakfast, with an eye into the galley funnel. 
 Most of the passengers were upon deck, in knots all along the 
 poop-nettings, to look out for Corvo and Flores, the western- 
 most of the Azores, which we had passed before daybreak. 
 
 " 'I say, Fawd ! ' said the warlike cadet with the moustache, 
 all of a sudden yawning and stretching himself, as if he 'd 
 been struck with the thing himself, ' cussed dull this vessel 
 already, ain't it ? ' f No,' said Ford, the nautical man ; 
 ' that 's because you 're not interested in the ocean the 
 sea as I am ! You should study the craft, Bob, my boy ! 
 I '11 teach you to go aloft. I only wish it would blow harder 
 not a mere capful of wind, you know, but a tempest ! ' 
 ' By Jove ! Fawd,' said the other, ' horv we shall enjoy India 
 even that breakfast with old Rollock ! By-the-by, ain't 
 breakfast ready yet ? ' These two fellows, for my part, I
 
 70 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 took for a joint-mod el, just trying to hit a mid -helm 
 betwixt them, else I couldn't have got through it ; accord- 
 ingly they both patronised me. ' Haw, Cawlins ! ' said one, 
 nodding to me. ' Is that you, my boy ? ' said the other ; 
 ' now, you 're a fellow never would make a sailor ! ' 'I 
 daresay not/ I said gravely, 'if they have all to commence 
 as horse - marines.' ' Now, such ignorance ! ' said Ford ; 
 ' marines don't ride horses, Collins, you fellow ! how d' you 
 think they could be fed at sea, eh ? * ' Well now that 
 didn't occur to me ! ' said I, in the cadet key. ' Fawd, 
 my boy, you know too much you 're quite a sea-cook ! ' 
 ' Oh, now ! But I 'm afraid, Winterton, I never shall land 
 ashore in India I am tempted to go into the navy, instead.' 
 ' I say, Mr Ford,' put in a fat unlicked cub of a tea-middy, 
 grinning as he listened, ( I 've put you up to a few rises 
 aboard, but I don't think I told you we 've got a dozen or 
 so of donkeys* below in the steerage ? ' ' Donkeys ! no ? ' 
 said the griffin. ' Yes,' replied the midshipman ; ' they kick 
 like mad, though, if they get loose in a gale : why mine, 
 now, would knock a hole through the side in no time I '11 
 show you them for a glass of grog, Mr Ford.' 
 
 " ' Done ! ' and away they went. ' That fool, Fawd, you 
 know, Cawlins, makes one sick with his stuff; I declare he 
 chews little bits of tobacco in our room till he vomits as 
 much as before,' said Winterton. ' I tell you what, Cawlins, 
 you 're a sensible man I '11 let you into a secret ! What 
 do you think there 's the deucedest pretty girl in the 
 vessel, we've none of us seen except myself; I caught a 
 sight of her this very mawning. She don't visit the cuddy 
 at all ; papa 's proud, you pusseeve a nabob, in short ! ' 
 ' Oh dear ! ' said I. ' Yes, I do assure you, quite a bew-ty ! 
 What 's to be done ? we absolutely must meet her, eh, 
 Cawlins ?' Here I mused a bit. ' Oh ! ' said I, looking up 
 again, ' shall we send a deputation, do you think ? ' ' Or get 
 up a ball, Cawlins ? Hallo, what 's this ? ' said he, leaning 
 over the breast-rail to look at a stout lady who was lugging 
 a chubby little boy of three or four, half dressed, up the 
 poop-stair, while her careful husband and a couple of 
 daughters blocked it up above. ' See, Tommy, dear ! ' said 
 she, ' look at the land the nice land, you know, Tommy.' 
 * Sea slang for sailors' chests.
 
 A SEA STORY 71 
 
 ' Come away, my love/ said her spouse, ' else you won't see 
 it.' Tommy, however, hung back manfully. ' Tommy don't 
 want wook at yand,' sang out he, kicking the deck ; ' it all 
 such 'mell of a sheep, ma ; me wook at 'at man wis gate feel. 
 Fare other feel, man ? Oh, fat a ugwy man ! ' The honest 
 tar at the wheel pulled up his shirt, and looked terribly 
 cut at this plain remark on his phiz, which certainly wasn't 
 the most beautiful ; meanwhile he had the leech of the 
 mainto'gallant-sail shaking. ' Mind your helm, there,' sung 
 out the second mate from the capstan. ' My good man,' 
 said the lady, ' will you be so kind as to show us the land ? ' 
 ' Ay, ay, sir,' growled he, putting up his weather spokes ; 
 ' sorry I carn't, ma'am please not to speak to the man at 
 the wheel.' Jacobs was coiling down the ropes on a carronade 
 close by, and stepped forward : ' Beg your ladyship's pardon,' 
 said he, ' but if ye '11 give me charge o' the youngster till you 
 goes on the poop why, I 've got a babby at home myself.' 
 The stout lady handed him over, and Jacobs managed the 
 little chap wonderfully. This was the first time Tommy had 
 been on deck since leaving home, and he couldn't see over 
 the high bulwarks, so he fancied it was a house he was in. 
 * Oh, suts big tees, man,' shouted he, clapping his hands as 
 soon as he noticed the sails and rigging aloft ; ( suts warge 
 birds in a tees' ' Ay, ay, my little man/ answered Jacobs, 
 ' that 's the wonderful tree. Did ye ever hear Jack and 
 the Bean-stalk, Tommy ? ' ' Oh, 'ess, to be soo, man,' said 
 Tommy, scornfully, as if he should think he had. 
 
 " ' Well, little un/ said Jacobs, ' that 's it, ye see. It grows 
 up every night afore Jack's door and them 's Jack an' his 
 brothers a-comin' down out on the wonderfowl country aloft, 
 with fruits in their hands.' The little fellow was delighted, 
 and for going aloft at once. ' Ye must wait a bit, Tommy, 
 my lad, till you 're bigger/ said Jacobs ; ' here, I '11 show you 
 the country, though ' ; so he lifted the boy up to let him see 
 the bright blue sea lying high away round the sky. In place 
 of crying, as he would have done otherwise, Tommy stared 
 with pleasure, and finished by vowing to get as soon big as 
 possible, Jacobs advising him to eat always as hard as he had 
 been doing hitherto. 
 
 " That morning the breakfast party was in high spirits ; 
 Mr Finch, the chief officer, rigged up to the nines in white
 
 72 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 trousers and Company's jacket, laying himself out to please 
 the young ladies, with whom he began to be a regular hero. 
 He was as blustering as a young lion, and as salt-tongued as 
 a Channel pilot to the men ; but with the ladies, on the poop 
 or in the cabin, he was always twisting his sea-talk into fine 
 language, like what you see in books, as if the real thing 
 weren't good enough. He rubbed his hands at hearing the 
 mate on deck singing out over the skylight to trim yards, and 
 gave a look along to the captain. 'You must understand, 
 ladies,' said the mate, 'this is what we mariners call the 
 " ladies' wind " ! ' ' Oh, delightful ! ' ' Oh, so nice ! ' ' You 
 sailors are so polite ! ' exclaimed the young ladies ' then does 
 it actually belong to us ? ' e Why it 's a Trade wind, Miss 
 Fortescue ! ' said Ford, the nautical cadet, venturing to put 
 in a word ; but the ladies paid no attention to him, and the 
 chief mate gave him a look of contempt. ' You see, ladies, 
 the reason is,' said the mate, in a flourishing way, 'because 
 it 's so regular, and as gentle as as why it wafts your bark 
 
 into the region of, you see the ' ' The " Doldrums," ' 
 
 put in the third mate, who was a brinier individual by far, 
 and a true seaman, but wished to pay his compliments, too, 
 between his mouthfuls. 'At any rate,' Finch went on, 'it's 
 congenial, I may say, to the feelings of the fair you need 
 never touch her braces from one day to another. I just wish, 
 Miss Fortescue, you 'd allow me the felicity of letting you see 
 how to put the ship about.' 'A soldier might put her in stays, 
 miss,' said the third mate again, encouragingly, 'and out of 
 'em again ; she 's a remarkably easy craft, owing to her 
 ' Confound it, Mr Rickett/ said the first mate, turning round 
 to his unlucky inferior, f you 're a sight too coarse for talking 
 to ladies. Well the captain didn't hear you!' Rickett looked 
 dumfoundered, not knowing what was wrong ; the old ladies 
 frowned ; the young ones either blushed or put their hand- 
 kerchiefs to their mouths, and some took the occasion for 
 walking off. 
 
 " The weather began to have a different turn already by 
 the time we got up the clouds banking to leeward, the sea 
 dusky under them, and the air-line between rather bluish. 
 Two or three lazy gulls in our wake began to look alive and 
 show themselves, and a whole black shoal of porpoises went 
 tumbling and rolling across the bows for half an hour, till
 
 A SEA STORY 73 
 
 down they dived of a sudden, head-foremost, one after another 
 in the same spot, like so many sheep through a gap. 
 
 " My gentleman-mate was to be seen everywhere about the 
 decks, and active enough, I must say ; the next minute he 
 was amongst two or three young ladies aft, as polite as a 
 dancing-master, showing them everything in board and out, 
 as if nobody knew it except himself. Here a young girl, one 
 of Master Tommy's sisters, came skipping aft, half in a fright. 
 ' Oh, Miss Fortescue ! ' cried she, e just think ! I peeped over 
 into a nasty black hole there, with a ladder in it, and saw ever 
 so many common sailors hung up in bags from the ceiling. 
 Oh, what do you think, one of them actually kissed his hand 
 to me.' ' Only one of the watch below awake, miss,' said the 
 mate ; 'impertinent swab I only wish I knew which it was.' 
 ' Poor fellows,' said the young ladies, ' pray don't be harsh to 
 them; but what have they been doing?' 'Oh, nothing,' said 
 he, with a laugh, ' but swing in their hammocks since eight 
 bells.' 'Then are they so lazy as to dislike getting up to such 
 delightful - looking occupations ? ' ' Why, ma'am,' said the 
 mate, staring a little, ' they 've been on deck last night two 
 watches, of four hours each, I must say that for them.' 'Dear 
 me ! ' broke out the ladies ; and on this the chief officer took 
 occasion to launch out again concerning 'the weary vigils,' as 
 he called them, ' which we mariners have to keep, far distant 
 from land, without a smile from the eyes of the fair to bless 
 us. But, however, the very thought of it gives courage to 
 the sailor's manly heart, to disregard the billows' fearful rage, 
 and reef topsails in the tempest's angry height ! ' Thought 
 I, ' He 'd much better do it before.' However, the young 
 ladies didn't seem to see that, evidently looking upon the 
 mate as the very pink of seamen ! and he actually set a 
 second lower stud -sail, to show them how fast she could 
 walk. 
 
 " ' D' ye know, sir,' put in the third mate, coming from 
 forward, ' I 'm in doubt it 's going to be rather a sneezer, sir, 
 if ye look round the larboard stun-s'ls.' Sure enough, if our 
 fine gentleman had had time, amidst his politeness, just to 
 cast an eye beyond his spread of cloth, he would have noticed 
 the clouds gathered all in a lump to north-eastward, one 
 shooting into another the breast of them lowering down to 
 the horizon, and getting the same colour as the waves, till it
 
 74 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 bulked out bodily in the middle. You 'd have fancied the 
 belly of it scarce half-a-mile off from the white yard-arms, and 
 the hollow of it twenty coming as stealthily as a ghost, that 
 walks without feet after you, its face to yours, and the skirt 
 of its winding-sheet in ' kingdom-come' all the while. I went 
 up on the poop, and away behind the spanker I could see the 
 sun gleam for one minute right on the eye of a stray cloud 
 risen to nor'-west, with two short streaks of red, purple, and 
 yellow together what is called a ' wind-gall ' ; then it was 
 gone. The American was talking away with jovial old 
 Rollock and Ford, who began to look wise, and think there 
 was mischief brewing in the weather. ' Mind your helm 
 there, sirrah ! ' sung out the mate, walking aft to the wheel, 
 as everything aloft fluttered. 'She won't lie her course, 
 sir,' said the man. ' All aback, for'ud ! ' hailed the men at 
 work on the bowsprit ; and hard at it went all hands, trim- 
 ming yards over and over again ; the wind freshening fast, 
 stu'n-sails flapping, booms bending, and the whole spread of 
 canvas in a cumber, to teach the mate not to be in such a 
 hurry with his absurd merchantman's side-wings next time. 
 The last stu'n-sail he hauled down caught full aback before 
 the wheel could keep her away quick enough ; the sheet of it 
 hitched foul at the boom-end, and crack through went the 
 boom itself, with a smash that made the ladies think it a case 
 of shipwreck commencing. The loose scud was flying fast 
 out from behind the top of the clouds, and spreading away 
 overhead, as if it would catch us on the other side ; while the 
 clouds themselves broke up slowly to both hands, and the 
 north-east breeze came sweeping along right into the three 
 topsails, the wind one way and the sea another. As she 
 rounded away steadying before it, you felt the masts shake in 
 her till the topsails blew out full ; she gave one sudden bolt 
 up with her stern, like an old jackass striking behind, which 
 capsized three or four passengers in a heap, and next minute 
 she was surging along through the wide heave of the water 
 as gallantly as heart could wish, driving a wave under her 
 bows that swung back under the fore-chains on both sides, 
 with two boys running up the rigging far aloft on each mast 
 to stow the royals. The next thing I looked at was poor 
 Ford's nautical hat lifting alongside on the top of a wave, as 
 if it were being handed up to him ; but no sooner seen, than
 
 A SEA STORY 75 
 
 it was down in the hollow a quarter of a mile off, a couple of 
 white gulls making snatches at it and one another, and hang- 
 ing over it again with a doubtful sort of scream. Still the 
 wind was as yet nothing to speak of when once aft ; the sea 
 was getting up slowly, and the Indiaman's easy roll over it 
 made everyone cheerful, in spite of the shifts they were put 
 to for getting below. When the bell struck for dinner, the 
 sun was pretty clear, away on our starboard bow ; the waves 
 to south-westward glittered as they rose ; one side of the ship 
 shone bright to the leech of the mainto' gallant-sail, and we 
 left the second mate hauling down the jibs for want of use 
 for them. 
 
 " The splendid pace she went at was plain, below in the 
 cuddy, to everybody ; you felt her shoving the long seas aside 
 with the force of a thousand horses in one, then sweep they 
 came after her, her stern lifted, she rolled round, and made a 
 floating rush ahead. In the middle of it, something darkened 
 the half-open skylight, where I perceived the Scotch second 
 mate's twisted nose and red whiskers, as he squinted down 
 with one eye aloft, and disappeared again ; after which I heard 
 them clue up to' gallant-sails. Still she was driving through 
 it rather too bodily to let the seas rise under her ; you heard 
 the wind hum off the main-topsail, and sing through betwixt 
 it and the main-course, the scud flying over the skysail-mast 
 truck, which I could see from below. The second mate looked 
 in once more, caught the first officer's eye with a glance aloft, 
 and the gallant mate left attending to the ladies to go on 
 deck. Down went the skylight frame, and somebody care- 
 fully threw a tarpaulin over it, so that there was only the 
 light from the port windows, by which a dozen faces turned 
 still whiter. 
 
 " The moment I shoved my head out of the booby-hatch, I 
 saw it was like to turn out a regular gale from nor'-east. 
 Both courses brailed close up, and blowing out like rows of 
 big bladders ; the three topsail-yards down on the caps to 
 reef, their canvas swelling and thundering on the stays like so 
 many mad elephants breaking loose ; the wild sky ahead of us 
 staring right through in triumph, as it were, and the wind 
 roaring from aft in her bare rigging ; while a crowd of men 
 in each top were laying out along the foot-ropes to both yard- 
 arms. Below, they were singing out at the reef-tackles, the
 
 76 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 idlers tailing on behind from the cook to the cabin-boys, a 
 mate to each gang, and the first officer, with his hands to his 
 mouth, before the wheel, shouting, 'Bear a hand! d' ye hear! 
 two reefs.' It did one's heart good, and I entered into the 
 spirit of it, almost forgiving Finch his fine puppy lingo, when 
 I saw him take it so coolly, standing like a seaman, and 
 sending his bull's voice right up with the wind into the bellies 
 of the topsails so I e'en fell to myself, and dragged with the 
 steward upon the mizzen reef-tackle till it was chock up. 
 There we were, running dead before it, the huge waves swell- 
 ing long and dark after us out of the mist, then the tops 
 of them scattered into spray ; the glaring white yards swayed 
 slowly over aloft, each dotted with ten or a dozen sturdy figures, 
 that leant over, with the reef-points in their hands, waiting 
 till the men at the earings gave the word; and Jacobs' face, as 
 he turned round to do so hanging on heaven knows what at 
 one of the ends was as distinct as possible against the gray 
 scud miles off, and sixty feet above water. A middy, without 
 his cap, and his hair blowing out, stood holding on in the 
 maintop to quicken them ; the first mate waved his hand for 
 the helmsman to ' luff a little.' The ship's head was rounded 
 slowly up as she rose on a big blue swell, that caught a wild 
 gleam on it from westward, when I happened to glance 
 towards the wheel. I could scarcely trust my eyes in fact it 
 had never been less in my mind since coming aboard than at 
 that very point but outside one of the round-house doors, 
 which was half open, a few feet from the bulwark I leant over 
 of all moments in the day, there stood Lota Hyde herself 
 at last. Speak of faces ! why I hadn't even power to turn 
 farther round, and if I was half out of breath before, what 
 with the wind and with pulling my share, I was breathless 
 now all my notions of her never came up to the look of her 
 face at that instant. She just half stopped, as it were, at 
 sight of the state of things, her hands letting go of the large 
 shawl, and her hair streaming from under a straw hat tied 
 down with a ribbon her lips parted betwixt dread and be- 
 wilderment, and her eyes wandering round till they settled 
 to gazing straight at the scene ahead in pure delight. I 
 actually looked away aloft from her again, to catch what it 
 was she seemed to see that could be so beautiful ! the second 
 reef just made fast, men crowding in to run down and hoist
 
 A SEA STORY 77 
 
 away with the rest, till, as they tailed along decks, the three 
 shortened topsails rose faster up against the scud, and their 
 hearty roaring chorus was as loud as the gale. ' Keep her 
 away, my lad/ said the mate, with another wave of his hand ; 
 the topsails swelled fair before it, and the Indiaman gave a 
 plunge right through the next sea, rising easily to it, heave 
 after heave. The setting sun struck two or three misty spokes 
 of his wheel through a cloud, that made a big wave here and 
 there glitter ; the ship's white yards caught some of it, and a 
 row of broad backs, with their feet stretching the foot-rope 
 as they stowed the foresail, shone bright out, red, blue, arid 
 striped, upon the hollow of the yellow fore-topsail, in the 
 midst of the gale ; while just under the bowsprit you saw her 
 black figure-head, with his white turban, and his hand to his 
 breast, giving a cool salaam now and then to the spray from 
 her bows. At that moment, though, Lota Hyde's eye was 
 the brightest thing I could find all the blue gone out of the 
 waves was in it. As for her seeing myself, I hadn't had space 
 to think of it yet, when all of a sudden I noticed her glance 
 light for the first time, as it were, on the mate, who was 
 standing all the while with his back to her on the same plank 
 of the quarter-deck. ' Down main-course ! ' he sung out, 
 putting one hand in his jacket-pocket ; ' down both tacks 
 that 's it, my men down with it ! ' and out it flapped, slap- 
 ping fiercely as they dragged it by main force into the bul- 
 wark-cleets, till it swelled steady above the main-stay, and 
 the old ship sprang forward faster than before, with a wild 
 wash of the Atlantic past her sides. 
 
 " ' Another hand to the wheel, here ! ' said the first officer. 
 He took a look aloft, leaning to the rise of her bows, then 
 to windward as she rolled ; everything looked trim and 
 weatherly, so he stepped to the binnacle, where the lamp 
 was ready lighted ; and it just struck me what a smart, good- 
 looking fellow the mate was, with his sunburnt face ; and 
 when he went to work, straightforward, no notion of showing 
 off. 
 
 " ' Confound it, though,' thought I of a sudden, seeing her 
 eyes fixed on him again, and then to seaward. ' Mr Macleod,' 
 said he to the second mate, 'send below the watch, if you 
 please. This breeze is first-rate, though ! ' 
 
 "When he turned round he noticed Miss Hyde, started,
 
 78 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 and took off his cap with a fine bow. ' I beg pardon, ma'am/ 
 said he, 'a trifle of wind we have. I hope, Miss Hyde, it 
 hasn't troubled you in the round-house ? ' What Miss Hyde 
 might have said I don't know, but her shawl caught a gust 
 out of the spanker, though she was in the lee of the high 
 poop ; it blew over her head, and then loose I sprang forward 
 but the mate had hold of it, and put it over her again. 
 The young lady smiled politely to the mate, and gave a cold 
 glance of surprise, as I thought, at me. I felt that moment 
 I could have knocked the mate down and died happy. ' Why, 
 sir/ said he, with a cool half-sneer, ' I fancied none of you 
 gentlemen would have favoured us this capful of wind 
 plenty of air there is on deck, though.' 
 
 " It just flashed through my mind what sort of rig I was 
 in I looked over my infernal longshore toggery, and no 
 wonder she didn't recollect me at all. ' Curse this confounded 
 folly ! ' muttered I, and made a dart to run up the poop-steps, 
 where the breeze took me slap aback, just as the judge 
 himself opened the larboard door. ' Why, Violet,' exclaimed 
 he, surprised at seeing his daughter, ' are you exposing your- 
 self to this disagreeable I declare a perfect storm.' ' But 
 see, papa ! ' said she, taking hold of his arm, ' how changed 
 the sea is ! and the ship ! just look where the sun was ! ' 
 ' Get in get in, do ! ' kept on her father ; ' you can see all 
 that again in some finer place ; you should have had a servant 
 with you, at least, Violet.' ' I shall come out oftener than I 
 thought, papa, I can tell you ! ' said she, in an arch sort of 
 way, before she disappeared. 
 
 "The mate touched his cap to the judge, who asked where 
 the captain was. ' 'Gad, sir/ said the judge crossly, ' the 
 floor resembles an earthquake every piece of furniture 
 swings, sir ; 'tis well enough for sleeping, but my family find 
 it impossible to dine. If this oolta-poolta continues in my 
 apartments, I must speak to Captain Williamson about it. 
 He must manage to get into some other part of the sea, 
 where it is less rough,' saying which, he swayed himself in 
 and shut the door. 
 
 " I still kept thinking and picturing her face Lota Hyde's 
 when she noticed the mate. After all, any one that knew 
 tack from bowline might reef topsails in a fair wind ; but a 
 girl like that would make more count of a man knowing how
 
 A SEA STORY 79 
 
 to manage wind and sea than of the Duke on his horse at 
 Waterloo beating Bonaparte ; and as for talk, he would jaw 
 away the whole voyage, no doubt, about moonlight and 
 the ocean, and your genteel fancy mariners. ' By George, 
 though ! ' thought I, ' if the mate 's a better man than me, 
 hang me it 's all right ; but burn my wig if I don't go and 
 turn a Hindoo fakeer, with my one arm stuck up in the 
 air till I die. Go it, old lady,' said I, as I glanced over 
 the side before going below for the night, ' roll away, only 
 shake something or other to do out of the pace you 're 
 going at.' 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 " HPHE next morning, when Westwood and I went on deck, 
 there was still a long sea running after us. However, 
 by noon the sun came sifting through aloft, the breeze got 
 warm, the decks were dry as a bone, and one just saw the 
 large dark-blue swells lift up alongside with a shower of 
 spray, between the seams of the bulwarks. By six o'clock, 
 again, it was got pretty dusk ahead, and I strolled forward 
 right to the heel of the bowsprit with Westwood, looking 
 down through her head-boards into the heap of white foam 
 that washed up among the woodwork every time she plunged. 
 One knot of the men were sitting with their legs over the 
 break of the top-gallant forecastle, swinging as she rolled 
 laughing, roaring, and singing as loud as they could bawl, 
 since the wind carried it all forward out of the officers' 
 hearing. I was rather surprised to see and hear that Jacobs' 
 friends, Bill Dykes and Tom, were there ; the rogues were 
 taking back their savage to the Andaman Isles again, I 
 suppose. 
 
 " ' Well, my lads,' said Tom, a regular sample of the man- 
 o'-war's-man, ( this is what I calls balling it off. That mate 
 knows how to make her go, anyhow.' 'We'll soon be into 
 tropical regents, I consider,' remarked Bill, who made a point 
 of never using sea-phrases except ashore, when he came out 
 double salt, to make up for his gentility afloat. e Hum/ 
 grumbled a big ugly fellow, the same so flattered at the wheel
 
 80 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 by little Tommy, ' I doesn't like your fair winds. I '11 tell you 
 what, mates, we '11 be havin' it puff more from east'ard ere 
 third watch.' ' What 's the odds, Harry, old ship ? ' said Tom, 
 'a fair wind still.' 'I say, my lads/ exclaimed Tom again, 
 looking along toward the poop, ' yonder 's the ould naboob 
 squinting out of the round-house doors ! what 's he after 
 now, I wonder ? ' 
 
 " On stooping down, accordingly, I could see the judge's 
 face with the binnacle light shining on it, as he swayed to 
 and fro in the doorway, seemingly in a passion at something 
 or other. 'Why,' said Bill, ' I consider he can't altogether 
 circumstand the shindy as this here roll kicks up inside of 
 his blessed paliss.' ' Nabob, does ye call him,' said Harry, 
 sulkily ; ' I '11 tell you what, mates, he ben't nothin' but a 
 reg'lar ould tyrant. T'other mornin' there, I just chances to 
 brush against him as I kiles up a rope ; says he, " Fellow," an' 
 says he to the skipper, " I 'd take it kind," says he, " if ye 'd 
 horder them common sailors for to pay more contention 
 alongside o' my legs, Captain Williamson." Why, do the old 
 beggar not think as a feller ben't a man as well as hisself, 
 with his comming sailors, an' be blowed to him.' ' Well, though, 
 Harry, old ship,' said Tom, ( ain't that daurter of his'n a 
 jewel ! I say, mates, she 's all rounded into the head, and a 
 clear run from aft, like a corvette model. My eye, that hair 
 of hers is worth gold ; I 'd go down on the deck to please 
 her, d' ye see.' ( No doubt,' says Bill, ( she 's what I call a 
 exact sparkler.' 'Well, I doesn't know,' said Harry, 'last 
 vy'ge but one we 'd got one aboard, a'most beautifuller half 
 as high again, an' twice her beam I 'm not sure but she 
 ' All my eye, messmates,' broke in Tom ; ( that one were built 
 for stowing, ye see, bo', like yer cargo lumpers. No, this 
 here young gal 'minds me o' no other blessed thing but the 
 Nymph corvette's figure-head -and that warn't her match, 
 neither. She don't look down upon a sailor, I can tell ye ; 
 there, I see her t' other morning- watch a-talkin' to Jacobs 
 
 yonder, as pleasant and cheery as Hullo, there 's the 
 
 captain corned out of the naboob's cabin, and speaking with 
 the mate by the compass blest if they ain't a-goin' to alter 
 her course.' 
 
 " ( Send aft here to the braces ! ' sung out the first officer 
 to the boatswain. ' Blow me, shipmates, that 's yeer naboob
 
 A SEA STORY 81 
 
 now, I '11 bet a week's grog/ growled Harry; 'ship's course as 
 fair as a handspike through a grummit ; couldn't bring the 
 wind more aft ; my eyes, the sea 's comin' to be bought and 
 sold.' Whatever it might be for, in came the starboard yard- 
 arms till she lay over a little ; down studding and topgallant- 
 sails, as neither of them could stand it except from aft ; and 
 off went the old ship rising high athwart the seas, her head 
 sou' -south-east, and one streak of broken yellow light, low 
 down to westward on her lee quarter. It was beginning to 
 blow harder, too, and by eight bells it was ' Reef topsails, 
 single reef.' The waves played slap on her weather side, the 
 heavy sprays came showering over her bulwarks forward, and 
 the forecastle planks were far from being so comfortable for a 
 snooze as the night before. 
 
 " As soon as the wheel was relieved, and the other watch 
 below, 'the ugly man' and his companions returned. 'Mates,' 
 said he, solemnly, planting his back against the bitts, ' I 've 
 sailed this five-and-twenty year before the mast, an' I never 
 yet seed the likes o' that ! Take my say for it, we 're on a 
 wind now, but afore next mornin' we '11 be close-hauled, beat- 
 ing up against it.' 'Well,' said another, 'she leaks a deal in 
 the eyes of her below ; in that case, Harry, your watch as 
 slings in the fore-peak '11 be all afloat by that time.' ' What 
 day did this craft sail on, I asks ? ' said the sailmaker gravely. 
 ' Why, a Thursday night, old ship,' replied several eagerly. 
 ' No,' went on the sailmaker ; ' you counts sea-fashion, ship- 
 mates ; but till ye 're clear o' the pilot, ye know, it 's land- 
 fashion ye ought for to go by. 'Twas a Friday by that 'ere 
 said reckoning, shipmates.' ' No ! so it was though,' said the 
 rest ; ' it don't look well.' ' Howsomedever I 'm not goin' to 
 come for to go and be a croaker,' continued the sailmaker, in 
 a voice like a ghost's. 'Well, luck or no luck, mates,' grumbled 
 big Harry, ' if so be them larboard bowlines is hauled taut by 
 the morning watch, blow me if I don't be upsides with that 
 'ere ould naboob that 's all.' 
 
 " Next morning, after all, it was easy to feel the ship had 
 really been hauled close on a wind. When we went up the 
 weather was clearing, though with a strongish gale from east- 
 ward, a heavy sea running, on which the Indiaman strained 
 and creaked as she rose, rolling slowly to windward with her 
 three double-reefed topsails strained full, then pitched head
 
 82 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 into it as a cloud of foam and spray flew over her weather-bow. 
 It was quite early, the decks lately washed down, and the 
 Indian judge walking the weather quarterdeck as grave and 
 comfortable as if it was all right. The captain was with him, 
 and two mates to leeward. ' Sail ho ! ' hailed a man on the 
 foreyard. ' Whereaway ? ' sang out the mate of the watch. 
 ' Broad abeam ! ' 
 
 "The captain went up to the poop, and I stood on the 
 foremost carronade near the main rigging, where I could just 
 see her now and then white against the blue haze between the 
 hollows of the waves, as the Indiaman lifted. ' There she is!' 
 said I, thinking it was Westwood that stopped behind me ; it 
 was the judge, however, and as soon as I got down he stepped 
 up, holding on with one hand to a back-stay. The ship was 
 rising after a pitch, every bulkhead and timber in her creaking, 
 when all of a sudden I felt by my feet what all sailors feel the 
 same way she was coming up in the wind too fast to mount 
 with the next wave, and a regular comber it was going to be. 
 I looked to the wheel there was big Harry himself with a 
 grin on his face, and his eye on Sir Charles, as he coolly gave 
 her half a weather-spoke more, and then whirled it back again 
 to meet her. ' For heaven's sake, look out, sir!' exclaimed 
 I. ' Why, so I do,' said the judge, rather good-naturedly. 
 ' 'Zounds ! what 's You felt the whole ship stop creak- 
 ing for a moment, as she hung with the last wave 'Hold 
 on ! ' shouted a mid she gave a dull quiver from stem to 
 stern, and I fairly pulled the judge close into the bulwark, 
 just as smash, like thunder, came a tremendous green sea over 
 us, three in one, washing down into the lee scuppers. The 
 old gentleman staggered up, dripping like a poodle, and 
 unable to see one heard the water trickling through the 
 skylights, and stepping away downstairs like a fellow with 
 iron heels ; while there was the sailor at the wheel grinding 
 down his spokes in right earnest, looking aloft at the shaking 
 fore-topsail, and the Indiaman seemingly doubtful whether to 
 fall off or broach-to. Up she rose again, however, and drove 
 round with her Turkhead in the air, then dip through the 
 spray as gallantly as ever. 
 
 " ' Send that lubber from the wheel, Mr Macleod ! ' said the 
 captain angrily, when he came down, ' he nearly broached the 
 ship to just now ! ' The e ugly man ' put on a double-gloomy
 
 A SEA STORY 83 
 
 face, and grumbled something about her ' steering wild ' ; but 
 the knowing squint he gave Jacobs, who relieved him, was 
 enough to show me he was one of the best helmsmen aboard. 
 As for the judge, he hadn't the least notion that it was any- 
 thing more than a natural mischance, owing to exposing him- 
 self. He eyed the bulwark as if he couldn't understand how 
 any wave was able to rise over it, while the captain was 
 apologising, and hoping he wouldn't be the worse. ' Eh, 
 young gentleman ! ' said Sir Charles of a sudden, turning 
 round to me, after a glance from the weather side to the 
 lee one, ( now I observe the circumstances, the probability is 
 I should have had myself severely injured on the opposite 
 side there, had it not been for your presence of mind, sir 
 eh ? ' Here I made a bow, and looked as modest as I could. 
 ' I perceive you are wet, young gentleman/ said he again ; 
 ' you'd better change your dress eh?' ' Thank you, sir!' 
 I said ; and as he walked off quite drenched to his cabin with 
 the captain, I heard him remark it was ' wonderfully intelligent 
 in a mere griffin.' 
 
 " However, the wind soon got down to a fine topgallant 
 breeze ; less of a sea on, the clouds sunk in a long grey bank 
 to leeward, and the strange sail plain abeam of us a large 
 ship steering seemingly more off the wind than the Seringa- 
 patam, with topgallant-sails set you could just see the heads 
 of her courses, and her black lower-yards, when both of us 
 rose together. Our first officer was all alive at the sight ; the 
 reefs were out of our topsails already, and he soon had us 
 ploughing along under ordinary canvas, though still hugging 
 the wind. In a short time the stranger appeared to take the 
 challenge, for he slanted his yards, clapped on royals and 
 hauled down a stu'nsail, heading our course, till he was one 
 body of white cloth on the horizon. For awhile we seemed 
 to gain on her ; but after dinner, there was the other ship's 
 hull up on our lee-bow, rising her white streak out of the 
 water steadily, and just lifting at times on the long blue seas ; 
 she was fore-reaching on us as plain as could be. The mate 
 gave a stamp on the deck, and kept her away a little to set a 
 stu'nsail. ' Why,' said I to Westwood, ' he '11 fall to leeward 
 of himself ! ' ' She 's too much by the head, Collins,' said 
 Westwood ; ' that 's it ! ' ' Hasn't he the sense to take the 
 forecourse off her ? ' said I, ' instead of packing more on !
 
 84 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 Why that craft weathers on us like a schooner I wish you 
 and I had the Indiaman for an hour or two, Tom ! ' 
 
 "It wasn't an hour before we could see the very waves 
 splashing up under her black weather-side, and over her high 
 bows, as she slanted right through it and rose to windward 
 again, standing up to cross our course a fine frigate-built 
 Indiaman, sharper stemmed than her kind in ordinary, and 
 square in her spread ; one yard-arm just looking over the 
 other as they ranged aloft, and all signs of a weatherly craft. 
 ' That 's the Duke o Bedford ! ' said a sailor at the braces to 
 his companions, 'all oak planks, and not a splinter of teak in 
 her I No chance!' Out flew the British colours from her 
 mizzen-peak, and next the Company's striped ensign at her 
 fore-royal mast-head, as a signal to speak. However, the 
 Seringapatam only answered by showing her colours, and held 
 on. All of a sudden the other Indiaman was seen slowly 
 falling off before the wind, as if in scorn at such rude manners, 
 and sure of passing us if she chose. For a moment the red 
 sunset glanced through betwixt all three of her masts, every 
 rope as fine as wire ! then the canvas swung broad against it, 
 blood-red from the sun, and she showed us her quarter- 
 gallery, with a glimpse of her stern-windows glittering you 
 even made out the crowd of passengers and soldiers on her 
 poop, and a man or two going up her rigging. The sea 
 beyond her lay as blue as blue could be, what with the 
 crimson streak that came zigzag on both sides of her shadow, 
 and gleamed along the smooth troughs, taking a crest or 
 two to dance on by the way ; and what with the rough of 
 it near hand, where the tops of the dark waves ran hither 
 and thither in broad white flakes, we surging heavily over 
 them. 
 
 " In a few minutes more the sun was not only down, but 
 the clouds banked up to westward of a deep purple ; and 
 almost at once you saw nothing of the other ship except 
 when a stray streak somehow or other caught her rising, 
 or her mast-heads came across a pale line in the clouds. 
 The breeze got pleasanter as the night went on, and the 
 Seringapatam rattled away in fine style, careening to it by 
 herself. 
 
 "Well, you know, nothing could be better for a good under- 
 standing and high spirits amongst us than a fast course, fine
 
 A SEA STORY 85 
 
 weather, and entering the tropics. As for the tropics, if you 
 have only a roomy ship and a good run of wind, as we had, in 
 those latitudes, everything outside of you seems almost to have 
 double the stuff in it that air and water have in other places ; 
 while inside of one, again, one felt twice the life he had before, 
 and everybody else came out newer a good deal than on the 
 parlour-rug at home. As the days got each hotter than the 
 last, and the sea bluer and bluer, we began to think better of 
 the heavy old Seringapatam s pace, teak though she was, and 
 her sole good point right before the wind. Every night she 
 lighted her binnacle sooner, till deuce the bit of twilight 
 there was, and the dark sky came down on us like the extin- 
 guisher over a candle. However, the look of things round 
 and aloft made full amends for it, as long as we held the 
 " Trades" ; old Neptune shifting his scenes there so quickly, 
 that nobody missed getting weather and air, more than he 
 could help, were it only a sight how the Indiaman got on, 
 without trouble to any living soul save the man at the wheel, 
 as one long, big, bright wave shoved her to another, and the 
 slower they rose the more business she seemed to do of her- 
 self. By the time they had furbished her up at their leisure, 
 the Seringapatam had a queer Eastern style, too, throughout ; 
 with her grass mattings and husky coir chafing-gear, the yellow 
 varnish about her, and her three topsails of country canvas, 
 cut narrow towards the head bamboo stu'nsail booms, and 
 spare bits of bamboo always ready for everything; besides the 
 bilious-like gold-coloured pitches here and there in the rest 
 of her sails, and the outlandish figure-head, that made you 
 sometimes think there might be twenty thousand of them 
 under the bows, dancing away with her like Juggernaut's 
 travelling pagoda. 
 
 " The decks were lively enough to look at ; the men work- 
 ing quietly by twos and threes about the bulwarks all day 
 long, and pairs of them to be made out at different points 
 aloft, yarning away comfortably together, as the one passed 
 the ball for the other's serving-mallet, with now a glance at 
 the horizon, and now a grin at the passengers below, or a 
 cautious squint at the top of the mate's cap. White awnings 
 triced over poop and quarter-deck, the cover of the waist 
 hammock-netting clean scrubbed, and the big shady main- 
 course half brail ed-up, rustling and bulging above the boats
 
 86 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 and booms amidships ; every hatchway and door with a round 
 funnel of a wind-sail swelling into it, and their bellies moving 
 like so many boa-constrictors come down from aloft, and going 
 in to catch cadets. You saw the bright white sky dazzling 
 along under the awning-cheeks, that glared on it like snow ; 
 and the open quarter-deck ports let in so many squares of 
 shifting blue light, with a draught of air into the hot carronade 
 muzzles, that seem to gasp for it, with their red tompions 
 stuck out like tongues. The very look of the lifting blue 
 water on the shady side was refreshing, and the brighter the 
 light got, it grew the darker blue. You listened for every 
 cool splash of it on the bends, and every rustle of the canvas 
 aloft ; and instead of thinking, as the landsmen did, of green 
 leaves and a lazy nook for shelter, why to my fancy there 's a 
 great deal more satisfaction in good dark blue, with a spray 
 over the cat-head to show you 're going, and with somewhat 
 to go for ! For want of better, one would have given his ears 
 to jump in head-foremost, and have a first-rate bathe the 
 very sea itself kept rising up alongside, to make an easy dive 
 for one, and sinking into little round troughs again, where the 
 surges would have sprinkled over your head. Now and then 
 a bigger wave than ordinary would go swelling up, and out 
 sprang a whole glittering shower of flying-fish, freckling the 
 dark side with drops, and went flittering over into the next, 
 or skimming the crests out of sight into a hollow. 
 
 " The writers and cadets were in high feather at knowing 
 they were in the same latitude as India, and appeared in all 
 sorts of straw hats, white trousers, and white jackets. Ford 
 had left off talking of going aloft for awhile, to flourish about 
 his swimming when he looked over with the surgeon into 
 the smooth of a hollow, and saw something big and green, 
 like an immense cucumber, floating along within a fathom or 
 two of the ship, deep down in the blue water. While the 
 griffin asked what it was, a little ripple broke above, a wet black 
 horn came right out of it, and two fiendish round eyes glared 
 up at us ahead of it, as we leant over the quarter, set wide in 
 a broad black snout, shaped like a gravedigger's shovel ; then 
 it sank away into the next wave. Ford shivered, in spite of 
 the heat. ' The devil ? ' inquired one of the writers, coolly, to 
 the surgeon. ' Not just him,' said the Scotchman ; ' it 's only 
 the first shark ! '
 
 A SEA STORY 87 
 
 " The young ladies, in their white dresses, now made you 
 think of angels gliding about : as to the only one I had an 
 eye for, by this time it wasn't of not seeing her often enough 
 I had to complain, as she seemed to delight in nothing else 
 but being somewhere or other upon deck, first one part of the 
 ship, then another, as if to see how different the lookout 
 could be made, or to watch something in the waves or the 
 horizon. Instead of sitting with a needle or a book, like the 
 rest, with the corner of one eye toward the gentlemen, or 
 talking and giggling away at no allowance, she would be 
 noticing a man aloft as if she were there herself, or trying to 
 see past a sail, as if she fancied there was something strange 
 on the other side of it. The rest of the girls appeared shy of 
 her at first, no doubt on account of the judge's separate 
 quarters and his grandee style ; next, they made acquaintance, 
 she speaking and smiling just as if she had known them 
 before ; then again most of them seemingly got jealous 
 because the cadets squinted after her, while old Rollock said 
 Miss Hyde would be the beauty on Chowringee Course, and 
 the first officer was eternally pointing out things to her, like 
 a showman at a fair. 
 
 " However, she seemed not to mind it at all, either way ; 
 those that did talk to her would scarce hear her answer ere 
 they lost her, and there she was, looking quietly down by 
 herself into the ripples alongside ; a minute after she would 
 be half-playing with little Tommy, and making companions 
 of Tommy's young sisters, to see the sheep, the pigs, and the 
 cow, or feed the poultry. As for the handsome ' first officer,' 
 when he caught occasion for his politeness, she took it 
 graciously enough, and listened to all he said, till, of a sudden, 
 a smile would break over her face, and she seemed to me to 
 put him off as easy as a duchess on the score, it might be, 
 of the judge's looking for her off the poop, or something else 
 of the kind. 'Twas the more curious how much at home she 
 seemed amongst the men at work, when she chanced to go 
 'forward ' with Tommy and his sisters, as they skipped hither 
 and thither : the rough blue-shirted fellows took the quids out 
 of their cheeks as soon as they saw the party coming from 
 aft, and began to smirk, shoving the tar-buckets and ropes 
 aside. 
 
 " One forenoon, an old lady under the poop awning, where
 
 88 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 she and her daughter were sewing together at a bright strip 
 of needlework, asked me to hold her woollen yarns for her as 
 she balled them off being the red coat for a sepoy killing a 
 tiger, which her daughter was making in yellow. I couldn't 
 well refuse, seeing that amongst the ladies I was reckoned a 
 mild, quiet young man. Even in these days I must say I had 
 a good deal of that look, and at home they used always to call 
 me ( quiet Ned.' My mother, good soul, never would believe 
 I broke windows, killed cats, or fought ; and the mystery to 
 her always is why the neighbours had a spite at me, for if I 
 had been a wild boy, she said, or as noisy as little Brown next 
 door, why she wouldn't have objected to my going to sea ! 
 that noisy little Brown, by-the-by, is now a fat banker. So 
 in I had to stick my thumbs at arms' -length, and stoop down 
 to the old lady, the more with a will since I guessed what they 
 were talking of. 
 
 " ' Well though, Kate,' continued the old lady, winding 
 away at the thread, f you cannot deny her to be a charming 
 creature, my love ? ' ' Oh, if you mean pretty I ' said the girl, 
 'I don't want to deny it not /, ma'am why should I, indeed?' 
 ' Pity she 's a little light-headed,' said her mother in a musing 
 way. ' Affected, you mean, mother ! ' said Miss Fortescue, 
 'and haughty.' 'Do you know, Kate,' replied the old lady, 
 sighing, ' I fear she '11 soon go in India ! ' ' Go ? ' said the 
 daughter, sharply. ' Yes ; she won't stand the hot season as 
 I did these flighty girls never do. Poor thing ! she certainly 
 hasn't your stamina now, my love ! ' 
 
 " Here Miss Fortescue bit her lip, tossed her head, and was 
 saying that wasn't what she cared about, though in fact she 
 looked ready to cry ; when just at the moment I saw Lota 
 Hyde herself half above the little gallery stair, gazing straight 
 at me, for the first time, too ; a curious kind of half-smile on 
 her face, as I stood with my paws out, the old lady jerking 
 the yarn off my wrists, and I staring right over her big bonnet 
 at the sky astern of the awning, pretending not to listen. All 
 at once my mouth fell, and before she could turn her face 
 away from the funny countenance I no doubt put on, I saw 
 her cheek rosy and her eyes sparkle with laughter, instead of 
 seeming like one to die soon. 
 
 " For my part I couldn't stand it at all, so I just bolted sheer 
 round and made three strides to the poop-ladder, as dignified
 
 A SEA STORY 89 
 
 as was possible, with ever so many plies of red yarn foul of 
 my wrists, and a big red ball hopping after me when I 'd 
 vanished, like a fellow running from a hot shot ! I daresay 
 they thought on the poop I 'd had a stroke of the sun on my 
 brain, but till next day I kept clear of the passengers, and 
 took to swigging off stiff nor'-westers of grog as long as 
 Westwood would let me. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 " "VTEXT evening, when the cuddy dinner was scarce over, I 
 * ^ went up to the poop, where there was no one to be seen ; 
 the sun just setting on our starboard-quarter in a golden blaze 
 that stretched overhead, with flakes of it melting, as 'twere, 
 all over the sky to port, and dropping in it like threads of oil 
 in water; the ship with a light breeze aft, and stu'nsails 
 packed large upon her, running almost due for the line. The 
 waves to westward were like liquid light, arid the eddies 
 round our counter came glittering out, the whole spread of 
 her mizzen and main canvas shining like gold cloth against the 
 fore : then 'twas but the royals and sky-sails brighter than 
 ever, as the big round sun dipped down with a red streak or 
 two, and the red water-line, against his hot old face. Every 
 blue surge between had a clear green edge about its crest, the 
 hollows turning themselves inside out from deep purple into 
 bright blue, and outside in again and the whole rim of the 
 sea grew out cool and clear, away from the ship's taffrail. A 
 pair of sharp-headed dolphins that had kept alongside for the 
 last few minutes, swimming near the surface, turned tail 
 round the moment I put my nose over the bulwark, and shot 
 off like two streaks of a rainbow after the flying-fish. 
 
 "I was just wondering where Lota Hyde could be this 
 time, when on a sudden I observed little Tommy poke his 
 curly head out of the booby-hatch, peeping cautiously round ; 
 seeing nobody, however, save the man at the wheel, who was 
 looking over his shoulder at the sun, the small rogue made a 
 bolt out of the companion, and scampered aft under the 
 awning to the judge's starboard door, with nothing on but his 
 night-shirt. There he commenced kicking and shoving with
 
 90 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 his bare feet and arms, till the door flew open, and over went 
 Tommy on his nose, singing out in fine style. The next thing 
 I heard was a laugh like the sound of a silver bell ; and just 
 as the boy's sister ran up in a fright lest he had gone over- 
 board, Violet Hyde came out leading the little chap wrapped 
 in a long shawl that trailed astern of him, herself with a straw 
 bonnet barely thrown upon her head. ' Tommy says you put 
 him in bed too soon, Jane ! ' said she, smiling. ' Iss ! ' said 
 Master Thomas, stoutly, ' go 'way, Dzane ! ' ' You hadn't 
 bid me good-night wasn't that it, Tom ? But oh ! what a 
 sea ! ' exclaimed she, catching sight of it under the awning. 
 The little fellow wanted to see it, too ; so the young lady lifted 
 him up in her arms, no small weight I daresay, and they both 
 looked over the bulwark : the whole sky far out of the awning 
 to westward being spotted with orange scales, turning almost 
 scarlet, faster than the dusk from both ends could close in ; 
 the clear greenish tint of it above the openings of the canvas 
 going up into fathomless blue overhead, the horizon purple, 
 and one or two still black clouds tipped with vermilion against 
 the far sky while the Indiaman stole along, scarce plashing 
 under her bends. 
 
 " Every now and then you heard a whizz and a flutter, as 
 the flying-fish broke out of a bigger surge, sometimes just 
 missing the ship's side ; at last two or three fell over the 
 mizzen chains, and pop came one all of a sudden right into the 
 white breast of Miss Hyde's dress inside her scarf, where 
 only the wings kept it from disappearing. She started, Jane 
 screamed, but the little boy coolly pulled it out, commencing 
 to overhaul it in great delight. ' Oh, fat a funny ickoo bird ! ' 
 shouted he ; ' it 's fell down out of 'ese t'ees ! ' looking aloft. 
 ' No, no/ said Miss Hyde, laughing, as she drew her shoulders 
 together with a shiver ' birds' noses don't drop water ! 'Twill 
 die if you don't put it in again, Tommy 'tis a fish ! ' 'A 
 fish ! ' said he, opening his eyes wider, and smacking his lips. 
 ' Yes, Tommy eat it for my beckfust ! ' However, the young 
 lady took it out of his hand, and dropped it overboard ; on 
 which the small ogre went off rather discontented, and kissed 
 her more as a favour than otherwise. It was almost dark 
 already, the water shining up in the ship's wake, and the 
 stars coming out aloft ; so I was left wondering at the impu- 
 dence of flying-fish, and the blessings of being a fat little
 
 A SEA STORY 91 
 
 imp in a frock and trousers, compared with this puzzle of 
 a 'traverse/ betwixt being a third lieutenant and hailing 
 for a ' griffin.' 
 
 "The night following, after a sultry hot day, the wind 
 had varied a good deal, and the ship was running almost 
 close-hauled on a warm south-easterly breeze, with somewhat 
 of a swell in the water. Early in the first watch there was 
 a heavy shower, after which I went on deck, leaving West- 
 wood at his book. The half-moon was just getting down 
 to leeward, clear of a ragged dark cloud, and a long space 
 of faint white light spread away on the horizon, behind the 
 sheets of the sails hauled aft ; so that you just saw a sort 
 of a glimmer under them, on the black heave of the swell 
 between. Every time she rolled to leeward on it, a gleam of 
 the moonshine slipped inside the shadow of her high bulwarks, 
 from one wet carronade to another, and went glistening over 
 the moist decks, and among the boats and booms, that looked 
 like some big brute or other lying stretched out on his paws, 
 till you saw the men's faces on the forecastle as if they were 
 so many mutineers skulking in the dark before they rush aft : 
 then up she righted again, and all was dark inboard. 
 
 " The awnings were off, and the gruff third mate creaking 
 slowly to and fro in his soaked shoes ; the judge stood talking 
 with the captain before one of the round-house doors ; directly 
 after I noticed a young lady's figure in a white dress close by 
 the mizzen-rigging, apparently intent on the sea to leeward. 
 ' Well, now or never ! ' thought I, stepping over in the shadow 
 of the main-sheet. I heard her draw a long breath ; and then, 
 without turning her head at the sound of my foot, ' I wonder 
 if there is anything so strange in India,' exclaimed she ; ' is 
 there now ? ' ' No, no, madam ! ' said I, starting, and watching 
 as the huge cloud grew darker, with a rusty stain in it, while 
 three or four broad-backed swells, one beyond the other, rose 
 up black against the setting moon, as if they 'd plunge right 
 into her. Miss Hyde turned round, with one hand on the bul- 
 wark to steady herself, and half looked at me. ' I thought,' 
 
 said she ' where is papa ? I thought my father ' I 
 
 begged pardon for intruding, but next minute she appeared 
 to have forgotten it, and said, in a musing sort of way, partly 
 to herself, partly to me ' I seem to remember it all as if I 
 just saw that black wave and that monstrous cloud over
 
 92 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 again ! Oh ! really that is the very same top it had then 
 see ! ' ' Yes,' said I, leaning forward, with a notion I had seen 
 it before, though heaven knew when. 'Did you ever read 
 about Columbus and Vasco di Gama ? ' asked she, though 
 directly afterwards her features broke into a laughing smile 
 as she caught sight of mine at the thought, I suppose, of 
 my ridiculous figure the last time she saw me. ' No, never/ 
 said I ; ' but look to windward, ma'am ; 'tis coming on a squall 
 again. For heaven's sake, Miss Hyde, go in ! We 're to have 
 another shower, and that pretty thick. I wonder the mate 
 don't stow the royals.' ' What do you mean ? ' said she, 
 turning. ' Why are you alarmed, sir ? I see nothing par- 
 ticular.' The sea was coming over, in a smooth round- 
 backed swell, out of a dirty, thick jumble of a sky, with a 
 pitch - black line behind what Ford would have called 
 * wild ' by daylight ; but the young lady's eye naturally saw 
 no more in it than a dark night. 
 
 " Here the judge came over from the binnacle, giving me a 
 nod, as much as to say he recollected me. ' I am afraid, sir,' 
 said I, ' if you don't make haste, you '11 get wet.' ' How ! ' 
 said Sir Charles, ' 'tis an exceedingly pleasant night, I think, 
 after such a very hot day. They don't know how to cool 
 rooms here this perpetual wood retains heat till midnight, 
 sir ! That detestable pitch precludes walking the sea 
 absolutely glares like tin. Why do you suppose so now 
 eh, young gentleman ? ' said he again, turning back, all of 
 a sudden, with his daughter on his arm. 
 
 " ' Why why why, Sir Charles,' said I, hesitating betwixt 
 sham innocence and scarce knowing what reason to give ; 
 'why, I just think that is to say, it's my feeling, you see.' 
 ' Ah, ah, I do see,' replied the judge, good-humouredly ; ' but 
 you shouldn't ape the sailor, my good fellow, as I fancy you 
 do a little. I don't particularly admire the class, but they 
 always have grounds for what they say in their profession, 
 frequently even acute. At your aunt's, Lady Somers's now, 
 Violet, who was naturally so surrounded by naval officers, 
 what I had to object to was, not their want of intelligence, 
 but their forwardness. Eh eh ! who what is that ? ' ex- 
 claimed he suddenly, looking straight up into the dark, as 
 five or six large drops fell on his face out of it. All at once 
 you heard a long sigh, as it were, in the canvas aloft, a clap
 
 A SEA STORY 93 
 
 like two or three carronades fired off, as all the sails together 
 went into the masts then a hum in the air far and near 
 and whish ! rush ! came the rain in sheets and bucketfuls off 
 the edge of a cloud over our very heads, plashing and washing 
 about the deck with coils of rope ; ship rolling without a 
 breath of wind in her sails ; sails flapping out and in ; the 
 rain pouring down ten times faster than the scupper-holes 
 would let it out, and smoking grey in the dark hollow of 
 the swells, that sank under the force of it. 
 
 "The first officer came on deck, roaring in the hubbub to 
 clue up and furl the royals before the wind came again. It 
 got pitch-dark, you couldn't see your hand before you, and we 
 had all lost mark of each other, as the men came shoving in 
 between us. However, I knew whereabouts Miss Hyde was, 
 so I felt along the larboard rigging till I found a back-stay 
 clasped in her hands, and the soaked sleeve of her muslin 
 dress, while she leant back on a carronade, to keep from being 
 jerked down in the water that washed up over her feet with 
 every roll, full of ropes and a capstan bar or two. Without 
 saying a word, I took up Lota in my arms, and carried her 
 aft in spite of the roll and confusion, steering for the glimmer 
 of the binnacle, till I got her inside one of their own cabins, 
 where there was a lamp swinging about, and laid her on a sofa. 
 I felt somehow or other, as I went, that the sweet creature 
 hadn't fainted, though all the while as still as death ; accord- 
 ingly I made off again at once to find the judge, who, no doubt, 
 was calling for his daughter, with a poor chance of being heard. 
 
 " In a minute or two more the rain was over ; it was light 
 enough to make out the horizon, as the belt of foam came 
 broadening out of it ; the ship gave two or three wild bounds, 
 the wheel jolting and creaking ; up swelled the black waves 
 again over one side, the topsails flapped full as the squall 
 rushed roaring into them, and away she rose ; then tore into 
 it like a scared horse, shaking her head and throwing the 
 snow-white foam into her fore-chains. 'Twas as much as three 
 men could do to grind down her wheel, leaning and grinning 
 to it ; you saw just the Indiaman herself, scarce so far forward 
 as the booms, and the broad swell mounting with her out of 
 the dark, as she slowly squared yards before it, taking in to'- 
 gallantsails while she did so with her topsail-yards lowered on 
 the caps. However, the look of it was worse than its force,
 
 94 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 else the swell wouldn't have risen so fast, as every sailor 
 knew ; and by two bells of the mid-watch she was bowling 
 under all, as easy as before., the mate of the watch setting a 
 stunsail. 
 
 ee When I went down, shaking myself like a Newfoundland, 
 Westwood was swinging in his cot with a book turned to the 
 lamp, reading Don Quixote in Spanish. 'Bless me, Ned ! ' said 
 he, ' you seem to like it ! paying fair and weathering it too ! ' 
 ' Only a little adventure, Westwood ! ' said I, laughing. ' Why, 
 here have I been enjoying better adventures than we seem 
 likely to have,' said he, ' without stirring a hand, except 
 for the wild swings you gave me from deck. Here 's Don 
 
 Quixote ' ' Don Quixote be hanged ! ' said I : ' I 'd rather 
 
 wear ship in a gale, myself, than all the humbug that never 
 happened out of an old play-book. What's the use of thinking 
 you see service, when you don't ? After all, you couldn't expect 
 much till we 've crossed the Line nothing like the tropics, 
 or the Cape, for thickening a plot, Tom. Then there 's the 
 Mozambique, you know ! ' ' Well, we '11 see,' said Westwood, 
 lazily, and half asleep. 
 
 " The whole next day would have been weary enough in 
 itself, as not a single glimpse of the fair Lota could I catch ; 
 and the weather, between the little puffs of air and squalls we 
 had, was fit to have melted poor Ford to the bone, but for the 
 rain. However, that day was sufficient, by fits and starts, to 
 bring us up to the Line ; and before crossing it, which we did 
 by six o'clock in one of the black squalls, half of the passengers 
 had been pretty well ducked by Neptune and his gang besides. 
 
 <e Rare fun we had of it for three or four hours on end ; the 
 cadets and writers showing fight in a body, the Yankee being 
 regularly keelhauled, tarred, and feathered, though I believe 
 he had crossed the Line twice by land ; while the Scotch 
 surgeon was found out, in spite his caution, never to have 
 been lower than the West Indies so he got double ration. 
 A word to Jacobs took W T estwood scot-free ; but, for my own 
 part, wishing of course to blind the officers, I let the men stick 
 the tar-brush in my mouth the first word I spoke, and was 
 shaved like the mischief, not to speak of plumping afterwards 
 behind the studding-sail curtain into three feet water, where 
 I absolutely saved Ford from drowning, he being as sick as a
 
 A SEA STORY 95 
 
 " Late at night the breeze held and freshened, and, being- 
 Saturday night, the gentlemen in the cuddy kept it up- 
 roariously after their troubles ; drinking and singing songs 
 Tom Little's and your sentimental affairs ; till, being a bit 
 flushed myself, I was on the point of giving them one of 
 Dibdin's, when I thought better of it, and went on deck 
 instead. The mate was there, however, and his red-whiskered 
 Scotch sub with the twisted snout, leaning on the capstan 
 with their noses together. The night was dark, and the 
 ship made a good noise through the water ; so ' Hang it ! ' 
 thought I, ' somehow or other I '11 have out a stave of 
 " Black-eyed Susan " at the top of my pipe, though overboard 
 I go for it. 
 
 " There was an old square topsail-yard slung alongside to 
 larboard, as far as the quarter-boat, and I went up to the 
 poop to get over and sit on it ; especially when I found 
 Ford's friend the fat midshipman was in the boat itself, 
 ' caulking '* his watch out, as he did every night in a fresh 
 place. 
 
 " I was no sooner there again, than I saw a light in the 
 aftermost gallery window, and took it in my head if I sung 
 there, why, in place of being afraid there was someone under 
 her casement, that and the wind and water together would 
 put her to sleep, if she was the worse of last night in fact, 
 I may say I was a little 'slewed'^ at the time. How to get 
 there, though, was the matter, it being rather a nice practice 
 to sling over an Indiaman's quarter-gallery, bulging out from 
 her steep counter ; accordingly, first I took the end of coil 
 round the mizzen-shrouds, and made a bowline-knot to creep 
 down the stern-mouldings with, and then swing free by help 
 of a guide-line to boot. Just before letting go of the taffrail, 
 another fancy struck me, to hitch the guide-line to the 
 trigger of the life-buoy that hung ready for use ; not that 
 I 'd the notion of saving myself if I went overboard, but just 
 because of the good joke of a fellow slipping his own life- 
 buoy, and then cruising away, with a light at his mast-head, 
 back to the Line. 
 
 "'Twas curious, but when I was ' two or three sheets in 
 the wind,' far from growing stupid, I used always to get a 
 sort of cunning that would have made me try and cheat a 
 * Sleeping on deck. t Anglice, not sober.
 
 96 THE GREEN HAND 
 
 purser ; so away I lowered myself till the rope was taut, when 
 I slipped easy enough round the counter, below the window. 
 Every time she rolled, out I swung, and in again, till I 
 steadied with my feet, slacking off the other line from one 
 hand. Then I began to give voice like old Boreas himself, 
 with a sort of a notion, at each shove I got, how I was 
 rocking the Indiaman like a big cradle, as Jacobs did his 
 baby. All at once I felt the rope was giving off the belaying- 
 pin, till I came down with a jolt under the window below ; 
 only singing the louder, as it was half open, and I could just 
 look in. With every wash of the waves the water, a couple 
 of fathoms under my feet, blazed up like fire, and the wake 
 ran boiling out from the black stern by the rudder, like the 
 iron out of a furnace ; now and then there came a sulky flare 
 of dumb lightning to leeward, and showed the black swell 
 out of the dark for miles. 
 
 " I fancied I didn't care for the water, but I began to 
 think 'twas rather uncomfortable the notion of sousing into 
 such an infernally flame-looking stream ; 1 was actually in a 
 fright at being boiled, and not able to swim. So I dropped 
 chorus to haul myself up, when of a sudden, by the lamp 
 inside the state-room, I saw Winterton and Ford come reeling 
 in, one after the other, as drunk as lords. Winterton swayed 
 about quietly on his legs for a minute, and then looked 
 gravely at Ford, as if he 'd got a dreadful secret to make 
 known. 
 
 " * Ford ! ' said he. e Ay,' said Ford, feeling to haul off his 
 trousers ' ay avast you blub-lub-lubber ! ' 'I say, Ford ! ' 
 said the cadet again, in a melancholy way, fit to melt a mar- 
 ling-spike, and then fell to cry Ford all the time pulling off 
 his trousers, with a cigar in his mouth, till he got on a chest, 
 and contrived to flounder into his cot with his coat on. After 
 that he stretched over to put the lamp out, carefully enough, 
 but he let fall his cigar, and one leg of his nankeen trousers 
 hung out of the cot, just scraping the deck every time he 
 swung. I watched, accordingly, holding on by the sill, till 
 I saw a spark catch in the stuff, and there it was, swinging 
 slowly away in the dark, with a fiery ring creeping round the 
 leg of the trousers, ready to blow into a flame as soon as it 
 had a clear swing. No doubt the fool would come down safe 
 enough himself with his cot ; but I knew Winterton kept
 
 A SEA STORY 97 
 
 powder in the cabin sufficient to blow up the deck above, 
 where that sweet girl was sleeping at the moment. ' Con- 
 found it,' I thought, quite cooled by the sight, ' the sooner I 
 get on deck the better.' 
 
 " However, you may fancy my thoughts when I heard men 
 at the taffrail, hauling on the spanker-boom guys ; so I held 
 on till they 'd go forward again ; suddenly the mate's voice 
 sung out to know ' what lubber had belayed the slack of a 
 topsail clueline here ? ' Down I went with the word, as the 
 rope was thrown off, with just time to save myself by a clutch 
 of the port-sill at arm's-length where, heaven knew, I 
 couldn't keep long. The mate looked over and caught sight 
 of my face, by a flicker of the summer lightning, as I was 
 slipping down : I gave him one curse as loud as I could hail, 
 and let go the moulding. ' Man overboard,' shouted he, and 
 the men after him ; however, I wasn't altogether overboard 
 yet, for I felt the other part of the rope bring me up with a 
 jerk and a swing right under the quarter-boat, where I clung 
 like a cat. 
 
 " How to get on deck again without being seen was the 
 question, and anxious enough I was at thought of the burning 
 train inside, when out jumped someone over my head ; I 
 heard a splash in the water, and saw a fellow's face go sinking 
 into the bright wake astern, while the boat itself was coming 
 down over me from the davits. I still had the guide-line 
 from the life-buoy round my wrist, and one moment's thought 
 was enough to make me give it a furious tug, when away I 
 sprang clear into the eddies. The first thing I saw at coming 
 up was the ship's lighted stem-windows driving to leeward, 
 then the life-buoy flaring and dipping on a swell, and a bare 
 head, with two hands, sinking a few feet off. I made for him 
 at once, and held him up by the hair as I struck out for the 
 buoy. A couple of minutes after, the men in the boat had 
 hold of us and it ; the ship came sheering round to the wind, 
 and we were very shortly on board again. 
 
 " ' Confound it, Simm, what took you overboard, man ? ' 
 asked the mid in the boat at his dripping messmate, the fat 
 reefer. ' Oh, bother ! ' said he, ' if you must know why, I 
 mistook the quarter-boats ; I thought 'twas the other I was in 
 when you kicked up that shindy. Now I remember, though, 
 there was too much rain in it for comfort.' 'Well, youngster,'
 
 98 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 said Torn, the man-o'-war's-man, ' this here gentleman saved 
 your life, anyhow ! ' ' Why, mate/ whispered Bill, ' 'tis the 
 wery same greenhorn we puckalowed so to-day. Didn't he 
 jump sharp over, too ? ' ' Pull ! for your lives, my lads ! ' said 
 I, looking up at Ford's window ; and the moment we got on 
 deck, below I ran into the state-room, and cut Ford down by 
 the heels, with the tinder hanging from him, and one leg of 
 his trousers half gone. As for the poor reefer, a pretty blow- 
 ing up he got ; the men swore I had jumped overboard after 
 him, and the mate would have it that, instead of sleeping, he 
 wanted to get into the judge's cabins ; especially when next 
 day Sir Charles was in a rage at his daughter being disturbed 
 by some sailor or other singing outside. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 " "V r OU must surely be tired by this time, ma'am, of this long- 
 -*- winded yarn of mine ? " said the commander of the 
 Gloucester to the elder of his fair listeners, next evening they 
 met with the evident expectation of hearing further; "but 
 after all, this voyage must be dull work for you at present, 
 so I daresay you are amused with anything by way of a change. 
 " Well, one morning, when Westwood and I went on deck, 
 it was a stark staring calm ; as dead as a mill-pond, save for 
 the long winding heave that seemed to come miles up out of 
 the stale blue water, and get tired with the journey from 
 the horizon to us in one lazy coil, and on every side, just serv- 
 ing to jerk the wheel a spoke back and forward, with nobody 
 at it. The very bits of pumpkin-paring and fat which the cook 
 had thrown overboard the night before lay still alongside, with 
 an oily track oozing round about them from the ' slush '* 
 the sails hanging from the yards, up and down, like clothes 
 on a screen and when you looked over the side away from 
 the sun, you saw your own face, like a fellow's that had been 
 long drowned, peering back at you, as it were, round the keel 
 in fact, there you scarce knew where the water was. 
 
 " Somehow or other the ship kept sheering round, by little 
 and little, till, although one had chosen a shady spot, all of a 
 * Cook's grease.
 
 A SEA STORY 99 
 
 sudden the blazing sun came right into his eyes ; or the single 
 streak of white cloud lying behind you, to starboard, a while 
 after stuck itself before your face from the very opposite 
 quarter you fancying, too, you had your eye the whole time 
 on the same bit of water. Being lost in a wood or a fog was 
 nothing to it, especially with the sun at noon drawn up right 
 overhead, so that you couldn't look aloft, and staring down 
 into the sea out of a pool of bright light ; ' like one tremen- 
 dously keen little eye/ as some of the passengers said, 
 'examining a big blind one.' f Why,' put in one of the 
 writers, ' I fear he wants to take the mote out of his brother's 
 eye this vessel, that is to say ! ' ' Hang it, I hope not ! ' said 
 Winterton, rather alarmed. ' He promises well to do it, then,' 
 said another young civilian, ' but I wish he 'd take the beam 
 out of his own first, ha, Smythe ? ' However, few men have 
 the spirit to laugh at little in a calm near the Line, so Smythe 
 gave no more than a sickly grin, while Westwood looked the 
 clergyman very properly. 
 
 " Both passengers and crew, all of us that could swim, 
 gave wistful looks now and then alongside at the water, hot 
 as it seemed, for a bathe ; just floating up, as it were, with the 
 mere huge size of it, under a dazzle of light, and so blue and 
 smooth you couldn't see a hair's-breadth below ; while, a bit 
 off, the face of it and the very air appeared to dance and 
 quiver like little streams of glass. However, all thoughts of 
 bathing were put out of your head when you saw the black 
 three-cornered affair, with a rake aft, somewhat like the end 
 of a scythe, that went steering slowly round us ; then cruising 
 hither and thither, till its infernal horn was as dry as the 
 deck ; and at times driving straight off, as if it ran in a groove 
 through the level surface ; when back again it came from the 
 other side, creeping lazily towards us, till it sank with a light 
 tip, and a circle or two on the blue water. The hook and 
 chain were hanging up and down over the taffrail, with the 
 piece of rank pork looking green in the shadow near the 
 rudder, where you read the white figures of her draught as 
 plain as in dock ; but the shark, a fifteen-feet customer, if he 
 was an inch, was too knowing to have touched it. 
 
 " ' Pity he 's gone, Collins,' said Ford to me, after we had 
 watched him at last out of sight ; ' wasn't there any plan of 
 catching him, I wonder ! Now we shall have a bathe though,
 
 100 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 at any rate.' ' Gone ? ' said I, * he won't leave us in a hurry, 
 if we don't leave him ! ' ' Poh, man ! ' said Ford, ' I tell you 
 he 's tired out and gone away ! ' Five minutes after Ford was 
 leaning over the quarter and wiping his face, while he fanned 
 himself with his straw hat, which fell out of his hand into the 
 water. He had got over into the mizzen-chains to throw a 
 line round it, when he gave a loud shriek, and jumped in-board 
 again. Two or three fathoms of green came up from the 
 keel, balancing on a pair of broad fins under Ford's hat, and 
 a big round snout touched it ; then a dozen feet of white belly 
 gleamed in the water, the hat gave a gulp as it was drawn 
 down, and a few small air-bells rose to the top. ' He prefers 
 some flavours to others, you see, Ford,' said I. f 'Tis the 
 second hat I 've seen you lose : I hope your head won't be in 
 
 the third ; but you mariners, you see ' However, Ford 
 
 had bolted to his cabin. 
 
 " On turning round I perceived Miss Hyde, with the 
 general's lady, under the awning on the other side, where the 
 old lady leant against a cushion, with her hands crossed and 
 her bonnet strings loose though a strapping raw-boned Irish- 
 woman she was and kept Miss Hyde's maid fanning her 
 from behind with a large feather punkah. The old lady had 
 started at Ford's cry, and gave a look round at me, half fierce 
 and half orderly, as if she expected to know what was the 
 matter at once. ' Only my friend lost his hat, ma'am,' said I, 
 stepping forward. ' These cadets are so 'tagious, my dear ! ' 
 said she to the young lady, falling back again without the 
 least more notice of me. ' They plague the life of me, but 
 the brigadier can't drill them as he would if this were a 
 troopship I wish he could, for the sake of the profession ! 
 now, my dear, you kape out of the s-hun ! ' However, I 
 stuck where I was, fancying I caught the slightest bit of an 
 arch twinkle in the corner of the young lady's eye, though 
 she didn't look at me. f Keep going, can't ye ! ' said the old 
 lady crossly to the maid. ' No, ma'am, indeed ! ' said the girl, 
 glancing over to her young mistress, ' I 'm ready to drop ! ' 
 'Send up papa's kitmagar, then, Wilkins,' said Miss Hyde; 
 and the girl went off toward the gallery stair, muttering she 
 'hoped she didn't come here to be made a black Indian 
 slave of at least to a old' the remainder being lost in the 
 stair.
 
 A SEA STORY 101 
 
 "As I leant on the rail-netting, behind the old lady, I 
 happened to tread on her fat pug-dog's tail, whereupon the 
 ugly brute made its teeth meet, without further notice, in the 
 small of my leg, after which it gave a yelp, and ran beneath 
 the chairs. < What 's that, Die ? ' exclaimed its mistress ; 
 'good hivens ! is that same griffin here^, my dear ! Hadn't 
 he ayven the spirit to take a hint ? I say, was it you hurt 
 Dianny, young man ? ' ' Oh dear no, ma'am, not for the 
 world ! ' said I, looking at my trousers, hard as the thing was 
 to stand, but thinking to smooth her over, though I wasn't 
 quite up to the old Irishwoman it turned out. ' Ha ! ha ! so 
 she bit you ? ' said she, with a flash of her hawk's eye, and 
 leaning back again coolly. e If he 'd only kicked poor Die for 
 it under my chair now, I 'd have forgiven him ; but he hadn't 
 ayven the heart at the time to drop her a curse and /think- 
 ing all the while, too, by the luke of his eye he was from the 
 County Clare ! My heart warms to the County Clare always, 
 because, although I 'm not Irish myself, you know, I 'd once a 
 schoolfellow was born in it without counting all my relations ! 
 Oh, the smooth spalpeen ! ' continued she, harder than before, 
 glancing at me as I looked all abroad from one to the other ; 
 ' listen, niver you let that fellow spake to you, my dear ! he 's 
 
 too But here I walked quietly off to put the poop's 
 
 length betwixt me and the talking old vixen, cursing her and 
 her dog both, quite enough to have pleased her Irish fancy. 
 
 " On the quarter-deck, the judge and the general seemed 
 really to enjoy the heat and quiet, sitting with their feet up 
 before the round-house, and smoking their long red twisted 
 hookahs, while they watched the wreaths of smoke go whirling 
 straight up from the bowls to the awning, and listened to the 
 faint bubble of it through the water in the bottles, just 
 dropping a word now and then to each other. A tall, thin 
 ' native ' servant with long sooty hair hanging from his snow- 
 white turban, stood behind the judge's chair, bolt upright, 
 with his arms folded, and twice as solemn as Sir Charles 
 himself; you saw a stern- window shining far abaft, through 
 one of the round-house doors, and the fat old fellow of a 
 consumah* busy laying the cloth for tiffin, while the sole 
 breath of air there was came out of there-away. 
 
 "Suddenly eight bells struck, and everyone seemed glad 
 * East Indian steward.
 
 102 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 of something new ; the judge's consumah came out salaaming 
 to say tiffin was ready ; the cuddy passengers went below for 
 wine-and-water and biscuit ; and the men were at dinner. 
 There being nothing to take care of on deck, and the heat of 
 course getting greater, not a soul stayed up but myself ; but I 
 preferred at the moment lighting a cheroot, and going up aft 
 to see clear of the awnings. The cockatoo had been left on 
 the poop-rail, with its silver chain hitched round one of the 
 mizzen back-stays, where it shifted from one leg to the other, 
 hooked itself up the back-stay as far as it could go, then hurried 
 down again, and mused a bit, as wise as Solomon then screamed 
 out at the top of its voice ' Tip tip pr-r-retty cacka tip- 
 poo cok-ka whee-yew-ew-ew ! ' finishing by a whistle of 
 triumph fit to have split one's ears, or brought a gale of wind 
 though not on account of skill in its books, at any rate. 
 Again it took to swinging quietly head-down, at furious rate, 
 and then slewed upright to plume its feathers, and shake the 
 pink tuft on its head. 
 
 "No sooner had I got up the stair, however, than, to my 
 perfect delight, I saw Violet Hyde was still sitting aft, and 
 the old Irishwoman gone ; so I stepped to the tafFrail at once, 
 and, for something to be about, I hauled up the shark-hook 
 from astern. The moment I caught her eye, the young lady 
 smiled by way of making up, no doubt, for the old one. 
 ' How very solitary it is ! ' said she, rising and looking out ; 
 ' the ship almost seems deserted, except by us ! ' ' By Jove ! 
 I almost wish it were,' thought I. ' A dead calm, madam,' I 
 said, ' and likely to hold the under-swell 's gone quite down, 
 and a haze growing.' 'Are we sure ever to leave this spot 
 then ? ' asked she, with a slight look of anxiety. ( Never fear 
 it, ma'am,' said I ; 'as soon as the haze melts again, we 're 
 near a breeze, I assure you only, by the length of the calm 
 and the heat together, not to speak of our being so far to 
 east'ard, I 'm afraid we mayn't get rid of it without a gale at 
 the end to match.' ' Indeed ? ' said Miss Hyde. 
 
 " The fact was, Westwood and I had been keeping a log, 
 and calculated just now we were somewhere to south-eastward 
 of Ascension ; whereas, by the captain and mate's reckoning 
 she was much farther to west. 
 
 " ' I never thought the sea could appear so dreadful,' said 
 she, as if to herself ' much more than in a storm.' ' Why,
 
 A SEA STORY 103 
 
 madam,' said I, ' you haven't exactly seen one this voyage 
 one needs to be close-hauled off the Cape for that.' 
 
 " Somehow or other, in speaking to her, by this time I 
 forgot entirely about keeping up the sham cadet, and slipped 
 into my own way again ; so all at once I felt her two dark- 
 blue eyes looking at me curiously. ' How ! why/ exclaimed 
 she suddenly, and then laughing, ' you seem to know all about 
 it ! why, you speak have you been studying sea affairs so 
 thoroughly, sir, with your friend, who but I do think, now, 
 one can scarcely trust to what you have said ? ' ' Well why 
 well,' said I, fiddling with the shark-hook, ' I don't know 
 how it is, but I feel as if I must have been at sea some time 
 or other before ; you wouldn't suppose it, ma'am, but when- 
 ever I fix my eyes on a particular rope, I seem almost to know 
 the name of it.' ' And its use too ? ' asked she, merrily. ' I 
 shouldn't wonder ! ' said I ; ' perhaps I was born at sea, you 
 know, madam ! ' and I gave a side-look to notice how she 
 took it. ' Ah ! perhaps ! ' said Miss Hyde, laughing : ' but do 
 you know one sometimes fancies these things ; and now I 
 think of it, sir, I even imagined for a moment I had seen 
 yourself before ! ' ' Oh,' said I, ' that couldn't be the case ; 
 I 'm sure, for my part, I should recollect clear enough if I'd 
 seen a a lady anywhere ! I think you said something of 
 the kind, ma'am, that night of the last squall about the 
 water and the clouds, ma'am, you remember ? ' The young 
 lady looked away, though a notion seemed to flash through 
 
 her mind. ' Yes,' said she, ' that terrible rain, you were ' 
 
 'Washed into the lee-scuppers,' said I, indifferently, for I 
 didn't want her to suspect it was / that had kissed her hand 
 in the dark as I carried her in. ' I hope Sir Charles and 
 yourself got in safe, Miss Hyde ? ' However, she was watch- 
 ing the water alongside, and suddenly she exclaimed, ' Dear ! 
 what a pretty little fish ! ' 'By heavens ! ' said I, seeing the 
 creature with its sharp nose and blue bars, as it glanced about 
 near the surface, and then swam in below the ship's bilge 
 again, ' that 's one of the old villain's pilots he 's lying right 
 across our keel ! I wish I could catch that shark ! ' 
 
 " The pork was of no use for such an old sea-lawyer, and 
 I cast a wistful eye on the Irishwoman's fat pug-dog stretched 
 asleep on her shawl by the bulwark ; ' he 'd take that in a trice 
 though ! ' I even laid out some marline from a stern-locker,
 
 104 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 and noticed how neatly one could pass the hook under her 
 belly round to the tail, and seize her so snugly on, muzzled and 
 all ; but it was no go, with the devil to pay afterwards. All of 
 a sudden I heard somebody hawking and spitting above the 
 awning forward, near where the cockatoo kept still trying to 
 master his own name. ' The Yankee, for a thousand !' thought 
 I ; ' is Daniel trying to walk along the spanker-boom ? ' Next, 
 someone sung out, ' Hal-loo-oo-oo ! ' as if there was a toma- 
 hawk over him, ready to split his brain. Miss Hyde looked 
 alarmed, when the Scotch mate, as I thought, roared, ' Shiver 
 my tops'ls ! ' Then it was a sailor hailing gruffly, ' Bloody 
 Capting Brown bloody Capting Brown Capting Brown ! ' 
 
 " ' Somebody drunk aloft ! ' thought I, walking forward 
 to see ; when a funny little black head peeped round the 
 awning with a yellow nose as sharp as a marling-spike, and red 
 spectacles, seemingly, round its keen little eyes ; then, with 
 a flutter and a hop, the steward's pet mina-bird* came down, 
 and lighted just under the cockatoo. ' Ha ! ' said I, laughing, 
 'it's only Parson Barnacle !' as the men called him a sooty 
 little creature scarce bigger than a blackbird, with a white 
 spot on each wing, and a curious pair of natural glasses on 
 his head, which they kept in the forecastle and taught all 
 sorts of 'jaw,' till they swore he could have put the ship 
 about, took kindly to tar, and hunted the cockroaches like 
 a cat. 
 
 " No doubt he was glad to meet his countryman the 
 cockatoo, but Tippoo stuck up his crest, swelled his chops, 
 and looked dreadfully frightened ; while the mina - bird 
 cocked his head on one side, gave a knowing wink as it 
 were, though all the time as grave, with his spectacles, as a 
 real parson. ' How 's her head ? ' croaked he, in a voice like 
 a quartermaster's ; ' blowing hard ! ' ' Old Capting Brown ! ' 
 and hopped nearer to the poor cockatoo, who could stand 
 it no longer, but hooked himself up the backstay as fast as 
 possible, out of sight, the chain running with him ; and just 
 as I swung myself clear of the awning to run aloft for a catch 
 of it, out flew Parson Barnacle to the end of the crojack-yard, 
 
 * Mina-bird, or grakle, a frequent pet in homeward-bound East-India- 
 men, and singular for its mimetic faculty ; but impudent, and, from 
 educational disadvantages, not particularly select in its expressions : 
 appearance as described by the lieutenant.
 
 A SEA STORY 105 
 
 while the cockatoo gave a flap that loosed the kitmagar's 
 lubberly hitch, and sent him down with his wings spread 
 on the water. 
 
 " At another time it wouldn't have cost me a thought to 
 go head-foremost after him, when I heard his young mistress 
 exclaiming, ' Oh, poor dear Tippoo will be drowned ! ' but 
 recollecting our hungry green friend on the other side, I 
 jumped down for the end of a rope to slip myself quietly 
 alongside with. However, at the very moment, Tom, the 
 man-o'-war's-man, happening to come up from the fore- 
 hatchway to throw something overboard, and seeing Miss 
 Hyde's cockatoo, off went his shoes and jacket at once, and 
 I heard the splash as he struck the water. I had scarce time 
 to think, either, before I saw Mick O'Hooney's red head shoot 
 up on deck, and heard him sing out, ' Man overboard, be the 
 powers, boys ! Folly my lader ! Hurroo ! ' and over he 
 sprang. ' Here 's dip,' said another, and in half a minute 
 every man that could swim was floundering in the smooth 
 water alongside, or his head showing as it came up pitching 
 the cockatoo to each other, and all ready to enjoy their 
 bathe ; though, for my part, I made but one spring to the 
 ship's starboard quarter, to use the only chance of saving the 
 thoughtless fellows from a bloody fate to some of them. 
 
 " I knew the shark would be cautious at first, on such a 
 sudden to-do, and I had marked his whereabouts while the 
 men were well toward the bows ; and ' hang it,' thought I, 
 seeing the old woman's fat pug in my way, ' Dianny, or die 
 all ; I bear no malice, but you must go for it, my beauty ! ' 
 As quick as thought, I made one turn of marline round her 
 nose, took off the pork, and lashed her fast on to the hook all 
 standing, in spite of her squeaks ; then twisted the lady's 
 shawl round the chain for a blind to it, and flung the whole 
 right over the larboard quarter, where I guessed the old fellow 
 would be slewing round astern to have a look out before he 
 went fairly in chase. 1 watched the line sink slowly with the 
 weight over the gunwale for half a minute, afraid to let him 
 see my head, and trembling for fear I should hear a cry from 
 one of the men : when jerk went the rope clear of a belaying- 
 pin as he ran off with his bait. I took a quick turn to hook 
 him smartly in the throat, and then eased off again till the 
 ' elects ' brought him up with a ' surge ' fit to have parted the
 
 106 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 line, had it not been good new inch-and-a-half rope though, 
 as it was, the big Indiaman would soon have sheered stern- 
 round to the force of it, if he 'd only pulled fair. 
 
 " The young lady stood noticing what I did, first in a per- 
 plexed sort of a way, and then with no little surprise, especi- 
 ally when the shark gave every now and then a fiercer tug, 
 as he took a sweep astern ; by this time, however, everybody 
 was on deck in a crowd, the passengers all in a flurry, and 
 half of the men scrambling up from alongside to tail on to 
 the line, and run him out of water. So away they went with 
 it full-speed towards the bows, as soon as the ladies were out 
 of the way dragging two or three cadets back-foremost, 
 head over heels, down the poop stair till, in spite of his 
 tugging, the shark's round snout showed over the taffrail, 
 with the mouth wide open under his chin, as it were, and 
 one row of teeth laid flat behind another, like a comb-maker's 
 shop-counter. A running bowline passed round his hand- 
 some waist, then another pull, and over he came on the poop, 
 floundering fourteen feet long, and flourishing his tail for 
 room, till the carpenter chopped it across, in a lucky moment 
 with his axe. 
 
 " All hands gathered round the shark to see him cut up, 
 which was as good as a play to them, becalmed as we were ; 
 when, to my no small dismay, I heard Mrs Brigadier Brady's 
 loud voice asking where her dog was ; and the brigadier 
 himself, who seemed more afraid of his wife than anybody 
 else, kept poking about with his red-faced English butler to 
 find the animal. ' For God's sake,' said he, in a half whisper, 
 twenty times over, 'haven't ye seen Mrs Brady's dog, any of 
 ye ? she '11 rout the ship inside out for it, captain, if we don't 
 soon ase her mind.' However, I knew only Miss Hyde was 
 aware who caught the shark, and as she didn't appear to have 
 told, why of course I kept all fast myself. ' Here 's a 'baccy- 
 box ! ' sung out the big old boatswain, standing astride over 
 the tail, while the cook and his black mate ripped away from 
 the tail up. ' Hand over, if ye please, sir/ said ' ugly ' Harry, 
 ' it 's mine, Mr Burton ! ' Harry gave it a wipe on his knee, 
 and coolly bit a quid off the end of his lost pigtail. The next 
 thing was Ford's hat, which no one claimed, so black Sambo 
 clapped it on his woolly head. 
 
 "'What's that you've got there now, Sambo?' said the
 
 A SEA STORY 107 
 
 boatswain : ' out with it, my lad ! ' ' Golly ! ' chuckled the 
 nigger, rolling the whites of his eyes and grinning like mad ; 
 'oh sar, Misser Barton! dis 'ere shark riglar navligator! I 
 'clare to you, sar, um got chr'ometer aboard. Oh gum ; 
 berry much t'ink dis your own lost silber tickler, Misser 
 Barton.' ' Bless me, so it is, my lad,' said the boatswain, as 
 the black handed him a silver watch as big as a turnip, and 
 he looked at the cook, who was busy fumbling with his knife. 
 'Sorry as you was taxed with it, doctor,'* said he, doubtfully; 
 ' well, I 'm blowed, though, it only goes an hour and a half 
 and here it 's a-ticking yet.' Here a burst of laughter went 
 round, and somebody sung out, 'Maybe the ould pawn-broking 
 Judas of a shark winded it up hisself, just to mark the time o' 
 his "goin' off the hooks."' 'I say, doctor,' hailed another, 
 ' too bad, ain't it though, to cut up your uncle ? ' ' Ha, ha, 
 ha,' cried the cadets and writers, looking at the Scotch 
 surgeon ; ' d' ye hear that, doctor ? I wouldn't stand it. 
 They say you ain't particular in Edinbro', though. Some rum 
 mistakes happened there, eh, doctor ? ' 
 
 " The Scotchman got into a passion at this, being the worst 
 cut they could give any fellow from a country where they 
 were famous for kindred and body-snatching at once but 
 all of a sudden there was a ' Hulloo ! Shiver my taw'sels ! 
 What 's this ? Let 's see ' ; and the whole poopful of us were 
 shoving together, and jumping on each other's shoulders to 
 have a look. 'Well, we-ell,' said the old boatswain, as he 
 peered curiously into the mess of shark's bowels I '11 be 
 blowed.' 'The likes o' that now!' croaked the old sailmaker, 
 lifting up his two hands, ' 'tain't lucky, Mr Burton ! ' ' My 
 eye ! them's not young sharks, anyhow !' said one of the men. 
 'What's t'ou think they be, mun,' said the north-country 
 Chips, ' but litter o' young blind poops ? an' here 's t' ou'd un. 
 see, as deed 's mutton ! Dang him, but someun 's got an' 
 baited t' hook wi 't, there 's nou't else in 's guts.' 
 
 "The whole poop was one roar of laughing, when Mrs 
 Brady's pug was found delivered of four pups inside the 
 shark, since she went overboard, and two of 'em alive ; the 
 news ran fore and aft in a moment. ' Took short she 's been, 
 Jack ! ' said one. ' Beats the prophet Joney ! ' 'I say, mate, 
 
 * Familiar metonymy, or nickname, at sea, for the ship's cook.
 
 108 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 them whelps is born twice over. Blessed if my Sal at home, 
 now, wouldn't give a year's 'lotment for one on 'em.' 
 
 " ' Look out, all hands of ye,' cried someone, ' there 's the 
 old girl herself coming on deck ; sharp 's the word.' And 
 away we scuttled right and left, some aloft, and some down 
 one poop-ladder, as Mrs Brady, with the brigadier and his 
 butler after her, came fuming up the other. The black made 
 one spring over the quarter as soon as he saw her ; but the 
 Irish topman, Mick, slipped his foot amongst the shark's 
 blood, and rolled on his back, while the old bo' sun made stand 
 in the thick of it behind. 'Saze the villains, I charge ye, 
 brigadier,' screamed Mrs Brady, though he and his man- 
 servant only kept dodging the boatswain round a sort of a 
 quagmire of blood and grease, while the old vixen caught 
 Mick by his red hair and whiskers. ' Where 's my dog, ye 
 murderous spalpeen ? ' said she, panting for breath ; ' what 
 have ye done with my Dianny, ye monsther ? Spake, or 
 
 I '11 ' ' Be the holy elaven thousand, yer ladyship ! ' said 
 
 Mick, ' an' it 's lost did ye think she wor ! Isn't there^ve of 
 'em back ! Whisper ! yer ladyship's riv'rence she 's laid in, 
 
 poor craythure, an' ' ' Oh ! you Irish thief! ' Tug came 
 
 both Mrs Brady's hands through his hair, while the butler 
 caught a kick in the stomach from Mick's foot. ' Murther ! ' 
 gasped the poor fellow, ' sure an' I dun' know she was ayven 
 a faym'le, fur me own part ; bad luck t' ye mates, give uz a 
 hand. Och, an' is this the road ye thrate a counthryman, 
 mim ? ' f Me your countryman ! ye bog-trottin' wretch ye ! ' 
 screamed the old fury, her brogue getting worse the more 
 she heated 'take that] don't rise, if ye dare.' 'Faix thin, 
 yer ladyship darlin', ' said O'Hooney, grinning in spite of his 
 hard usage, ' I tould a lie och, lave some o' me hair ! 
 murther intirely ! I 'm ' 
 
 " All the time none of us could stir for sheer laughing, 
 but seeing poor Mike like to fare hard with the old vixen, 
 who was near as big as himself, and as strong as a horse, I 
 whispered to the men to run round and let go the poop 
 awning so down it came, with a few buckets of water in it, 
 over the five of them ; and you just saw Mrs Brady's sharp 
 elbow through the canvas, lifted for the next slap, when we 
 had her all fast, struggling like a cat in a bag, while O'Hooney 
 and the boatswain crept out below. ' Stiff breeze that as
 
 A SEA STORY 109 
 
 we 've had !' said the bo'sun shaking himself on the forecastle. 
 1 Couldn't ye 've bowsed over on the old jade's pitticuts, 
 Mick ? ' said one of his shipmates, ' and capsized her all stand- 
 ing ? ' ' Sorra fut you 'd stir, yourself, mate,' said he, wiping 
 his face, ' wid such a shay grinnydeer ! she 'd man-handle ye 
 as asy 's twurl a mop ! ' 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 " A FTER all this, you may suppose one didn't weary so 
 ^ *- much, even of the calm. As soon as the decks were 
 clear, most of us took tea on the poop, for fear of meeting the 
 brigadier's lady below, everyone holding his cup ready for a 
 start. Rollock, the planter, who had slept and swung in his 
 cot half the day, was like to split his sides when he heard the 
 story ; by-the-way, I believe both the little pups lived and 
 throve on goat's milk, and the men called one of them 
 'Young Jonah,' though he had so much of the terrier that the 
 old lady disowned him. 
 
 " It was quite dark, and cool for a night near the Line, 
 though not a ripple stirred, and I stayed after the rest to 
 smoke a cigar, stopping every now and then near the after- 
 most bull's-eye, that shone through the deck, and thinking 
 of Lota. 'By Jove!' thought I, ' she hasn't said a word to the 
 judge about our having met before. Think of having a secret, 
 almost, with her \ ' After all, though, I felt well enough I 
 might as soon hope for the Emperor of China's daughter as 
 for such a creature, unless something wonderfully strange fell 
 out ; deucedly in love as I was, I wasn't puppy enough to 
 fancy I 'd ever succeed by mere talk ; ' but here 's for a bold 
 heart and a weather eye,' I thought; 'and if these can't do it, 
 I mill \ ' said I aloud, when someone clapped me on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 " ' Well, Tom, are you there ? ' said I, thinking it was 
 Westwood. 'Why,' answered old Rollock, laughing, 'not so 
 far wrong, my boy but as it 's thirty years since anyone 
 called me so, I thought you were, for a moment! Meditating, 
 eh ? ' ' Only a cigar before bed-time will you have one, 
 sir ? ' ' Ah well,' said the planter, ' I '11 take a light at least
 
 110 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 queer life this, eh ? Shouldn't know this was water, now 
 more like train-oil ! Looks junglish a little under the stars 
 yonder/ ' Nothing but the haze come down/ said I; ''tis 
 clear enough aloft, though look out for squalls ere long.' ' As 
 your friend Ford would have it/ said Rollock ; ' but how a lad 
 of your spirit can manage to stand this so well, I can't think!' 
 ' Deyvilish dull, sir ! ' said I, with a lazy drawl, ' but can't be 
 helped, you know.' 'Come, come, now, don't mend it by 
 copying poor Winterton/ chuckled Rollock ; ' you 're no fool, 
 Collins, so don't pretend to be. I say though, Collins, my 
 boy,' continued he rather gravely, ' there is one really soft 
 piece I begin to notice in you lately I fear you 're falling in 
 love with that girl ! ' ' I, sir ! ' said I ; ' dear me, what makes 
 
 you ' ' My dear boy,' went on the kind-hearted old fellow, 
 
 ' I take an interest in you ; no lad of your stuff practises all 
 this tomfoolery without something under it, and I see you 've 
 some serious meaning or other. Did you know her before ? ' 
 ' Oh why not exactly/ I dropped out, taken rather short. 
 f I see, I see ! ' he went on ; ' but I tell you what, Collins, a 
 cadet can do nothing madder than marry at first landing ; she 
 had better be a cold-hearted flirt, after all though, God 
 knows, no man can say what that does but one that 's felt it ! 
 7 I mean I knew a young fellow that went out as 
 
 ambitious as you can be, and he ' 
 
 " Here the planter's voice shook a little, and he stopped, 
 puffing at his cheroot till the short end of it just lighted up 
 his hook nose and part of his big white whiskers in the dark, 
 only you saw his eye glistening, too. ' Devil take it!' thought 
 I, 'who 'd have expected the old boy to be so sharp, though?' 
 ' Well but, Collins,' said he at last, ' just you enter heart and 
 soul into your profession ; I 'd stake my life you '11 rise, who 
 knows how far when you get captain's pay even, then you 
 may think of it that is, if she ' Why/ said I, ' d' ye 
 
 suppose the judge would ' ' Judge!' exclaimed Mr Rollock 
 
 'worse and worse ! Weren't we talking of pretty little Kate 
 Fortescue ? My dear boy, you don't intend to say you mean 
 Miss Hyde ! I left that to your puppy of a " first officer," as 
 they call him ! Why, that young girl will be the beauty of 
 Calcutta.' At this I fancied someone else gave a whistle near 
 us. 'Of course, sir/ said I, raising my voice, 'you didn't 
 suppose me such a fool.' In fact, Miss Fortescue had never
 
 A SEA STORY 111 
 
 entered my head at all. * Something strange about you, 
 Collins ! ' said the planter, a little shortly ; ' you puzzle me, I 
 must say.' As we turned to go below, I heard somebody 
 walk down the poop-ladder, and then the mate's voice sung 
 out from the binnacle to ' strike eight bells ! ' 
 
 " The calm was as dead as ever next morning, and, if pos- 
 sible, hotter than before not a rope changed aloft, nor a cloth 
 in the sails moved ; but it was pretty hazy round us, which 
 made the water a sort of pale old-bottle blue, that sickened 
 you to look at ; and a long dipping and drawling heave 
 gradually got up as if there were blankets on it ; the ship, 
 of course, shifting round and round again slowly, like a dog 
 going to lie down, and the helm giving every now and then 
 a sudden jolt. Near noon it cleared up with a blaze of light, 
 as it were ; the sole difference at first being, that what looked 
 like melting lead before now turned into so many huge bright 
 sheets of tin, every sudden bend of it as good as flashing up 
 thousands of needles in your eyes. A good deal surprised we 
 were, however, shortly after, to find there was a sail in sight, 
 another square-rigged vessel, seemingly standing up on the 
 horizon six or seven miles off. Being end on to us at the 
 time, though every glass in the ship was brought to bear on 
 her, 'twas hard to say what she was ; then she and we went 
 bobbing and going up and down with a long round heave 
 between us, slowly enough, but always at cross purposes, like 
 two fellows see-sawing on a plank over a dyke. When she 
 was up, we were down, and we just caught sight of her royal, 
 no bigger than a gull on the water; jerk went our rudder, 
 and next time she seemed to have vanished out of the glasses 
 altogether, till we walked round to the other side, and made 
 her out again under the awning on the opposite beam. At 
 length she lifted broad to us for a moment or two, showing a 
 long pale sort of hull with a red streak, apparently without 
 ports, and brig-rigged, though the space betwixt her two 
 masts was curious for that kind of craft. 
 
 " ' Wonderful light-sparred for her size that brig, sir,' said 
 the third officer, dropping his glass. 'Ay, so she is, Mr 
 Small/ replied Captain Williamson ; 'what would you call her 
 then ? You 've as good knowledge of craft as any man, Mr 
 Small, I think.' ' Why,' said the old mate, screwing his eye 
 harder for a long look, ' I 'd say she 's not a cruiser, Captain
 
 112 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Williamson no, nor a Greenock Indyman nor a ' ' Oh ! ' 
 
 said Finch, 'some African timberer or other, I daresay, Small.' 
 'Well, Mr Finch/ said the third mate, handing him the glass, 
 'mayhap you'll just say yourself, sir.' 'No, no, Mr Small/ 
 said the captain ; ' I 'd trust to you as soon as any man, sir, in 
 a matter of the kind.' 'Why, the hull of her's wonderful 
 Yankee-like, sir,' said Small again ; ' I 'm thinking they 've 
 been and squared her out of a schooner and made a bad job 
 of it too, sir ! Bless us ! what a lean-headed pair o' taups'ls 
 as high as our fore one, sir.' Suddenly the old mate gave his 
 thigh a slap, and laid down his glass on the capstan ; ' Lor', 
 sir ! ' said he, ' that 's the thing ; she 's nothing more nor less 
 but a John Crapeau, Captain Williamson ! ' 
 
 '"I daresay you 're right, Mr Small,' said the skipper, 
 taking the glass; 'just so ay, ay I thought it myself!' 
 ' Pity Old Nap 's boxed up yonder nowadays, then, sir,' said 
 the first officer, rubbing his hands and pointing to eastward, 
 where he thought St Helena was ; ' why, sir, we should have 
 the peppering of the Frenchman ; I don't suppose we 'd need 
 to care though she were twice the size and what 's more, we 
 want fresh water before seeing the Cape, sir ! ' ' Well,' said 
 the old skipper, laughing, 'that is the worst of it, Finch! As 
 for spirit, you 've as much as any man, Mr Finch, and I do 
 think we 'd know how to take the weather-hand of him eh?' 
 ' I '11 be bound we should ! ' said Finch, laughing too. As for 
 the Frenchman, both Westwood and I had made him out by 
 his rig at once, thanks to man-o'-war practice ; but we smiled 
 to each other at the notion of making a prize of Monsieur, 
 under Finch's management, with not a gun that could have 
 been used for half a day, and everything else at sixes and 
 sevens. 
 
 " In a little while it was proposed amongst the cadets, hot 
 as the calm was, to make a party to go and see the French 
 vessel. Ford of course was at the head of it. Winterton 
 thought they would no doubt have plenty of champagne on 
 board, and some others, who could row, wanted to try their 
 hands. Accordingly the captain's gig was got ready, a sort of 
 awning rigged over it, and two or three of them got in ; when 
 one, who was Miss Fortescue's cousin, persuaded her to join, 
 if Mr Rollock would come. Then the brigadier, being rather 
 a good-humoured man, said he should like to face the French
 
 A SEA STORY 113 
 
 once more, and Daniel Snout shoved himself eagerly in with- 
 out asking, by your leave. One of the men was sent to take 
 charge ; and as there was room still, I was just going to jump 
 in too, for the amusement of it, when Mrs Brady hurried to 
 the taffrail with her parasol up, and said, if the brigadier went 
 she should go as well in fact, the old woman's jealousy of her 
 rib was always laughably plain. ' Hang it ! then,' thought I, 
 'catch me putting myself in the same boat with her\ the 
 same ship is enough in all conscience ! ' So away they were 
 lowered off the davits, and began pulling in tolerable style for 
 the brig, a couple of hours' good work for such hands at mid- 
 day, smooth water as it was. 
 
 "'Now, gentlemen,' said the first officer briskly, as we 
 looked after them dipping over the long bright blue heave 
 ' now, gentlemen, and ladies also, if you please, we'll have 
 another party as soon as the men get their dinner give these 
 gentlemen a full hour's law, we '11 overhaul them. See the 
 larboard quarter-boat clear, Jacobs.' It was just the least 
 possible hazy again behind the brig in the distance, and as the 
 judge stood talking to his daughter on the poop, I heard her 
 say, ' Is the other vessel not coming nearer already, papa ? 
 See how much more distinct its sails are this moment there ! 
 one almost observes the white canvas!' 'Pooh, Lota, child!' 
 answered Sir Charles, 'that cannot be 'tis perfectly calm, 
 don't you know ? ' In fact, however, Lota showed a sailor's 
 eye for air, and I was noticing it myself; but it was only the 
 air made it look so. f Ah ! now,' exclaimed she again, t 'tis as 
 distant as ever ! That must have been the light ' ; besides, 
 the brig had been lifting on a wide swell. 
 
 '"I beg pardon, Sir Charles,' said the mate, coming up and 
 taking off his cap, 'but might I use the freedom perhaps 
 yourself and Miss Hyde would like to visit the French brig ? ' 
 The judge looked at his daughter as much as to ask if she 
 would like it. 'Oh yes ! so much!' exclaimed she, her bright 
 eyes sparkling, ' shall we ? ' ' No ! Not / ! ' said Sir Charles. 
 ' I shall take my siesta. Quite safe, sir eh ? ' ' Oh, quite 
 safe, Sir Charles!' said Finch, 'a dead calm, sir I '11 take the 
 utmost care you may be sure, Sir Charles as safe as the deck, 
 sir ! ' ' Oh, very well,' replied the judge, and he walked down 
 to see after his tiffin. The young lady was going down the 
 quarter-gallery stair, when I caught my opportunity to say
 
 114 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 ' I hope you'll excuse it, Miss Hyde, ma'am but I do trust 
 you'll not risk going in the boat so far, just now!' Half a 
 minute after I spoke, she turned round, and looked at me with 
 a curious sort of expression in her charming face, which I 
 couldn't make out whether it was mischievous, whether it 
 was pettish, or whether 'twas inquisitive. 
 
 " f Dear me ! ' said she, ' why do you ' ' The weather 
 
 might change/ I said, looking round about, 'and I shouldn't 
 
 wonder if it did or a swell might get up or ' ' I must 
 
 say, Mr Mr Collins,' said she, laughing slightly, ' you are very 
 gloomy in your anticipations almost timorous, I declare ! I 
 wonder how you came to be so weather-wise ! But why did you 
 not advise poor Mrs Brady, now?' I couldn't see her face as 
 she spoke, but the tone of the last words made me feel I 'd 
 have given worlds to look round and see what it was like at the 
 moment. ' Perhaps, ma'am,' said I, ' you may remember the 
 rain?' 'Well, we shall see, sir!' replied she, glancing up with 
 a bright sparkle in her eye for an instant, but only toward the 
 end of the spanker-boom, as it were ; and then tripping down 
 the stair. 
 
 " I kept watching the gig pull slowly toward the brig in 
 the distance, and the cutter making ready on our quarter till 
 the men were in, with Jacobs amongst them ; where they sat 
 waiting in no small glee for the mate and his party, who came 
 up a few minutes after ; and I was just beginning to hope that 
 Violet Hyde had taken my advice, when she and another 
 young lady came out of the round-house, dressed for the trip, 
 and the captain gallantly handed them in. ' My compliments 
 to the French skipper, Mr Finch,' said the captain, laughing, 
 ' and if he ain't better engaged, happy to see him to dinner at 
 two bells* in the dog-watch, we '11 make it ! ' ' Ay, ay, sir,' 
 said Finch. ( Now then! all ready?' f Smythe 's coming yet.' 
 said a 'writer.' 'We can't wait any longer for him,' replied 
 the mate ; ease away the falls, handsomely, on deck ! ' ' Stop,' 
 said I, ' I '11 go then ! ' ' Too late, young gentleman/ answered 
 the mate, sharply, 'you '11 cant us gunnel up, sir ! lower away, 
 there ! ' However, I caught hold of a rope and let myself 
 down the side, time enough to jump lightly into her stern- 
 sheets the moment they touched the water. The officer stared 
 
 * Five o'clock P.M.
 
 A SEA STORY 115 
 
 at me as he took the yoke-lines to steer, but he said nothing, 
 and the boat shoved off; while Miss Hyde's blue eyes only 
 opened out, as it were, for an instant, at seeing me drop in so 
 unceremoniously ; and her companion laughed. 
 
 " ' I shouldn't have supposed you so nimble, Mr Collins ! ' 
 said the writer, looking at me through his eye-glass. ' Oh/ 
 said I, 'Ford and I have practised climbing a good deal lately.' 
 ' Ha ! ha ! ' said the civilian, ' shouldn't be surprised, now, if 
 your friend were to take the navigation out of Mr Finch's 
 hands, some day ! ' ' Bless me, yes, sir ! ' said Finch, with a 
 guffaw, as he sat handling the lines carelessly, and smiling to 
 the ladies, with his smart cap over one ear ; ' to be sure ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! it 's certain, Mr Beveridge ! Wouldn't you take the 
 helm here, sir ? ' to me. ' Oh, thank you, no, sir ! ' replied I, 
 modestly, ' I 'm not quite so far yet but we 've got a loan of 
 Hamilton Moore and Falconer's Dictionary from the midship- 
 men, and mean to ' ' No doubt you '11 teach us a trick or 
 
 two yet ! ' said Finch, with a sneer. ' Now, for instance,' said 
 I, coolly, ' aloft yonder, you 've got the throat halliards jammed 
 in the block with a gasket, and the mizzen-topsail cluelines 
 rove wrong side of it, which Hamilton Moore distinctly ' 
 
 " ' Hang the lubber that did it, so they are ! ' exclaimed the 
 mate, looking through the spy-glass we had with us. ' Now 
 you 've your jibs hauled down, sir,' continued I, 'and if a squall 
 came on abeam, no doubt they 'd wish to shorten sail from aft, 
 and keep her away however, she would broach-to at once, as 
 
 Hamilton Moore shows must ' 'You and Hamilton Moore 
 
 may Well, no fear of a squall just now, at any rate, 
 
 ladies,' said he. ' Stretch out, men let 's head upon Mr Ford 
 and his gig, yet ! ' 
 
 " Terribly hot it was, close to the water, and so stifling that 
 you scarce could breathe, while the long glassy swell was far 
 higher than one thought it from the ship's deck ; however, we 
 had an awning hoisted, and it refreshed one a little both to 
 hear the water and feel it below again, as the cutter went 
 sliding and rippling over it to long slow strokes of the oars ; 
 her crew being all men-o'-war's-men, that knew how to pull 
 together and take it easy. The young ladies kept gazing 
 rather anxiously at the big old Seringapatam, as she rose and 
 dropped heavily on the calm, amused though they were at first 
 by a sight of their late home turning ' gable ' on to us, with
 
 116 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 her three masts in one, and a white straw hat or two watching 
 us from her taffrail ; whereas, ahead, they only now and then 
 caught a glimpse of the brig's upper canvas, over a hot, hazy, 
 sullen-looking sweep of water as deep-blue as indigo with six 
 hairy brown breasts bending before them to the oars, and as 
 many pair of queer, rollicking, fishy sort of eyes, fixed steadily 
 on the bonnets aft, in a shame-faced, down-hill kind of way, 
 like fellows that couldn't help it. In fact, I noticed a curious 
 grin now and then on every one of the men's faces, and a look 
 to each other when they caught sight of myself sitting behind 
 the mate, as he paid out his high-flying speeches ; Jacobs, again, 
 regarding me all the while out of the whites of his eyes, as it 
 were, in a wooden, unknowing fashion fit to have made a cat 
 laugh seeing he never missed his mark for one moment, and 
 drew back his head at every pull with the air of a drunken 
 man keeping sight of his own waistcoat buttons. 
 
 "By the time we were half-way, the swell began to get con- 
 siderable, and the mate stepped up abaft to look for the gig. 
 ' Can't see the boat yet,' said he ; ' give way there, my lads 
 stretch out and bend your backs! there 's the brig ! ' ' Hallo!' 
 exclaimed he again, ' she 's clued up royals and to'gallants'ls ! 
 By heavens ! there go her tops'ls down too ! Going to bend 
 new sails, though, I daresay, for it looks clear enough there.' 
 
 ' The ship 's run up a flag, aft sir,' said Jacobs. ' The so 
 
 she has,' said Finch, turning round; 'recall signal ! What's 
 wrong? Sorry we can't dine aboard the French vessel this 
 time, ladies ! ' said he, ' extremely so and the griffins there 
 after all, too. I hope you won't be disappointed in any great 
 measure, Miss Hyde; but if you wished it now, miss, I 'd even 
 keep on, and ' 
 
 " The young lady coloured a little at this, and turned to 
 her companion j ust as I remembered her doing from the dragoon 
 in the ball-room. ' Do you not think, Miss Wyndham,' said 
 she, ' me ought not to wish any officer of the ship should get 
 reproved, perhaps, on our account ? ' ' Oh dear, no,' said Miss 
 Wyndham: 'indeed, Mr Finch, you had better go back, if the 
 captain orders you.' 
 
 " ' Hold on there with your larboard oars, you lubbers ! ' 
 sang out Finch, biting his lip, and round we went, pulling for 
 the Indiaman again ; but by this time the swell was becoming 
 so heavy as to make it hard work, and it was soon rarely we
 
 A SEA STORY 117 
 
 could see her at all ; for nothing gets up so fast as a swell, 
 sometimes, near the Line; neither one way nor the other, but 
 right up and down, without a breath of wind, in huge smooth 
 hills of water darker than lead, not a speck of foam, and the 
 sky hot and clear. 'Twas almost as if a weight had been lifted 
 from off the long heaving calm, and the whole round of it were 
 going up dark into the sky, in one weltering jumble, the more 
 strange that it was quiet ; sweep up it took the boat, and the 
 bright wet oar-blades spread feathering out for another stroke 
 to steady her, let alone making way ; though that was nothing 
 to the look of the Indiaman when we got near. She was roll- 
 ing her big black hull round in it as helpless as a cask ; now 
 one side, then the other, dipping gunwale to in the round swell 
 that came heaping up level with her very rail, and went sheet- 
 ing out bright through the bulwarks again; the masts jumping, 
 clamps and boom-irons creaking on the yards, and every sail 
 on her shaking, as her lower yard-arms took it by turns to aim 
 at the water you heard all the noise of it, the plunge of her 
 flat broadside, the plash from her scuppers, the jolts of her 
 rudder, and voices on board ; and wet you may be sure she 
 was from stem to stern. 
 
 " f Comfortable,' thought I ; ' we 've come home too soon of 
 a washing-day, and may wait at the door, I fear ! ' 'Oh dear,' 
 exclaimed the three griffins, ' how are we to get in ! ' and the 
 young ladies looked pale at the sight. The mate steered for 
 her larboard quarter without saying a word, but I saw he lost 
 coolness and got nervous not at all the man for a hard pinch : 
 seemingly, he meant to make a dash alongside and hook on. 
 ' If you do, sir,' said I, 'you '11 be smashed to staves' ; and all 
 at once the ship appeared almost over our heads, while the 
 boat took a send in. I looked to Jacobs and the men, and 
 they gave one long stroke off, that seemed next heave to put 
 a quarter of a mile between us. ' Close shave that,' said the 
 bowman. ' Begs pardon, sir,' said Jacobs, touching his hat, 
 with his eyes still fixed past the mate, upon me; 'hasn't we 
 better keep steadying off, sir, till such time as a sulk in the 
 
 swell ' 'Hold your jaw, sirrah,' growled Finch, as he 
 
 looked ahead still more flurried ; ' there 's a squall coming 
 yonder, gentlemen, and if we don't get quick aboard, we may 
 lose the ship in it ! Pull round, d' ye hear there ! ' Sure 
 enough, when we lifted, there was the French brig clear out
 
 118 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 against a sulky patch of dark-grey sky, growing in, as it were, 
 far off behind the uneven swell, till it began to look pale ; the 
 Indiaman's topsails gave a loud flap out, too, one after the 
 other, and fell to the mast again. 
 
 " Suddenly I caught the glance of Violet Hyde's eyes 
 watching me seriously, as I sat overhauling the Indiaman for 
 a notion of what to do, and I fancied the charming girl had 
 somehow got nearer to me during the last minute or two, 
 whether she knew it or not ; at any rate, the thought of 
 having such a creature to protect made all my blood tingle. 
 ' Never fear, ma'am,' said I, in a half whisper ; when Finch's 
 eye met mine, and he threw me a malicious look, sufficient to 
 show what a devil the fellow would be if ever he had occasion ; 
 however, he gave the sign for the men to stretch out again, 
 and high time it was, as the Indiaman's maintopsail made 
 another loud clap like a musket-shot. Still he was holding right 
 for her quarter the roll the ship had on her w r as fearful, and 
 it was perfect madness to try it ; but few merchant mates have 
 chanced to be boating in a Line swell, I daresay ; when just 
 as we came head on for her starboard counter, I took the 
 boat's tiller a sudden shove with my foot, as if by accident, 
 that sent us sheering in close under her stern. The bowman 
 prized his boathook into the rudder-chains, where the big hull 
 swung round us on both sides like an immense wheel round 
 its barrel, every stern window with a face watching us though 
 one stroke of the loose rudder would have stove us to bits, and 
 the swell was each moment like to make the men let go, as it 
 hove us up almost near enough to have caught a hand from 
 the lower-deck. 
 
 "'For God's sake steady your wheel,' said I; 'hard a port!' 
 while the mate was singing out for a line. ' Now, up you go,' 
 said I to Jacobs in the hubbub, ' look sharp, and send us down 
 a whip and basket from the boom-end, as we did once in the 
 Pandora, you know ! ' Up the rope went Jacob like a cat, 
 hand over hand ; and five minutes after, down came the 
 'basket ' over our heads into the boat, made out of a studding- 
 sail and three capstan-bars, like a big grocer's scale dangling 
 from the spanker-boom. The mate proposed to go up first with 
 Miss Hyde, but she hung back in favour of her companion ; so 
 away aloft went Miss Wyndham and he, swinging across the 
 Indiaman's stern as she rolled again, with a gant-line to steady
 
 A SEA STORY 119 
 
 them in Finch holding on to the whip by one hand, and the 
 other round the young lady, while my blood crept at the 
 thought how it might have been Lota herself ! 
 
 " As soon as it came down again, she looked for a moment 
 from me to Jacobs, when Captain Williamson himself shouted 
 over the taffrail ! ' Sharp, sharp, there ! the squall 's coming 
 down! she '11 be up in the wind! let 's get the helm free !' and 
 directly after I found myself swinging twenty feet over the 
 water with Violet Hyde, as the ship heeled to a puff that filled 
 the spanker, and rose again on a huge swell, gathering steer- 
 age way, while every bolt of canvas in her flapped in again 
 at once like thunder. I felt her shudder and cling to me 
 there was one half-minute we swung fairly clear of the stern ; 
 they stopped hoisting and I almost thought I 'd have wished 
 that same half-minute half-a-day ; but a minute after she was 
 in the judge's arms on the poop; the men had contrived to get 
 the cadets on board, too, and the boat was dragging astern, 
 with the line veered out, and her crew still in it baling her out. 
 
 " I fixed my eyes at once, breathless as we of the boat party 
 were, on the weather-signs and the other vessel, which every- 
 body on the poop was looking at, as soon as we were safe, and 
 our friends in the gig had to be thought of. The short top- 
 swell was beginning to soften in long regular seas, with just 
 air enough aloft to give our light sails a purchase on it, and put 
 an end to the infernal clatter ; but the vapour had gathered 
 quicker than you could well fancy behind the brig in the 
 distance, so that she looked already a couple of miles nearer, 
 rising up two or three times on as many huge swells that shone 
 like blue glass, while she steadied herself like a tight-rope 
 dancer on the top of them, by a studding-sail set high from 
 each side. On the far horizon beyond her, you 'd have thought 
 there was a deep black ditch sunk along under the thickening 
 blue haze, as it stretched out past her to both hands, till 
 actually the solid breast of it seemed to shove the brig bodily 
 forward over the oily -like water, every spar and rope distinct ; 
 then the fog lifted below as if the teeth of a saw came splitting 
 through it, and we saw her bearing down towards us cloud, 
 water, and all, as it were with a white heap of foam at her 
 bows. 
 
 " ' Brace up sharp, Mr Finch ! ' said the old skipper hastily, 
 ' and stand over to meet her. Confound this ! we must have
 
 120 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 these people out of that brig in a trice ; we shall soon have a 
 touch of the Horse Latitudes, or my name 's not Richard 
 Williamson ay, and bid good-bye to 'em too, I think ! ' 
 
 "For a quarter of an hour or so, accordingly, we kept forging 
 slowly ahead, while the brig continued to near us. No one 
 spoke, almost you heard the lazy swash of the water round 
 our fore-chains, and the stillness aboard had a gloomy enough 
 effect, as one noticed the top of the haze creep up into round 
 vapoury heads upon the sky, and felt it darkening aloft besides. 
 We were scarce three-quarters of a mile apart, and could see 
 her sharp black bows drip over the bright sheathing, as she 
 rolled easily on the swell ; when the Jndiaman suddenly lost 
 way again, sheered head round, and slap went all her sails from 
 the royals down, as if she had fired a broadside. Almost the 
 next moment, a long low growl ran muttering and rumbling far 
 away round the horizon, from the clouds and back to them 
 again, as if they had been some huge monster or other on the 
 watch, with its broad green muzzle shooting quietly over us 
 as it lay ; the brig dipped her gilt figure-head abeam of us, 
 and then showed her long red streak ; the swell sinking fast, 
 and the whole sea far and wide coming out from the sky as 
 dark and round as the mahogany drum-head of the capstan. 
 
 "'Bless me, Small,' said the captain, 'but I hope they've 
 not knocked a hole in my gig ay, there they are, I think, 
 looking over the brig's quarter but don't seem to have a boat 
 to swim ! Get the cutter hauled alongside, Mr Stebbing,' con- 
 tinued he to the fourth mate, 'and go aboard for them at once 
 confounded bothering, this ! Mind get my gig safe, sir, if 
 you please can ye parley-voo, though, Mr Stebbing ? ' ' Not a 
 word, sir,' said the young mate, a gentlemanly, rather soft 
 fellow, whom the other three all used to snub. ' Bless me, 
 can't we muster a bit o' French amongst us?' said the skipper ; 
 ' catch a monshoor that knows a word of English like any other 
 man 'specially if they 've a chance of keeping my gig ! ' 
 ' Well, sir/ said I, ' I '11 be happy to go with the officer, as I 
 can speak French well enough ! ' 'Thank ye, young gentleman, 
 thank ye,' said he, 'you'll do it as well as any man, I 'm sure 
 only look sharp, if you please, and bring my gig with you ! ' 
 So down the side we bundled into the cutter, and pulled 
 straight for the brig, which had just hoisted French colours, 
 not old 'three-patches,' of course, but the new Restoration flag.
 
 A SEA STORY 121 
 
 " I overhauled her well as we got near, and a beautiful long- 
 schooner-model she was, with sharp bows, and a fine easy-run 
 hull from stem to stern, but dreadfully dirty and spoilt with 
 top-bulwarks, as if they meant to make her look as clumsy as 
 possible ; while the brig-rig of her aloft, with the ropes hang- 
 ing in bights and hitches, gave her the look of a hedge-parson 
 on a race-horse ; at the same time, I counted six closed ports 
 of a side, in her red streak, the exact breadth and colour of 
 itself. Full of men, with a long gun, and schooner-rigged, 
 she could have sailed round the Indiaman in a light breeze, 
 and mauled her to any extent. 
 
 " They hove us a line out of the gangway at once, the mate 
 got up her side as she rolled gently over, and I followed him : 
 the scene that met our eyes as soon as we reached the deck, 
 however, struck me a good deal on various accounts. We 
 couldn't at first see where Mr Rollock and his party might be, 
 for the shadow of a thick awning after the glare of the water, 
 and the people near the brig's gangway ; but I saw two or 
 three dark -faced, very French -like individuals, in broad- 
 brimmed straw hats and white trousers, seemingly passengers ; 
 while about twenty Kroomen and negroes, and as many sea- 
 men with unshaven chins, ear-rings, and striped frocks, were 
 in knots before the longboat, turned keel up amidships, careless 
 enough, to all appearance, about us. One of the passengers 
 leant against the mainmast, with his arms folded over his broad 
 chest, and his legs crossed, looking curiously at us as we came 
 up ; his dark eyes half closed, the shadow of his hat down to 
 his black moustache, and his shirt-collar open, showing a scar 
 on his hairy breast ; one man, whom I marked for the brig's 
 surgeon, beside him ; and another waiting for us near the 
 bulwarks a leathery-faced little fellow, with twinkling black 
 eyes, and a sort of cocked hat fore-and-aft on his cropped head. 
 ' Mot, monsieur,' said he, slapping his hand on his breast as 
 the mate looked about him, 'oui, je suis capitaine, monsieur.' 
 
 " ' Good-day, sir,' said Stebbing, ' we Ve just come aboard 
 for our passengers and the gig sir, if you please.' ' Certaine- 
 ment, monsieur,' said the French skipper, bowing and taking 
 a paper from his pocket, which he handed to the mate, ' I 
 comprind, sare monsieur le capitaine d' la fregate Anglaise, 
 il nous demande nos vat you call peppares voila ! I have 
 'ad le honneur, messieurs, to be already sarcb by vun off vos
 
 122 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 crusoes pour des esclaves ! vous imaginez cela, messieurs ! ' and 
 here the worthy Frenchman cast up his hands and gave a grin 
 which seemed meant for innocent horror. ' SlaiJ's ! chez le 
 brigantin Louis Bourbon, Capitaine Jean Duprez ? Non ! ' said 
 he, talking away like a windmill, <de Marseilles a 1'Isle de 
 
 France, avec les vins choisis ' ' You mistake, monsieur,' said 
 
 I, in French ; ' the ship is an Indiaman, and we have only come 
 for our friends, who are enjoying your wine, I daresay, but we 
 
 must ' ' Comment ? ' said he, staring, ' what, monsieur ? 
 
 have de gotness to ' 
 
 " Here the moustached passenger suddenly raised himself 
 off the mast, and made one stride between us to the bulwarks, 
 where he looked straight out at the Indiaman, his arms still 
 folded, then from us to the French master. He was a noble- 
 looking man, with an eye I never saw the like of in anyone 
 else, 'twas so clear, bold, and prompt it actually went into 
 you like a sword, and I couldn't help fancying him in the 
 thick of a battle, with thousands of men and miles of smoke. 
 'Duprez,' said he, quickly, f je vous le dis encore debarquez 
 ces miserables ! nous combattrons ! ' ' Then, mon ami,' said 
 the surgeon, in a low, cool, determined tone, stepping up and 
 laying a hand on his shoulder, ' aussi, nous couperons les ailes 
 de FAigle, seulement ! Hush, mon ami, restrain this un- 
 fortunate madness of yours ! c'est bien mal-a-propos a 
 present ! ' and he whispered something additional, on which 
 the passenger fell back and leant against the mainmast as 
 before. ' Ah ! ' said the French master in his own language, 
 shaking his head, and giving his forehead a tap, ' le pauvre 
 homme-la ! He has had a coup-de-soleil, messieurs, or rather 
 of the moon, you perceive, from sleeping in its rays ! Mafoi !' 
 exclaimed he, on my explaining the matter, ' c'est pos-sible ? 
 we did suppose your boat proposed us the honour to visit, when 
 evidently deterred by the excessive undulation ! My friends, 
 
 resign yourselves to a misfort ' ' Great heavens ! Mr 
 
 Stebbing,' said I, ' the boat is lost ! ' ' By George ! what ipitt 
 the captain say, then ! ' replied he ; however as soon as I told 
 him the sad truth, poor Stebbing, being a good-hearted fellow, 
 actually put his hands to his face and sobbed. 
 
 " All this time the brig's crew were gabbling and kicking 
 up a confounded noise about something they were at with the 
 spare spars, and in throwing tarpaulins over the hatches ; for
 
 A SEA STORY 123 
 
 it was fearfully dark, and going to rain heavy ; the slight 
 swell shone and slid up betwixt the two vessels like oil, and 
 the clouds to south-westward had gathered up to a steep 
 black bank, with round coppery heads, like smoke over a town 
 on fire. ' Will you go down, messieurs,' said the Frenchman, 
 
 politely, 'and taste my vin de ' 'No, sir,' said I, 'we 
 
 must make haste off, or else besides, by - the - way, we 
 couldn't, for you 've got all your hatches battened down ! ' 
 ' Diable, so they are! ' exclaimed he, ' par honneur, gentlemen, 
 I regret the occasion of ha ! ' Just before, a glaring brassy 
 sort of touch had seemed to come across the face of the 
 immense cloud ; and though everything, far and wide, was as 
 still as death, save the creaking of the two ships' yards, it 
 made you think of the last trumpet's mouth ! But at this 
 moment a dazzling flash leaped zigzag out of it, running along 
 from one cloud to another, while the huge dark mass, as it 
 were, tore right up, changing and turning it inside out like 
 dust you saw the sea far away under it, heaving from glassy 
 blue into unnatural-like brown when crash broke the thunder 
 over our very heads, as if something had fallen out of heaven, 
 then a long bounding roar. The mad French passenger stood 
 up, walked to the bulwarks, and looked out with his hand 
 over his eyes for the next; while the young mate and I 
 tumbled down the brig's side without further to-do, and pulled 
 fast for the ship, where we hardly got aboard before there 
 was another wild flash, another tremendous clap, and the rain 
 fell in one clash, more like stone than water, on sea and 
 decks. For half an hour we were rolling and soaking in the 
 midst of it, the lightning hissing through the rain, and showing 
 it glitter ; while every five minutes came a burst of thunder 
 and then a rattle fit to split one's ears. At length, just as the 
 rain began to slacken, you could see it lift bodily, the standing 
 sheets of it drove right against our canvas and th/ough the 
 awnings when we made out the French brig with her jib, 
 topsails, and boom-mainsail full, leaning over as she clove 
 through it before the wind. 
 
 "The squall burst into our wet topsails as loud as the 
 thunder, with a flash almost like the lightning itself, taking 
 us broad abeam ; the ship groaned and shook for a minute ere 
 gathering way and falling off, and when she rose and began 
 to go plunging through the black surges no brig was to be
 
 124 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 seen : every man on deck let his breath out almost in a cry, 
 scarce feeling as yet but it was equal to losing sight for 
 ever of our late shipmates, or the least hope of them. The 
 passengers, ladies and all, crowded in the companion-hatch in 
 absolute terror, every face aghast, without thinking of the 
 rain and spray ; now and then the sulky crest of a bigger 
 wave would be caught sight of beyond the bulwarks, as the 
 sea rose with its green back curling over into white ; and 
 you'd have said the shudder ran down into the cabin, at 
 thought of seeing one or other of the lost boat's crew come 
 weltering up from the mist and vanish again. I knew it was 
 of no use, but I held on in the weather mizzen-rigging, and 
 looked out to westward, against a wild break of light which 
 the setting sun made through the troughs of the sea ; once 
 and again I could fancy I saw the boat lift keel up, far off 
 betwixt me and the fierce glimmer. 
 
 " ' Oh, do you see them ? do you not see it yet ? ' was 
 passed up to me over and over, from one sharp-pitched voice 
 to another; but all I could answer was to shake my head. 
 At last, one by one, they went below ; and after what had 
 happened, I must say I could easily fancy what a chill, dreary- 
 like, awful notion of the sea must have come for the first time 
 on a landsman, not to speak of delicate young girls fresh 
 from home, at sight of the drenched quarter-deck leaning 
 bare down to leeward, the sleet and spray battering bleak 
 against the round-house doors, where I had seen Miss Hyde 
 led sobbing in, with her wet hair about her face ; then the 
 ship driving off from where she had lost them, with her three 
 strong lower masts aslant into the gale, ghastly-white and 
 dripping her soaked sheets of canvas blown grey and stiff 
 into the rigging, and it strained taut as iron ; while you saw 
 little of her higher than the tops, as the scud and the dark 
 together closed aloft. Poor Miss Fortescue's mother was in 
 fits below in her berth the two watches were on the yards 
 aloft, where no eye could see them, struggling hard to furl 
 and reef ; so altogether it was a gloomy enough moment I 
 stayed awhile on deck, wrapped in a pea-coat, keeping my 
 feet and hanging on, and thinking how right down in earnest 
 matters could turn of a sudden. I wasn't remarkably thought- 
 ful in these days, I daresay, but there did I keep, straining 
 my eyes into the mist to see, I couldn't tell what, and repeat-
 
 A SEA STORY 125 
 
 ing over and over again to myself these few words out of the 
 Prayer-book, ' In the midst of life we are in death,' though 
 scarce knowing what I said. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 " TLTOWEVER, the Indiaman's officers and crew had work 
 -* -* enough in managing her at present : after a sunset more 
 like the putting out of him than anything else, with a flaring 
 snuff and a dingy sort of smoke that followed, the wind grew 
 from sou'-west into a regular long gale, that drove the tops of 
 the heavy seas into the dead-lights astern, rising aft out of 
 the dark like so many capes, with the snow drifting off them 
 over the poop. At midnight, it blew great guns, with a 
 witness ; the ship, under storm staysails and close-reefed 
 main-topsail, going twelve knots or more, when, as both the 
 captain and mate reckoned, we were near St Helena on our 
 present course, and to haul on a wind was as much as her 
 spars were worth ; her helm was put hard down, and we lay- 
 to for morning, the ship drifting off bodily to leeward with 
 the water. The night was quite dark, the rain coming in 
 sudden spits out of the wind ; you only heard the wet gale 
 sob and hiss through the bare rigging into her storm canvas, 
 when the lookout men ahead sung out, s Land land close 
 to starboard ! ' ' Bless me, sir/ said the mate to the captain, 
 
 'it's the Rock well that we did ' 'Hard up! hard up 
 
 with the helm ! ' yelled the men again, * it 's a ship ! ' 
 
 " I ran to the weather main-chains and saw a broad black 
 mass, as it were, rising high abeam, and seeming to come out 
 from the black of the night, with a gleam or two in it which 
 they had taken for lights ashore in the island. The Seringa- 
 patam's wheel was put up already, but she hung in the gale, 
 doubtful whether to fall off or not ; and the moment she did 
 sink into the trough, we should have had a sea over her 
 broadside fit to wash away men, boats, and all let alone the 
 other ship bearing down at twelve knots. 'Show the head 
 of the foretopmast-staysail \ ' shouted I with all my strength to 
 the forecastle, and up it went slapping its hanks to the blast 
 the Indiaman sprang round heeling to her ports on the next
 
 126 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 sea, maintopsail before the wind, and the staysail down again. 
 Next minute a large ship, with the foam washing over her 
 cat-heads, and her martingale gear dripping under the huge 
 white bowsprit, came lifting close past us as black as 
 shadows aloft, save the glimmer of her maintack to the 
 lanterns aboard and knot after knot of dim faces above her 
 bulwarks shot by, till you saw her captain standing high in 
 the mizzen-chains, with a speaking-trumpet. He roared out 
 something or other through it, and the skipper sung out 
 under both his hands, ' Ay, ay, sir,' in answer ; but it turned 
 out after that nobody knew what it was, unless it might be, as 
 I thought, ' Where are you going ? ' The minute following, 
 we saw her quarter-lanterns like two will-o'-the-wisps beyond 
 a wave, and she was gone a big frigate running under half 
 her canvas, strong though the gale blew. 
 
 " ' Why, Mr Finch,' said Captain Williamson, as soon as we 
 had time to draw breath, 'who was that bid show the 
 fo' topmast-stay s'l ; twan't you ? ' ' No,' said the mate, ' I 'd 
 like to know who had the hanged impudence to give orders 
 
 here without ' 'Well now, Finch/ continued the old 
 
 skipper, c I 'm not sure but that was our only chance at the 
 moment, sir ; and if 'twas one of the men, why I 'd pass it 
 over, or even give him an extra glass of grog in a quiet way.' 
 No one could say who it was, however ; and, for my part, the 
 sight of the frigate made me still more cautious than before 
 of letting out what Westwood and I were. In fact, I couldn't 
 help feeling rather uneasy, and I was glad to hear the super- 
 stitious old sailmaker whispering about how he feared there 
 was no luck to be looked for 'when drowned men and 
 ghostesses began to work the ship ! ' 
 
 "The first streak of dawn was hardly seen, when a sail 
 could be made out in it, far on our lee bow, which the officers 
 supposed to be the frigate. Westwood and I, however, were 
 of opinion it was the French brig, although by sunrise we lost 
 sight of her again. Everyone in the cuddy talked of our un- 
 fortunate friends and their melancholy fate ; even Ford and 
 Winterton were missed, while old Mr Rollock had been the 
 life of the passengers. But there was naturally still more felt 
 for the poor girl Fortescue ; it made all of us gloomy for a 
 day or two ; though the fresh breeze and the Indiaman's fast 
 motion, after our wearisome spell of a calm, did a great deal
 
 A SEA STORY 127 
 
 to bring things round again. Westwood was greatly taken 
 up with my account of the brig and her people, both of us 
 agreeing there was somewhat suspicious about her, though I 
 thought she was probably neither more nor less than a slaver, 
 and he had a notion she was after something deeper : what 
 that might be, 'twas hard to conceive, as they didn't appear 
 like pirates. One thing, however, we did conclude from the 
 matter, that the brig couldn't have been at all inclined 
 for visitors ; and, in fact, there was little doubt but she 
 would actually refuse letting the boat aboard, if they reached 
 her ; so in all likelihood our unhappy friends had been 
 swamped on that very account, just as the squall came on. 
 When this idea got about the ship, of course you may suppose 
 neither passengers nor crew to have felt particularly amiable 
 towards the French vessel ; and if we had met her again, with 
 any good occasion for it, all hands were much inclined to give 
 her a right-down thrashing, if not to make prize of her as a 
 bad character. 
 
 " ' Well, Tom,' said I to Westwood one day, ' I wish these 
 good folks mayn't be disappointed, but I do suspect this 
 blessed mate of ours will turn out to have run us into some 
 fine mess or other with his navigation ! Did you notice how 
 blue the sky looked this morning, over to eastward, compared 
 with what it did just now where the sun set ? ' ' No,' said 
 Westwood, ' not particularly ; but what of that ? ' ' Why, in 
 the Iris,' replied I, 'we used always to reckon that a sign, 
 hereabouts, of our being near the land ! Just you see now, 
 to-morrow morning, if the dawn hasn't a hazy yellow look in 
 it before the breeze fails ; in which case 'tis the African coast 
 to a certainty ! Pity these " Hyson Mundungo " men, as Jack 
 calls them, shouldn't have their eyes about them as well as on 
 the log-slate. I daresay now,' continued I, laughing, ' you heard 
 the first mate bothering lately about the great variation in 
 the compass here ? Well, what do you suppose was the reason 
 of it, but that sly devil of a kitmagar shoving in his block for 
 grinding curry under the feet of the binnacle every time he 
 was done using it ! I saw him get a kick one morning from 
 the man at the wheel, who chanced to look down and notice 
 him. Good solid iron it is, though painted and polished like 
 marble, and the circumcised rascal unluckily considered the 
 whole binnacle as a sort of second Mecca for security.' ( Hang
 
 128 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the fellow ! ' said Westwood, ' but I don't see much to laugh 
 at, Ned. Why, if you 're right, we shall all be soaked and 
 fried into African fever before reaching the Cape, and we 've 
 had misfortunes enough already. Only think of an exquisite 
 
 creature like Miss ' ' Oh,' interrupted I, fancying Master 
 
 Tom began lately to show sufficient admiration for her, 
 'betwixt an old humdrum and a conceited fool like that, what 
 could you expect? All I say is, my dear parson, stand by 
 for a pinch when it comes.' 
 
 " On going down to tea in the cuddy, we found the party 
 full of spirits, and for the first time there was no mention of 
 their lost fellow-passengers, except amongst a knot of cadets 
 and writers rather elevated by the Madeira after dinner, who 
 were gathered round the Reverend Mr Knowles, pretending to 
 talk regretfully of his Yankee friend Mr Daniel Snout. ' Yes, 
 gentlemen,' said the missionary, who was a worthy, simple- 
 hearted person, ' in spite of some uncouthness, and perhaps 
 limited views, the result of defective education, he was an 
 excellent man, I think.' ' Oh certainly, certainly,' said a writer, 
 looking to his friends, e and the one thing needful you spoke 
 of just now, sir, I daresay he had it always in his eye, now ? ' 
 'Mixed, I fear,' replied the missionary, ' with some element of 
 worldly feeling, for in America they are apt to make even the 
 soul, as well as religious association, matter of commerce ; but 
 Mr Snout, I have reason to be assured, had the true welfare 
 of India at heart. We had much interesting conversation on 
 the subject.' 'Ah,' said the sharp civilians, t he was fond of 
 getting information, was poor Daniel. Was that why he asked 
 you so many questions about the Hindoo gods, Mr Knowles ? ' 
 'He already possessed much general knowledge of their 
 strange mythology himself,' answered the missionary, 'and I 
 confess I was surprised at it, especially as he confessed to me 
 that that gorgeous country, with its many boundless capa- 
 bilities, should have occupied his thoughts more and more 
 from boyhood, amidst the secular activity of modern life 
 even as it occurred unto myself ! ' 
 
 " Here the worthy man took off his large spectacles, gave 
 them a wipe, and put them on again, while he finished his tea. 
 ' Before this deplorable dispensation,' continued he again, 'he 
 was on the point of revealing to me a great scheme at once 
 for the enlightenment, I believe, of that benighted land, and
 
 A SEA STORY 129 
 
 for more lucrative support to those engaged in it. I fear, 
 gentlemen, it was enthusiasm but I have grounds for think- 
 ing that our departed friend has left in this vessel many 
 packages of volumes translated into several dialects of the 
 great Hindoo tongue not omitting, I am convinced> the best 
 of books.' ' Where ? ' exclaimed several of the cadets, rather 
 astonished. ' Well ! poor Snout can't have been such a bad 
 fellow, after all ! ' ' All hum ! ' said the writer, doubtfully, 
 'depend upon it. I should like now to have a peep at 
 Jonathan's bales ! ' ' I myself have thought also,' said the 
 missionary, ' it would gratify me to look into his apartment 
 and were it permitted to use one or two of the volumes, I 
 
 should cheerfully on our arrival in Bom ' ' Come along,' 
 
 said the cadets 'let's have a look! shouldn't wonder to see 
 Daniel beside his lion yet, within ! or hear " Guess I ain't." ' 
 ' My young friends,' said the missionary, as we all went along 
 the lighted passage, 'such levity is unseemly'; and indeed the 
 look of the state-room door, fastened outside, as the steward 
 had left it before the gale came on, made the brisk cadets 
 keep quiet till the lashing on it was unfastened 'twas so like 
 breaking in upon a ghost. However, as it chanced, Mr Snout's 
 goods had got loose during her late roll, and heaped down to 
 leeward against the door so, whenever they turned the 
 handle, a whole bundle of packages came tumbling out of the 
 dark as it burst open, with a shower of small affairs like so 
 many stones after them. 
 
 " ' What 's all this ? ' exclaimed the cadets, stooping to look 
 at the articles by the lamp-light, strewed as they were over 
 the deck. The reverend gentleman stooped, too, stood 
 straight, wiped his spectacles, and fixed them on his nose, 
 then stooped again ; at length one long exclamation of surprise 
 broke out of his mouth. They were nothing but little ugly 
 images done in earthenware, painted and gilt, and all exactly 
 the same : the writer dived into a canvas package, and there 
 was a lot of a different kind, somewhat larger and uglier. 
 Everyone made free with a bale for himself, shouting out his 
 discoveries to the rest. ' I say, Smythe, this is Vishnu, it 's 
 marked in the corner ! ' 'I say, Ramsay, here 's Brahma ! ' 
 ' Ha ! ha ! ha ! if / haven't got Seeva ! ' 'I say, what 's this 
 though f ' screamed a young lad, hauling at the biggest bale of 
 all, while the missionary stood stock upright, a perfect picture
 
 130 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 of bewilderment, ' Lo ! ' being all he could say. The lad had 
 lighted on a gross or so of hideous gentlemen and ladies with 
 three heads and five arms, packed nicely through each other 
 in cotton, but inside the state-room. At this last prize, how- 
 ever, the poor missionary could stand it no longer. ' Oh ! oh ! ' 
 groaned he, clapping his hand to his head, and walking slowly 
 off to his berth ; while, as the truth gleamed on the cadets and 
 us, we sat down on the deck amidst the spoil, and roared with 
 laughter like to go into fits, at the unfortunate Yankee's 
 scheme for converting India.* I had found the American by 
 no means to my fancy as a berth-mate, so, after some dealings 
 with the steward, I not only had secured a pretty comfortable 
 berth for my poor friend Westwood, but one for myself. This 
 had been, in short, soon afterwards managed, with the help of 
 some shifting among the best-natured of the young cadets. 
 
 " ' Well hang me ! ' said a writer, as soon as he could 
 speak, ' but this is a stroke beyond the Society for Diffusing 
 Useful Knowledge ! ' * Every man his own priest ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! ' shouted another. e I say, Smythe,' sung out a cadet, 
 'just fancy ha ! ha ! " D. Snout, Esquire, and Co." ho ! ho ! 
 ho ! you know it's too rich to enjoy by ourselves. "Mythullogy 
 store," Bombay, near the cathedral ! ' ' Cheap Brahmas, 
 wholesale and retail eh ? families supplied ! ' ' By George ! 
 he 's a genius lost ! ' said Smythe ; ' but the parson needn't 
 have broken with him for that I shouldn't wonder, now, if 
 they had joined partnership, but Daniel might have thought 
 of mining all their clay heads with gunpowder and percussion 
 locks, so that the missionary could have gone round after- 
 wards and blown up heathenship by a touch ! ' 
 
 " The noise of all this soon brought along the rest of the 
 gentlemen, and few could help laughing. When the thing 
 got wind on deck, however, neither the old skipper nor the 
 men seemed to like it much ; what with the notion of the 
 ship's being taken, as it were, by a thousand or two of ugly 
 little imps and Pagan idols, besides bringing up a drowned 
 
 * It is here due to the credit of our friend the captain, who was not un- 
 usually imaginative for a sailor, to state, that this speculation, as a commercial 
 one, is strictly and literally a. fact, as the Anglo-Indian of Calcutta can 
 probably testify. The bold and all but poetical catholicity of the idea could 
 have been reached, perhaps, by the " progressing" American intellect alone, 
 while Staffordshire, it is certain, furnished its realisation ; the investment, it 
 is nevertheless believed, proved eventually unprofitable.
 
 A SEA STORY 131 
 
 man's concerns, and 'yawhawing,' as they said, into his very 
 door it was thought the best thing to have them all chucked 
 overboard next morning. 
 
 " 'Twas a beautifully fine night, clear aloft, and the moon 
 rising large on our larboard bow, out of a delicate pale sort 
 of haze, as the ship headed south'ard with the breeze ; for 
 I marked the haze particularly, as well as the colour of the 
 sky, that lay high over it, like a deep-blue hollow going away 
 down beyond, and filling up with the light. There was no 
 living below for heat, and the showers of cockroaches that 
 went whirring at the lamps, and marching, with their horrid 
 feelers out, straight up your legs ; so, fore and aft, the decks 
 were astir with us all. Talk of moonlight on land ! but even 
 in the tropics you have to see it pouring right down, as it was 
 then, the whole sky full of it aloft as the moon drew farther 
 up, till it came raining, as it were, in a single sheet from one 
 bend of the horizon to another, the water scarce rippling to 
 the breeze, only heaving in long low swells that you heard 
 just wash her bends ; one track brighter than the rest, shin- 
 ing and glancing like a looking-glass drawn out, for a mile or 
 so across our quarter, and the ship's shadow under her other 
 bow. You saw the men far forward in her head, and clustered 
 in a heap on the bowsprit-heel, enjoying it mightily, and 
 looking out or straight aloft, as if to polish their mahogany 
 faces, and get their bushy whiskers silvered ; while the 
 awnings being off the poop, the planks in it came out like so 
 much ivory from the shade of the spanker, which sent down 
 a perfect gush of light on everyone moving past. For the 
 air, again, as all the passengers said, it was balmy, though for 
 my part perhaps it might be a fancy of mine but now and 
 then I thought it sniffed a little too much that way to be 
 altogether pleasant in the circumstances. 
 
 " Of course, no sooner had I caught sight of Sir Charles 
 Hyde than I looked for his daughter, and at last saw someone 
 talking to a young lady seated near the after-gratings, with 
 her head turned round seaward, whom it didn't require much 
 guessing for me to name. Not having seen her at all since the 
 affair of the boats, I strolled aft, when I was rather surprised 
 to find that her companion was Tom Westwood, and they 
 seemed in the thick of an interesting discourse. The instant 
 I got near, however, they broke it off; the young lady turned
 
 132 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT i 
 
 her head and never, I 'd swear, was woman's face seen fairer 
 than I thought hers at that moment when the bright moon- 
 light, that had seemed trying to steal round her loose bonnet 
 and peep in, fell straight down at once from her forehead to 
 her chin, appearing, as it were, to dance in under her long 
 eyelashes to meet her eyes : while one fall of her brown hair 
 hung bright in it, glistening against the shadow round her 
 cheek, that drew the charming line of her nose and lip as 
 clear as the horizon on the sky ! The very moment, in fact, 
 that a bitter thought flashed into my mind, for to my fancy 
 she looked vexed at seeing me, and a colour seemed mounting 
 up to her cheek, even through the fairy sort of glimmer on it. 
 Could Tom Westwood have been acting no more than the 
 clerical near such a creature ? and if a fellow like him took 
 it in his head, what chance had /? The next minute, 
 accordingly, she rose off her seat, and gave me a slight bow 
 in answer to mine, and walked direct to the gallery stair, 
 where she disappeared. 
 
 " ' We were talking of that unlucky adventure the other 
 day,' said Westwood, glancing at me, but rather taken aback, 
 as I thought. ' Ay ? ' said I, carelessly. ' Yes,' continued 
 he ; ' Miss Hyde had no idea you and I were particularly 
 acquainted, and seems to think me a respectable clergyman, 
 but I must tell you, Ned, she has rather a suspicious opinion 
 of yourself! ' ' Oh, indeed ! ' said I, suddenly. ' Fact, Ned,' 
 said he ; ' she even remembers having seen you before, some- 
 where or other I hope, my dear fellow, it wasn't on the 
 stage ? ' ' Ha ! ha ! how amusing ! ' I said, with the best 
 laugh I could get up. 'At any rate, Collins,' he went on, 
 ' she sees through your feigned "way of carrying on > an d knows 
 you 're neither griffin nor land-lubber, but a sailor, for I fancy 
 this is not the first time the young lady has met with the 
 cloth ! What do you suppose she asked me now, quite 
 seriously ? ' ' Oh, I couldn't guess, of course,' replied I, 
 
 almost with a sneer ; ' pray don't ' Why, she inquired 
 
 what could be the design of one concealing his profession so 
 carefully and actually appearing to be on a secret under- 
 standing with some of the sailors ! Directly after, she asked 
 whether that brig mightn't really have been a pirate, and 
 taken off the poor general, Miss Fortescue, and the rest ? ' 
 ' Ah,' said I, coldly, ' and if I might venture to ask, what did
 
 A SEA STORY 133 
 
 you 'Oh, of course/ replied Westwood, laughing, 'I 
 
 could only hide my amusement and profess doubts, you know, 
 Ned ! ' ' Very good joke, Mr Westwood,' thought I to myself, 
 ' but at least you can't weather on me quite so innocently, my 
 fine fellow ! I didn't think it of him, after all ! By Heaven, I 
 did not ! ' 
 
 "'By-the-by, Collins,' exclaimed Westwood in a little, as 
 he kept his eye astern, ' there 's something away yonder on 
 our lee quarter that I 've been watching for these last ten 
 minutes what do you think it may be ? Look ! just in the 
 tail of the moonshine yonder ! ' What it might be, I cared 
 little enough at the time, but I did give a glance, and saw a 
 little black dot, as it were, rising and falling with the long run 
 of the water, apparently making way before the breeze. ' Only 
 a bit of wood, I daresay,' remarked I ; ' but whatever it is, at 
 any rate, the drift will take it far to leeward of us, so you 
 needn't mind.' Here we heard a steward come up and say to 
 the first officer, who was waiting with the rest to take a lunar 
 observation, that Captain Williamson had turned in unwell, 
 but he wanted to hear when they found the longitude ; ac- 
 cordingly they got their altitude, and went on making the 
 calculations on deck. ' Well, steward,' said the mate, after a 
 little humming and hawing, ' go down and tell the captain, in 
 the meantime, about Jive east ; but I think it 's a good deal 
 over the mark say I '11 be down myself directly.' 
 
 " ' A long sight below the mark, rather ! ' said I, walking aft 
 again, where Westwood kept still looking out for the black 
 dot. ' You '11 see it nearer now, Ned,' said he ; ' more like 
 a negro's head, or his hand, than a bit of wood eh ? ' 
 ' Curious ! ' I said ; ' it lies well up for our beam still, 'spite of 
 the breeze. Must be a shark's back fin, I think, making for 
 convoy.' In ten minutes longer the light swell in the distance 
 gave it a lift up fair into the moonshine ; it gleamed for a 
 moment, and then seemed to roll across into the blue glimmer 
 of the sea. ' I say, Collins,' said Westwood, gazing eagerly at 
 it, * 'tis more like a bottle, to my sight ! ' We walked back 
 and forward, looking each time over the taffrail, till at length 
 the affair in question could be seen dipping and creeping ahead 
 in the smooth shining wash of the surface, just like to go 
 bobbing across our bows and be missed to windward. 'Crossing 
 our hause I do declare ! Hanged if that ain't fore-reaching on
 
 134 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 us, with a witness ! ' exclaimed the two of us together : ' And 
 a bottle it is \ ' said Westwood. 
 
 " I slipped down the poop-stair, and along to the forecastle, 
 where I told Jacobs ; when two or three of the men went out 
 on the martingale-stays, with the bight of a line and a couple 
 of blocks in it, ready to throw round this said floating oddity, 
 and haul it alongside as it surged past. Shortly after, we had 
 it safe in our hands ; a square-built old Dutchman it was, tight 
 corked, with a red rag round the neck, and crusted over with 
 salt almost like one of Vanderdecken's messages home, 
 coming up as it did from the wide glittering sea, of a tropical 
 moonlight night, seven weeks or so after our leaving land. 
 The men who had got it seemed afraid of their prize, so 
 Westwood and I had no difficulty in smuggling it away below 
 to our berth, where we both sat down on a locker and looked 
 at one another. f What poor wretch hove this overboard, I 
 wonder, now?' said he ; ( I daresay it may have knocked about, 
 God knows how long, since his affair was settled.' ' Why, for 
 that matter, Westwood,' replied I, ' I fancy it 's much more 
 important to find there 's a strong easterly current hereabouts 
 just now.'* 
 
 " Here Westwood got a corkscrew, and pulled out the cork 
 with a true parson-like gravity ; as we had expected, there 
 was a paper tacked to it, crumpled up, and scrawled over in 
 what we could only suppose was blood. 
 
 "*No. 20,' read he, 'what does that mean?' 'The 
 twentieth bottle launched, perhaps,' said I, and he went on 
 1 For God's sake, if you find this, keep to the south-west we 
 are going that way, we think we 've fallen amongst regular 
 Thugs, I fear just from the folly of these three griffins 
 (they 're looking over my shoulder, though) we are not ill- 
 treated yet, but kept below and watched yours in haste ' 
 
 ' What this signature is I can't say for the life of me, Ned ; no 
 date either.' ' Did the fellow think he was writing by post, 
 I wonder ? ' said I, trying to make it out. ' By the powers, 
 Westwood, though,' and I jumped up, ' that bottle might have 
 come from the Pacific, 'tis true but what if it were old 
 Rollock, after all ! Thugs, did you say ? Why, I shouldn't 
 wonder if the jolly old planter were on the hooks still. That 
 
 * Currents are designated from the direction they run towards ; winds, 
 the quarter they blow from.
 
 A SEA STORY 135 
 
 rascally brig ! ' And accordingly, on trying the scrawl at the 
 end, over and over, we both agreed that it was nothing but 
 <T. ROLLOCK.'" 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 T^HE next evening our friend the captain found his fair 
 -*- audience by the taffrail increased to a round dozen, 
 while several of the gentlemen passengers lounged near, and 
 the chief officer divided his attention between the gay group 
 of ladies below and the " fanning " maintopsail high up, with 
 its corresponding studding-sail hung far out aloft to the 
 breeze ; the narrative having by this time contracted a sort 
 of professional interest, even to his matter-of-fact taste, which 
 enabled him to enjoy greatly the occasional glances of sly 
 humour directed to him by his superior, for whom he evidently 
 entertained a kind of admiring respect, that seemed to be 
 enhanced as he listened. As for the commander himself, he 
 related the adventures in question with a spirit and vivid- 
 ness of manner that contributed to them no small charm ; 
 amusingly contrasted with the cool, dry, indifferent sort of 
 gravity of countenance amidst which the keen grey seawardly 
 eye, under the peak of the naval cap, kept changing and 
 twinkling as it seemed to run through the experience of youth 
 again sometimes almost approaching to an undeniable wink. 
 The expression of it at this time, however, was more serious, 
 while it appeared to run along the dotted reef-band of the 
 mizzen-topsail above, as across the entry in a log-book, and as 
 if there were something interesting to come. 
 
 " Well, my dear captain," asked his matronly relative, 
 " what comes next ? You and your friend had picked up a 
 a what was it now ! " 
 
 " Ah ! I remember, ma'am," said the naval man, laughing ; 
 " the bottle that was where I was. Well, as you may con- 
 ceive, this said scrap of penmanship in the bottle did take 
 both of us rather on end ; and for two or three minutes West- 
 wood and I sat staring at each other and the uncouth-looking 
 fist, in an inquiring sort of way, like two cocks over a beetle. 
 Westwood, for his part, was doubtful of its being the planter's
 
 136 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 writing at all ; but the whole thing, when I thought of it, 
 made itself as clear to me, so far, as two half-hitches, and so 
 the angrier I was at myself for being done by a frog-eating 
 bloody-politeful set of Frenchmen like these. Could we only 
 have clapped eyes on the villanous thieving craft at the 
 time, by Jove ! if I wouldn't have manned a boat from the 
 Indiaman, leave or no leave, and boarded her in another 
 fashion. But where they were now, what they meant, and 
 whether we should ever see them again, Heaven only knew. 
 For all we could say, indeed, something strange might have 
 turned up at home in Europe a new war, old Boney got 
 loose once more, or what not ; and I could scarce fall asleep 
 for guessing and bothering over the matter, as restless as the 
 first night we cruised down the Channel in the old Pandora. 
 
 " Early in the morning-watch a sudden stir of the men on 
 deck woke me, and I bundled up in five minutes' time. But 
 it was only the second mate setting them to wash decks, and 
 out they came from all quarters, yawning, stretching them- 
 selves, and tucking up their trousers, as they passed the full 
 buckets lazily along ; while a couple of boys could be seen 
 hard at work to keep the head-pump going, up against the 
 grey sky over the bow. However, I was so anxious to have 
 the first look-out ahead, that I made a bold push through the 
 thick of it for the bowsprit, where I went out till I could see 
 nothing astern of me but the Indiaman's big black bows and 
 figure-head, swinging as it were round the spar I sat upon, 
 with the spread of her canvas coming dim after me out of the 
 fog, and a lazy snatch of foam lifting to her cut-water as the 
 breeze died away. 
 
 " The sun was just beginning to rise ; ten minutes before 
 it had been almost quite dark ; there was a mist on the water, 
 and the sails were heavy with dew ; when a circle began to 
 open round us, where the surface looked as smooth and dirty 
 as in a dock, the haze seeming to shine through, as the sun- 
 light came sifting through it, like silver gauze. You saw 
 the big red top of the sun glare against the water-line, and 
 a wet gleam of crimson came sliding from one smooth blue 
 swell to another ; while the back of the haze astern turned 
 from blue to purple, and went lifting away into vapoury 
 streaks and patches. All of a sudden the ship came clear 
 out aloft and on the water, with her white streak as bright
 
 A SEA STORY 137 
 
 as snow, her fore-royal and truck gilded, her broad foresail 
 as red as blood, and every face on deck shining as they 
 looked ahead, where I felt like a fellow held up on a toast- 
 ing fork, against the fiery wheel the sun made ere clearing 
 the horizon. Two or three strips of cloud melted in it like 
 lumps of sugar in hot wine ; and after overhauling the whole 
 seaboard round and round, I kept straining my eyes into the 
 light, with the notion there was something to be seen in that 
 quarter, but to no purpose ; there wasn't the slightest sign of 
 the brig or any other blessed thing. What struck me a little, 
 however, was the look of the water just as the fog was clear- 
 ing away ; the swell was sinking down, the wind fallen for 
 the time to a dead calm ; and when the smooth face of it 
 caught the light full from aloft, it seemed to come out all 
 over long-winding wrinkles and eddies, running in a broad 
 path, as it were, twisted and woven together, right into the 
 wake of the sunrise. 
 
 " When I came inboard from the bowsprit, big Harry and 
 another grumpy old salt were standing by the bitts, taking a 
 forecastle observation, and gave me a squint, as much as to 
 ask if I had come out of the east, or had been trying to 
 pocket the flying-jibboom. e D' you notice anything strange 
 about the water at all ? ' I asked in an offhand sort of way, 
 wishing to see if the men had remarked aught of what I 
 suspected. The old fellow gave me a queer look out of the 
 tail of his eye, and the ugly man seemed to be measuring me 
 from head to foot. ' No, sir,' said the first, carelessly ; 
 ' can't say as how I does ' ; while Harry coolly commenced 
 sharpening his sheath-knife on his shoe. ' Did you ever 
 hear of currents hereabouts ? ' said I to the other man. 
 ' Hereaway ! ' said he. ' Why, bless ye, sir, it 's unpossible 
 as I could ha' heerd tell on sich a thing, 'cause, ye see, sir, 
 there ain't none so far out at sea, sir al'ays axin' your 
 parding, ye know, sir ! ' while he hitched up his trousers and 
 looked aloft, as if there were somewhat wrong about the 
 jib-halliards. 
 
 "The Indiaman by this time had quite lost steerage-way 
 and came sheering slowly round, broadside to the sun, while 
 the water began to glitter like a single sheet of quicksilver, 
 trembling and swelling to the firm edge of it far off ; the pale 
 blue sky filling deep aloft with light, and a long white haze
 
 138 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 growing out of the horizon to eastward. I kept still looking 
 over from the fore-chains with my arms folded, and an eye to 
 the water on the starboard side, next the sun, where, just a 
 fathom or two from the bright copper of her sheathing along 
 the water-line, you could see into it. Every now and then 
 little bells and bubbles, as I thought, would come up in it, 
 and break short of the surface ; and sometimes I fancied the 
 line of a slight ripple, as fine as a rope-yarn, went turning 
 and glistening round one of the ship's quarters, across her 
 shadow. Just then the old sailor behind me shoved his face 
 over the bulwark, too, all warts and wrinkles, like a ripe 
 walnut-shell, with a round knob of a nose in the middle of 
 it, and seemed to be watching to see it below, when he 
 suddenly squirted his tobacco-juice as far out as possible 
 alongside, and gave his mouth a wipe with the back of his 
 tarry yellow hand ; catching my eye in a shamefaced sort 
 of way, as I glanced first at him and then at his floating 
 property. 
 
 " I leant listlessly over the rail, watching the patch of oily 
 yellow froth as it floated quietly on the smooth face of the 
 water ; till all at once I started to observe that beyond all 
 question it had crept slowly away past our starboard bow, 
 clear of the ship, and at last melted into the glittering blue 
 brine. The two men noticed my attention, and stared along 
 with me ; while the owner of the precious cargo himself kept 
 looking after it wistfully into the wake of the sunlight, as 
 if he were a little hurt ; then aloft and round about, in a 
 puzzled sort of way, to see if the ship hadn't perhaps taken a 
 sudden sheer to port. ' Why, my man,' I said, meeting his 
 oyster-like old sea-eye, ' what 's the reason of that ? perhaps 
 there is some current or other here, after all, eh ? ' Just as 
 he meant to answer, however, I noticed his watchmate give 
 him a hard shove in the ribs with his huge elbow, and a quick 
 screw of his weather top-light, while he kept the lee one 
 doggedly fixed on myself. I accordingly walked slowly aft 
 as if to the quarterdeck, and came round the long-boat again, 
 right abreast of them. 
 
 " Harry was pacing fore and aft with his arms folded, when 
 his companion made some remark on the heat, peering all 
 about him, and then right up into the air aloft. ' Well then, 
 shipmate/ said Harry, dabbing his handkerchief back into his
 
 A SEA STORY 139 
 
 tarpaulin again, ' I 've seen worse, myself ownly, 'twas in 
 the Bight o' Benin, look ye an' afore the end o' it, d'ye 
 see, we hove o'erboard nine o' a crew, let alone six dozen 
 odds of a cargo ! ' ' Cargo ! ' exclaimed his companion, in 
 surprise. ' Ay, black passingers they was, ye know, old ship ! ' 
 answered the ugly rascal, coolly; 'an' I tell ye what it is, 
 Jack, I never sails yet with passengers aboard, but some'at 
 bad turned up in the end al'ays one or another on 'em 's got 
 a foul turn in his conscience, ye see ! I say, mate,' continued 
 he, looking round, ' didn't ye note that 'ere longshore look- 
 ing customer as walked aft just now, with them soft quest'ns 
 
 o' his about ' 'Why,' says Jack, 'it's him Jacobs and 
 
 the larboard watch calls the Green Hand, an' a blessed good 
 joke they has about him, to all appearance, but they keeps it 
 pretty close.' 'Close, do they,' growled Harry, 'I doesn't 
 like the cut of his jib, I tell ye, shipmate ! Jist you take my 
 word for it, that 'ere feljow 's done some'at bad at home, or 
 he 's bent on some'at bad afloat it 's all one ! Don't ye 
 mark how he keeps boxhaulin' and skulking fore an' aft, not 
 to say looking out to wind'ard every now an' again, as much 
 as he expected a sail to leave in sight ? ' ' Well, I 'm blowed, 
 but you 're right, Harry ! ' said the other, taking off his hat to 
 scratch his head, thoughtfully. ' Ay, and what 's more,' went 
 on Harry, 'it's just corned ath'art me as how I've clapped 
 eyes on the chap somewheres or other afore this if I don't 
 think it was amongst a gang o' Spanish pirates I saw tried 
 for their lives, and let off, in the Havanney ! ' 
 
 " ' Thank you, my man/ thought I, as I leant against the 
 booms on the other side. ' Did you ? a wonder it wasn't in 
 the Old Bailey, which would have been more possible, though 
 less romantic seeing in the Havannah I never was ! ' The 
 curious thing was that I began to have a faint recollection, 
 myself, of having seen this same cross-grained beauty, or 
 heard his voice, before ; though where and how it was I 
 couldn't for the life of me say at the moment. 
 
 " ' Lor' bless us, Harry ! ' faltered out the old sailor, ' ye 
 don't mean it ! sich a young, soft-looked shaver, too ! ' 
 ' Them smooth-skinned sort o' coves is kimmonly the worst, 
 mate,' replied Harry ; ' for that matter ye may be quite sure 
 he 's got his chums aboard an' how does we know but the 
 ship's sold, from stem to starn ? There's that 'ere black-
 
 140 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 avizzed parson, now, and one or two more aft cuss me if 
 that 'ere feller smells brine for the first time ! An' as for this 
 here Bob Jacobs o' yours, blow me if there ain't over many of 
 his kind in the whole larboard watch, Jack ! A man-o'-war's- 
 man '& al'ays a blackguard out on a man-o'-war, look-ye ! ' 
 'Why, bless me, shipmate/ said Jack, lowering his voice, 
 ' by that recknin', a man don't know his friends in this here 
 craft ! The sooner we gives the mate a hint the better, to 
 my thinking ? ' f No, blow me, no, Jack/ said Harry, c keep 
 all fast, or ye '11 kick up a worse nitty, old boy ! Just you 
 hould on till ye see what 's to turn up ownly stand by and 
 look out for squalls, that 's all ! There 's the skipper laid up 
 below in his berth, I hears and to my notions, that 'ere mate 
 of ours is no more but a blessed soldier, with his navigation an' 
 his head-work, an' be blowed to him : where 's he runned the 
 ship, I 'd like to know, messmate ! ' ' Well, strike me lucky 
 if I 'm fit to guess ! ' answered Jack, gloomily. ' No, s' help 
 me Bob, if he knows hisself ! ' said Harry. ' But here 's what 
 / says, anyhow if so be we heaves in sight of a pirate, or 
 bumps ashore on a ileyand i' the dark, shiver my tawsels if I 
 doesn't have a clip with a handspike at that 'ere soft-sawderin' 
 young blade in the straw hat ! ' ' Well, my fine fellow/ thought 
 I, ' many thanks to you again, but I certainly shall look out 
 for you I ' 
 
 "All this time I couldn't exactly conceive whether the 
 sulky rascal really suspected anything of the kind, or whether 
 he wasn't in fact sounding his companion, and perhaps others 
 of the crew, as to how far they would go in case of an oppor- 
 tunity for mischief ; especially when I heard him begin to 
 speculate if 'that 'ere proud ould beggar of a naboob, aft 
 yonder, musn't have a sight o' gould and jowels aboard with 
 him ! Why, for the matter o' that, mate/ continued he, ' I 
 doesn't signify the twinklin' of a marling-spike, mind ye, what 
 lubberly trick they sarves this here craft, so be ownly ye can 
 get anyhow ashore, when all 's done ! It 's nouther ship-law nor 
 shore-law, look ye, mate, as houlds good on a lonely dazart ! ' 
 ' Ay, ay, true enough, bo',' said the other, ' but what o' that ? 
 there ain't much signs of a dazart, I reckon, in this here blue 
 water ! ' e Ho ! ' replied Harry, rather scornfully, ( that 's 
 'cause you blue-water, long-v'yage chaps isn't up to them, 
 brother. There 's you and that 'ere joker in the striped slops,
 
 A SEA STORY 141 
 
 Jack, chaffing away over the side jist now about a current 
 confounded sharp he thinks hisself, too but d' ye think 
 Harry Foster ain't got his weather-eye open ? For my part, 
 I thinks more of the streak o' haze yonder-away, right across 
 
 the starboard bow, nor all the currents in ' ' Ay, ay,' said 
 
 Jack, stretching out again to look, ' the heat, you means ? ' 
 ' Heat ! ' exclaimed the ugly topman, ' heat be bio wed ! 
 Hark ye, mate, it may be a strip o' cloud, no doubt, or the 
 steam over a sand-bank ; but so be the calm lasts so long, 
 and you sees that 'ere streak again by sundown with a touch 
 o' yallow in 't ' 
 
 " ' What what shipmate ? ' asked Jack, breathless with 
 anxiety. ' Then it 's the black coast iv Africay, and no 
 mistake,' said Harry. ' And what 's more,' continued the 
 fellow, coolly, after taking a couple of short turns, ' if there 
 he's a current, why look ye, it '11 set dead in to where the 
 land lays an' I 'm blessed if there 's one aboard, breeze or 
 no breeze, as is man enough for to take her out o' the suck of 
 a Africane current.' ' The Lord be with us ! ' exclaimed the 
 other sailor, in alarm, f what 's to be done, Harry, bo' ; when 
 do you mean for to let them know aft ? ' ' Why, maybe I 'm 
 wrong, ye know, old ship,' said Harry, ' an' a man mustn't go 
 for to larn his betters, ye know; by this time half o' the 
 watch has a notion on it, at any rate. There 's Dick White, 
 Jack Jones, Jim Sidey, an' a few more Wapping men, means 
 to stick together in case o' accidents ; so Jack, man, ye 
 needn't be in sich an a taking. What the ' (here he came out 
 with a regular string of topgallant oaths), ' when you finds a 
 good chance shoved into your fist, none o' your doin', ain't a 
 feller to haul in the slack of it 'cause he 's got a tarry paw 
 and ships before the mast ? I tell ye what it is, old ship, 
 'tain't the first time you an' me 's been cast away, an' I 
 doesn't care the drawin' of a rope-yarn, in them 'ere latitudes, 
 if I 'm cast away again. Hark ye, ould boy : grog to the 
 mast-head, a grab at the passengers' wallibles, when they 
 ha' n't no more use for 'em, in course ; and the pick of the 
 ladies, jist for the takin' o' them ashore ! ' 
 
 " ' Lord love ye, Harry, belay there ! ' said Jack ; ' what 's 
 the good o' talkin' on what ain't like to be ? ' ' Less like 
 things turn up,' said Harry. ' More by token, if I hasn't 
 pitched upon my fancy lass a'ready ; an' who knows, old ship,
 
 142 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 but you marries a naboob's darter yet, and gets yourself shoved 
 all square, like a riglar hare, into his heestate, as they calls 
 it ? For my part, I 've more notion of the maid ! An' it '11 go 
 hard with me if we doesn't manage to haul that 'ere mishynar 
 parson safe ashore on the strength of it.' 'God bless ye, 
 Harry,' answered Jack, somewhat mournfully, ' I 'm twice 
 spliced already ! ' ' Third time 's lucky, though/ replied 
 Harry, with a chuckle, as he walked towards the side again 
 and looked over ; the rest of the watch being gathered on 
 the other bow, talking and laughing ; the passengers beginning 
 to appear on the poop, and the Scotch second mate standing 
 up aft on the taffrail, feeling for a breath of wind. The big 
 topman came slowly back to his companion, and leant himself 
 on the spars again. ' Blowed if I don't think you 're right, 
 mate,' said he, ' you and that 'ere lawyer. You 'd a' most say 
 there 's a ripple round her larboard bow just now, sure enough 
 like she were broadside on to some drift or another. How- 
 s' ever, that 's neither here nor there ; for my part, I sets more 
 count by the look o' the sky to east'ard ; an' be blowed, ship- 
 mate, if that same yonder don't make me think of woods.' 
 ' Well,' said Jack, ' I goes by sunrise, messmate, an' I didn't 
 like it overmuch myself, d' ye see ! That 'ere talk o' yours, 
 Harry, consarnin' dazarts and what not why, bless me, it 's 
 all my eye this bout, at any rate seein' as how, if we doesn't 
 have a stiff snuffler out o' that very quarter afore twenty-four 
 hours is over, you call me lubber ! ' 
 
 " ' Ho, ho ! old salt/ chuckled Harry, ' none o' them saws 
 holds good hereaway ; if it's the coast of Africay, mate, two 
 watches '11 settle our hash in them longitudes, without going 
 the length o' six ! Ha' n't I knocked about the bloody coast 
 of it six weeks at a time, myself, let alone livin' as many 
 months in the woods ? so I knows the breedin' of a turnady 
 a cussed sight too well, not to speak on the way the land- 
 blink looms afore you sights it ! ' 
 
 " ' Lived in them there woods, did ye ? ' inquired Jack. 
 ' Ay, bo', an' a rum rig it was too, sure enough/ said Harry ; 
 ( the very same time I told you on, i' the Bight o' Benin.' 
 ' My eye,' exclaimed the other, ' a man never knows what 
 he may come to. Let 's into the rights of it, Harry, can't 
 ye, afore eight bells strikes ? ' 
 
 " ' Woods ! ' said Harry, ' I b'lieve ye, ould ship. I see'd
 
 A SEA STORY 143 
 
 enough o' woods, that time, arter all and 'twan't that long 
 agone, either I '11 not say how long, but it wa'n't last v'yage. 
 A sharp, clinker-built craft of a schooner she wor ; I'm not 
 goin' to give ye her right name, but they called her the 
 Lubberhater* an' if there wa'n't all sorts on us aboard, it 's 
 blaming ye an' a big double-jinted man-eatin' chap of a 
 Yankee was our skipper, as sly as slush more by token, 
 he had a wart alongside o' one eye as made him look two 
 ways at ye Job Price by name an' arter he 'd made his 
 fortin, I heard he's took up a teetotal chapel afloat on the 
 Missishippey. She 'd got a strapping long nose, that 'ere 
 schooner, so, my boy, we leaves everything astarn, chase 
 or race, I promise ye ; an' as for a blessed ould ten-gun brig 
 what kept a-cruising thereaway, why, we jest got used to 
 her, like, and al'ays lowers our mainsail afore takin' the wind 
 of her, by way o' good-bye, quite perlite. Blowed if it warn't 
 rum, though, for to see the brig's white figger'ed over the 
 swell, rollin' under a cloud o' canvas, stens'ls crowded out 
 alow an' aloft, as she jogged arter us. Then she 'd haul 
 her wind an' fire a gun, an' go beating away up in chase 
 of some other craft, as caught the chance for runnin' out 
 whenever they sees the Lubberhater well to sea why, s' help 
 me Bob, if the traders on the coast didn't pay Job Price 
 half-a-dozen blacks apiece every trip, jist for to play that 
 'ere dodge. At last, one time, not long after I joined the 
 craft, what does he do but nigh-hand loses her an' her cargo, 
 all owin' to reckonin' over much on this here traverse. Out 
 we comes one night in the tail of a squall, an' as soon as 
 it clears, there sure enough we made out the brig, hard 
 after us, as we thinks so never a rag more Job claps on, 
 'cause two of his friends, ye see, was jist outside the bar 
 in the Noon river. Well, very soon the cruiser begins to 
 overhaul us, as one gaff-taups'l wouldn't do, nor yet another, 
 till the flying-jib and bonnets made her walk away from 
 them in right 'arnest when slap comes a long-shot that 
 that took the foretopmast out of us in a twinkling. So 
 when the moonlight corned out, lo an' behold, instead o' 
 the brig's two masts stiff and straight against the haze, there 
 was three spanking sticks all ataunto, my boy, in a fine new 
 sloop-o'-war as had fresh come on the station the Iris, 
 * Query Liberator?
 
 144 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 they called her and a fast ship she wor. But all said and 
 done, the schooner had the heels of her in aught short of 
 a reef-taups'l breeze though, as for the other two, the 
 sloop-o'-war picked off both on 'em in the end.' 
 
 "At this point of the fellow's account, I, Ned Collins, 
 began to prick up my ears, pretty sure it was the dear old 
 Iris he was talking of ; and, thought I, ' Oho, my mate, 
 we shall have you directly listening's all fair with a chap 
 of this breed.' 
 
 " ' Well,' said he, ' 'twas the next trip after that, we finds 
 the coast clear, as commonly was for, d' ye see, they couldn't 
 touch us if so be we hadn't a slave aboard in fact, we heerd 
 as how the cruiser was up by Serry Lony, and left some 
 young leftenant or other on the watch with a sort o' lateen- 
 rigged tender. A precious raw chap he was, by all accounts 
 and, sure enough, there he kept plying off and on, inshore, 
 'stead of out of sight to seaward till the craft would make 
 a bolt ; an' as soon as ye dropped an anchor, he 'd send a 
 boat aboard with a reefer, to ax if ye'd got slaves in the 
 hold. In course, ye know, Job Price sends back a message, 
 " palm-ile an' iv'ry, an' gould if we can " h'ists the Portingee 
 colours, brings up his Portingee papers, and makes the Port- 
 ingee stoo'rd skipper for the spell but anyhow, bein' no 
 less nor three slavers in the mouth of the Bonny river at 
 the time, why, he meant to show fight if need be, and jest 
 manhandle the young navy sprig to his heart's content. How- 
 s'ever, the second or third night, all on a suddent we found 
 he 'd sheered off for a decency's sake, as it might be, an hour 
 or two afore we 'd began to raft off the niggers. Well, mate, 
 right in the midst of it there comes sich a fury of a turnady 
 off the land, as we 'd to slip cable and run fair out to sea 
 after the other craft what had got sooner full one on 'em 
 went ashore in sight, an' we not ninety blacks aboard yet, 
 with barely a day's water stowed in. 
 
 " ' The next morning, out o' sight of land, we got the sea- 
 breeze, and stood in again under everything, till we made 
 Fernandy Po ileyand, three leagues off, or thereby, an' the two 
 ebony-brigs beating out in company, so the skipper stands 
 over across their course for to give them a hail, heaves to and 
 pulls aboard the nearest, where he stays a good long spell and 
 drinks a stiff glass, as ye may fancy, afore partin'. Back
 
 A SEA STORY 145 
 
 comes Job Price in high glee, and tould the mate as how that 
 mornin' the brigs had fell foul o' the man-o'-war tender, 
 bottom up, an' a big Newfoundling dog a-howlin' on the keel 
 no doubt she 'd turned the turtle in that 'ere squall more 
 by token, he brought the dog alongst with him in a present. 
 So away we filled again to go in for the Bonny river, when 
 the breeze fell, and shortly arter there we was all three dead 
 becalmed, a couple o' miles betwixt us, sticking on the water 
 like flies on glass, an' as hot, ye know, as blazes the very 
 moral o' this here. By sundown we hadn't a drop of water, 
 so the skipper sent to the nearest brig for some ; but strike 
 me lucky if they 'd part with a bucketful for love, bein' out'ard 
 bound. As the Spanish skipper said, 'twas either hard dollars 
 or a stout nigger, and t' other brig said the same. A slight 
 puff o' land-wind we had in the night, though next day 'twas 
 as calm as ever, and the brigs farther off so by noon, my boy, 
 for two blessed casks, if Job Price hadn't to send six blacks 
 in the boat. Shorter yarn, Jack, but the calm held that night 
 too, and blowed if the brigs would sell another breaker what 
 we had we couldn't spare to the poor devils under hatches, 
 and the next day, why they died off like rotten sheep, till we 
 hove the last on 'em o'board ; and frighterful enough it was, 
 mind ye, for to see about fifty sharks at work all round the 
 schooner at once, as long as it lasted. 
 
 " ' Well, in the arternoon we 'd just commenced squabbling 
 aboard amongst ourselves, round the dreg water, or whether 
 to board one o' the brigs and have a fair fight, when off come 
 a bit of a breeze, betwixt the two high peaks on Fernandy Po, 
 both the brigs set stensails, and begins slipping quietly off 
 our skipper gived orders to brace after them, and clear away 
 the long gun amidships ; but all on a suddent we made out a 
 lump of a brig dropping down before it round the ileyand, 
 which we knowed her well enough for a Bristol craft as had 
 lost half her hands up the Callebar, in the gould an' iv'ry trade. 
 Down she corned, wonderful fast for the light breeze, if there 
 hadn't been one o' yer currents besides off the ileyand, till 
 about half-a-mile away she braces up, seemingly to sheer across 
 it and steer clear of us. Out went our boat, an' the skipper 
 bids every man of her crew to shove a short cutlash inside his 
 trousers. Says he, " I guess we '11 first speak 'em fair, but if 
 we don't ha' water enough, it '11 be 'tarnall queer, that 's all,"
 
 146 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 says he an' Job was a man never swore, but he looked mighty 
 bad that time, I must say ; so we outs oars and pulls right 
 aboard the trader, without answerin' ever a hail, when up the 
 side we bundled on deck, one arter the other, mad for a drink, 
 and sees the master with five or six of a crew, all as white as 
 ghostesses, and two or three Kroomen, besides a long-legged 
 young feller a-sittin' and kicking his feet over the kimpanion 
 hatch, with a tumblerful o' grog in his fist, as fresh to all seemin' 
 as a fish, like a supper-cargo or some'at o' the sort, as them 
 craft commonly has. 
 
 "'"What schooner's that?" axes the master, all abroad 
 like ; an' says Job says he, out o' breath, " Never you mind ; 
 I guess you '11 let 's have some water, for we wants it mighty 
 keen ! " "Well," says the other, shaking his head, "I 'm afeared 
 we're short ourselves anyhow," says he, "we'll give ye a 
 dipper the piece " and accordingly they fists us along a dozen 
 gulps, hand over hand. " 'Twon't do, I guess, mister," says 
 our skipper ; " we wants a cask ! " Here the master o' the 
 brig shakes his head again, and guv a look to the young long- 
 shore-like chap aft, which sings out as we couldn't have no 
 more for love nor money an' I see Captin Price commence 
 for to look savitch again, and feel for the handle on his 
 cutlash. " Rather you 'd ax iv'ry or gould-dust ! " sings out 
 the supper-cargo; "hows'ever," says he, "as ye 've tooken 
 sich a fancy to it, short o' water as we is, why a fair exchange 
 ain't no robbery," says he : " you wants water, an' we wants 
 hands ; haven't ye a couple o' niggers for to spare us, sir, by 
 way of a barter now ? " he says. " Well, mate, I '11 be blowed 
 if I ever see a man turn so wicked fur'ous as Job Price turns 
 at this here, an says he, through his teeth, " If ye 'd said a 
 nigger's nail-parin', I couldn't done it, so it's no use talkin'." 
 " Oh come, captin," says the young fellow, wonderful 
 angshis-like, "say one, jist it's all on the quiet, ye know. 
 Bless me, captin," says he, " I 'd do a deal for a man in a 
 strait, 'tickerly for yerself an' I think we 'd manage with a 
 single hand more. I '11 give ye two casks and a bag o' gould 
 dust for one black, and we '11 send aboard for him just now, 
 ourselves ! " " No ! " roars Job Price, walkin' close up to 
 him ; " ye 've riz me, ye cussed Britisher ye, an' I tell ye 
 we '11 take what we wants ! " " No jokes though, captin ! " 
 says the feller; "what's one to a whole raftful I heerd of ye
 
 A SEA STORY 147 
 
 shipping ? " " Go an' ax the sharks, ye beggar ! " says the 
 skipper ; " here, my lads ! " says he, an' makes a grab at the 
 other's throat, when slap comes a jug o' rum in his eye-lights, 
 and the young chap ups fist in quick-sticks, and drops him 
 like a cock, big as he was. By that time, though, in a 
 twinklin' the master was flat on deck, and the brig's crew 
 showed no fight when, lo an' behold, my boy, up bundles a 
 score o' strapping man-o'-war's-men out of the cabing. One 
 or two on us got a cut about the head, an' my gentleman 
 supper-cargo claps a pistol to my ear from aft, so we knocked 
 under without more to-do. In five minutes' time every man 
 jack of us had a seizing about his wrists and lower pins ; and 
 says Job Price, in a giving-up sort o' v'ice, " You 're too cust 
 spry for playin' jokes on, I calc'late, squire," he says. 
 "Jokes!" says the young feller, "why, it's no joke hi 
 course you knows me ? " " Niver see'd ye atween the eyes 
 afore," says Job, " but don't bear no malice, mister, now." 
 " That 's it," says the t' other, lookin' at the schooner again, 
 " no more I does, so jist think a bit ; ha'n't you really a nigger 
 or so aboard o' ye if it was jist one ? " " Squash the one ! " 
 says Job, shakin' his head nellicholly like an' " Sorry for it," 
 says the chap, " 'cause ye see I 'm the leftenant belongin' to 
 the Irish, an' I carn't titch yer schooner if so be ye ha'n't a 
 slave aboard." " Lawk a' mighty ! no ! " sings out Job 
 Price, 'cause, bein' half-blinded he couldn't ha' noted the 
 lot o' man-o'-war's-men sooner. "But I can" says the 
 other, " for piratecy, ye see ; an' what 's more," he says, 
 " there's no help for it now, I 'm afeard, mister what-they- 
 call-ye." 
 
 " ' Well, mate, after that ye may fancy our skipper turns 
 terrible down in the mouth ; so without a word more they 
 parbuckles us all down below into the cabin an' what does 
 this here leftenant do but he strips the whole lot, rigs out as 
 many of his men in our duds, hoists out a big cask o' water 
 on the brig's far side, and pulls round for the schooner 
 hisself togged out like the skipper, and his odd hands laid 
 down in the boat's bottom.' You won't wonder at my being 
 highly amused with the fellow's yarn, since the fact was that 
 it happened to be one of my own adventures in the days of 
 the Iris, two or three years before, when we saw a good many 
 scenes together, far more wild and stirring, of course, in the
 
 148 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 thick of the slave trade ; but really the ugly rascal described 
 it wonderfully well. 
 
 " ' Well,' said Harry, ' I gets my chin shoved up in the 
 starn-windy, where I seed the whole thing, and tould the 
 skipper accordently. The schooner's crew looked out for the 
 water like so many oysters in a tub ; the leftenant jumps up 
 the side with his men after him, an' not so much as the cross 
 of two cutlashes did we hear afore the onion-jack flew out 
 a-peak over her mains'l. In five minutes more, the schooner 
 fills away before the breeze, and begins to slide off in fine 
 style after the pair o' brigs, as was nigh half-hull down to 
 seaward by this time. There we was, left neck and heel 
 below in the trader, and he hauled up seemin'ly for the land ; 
 an' arter a bit, says the skipper to me, " Foster, my lad, I 
 despise this way o' things," says he ; " ain't there no way on 
 gettin' clear ?" " Never say die, captin ! " I says ; an' says he, 
 " I calc'late they left considerable few hands aboard ? " " None 
 but them sleepy-like scum o' iv'ry men," I says, but be blowed 
 if I see'd what better we was, till down comes a little nigger 
 cabin-boy for some'at or other, with a knife in his hand. Job 
 fixes his eye on him I 've heerd he 'd a way in his eye with 
 niggers as they couldn't stand an' says he, soft-sawderin' 
 like, " Come here, will ye, my lad, an' give us a drink," so 
 the black come for'ard with a pannikin, one foot at a time, 
 an' he houlds it out to the skipper's lips for, d' ye see, all 
 on us had our flippers lashed behind our backs. " Now," 
 says he, " thankee, boy look in atwixt my legs, and ye '11 
 find a dollar." With that, jest as the boy stoops, Job Price 
 ketches his neck fast betwixt his two knees, an' blowed if 
 he didn't jam them harder, grinning all the time, till down 
 drops the little black throttled on the deck. "That's for 
 thankin' a nigger ! " says he, lookin' as savitch as a fiend, 
 and got the knife in his teeth, when he turned to and sawed 
 through the seizing round my wrists an' in course I sets 
 every man clear in quick-sticks. " Norv ! " says Job, looking 
 round, "the quicker the better that cussed lubber-ratin' 
 hound's got my schooner, but maybe, my lads, this here 
 iv'ry man '11 pay expenses : if I 'm made out a pirate, I '11 
 arn the name ! " 
 
 " ' Well, we squints up the hatchway, and see'd a young 
 midshipman a-standing with his back to us, watching the
 
 A SEA STORY 149 
 
 brig's crew at the braces, an' a pistol in one hand when all 
 at once our skipper slips off his shoes, runs up the stair as 
 quiet as a cat, an' caught the end of a capstan-bar as lay on 
 the scuttle. With that down he comes crash on the poor 
 fellow's scull from aft, and brained him in a moment. Every 
 man of us got bloody-minded with the sight, so we scarce 
 knowed what we did, ye know, mate, afore all hands o' them 
 was gone how, I ain't goin' for to say, nor the share as one 
 had in it more nor another. The long an' the short on it was, 
 we run the brig by sun-down in amongst the creeks up the 
 Camaroons river, thinkin' to lie stowed away close thereabouts 
 till all wor cold. Hows'ever, they kicked up the devil's delight 
 about a piratecy, and the sloop-o'-war comes back shortly, 
 when night an' day there was that young shark of a leftenant 
 huntin' arter us, as sharp as a marling-spike we dursn't come 
 down the river nohow, till what with a bad conscience, fogs, 
 and sleepin' every night within stink o' them blasted muddy 
 mangroves an' bulrushes together, why, mate, the whole ten 
 hands died off one arter the other in the fever leaving ownly 
 me an' the skipper. Job Price was like a madman over the 
 cargo, worth good knows how many thousand dollars, as he 
 couldn't take out ; but for my part, I gets the brig's punt one 
 night and sculls myself ashore, and off like a hare into the 
 bush by moonlight. No use, ye know, for to say what rum 
 chances I meets with in the woods, livin' up trees and the like 
 for fear o' illiphants, sarpents, an' high-annies ; but, blow me, 
 if I didn't think the farther ye went aloft, the more monkeys 
 an' parrykeets you roused out, jabberin' all night so as a feller 
 couldn't close an eye an' as for the sky, be blowed if I ever 
 once sighted it. So, d' ye see, it puts all notions o' fruits an' 
 flowers out o' my head, an' all them jimmy-jessamy sort o' 
 happy-go-lucky yarns about barbers' ileyands and shipher- 
 dresses what they used for to spell out o' dicshinars at school 
 all gammon, mate ! ' 
 
 " ' Lor' love ye, no, surely,' said Jack ; ' it 's in the Bible ! ' 
 "'Ay, ay/ said Harry, 'that's arter ye've gone to Davy 
 Jones, no doubt ; but I 've been in the Southsy ileyands since, 
 myself, an' be blowed if it 's much better there ! Hows'ever, 
 still anon, I took a new fancy, an' away I makes for the river, 
 in sarch of a nigger villache, as they calls 'em ; and sure enough 
 1 warn't long ere right I plumps in the midst on a lot o' cane
 
 150 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 huts amongst trees. But sich a shine and a nitty as I kicks 
 up, ye see, bein' half-naked, for all the world like a wild man 
 o' the woods, an' for a full hour I has the town to myself, so 
 I hoists my shirt on a stick over the hut I took, by way of a 
 flag o' truce, an' at last they all begins for to swarm in again. 
 Well, ye see, I knowed the ways o' the natifs thereabouts 
 pretty well, an' what does I do but I 'd laid myself flat afore 
 an ugly divvle of a wooden himmache, as stood on the flour, 
 an' I wriggles and twists myself, and groans like a chap in a 
 fit what they calls Jittish, thereaway an' in course, with that 
 they logs me down at once for a rig'lar holy 'possel from 
 Jerusalem. The long an' the short on it was, the fittish-man 
 takes me under charge, and sets me to tell fortins or the like 
 with an ould quadrant they got somewheres gives me a hut 
 an' two black wives, begad ! and there I lives for two or three 
 weeks on end, no doubt, as proud as Tommy ; when, one fine 
 morning, what does I see off shore in the river but that con- 
 founded man-o'-war tender, all ship-shape an' ataunto again. 
 So, my boy, I gives 'em to understand as how, bein' over 
 vallible at home with the king of England, in course he 'd sent 
 for to puckalow me away an' no sooner said, but the whole 
 town gets in a fluster the fittish-man, which a knowin' chap 
 he was, takes and rubs me from heel to truck with ile out on 
 a sartin nut as turned me coal-black in half-an-hour, an' as 
 soon as I looks in the creek, mate, be blowed if I 'd a knewn 
 myself from a nigger, somehow ! ' 
 
 " To tell the truth, as /thought to myself, it was no wonder, 
 as Master Harry's nose and lips were by no means in the classic 
 style, and his skin, as it was, didn't appear of the whitest. 
 
 " ' So there, ye know, I sits before a hut grindin' away at 
 maize, with nothink else but a waist-cloth round me, and my 
 two legs stuck out, till such a time as the leftenant an' two 
 boats' crews had sarched the villache, havin' heerd, no doubt, 
 of a white man thereabouts an' at last off they went. Well, 
 in course, at first this here affair gives the fittish-man a lift 
 in the niggers' eyes, by reason o' havin' turned a white man 
 black 'cause, ye see, them fittish-men has a rig'lar-bred 
 knowledge on plants and sich-like. But hows'ever, in a day 
 or two I begins for to get rayther oneasy, seein' it didn't wash 
 off, an' accordently I made beknown as much to the fittish- 
 man, when, my boy, if he doesn't shake his mop-head, and
 
 A SEA STORY 151 
 
 rubs noses, as much as to say, " We ain't agoin' to part." 
 'Twas no use, and thinks I, " Ye man-eating scum, be blowed 
 if I don't put your neck out, then ! " So I turns too with my 
 knife on a log o' wood, carves a himmache twice as big an' 
 ugly as his 'n, and builds a hut over it, where I plays all the 
 conjerin' tricks I could mind on till, be hanged if the 
 niggers didn't begin to leave the fittish-man pretty fast, and 
 make a blessed sight more o' me. I takes a couple more 
 wives, gets drunk every day on palm- wine and toddy juice 
 as for the hogs an' the yams they brought me, why I couldn't 
 stow 'em away ; an' in place o' wanting myself white again, I 
 rubs myself over and over with that 'ere nut, let alone palm- 
 ile, till the ould fittish-man looks brown alongside o' me. At 
 last the king o' the niggers thereaway King Chimbey they 
 called him, or some'at o' that sort he sends for to see me, 
 an' away to his town they takes me, a mile or two up the 
 country, where I see'd him ; but I 'm blowed, Jack, if he 'd 
 got a crown on at all, ownly a ould red marine's coat, an' a 
 pair o' top-boots, what was laid away when he warn't in state. 
 Hows'ever, he gives me two white beans an' a red un in sign 
 o' high favour, and gives me to know as I wor to stay there. 
 But one thing I couldn't make out, why the black king's hut 
 an' the josst-house as they calls it, was all stuck round with 
 bones an' dead men's skulls! 'twan't long, though, ere I 
 finds it out, mate ! That 'ere fittish-man, d 'ye see, wor a 
 right-down imp to look at, and wicked enough he eyed me ; 
 but still anon I sends over for my wives, turns out a black 
 feller out on his hut, an' slings a hammock in it, when the 
 next day or so I meets the first fittish-man in the woods, an' 
 the poor divvle looks wonderful friendly-like, makin' me all 
 kinds o' woful signs, and seemin'ly as much as to say for to 
 keep a bright lookout on the other one. All on a suddent 
 what does he do, but he runs a bit as far as a tree, picks up a 
 sort of a red mushroom, an' he rubs with it across the back o' 
 my hand, gives a wink, and scuttles off. What it meaned I 
 .ouldn't make out, till I gets back to the town, when I 
 chanced to look at my flipper, and there I see a clean white 
 streak alongst it ! Well, I thinks, liberty 's sweet, an' I 'm 
 blessed if a man 's able to cruise much to windward o' right- 
 down slavery, thinks I, if he 's black ! Howsomever, thinks 
 I, I '11 jest hold on a bit longer.
 
 152 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 " ' Well, next day, the black king had the blue-devils with 
 drinking rum, an' he couldn't sleep nohow, 'cause, as I made 
 out, he 'd killed his uncle, they said I doesn't know but he 'd 
 eaten him, too anyhow, I see'd him eat as much of a fat hog, 
 raw, as ud sarve out half the watch so the fittish-man tells 
 him there 's nought for it but to please the fittish. What that 
 wor, bio wed if I knew ; but no sooner sundown nor they hauls 
 me out o' my hut, claps me in a stinking hole as dark as pitch, 
 and leaves me till mornin', as I thought. Jist about the end 
 o' the mid-watch, there kicks up a rumpus like close-reef 
 taups'ls in a hurricane smash goes the sticks over me ; I seed 
 the stars, and a whole lot o' strange blacks with long spears, 
 a-fightin', yellin', tramplin', an' twistin' in the midst of the 
 huts and off I 'm hoisted in the gang, on some feller's back 
 or other, at five knots the hour, through the woods till down 
 we all comes in a drove, plash amongst the very swamps close 
 by the river, where, lo an' behold ! I makes out a schooner 
 afloat at her anchor. The next thing I feels a red-hot iron 
 come hiss across my shoulders, so I jumped up and sang out 
 like blazes, in course. But, my flippers bein' all fast, 'twas no 
 use ; I got one shove as sent me head-foremost into a long 
 canoe, with thirty or forty niggers stowed away like cattle, 
 and out the men pulls for the schooner. A big bright fire 
 there was ashore, astarn of us, I mind, where they heated the 
 irons, with a chap in a straw hat sarvin' out rum to the wild 
 blacks from a cask ; and ye saw the pitch-black woods behind, 
 with the branches shoved out red in the light on it, and a 
 bloody-like patch on the water under a clump o' sooty man- 
 groves. An', Jack, if I didn't feel the life sick in me, that 
 time for, d' ye see, I hears nothin' spoke round me but cussed 
 French, Portingeese, an' nigger tongue 'specially when it 
 jist lighthens on me what sort on a case I were in ; an' thinks 
 I, " I 'm took for a slave, arter all ! an" be hanged, but I left 
 that 'ere 'farnal mushroom a-lying under that there tree 
 yonder ! " I begins for to think o' matters an' things, an' 
 about Bristol quay, an' ray old mother, an' my sister as was at 
 school mind ye, mate, all atwixt shovin' off the mangroves 
 an' coming bump agen the schooner's side an' blow me if I 
 doesn't turn to, an' nigh-hand commences for to blubber 
 when jist then what does I catch sight on, by the lantern over 
 the side, b^ that 'ere villain of a fittish-man, an' what 's more,
 
 A SEA STORY 153 
 
 King Chimbey hisself, both hauled in the net. And with that 
 I gives a chuckle, as ye may suppose, an' no mistake ; for 
 thinks I, so far as consarns myself, this here can't last long, 
 blow me, for sooner or later I '11 find some un to speak to, even 
 an I nivver gets rid o' this here outer darkness be blowed if I 
 han't got a white mind, any ways, an' free I '11 be, my boy ! 
 But I laughs, in course, when I see'd the fittish-man grin at 
 me for thinks I, " My cocks, you 're logged down for a pretty 
 long spell of it ! " 
 
 " ' Well, bo,' somehow I knows no more about it till such 
 time as I sort o' wakes up in pitch-dark, all choke and sweat, 
 an' a feller's dirty big toe in my mouth, with mine in some 
 un else's eye ; so out I spits it, an' makes a scramble for my 
 life. By the roll and the splash I knowed I wor down in the 
 schooner's hold ; an' be hanged if there warn't twenty or thirty 
 holding on like bees to a open weather-port, where the fresh 
 wind and the spray come a-blowing through but there, my 
 boy, 'twere no go for to get so much as the tip o' yer nose. 
 Accordently, up I prizes myself with my feet on another poor 
 devil's wool for d' ye see, by that time I minds a man's face 
 no more nor so much timber an' I feels for the hatch over 
 me, where by good luck, as I thought, there I finds it not 
 battened down yet, so I shoved my head through on deck like 
 a blacksmith's hammer. 
 
 " ' Well, mate, there was the schooner's deck wet, a swell 
 of a sea on round her, well off the land, no trifle of a morning 
 gale, and the craft heeling to it ; a lot o' hands up on her 
 yards, a-reefing at the boom mains'l and fo'taups'l, an' if my 
 heart doesn't jump into my mouth with the sight, for I feels 
 it for all the world like a good glass o' grog, settin' all to rights. 
 Two or three there was walkin' aft the quarter-deck, so out I 
 sings, " Hullo ! hullo there, shipmates, give us a hand out o' 
 this ! " Two on 'em comes for'ard, one lifts a handspike, but 
 both gives a grin, as much as to say it 's some nigger tongue 
 or other in place o' good English for, d' ye see, they 'd half 
 their faces black-beard, and rings i' their ears when up walks 
 another chap like the skipper, an' more the looks of a country- 
 man. " I 'm a free-born Briton ! " roars I again ; with that he 
 lends me a squint, looks to the men, and gives some sort of a 
 sign, when they jams-to the hatch and nips me fast by the 
 neck. " Devil of a deep beggar, this 'ere ! " says he ; " jist
 
 154 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 give him the gag, my lads/' says he ; " the planters often 
 thinks more of a dumby, 'cause he works the more, and a 
 stout piece o' goods this is ! " says he. Well, mate, what does 
 they do but one pulls out a knife, an' be blowed if they warn't 
 a-goin' for to cut out my tongue ; but the men aloft sung out 
 to hoist away the yards ; so they left me ready clinched till 
 they 'd belay the ropes. Next a hand for'ard, by good luck, 
 hailed " Sail ho ! " and they 'd some'at else to think o' besides 
 me ; for there, my boy, little more nor three miles to wind'ard, 
 I see'd the Irish as she come driving bodily out o' the mist, 
 shakin' out her three to'gallant-sails, an' a white spray flying 
 with her off one surge to another. Rather bad it was, mind 
 ye, for my windpipe, for every time the schooner pitched, 
 away swings my feet clear o' the nigger's heads 'cause, d J ye 
 see, we chanced for to be stowed on the 'tween-decks, an' 
 another tier there was, stuffed in her lower hold an' there I 
 stuck, mate, so as I couldn't help watchin' the whole chase, 
 till at last the hatch slacks nip a bit, and down I plumps into 
 the dark again. 
 
 "'Well, bo', the breeze got lighter, an' to all seemin' the 
 cursed schooner held her own; but hows'ever, the sloop-o'-war 
 kept it up all day, and once or twice she tips us a long shot ; 
 till by sunset, as I reckoned, we hears no more on her. The 
 whole night long, again, there we stews as thick as peas I 
 keeps harknin' to the sighs and groans, an' the wash along 
 the side, in a sort of a doze ; an' s'help me Bob, I fancies for a 
 moment I 'm swinging in my hammock in the foc'sle, an it 's 
 no more but the bulkheads and timbers creakin'. Then I 
 thinks it 's some un else I dreams on, as i"s oneasy, like to 
 choke for heat and thirst ; and I 'm a-chucklin' at him when 
 up I wakes with the cockroaches swarming over my face. 
 Another groan runs from that end to this, the whole lot on us 
 tries hard, and kicks their neighbours to turn, an' be blowed 
 if I knowed but I was buried in a churchyard, with the horrid 
 worms all a-crawl about me. All on a suddent, nigh-hand to 
 daybreak it was, I hears a gun to wind'ard, so with that I 
 contrives for to scramble up with my eye to the scuttle-port. 
 'Twas a stiffish breeze, an' I see'd some'at lift on a sea like a 
 albatross's wing, as one may say though what wor this but 
 the Irish's bit of a tender, standing right across our bows for 
 the schooner, ye see, changed her course i' the night-time,
 
 A SEA STORY 155 
 
 rig'lar slaver's dodge, thinkin' for to drop the sloop-o'-war, 
 sure enough. But as for the little f lucca, why they hadn't 
 bargained for her at all, lying-to as she did, with a rag o' sail 
 up, in the troughs of the sea, till the schooner was close on 
 her. 
 
 "'Well, no sooner does they go about, my boy, but the 
 muskeety of a cruiser lets drive at her off the top of a sea, as 
 we hung broadside to them in stays. Blessed if I ever see 
 sich a mark! the shot jist takes our foretop fair slap for the 
 next minute I seed the foretopmast come over the leeside, 
 an' astarn we begins to go directly. What's more, mate, I 
 never see a small craft yet handled better in a sea, as that 
 'ere chap did nor the same thing done, cleaner at any rate 
 for they jist comes nigh-hand tip on our bowsprit-end, as the 
 schooner lifted then up in the wind they went like clock- 
 work, with a starnway on as carried the f lucca right along- 
 side on us, like a coachman backing up a lane, and grind we 
 both heaved on the swell, with the topmast hamper an' its 
 canvas for a fender atwixt us. Aboard jumps the man-o'-war's- 
 men, in course, cutlash in hand, an' for five minutes some 
 tough work there was on deck, by the tramp, the shots, an' 
 the curses over our heads when off they shoved the hatches, 
 and I seed a tall young feller in a gold-banded cap look below. 
 Be blowed if I wasn't goin' to sing out again, for, d' ye see, 
 I 'm blessed if I took mind on the chap at all, as much by 
 reason o' the blood an' the smoke he'd got on his face as aught 
 else. Hows' ever, I holds a bit meantime, on account o' Job 
 Price an' that 'ere piratecy consarn till what does I think, a 
 hour or two arter, when I finds as this here were the very 
 leftenant as chased us weeks on end in the Camaroons. So 
 a close stopper, sure enough, I keeps on my jaw ; an' as for 
 scentin' me out amongst a couple o' hundred blacks in the 
 hold, why, 'twere fit to 'ppal my own mother herself. 
 
 " ' Well, Jack, by this time bein' near Serry Loney, next 
 day or so we got in where, what does they do but they 
 lubberrates us all, as they calls it, into a barracoon ashore, till 
 sich time as the slaver ud be condemned an' off goes the 
 tender down coast again. Arter that, they treats us well 
 enough, but still I dursn't say a word ; for one day, as we goed 
 to work makin' our huts, there I twigs a printed bill upon the 
 church-wall, holdin' out a reward, d' ye see, consarnin' the
 
 156 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 piratecy, with my oun name and my very build logged down 
 ownly, be hanged if they doesn't tack on to it all, by way of 
 a topgallant ink-jury to a man, these here words " He 's a 
 very ugly feller looks like a furriner." Well, mate, I ain't a 
 young maiden, sure enough, but, thinks I, afore I fell foul o' 
 that blasted fittish-man an' his nut, cuss me if I looks jist so 
 bad as that 'ere ! So ye know this goes more to my heart nor 
 aught else, till there I spells out another confounded lie in the 
 bill, as how Captin Price's men had mutinied again him, and 
 murdered the brig's crew when, in course, I sees the villain's 
 whole traverse at once. So sayin', I watched my chance one 
 night an' went aboard a Yankee brig as were to sail next day ; 
 an' I tells the skipper part o' the story, offerin' for to work my 
 passage across for nothing; which, says he, "It's a hinterestin' 
 narritif " them was his words ; and, says he, " It 's a land o' 
 freedom is the States, an' no mistake ain't there no more on 
 ye in the like case ? " he says. " Not as I knows on, sir," I 
 answers ; an' says he, " Plenty o' coloured gen'lmen there is 
 yonder, all in silks an' satins ; an' I hear," says he, " there 's 
 one on 'em has a chance o' bein' President next time anyhow 
 I 'm your friend," says he, quite hearty. 
 
 " ' Well, the long an' short of it was, I stays aboard the 
 brig, works my spell in her, an' takes my trick at the helium 
 but I 'm blowed, Jack, if the men 'ud let me sleep in the 
 foc'sle, 'cause I was a black, so I slung my hammock aft with 
 the nigger stoord. D' ye see, I misgived myself a bit when 
 we sank the coast, for, thinks I, it 's in Africay as that 'ere 
 blessed mushroom are to be found, to take the colour off me 
 hows'ever, I thinks it carn't but wear out in time, now I 've 
 got out o' that 'ere confounded mess, where, sure enough, 
 things was against me. So at last the v'yage were up, an' 
 the brig got in to New Orleans. There I walks aft to the 
 skipper for to take leave, when says he, wonderfly friendly 
 like, " Now, my lad," says he, " I 'm goin' up river a bit for 
 to see a friend as takes a interest in your kind an' if ye likes, 
 why I '11 pay yer passage that far? " In course I agrees, and 
 up river we goes, till we lands at a fine house, where I 'm left 
 in a far-handy, ye know, while the skipper an' his friend has 
 their dinner. All at once the gen'lman shoves his head out 
 of a doure, takes a look at me, an' in again arter that I hears, 
 the chink o' dollars then the skipper walks out, shuts the
 
 A SEA STORY 157 
 
 doure, and says he to me, "Now," he says, "that's a 'cute 
 sort o' tale ye tould me, my lad, but it 's a lie, I guess ! " "Lie, 
 sir ! " says I, " what d' ye mean ? " for ye see that 'ere matter 
 o' the iv'ry brig made me sing small at first. " No slack, 
 Pumpey," says he, liftin' his forefinger like a schoolmaster ; 
 " ain't yer name Pumpey ? " says he. " Pumpey ! " says I, 
 "my name's Jack Brown," for that wor the name I'd gived 
 him afore. "Oh !" says he, "jest say it 's Gin'ral Washington, 
 right off. Come," says he, " I guess I 'd jest tell ye what tripe 
 you belongs to you 're a Mandigy nigger," says he. " It 's 
 all very well," he says, "that 'ere yarn, but that 's wot they 'd 
 all say when they comes, they've been dyed black ! Why," 
 says he, " doesn't I see that 'ere brand one night on yer back 
 
 there 's yer arms all over pagan tattooin' " " Bless ye, 
 
 captin," I says, a-holdin' up my arm, "it's crowns an' anchors!" 
 " Crowns ! " says he, turnin' up his nose, "what does we know 
 o' crowns hereaway rve ain't barbers yet, I guess " of what 
 he meant by barbers here, mate, I 'm hanged if I knowed. 
 " 'Sides," says he, " you speaks broken Aimerricane ! " 
 "'Merricain?" I says, "why, I speaks good English ! an' good 
 reason, bein' a freeborn Briton as white 's yerself, if so be I 
 could ownly clap hands for a minnet on some o' them mush- 
 rooms I tould ye on ! " " Where does they grow, then ? " 
 axes he, screwin' one eye up. "In Africay yonder, sir," I 
 says, " more 's the pity I hadn't the chance to lay hands on 
 them again!" " Phoo ! " says he, "glad they ain't here ! 
 An' does you think we 're a-goin' for to send all the way over 
 to Africay for them mushrooms you talks on ? Tell ye what, 
 yer free papers 'ud do ye a sight more good here ! " says he ; 
 " it 's no use with a black skin for to claim white laws ; an' 
 what's more, ye 're too tarnation ugly-faced for it, let alone 
 colour, Pumpey, my man," he says. "I tell ye what it is, 
 Captin Edwards," says I, " my frontispiece ain't neither here 
 nor there, but if you calls me Pumpey again, blowed an' I 
 don't pitch inty ye ! " so with that I handles my bones in a 
 way as makes him hop inside the doure an' says the skipper 
 houldin' it half-shut, " Harkee, lad," he says, "it's no go your 
 tryin' for to run, or they'll make ye think angels o' bo'sun's- 
 mates. But what's more," says he, "nivver you whisper a 
 word o' what ye tells me, about nuts an' mushrooms, or sich 
 like trash no more will I ; for d' ye see, my lad, in that case
 
 158 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 they 'd jest hush ye up for good ! " " Who d' ye mean ? " I says, 
 all abroad, an' of a shiver like mindin' on the slave-schooner 
 again. "Why, the planter's people," says he, "as I've sold 
 ye to." An' with that he pints into his mouth, and shuts the 
 doure. 
 
 " ' Well, mate, ye may fancy how I feels ! Here I stands, 
 givin' a look round for a fair offing ; but there was bulwarks 
 two fadom high all round the house, a big bloodhound lyin' 
 chained, with his muzzle on his two paws, an' nobody seem'd 
 for to mind me. So, I see'd it were all up wonst more ; an' at 
 the thou't of a knife in my tongue, I sits right down in the 
 far-handy, rig'lar flabbergasted, when out that 'ere blasted 
 skipper shoots his head again, an' says he, " Pumpey, my lad, 
 good-day," says he ; "you knows some'at o' the water, an' as 
 they 've boat-work at times hereaway, I don't know but, if 
 you behaves yerself, they '11 trust you with an oar now an' 
 then : for I tould yer master jist now," says he, "as how you 
 carn't speak no English ! " Well, I gives him a hoath, 'cause 
 by that time I hadn't a word to throw at a dog ; and shortly 
 arter, up comes the overseer with his black mate, walks me off 
 to a shed, strips me, and gives me a pair o' cotton drawers and 
 a broad hat so out I goes the next mornin' for to hoe sugar- 
 cane with a gang o' niggers. 
 
 "'Well, mate, arter that I kept close enough says no 
 more, but mumbles a lot o' no-man's jargon, as makes 'em 
 all log me down for a sort o' double-Guinea savitch 'cause 
 why, I were hanged afeard for my tongue, seein', if so be 
 I lost it, I 'd be a nigger for ever, sure enough. So the 
 blacks, for most part being country-bred, they talks nothin' 
 but a blessed jumble, for all the world like babbies at home ; 
 an' what does they do but they fancies me a rig'lar African 
 nigger, as proud as Tommy, an' a' most ready for to washup 
 me they wor why, the poor divvies 'ud bring me yams and 
 fish ; they kisses my flippers an' toes as I 'd been the Pope ; 
 an' as for the young girls, I 'm blowed if I warn't all the go 
 amongst 'em though I carn't say the same where both 's 
 white, ye know ! What with the sun an' the cocoa-nut ile, 
 to my thinkin', I gets blacker an' blacker blessed if I 
 didn't fancy a feller's very mind turned nigger. I larns 
 their confounded lingo, an' I answers to the name o' Pumpey, 
 blast it, till I right-down forgets that I 'd ever another.
 
 A SEA STORY 159 
 
 As for runnin', look ye, I knowed 'twas no use thereaway, 
 as long as my skin tould against me, an' as long as Africay 
 wor where it wor. So, my boy, I see'd pretty clear, ye know, 
 as this here world 'ud turn a man into a rig'lar built slave- 
 nigger in the long run if he was an angel out o' heaven ! 
 
 " ' Well, mate, one day I 'm in the woods amongst a gang, 
 chopping firewood for the sugar-mill, when, what does I 
 light on betwixt some big ground-leaves and sich like, but 
 a lot o' them very same red mushrooms as the fittish-man 
 shows me in Africay ! blowed if there warn't a whole sight 
 o' them round about, too! So I pulls enough for ten, ye 
 may be sure, stuffs 'em in my hat, an' that same night, as 
 soon as all 's dark, off I goes into the woods, right by the 
 stars, for the nearest town 'twixt there and New Orleans. 
 As soon as I got nigh-hand it, there I sits down below a 
 tree amongst the bushes, hauls off my slops, an' I turns to 
 for to rub myself all over, from heel to truck, till daybreak. 
 So, in course, I watches for the light angshis enough, as ye 
 may suppose, to know what colour I were. Well, strike me 
 lucky, Jack, if I didn't jump near a fadom i' the air, when 
 at last I sees I 'm white wonst more ! blessed if I didn't 
 feel myself a new man from stem to starn ! I makes right 
 for a creek near by, looks at my face in the water, then up 
 I comes again, an' every yarn o' them cussed slave-togs I 
 pulls to bits, when I shoves 'em under the leaves. Arter 
 that I took fair to the water for about a mile, jist to smooth 
 out my wake, like ; then I shins aloft up a tree, where I 
 stowed myself away till noon 'cause, d' ye see, 1 knowed 
 pretty well what to look for next. An' by this time, mind 
 ye, all them queer haps made a fellow wonderful sharp, so 
 I 'd scheme out the whole chart aforehand how to weather 
 on them cussed Yankees. 
 
 " ' Accordently, about noon, what does I hear but that 'ere 
 savitch bloodhound comin' along up creek, with a set o' 
 slave-catchers astarn, for to smell out my track. With that, 
 down I went in the water again, rounds a point into the big 
 river, where I gets abreast of a landin' place, near the town, 
 with craft laying out-stream, boats plyin', an' all alive. D' ye 
 see, bo', I 'd got no clothes at all, an' how for to rig myself 
 again, 'blowed if I knows seein' as how by this time I 'd 
 turned as white as the day I were born, an' a naked white
 
 160 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 man in a town arn't no better than a black nigger. So in 
 I swims like a porpus afore a breeze, an' up an' down I ducks 
 in the shallow, for all the world like a chap a-takin' a bath ; 
 an' out I hollers to all an' sundry, with a Yankee twang i' my 
 nose, for to know if they had seen my clothes, till a whole 
 lot on 'em crowds on the quay. Hows' ever, I bethinks me 
 on that 'ere blasted brand atwixt my shoulders, an' I makes 
 myself out as modest as a lady, kicks out my legs, and 
 splashes like a whale aground, an' sticks out my starn to 
 'em for to let 'em see it 's white. " Hullo ! " I sings out, 
 "han't ye seen my clothes?" "No, stranger," says they, 
 " someun's runned off with 'em, we cal'clates ! " With that 
 I tells 'em I 'm a Boston skipper new corned up from New 
 Orleans ; an' not being used to the heat, why I 'd took a 
 bath the first thing; an' I 'scribes the whole o' my togs 
 as if I'd made 'em "split new," says I, "an' a beaver 
 hat, more by token there's my name inside it; an'," says 
 I, " there 's notes for a hundred dollars in my trousers ! " 
 
 " ' By this time down comes the slave-catchers, an' says 
 they, hearin' on it, "That 'ere tarnation nigger's gone off 
 with 'em, we'll know 'un by them marks well enough," 
 says they, an' off they goes across river. " Hullo ! " I sings 
 out to the folks, " I 'm a-gettin' cold here, so I guess I'll 
 come ashore again, slick off ! " I twangs out. " Guess ye 
 can't, straunger ! " they hails ; " not till we gets ye some 
 kiverin's! we're considerable proper here, we are!" "Ain't 
 this a free country, then?" I says, givin' a diwle of a 
 splash ; an' with that they begs an' axes me for to hould 
 on, an' they 'd fix me, as they calls it, in no time. " Well, 
 mate, what does they do but one an' another brings me some- 
 thin' as like what I 'scribed as could be, hands 'em along 
 on a pole, an' I puts 'em on then an' there. Arter that, 
 the ladies o' the place bein' blessed modest, an' all of a 
 fright leest I 'd a corned out an' gone through the town 
 why, out o' grannytude, as they says, they gets up a supper- 
 scription on a hundred dollars to make up my loss has a 
 public meetin' logged down for the evenin', when I 'm for 
 to indress the citizens, as they says, all about freedom an' 
 top-gallantry, an* sichlike. Hows' ever, I jist sticks my 
 tongue in my cheek, eats a blessed good dinner in a hot-ell, 
 watches my chance, an' off by a track-boat at sundown to
 
 A SEA STORY ]6l 
 
 New Orleans, where I shipped aboard a English barque, an' 
 gets safe out to sea wonst more. 
 
 " ' Lord love ye, Harry ! ' exclaimed Jack hereupon, ' the 
 likes o' that now ! But I 've heerd say, them fittish-men you 
 talks on has wonderful knowledge why, mayhap it 's them as 
 keeps all the niggers black, now ? ' ' Well, bo',' said Harry, 
 f I don't doubt but if them 'Merricain slaves jist knowed o' 
 that 'ere red mushroom, why they'd show the Yankees more 
 stripes nor stars I D' ye see, if a Yankee knowed as his own 
 father were a-hoein' his sugar-canes, blowed if he wouldn't 
 make him work up his liberty in dollars ! All the stripes, 
 d' ye see, mate, is for the blacks, an' all the stars is for the 
 whites, in them Yankee colours as they brags so much about ! 
 But what I says is, it 's cussed hard to get through this 'ere 
 world, shipmate, if ye doesn't keep well to the wind'ard of 
 it!' 
 
 " I was the more amused with this account of the ugly 
 rascal's adventures that I remembered two or three of the 
 occasions he mentioned, and he told them pretty exactly 
 so far as I had to do with them. As for the fetish-man's 
 curious nut, and that extraordinary mushroom of his, why 
 ' ten to one,' thought I, ' but all the while the fellow never 
 once touched a piece of soap \ ' which, no doubt, had as much 
 to do with it as anything besides. Somehow or other, not- 
 withstanding, I had taken almost a fancy to the villain such 
 a rough sample of mankind he was, with his uncouth grumpy 
 voice, and his huge black beard ; and he gave the story in a 
 cool, scornful sort of way that was laughable in itself. ' So, 
 my lad,' I thought, 'it seems you and I have met twice 
 before ; but if you play any of your tricks this time, Master 
 Harry, I hope you 've found your match ' ; and certainly, if I 
 had fancied my gentleman was in the slaver's hold that time 
 off the African coast, I 'd have c lubberrated ' him with a 
 vengeance. 
 
 " ' I say, mates,' said he again, with a sulky kind of 
 importance, to those of the watch who had gathered round 
 during the last half of his yarn, ' there 's three things I hates 
 an' good reason ! ' ' What be 's they, Harry ? ' asked the 
 rest. ' One 's a Yankee,' said he, ' an' be blowed to him ; 
 the second 's a slaver ; and the third is I carn't abide a 
 
 nigger, nohow. But d' ye see, there 's one thing I likes ' 
 
 L
 
 162 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Here eight bells struck out, and up tumbled the watch below, 
 with Jacobs' hearty face amongst them : so I made my way 
 aft, and, of course, missed hearing what that said delightful 
 thing might be, which this tarry ^Esop approved of so much. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 ""\T7"HILE I was listening, I had scarcely noticed, that 
 ^ * within the last few minutes a light air had begun to 
 play aloft among the higher canvas, a faint cat's-paw came 
 ruffling here and there a patch of the water, till by this time 
 the Indiaman was answering her wheel again, and moving 
 slowly ahead, as the breeze came down and crept out to the 
 leeches of her sails, with a sluggish lifting of her heavy fore- 
 course. The men were all below at breakfast, forward, and, 
 of course, at that hour the poop above me was quite a Babel 
 of idlers' voices ; while I looked into the compass and watched 
 the ship's head falling gradually off from north-east-by-north, 
 near which it had stuck pretty close since daybreak. The 
 sun was brought before her opposite beam, and such a perfect 
 gush of hazy white light shot from that quarter over the 
 larboard bulwarks, that thereaway, in fact, there might have 
 been a fleet of ships, or a knot of islands, and we none the 
 wiser, as you couldn't look into it at all. 
 
 " The chief mate came handing a wonderfully timid young 
 lady down the poop-ladder with great care, and as soon as 
 they were safe on the quarter-deck, she asked, with a confiding 
 sort of lisp, ' And where are we going now then, Mr Finch ? ' 
 ' Well, miss,' simpered he, ' wherever you please, I '11 be glad 
 to conduct you ! ' ' Oh, but the ship I mean/ replied she, 
 giggling prettily. ' Why,' said Finch, stooping down to the 
 binnacle, ' she heads due south-east at present, miss.' ' I am so 
 glad you are going on again ! ' said the young lady ; ' but oh ,' 
 when shall we see dear land once more, Mr Finch ? ' ' Not for 
 more than a week, I fear,' answered the mate, 'when we arrive 
 at the Cape of Good Hope. But there, miss, your poetic 
 feelings will be gratified, I assure you. The hills there, I 
 might say, Miss Brodie,' he went on, 'not to speak of the 
 woods, are quite dramatic 1 You mustn't suppose the rough
 
 A SEA STORY 163 
 
 manner, rude as he seems, Miss Brodie, is entirely devoid of 
 romance in his sentiments, I hope ! ' and he looked down for 
 the twentieth time that morning at his boots as he handed 
 her down the cabin hatchway, longing to see the Cape, no 
 doubt. ' Much romance, as you call it, there is in ugly Harry 
 yonder ! ' thought I ; and comparing this sort of stuff, aft, with 
 the matter-of-fact notions before the mast, made me the more 
 anxious for what might turn up in a few hours, with this gallant 
 first officer left in full charge, and the captain, as I under- 
 stood, unable to leave his cot. A good enough seaman the 
 fellow was, so far as your regular deep-sea work went, which 
 those India voyagers had chiefly to do with then ; but for aught 
 out of the way, or a sudden pinch, why, the peace had just 
 newly set them free of their leading-strings, and here this 
 young mate brought his new-fangled school navigation, for- 
 sooth, to run the Seringapatam into some mess or other ; 
 whereas, in a case of the kind, I had no doubt he would prove 
 as helpless as a child. 
 
 t( By this time, for my part, all my wishes for some ticklish 
 adventure were almost gone, when I thought of our feelings 
 at the loss of the boat, as well as the number of innocent young 
 creatures on board, with Lota Hyde herself amongst them ; 
 while here had I got myself fairly set down for a raw griffin. 
 Yet neither Westwood nor I, unless it came to the very worst, 
 could venture to make himself openly useful ! I was puzzled 
 both what to think of our exact case, and what to do ; whereas 
 a pretty short time in these latitudes, as the foremast-man had 
 said, might finish our business altogether ; indeed, the whole 
 look of things, somehow or other, at that moment, had a strange 
 unsettled touch about it, out of which one unaccustomed to 
 those parts might be sure some change would come. The air, 
 a little ago, was quite suffocating, the heat got greater ; and 
 the breeze, though it seemed to strengthen aloft, at times 
 sank quietly out of her lower canvas like a breath drawn in, 
 and caught it again as quietly ere it fell to the masts. What 
 with the slow huge heave of the water, as it washed glittering 
 past, and what with the blue tropical sky overhead, getting 
 paler and paler at the horizon astern, from fair heat while 
 the sunlight and the white haze on our larboard beam, made 
 it a complete puzzle to behold why, I felt just like some 
 fellow in one of those stupid dreams after a heavy supper,
 
 164 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 with nothing at all in them, when you don't know how long 
 or how often you 've dreamt it before. Deuce the hand or 
 foot you can stir, and yet you 've a notion of something horrid 
 that 's sure to come upon you. 
 
 " We couldn't be much more than a hundred miles or so to 
 south' ard of St Helena ; but we might be two thousand miles 
 off the land, or we might be fifty. I had only been once in my 
 life near the coast thereaway, and certainly my recollections 
 of it weren't the most pleasant. As for the charts, so little was 
 known of it that we couldn't depend upon them; yet there was 
 no doubt the ship had been all night long in a strong set of 
 water toward north-east, right across her course. For my own 
 part, I was as anxious as anyone else to reach the Cape, and get 
 rid of all this cursed nonsense ; for since last night, I saw quite 
 well by her look that Violet Hyde would never favour me, if 
 I kept in her wake to the day of judgment. There was I, 
 too, every time I came on deck and saw those round-house 
 doors, my heart leapt into my throat, and I didn't know port 
 from starboard ! But what was the odds, that I 'd have kissed 
 the very pitch she walked upon, when she wasn't for me \ 
 being deep in love don't sharpen the faculties neither, and 
 the more I thought of matters the stupider I seemed to get. 
 'Green Hand !' thought I, f as Jacobs and the larboard watch 
 call me, it appears why, they 're right enough ! A green 
 hand I came afloat nine years ago, and, by Jove ! though I 
 know the sea and what belongs to it, from sheer liking to 
 them, as 'twere it seems a green hand I 'm to stick seeing 
 I know so blessed little of womankind, not to speak of that 
 whole confounded world ashore ! With all one's schemes and 
 one's weather-eye, something new always keeps turning up to 
 show one what an ass he is ; and hang me, if I don't begin to 
 suppose I 'm only fit for working small traverses upon slavers 
 and jack-nasty-faces, after all ! There 's Westwood, without 
 troubling himself, seems to weather upon me, with her, like 
 a Baltimore clipper on a Dutch schuyt ! ' In short, I wanted 
 to leave the Seringapatam as soon as I could, wish them all a 
 good voyage together away for Bombay, sit down under Table 
 Mountain, and then perhaps go and travel amongst the Hot- 
 tentots by way of a change. 
 
 "The chief officer came aft towards the binnacle again, 
 with a strut in his gait, and more full of importance than ever,
 
 A SEA STORY 165 
 
 of course. ' This breeze '11 hold, I think, Macleod ? ' said he 
 to the second mate, who was shuffling about in a lounging, 
 unseamanlike way he had, as if he felt uncomfortable on the 
 quarter-deck, and both hands in his jacket pockets. ' Well,' 
 said the Scotchman, ' do ye not think it 's too early begun, 
 sir?' and he looked about like an old owl, winking against 
 the glare of light past the mainsheet to larboard ; ' I '11 not 
 say but it will, though,' continued he, ' but 'odsake, sir, it 's 
 terrible warm ! ' ' Can't be long ere we get into Cape Town 
 now,' said the mate, 'so you J ll turn the men on deck as soon 
 as breakfast 's over, Mr Macleod, and commence giving her a 
 coat of paint outside, sir.' 'Exactly, Mr Finch,' said the 
 other, ' all hands it '11 be, sir ? For any sake, Mr Finch, give 
 they lazy scoundrels something to do ! ' ' Yes, all hands,' said 
 Finch; and he was going below, when the second mate sidled 
 up to him again, as if he had something particular to say. 
 ' The captain '11 be quite better by this time, no doubt, Mr 
 Finch ? ' asked he. ' Well d' ye mean ? ' inquired the mate, 
 rather shortly ; 'why no, sir, when the surgeon saw him in the 
 morning watch, he said it was a fever, and the sooner we saw 
 the Cape the better for him.' 'No doubt, no doubt, sir,' said 
 the second mate, thoughtfully, putting his forefinger up his 
 twisted nose, which I noticed he did in such cases, as if the 
 twist had to do with his memory 'no doubt, sir, that's just 
 it ! The doctor 's a sharp Edinbro' lad did he see aucht by 
 common about the captain, sir ? ' ' No,' said Finch, ' except 
 that he wanted to go on deck this morning, and the surgeon 
 took away his clothes and left the door locked.' e Did he, 
 though ? ' asked Macleod, shaking his head, and looking a 
 little anxious; 'didna he ask for aucht in particular, sir?' 
 ' Not that I heard of, Mr Macleod/ replied the mate ; ' what 
 do you mean?' 'Did he not ask for a green leaf?' replied 
 the second mate. * Pooh,' said Finch, ' what if he did ? ' 
 ' Well, sir,' said Macleod, ' neither you nor the doctor 's sailed 
 five voyages with the captain, like me. He 's a quiet man, 
 Captain Weelumson, an' well he knows his calling ; but some- 
 times warm weather doesn't do with him, more especial siccan 
 warm weather as this, when the moon 's full, as it is the night, 
 ye know, Mr Finch. There 's something else besides that, 
 though, when he 's taken that way.' ' Well, what is it ?' asked 
 the mate, carelessly. ' Oo ! ' said Macleod, ' it can't be that
 
 166 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 this time, of course, sir it 's when he 's near the land ! The 
 captain knows the smell of it, these times, Mr Finch, as well 
 as a cockroach does an' it 's then he asks for a green leaf, 
 and wants to go straight ashore I mind he did it the voy'ge 
 before last, sir. He 's a quiet man, the captain, as 1 said, for 
 
 ord'nar' but when he's roused, he's a ' 'Why, what 
 
 was the matter with him ? ' said Finch, more attentive than 
 before; 'you don't mean to say? go on, Mr Macleod.' The 
 second mate, however, looked cautious, closed his lips firmly, 
 and twirled his red whiskers, as he glanced with one eye aloft 
 again. ' Hoo !' said he, carelessly, 'hoo, it's nothing, nothing 
 just, I 'm thinking, sir, what they call disgestion ashore 
 all frae the stommach, Mr Finch. We used just for to lock 
 the state-room door, an' never let on we heard but at any 
 rate, sir, this is no the thing at all, ye know ! Mester Semm,' 
 continued he to the fat midshipman, who came slowly up from 
 the steerage, picking his teeth with a pocket-knife, 'go forrid 
 and get the bo' sun to turn up all hands.' 
 
 '" Sir,' said I, stepping up to the mate next moment, before 
 the round-house, ' might I use the freedom of asking where- 
 abouts we are at present ? ' Finch gave me a look of cool 
 indifference, without stirring head or hand; which I saw, how- 
 ever, was put on, as, ever since our boating affair, the man 
 evidently detested me, with all his pretended scorn. 'Oh 
 certainly, sir !' said he, 'of course ! sorry I haven't the ship's 
 log here to show you but it 's two hundred miles or so below 
 St Helena, eight hundred miles odd off the south-west African 
 coast, with a light westerly breeze bound for the Cape of 
 Good Hope so after that you can look about you, sir I ' 
 ' Are you sure of all that, sir ? ' asked I, seriously. ' Oh no, of 
 course not ! ' said he, still standing as before, ' not in the least, 
 sir ! It 's nothing but quadrant, sextant, and chronometer 
 work, after all which every young gentleman don't believe 
 in ! ' Then he muttered aloud, as if to himself, ' Well, if the 
 captain should chance to ask for a green leaf, I know where to 
 find it for him ! ' 
 
 " I was just on the point of giving him some angry answer 
 or other, and perhaps spoiling all, when I felt a tap on my 
 shoulder, and on turning round saw the Indian judge, who 
 had found me in the way either of his passage or his prospect, 
 on stepping out of the starboard door. ' Eh I ' said he, jocu-
 
 A SEA STORY 167 
 
 larly, as I begged his pardon, ' eh, young sir I 've nothing to 
 do with pardons always leave that to the governor-general 
 and councillors ! Been doing anything wrong, then ? Ah, 
 what 's this still calm, or some of your wind again, Mr 
 Officer?' ' A fine breeze like to hold, Sir Charles,' answered 
 the mate, all bows and politeness. ' So ! ' said Sir Charles ; 
 'but I don't see Captain Williamson at all this morning 
 where is he ? ' 'I am sorry to say he is very unwell, Sir 
 Charles,' said Finch. ' Indeed ! ' exclaimed the judge, with 
 whom the captain stood for all the seamanship aboard, and 
 looking round again rather dissatisfied. 'Don't like that, 
 though. I hope he won't be long unable to attend to things, 
 sir let me know as soon as he is recovered, if you please.' 
 ' Certainly, Sir Charles,' said the chief officer, touching his cap 
 with some appearance of pique ; ' but I hope, sir, I understand 
 my duties in command, Sir Charles.' ' Daresay, sir,' said the 
 judge, 'as officer, probably. Commander absent horrible 
 accidents already,' he muttered, crossly, changing his usual 
 high sharp key to a harsh croak, like a saw going through a 
 heavy spar, ' something sure to go wrong wish we 'd done 
 with this deuced tiresome voyage. Ha, young gentleman,' 
 exclaimed he, turning as he went in, ' d' ye play chess 
 suppose not eh?' 'Why yes, sir/ said I, 'I do.' 'Well,' 
 continued he, overhauling me more carefully than he had 
 done before, though latterly I had begun to be somewhat 
 in his good graces when we met by chance, e after all, you 've 
 a chess eye, if you know the game at all. Come in, then, for 
 God's sake, and let 's begin. Ever since the poor brigadier 
 went, I 've had only myself or a girl to play against. 'Gad, 
 sir, there is something, I can't express how horrible to my 
 mind, in being matched against nobody or, what 's worse, 
 against a woman ! But recollect, young gentleman, I can not 
 bear a tyro ' ; and he glanced at me as we walked into the 
 large poop-cabin as sharply and as cold as a nor'-wester, ere 
 it breaks to windward. 
 
 " Now I happened to know the game, and to be particularly 
 fond of it ; so, restless as I felt otherwise, I gave the old 
 nabob a quiet nod, laid down my griffin-looking straw hat on 
 the sofa, and in two minutes there we were, sitting opposite 
 over a splendid China-made chess-board, with elephants, 
 emperors, mandarins, and Chinamen, all square and ataunto,
 
 168 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 as if they 'd been set ready for days. The dark kitmagar 
 commenced fanning over his master's head with a bright 
 feather punka, the other native servant handed him his 
 twisted hookah and lighted it, after which he folded his arms 
 and stood looking down on the board like a pundit at some 
 campaign of the Great Mogul ; while the judge himself 
 waited for my first move, as if it had been some of our plain 
 English fellows in Hindostan commencing against your whole 
 big India hubbub and finery, to get hold of it all in the end. 
 For my part I sat at first all of a tingle and tremble, thinking 
 how near his lovely daughter might be ; and there were the 
 breakfast-cups laid out on a round table at the other side, 
 behind me. 
 
 "However, I made my move, Sir Charles made his, and 
 pitched into the game in a half-impatient, half long-headed 
 sort of way, anxious to get to the thick of it, as it were, once 
 more. Not a word was said, and you only heard the suck of 
 the smoke bubbling through the water-bottle of his pipe, after 
 each move the judge made ; till I set myself to the play in 
 right earnest, and, owing to the old gentleman's haste at the 
 beginning, or his over-sharpness, I hooked him into a mess 
 with which I used to catch the old hands at chess in the cock- 
 pit, just by fancying what they meant to be at. The judge 
 lifted his head, looked at me, and went on again. 'Your queen 
 is in check, Sir Charles ! ' said I, next time, by way of a polite 
 hint. 'Check, though, young gentleman ! ' said he, chuckling, 
 as he dropped one of his outlandish knights, which I wasn't 
 yet up to the looks of, close to the windward of my blessed old 
 Turk of a king ; so the skirmish was just getting to be a fair 
 set-to, when I chanced to lift my eyes, and saw the door from 
 the after-cabin open, with Miss Hyde coming through. f Now, 
 papa,' exclaimed she on the moment, 'you must come to 
 breakfast ' when all of a sudden, at seeing another man in 
 the cabin, she stopped short. Being not so loud and griffin- 
 like in my toggery that morning, and my hat off, the young 
 lady didn't recognise me at first though the next minute, I 
 saw by her colour and her astonished look, she not only did 
 that, but something else no doubt remembering at last where 
 she had seen me ashore. 'Well, child,' said the judge, 'make 
 haste with it, then ! Recollect where we are, now, young 
 gentleman and come to breakfast.' She had a pink muslin
 
 A SEA STORY 169 
 
 morning-dress on, with her brown hair done up like the 
 Virgin Mary in a picture, and the sea had taken almost all the 
 paleness off her cheek that it had in the ball-room at Epsom, 
 a month or two ago and, by Jove ! when I saw her begin to 
 pour out the tea out of the silver teapot, I didn't know where 
 I was ! ( Oh, I forgot,' said the judge, waving his hand from 
 me to her, in a hurry, ' Mr Robins, Violet ! ho, kitmagar, 
 curry 1'ao ! ' ' Oh,' said she, stiffly, with a cold turn of her 
 
 pretty lip, ' I have met Mr Mr ' 'Collins, ma'am,' said I. 
 
 ' I have met this gentleman by accident before.' 'So you have 
 so you have,' said her father ; ' but you play chess well, Mr 
 a a what 's his name ? ah ! Colly. Gad, you play well, 
 sir we must have it out!' 
 
 "The young lady glanced at me again with a sort of 
 astonishment; at last she said, no doubt for form's sake, 
 though as indifferently as possible : ' You have known your 
 friend the missionary gentleman long, I believe, sir? the 
 Reverend Mr Thomas I think that is his name ? ' ( Oh no, 
 ma'am ! ' said I hastily, for the judge was the last man I 
 wished should join Westwood and me together, ' only since 
 we crossed the Line, or so.' ' Why, I thought he said you 
 were at school together ! ' said she, in surprise. ' Why hem 
 certainly not, ma'am a a I a a I don't remember 
 the gentleman there,' I blundered out. ' Eh, what ? check 
 to your queen, young gentleman, surely ? ' asked Sir Charles. 
 ' What 's this, though ! Always like to hear a mystery ex- 
 plained, so' and he gave me one of his sharp glances. 
 'Why, why surely, young man, now I think of it in that 
 way, I 've seen you before in some peculiar circumstances 
 or other on land, too. Why, where was it let me see 
 now ? ' putting his finger to his forehead to think ; while 
 I sat pretty uneasy, like a small pawn that had been try- 
 ing to get to the head of the board, and turn into a knight 
 or a bishop, when it falls foul of a grand figured-out king 
 and queen. However, the queen is the only piece you 
 need mind at a distance, and blessed hard it is to escape 
 from her, of course. Accordingly, I cared little enough 
 for the old nabob finding out I had gone in chase of them ; 
 but there sat his charming little daughter, with her eyes 
 on her teacup; and whether the turn of her face meant cool- 
 ness, or malice, or amusement, I didn't know though she
 
 170 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 seemed a little anxious too, I thought, lest her father should 
 recollect me. 
 
 " ' It wasn't before me, young man ? ' asked he, looking up 
 of a sudden : ' no, that must have been in India must have 
 been in England, when I was last there let me see.' And I 
 couldn't help fancying what a man's feelings must be, tried 
 for his life, as I caught a side-view of his temples working, 
 dead in my wake, as it were. The thing was laughable enough, 
 and for a moment I met Lota's eye as he mentioned England 
 'twas too short a glimpse, though, to make out; and, thought 
 I, ' he '11 be down on Surrey directly, and then Croydon last 
 of all, the back of his garden-wall, I suppose ! ' ' Check ' it 
 was, and what I was going to say I couldn't exactly conceive, 
 unless I patched up some false place or other, with matters to 
 match, and mentioned it to the old fellow, though small chance 
 of its answering with such a devil of a lawyer when all at 
 once I thought I heard a hail from aloft ; then the second 
 mate's voice roared close outside, ' Hullo! aloft there!' The 
 next moment I started up, and looked at Miss Hyde, as I 
 heard plainly enough the cry, ' On deck there land O J ' I 
 turned round at once, and walked out of the round-house to 
 the quarter-deck, where, two minutes after, the whole of the 
 passengers were crowding from below, the judge and his 
 daughter already on the poop. Far aloft, upon the fore-to'- 
 gallant-yard, in the hot glare of the sun, a sailor was standing 
 with his hand over his eyes, and looking to the horizon, as the 
 Indiaman stood quietly before the light breeze. 'Where- 
 away-ay ? ' was the next hail from the deck. ' Broad on our 
 larboard bow, sir,' was the answer." 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 " "VY7ELL, ma'am," continued the naval man, on again re- 
 * ^ suming his narrative, " as I told you, the sudden hail 
 of 'Land." brought us all on deck in a twinkling, in the midst 
 of my ticklish conversation with the judge. ' Hallo ! you 
 aloft!' shouted the chief officer himself, 'd'ye hear, sirrah! use 
 your eyes before hailing the deck!' ' Land, sir!' came falling 
 down again out of the sunlight ; ' land it is, sir broad away 
 on our larboard bow, sir.'
 
 A SEA STORY 171 
 
 " By this time it was about half-past nine, or ten o'clock, 
 of the morning. Heading nearly due south-east, as we now 
 were, the Indiaman's bowsprit ran up into the full white 
 blaze of light, in which her flying jib-boom seemed to quiver 
 and writhe far away from her like an eel in water ; while the 
 spread of her sails against it loomed twice as large as ordinary 
 from the sort of hazy double-edged look they had, with a 
 twinkling thread of sun drawing all round them like a frame, 
 as if one saw through a wrong-screwed glass. You 'd have 
 thought by the glance under the fore-course, over the ship's 
 head-gratings, she was travelling off quietly into some no-man's- 
 land or other, where it would be so bright we should have to 
 wear blue spectacles: the light breeze being almost direct from 
 nor'-west, and so fairly in her favour, with the help of her 
 studding-sails she was making wonderful progress for such a 
 mere breath about four knots to the hour, as I reckoned. 
 The air aloft appeared in the meantime to be steadying and 
 sucking though the water kept smooth, and her bows scarce 
 made a noise in it : the wide soft swells of the sea just floated 
 up of a pale blue, and lifted her on, till she went seething 
 gently down into it again; only, if you put your head over the 
 starboard side, and listened, you thought you heard a sort of 
 dull poppling ripple coming along the bends from round her 
 counter. As for the line of horizon on one bow or the other, 
 'twas hardly to be made out at all, with a streaky white haze 
 overlying it, up in the sky as it were, on both sides, behind the 
 dazzle of light. However, the passengers were fancying all 
 kinds of fine tropical matters lay hidden thereaway ; and in 
 fact, what with the notion of land after a long voyage, and what 
 with the faint specks of bright cloud that seemed to be melt- 
 ing far off in the glare to anyone last from Gravesend, that 
 had never seen anything stranger than Richmond Hill of a 
 Sunday, the whole thing ahead of the ship would have rather 
 an enchanted sort of a look. At length the third mate was 
 seen to shove his spy-glass together in the top-gallant cross- 
 trees, and came slowly down the rigging. 'Well, Mr Rickett,' 
 said the chief officer, meeting him, as he landed on deck. 
 f Well, sir,' said Rickett, 'it is land after all, Mr Finch!' 
 The mate rapped out an oath, and took another turn : Macleod 
 screwed his mouth as if he were going to whistle, then pulled 
 his red whiskers instead, and looked queer at Rickett ; while
 
 172 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Rickett stood peering into his spy-glass as he would have done 
 into his hat, had he still been a foremast-man. The mate's eye 
 met his, then turned to the passengers leaning over the poop- 
 railing ; and they all three walked to the capstan, where they 
 began to overhaul the charts, and laid their heads together 
 out of earshot. 
 
 " Now, whether this said land just made out on the north- 
 east trended away back to south-east, as the clearer look of the 
 horizon to starboard made one think, it was hard to say 
 though in that way of it, there were seemingly two plans 
 for widening her distance. Either Finch might think 
 it better to keep hold of a fair wind, and just edge her off 
 enough to drop the point on her weather quarter when, of 
 course, if things stood as they were, we should soon set a 
 good stretch of water betwixt us and the coast ; or else they 
 might brace direct round on the other tack, and head right 
 south-west'ard, out to sea again ; though if we were still in 
 it, the current would set us every bit as much in its own 
 direction as ever. Accordingly, I sidled nearer to the capstan, 
 and watched anxiously for what the third mate had to propose, 
 after humming and hawing a little, and scratching his head 
 under his cap for half a minute. ' At any rate, Mr Finch, 
 sir,' said he, ' more especially the captain being off charge, I 
 
 may say, why, I 'd advise ye, sir, to ' Here he dropped 
 
 his voice ; but Finch apparently agreed to what he said. 
 
 " ' Ready about ship, there !' said the second mate aloud to 
 the boatswain forward ; and in ten minutes afterwards the 
 Seringapatam was fairly round, as I had expected, heading at 
 a right-angle to her former course, with the breeze before her 
 starboard beam, and the sun blazing on the other. I walked 
 forward to the bows, and actually started to hear how loud and 
 clear the ripple had got under them of a sudden ; meeting her 
 with a plash, as if she were making six or seven knots head- 
 way, while the canvas seemed to draw so much stiffer aloft, 
 you 'd have supposed the breeze had freshened as soon as the 
 helm was put down. The mates looked over the side and 
 aloft, rubbing their hands and smiling to each other, as much 
 as to say how fast she was hauling off the bad neighbourhood 
 she was in, though the heat was as great as ever, and you 
 didn't feel a breath more air below, nor see the water ruffle, 
 To my notion, in fact, it was just the set of the current against
 
 A SEA STORY 173 
 
 her that seemingly freshened her way, the ship being now 
 direct in its teeth ; so that, of course, it would keep bearing 
 her up all the time away north-eastward, with her own leeway 
 to help it ; and the less could anyone notice the difference 
 betwixt the water going past her side, and her passing the 
 water. This tack of hers, which Rickett, no doubt, thought 
 such a safe plan, might be the very one to put her in a really 
 dangerous way yet : for when they did discover this under-tow, 
 how were they to take her out of it, after all ? Probably by 
 trying to stand fair across the stream of it to southward, which, 
 without three times the wind we had, would at best take us 
 out many miles nearer the land it set upon, or leave us perhaps 
 becalmed in the midst of it. 
 
 " The truth was, that although I hadn't seen what like the 
 land was, and couldn't have said, by the chart, where we were, 
 I began to have a faint notion of whereabouts we possibly soon 
 might be, from what I remembered hearing an old quarter- 
 master in the Iris say, a couple of years before, regarding a 
 particular spot on the south-west coast, where the currents 
 at some seasons, as he phrased it, made a regular racecourse 
 meeting. The old fellow gave me also, at the time, some bear- 
 ings of the nearest coast, with the landmarks at the mouth of a 
 river a little farther north which, he said, he would know if 
 you set him down there of a dark night, though he had been 
 in his bed at Gosport the minute before, if there was just a 
 bright streak of sky to the eastward namely, a big black rock 
 like two steps, and a block at the foot of them, somewhat the 
 shape of a chipped holystone, running down on one side out of a 
 high headland, like an admiral's cocked hat, with six mop- 
 headed trees upon the root of the rock, for all the world like 
 hairs on a wart. Here I recollected how my worthy authority 
 pointed modestly for example to a case of the kind on his own 
 nose. The opposite shore of its mouth was flat, with a heavy 
 white surf; but it shut in so far upon the other, he said, that, 
 steering from the south' ard, one would never know there was 
 a river there at all. The Bambar he called it ; but if he 
 meant the Bembarooghe, we could scarcely be near it, or that 
 much toward being abreast of St Helena. For all I saw, 
 indeed, we might have nothing to eastward of us save a hard 
 coast, or else the sandy coast farther down, shoaling out of 
 sight of land. At any rate, I knew we must have got into
 
 174 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the tail of the great sea-stream from round the Cape of Good 
 Hope, which would, no doubt, split out at sea on Viana's Bank, 
 and turn partly to north-eastward thereabouts ; so that it 
 wasn't a very bad guess to suppose we were getting up some- 
 where near Cape Frio, the likeliest place in the world to find 
 old Bob Martin's ' Maze/ which we used to joke about so in 
 the Iris. 
 
 " What was done, though, required to be done quickly, and 
 I looked about for Tom Westwood, till I saw him on the poop 
 amongst the rest, talking again to Miss Hyde, as they all 
 crowded towards the lee-quarter to watch the land-haze seem- 
 ingly dropping astern. My heart swelled as it were into my 
 throat, however, at such an appearance of good understanding 
 betwixt the two whereas there was she, an hour ago that very 
 morning, would scarce favour me with a look or a word ! 
 and, for the life of me, I couldn't have spoken to Westwood 
 at the time, much less gone hand in hand ; for that matter he 
 didn't seem to be suspecting aught wrong to trouble himself 
 about. What to say or do, either, I couldn 't think ; since 
 the more he cut me out, and the less friendly I felt to him, 
 the less could I risk the chance of showing us both up for 
 what we were which, of course, would bring him in for the 
 worst of it ; as if /, by Jove, were going to serve him some 
 low trick for the sake of shoving him out with the young 
 lady. 
 
 "Meantime I kept fidgeting about, as if the deck were 
 too hot for me, snatching a glance now and then, in spite 
 of myself, at Violet Hyde's fairy-like figure ; so different 
 from the rest of them, as she stretched eagerly from below 
 the awning over the ship's quarter-gallery, trying to make 
 out where the land lay now putting her little hand over 
 her eyes to see better, then covering them altogether from 
 the dazzle, as she drew in her head again and shook her 
 bright brown hair in the shadow, answering Westwood 
 confound him ! The Indian servant each time carefully 
 poking out the red and yellow punkah-fringe for a cover 
 over her, while the passengers were one and all ready to 
 cry at not seeing the land, and leaving it behind. The 
 judge himself was the only man that seemed to have a 
 dim notion of something queer in the whole case ; for every 
 few minutes he walked quietly to the break of the poop,
 
 A SEA STORY 175 
 
 where I noticed him cast a doubtful look down upon the 
 ' chief officer ' ; and when the surgeon came up, he asked 
 anxiously how Captain Williamson was, and if he couldn't 
 be seen below. However, the surgeon told him the captain 
 had just fallen for the first time into a good sleep, and there 
 was no admittance, but he was likely to be much better 
 soon. 
 
 " By this time there was no standing out from under the 
 awnings, and the quarter-deck and poop had to be well 
 swabbed to keep them at all cool, the steam of it rising 
 inside with a pitchy, hempen sort of smell you never feel 
 save in the Tropics ; the Seringapatam still feeling the 
 breeze aloft, and lifting on the water with a ripple forward, 
 although her big courses went lapping fore and aft every 
 time she swung. The long white haze on the horizon began 
 to melt as the sun heightened, clearing from under the wake 
 of the light, till now you could fairly see the sky to east- 
 ward. Near noon, in fact, we had almost dropped the haze 
 altogether on the ship's quarter ; and at first I was glad to 
 see how much way she had made in the two hours, when 
 on second thoughts, and by noticing some marks in the 
 loom of it, I had no doubt but though she might be farther 
 off, why it was only while she set more up to north-eastward, 
 so that we were actually, so to speak, leaving it by getting 
 nearer I However, as the men were at dinner, and most 
 of the passengers gone off the poop, down to e tiffin,' I made 
 up my mind to try what I could do in a quiet way, towards 
 making the mate think of it more seriously. 
 
 "'Ah,' said I, in a would-be brisk and confidential kind 
 of way, * glad we 're leaving that a you know, that land, 
 Mr Finch.' ' Indeed, sir,' said he indifferently. ' Oh, you 
 know,' said I, ' it 's all very well for the passengers there to 
 talk fine about land land but you and I, Mr Finch, don't 
 need to be told that it 's always dangerous at sea, you know.' 
 The mate lifted his head and eyed me for a moment or two 
 between the disgust a sailor feels at seeing a fellow pretend 
 to aught like seamanship, and a particular sort of spite toward 
 me which I 'd noticed growing in him for the last few days 
 though I daresay my breakfasting that morning in Sir 
 Charles's cabin might have brought it to a height. 
 
 " ' Land dangerous, sir ! ' answered he carelessly, as he
 
 176 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 went on wiping his quadrant again ; ' who put that into your 
 head ? ' ' Oh, well,' returned I, just as carelessly, ' if it 's 
 to leeward of course or with a current taking you towards 
 it only then. But I 've no doubt, Mr Finch, if this wind 
 were to ah you know, heave more abaft, that 's to say get 
 stronger, the craft would at least stand still, till you got 
 her.' 'What on earth are you talking about, Mr Ford 
 Collins, I mean ? ' asked he sharply. ' Really, sir, I 've got 
 something more to attend to at present, than such trash 
 about a current, and the devil knows what else ! ' ' How, 
 why, Mr Finch,' said I, seemingly surprised in my turn, 
 'are we not in a current just now, then?' ' Current!' 
 replied Finch, almost laughing outright, ' what does the 
 man mean ? ' ' Why, every one thinks so, in the cuddy,' 
 said I, as if rather taken aback, and venturing what you 
 fair ladies call a 'fib,' f ever since we picked up the bottle 
 last night.' This, by-the-by, had got spread through some 
 of the men to the passengers, though, of course, nobody knew 
 what had been in it yet. ' There, I declare now,' continued 
 I, pointing to our lee-bow, where I 'd had my eyes fixed 
 during the five minutes we spoke, 'we can try it again. 
 Do you see that bird yonder on the water ? ' The mate 
 turned his head impatiently, and ' Look, watch him, sir,' 
 said I. 
 
 "This was a tired man-o'-war bird afloat about twenty 
 fathoms off, with its sharp white wings stretched just clear of 
 the water, and its black eye sparkling in the sunlight, as it 
 came dipping on the long, smooth, hot-blue swell into the lee 
 of the ship's lofty hull, till you saw its very shadow in the 
 glitter below it. The Indiaman seemed to pass him as if he 
 rode there at anchor ; only the curious thing was, that the 
 bird apparently neared her up from leeward, crossing her 
 larboard quarter within a fathom or two, when all of a sudden 
 he got becalmed, as it were, in the wake right astern, and by 
 the time either of us could walk to the ship's taffrail, she was 
 close over him ; as if, whenever her hull was end-on, it took 
 his surface-drift away from him, and, what was more, as if 
 the ship kept hold of it her eighteen feet or so to his little 
 inch of a draught for it couldn't be owing to the wind. 
 
 " However, the man-o'-war bird took offer of the next swell 
 to get air in his wings, and rose off the heave of it with a
 
 A SEA STORY 177 
 
 sharp bit of a scream, away after some black boobies diving 
 for fish, which no doubt he would catch, as they dropped 
 them at sight of him. 
 
 " The mate upon this started and looked round, then aloft. 
 e Confound it ! ' said he to himself, ' if this breeze would only 
 freshen ! There is a sort of set on the surface just now,' 
 continued he to me, coolly enough, ' though how you idlers 
 happened to have an idea of it puzzles me, unless because 
 you 've nothing else to do but watch the water. Currents are 
 pretty frequent hereabouts, however.' 'Dear me!' said I, 
 
 ' but if we should ' ' Stuff, sir ! ' said he, quickly, ' the 
 
 coast here must be steep-to enough, I should think, since if 
 it weren't for the haze, we 'd have sighted it thirty miles off! 
 What we want is wind wind, to let 's cross it.' ' But then a 
 calm, Mr Finch,' I said ; ' I 'm hanged afraid of those calms ! ' 
 
 * Well, well, sir,' said he, not liking just to shake me off at 
 once, after my proving less of a ninny in sea matters than he 
 had supposed, ' these long currents never set right ashore ; 
 even if we lose the wind, as we may soon, why, she '11 take off 
 into the eddy seaward, sir, if you must know the dead-water 
 in-shore, and the ebb-tide, always give it a safe turn ! ' 
 
 "All this, of course, was as much to satisfy himself as 
 me. ' Well, that 's delightful,' said I, as if quite contented, 
 and Mr Finch walked away hastily down one of the poop- 
 ladders, no doubt glad to get rid of me in a decent manner, 
 though I saw him next minute glancing in at the compass- 
 boxes. 
 
 " ' Keep her up to her course, sirrah ; luff, d' ye hear,' said 
 he to Jacobs, who was, perhaps, the best helmsman aboard. 
 
 * She falls off tremendous bad, sir,' answered Jacobs, with 
 another whirl of the spokes ; her want of actual headway 
 making the Indiamaii sag dead away to leeward, as she shoved 
 into the force of the sea-stream, running more and more 
 direct upon her starboard bow. One minute the courses 
 would sink in with a long sighing fall to the lower-masts, the 
 next her top-sails would flutter almost aback, and the heat 
 even in the shadow of her awnings was extreme, yet she still 
 seemed to have a breeze through the white glare aloft. I 
 was determined to bring things to a point somehow or other, 
 so I followed the mate down the steps. ' Oh, by-the-by, Mr 
 Finch ! ' said I eagerly, ( suppose one of those dreadful what 
 
 M
 
 178 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 do you call 'em ? ah, tornadoes were to come on! I under- 
 stand this is just the way, near Africa baffling breeze -heat 
 suffocating hazy atmosphere long swell and current rising 
 to the surface ! ' 
 
 "At this Finch stood up in a perfect fury. 'What the 
 devil d'ye mean, sir,' said he, 'by dodging me about the 
 decks in this fashion, with these infernally foolish questions 
 of yours ? ' ' Oh, my fine fellow,' thought I, ' you shall settle 
 with me for that.' 'Tornadoes never blow hereabouts, except 
 off-shore, if you must know, sir ! ' he rapped out, sticking his 
 hands in his jacket-pockets as he said so, and taking a turn on 
 the quarter-deck. 'That's quite a mistake, I assure you, 
 sir ! ' said I, carried away with the spirit of the thing ; ' I 've 
 seen the contrary fifty times over, and, from the look of the 
 
 sky aloft just now, I 'd bet ' Here I stopped, recollected 
 
 myself, put the top of my cane in my mouth, and peered 
 under the awning at the sea with my eyes half -shut, as 
 sleepily as usual with my messmates the cadets. The chief 
 officer, however, stepped back in surprise, eyed me sharply, 
 and seemed struck with a sudden thought. ' Why, sir,' said 
 he, rather anxiously, ' who may what can you know of the 
 matter ? ' ' Pooh ! ' replied I, seeing some of the passengers 
 were coming on deck, ' I 'm only of an inquiring turn of 
 mind ! You seafaring persons, Mr Finch, think we can't get 
 any of that kind of knowledge on land ; but if you look into 
 Johnson's Dictionary, why, you '11 find the whole thing under 
 the word Tornado : 'twas one of the pieces I 'd to get by 
 heart before they 'd admit me into our yacht-club along 
 with Falconer's Shipwreck, you know ! ' ' Indeed ! ' said the 
 mate, slowly, with a curl of his lip, and overhauling me from 
 head to foot and up again ; ' ah, indeed ! That was the way, 
 was it, sir ? ' I saw 'twas no use. I daresay he caught the 
 twinkle in my eye ; while Jacobs' face, behind him, was like 
 the knocker on a door with trying to screw it tight over his 
 quid, and stuffing the knot of his neckerchief in his mouth. 
 
 " ' Of course, sir,' answered I, letting my voice fall ; ' and 
 the long and the short of it is, Mr Finch, the sooner you get 
 your ship out of this current the better ! And what 's more, 
 sir, I daresay I could tell you how ! ' 
 
 "Whether he was waiting for what I 'd to say, or thinking 
 of something just occurred to him, was doubtful : he still gazed
 
 A SEA STORY 179 
 
 steadily at me, without saying a word ; so I went on. ' You 
 must know I had an old uncle who was long in His Majesty's 
 Royal Navy, and if there was one point he was crazy upon, 
 'twas just this very matter of currents though, for my part, 
 Mr Finch, I really never understood what he meant till I 
 made a voyage. He used to tell my mother, poor woman 
 who always fancied they had somewhat to do with puddings 
 that he 'd seen no less than half-a-dozen ships go on shore, 
 owing to currents. Now, Jane, he 'd say, when you 're fairly 
 in a current, never you try to cross out of it, as folks often 
 do, against the run of it, for in that case, unless the wind 's 
 strong enough, why, instead of striking the eddy to take your 
 craft right off-shore, it '11 just set you over and over to the 
 inside. You '11 cross, in the end, no doubt but ten to one 
 it 's exactly where the water begins to shoal ; whereas, the 
 right plan's as simple as daylight, and that's why so few 
 know it ! Look ye, he 'd say, always you cross with the 
 stream no matter though your head seems to make landward ; 
 why, the fact is, it'll just set you outside of itself, clear into 
 its own bight, when you can run off to seaward with the eddy, 
 if ye choose. That 's the way to cross a current, my uncle 
 used to say, provided you 've but a light wind for handling 
 her with ! Now, Mr, Finch,' added I, coolly, and still mouthing 
 my stick as before for I couldn't help wishing to give the 
 conceited fellow a rub, while I lent him a hint c for my own 
 part, I can't know much of these things, but it does seem to 
 me as if my uncle's notions pretty well suited the case in 
 hand ! ' 
 
 " Finch was too much of a fair seaman not to catch my drift 
 at once, but in too great a passion to own it at the time. 
 ' D' ye think, sir,' said he, with a face like fire, ' so much sense 
 as there is in this long rigmarole of yours, that I 'm such a 
 that 's to say, that I didn't know it before, sir ? But what 
 I 've got to do with you, Mr Collinson, or whatever your name 
 may be you may have been at sea twenty years, for aught I 
 care but I 'd like to know why you come aboard here, and 
 give yourself out for as raw a greenhorn as ever touched ropes 
 with a kid glove ? ' ' Well, Mr Finch,' said I, ' and what 's 
 that to you, if I choose to be as green as the North Sea 
 whaling-ground ? ' ' Why, sir,' said Finch, working himself 
 up, 'you're devilish cunning, no doubt, but perhaps you're
 
 180 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 not aware that a passenger under a false rig, in an Indiaman, 
 may be clapped in limbo, if the captain thinks fit ? Who and 
 what are you, I ask ? some runaway master's mate, I suppose, 
 unless you've got something deeper in hand! Perhaps,' 
 ended he, with a sneer, ' a pickpocket in disguise ? ' ' Sir,' 
 said I, getting up off the bulwark I 'd been leaning upon, ' at 
 present I choose to be a cadet, but at any rate, you shall make 
 an apology for what you said just now, sir!' 'Apology!' 
 said the mate turning on his heel, ' I shan't do anything of 
 the sort ! You may be thankful, in the meantime, if I don't 
 have you locked up below, that 's all ! Perhaps, by-the-by, 
 sir, all you wanted was to show off your seamanship before the 
 young lady in the round-house there ? ' Here the glance the 
 fellow gave me was enough to show he knew pretty well, 
 all the while, what we were matched against each other for. 
 
 " I could stand this no longer, of course ; but, seeing that 
 one or two of the passengers were noticing us from the poop, 
 I looked as polite as is possible to do when you 've lost your 
 temper ; and, in fact, the whole disappointment of this hair- 
 brained cruise of mine not to speak of a few things one had 
 to stand carried me away at the moment. There was no 
 scheme I wouldn't rather have been suspected of, by this 
 time, than the real one namely, having gone in chase of 
 Violet Hyde. I took a card out of my pocket and handed it 
 quietly to Mr Finch. l You don't seem able to name me, sir,' 
 said I. ' However, I give you my word, you may trust that 
 bit of pasteboard for it ; and as I take you to be a gentle- 
 man by your place in this ship, why, I shall expect the 
 satisfaction one gentleman should give another, the first time 
 we get ashore, although it should be to-morrow morning ! 
 And, by Jove ! ' thought I, ' I hope I 'm done with the most 
 foolish trick ever a fellow played himself! The man that 
 ventures to call me green again, or look at me as if he wanted 
 to cool his eyes, hang me if he shan't answer for it ! As for a 
 woman,' thought I, but, oh, those two blue eyes yonder 
 confound it ! as I caught sight of a white muslin skirt in the 
 shade of the poop-awning above. 
 
 " I must say, for Finch, he took my last move coolly enough, 
 turning round to give me another look, after glancing at the 
 card. ' Indeed ! ' said he, as if rather surprised ; f well, sir, 
 I 'm your man for that, though it can't be just as soon as to-
 
 A SEA STORY 181 
 
 morrow morning ! A Company's officer may meet a lieutenant 
 in the Navy any time ay, and take his ship off the land too, I 
 hope, sir ! ' and with that he walked off forward. ' Lieutenant ! ' 
 said I to myself; 'how did he give me my commission so pat, 
 I wonder ? ' and I pulled out another card, when I found, to 
 my great annoyance, that in my hurry that morning I had 
 happened to put on a coat of Westwood's by mistake, and 
 instead of plain ' Mr Collins/ they were all ' Lieutenant West- 
 wood, R.N.' * Here's another confounded mess !' thought I, 
 ' and all will be blown in the end ! ' However, on second 
 thoughts, the notion struck me, that, by sticking to the name, 
 as I must do now at any rate, why, I should keep Westwood 
 clear of all scrapes, which, in his case, might be disagreeable 
 enough ; whereas, at present, he was known only as the 
 Reverend Mr Thomas and, as for his either shamming the 
 griffin, or giving hints how to work the ship, he was one of 
 those men you 'd scarce know for a sailor, by aught in his 
 manner, at least : and, indeed, Tom Westwood always seemed 
 to need a whole frigate's ways about him, with perhaps some- 
 what of a stir, to show what he really was. 
 
 " Five minutes or so after this, it didn't certainly surprise 
 me much to see the Indiaman laid on the opposite tack, with 
 her head actually north-by-east, or within a few points of 
 where the light haze faded into the sky : the mate seeming 
 by this time to see the matter clearly, and quietly making his 
 own of it. The ship began to stand over towards the outer 
 set of the current, which could now be seen rippling along 
 here and there to the surface, as the breeze fell slowly : you 
 heard nothing save the faint plash of it astern under one 
 counter, the wafting and rustling of her large main-course 
 above the awnings, for she was covered over like a caravan 
 the slight flap of her jibs far ahead on the bowsprit startled 
 you now and then as distinctly as if you got a fillip on your 
 own nose ; the stunsail, high up beside the weather-leech of 
 her foretopsail, hung slack over the boom, and one felt each 
 useless jolt of the wheel like a foot-slip in loose sand when 
 you want to run all betwixt the lazy, listless voices of the 
 passengers, dropping and dropping as separate as the last sands 
 in an hour-glass. Still, every minute of air aloft helped her 
 nearer to where you saw the water winding about the horizon 
 in long swathes, as it were, bluer than the rest, and swelling
 
 182 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 brimful, so to speak, out of a line of light ; with the long dents 
 and bits of ripple here and there creeping towards it, till the 
 whole round of the surface, as far as you could see, came out 
 into the smooth, like the wrinkles on a nutmeg. 
 
 " Four bells of the afternoon watch had struck two o'clock, 
 that is when Rickett, the third mate, and one or two men, 
 went out to the arm of the spritsail-yard across the bowsprit, 
 where they lowered away a heavy pitch-pot with a long strip 
 of yellow bunting made fast to it, and weighted a little at the 
 loose end, to mark the set of the current ; and as the pot sank 
 away out on her larboard bow, one could see the bright- 
 coloured rag deep down through the clear blue water, stream- 
 ing almost fairly north. She appeared to be nearing the turn 
 of the eddy, and the chief officer's spirits began to rise. 
 Rickett screwed one eye close, and looked out under his horny 
 palm with the other, doubtful, as he said, that we should 
 ' sight the land off-deck before that. As for this trifle of an 
 
 air aloft, sir/ said he, f I 'm afraid we won't ' ' Hoot, Mr 
 
 Reckett,' put in Macleod, stepping one of his long trouser- 
 legs down from over the quarter-deck awning, like an ostrich 
 that had been aloft, ' ye 're aye afraid; but it's not easy to 
 see aloft, Mr Fench, sir.' ' How does the land lie now, Mr 
 Macleod?' asked the first officer. ' Well, I wouldn't wonder 
 but we soon dropped it, sir that's to east'ard, I mean,' replied 
 he ; f though it 's what we call a bit mountainous, in Scotland 
 not that unlike the Grampians, Mr Fench, ye know ! ' ' Hang 
 your Grampians, man ! what 's ahead of us, eh ? ' said the 
 mate hastily. ' Why, sir,' said the Scotchman, ' there is some 
 more of it on the nor' -east, lower a good deal its just flush 
 with the water from here, at present, Mr Fench with a 
 peak or two, trending away too'ard north ; but the light 
 yonder on our starboard bow makes them hard for to see, I 
 may say.' 
 
 " In fact, some of the men forward were making it out 
 already on the starboard bow, where you could see the 
 faint ragged shape of a headland coming out, as it were, of 
 the dazzle beyond the water, which lay flickering and heaving 
 between, from deep-blue far away into pale ; while almost 
 at the same time, on her starboard quarter, where there was 
 less of the light, another outline was to be seen looming like 
 pretty high land, though still fainter than the first. As for
 
 A SEA STORY 183 
 
 the space betwixt them, for aught one could distinguish as 
 yet, there might be nothing there except air and water over 
 against the ship's side. 
 
 " ' Well/ said the mate briskly, after a little, ' we 're pretty 
 sure, now, to have the land-breeze to give us sea-room, before 
 two or three hours are over by which time, I hope we'll 
 be in the eddy of this infernal current, at any rate ! ' However, 
 I was scarce sure he didn't begin to doubt the plan I 'd given 
 him ; whereas had he known the whole case in time, and done 
 the thing then, it was certain enough and the best thing he 
 could do, even as it was : but what troubled me now, why, 
 suppose anything happened to the ship, mightn't he turn the 
 tables on me after all, and say I had some bad design in it ? 
 I loitered about with my arms folded, saying never a word, 
 but watching the whole affair keener than I ever did one of 
 Shakspeare's plays in the theatre after a dull cruise ; not a 
 thing in sea, sky, or Indiaman, from the ripples far off on the 
 water to ugly Harry hauling taut the jib-sheet with his chums, 
 but somehow or other they seemed all to sink into me at the 
 time, as if they 'd all got to come out again strong. You 
 hardly knew when the ship lost the last breath of air aloft, 
 till, from stealing through the smooth water, she came 
 apparently to a standstill, everything spread broad out, not 
 even a flap in the canvas almost, it had fallen a dead calm so 
 gradually. 
 
 " However, my troubles weren't seemingly over yet, for 
 just then up came the judge's dark kitmagar to the gangway 
 where I was, and, from the sly impudence of the fellow's 
 manner, I at once fancied there was something particular in 
 the wind, as if he 'd been seeking me about-decks. ' S'laam, 
 mistree ! ' said he, with but a slight duck of his flat brown 
 turban, ' Judge sahib i-send Culley Mistree his chupprass' 
 message, forsooth ! ' sah'b inquire the flavour of gentlyman's 
 Ees-Inchee Coompanee, two-three moment !' 'The flavour of 
 my East- India Company, you rascal ! ' said I, laughing, yet 
 inclined to kick him aft again for his impertinent look ; ' speak 
 for yourself, if you please ! ' 
 
 " In fact, the whiff of cocoa-nut oil, and other dark perfumes 
 about him, came out in a hot calm at sea, when everything 
 sickens one, as to need no inquiry about the matter ; however, 
 I walked straight aft to the round-house, and in at the open
 
 184 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 door, through which Sir Charles was to be seen pacing from 
 one side of his cabin to the other, like a Bengal tiger in a 
 cage. ' Harkye, young man/ said he sternly, turning as soon 
 as I came in, with my hat in my hand, f since I had the 
 honour of your company here this morning, I have recollected 
 indeed, I find that one of my servants had done the same 
 that you are the person who molested my family by various 
 annoyances beside my garden at Croydon, sir ! ' ' Indeed, Sir 
 Charles ! ' said I coolly, for the bitter feeling I had made me 
 cool : ' they must have been unintentional then, sir ! But I 
 was certainly at Croydon, seeing my mother's house happens 
 to be there.' ' You must have had some design in entering 
 this vessel, sir!' continued the judge, in a passion : ' 'gad, sir, 
 the coincidence is too curious ! Tell me what it is at once, or 
 
 by ' ' My design was to go to India, sir,' answered I, as 
 
 quietly as before. ' In what capacity ? who are you ? what 
 who what do you want there, eh ? ' rapped out the judge. 
 ( I 'm not aware, sir,' said I, ' what right you ' ve got to question 
 me ; but I in fact, I '11 tell so much to any man why, I 'm 
 an officer in the Navy.' 
 
 " Sir Charles brought short up in his pacing and stamping, 
 and stared at me. ' An officer in the Navy ! ' repeated he ; 
 ' but yes why, now I think, I do remember something in your 
 dress, sir though it was the face that struck me ! In short 
 then, sir, this makes the case worse : you are here on false 
 pretences affecting the very reverse, sir setting yourself up 
 for a model of simplicity, a laughing-stock indeed!' 'I had 
 reasons for not wishing my profession to be known, Sir 
 Charles,' said I ; ' most special reasons. They 're now over, 
 however, and I don't care who knows it ! ' ' May I ask what 
 these were ? ' said the judge. ' Thai I '11 never tell to any 
 man breathing ! ' I said determinedly. 
 
 "The judge walked two or three times fore and aft ; then 
 a thought seemed to strike him he looked out as if at the 
 decks and through below the awnings, then shut the door 
 and came back to me again. ' By-the-way,' said he seriously, 
 and changing his tone, 'since this extraordinary acknowledg- 
 ment of yours, sir, something occurs to me which makes me 
 almost think your presence in the vessel in one sense oppor- 
 tune. I have reason to entertain a high opinion of naval 
 officers as technical men, professionally educated in His
 
 A SEA STORY 185 
 
 Majesty's regular service, and you look rather a young man 
 but have you had much experience, may I ask ? ' 'I have 
 been nine or ten years at sea, sir,' replied I, a little taken 
 aback, ' in various parts of the world ! ' ' I have some sus- 
 picion lately,' he went on, 'that this vessel is not navigated in 
 a in short, that at present, probably, we may be in some 
 danger do you think so, sir ? ' ' No, Sir Charles,' said I, ' I 
 don't think she is, as matters stand only in a troublesome 
 sort of quarter, which the sooner she 's out of the better.' 
 'The commander is, I find, dangerously unwell,' continued 
 he, 'and of the young man who seems to have the chief care 
 of the vessel, I have no very high well that, of course I 
 
 Now, sir/ said he, looking intently at me, 'are you 
 
 capable of in short, of managing this Company's vessel, 
 should any emergency arise ? I have seen such, myself and 
 in the circumstances I feel considerable alarm uneasiness, 
 at least Eh, sir ? ' ' Depend upon it, Sir Charles,' I said, 
 stepping toward the door, 'in any matter of the kind I '11 do 
 my best for this ship ! But none knows so well as a seaman, 
 there are cases enough where your very best can't do much ! ' 
 
 " The judge seemed rather startled by my manner for I 
 did feel a little misgiving, from something in the weather on 
 the whole; at any rate I fancied there was a cold-bloodedness 
 in every sharp corner of his face, bilious though his temper 
 was, that would have let him see me go to the bottom a 
 thousand times over, had I even had a chance with his 
 daughter herself, ere he 'd have yielded me the tip of her 
 little finger : accordingly 'twas a satisfaction to me, at the 
 moment, just to make him see he wasn't altogether in his 
 nabob's chair in Bengal yet, on an elephant's back. 
 
 " ' Ah, though ! ' said he, raising his voice to call me back, 
 'to return for an instant there is one thing I must positively 
 require, sir which you will see, in the circumstances, to be 
 unavoidable. As a mere simple cadet, observe, sir, there was 
 nothing to be objected to in a slight passing acquaintance 
 but, especially in the in short, equivocal sir, I must request 
 of you that you will on no account attempt to hold any com- 
 munication with my daughter, Miss Hyde beyond a mere 
 bow, of course ! 'Twill be disagreeable, I assure you. In- 
 deed, I shall ' Sir,' said I, all the blood in my body 
 
 going to my face, ' of all things in the world, that is the very
 
 186 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 thing where your views and mine happen to square ! ' and I 
 bowed. 
 
 " The man's coolness disgusted me, sticking such a thing in 
 my teeth, after just reckoning on my services with the very 
 same breath and all when it wasn't required, too ! And by 
 Heaven ! thought I, had she shown me favour, all the old 
 nabobs in Christendom, and the whole world to boot, shouldn't 
 hinder me from speaking to her ! What I said apparently 
 puzzled him, but he gave me a grand bow in his turn, and I 
 had my hand on the door, when he said, ' I suppose, sir, as 
 a naval officer, you have no objection to give me your name 
 and rank. I forget what ' Here I remembered my mis- 
 take with the mate, and on the whole I saw I must stick by 
 it till I was clear of the whole concern ; as for saying my name 
 was Westwood, that I couldn't have done at the time for 
 worlds ; but I quietly handed him another card, meaning, of 
 course, to give Westwood the cue as shortly as possible, for 
 his own safety. The judge started on seeing the card, gave 
 me one of his sharp glances, and made a sudden step towards 
 me. ' Have you any relation in India, Mr Westwood ? ' said 
 he, slowly, to which I gave only a nod. 'What is he, if I 
 may inquire ? ' asked he again. ' A councillor or something, 
 I believe,' said I, carelessly. ' Thomas Westwood ? ' said Sir 
 Charles. ' Ah,' said I, wearied of the thing, and anxious to 
 go. 'An uncle, probably, from the age?' he still put in. 
 ' Exactly, that 's it ! ' I said. ' Why what ! why did you 
 not mention this at first?' he broke out suddenly, coming 
 close up ; ' why, Councillor Westwood is my very oldest friend 
 in India, my dear sir ! This alters the matter. I should 
 have welcomed a nephew of his in my house, to the utmost ! 
 Why, how strange, Mr Westwood, that the fact should emerge 
 in this curious manner ! ' and with that he held out his hand. 
 ' Of course,' said he, ' no such restriction as I mentioned could 
 for a moment apply to a nephew of Councillor Westwood ! ' 
 
 (< I stared at him for a moment, and then ' Sir,' said I, 
 coolly, ' it seems the whole matter goes by names ; but if my 
 name were the devil or the Apostle Paul, I don't see how it 
 can make a bit of difference in me : what 's more, sir,' said I, 
 setting my teeth, * whatever my name may be, depend upon 
 it, I shall never claim acquaintance either with you or or 
 Miss Hyde ! ' With that I flung straight out of the cabin,
 
 A SEA STORY 187 
 
 leaving the old gentleman bolt upright on the floor, and as 
 dumb as a stock-fish, whether with rage or amazement I never 
 stopped to think. 
 
 " I went right forward on the Indiaman's forecastle, clear of 
 all the awnings, dropped over her head out of sight of the 
 men, and sat with my legs amongst the open woodwork 
 beneath the bowsprit, looking at the calm nobody in sight 
 but the Hindoo figure, who seemed to be doing the same. 
 Westrvood ! thought I, bitterly ; then in a short time, when 
 the mistake 's found out, and he got safe past the Cape, 
 perhaps it'll be nothing but Westwood ! He'll have a 
 clear stage, and all favour ; but at any rate, however it may 
 be, I'll not be here, by Heaven, to see it. That cursed 
 councillor of his, I suppose, is another nabob and no doubt 
 he '11 marry her, all smooth ! Uncles I little thought, by 
 Jove ! when I knocked off that yarn to the mate about my 
 uncle but, after all, it 's strange how often a fellow 's paid 
 back in his own coin ! 
 
 "The heat at the time was unbearable heat, indeed! 
 'twasn't only heat but a heavy, close, stifling sort of feeling, 
 like in a hot-house, as if you 'd got a weight on your head and 
 every other bit of you : the water one time so dead-blue and 
 glassy between the windings of it, that the sky seemed to 
 vanish, and the ship looked floating up into where it was 
 then again you scarce knew sea from air, except by the 
 wrinkles and eddies running across each other between, to- 
 ward a sullen blue ring at the horizon like seeing through 
 a. big twisted sieve, or into a round looking-glass all over 
 cracks. I heard them clue up everything aloft, except the 
 topsails and they fell slapping back and forward to the 
 masts, every now and then with a thud like a thousand spades 
 clapped down at once over a hollow bit of ground till all 
 seemed as still between as if they 'd buried something. I 
 wished to Heaven it were what I felt at the time, and the 
 thought of Violet Hyde, that I might be as if I never had 
 seen her when on glancing up betwixt the figure-head and 
 the ship's stern, it struck me to notice how much the land 
 on her starboard bow and beam seemed to have risen, even 
 during the last hour, and that without wind ; partly on 
 account of its clearing in that quarter, perhaps ; but the 
 nearest points looked here and there almost as if you could
 
 188 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 see into them, roughening barer out through the hue of the 
 distance, like purple blotches spreading in it. Whereas, far 
 away astern of us, when I crossed over her headworks, there 
 were two or three thin white streaks of haze to be seen just 
 on the horizon, one upon another, above which you made 
 out somewhat like a dim range of peaked land, trending one 
 couldn't say how far back all showing how fairly the coast 
 was shutting her in upon the south-east, as she set farther 
 in-shore, even while the run of the current bade fair to take 
 her well clear of it ahead ; which was, of course, all we need 
 care for at present. Her want of steerage- way, however, let 
 the Indiaman sheer hither and thither, till at times one was 
 apt to get confused, and suppose her more in with the land- 
 loom than she really was. Accordingly the mate proved his 
 good judgment by having a couple of boats lowered with a 
 tow-line, to keep her at least stern-on to the current, although 
 the trouble of getting out the launch would have more served 
 his purpose, and the deeper loaded the better, since in fact 
 there were two favourable drifts instead of one, between every 
 stroke of the oars. The men pulled away rather sulkily, their 
 straw hats over their noses, the dip of the hawser scarce 
 tautening at each strain, as they squinted up at the Seringa- 
 patam's idle figure-head. For my part I had thought it better 
 to leave him by himself, and go below. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 " "\T7HEN I went into the cuddy, more for relief's sake than 
 to dine, the passengers were chattering and talking 
 away round the tables, hot and choking though it was, in high 
 glee because the land was in sight from the starboard port- 
 window, and they fancied the officers had changed their minds 
 as to ' touching ' there. Every now and then a cadet or two 
 would start up, with their silver forks in their hands, and put 
 their heads out ; some asked whether the anchor had been 
 seen getting ready or not ; others disputed about the colour of 
 tropical trees, if they were actually green like English ones, 
 or perhaps all over blossoms and fruit together the whole of 
 them evidently expecting bands of negroes to line the shore 
 as we came in.
 
 189 
 
 " One young fellow had taken a particular fancy to have an 
 earthworm, with earth enough to feed it all the rest of the 
 voyage, otherwise he couldn't stand it ; and little Tommy's 
 mother almost went into hysterics again when she said, if she 
 could just eat a lettuce salad once more, she 'd die contented ; 
 the missionary looking up through his spectacles, in surprise 
 that she wasn't more interested about the slave-trade, whereof 
 he 'd been talking to her. As for Westwood, he joined quietly 
 in the fun, with a glance now and then across to me ; however, 
 I pretended to be too busy with the salt beef, and was merely 
 looking up again for a moment, when my eye chanced to catch 
 on the swinging barometer that hung in the raised skylight, 
 right over the midst of our noise. By George ! ma'am, what 
 was my horror when I saw the quicksilver had sunk so far 
 below the mark, probably fixed there that morning, as to be 
 almost shrunk in the ball ! Whatever the merchant service 
 might know about the instrument in those days, the African 
 coast was the place to teach its right use to us in the old Iris. 
 I laid down my knife and fork as carelessly as I could, and 
 went straight on deck. 
 
 " Here I sought out the mate, who was forward, watching 
 the land and at once took him aside to tell him the fact. 
 ' Well, sir,' said he coolly, ' and what of that ? A sign of 
 wind, certainly, before very long ; but in the meantime we 're 
 sure to have it off the land.' ' That 's one of the very reasons,' 
 said I, ' for thinking this will be from seaward since towards 
 evening the land '11 have plenty of air without it ! But more 
 than that, sir,' said I, ' I tell you, Mr Finch, I know the west 
 coast of Africa pretty well and so far south as this, the 
 glass falling so low as twenty-seven, is always the sign of a 
 nor'-westerly blow ! If you 're a wise man, sir, you '11 not only 
 get your upper spars down on deck, but you '11 see your 
 anchors clear ! ' Finch had plainly got furious at my 
 meddling again, and said he, ' Instead of that, sir, I shall 
 hold on everything aloft, to stand out when I get the breeze ! ' 
 ( D' ye really think, then/ said I, pointing to the farthest-off 
 streak of land, trending away by this time astern of us, faint 
 as it was, ' do you think you could ever weather that point, 
 with anything like a strong nor'-wester, besides a current 
 heading you in, as you got fair hold of it again ? ' ' Perhaps 
 not,' said he, wincing a little as he glanced at it ; * but you
 
 190 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 happen- always to suppose what there 's a thousand to one 
 against, sir. Why, sir, you might as well take the command 
 at once. But, sir, if it did come to that, I 'd rather I 'd rather 
 see the ship lost I 'd rather go to the bottom with all in her, 
 after handling her as I know well how, than I 'd see the chance 
 given to you ! ' The young fellow fairly shouted this last 
 word into my very ear he was in a regular furious passion. 
 ' You 'd better let me alone, that 's all I 've got to say to you, 
 sir ! ' growled he as he turned away ; so I thought it no use to 
 say more, and leant over the bulwarks, resolved to see it out. 
 
 "The fact was, the farther we got off the land now, the 
 worse, seeing that if what I dreaded should prove true, why, 
 we were probably in thirty or forty fathoms of water, where 
 no anchor could hold for ten minutes' time if it ever caught 
 ground. My way would have been to get every boat out at 
 once, and tow in till you could see the colour of some shoal or 
 other from aloft, then take my chance there to ride out what- 
 ever might come, to the last cable aboard of us. Accordingly 
 I wasn't sorry to see that by this time the whole bight of the 
 coast was slowly rising off our beam betwixt the high land far 
 astern and the broad bluffs upon her starboard bow ; which last 
 came out already of a sandy reddish tint, and the lower part of 
 a clear blue, as the sun got westward on our other side, What 
 struck me was, that the face of the water, which was all over 
 wrinkles and winding lines, with here and there a quick 
 ripple, when I went below, had got on a sudden quite smooth 
 as far as you could see, as if they 'd sunk down like so many 
 eels ; a long uneasy ground-swell was beginning to heave in 
 from seaward, on which the ship rose ; once or twice I fancied 
 I could observe the colour different away towards the land, 
 like the muddy chocolate spreading out near a river-mouth at 
 ebb-tide then again it was green, rather; and as for the look 
 of the coast, I had no knowledge of it. I thought again, 
 certainly, of the old quartermaster's account in the Iris, but 
 there was neither anything like it to be seen, nor any sign of 
 a break in the coast at all, though high headlands enough. 
 
 " The ship might have been about twelve or fourteen miles 
 from the north-east point upon her starboard bow, a high 
 rocky range of bluffs and rather less from the nearest of 
 what lay away off her beam ; but after this you could mark 
 nothing more, except it were that she edged farther from the
 
 A SEA STORY 191 
 
 point, by the way its bearings shifted or got blurred together: 
 either she stood still, or she'd caught some eddy or under-rift, 
 and the mate walked about quite lively once more. The 
 matter was how to breathe, or bear your clothes when all of 
 a sudden I heard the second mate sing out from the forecastle 
 ' Stand by the braces, there ! Look out for the topes' 1 
 hawl-yairds ! ' 
 
 "He came shuffling aft next moment as fast as his foundered 
 old shanks could carry him, and told Mr Finch there was a 
 squall coming off the land. The mate sprang up on the 
 bulwarks, and so did I catching a glance from him as much 
 as to say There 's your gale from seaward, you pretentious 
 lubber ! The lowest streak of coast bore at present before 
 our starboard quarter, betwixt east and south-east' ard, with 
 some pretty high land running away up from it, and a sort of 
 dim blue haze hanging beyond, as 'twere. Just as Macleod 
 spoke, I could see a dusky dark vapour thickening and spread- 
 ing in the haze, till it rose black along the flat, out of the sky 
 behind it ; whitened and then darkened again, like a heavy 
 smoke floating up into the air. All was confusion on deck for 
 a minute or two off went all the awnings and every hand 
 was ready at his station, fisting the ropes ; when I looked again 
 at the cloud, then at the mates. 'By George!' said I, noticing 
 a pale wreath of it go curling on the pale clear sky over it, as 
 if to a puff of air, ' it is smoke ! Some niggers, as they often 
 do, burning the bush ! ' 
 
 " So it was ; and as soon as Finch gave in, all hands 
 quietly coiled up the ropes. It was scarce five minutes after, 
 that Jacobs, who was coiling up a rope beside me, gave me a 
 quiet touch with one finger. 'Mr Collins, sir/ said he in a low 
 voice, looking almost right up, high over toward the ship's 
 larboard bow, which he couldn't have done before, for the 
 awnings so lately above us, 'look, sir there's an ox-eye \' I 
 followed his gaze, but it wasn't for a few seconds that I found 
 what it pointed to, in the hot far-off-like blue dimness of the 
 sky overhead, compared with the white glare of which to west- 
 ward our canvas aloft was but dirty grey and yellow. 
 
 " 'Twas what none but a seaman would have observed, and 
 many a seaman wouldn't have done so but a man-o'-war's- 
 man is used to look out at all hours, in all latitudes and to a 
 man that knew its meaning, this would have been no joke,
 
 192 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 even out of sight of land ; as it was, the thing gave me a 
 perfect thrill of dread. High aloft in the heavens northward, 
 where they were freest from the sun now standing over the 
 open horizon amidst a wide bright pool of light you managed 
 to discern a small silvery speck, growing slowly, as it were, 
 out of the faint blue hollow, like a star in the daytime, till 
 you felt as if it looked at you, from God knows what distance 
 away. One eye after another amongst the mates and crew 
 joined Jacobs' and mine, with the same sort of dumb fellow- 
 ship to be seen when a man in London streets watches the top 
 of a steeple ; and however hard to make out at first, ere long 
 none of them could miss seeing it, as it got slowly larger, 
 sinking by degrees till the sky close about it seemed to 
 thicken like a dusky ring round the white, and the sunlight 
 upon our seaward quarter blazed out doubly strong as if it 
 came dazzling off a brass bell, with the bright tongue swing- 
 ing in it far off to one side, where the hush made you 
 think of a stroke back upon us, with some terrific sound to 
 boot. 
 
 " The glassy water by this time was beginning to rise under 
 the ship with a struggling kind of unequal heave, as if a giant 
 you couldn't see kept shoving it down here and there with 
 both hands, and it came swelling up elsewhere. 
 
 " To north-westward or thereabouts, betwixt the sun and 
 this ill-boding token aloft, the far line of open sea still lay 
 shining motionless and smooth ; next time you looked, it had 
 got even brighter than before, seeming to leave the horizon 
 visibly ; then the streak of air just above it had grown grey, 
 and a long hedge of hazy vapour was creeping as it were over 
 from beyond the white speck all the while travelling down 
 towards it slantwise from nor'ard, and spreading its dark ring 
 slowly out into a circle of cloud, till the keen eye of it at last 
 sank in, and below, as well as aloft, the whole north-western 
 quarter got blurred together in one gloomy mass. If there 
 was a question at first whether the wind mightn't come from 
 so far nor'ard as to give her a chance of running out to sea 
 before it, there was none now our sole recourse lay either in 
 getting nearer the land meanwhile, to let go our anchors ere 
 it came on, with her head to it or we might make a desperate 
 trial to weather the lee-point now far astern. The fact was, 
 we were going to have a regular tornado, and that of the worst
 
 A SEA STORY 193 
 
 kind, which wouldn't soon blow itself out ; though near an 
 hour's notice would probably pass ere it was on. 
 
 "The three mates laid their heads gravely together over 
 the capstan for a minute or two, after which Finch seemed to 
 perceive that the first of the two ways was the safer ; though, 
 of course, the nearer we should get to the land, the less chance 
 there was of clearing it afterwards, should her cables part, or 
 the anchors drag. The two boats still alongside, and two 
 others dropped from the davits, were manned at once and set 
 to towing the Indiaman ahead, in-shore ; while the bower and 
 sheet anchors were got out to the cat-heads ready for letting 
 go, cables overhauled, ranged, and clinched as quickly as 
 possible, and the deep-sea lead passed along to take soundings 
 every few minutes. 
 
 " On we crept, slow as death, and almost as still, except 
 the jerk of the oars from the heaving water at her bows, and 
 the loud flap of the big topsails now and then, everything 
 aloft save them and the brailed foresail being already close 
 furled ; the clouds all the while rising away along our larboard 
 beam nor' -west and north, over the grey bank on the horizon, 
 till once more you could scarce say which point the wind 
 would come from, unless by the huge purple heap of vapour 
 in the midst. The sun had got low, and he shivered his 
 dazzling spokes of light behind one edge of it, as if 'twere a 
 mountain you saw over some coast or other ; indeed, you 'd 
 have thought the ship almost shut in by land on both sides 
 of her, which was what seemed to terrify the passengers most, 
 as they gathered about the poop-stairs and watched it which 
 was the true land and which the clouds, 'twas hard to say 
 and the sea gloomed writhing between them like a huge lake 
 in the mountains. 
 
 " I saw Sir Charles Hyde walk out of the round-house and 
 in again, glancing uneasily about ; his daughter was standing 
 with another young lady, gazing at the land ; and at sight of 
 her sweet, curious face, I 'd have given worlds to be able to 
 do something that might save it from the chance, possibly, of 
 being that very night dashed amongst the breakers on a lee- 
 shore in the dark or at best, suppose the Almighty favoured 
 any of us so far, perhaps landed in the wilds of Africa. Had 
 there been aught man could do more, why, though I never 
 should get a smile for it, I 'd have compassed it, mate or no
 
 194 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 mate ; but all was done that could be done, and I had nothing 
 to say. Westwood came near her, too, apparently seeing our 
 bad case at last to some extent, and both trying to break it to 
 her and to assure her mind ; so I folded my arms again, and 
 kept my eyes hard fixed upon the bank of cloud, as some new 
 weather-mark stole out in it, and the sea stretched breathless 
 away below, like new melted lead. 
 
 " The air was like to choke you or rather there was none 
 as if water, sky, and everything else wanted life, and one 
 would fain have caught the first rush of the tornado into his 
 mouth the men emptying the dipper on deck from the cask, 
 from sheer loathing. As for the land, it seemed to draw 
 nearer of itself, till every point and wrinkle in the headland 
 off our bow came out in a red coppery gleam one saw the 
 white line of surf round it, and some blue country beyond like 
 ndigo ; then back it darkened again, and all aloft was getting 
 livid-1 ike over the bare royal mast-heads. 
 
 " Suddenly, a faint air was felt to flutter from landward ; it 
 half lifted the topsails, and a heavy earthy smell came into 
 your nostrils the first of the land-breeze, at last ; but by this 
 time it was no more than a sort of mockery, while a minute 
 after you might catch a low, sullen, moaning sound far off 
 through the emptiness, from the strong surf the Atlantic 
 sends in upon the west coast before a squall. If ever lands- 
 men found out what land on the wrong side is, the passengers 
 of the Seringapatam did, that moment ; the shudder of the 
 topsails aloft seemed to pass into everyone's shoulders, and a 
 few quietly walked below, as if they were safe in their cabins. 
 I saw Violet Hyde look round and round with a startled 
 expression, and from one face to another, till her eye lighted 
 on me, and I fancied for a moment it was like putting 
 some question to me. I couldn't bear it ! 'twas the first 
 time I 'd felt powerless to offer anything ; though the 
 thought ran through me again till I almost felt myself 
 buffeting among the breakers with her in my arms. I 
 looked to the land, where the smoke we had seen three- 
 quarters of an hour ago, rose again with the puff of air, 
 a slight flicker of flame in it, as it wreathed off the low 
 ground toward the higher point when all at once I gave 
 a start, for something in the shape of the whole struck me 
 as if I 'd seen it before.
 
 A SEA STORY 195 
 
 e< Next moment I was thinking of old Bob Martin's particular 
 landmarks at the river-mouth he spoke of, and the notion of 
 its possibly being hereabouts glanced on me like a godsend. 
 In the unsure dusky sight I had of it, certainly, it wore some- 
 what of that look, and it lay fair to leeward of the weather ; 
 while, as for the dead shut-in appearance of it, old Bob had 
 specially said you 'd never think it was a river ; but then 
 again it was more like a desperate fancy owing to our hard 
 case, and to run the ship straight for it would be the trick of 
 a Bedlamite. At any rate, a quick cry from aft turned me 
 round, and I saw a blue flare of lightning streak out betwixt 
 the bank of grey haze and the cloud that hung over it then 
 another, and the clouds were beginning to rise slowly in the 
 midst, leaving a white glare between, as if you could see 
 through it towards what was coming. The men could pull no 
 longer, but ahead of the ship there was now only about eight 
 or ten fathoms water, with a soft bottom. The boats were 
 hoisted in, and the men had begun to clue up and hand the 
 topsails, which were lowered on the caps, when, just in the 
 midst of the hubbub and confusion, as I stood listening to 
 every order the mate gave, the steward came up hastily from 
 below to tell him that the captain had woke up, and, being 
 much better, wanted to see him immediately. Mr Finch 
 looked surprised, but he turned at once, and hurried down 
 the hatchway. 
 
 " The sight which all of us who weren't busy gazed upon, 
 over the larboard bulwarks, was terrible to see : 'twas half 
 dark, though the sun dropping behind the haze-bank, made 
 it glimmer and redden. The dark heap of clouds had first 
 lengthened out blacker and blacker, and was rising slowly in 
 the sky like a mighty arch, till you saw their white edges 
 below, and a ghastly white space behind, out of which the 
 mist and scud began to fly. Next minute a long sigh came 
 into her jib and foresail, then the black bow of cloud partly 
 sank again, and a blaze of lightning came out all round her, 
 showing you every face on deck, the inside of the round-house 
 aft, with the Indian judge standing in it, his hand to his eyes 
 and the land far away, to the very swell rolling into it. 
 Then the thunder broke overhead in the gloom, in one fearful 
 sudden crack, that you seemed to hear through every corner 
 of cabins and forecastle below and the wet back-fins of
 
 196 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 twenty sharks or so, that had risen out of the inky surface, 
 vanished as suddenly. 
 
 " The Indiaman had sheered almost broadside on to the 
 clouds, her jib was still up, and I knew the next time the 
 clouds rose we should fairly have it. Flash after flash came, 
 and clap after clap of thunder, such as you hear before a 
 tornado yet the chief officer wasn't to be seen, and the 
 others seemed uncertain what to do first ; while everyone 
 began to wonder and pass along questions where he could be. 
 In fact, he had disappeared. For my part, I thought it very 
 strange he stayed so long ; but there wasn't a moment to 
 lose. I jumped down off the poop-stairs, walked forward on 
 the quarter-deck, and said coolly to the men nearest me, ' Run 
 and haul down that jib yonder set the spanker here, aft. 
 You '11 have her taken slap on her beam : quick, my lads ! ' 
 The men did so at once. Macleod was calling out anxiously 
 for Mr Finch. ' Stand by the anchors there ! ' I sang out, ' to 
 let go the starboard one, the moment she swings head to wind ! ' 
 The Scotch mate turned his head ; but Rickett's face, by 
 the next flash, showed he saw the good of it, and there was 
 no leisure for arguing, especially as I spoke in a way to be 
 heard. I walked to the wheel, and got hold of Jacobs to 
 take the weather helm. 
 
 " We were all standing ready, at the pitch of expecting it. 
 Westwood, too, having appeared again by this time beside me, 
 I whispered to him to run forward and look after the anchors 
 when someone came hastily up the after-hatchway, with a 
 glazed hat and pilot-coat on, stepped straight to the binnacle, 
 looked in behind me, then at the black bank of cloud, then 
 aloft. Of course I supposed it was the mate again, but didn't 
 trouble myself to glance at him further when ' Hold on with 
 the anchors ! ' he sang out in a loud voice ' hold on there for 
 your lives ! ' Heavens ! it was the captain himself ! 
 
 " At this, of course, I stood aside at once ; and he shouted 
 again, ' Hoist the jib and fore-topmast-staysail stand by to 
 set fore-course ! ' By Jove ! this was the way to pay the ship 
 head off, instead of stern off, from the blast when it came 
 and to let her drive before it at no trifle of a rate, wherever 
 that might take her ! ' Down with that spanker, Mr Macleod, 
 d' ye hear ? ' roared Captain Williamson again ; and, certainly, 
 I did wonder what he meant to do with the ship. But his
 
 A SEA STORY 197 
 
 manner was so decided, and 'twas so natural for the captain 
 to strain a point to come on deck in the circumstances, that I 
 saw he must have some trick of seamanship above me, or some 
 special knowledge of the coast and I waited in a state of the 
 greatest excitement for the first stroke of the tornado. He 
 waved the second and third mates forward to their posts the 
 Indiaman sheering and backing, like a frightened horse, to 
 the long slight swell and the faint flaw of the land-air. The 
 black arch to windward began to rise again, showing a terrible 
 white stare reaching deep in, and a blue dart of lightning 
 actually ran zig-zag down before our glaring fore-to' gallant- 
 mast. Suddenly, the captain had looked at me, and we faced 
 each other by the gleam ; and, quiet, easy-going man as he 
 was commonly, it just flashed across me there was something 
 extraordinarily wild and raised in his pale visage, strange as 
 the air about us made everyone appear. He gave a stride 
 
 towards me, shouting, ' Who are ' when the thunder-clap 
 
 took the words out of his tongue, and next moment the 
 tornado burst upon us, fierce as the wind from a cannon's 
 mouth. 
 
 " For one minute the Seringapatam heeled over to her star- 
 board streak, almost broadside on, and her spars towards the 
 land all on her beam was a long ragged white gush of light 
 and mist pouring out under the black brow of the clouds, with 
 a trampling eddying roar up into the sky. The swell plunged 
 over her weather-side like the first break of a dam, and as we 
 scrambled up to the bulwarks, to hold on for bare life, you saw 
 a roller fit to swamp us, coming on out of the sheet of foam 
 when crash went mizzen-topmast and main-to'gallant-mast ; 
 the ship payed swiftly off by help of her head-sails, and, with 
 a leap like a harpooned whale, off she drove fair before the 
 tremendous sweep of the blast. 
 
 " The least yaw in her course, and she 'd have never risen, 
 unless every stick went out of her. I laid my shoulder to the 
 wheel with Jacobs, and Captain Williamson screamed through 
 his trumpet into the men's ears, and waved his hands to ride 
 down the fore-sheets as far as they 'd go ; which kept her 
 right before it, though the sail could be but half set, and she 
 rather flew than ran the sea one breadth of white foam back 
 to the gushes of mist, not having power to rise higher yet. 
 Had the foresail been stretched, 'twould have blown off like
 
 198 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 a cloud. I looked at the captain : he was standing in the lee 
 of the round-house, straight upright, though now and then 
 peering eagerly forward, his lips firm, one hand on a belaying- 
 pin, the other in his breast nothing but determination in his 
 manner : yet once or twice he started, and glanced fiercely to 
 the after-hatchway near, as if something from below might 
 chance to thwart him. I can't express my contrary feelings, 
 betwixt a sort of hope and sheer horror. We were driving 
 right towards the land, at thirteen or fourteen knots to the 
 hour yet could there actually be some harbourage hereaway, 
 or that said river the quartermaster of the Iris mentioned, and 
 Captain Williamson know of it ? 
 
 " Something struck me as wonderfully strange in the whole 
 matter, and puzzling to desperation still, I trusted to the 
 captain's experience. The coast was scarce to be seen ahead 
 of us, lying black against an uneven streak of glimmer, as she 
 rushed like fury before the deafening howl of wind; and right 
 away before our lee-beam I could see the light blowing, as 
 it were, across beyond the headland I had noticed, where 
 the smoke in the bush seemed to be still curling, half- 
 smothered, along the flat in the lee of the hills, as if in green 
 wood, or sheltered as yet from seaward, though once or twice 
 a quick flicker burst up in it. 
 
 " All at once the gust of the tornado was seen to pour on it 
 like a long blast from some huge bellows, and up it flashed 
 the yellow flame blazed into the smoke, spread away behind 
 the point, and the ruddy brown smoke blew whitening over 
 it : when, Almighty power ! what did I see as it lengthened 
 in, but part after part of old Bob's landmarks creep out ink- 
 black before the flare and the streak of sky together first the 
 low line of ground, then the notch in the block, the two rocks 
 like steps, and the sugar-loaf shape of the headland, to the 
 very mop-headed knot of trees on its rise ! No doubt Captain 
 Williamson was steering for it ; but it was far too much on our 
 starboard bow and in half-an-hour at this rate we should 
 drive right into the surf you saw running along to the coast 
 ahead so I signed to Jacobs for God's sake to edge her off as 
 nicely as was possible. 
 
 " Captain Williamson caught rny motion. ' Port ! port, 
 sirrah .' ' he sang out sternly ; ' back with the helm, d' ye hear ! ' 
 and pulling out a pistol, he levelled it at me with one hand,
 
 A SEA STORY 199 
 
 while he held a second in the other. ' Land ! land ! ' shouted 
 he, and from the lee of the round-house it came more like a 
 shriek than a shout ' I '11 be there though a thousand muti- 
 neers His eye was like a wild beast's. That moment 
 
 the truth glanced across me this was the green leaf, no doubt, 
 the Scotch mate talked so mysteriously of. The man was 
 mad ! The land-fever was upon him, as I 'd seen it before in 
 men long off the African coast ; and he stood eyeing me with 
 one foot hard stamped before him. 'Twas no use trying to 
 be heard, and the desperation of the moment gave me a 
 thought of the sole thing to do. I took off my hat in the 
 light of the binnacle, bowed, and looked him straight in the 
 face with a smile when his eye wavered, he slowly lowered 
 his pistol, then laughed, waving his hand towards the land to 
 leeward, as if, but for the gale, you 'd have heard him cheer. 
 At the instant I sprang behind him with the slack of a rope, 
 and grappled his arms fast, though he 'd got the furious power 
 of a madman, and, during half-a-minute, 'twas wrestle for life 
 with me. But the line was round him, arm and leg, and I 
 made it fast, throwing him heavily on the deck, just as one of 
 the mates, with some of the crew, were struggling aft, by help 
 of the belaying-pins, against the hurricane, having caught a 
 glimpse of the thing by the binnacle-light. They looked from 
 me to the captain. The ugly top-man made a sign, as much 
 as to say, Knock the fellow down ; but the whole lot hung 
 back before the couple of pistol-barrels I handled. The Scotch 
 mate seemed awfully puzzled ; and others of the men, who 
 knew from Jacobs what I was, came shoving along, evidently 
 aware what a case we were in. 
 
 "A word to Jacobs served to keep him steering her anxiously, 
 so as to head two or three points more south-east in the end, 
 furiously as the wheel jolted. So there we stood, the tornado 
 sweeping sharp as a knife from astern over the poop-deck, 
 with a force that threw anyone back if he left go his hold to 
 get near me, and going up like thunder aloft in the sky. Now 
 and then a weaker flare of lightning glittered across the scud ; 
 and, black as it was overhead, the horizon to windward was 
 but one jagged white glare, gushing full of broad shifting 
 streaks through the drift of foam and the spray that strove to 
 rise. Our fore-course still held : and I took the helm from 
 Jacobs, that he might go and manage to get a pull taken on
 
 200 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the starboard brace, which would not only slant the sail more 
 to the blasts, but give her the better chance to make the sole 
 point of salvation, by helping her steerage when most needed. 
 Jacobs and Westwood together got this done ; and all the time 
 I was keeping my eyes fixed anxiously, as man can fancy, on 
 the last gleams of the fire ashore, as her head made a fairer 
 line with it ; but, by little and little, it went quite out, and 
 all was black though I had taken its bearings by the compass 
 and I kept her to that for bare life, trembling at every 
 shiver in the foresail's edge, lest either it or the mast 
 should go. 
 
 " Suddenly, we began to get into a fearful swell the India- 
 man plunged and shook in every spar left her. I could see 
 nothing ahead, from the wheel, and in the dark ; we were 
 getting close in with the land, and the time was coming ; but 
 still I held south-east-by-east to the mark of her head in the 
 compass-box, as nearly as might and main could do it, for the 
 heaves that made me think once or twice she was to strike 
 next moment. 
 
 tf If she went ashore in my hands ! why, it was like to 
 drive one mad with fear ; and I waited for Jacobs to come 
 back, with a brain ready to turn, almost as if I 'd have left the 
 wheel to the other helmsman, and run forward into the bows 
 to look out. The captain lay raving and shouting behind me, 
 though no one else could either have heard or seen him ; and 
 where the chief officer was all this time surprised me, unless 
 the madman had made away with him, or locked him in his 
 own cabin, in return for being shut up himself which, in fact, 
 proved to be the case, cunning as it was to send for him so 
 quietly. At length Jacobs struggled aft to me again, and 
 charging him, for Heaven's sake, to steer exactly the course 
 I gave, I drove before the full strength of the squall along 
 decks to the bowsprit, where I held on and peered out. 
 Dead ahead of us was the high line of coast in the dark not 
 a mile of swell between the ship and it. By this time the 
 low boom of the surf came under the wind, and you saw the 
 breakers lifting all along not a single opening in them ! I 
 had lost sight of my landmarks, and my heart gulped into my 
 mouth what I felt 'twould be vain to say till I thought I 
 did make out one short patch of sheer black in the range of 
 foam, scarce so far on our bow as I 'd reckoned the fire to
 
 A SEA STORY 201 
 
 have been ; indeed, instead of that, it was rather on her 
 weather than her lee bow ; and the more I watched it, and 
 the nearer we drove in that five minutes, the broader it was. 
 ' By all that 's good ! ' thought I, f if a river there is, that must 
 be the mouth of it!' But, by Heavens! on our present course 
 the ship would run just right upon the point and, to strike 
 the clear water, her foreyard would require to be braced up, 
 able or not, though the force of the tornado would come fear- 
 fully on her quarter, then. There was the chance of taking 
 all the masts out of her ; but let them stand ten minutes, and 
 the thing was done, when we opened into the lee of the points 
 otherwise all was over. 
 
 I sprang to the fore-braces and besought the men near me, 
 for God's sake, to drag upon the lee one and that as if their 
 life hung upon it when Westwood caught me by the arm. 
 I merely shouted through my hands into his ear to go aft to 
 Jacobs and tell him to keep her head a single point up, what- 
 ever might happen, to the last then I pulled with the men 
 at the brace till it was fast, and scrambled up again to the 
 bowsprit heel. Jove ! how she surged to it : the little canvas 
 we had strained like to burst ; the masts trembled, and the 
 spars aloft bent like whip-shafts, everything below groaning 
 again ; while the swell and the blast together made you dizzy, 
 as you watched the white eddies rising and boiling out of the 
 dark her cutwater shearing through it and the foam, as if 
 you were going under it. The sound of the hurricane and 
 the surf seemed to be growing together into one awful roar 
 my very brain began to turn with the pitch 1 was wrought up 
 to and it appeared next moment we should heave far up 
 into the savage hubbub of breakers. I was wearying for the 
 crash and the wild confusion that would follow when all of a 
 sudden, still catching the fierce rush of the gale athwart her 
 quarter into the forecourse, which steadied her though she 
 shuddered to it all of a sudden, the dark mass of the land 
 seemed as it were parting ahead of her, and a gleam of pale 
 sky opened below the dusk into my very face. I no more 
 knew what I was doing, by this time, nor where we were, 
 than the spar before me till again, the light broadened, 
 glimmering low betwixt the high land and a lump of rising 
 level on the other bow. 
 
 " I hurried aft past the confused knots of men holding on
 
 202 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 to the lee of the bulwarks, and seized a spoke of the wheel. 
 ' Tom/ shouted I to Westwood, ' run and let free the spanker 
 on the poop ! Down with the helm down with it, Jacobs, 
 my lad ! ' I sang out ; ' never mind spars or canvas ! ' Down 
 went the helm the spanker helped to luff her to the strength 
 of the gust and away she went up to port, the heavy swells 
 rolling her in, while the rush into her staysail and forecourse 
 came in one terrible flash of roaring wind tearing first one 
 and then the other clear out of the bolt-ropes, though the 
 loose spanker abaft was in less danger, and the way she had 
 from both was enough to take her careening round the point 
 into its lee. By Heavens ! there were the streaks of soft haze 
 low over the rising moon, under the broken clouds, beyond 
 a far line of dim fringy woods, she herself just tipping the 
 hollow behind, big and red when right down from over the 
 cloud above us came a spout of rain, then a sheet of it lifting 
 to the blast as it howled across the point. ' Stand by to let 
 go the larboard anchor ! ' I sang out through the trumpet ; 
 and Jacobs put the helm fully down at the moment, till she 
 was coming head to wind, when I made forward to the mates 
 and men. ' Let go ! ' I shouted ; not a look turned against 
 me, and away thundered the cable through the hawse-hole ; 
 she shook to it, sheered astern, and brought up with her 
 anchor fast. By that time the rain was plashing down in a 
 perfect deluge you couldn't see a yard from you all was 
 one white pour of it ; although it soon began to drive again 
 over the headland, as the tornado gathered new food out of 
 it. Another anchor was let go, cable paid out, and the ship 
 soon began to swing the other way to the tide, pitching all 
 the while on the short swell. 
 
 " The gale still whistled her spars for two or three hours, 
 during which it began by degrees to lull. About eleven 
 o'clock it was clear moonlight to leeward, the air fresh and 
 cool : a delicious watch it was, too. I was walking the poop 
 by myself, two or three men lounging sleepily about the 
 forecastle, and Rickett below on the quarter-deck, when I 
 saw the chief officer himself rush up from below, staring 
 wildly round him, as if he thought we were in some dream 
 or other. I fancied at first the mate would have struck 
 Rickett, from the way he went on, but I kept aft where I 
 was. The eddies ran past the Indiaman's side, and you heard
 
 A SEA STORY 203 
 
 the fast ebb of the tide rushing and rippling sweetly on her 
 taut cables ahead, plashing about the bows and bends. We 
 were in old Bob Martin's river, whatever that might be. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 " "\T/'ELL," continued the commander, his voice making use 
 of the breeze as he stood aft of the group, " I could 
 not have slept more than three or four hours on a stretch, 
 when I was woke by a fellow shoving his lantern in my face, 
 and saying it wasn't me he wanted ; for which I gave him a 
 hearty objurgation, and turned over a swing of the cot to go 
 asleep again. The sailor grumbled something about the parson 
 being wanted for the captain ; and all at once it flashed on my 
 mind where we were, with the whole of last night's ticklish 
 work seeing that, hard rub as it was, it had clean left me for 
 a time. ' Try the aftermost berth, then,' said I, slipping out 
 in the dark to put on my trousers. 
 
 "The fact was, on going below to our state-room, I had 
 found my own cot taken up by someone in the confusion ; and 
 as every door stood open at night in that latitude, I e'en 
 made free with the nearest, which I knew was the missionary's. 
 In a minute or two I heard Westwood meet the mate, who said 
 he thought the captain would like to see him, and hoped they 
 hadn't 'disturbed the other gentleman.' 'Oh no, I daresay 
 not,' said Westwood, rather nervously, guessing, I daresay, 
 what he was wanted for ; while Finch slipped quietly past to 
 listen at the state-room door, where both he and I might hear 
 the ' other gentleman,' whoever he was, snoring pretty plain. 
 
 " When the first officer shut the door to, however, turned 
 the key, and put it in his pocket, I nearly gave vent to a 
 whistle. ' I see ! ' thought I ; ' but, my fine fellow, it seemed 
 you never were meant for a good jailer, anyhow ! ' He was no 
 sooner gone than I walked forward toward the captain's cabin, 
 near the after-hatchway, anxious enough to see how the poor 
 man was, since I had had such a share in bringing him to a 
 point, one way or another. Westwood was standing against the 
 light out of the open door, and I looked in along with him, 
 at the cot slung high to the beams like a lump of shadow, the
 
 204 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 lamp striking across below it on all the captain's little affairs 
 his glazed hat and his wet coat, the names of two or three 
 old books even hanging in shelves against the bulkhead 
 and into the little state-room off the cabin, where the surgeon 
 was stooping to mix a draught. 
 
 " The hard-featured Scotch mate stood holding the captain's 
 wrist with one clumsy flipper, as if trying to feel his pulse, 
 fumbling about his own face with the other, and looking 
 more concerned than I 'd thought possible for him. ( Well, 
 I 've slept a good deal,' said the captain, in a weak voice, 
 putting up his hand slowly to rub his eyes, but seemingly 
 quite composed, and knowing nothing of what had happened 
 which rid me of the horrid notion I could scarce help 
 before, that he had known what he was about. His head was 
 close shaved, and the look of a sailor clean gone off his face 
 with the bluff, honest oak-colour it commonly had, till you 'd 
 have wished him decently in his bed thousands of miles off, 
 with women slipping out and in ; only the blood from his arm 
 hanging down on the sheet, with the sharp point of his nose 
 and the shape of his knees coming up off the shadow, kept it 
 all in one with the wild affair on deck a few hours gone. 
 
 '" She's on her course, you say?' added he, listlessly. 
 ' Must be a very light breeze though, Mr Macleod.' 'So 
 it is, sir ; so it is, no doubt ! ' replied the second mate, 
 soothing him ; ' did ye say we '11 pent the ship, sir ? ' ' Ay, 
 before we go into port, Mr Macleod, to be sure,' said Captain 
 Williamson, trying to put a cheerful tone into his voice ; ' she 's 
 had a good deal of buffeting, but we mustn't let 'em see it, 
 you know ! Didn't you lose a mizzen-topmast somehow, 
 though, Mr Macleod ? ' ' 'Deed ay, sir,' said Macleod, hastily, 
 afraid he was getting upon the scent of what had happened ; 
 ' the first officer's watch it was, sir will / tell Mr Finch ye 're 
 wanting to speak to him about it, Captain Williamson ? ' and 
 he began to shuffle towards the door. 
 
 " ' Finch ? Finch ? ' said the sick man, passing his finger 
 over his eyes again ; ' what voyage is this, Mr Macleod ? ' 
 ' Why why,' said the Scotchman, starting, and rather puzzled 
 himself. * Oo, it 's just this voyage, ye know, sir ! Mr Finch, 
 ye mind, sir ? ' ' No, no ; don't let him leave the deck for 
 a moment, Macleod ! ' said the captain, anxiously : ' harkye, 
 James, I 'm afraid I 've trusted over-much to the young man all
 
 A SEA STORY 205 
 
 along ! I '11 tell ye, Mr Macleod, I don't know whether I was 
 asleep or not, but I heard him somewhere wishing he had the 
 command of this ship ! I shouldn't like him to take her off my 
 hands ! Have you seen the Scilly lights yet, Mr Macleod ? ' 
 
 The mate shook his head ; he had contrived to persuade 
 the poor man we were far homeward bound. ' If you 'd only 
 get the pilot aboard, Mr Macleod,' the captain went on, ' I 'd 
 die contented ; but mind the charts mind the charts I 've 
 got the charts to mind for another sort of voyage myself, 
 James ! ' ' Hoot, hoot, captain ! ' said the Scotchman, ' what 
 sets ye for to talk after that fashion you '11 be up an' about 
 decks directly, sir ! What were ye saying about top-m'sts 
 now, sir?' Captain Williamson gave the second mate a 
 glance that looked into him, and he held down his head, for 
 the man evidently believed fully, as none of us could help 
 doing, that there was death on the captain's face. 
 
 " ' James, James ! ' said the captain, slowly, t you 've no 
 notion how some things weigh on the mind at a pass of this 
 kind ! Other things one don't remember but there 's one in 
 particular, almost as it were yesterday why, surely you were 
 with me that voyage, Mr Macleod ! when I let some o' the 
 
 passengers take a boat in a calm, and all ' Here he 
 
 stopped, seemingly overcome. ' There was one young creature 
 amongst 'em,' he went on, ( the age of my own girl, Macleod 
 my own little Nan, you know and now now I miss her 
 
 and, and The poor man gave a great gulp, clutching 
 
 the mate's arm, and gazing him in the face. ' Wasn't it a 
 long time ago ? ' said he, very anxiously ; ' if it wasn't, I 
 would go mad ! They were all drowned drowned I see 
 that black squall coming down on the swell notv, man, and 
 the brig, and all of us looking out to the wind'ard ! ' 'I 
 mind something about it,' replied Macleod, stoutly, though 
 he looked away : ' 'twas none o' your fault, though, Captain 
 Williamson they were just fey, sir ; and more than that, if 
 ye mind, sir, they took the boat again' all orders on the sly, 
 I may say.' 
 
 " Westwood was on the point of starting forward to make 
 known how the case stood, on the strength of our finding the 
 paper in the bottle, when I pressed his arm, and whispered 
 that it could only make things worse, and cheat the sick man 
 of a notion more likely to do him good than otherwise. 'It's
 
 206 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 a heavy charge, Mr Macleod, a heavy charge ! ' said he, fall- 
 ing back again ; ' and one Mr Brown needn't envy.' ' Mr 
 Finch, sir, ye mind/ put in the second mate, setting him 
 right ; ' but keep up your heart, sir, for any sake ! ' 'I feel I '11 
 last over the time o' next full tide,' said the captain, 
 solemnly. ' I don't want to know how far we 're off, only if 
 there 's any chance at all, Macleod, you won't spare canvas to 
 carry her in.' 
 
 " The Scotchman rubbed one of his hard cheek-bones after 
 the other, and grumbled something or other in his throat by 
 way of agreement. The whole thing was melancholy to see, 
 after last night's stir, with the dim lamp or two twinkling 
 along the gloom of the steerage, the dead quietness of the 
 ship, and the smothered sort of glare under the captain's cot 
 bringing out the mere litter on the floor, to the very cock- 
 roaches putting their ugly feelers out of one of his shoes in a 
 corner ; he shut his eyes, and lay for a minute or two seem- 
 ingly asleep, only murmuring something about a breeze, and 
 then asking them to shove out the port, 'twas so close. The 
 second mate looked to the surgeon, who signed to him to do 
 it, as if it didn't much matter by this time ; while he gave 
 him the draught of physic he was mixing, however. 
 
 " The Indiaman was beginning to swing slowly before the 
 first of the flood, stern off at her anchors ; and whenever the 
 port was opened, 'twas so still otherwise that you heard the 
 tide clearly in the cabin, rippling along the timbers to the 
 copper upon her bows plash, plash, and lap, lip, lap, like no 
 other earthly sound that a man can hear and you even began 
 to note it on something else a good bit off, though it seemed 
 to be all quite dark out-board. The captain's eyes opened by 
 degrees, till we saw them looking at us out of the shadow of 
 the cot, and the second mate started as if to mend his mistake ; 
 only 'twas plain enough, by that time, the captain knew the 
 sound, half raising himself up and listening. A few early 
 mosquitoes came in, and, after dancing about to refresh them- 
 selves in the light and warmth under the cot, began to bite 
 savagely ; everyone of us had a distant horn sounding in his 
 ear, and each was rubbing it or his nose, except the sick man ; 
 but not one of them settled on him. As the starboard port 
 slued gradually opposite to the nearest shore, a low, deep 
 hum was carried in over the water, ebbing and flowing, and
 
 A SEA STORY 207 
 
 full of dim, creeping noises, like things stirring in their sleep, 
 as if the little cabin had been an ear to the ship. At times 
 the tree-frogs broke out in a loud clicking chirrup ; then, 
 between the fits of it, when all seemed still again for a 
 moment or two, you heard a low, half-smothered, small sound, 
 deeper down, as it were, fill up the break with its throbbing 
 and trill- trilling, as if just one land-cricket or a grasshopper 
 did it, till it came out as clear as though it were a child's 
 rattle close by, and all of a sudden stopped ; when back 
 floated the huge whispering hum again, with a damp smell 
 of leaves on a cold breath of the land-air, that died away 
 as quickly as it reached us. The bewilderment on Captain 
 Williamson's white face for that minute's time was cruel to 
 witness, and Macleod would certainly have closed the port, 
 but for the captain's seizing his arm again, with a wild, 
 questioning sort of a look into the second mate's eyes. ' Oh, 
 
 good God!' faltered out the captain, 'it's it's land! where 
 
 where ? ' ' For goodsake, sir,' said Macleod, 'don't ask 
 
 me the now take a bit of sleep, sir.' 
 
 "We could hear one another breathing, when ting-tang 
 went four bells on deck. You heard it going across to the 
 shore, as it were ; and a few moments after, out of the hum- 
 ming far and wide along the land, back came the sound of 
 another bell, toll upon toll, like some clock striking the hour 
 a long way off. Then a third one followed on it, from a dif- 
 ferent direction, ringing clearer in the air ; while the murmur 
 and the rush seemed to swell up the more all round, and the 
 plashing of the tide made the ship heave at her anchors. The 
 mate shivered, Westwood and I started, but some extra- 
 ordinary notion or other gleamed over the captain's face as he 
 sat up. He was quite in his senses, too, apparently, though it 
 seemed to be neither more nor less than sheer joy that over- 
 came him, for he let out a long breath, and his eyes were 
 glistening as if the tears stood in them. 'James James 
 Macleod ! ' said he quickly, with a husky voice, 'you oughn't 
 to 've deceived one you 've sailed so long with ; but you meant 
 me a good surprise, and 'twas kindly done of you ! I know 
 the very run o' the clocks off Greenwich Reach, man ; d' ye 
 think one could mistake the sound of Lon'on town, fidgeting 
 when it wakes, either ? we 're we 're home already ! ' 
 
 " And he fell back in the cot, with the drops running down
 
 208 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 his cheek, smiling happily all the time at Maclebd in a way 
 that went to one's heart ; while the Scotchman stared help- 
 lessly to the surgeon, who slipped to the port and closed it. 
 ' I know by your way, James,' continued the poor man, ' you 
 wanted to send up to Virginia Row for 'em all; but don't 
 send for an hour yet ; better go up yourself and break it to 
 'em break it to 'em, be sure of that, James ; I shouldn't 
 wonder but I pulled up, after all. Ah that first one we heard 
 was Greenwich Hospital t' other is Dicksons' brewery or Red- 
 riff ' Here his eyelids began to drop, owing to the sleeping- 
 draught he had got, when suddenly they opened wide again. 
 
 " ' Ha ! ' said he, listening, and putting up a finger, ' but I 
 haven't heard St Paul's strike six yet ; it 's seldom so long 
 after ; ought to be heard from here of a morning ; let 's 
 By little and little, however, the sick man's eyes closed, and 
 you heard him murmuring, as his finger sank down, 'Macleod, 
 say to her say luff, luff, my lad, keep her her course 
 till his shrunk face was as quiet on the pillow as if he 'd been 
 really at home the first night after a voyage. 
 
 " ' Oh man, doctor ! ' said the second mate, heaving a breath, 
 1 isn't it terrible ! Good forgive me for a lee to a dying man ! 
 Take an old seaman's word for it, Dr Small, yon clock ashore 
 was no mortal soond, sir ; ye may keep your drogues for them 
 they '11 do good to. 'Twas neither more or less than the 
 captain's dregy \ ' ' Phoo ! ' answered the Scotch surgeon, who 
 was one of your sceptical chaps, as I heard say, ' some other 
 vessels here, of course, that 's all.' The sailor gave him only 
 a smile of pity for not being able to distinguish the sound of 
 a ship's bell. ' There can't be a town hereabouts, Collins ? ' 
 whispered Westwood. ( A town no ! ' said I ; ' it 's the best 
 wilderness sign you can have the African bell-bird ! ' * ' Ah, 
 ah ! ' said the surgeon, laughing, ' there now, Macleod of 
 course it can be explained naturally, like other things/ The 
 second mate gave me a doubtful scowl ; but seeing Westwood, 
 whom he had always seemed to think rather in the way before, 
 his eye softened. 
 
 " f You '11 be wanting to see the captain as soon as he wakes 
 up, sir,' said he. ' I 'm terrified to face him but if ye 'd just 
 
 * Sc. The South African and South American campanero, or bell-bird, 
 whose peculiar note may be heard two or three miles off, chiefly in the lone- 
 liest parts of the Brazilian or Benguela forest.
 
 A SEA STORY 209 
 
 slip in when he comes to himself, sir, 1 'm thinking, reverend 
 sir, ye might wile him off yon terrible notion o' his.' West- 
 wood shook his head, seriously, not knowing what to say. 
 'Ay, ay, sir,' continued Macleod, as he half closed the door, 
 'no doubt a man ought to be upon better things; but it's 
 hard for him, when he 's got a wife and weans six thousand 
 miles away, and wants them alongside in a couple of hours 
 uncommon hard, sir! She's a douce, careful body, too, 
 Mistress Williamson, like the captain's self; and I heard her 
 fleech sore with the captain before we sailed, for to bide 
 quietly ashore this time, for good. Poor woman ! if she didn't 
 e'en go the length o' pairtin' in anger the last morning, wae 's 
 me ! till the very moment when (he telt me himself, sir), she 
 out with her arms round his neck, crying like to choke ! An' 
 all to but if the captain had a fault, 'twas the love o' good 
 forgive me, though, when it was but studying his faim'ly, 
 Mr Thomas ! If it was only an auld tarry deevil like me, 
 now, with neither kith or kin ! ' ' Except cousins, Mr Macleod,' 
 said the surgeon, as he wiped his lancet on his coat-tail 
 
 { plenty of them in the High ' But he caught Westwood's 
 
 eye, and was ashamed to finish his heartless joke, though the 
 rough second mate was too full of his feeling to hear it ; when 
 Westwood said something about our all thinking too little of 
 these things beforehand, but how the captain was plainly a 
 man that had done his duty carefully, which no doubt would 
 ease his mind. The mate looked up, and eyed him sideways 
 for a moment : ' Eh ? what ? ' said he bluntly ; ' it 's not so little 
 I mind o' what I used to hear at the kirk langsyne, as not to 
 know that 's not the right doctrine. D' ye think, sir, that 's 
 what '11 put him over, when he finds out this is not Greenwich 
 Reach ? There 's the Methody minister with the glasses, 
 though ! ' he broke out, when again a look of despair came 
 over his broad hard-favoured countenance. ' They 're always 
 upon works, too, I 've heard ! ' said he, turning and murmuring 
 to himself; e oh, if I could but hoist out a bit screed o' the 
 truth myself to comfort the poor fellow with ! Lord, how 
 didn't I think of the Shorter Carritch let 's see how 't went 
 " What is the chief end of" no, it 's " What is faith in faith 
 in the only rule to direct us" no, no "Baptism is a sacrament 
 where whereby " ' and he was still overhauling some old 
 catechism in this fashion, twisting himself all the time as if
 
 210 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 he were twisting a stiff rope the wrong way, with a look of 
 misery none of us could have had the heart to laugh at, when 
 a middy's voice came squeaking down the dark after-hatch- 
 way : ' Mr Macleod, sir, the chief officer wants you on deck.' 
 
 " Westwood slipped quietly off, and the young surgeon was 
 beginning to talk easily, to rid his mind of something, perhaps, 
 till I asked if there wasn't any chance. ' Oh, the captain, you 
 mean ? ' said he ; ( don't think there is he 's a bad subject ! 
 If we were out at sea now, Mr Collins, the calenture would make 
 him think the waves all grass, or something as green as as 
 
 the cawdets used to call ' I looked at the fellow sternly, 
 
 and he changed his key, though with a surprised air. 
 
 " ' You 're blessed early up, though, you two ! ' said he. ' I 
 suppose that cursed squall kept you idlers awake ; but how they 
 managed without the first mate I can't think. Clever fellow, 
 Finch ! but wasn't it a curious trick of the poor skipper to 
 box him up below here ? I fancy he 'd a guess we would all 
 soon be under the mate's command ! It 's a queer thing the 
 brain, isn't it, Mr Collins ? For exaumple, now, there 's the 
 captain, it makes him think something or other a clock near 
 London, with everything accordingly ! Macleod fancies it a 
 soopernatural knell, and twaddles about some Calvinist stuff 
 he learned at school. Then you and me, you know, imaugines 
 it 's a bird now, which is it after all ? Nothing maybe, eh ? ' 
 The fellow capped all with a sneer, as much as to say I was a 
 fool, which I had stood from him several times before ; though 
 now I could have kicked him, more for his heartless way than 
 aught else. ' I tell you, Mr Small,' said I, ' what I think you 
 
 you 're neither more nor less than a ' but I turned on 
 
 my heel. ' I 'm off, however,' said he, ( to turn in again.' 
 
 " Through the half-closed door one could see the sick man's 
 face sleeping so quiet in the shadow from the lamp, you heard 
 not a breath. I looked up the after-hatchway. It seemed 
 still quite dark ; and a patch of the deep dark-blue sky showed 
 high over the square opening, with two or three keen sparks 
 of stars, green ones and blue ones you 'd have thought the 
 ladder, short as it was, went up to somewhere clean above the 
 world. But the moment I got on deck, I saw it was really 
 lighter the heavy fog creeping slowly astern of the ship on 
 both hands ; the white mist rolling faster over it before the 
 sea-breeze against her bows, which had swung seaward by this
 
 A SEA STORY 211 
 
 time from the tide, that rushed like a mill-stream upon both 
 her tight cables ; while the muddy river-water, bubbling, 
 eddying, and fronting away past, spread far up in the middle, 
 into the dusk astern. Stick a jabbering, croaking, hissing, 
 shrieking, and yelling, too, as burst into one's ears out of the 
 dark, as if whole legions of monkeys, bull-frogs, parrots, 
 paroquets, and what not, were coming together full upon us 
 from both sides, one band nearer than the other ; till the 
 heavy boom of the surf round the point, and the roar of the 
 tide coming in over the shallows about the river-mouth, pretty 
 well drowned it. 
 
 "The sudden change was a good relief, Babel though it 
 seemed after the closeness below, with what had been going 
 on ; and I looked ahead towards the sea, which lay away out 
 off our larboard bow, round the headland, and over the opposite 
 point ; a cold watery streak of light showing it from where the 
 breakers rose plunging and scattering along the sandy bar, to 
 the steady grey line of horizon, clipped by one of the two 
 brown chops we had got into. It looked dreary enough as 
 yet, the mouth of it being wider than I 'd fancied it from sea- 
 ward at night ; though even with full water over the long spit 
 of sand in the middle, there was no draught at all for the 
 Indiaman except by the channel betwixt it and the bold point 
 to our right ; and pretty narrow it appeared from our present 
 berth, heaving, as it did, with the green swell that set in, while 
 meantime the mist scudding across the face of the headland 
 let us see but the hard lump of bare black rock underneath. 
 
 " In less time than I 've taken to speak, however, the full 
 space of sky aloft was turning clear, the sea far away suddenly 
 shone out blue, with the surges tipped white; you saw a 
 sparkling star high over it sink slowly in, and the fog spread 
 off the water near us, till here and there you caught the 
 muffled-up shape of a big tree or two looming through, not 
 half-a-mile off our starboard quarter ; the mist creeping over 
 the headland till the sharp peak of it stood out against its 
 shadow on the shoulder of a hill beyond, and old Bob Martin's 
 single clump of cocoas on the rise waving in landward from 
 the brisk sea-breeze. 
 
 " One passenger after another came peeping sleepily out of 
 the companion-hatch at the men clearing away the wreck of 
 the spars, and swabbing the quarter-deck down ; but scarce
 
 212 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 had Smith, one of the young writers, reached the poop, when 
 he gave a shout that covered both poop-ladders in no time, 
 with people scrambling over each other to get up. Next 
 minute you 'd have fancied them a knot of flamingoes with 
 their wings out, as the bright red daybreak brought out the 
 edge of the woods far astern, through a hazy lane in the purple 
 mist, topped so with stray cocoa-nut trees and cabbage-palms, 
 dabbled like brushes in the colour, that they scarce knew them 
 to be woods at all, and not a whole lot of wild savages fresh 
 from other business of the kind, coming down with all sorts of 
 queer tools upon us ; more especially when one heard such a 
 chorus of unaccountable cries, whistling and screaming, as 
 seemed to struggle with the sound of the sea ahead of us, and 
 the plash alongside. 
 
 " The huge round sun struck hot crimson along the far turn 
 of the reach, with all manner of twisted blots upon him, as it 
 were, and the very grass and long reeds seemingly rustling 
 into his face, so one didn't for the moment know him either ; 
 while the muddy chocolate-coloured eddies, sweeping and 
 closing beyond the ship's rudder, glittered and frothed up like 
 blood; and every here and there, along the streak of light, the 
 head of a log or a long branch came dipping up terribly plain 
 no wonder the old Seringapatam had apparently turned tail 
 to it all, ready to bolt if she could. 
 
 " Almost as soon as you took your hands off your eyes, 
 though, and could see without a red ball or two before them 
 there was the nearest shore growing out toward our starboard 
 bulwark all along, crowded with wet green woods, up into 
 steaming high ground all to eastward a dazzle of light, with 
 two or three faint mountain-peaks shooting up far off in it, and 
 a woody blue hill or so between ; while here and there a broad 
 bright hazy spoke of the sun's great wheel came cutting down 
 into the forest, that brought out a patch full of long big leaves, 
 ten times greener than the rest, and let you look off the deck 
 into the heart of it amongst the stems over the bank. The 
 jabber in the woods had passed off all at once with the dusk, 
 the water deepening over the bar, and the tide running slower, 
 so that everyone's confused face turned breathless with delight 
 as it grew stiller and stiller. 
 
 " The whole breadth of the river shone out by this time, 
 full and smooth, to the opposite shore three times as far away,
 
 A SEA STORY 213 
 
 where the wood and bulrushes seemed to grow out of the 
 water ; a long thick range of low muddy-looking mangroves, 
 with a cover of dark green, rounding from the farthest point 
 one saw, down to some sandy hummocks near the mouth, and 
 a ridge of the same drifted up by the wind off the beach. 
 Beyond that side there was nothing, apparently, but a rolling 
 sweep of long coarse grass, with a few straggling cocoa-nut 
 trees and baobabs, like big swollen logs on end, and taken to 
 sprouting at top : a dun-coloured heave of land in the distance, 
 too, that came out, as it got hotter, in a long desert-like, red- 
 brick-dust sort of a glare. The sole living things to be seen 
 as yet were some small birds rising up out of the long grass, 
 and the turkey-buzzards sailing high over all across, as if on 
 the look-out. 
 
 " The air was so cool and clear, however, from the tornado 
 overnight not a cloud in the sky, and the strange scent of 
 the land reaching us as the dew rose off it you could see far 
 and wide, with a delicious feeling of it all, that kept everyone 
 standing fixed on the spot where he first gained the deck, 
 even the men looking over their shoulders with the ropes in 
 their fists, and the fresh morning breeze lifting one's hair. 
 Surprised as the passengers were, nobody spoke a word, except 
 the three or four children shouting, dancing, and pointing 
 together, without being noticed, till, all at once, the whole 
 poopful burst into one confusion of questions and exclamations, 
 running hither and thither, shaking hands and jostling each 
 other like distracted people. 
 
 " I had a spyglass at my eye, making out the other shore, 
 when, turning round in the middle of it, the first thing I saw 
 was Violet Hyde's face, as she stood with one little foot on 
 the stair-head behind me, holding the rail with one hand, her 
 eyes sparkling, and her parted lips murmuring like one in a 
 dream : ' Oh, Mr Collins ! ' exclaimed she, breathless ; ' what 
 is this ? Where are we is it Fairyland ? A river ! ' ' Yes, 
 in Africa,' I said ; ' but whether it 's the Bembarooghe or 
 
 the ' That fearful, fearful evening ! ' continued she, 
 
 shuddering : ' I saw the frightful sky, and heard the storm 
 and now ! Were we not in some very great danger, sir?' ' Yes, 
 ma'am, we were,' replied I, as stiffly as I could; 'but, happily, 
 it 's over now ! ' And I gave my cap a lift to move off, uneasy 
 as I was, every moment, lest Sir Charles should catch me speak-
 
 214 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 ing again to his daughter. However, Miss Hyde was gazing 
 eagerly at the land, and I had to wait. ' What lovely, lovely 
 green!' she half whispered : ' oh, if one could only tread upon 
 it ! so un-English those strange tall trees look ! are they not 
 
 cocoa-nut trees and and Suddenly, her voice faltered, 
 
 and she turned round with her bright blue eyes swimming in 
 tears ' How how thankful we should be that we are not 
 like our poor, poor friends, who were lost ! ' exclaimed she. I 
 thought of the poor captain below in his cot, but next moment 
 I was explaining, to her sheer amazement, how the real truth 
 of the matter stood, though, if possible, it seemed to horrify 
 her still more. ' I can't think what they may be,' I rapped 
 out ; ' but if I had the command of this ship, I 'd up anchor 
 this very hour, and go out at least as soon as the tide ebbed; 
 but, at any rate, at the Cape I mean to get hold of some 
 schooner or other, and if it were to China, why, I '11 cruise after 
 
 'em till I ' ' Then you think,' began she, and an arch 
 
 inquisitive sort of look danced in both her eyes as she turned 
 away to watch the shore again, saying slowly, ' You are a a 
 naval gentleman then, Mr West Mr Collins ? ' I tried to 
 stammer out something by way of an explanation, but it 
 wouldn't do, and I said, ' At any rate, I 'm no better, by this 
 time, than an idler aboard here, ma'am ! ' 
 
 " All at once, I caught a side-look from her eyes, that wasn't 
 meant for me, as she glanced over the poop-netting. Half 
 provoking and half sweet it was, though, and it made my 
 brain somehow or other seem to spin round, till a little after, 
 before I well knew what I was about, I was holding the long 
 spyglass for her to see the bank of the river her warm breath 
 coming on my ear as I stooped before her, near enough to 
 have kissed the muslin on her shoulder, while her rosy mouth 
 changed with every new spot that the glass brought near; 
 and she had to hold one taper forefinger on the other eyelid 
 to keep it shut, so that I could dwell on her face as if she 'd 
 been asleep. ' There, there ! ' exclaimed she, e are actually 
 flowers with such immense leaves ! And now an enormous 
 tree, with roots hanging from the branches, and other stems 
 growing up into them. Why, yes ! is not that a banyan-tree, 
 
 Mr ? ' and she looked away at me, when of course the tree 
 
 was vanished, and instead of that, the rather undeniable 
 expression of a fellow in love, two or three inches off, bent
 
 A SEA STORY 215 
 
 fair upon her. Violet Hyde coloured a little, and looked in 
 again. ' And, I think,' continued she, ' I see oh, two such 
 beautiful creatures deer, I think, coming out to drink from 
 the river ! ' All this time, the ecstasies of the rest kept up the 
 noise and confusion ; the young lady's-maid was gaping open- 
 mouthed at the shore, not even noticing her young mistress's 
 straw bonnet fall off, and I had just picked it up with one 
 hand, to put it quietly over that matchless nut-brown hair of 
 hers, shining suddenly in the sun, like silk, when the judge's 
 voice rang out sharp from the other stair, 'Violet, child, 
 you '11 have a sunstroke. Kitmagar, you scoundrel, beebee sahib 
 punkah lao, sirrah ! ' I held on to the telescope like grim 
 death, while that eternal punkah was hoisted over us both, 
 the judge eyeing me somewhat coolly for the first moment. 
 ' Well, well, Mr Westwood,' said he, however, ' you 've got rid 
 of that proud freak of yours ; such behaviour as yours yester- 
 day, I assure you, I shouldn't have endured from anyone else, 
 young man ! But, my dear boy,' added he, suddenly, ' from 
 what I can gather, indeed, saw myself last night, I am con- 
 vinced we owe you a very great deal even, I suspect, the 
 safety of the entire vessel ! ' Miss Hyde had left off using 
 the glass, and, as I stood up, she gave me a quick glance of 
 amazement. ' Mere chance, sir,' I stammered. ' Why/ said 
 Sir Charles, ' I saw you at the steerage in the middle of the 
 hurricane, when I believe the actual officers of the ship had 
 left it in dismay. I tell you what, Mr Westwood, you 're a 
 bold fellow ; and your uncle and I must see in India if we 
 can't reward you in some way, my dear boy ! ' All this 
 fondling style of thing, and for little more than a piece of 
 luck, would have disgusted me if I hadn't been more taken 
 up with watching the side of Violet Hyde's face, as she 
 listened for sounds in the woods ashore. ' Strange, wasn't it, 
 Violet, my dear,' continued he to his daughter, ' that my 
 friend the Councillor's nephew should have gone out in the 
 same Indiaman, so fortunately though, of course, after all, 
 it was the first this season.' ' Ah ! ' said she, starting, ' I beg 
 pardon, papa what did you weren't you talking of the 
 river?' 'Don't you hear, child,' said the judge, 'I said it 
 was a curious coincidence, Mr Westwood's going in this 
 vessel.' 'Oh yes, indeed!' answered she, and couldn't help 
 looking down a little confounded. But the lady's-maid was
 
 216 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 putting on her tiny slipper, which had come off, while her 
 father mentioned that of course I 'd had practical reasons for 
 not owning my profession hitherto ; meaning, I suppose, that 
 I didn't speak for fear of having to work, like the monkeys 
 though the sharp old lawyer must have had a better guess by 
 this time, and queer enough it must have been to see her 
 face, listening to him as he explained it all. I stood biting 
 my lips, meanwhile two or three times on the point of 
 telling him it was all nonsense about my being a nephew 
 of any hanged old nabob whatever ; when Sir Charles said 
 carelessly he should leave the Seringapatam, if possible, at 
 the Cape of Good Hope, as he couldn't trust safely to the 
 present officers. 
 
 "Just then up got the merry chant of the men running 
 round with the capstan-bars, to get up anchor ; the chief officer 
 wishing, as it was found, to carry her farther into the river 
 with the breeze for the sake of filling our water-casks the 
 easier, according to him, but more likely out of sheer spite at 
 what had been done without him. What with eagerness in 
 the cuddy to get on shore and see the woods, the breakfast 
 below was a rare scene, no one minding what he did, even to 
 rushing slap into a couple of ladies' berths for his boots, or 
 laying a couple of loaded Joe Mantons into somebody's bed, 
 swallowing biscuit and butter on the way. 
 
 " Suddenly, we heard the splash of paddles in the water, 
 with a hail in some foreign tongue or other, and hurried on 
 deck in a body ; where we found the ship tiding it slowly up, 
 under jibs and foretopsail, and beginning to open a longer 
 reach where the river seemed to narrow in. A black-eyed, 
 black-bearded fellow, with a tallow, yellow, sweaty sort of 
 complexion, in a dirty jacket, drawers, and short boots, and 
 an immense grass hat, shouting Portuguese louder and louder 
 into the first mate's ear, till he actually put both hands 
 together, and roared through them, pointing to himself now 
 and then, as if surprised he wasn't known. 
 
 "All at once, evidently quite disgusted, he turned and 
 looked over the side, saying something to one of the ugliest 
 and most ill-looking mulattoes I ever saw, who sat in the stern 
 of a long rough canoe, hollowed out of some tree, with two 
 naked black rowers, less of the real nigger than himself, as 
 they leant grinning up at the bulwarks with their sharp teeth,
 
 A SEA STORY 217 
 
 that appeared as if they 'd been filed to a point. The mulatto 
 gloomed, but he gave no answer, and as one of the cadets and 
 I knew a little Portuguese, we managed together to get some- 
 thing out of the fellow on deck, though, at noticing him for 
 the first time that morning, I saw Finch turn red with surprise. 
 
 "We understood the man to ask if we wanted nothing 
 particular in the river, the meaning of which I saw better on 
 bethinking me of the fire along the bush inside the headland, 
 that had let me see the marks of it no doubt a signal to some 
 craft they had taken us for. However, so soon as he heard 
 we needed no more than water and spars, after musing a 
 minute, and speaking again to Rodriguez, as he called the 
 mulatto, he said he would pilot us to a convenient berth him- 
 self, for two or three dollars ; notwithstanding his title was, as 
 he said, Don Jose Jeronimo Santa somebody, commandant of 
 the Portuguese fort something else. The river, we found, was 
 the Nouries or the Cuanene, where they had a settlement 
 called Caconda, a good way up ; a remarkably bad country 
 he gave us to know, and not worth staying in, from the number 
 of flies, and the elephants having got into a cursed way of 
 burying their tusks except, he hinted, for the plenty of 
 blacks, all anxious to be sold and to see foreign countries ; but 
 the trade was nothing yet absolutely nothing, said he, blow- 
 ing his nose without a pocket-handkerchief, and suiting the 
 act to the word, as he mentioned his notion of throwing it up 
 and going farther north-west. 
 
 " By this time we had stood over to the lowest shore, till 
 you could see the thick coffee-coloured mud in among the 
 roots and suckers of the dark-green mangroves, with their red 
 pods bursting under their rank-looking leaves and over them, 
 through the tall coarse guinea-grass, to the knots of feathery 
 cocoas behind, swarming with insects ; when he gave the sign 
 to go about, one of his blacks heaving a lead, and grunting out 
 the depth of water, as the ship made a long stretch across 
 towards the woody side again, and Don Jos& all the time taking 
 it as easy as if the quarter-deck were his own, while he asked 
 for a cigar and lighted it. Joke though he did, yet I couldn't 
 like the fellow at all ; however, as soon as she got pretty near 
 the shore, about a quarter of a mile from what seemed a wide 
 creek, glittering up between a high fringe of cane and bamboo 
 clumps, he had the sails clued up, a single anchor let go in
 
 218 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 four or five fathoms, and our Portuguese friend got his money 
 and bundled over the side, pulling quietly ashore. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 " HPHE tide by this time was quite still, and the breeze sank 
 -- almost at once, as we were shut in from the sea, when 
 we were surprised to see the striped Portuguese flag, rise off a 
 tall bamboo stick, among the bushes on the open shore, nearly 
 abreast of us, where a low muddy-like wall was to be made 
 out, with something of a thatched roof or two, and a sort of 
 rude wooden jetty running before it into the water. Shortly 
 after, Don Jose came paddling out again, and got on board, 
 this time with an old cocked hat on, excusing himself for not 
 having fired a gun which was to save us expense, he re- 
 marked, being particular friends seeing that he 'd got to 
 demand twelve dollars of harbour dues and duties, whereas, 
 if he saluted, he must have charged fourteen. The cool 
 impudence of this brought the chief officer from the capstan ; 
 but the steady face of the fellow, and the glance he took 
 round the deck when the cadet told him he 'd better be off at 
 once, made me think he had something or other to back him. 
 Mr Finch, as usual, fumed up into a passion, and told the men 
 to fling him over into his canoe, which they accordingly did, 
 without the least nicety about it ; the Portuguese next minute 
 picking himself up, and standing straight, with the look of a 
 perfect devil, as he shook his fist at the whole ship, while the 
 canoe slid off to the shore. 
 
 " Budge even so much as a single fathom, at present, we 
 could not ; and most of us were too much in the spirit of fun 
 and venture to care a fig for having made an enemy of Don 
 Jos^ So-on, as the cadet called him ; indeed, it seemed rather 
 to set a finer point on people's admiration of the green 
 jungly-looking shore next to us, with its big aloes and agaves 
 growing before the bush, and all sorts of cocoas, palms, 
 monkey-bread, and tall white-flaked cotton trees, rising in 
 every way out from over the rest. For my part, I thought 
 more of the Portuguese interest, after all, than his hatred 
 which proved correct, by his soon sending out a sulky
 
 A SEA STORY 219 
 
 message by the mulatto, offering to sell us fowls and a 
 bullock, at no ordinary price. However, all hands from the 
 cabin were mad already to get ashore somewhere, and the 
 cadets, bristling with fowling-pieces and rifles, each singing 
 out that he was ready to supply the whole ship with fresh 
 meat ; so the mulatto had to sheer off, with a boat nearly 
 lowered over his head. 
 
 " From where we lay at the time, what with the large 
 creek off one bow, and the broad river ahead of us, spreading 
 brimful along to the light, the water had the look of a huge 
 lake, fringed in by a confused hazy bluish outline steeping in 
 the heat, where the distance clipped behind the lumps of 
 keen verdure, showering over a dark mangrove-covered 
 point. Before the two large quarter-boats could be got 
 ready for the ladies and the rest of us, in fact, we heard the 
 gigful of writers and cadets beginning to pop away at every- 
 thing they saw alive, out of sight of the ship, till at last we 
 were afloat, too, pulling slowly into the middle of the stream, 
 and the men eyeing us lazily as they turned-to about the 
 rigging, to send up new spars in place of those lost. The 
 old Indiaman's big bows stood looming up broad astern of us 
 on the sluggish eddies round her cable, with her tall, steady 
 forespars and furled yards rising white against the low line of 
 marshy shore in the distance, and wavering in her shadow 
 below, till the thick green branches of the next point shut 
 her out, and the glare off the face of the creek shot level over 
 all of us in the two cutters, wild with every kind of feeling 
 that India passengers could have after two months' voyage. 
 
 " For my own part, I should have had rather a suspicion 
 how absurd it was to go a-pleasuring in an African river we 
 knew nothing about, especially when I saw that a day or two 
 so long after the rains might suck it up, during ebb, into a 
 pretty narrow mid-channel ; all I thought of was, however, 
 that I was steering the boat with Violet Hyde in it, the kit- 
 magar holding his gaudy punkah over her before me, while 
 the judge, with his gun in his hands, was looking out as 
 eagerly, for the time, as the four griffins were pulling furi- 
 ously, in spite of the heat that made the sweat run into 
 their eyes. 
 
 " The other party were soon off ahead of us up the main 
 river, under care of the Scotch surgeon, laughing, talking, and
 
 220 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 halloing in chase of the cadets who had first left. However, 
 Sir Charles thought there was more likelihood of game along 
 the creek, and the ladies fancied it something new, so I 
 steered right into it ; the fat midshipman, Simm, watching 
 me critically as I handled the yokelines, which he had given 
 up to me in a patronising way, and the sailor in the bow 
 regarding the exertions of the griffins with a knowingly 
 serious expression, while he dabbled his flipper at ease in the 
 water. 
 
 "As the tide steadied, this said creek proved to be a 
 smaller river, apparently from the hilly country I had noticed 
 beyond the woods, by the clearness of its current, that showed 
 the pale yellow reflection of the close bamboo-brake on one 
 side, deep down into the light the huge, sharp, green 
 notched aloe-leaves and fern showing here and there out of 
 it the close, rank, stifling smell of rotten weeds and fungi 
 giving place to the strange wild scent of the flowers, trailing 
 and twisting in thick snaky coils up the stems on our opposite 
 hand, and across from branch to branch, with showers of 
 crimson and pink blossoms and white stars ; still, eager as the 
 ladies were to put foot on land, 'twas no use looking as yet 
 for a spot of room, let alone going farther in. 
 
 " The cadets were not long in being blown, either ; when 
 the midshipman, the bowman, and I, had to relieve them. 
 However, then I could look straight toward Violet Hyde's 
 face, the shade of the scarlet punkah hanging over it, and her 
 soft little straight nose and forehead catching a flickering 
 burst from the leaves as we sheered at times under cover of 
 the bank ; while her eyelids, drooping from the glare, gave 
 her bright eyes a half-sleepy sort of violet look, and it was 
 only her lips that let you see how excited she felt. The 
 griffin who had the tiller steering with the judgment of a 
 tailor's 'prentice on a picnic to Twickenham, we came two or 
 three times crash into the twigs of some half-sunk tree ; then 
 a blue bird like a heron would rise direct ahead of us, with its 
 tall wet spindle legs and spurs glistening like steel behind it 
 into the light, and a young snake in its sharp bill ; or a grey 
 crane rustled out of the cane from overhead, its long wings 
 creaking in the air out of sight. Suddenly, you heard a long 
 chirruping croak from a tree-frog, and the ground ones gave 
 full chorus from farther in, whining and cackling and peep-
 
 A SEA STORY 221 
 
 peep-peeping in one complete rush that died as suddenly away 
 again, like thousands of young turkeys. Then out in the midst 
 of the quiet would come a loud clear wheetle-wheetling note 
 from some curious fowl in an opening, with another of the 
 same to match, dimmer amongst the thick of the bush. 
 However, everything of the kind seemed to sink down with 
 the heat at noon, the very buzz of flies round every dark 
 feather of the cocoas, and the mosquito-hum along the bank, 
 getting fainter ; till one heard the heat, as it were, creeping 
 and thrilling down through the woods, with the green light 
 that steeped into both edges of the long creek ; every reed, 
 cane, leaf, and twig, seemingly, at last giving it back again 
 with a whispering, hushing crackle, and the broad fans of the 
 palms tingling in it with rays from them, as they trembled 
 before you in the glare, back into the high bundles of knotted 
 and jointed bamboo, with their spiky-tufted crowns. 
 
 " ' Can you not almost feel the forest grow ! ' exclaimed 
 Miss Hyde ; while the boat floated quietly to one side, and her 
 charming young face shining out from the punkah, before 
 Master Gopaul's deucedly ugly one, coolly staring past his 
 snub nose, made one think of a white English rose and a 
 black puff-ball growing together under a toadstool ; plenty of 
 which, as red as soldiers' coats, and as big as targets, looked 
 here and there out of the bank. It put new spirit into me to 
 see her, but still we could do little more than shove across 
 from one side to the other till something all at once roused 
 us up in the shape of a long scaly-like log, seemingly lying 
 along in the sun, which tumbled off the edge with a loud 
 splash, and two of the young fellows let drive from their 
 fowling-pieces, just after the alligator had sunk to the bottom. 
 Rather uncomfortable it was to come sheering right over him 
 next moment, and catch a glimpse of his round red eyes and 
 his yellow throat, as the mud and weeds rose over him. 
 
 " The other ladies shrieked, but Violet Hyde only caught 
 hold of her father's arm and started back ; though her blue 
 eye and the clear cut of her pretty nostril opened out, too, 
 for the moment her lips closed. Five minutes after, when a 
 couple of large guinea-fowl sprang up, Sir Charles proved 
 himself a better shot than the cadets, by dropping one of 
 them over the water ahead of us, which was laid hold of by 
 the reefer of the Indiaman, and stowed away fluttering into
 
 222 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the stern-locker Simm observing coolly that it was a 
 scavengering carrion sort of bird, but perhaps one of his 
 messmates might like to take it home stuffed to his sister. 
 The judge merely smiled and patted the mid on the shoulder, 
 remarking in great good-humour that he, Simm, would make 
 a good attorney ; and on we held, soaking to our shirts and 
 panting, until the bowman hooked down the stem of a young 
 plantain, with a huge bunch of full ripe yellow bananas under 
 the long flapping leaves at its head, right into the midst of us, 
 out of a whole clump of them, where the smooth face of the 
 cove showed you their scarlet clusters of flowers and green 
 round pods hanging over it, hidden as they were from above. 
 Every man of us made a clutch, and the stem almost lifted 
 Simm out of the boat with it, as it sprang back into the brake, 
 rousing out a shower of gaudy-coloured butterflies, and a 
 cloud of mosquitoes, and making the parroquets scream inside ; 
 while the cadets' mouths were so full they couldn't speak, 
 the reefer making a gulp with the juice seeming to come out 
 at his eyes, the sailor spitting out his quid and stuffing in a 
 banana, and the ladies hoping they were safe to eat, as I 
 peeled the soft yellow rind off, and handed one to Violet 
 Hyde, which she tasted at once. But if ever one enters into 
 the heart of things in the tropics, I 'd say 'tis when that same 
 delicious taste melts through and through and all oven you, 
 after chewing salt-junk for a space. I remember one fore- 
 mast man, who was always so drunk ashore he used to re- 
 member nothing in India but 'scoffing* one juicy benanny,' 
 as he called it ; ' but hows'ever, Jack,' he 'd say, ' 'twas blessed 
 good, ye know, and I 'm on the look-out for a berth again, jist 
 for to go and have another.' One of us looked to the other, 
 and Miss Hyde laughed and coloured a bit when I offered 
 her a second, while her father said, full five minutes after, 
 ' 'Gad, Violet, it almost made me think I saw Garden Reach 
 in the Hooghly, and the Baboo's Ghaut ! ' 
 
 " This whole time we couldn't have got more than three- 
 quarters of a mile from where the ship lay, when, all at once, 
 the close growth on our left hand began to break into low 
 bush, and at length a spot offered where we might get ashore 
 tolerably, with two or three big red ant-hills heaped up out 
 of the close prickly-pear plant, and the black ants streaming 
 * Anglice, eating.
 
 A SEA STORY 223 
 
 over the bank, as well as up the trunk of a large tree. The 
 monkeys were keeping up a chattering stir everywhere about ; 
 and two or three bright green little lizards, changing into 
 purple and back again, as they lay gleaming in the sun on 
 the sides of the ant-heaps, darted their long tongues out like 
 silver bodkins at the ants coming past. In we shoved with 
 a cheer, and had scarce moored to the tree ere the ladies 
 were being handed out and tripping over the ground-leaves 
 to the ankles, starting on again at every rustle and prick, for 
 fear of snakes ; till the bowman in charge was left in the boat 
 by himself, and, there being seven of us with guns over our 
 arms, the next notion of the griffins was to get a sight of some 
 ' natives.' 
 
 " In fact, there was a sort of a half-track leading off near 
 the bank, through among the long coarse grass and the ferny 
 sprouts of young cocoas, and a wide stretch of open country 
 seen beyond it, dotted all over with low clumps of trees and 
 bush rounded off in the gush of light, that gave it all a straw- 
 coloured tint up to where a bare reddish-looking ridge of hill 
 looked over a long swell of wild forest, off a hot, pale, cloudless 
 sky. Here and there you saw the shadow of one bluff lying 
 purple on the side of another, and a faint blue peak between, 
 letting north'ard into some pass through the hills, but no 
 signs of life save a few dun big-headed buffaloes feeding about 
 a swampy spot not very far off, and rather too shaggy, by all 
 appearance, to make pleasant company. Accordingly, we held 
 for a few yards under the shade, where the fat mid, thinking 
 to show off his knowingness by getting cocoa-nuts for the 
 ladies, began to shy balls of mud from the creek-sides at the 
 monkeys in the trees. 
 
 " However, he brought us rather more than he bargained 
 for, till the whole blessed jungle seemed to be gathering 
 between us and the boat to pelt us to death with nuts as big 
 as eighteen-pound shot, husks and all ; so off we had to hurry 
 into the glare again, Sir Charles half-carrying his daughter 
 through guinea-grass up to the waist when somebody felt 
 the smell of smoke, and next minute we broke out near it, 
 wreathing up white from inside a high bamboo fence, propped 
 up and tied all along with cocoa-nut husk. ' What the devil ! ' 
 shouted the foremost cadet, as soon as he found the opening, 
 ' they 're cannibals ! roasting a black child, by heaven ! ' and
 
 224 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 in he dashed, being no chicken of a fellow ashore at any rate, 
 the others after him, while the judge, Simm, and I kept out- 
 side with the ladies, who were all of a shudder of course, 
 what with the thought, and what with the queer scent of 
 roast meat that came to us. ' Ha, ha ! ' laughed the cadet 
 next moment, ' it 's only a monkey, after all ! come in, though, 
 Sir Charles, if you please, sir nobody here, ladies.' 
 
 "There, accordingly, was the little skinned object twirling 
 slowly between two bamboo sticks, over a fire beneath two or 
 three immense green leaves on a frame, with its knees up not 
 to let its legs burn ; about a dozen half-open sheds and huts, 
 like little corn-stacks, thatched close with reeds, and hung 
 with wattled mats of split bamboo, giving the place more the 
 look of a farmyard than a village ; as there w r as a big tree 
 spreading in the middle, a few plantains, yams, and long 
 maize-stalks flowering out of the coarse guinea-grass which 
 the niggers hadn't taken the trouble to tread down all round 
 inside of the fence. 
 
 " However, we weren't long of perceiving an old grey- 
 headed black sitting on his hams against the post of a hut, 
 watching us all the time ; and a villainously ugly old thief he 
 looked, with a string of Aggry beads about his head, and a 
 greegree charm-bag hung round his shrivelled neck, which 
 was stuck through a hole in some striped piece of stuff that 
 fell over to his knees, as he sat mumbling and croaking to 
 himself, and leering out of the yellows of his eyes, though 
 too helpless to stir. Something out of the way attracted my 
 notice, glittering in front of the hut over his head ; but, on 
 stepping up to it, I wasn't a little surprised to find it the 
 stern-board of some small vessel or other, with the tarnished 
 gilt ornament all round, and the name in large white letters 
 ' Martha Cobb ' the port, Boston, still to be made out, 
 smaller, below. This I didn't think so much of in itself, as 
 the craft might have been lost ; till, on noticing that the old 
 fellow's robe was neither more nor less than a torn American 
 ensign, in spite of his growls and croaks I walked past him 
 into the hut, where there was a whole lot of marling-spikes, 
 keys, and such like odds and ends, carefully stored up in 
 a bag, marked with the same name, besides a stewpan with 
 some ostrich feathers stuck where the handle had been, as 
 if this rascally black sinner wore it on his head on state
 
 A SEA STORY 225 
 
 occasions, being probably the head man and a justice of the 
 peace. 
 
 " What struck me most, though, was a pocket-book with a 
 letter inside it, in a woman's hand, addressed to the master 
 of the brig Martha Cobb ; dated a dozen years before, yellow 
 and fusty, and with tarry finger-marks on it, as if the poor 
 skipper, God knows, had read it over and over in his cabin 
 many a fresh breeze betwixt there and Boston. I put it in 
 my pocket, with a curse to the old black devil, as he croaked 
 out and fell on his face trying to bite me with his filed teeth 
 when I passed out, to follow the rest out of the bamboo-pen ; 
 wondering, of course, where all the other negroes could be, 
 unless they were dodging about the river shore to watch 
 the Indiaman little chance as there was of their trying the 
 same joke with the Seringapatam as with the Martha Cobb. 
 
 " As for the women, however, I had scarce joined our party 
 going out, when we met a half-naked black hag with a bunch 
 of cocoa-nuts and husk. The moment she saw us she gave 
 a squeal like an old hen, and fell flat, while several younger 
 ones, jogging along with their naked black piccaninnies on 
 their backs, turned tail and were off with a scream. Next 
 minute we were almost as startled as they could be when 
 three plump young jetty damsels dropped down right into 
 the bushes alongside of us, off as many tall cocoas which 
 they 'd been climbing by a band round them, for the nuts. 
 ' Mercy on us ! ' said the eldest of our lady passengers ; and it 
 was rather queer, since they had nothing earthly upon them 
 
 save very very short pet 1 beg your pardon, ma'am, but I 
 
 didn't know any other word. However, off they scampered 
 for the woods, Simm and one of the cadets hard after them, 
 and we turning away to smother our laughter, especially as 
 the griffin had forgot his mother being with us. The middy 
 being first started, he was a good way ahead, when all at 
 once the sternmost of the black girls tripped in the band she 
 had over her shoulder, Simm giving a cheer as he made prize 
 of his chase ; but scarce before the whole three of the dark 
 beauties had him smothered up amongst them, laughing 
 yelling, and squalling as they hauled him about ; till I saw 
 the dirk Simm sported glitter in one of their hands, and I 
 made towards the spot in the notion of their finishing him in 
 right earnest-
 
 226 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 " The black damsels ran off together as the unlucky reefer 
 picked himself up, coming to us with his hair rubbed up like 
 a brush, his cap out of shape in his hand, and the gold band 
 off it, his red face shining, and all the gilt anchor-buttons off 
 his jacket, besides being minus his dirk. ' Simm, Simm, my 
 fine fellow ! ' said his friend the cadet, like to die with laugh- 
 ing, 'what what did they do to you? why, your head looks 
 like a chimney-sweep's mop!' Simm knocked his cap against 
 a tree to set it right, without a word, and we followed the 
 others to the boat, where he swore, however, that he 'd kissed 
 'em all three, at which Mrs Atkins fairly took him a slap on 
 the side of the head, saying he was a nasty, improper boy, 
 and she was glad his poor mother couldn't see him run after 
 creatures of that kind in African woods. ' Natives, indeed ! ' 
 said she, ( I have heard so often of native modesty, too, in 
 books ; but, after all, there 's nothing like experience, I think, 
 Sir Charles?' 'Certainly not, ma'am,' replied the judge, 
 humouring her, as she hadn't often had the chance of speak- 
 ing to him before ; ' 'tis almost as bad in India, though, 
 you know.' ' Oh, there, Sir Charles,' said the lady, ' I never 
 happened to go out, of course, except in the carriage ! ' 'Ah,' 
 said the judge, coolly, f you should try an elephant, some- 
 times, ma'am.' 
 
 " After this, as Sir Charles was bent on getting a shot at 
 something better, with a glass or two of Madeira to refresh us, 
 we pulled farther still up the small river, passing the mouth of 
 a deep marshy inlet, where I noticed a few long canoes be- 
 longing to the Congo village we had seen ; the close, heavy 
 heat of the woods getting, if possible, worse ; and the rank 
 green growth topping up round us as flat as before ; when the 
 sound of a loud rush of water up-stream broke upon us through 
 the bush to northward, the surface rippling, and a slight cool 
 breath seeming to flutter across it now and then, the very 
 noise putting fresh soul into you. Suddenly we opened out 
 on a broad bend, where it was hard work to force her round, 
 and next moment a low fall was gleaming before us, where a 
 hill-stream came washing and plashing over one wide rocky step 
 above another in the turn, then sweeping out of a deep pool 
 to both hands, and running away ahead, in between the spread 
 of trees, seemingly to a sort of a lagoon, where you saw the 
 light in the middle glancing bright down upon its face. A
 
 A SEA STORY 227 
 
 broad blue burst of air and light struck down along the 
 hollow the stream rushed out of, off the roots of a regular 
 mountain, leaning back to the sky, with its big tufted knolls 
 and its shady rifts thrown out blue beyond one or two thick 
 scaly-stemmed date-trees, waving their long, feathery, fringe- 
 like leaves to the least bit of a breeze, on as many rough 
 points near at hand ; the whole shape of the mountain you 
 couldn't see for the huge mahogany-trees, teak, and African 
 oak, rising up over one shoulder into a lump of green forest. 
 In five minutes more we were through into the lagoon, which 
 very possibly took round into the main river again, only the 
 opposite end, to our surprise, was all afloat with logs of big 
 timber choking it up, so that there we must stick or go back 
 upon our wake. 
 
 " However, the lagoon itself being broad enough and round 
 enough in all conscience, with a deep hollow opening up out 
 of it on the high ground, the judge and the cadets thought a 
 better place couldn't have been chosen for landing after a 
 little sport, while we left the fair ladies to rest in the cool, 
 and look at the lotus-lilies spread all over one cove of it, 
 floating white on their large leaves. The green edge of scum 
 ran about the black shadow on the rest of it, gathering round 
 where a big branch or two had fallen in, with the hot white 
 sky looking bluer out through the broad leaves coming 
 together aloft, and the showers of little sharp ones in the 
 tamarind twigs, mangoes, ironwood, sumach, and all sorts, 
 while here and there a knot of crimson blossoms looked out 
 from under the boughs in the dark, humming with small flies. 
 Beautiful spot as it was every way, especially after the heat, 
 yet I didn't much like the idea of letting the ladies stay by 
 themselves, except the sailor and the kitmagar. Nothing 
 particular had turned up to trouble us, certainly, but I dare- 
 say 'twas because there was one of them I never looked at 
 without her soft fairy-like air making me think of something 
 that might happen to her, life-like though she seemed. 
 When I saw a big branch over her head, I kept fancying 
 what it would do if it fell and now, the thumping slabs 
 and stones we scrambled over up into the gully toward the 
 mountain, seemed to have come tumbling down off it to 
 the very water's edge, covered with nets of thick creeping 
 plants and trails of flat, fingery-leaved flowers, such as
 
 228 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 you see in hot-houses at home. A few yards higher, too, 
 where the ground broke away into a slanting hollow out 
 of the bush, 'twas all trampled and crushed, half-withering 
 together in the heat of the sun, the young trees twisted and 
 broken, and two or three good-sized ones lying out from the 
 roots, which I set to the score of the timbers rolling down 
 their logs, for some craft that evidently got their cargoes 
 hereaway. 
 
 " After all, the thought of a slap at some wild game was 
 tempting enough, the judge appearing to consider anyone 
 but a sportsman nobody at all ; so up we went behind him 
 out of the gully till we were all blowing like so many por- 
 poises on the head of it, Sir Charles raising his finger as we 
 peeped across a grassy slope right under us, where a whole 
 drove of small slender-legged antelopes were feeding. We 
 had just time to rest, getting a breath of air off the heights, 
 when one of the foremost lifted its head, listening the opposite 
 way from us ; next moment the entire scatter of them came 
 sweeping direct over to leeward in a string we could almost 
 catch their bright black eyes through the grass, when the 
 crack of our seven barrels turned them bolt off at a corner, 
 and they were gone like wind on water. All of us had missed 
 save Sir Charles Hyde, but his rifle-bullet had sent one of the 
 antelopes springing up in the air ten feet or so, rolling over 
 and over into the grass again, where we found it lying with 
 its tongue out, and its large eye glazing amidst the blades 
 dpd dust a pair of huge turkey buzzards falling, as it were, 
 out of two specks in the sun above us, already, and rising 
 with an ugly flap while we got round the dead creature. 
 
 " ' Hallo ! ' said the mid suddenly, looking back over 
 toward the hollow we'd come out of, 'what's that?' 
 
 " From where we stood we could just see through the wild 
 cane to the mouth of the gully, half-a-mile down or more, 
 leading upon the trees by the lagoon. I thought I could hear 
 a dull heavy sound now and then going thump thump down 
 the hollow and along it, the stones rumbling from one spot 
 to another at the rpot of the hill ; but noticing a light smoke 
 rising farther into the course of the creek, with a faint echo of 
 axes at work somewhere in the woods below, I wasn't sorry to 
 find the timberers were still in the river, showing we weren't 
 the only civilised folks that thought it fit to visit. Perhaps
 
 A SEA STORY 229 
 
 it might have been a quarter of an hour or more, however, 
 and we were all looking out sharp for birds of any kind to 
 pop at, happening to turn my head, I saw the long reeds 
 were moving about the banks below and the trees twisting 
 about furiously, and no sooner had I made a few paces than 
 good heavens ! right in the break of the trees at the landing- 
 place there was a huge brute of some sort coming slowly up 
 out of the water ; then another, and another, glistening wet 
 in the bright light as the shadow of the branches slipped 
 behind them. A blindness came over my eyes, and I had 
 scarce time to make out the big block-like heads and moving 
 trunks of five or six black African elephants, ere the whole 
 case flashed upon me, and away I dashed full-speed down 
 the slope. The big beasts were turning quietly off into the 
 hollow, and two or three of their calves trotted after them out 
 of the bushes, munching the young cane-stalks as they lifted 
 their pillars of legs and their tufty little tails, when I passed 
 a fire of sticks blazing under a slab of rock, with the judge's 
 guinea-fowl plucked and roasting before it from a string, the 
 bowman's tarpaulin and his pipe lying near by a sight that 
 doubled the horror in me, to know he had left the boat at all ; 
 and no doubt, as I thought, taken fright and run off, man-o'- 
 war's-man though he was. I made three springs over the 
 stones down to the water, terrified to look in, hearing it, as I 
 did, splash and wash about the sides, up among the leaves of 
 the trees, while a couple of monstrous brutes were to be seen 
 by the light in the midst of it, still wallowing about, and 
 seeming to enjoy sending the whole pool in wide rings and 
 waves as far as it would go, with the noise besides ; the one- 
 half swimming and the biggest standing aground as he poured 
 the water out of his long trunk all over his back, then broke 
 off a branch and waved it to and fro like a fan round his 
 flapping leathery ears. 
 
 " Such a moment I hope never to know again not the least 
 sign of the boat could 1 see in the green black blink of the 
 place, after the glare above, and I stood like a madman at the 
 thought of what the herd of monsters had done when they 
 came suddenly down upon it ; then I gave a wild cry, and 
 levelled my snip's musket at the big elephant's head as he 
 brought his small cunning eye slowly to bear upon me, dropped 
 the branch, and -began to swing his forehead, all the time
 
 230 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 looking at me, and wading out to the shallow by Jove ! my 
 flesh creeps at it just now though I couldn't have stirred for 
 worlds till he was close enough for me to fire into that devilish 
 eye of his. 'Twas no more than the matter of half-a-minute 
 till you may fancy what I felt to catch sight, all at once, of 
 the cutter splashing up and down in the gloom below the 
 branches, the ladies and the Hindoo crouching down terrified 
 together, except Violet Hyde, who stood straight, holding the 
 boat firm in by a bough, her white face fixed through the 
 shadow, and her hair floating out of her straw bonnet each 
 time her head went up among the leaves, with her glittering 
 eyes on the two elephants. 
 
 "Suddenly some heavy black figure dropped almost right 
 over her into the boat, and she let go with a low cry, and sank 
 down with her hands over her eyes ; when they went sheering 
 out towards the creek, the foretop-man handling his boat-hook 
 in her bow, without his tarpaulin. As for the wild elephants, 
 I had just time to come to myself before the foremost had his 
 feet on the stones below me, getting cautiously out of the 
 pool ; these awkward antics of theirs being possibly signs of 
 too much satisfaction in a bathe for them to show aught like 
 fury, if you didn't rouse them ; so I was slipping quietly round 
 the nearest tree when I heard the cadets halloing up the hill. 
 The old bull elephant seemed a dangerous customer to meet, 
 and I was hurrying over the dead grass and branches to give 
 warning, just as Sir Charles Hyde could be seen coming down 
 before the rest, his rifle over his shoulder. 
 
 " However, he brought up the moment I sang out to stop : 
 both the elephants were stalking off lower down into the 
 hollow, and I dropped behind the slab where Tom Wilkes had 
 been roasting his bird, when some fool of a cadet let drive at 
 the bull elephant from above, hitting him fair on the front. 
 You heard the rifle-bullet hit slap against it as if on an anvil : 
 the she elephant made off at a fast trot, but the big brute 
 himself turned round on the moment, lifting up his trunk 
 straight aloft with a sharp trumpeting scream through it, and 
 looked round till his small red eye lighted on the judge, who 
 seemed quite out of breath from his sport. 
 
 " ' The fire ! that fire, for God's sake, Mr Westwood, else I 
 am lost ! ' called out Sir Charles, in a calm distinct key from 
 where he stood with his eye fixed on the elephant, and could
 
 A SEA STORY 231 
 
 see me, too a moment or two before the huge round-backed 
 lump of a brute came running round into the track, stumbling 
 heavily up the dead branches of the fallen trees and the dry 
 guinea-grass, with a savage roar between his two white tusks 
 and I saw what the judge meant just in time to throw over 
 the whole heap of naming cocoa-tree husk among the withered 
 grass and stuff a few yards before the monster, as dry as tinder, 
 while the light air coming down the gully of the mountain, 
 drove it spreading across his course up through the twigs, and 
 sweeping in one sudden gust of fire up to the very end of his 
 trunk. I saw it lift over the smoke like a black serpent, then 
 another scream from the brute, and away he was charging into 
 the hollow again, the flame licking up among the grass astern 
 of him, and darting from one bough to another towards the 
 cane-brake below. I had scarce drawn a long breath and 
 remembered the devil's own thought that had come into my 
 head, when the judge called to me, ere he slapped me on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 "'You did nobly there, my dear boy,' said Sir Charles; 
 ' managed it well ! 'Gad, it was a crisis, though, Mr West- 
 wood ! ' ' I 'm afraid, however, sir/ said I, eyeing the crack- 
 ling bushes, smoking and whitening to a dead smoulder in the 
 sunlight, then flashing farther down as the hill-breeze rustled 
 off, ' I 'm afraid we shall have the woods burning about our 
 ears !' 
 
 "Down we hurried accordingly, and hailed the cutter, 
 where, scarce had we leisure to pass a few quick words and 
 tumble in, before I heard a shout beyond the other turn of the 
 creek, through the end of the lagoon ; then something like the 
 cheep of ropes through blocks, with the bustle of men's feet 
 on a deck, and next minute a perfect hubbub of cries, whether 
 Dutch, Portuguese, English, or all together, I couldn't say 
 only it wasn't likely the last would kick up such a bother for 
 nothing. Four or five Kroomen came leaping round and along 
 the float of logs at the far end, their large straw hats shining 
 in the light over their jet faces, as they peered across into the 
 lagoon. The minute after they vanished we saw the white 
 upper spars of a schooner slide above the farthest of the wood, 
 and her bowsprit shoved past the turn just enough to show 
 her sharp lead-coloured bow, with the mouth of a gun out of 
 a port, and a fellow blowing the red end of his match behind
 
 232 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 it. All at once the chorus of shouts and cries ceased, and a 
 single voice sang out along the water, clear, stern, and start- 
 ling, in bad Portuguese, * Queren sieU ? who are you ? ' Still 
 we gave no answer, quietly shoving off as fast as we could, the 
 flicker of the fire in the brake behind the trees beginning to 
 show itself through the black shade of the lagoon. ' Queren 
 siett ? ' sang out the voice, louder than before, in a threatening 
 way, and the logs were knocking and plashing before the 
 schooner as the Kroomen hauled at them to make an opening. 
 ' Amigos ! Amigos ! ' hailed we in turn ; f Ingleses, gentle- 
 men ! ' shouted the cadet who knew Portuguese, calling to 
 them not to fire, for heaven's sake, else they would do us some 
 harm. With this, the hubbub was worse than before ; they 
 plainly had some design on us, from the confusion that got 
 up ; but by that time we were pulling hard into the narrow 
 of the river, and took the fair current of it as soon as the boat 
 was past the falling stream we had seen before, till we were 
 round into the next reach. 
 
 " In fact, the rate we all bent our backs at this time was 
 pretty different from coming up : the cadets seemed hardly 
 to feel the heat, fierce and close though it was, at thought of 
 those that might be in our wake, and nobody spoke a word at 
 ease till at last, after an hour's hard work, taking it in turns, 
 we came full in sight of the Indiaman at her anchor on the 
 broad current. The ladies blessed the very ropes hanging 
 from her bowsprit, and we got safe aboard, where we found 
 the two other boats had come back long before ; and every one 
 of us turned in directly after sundown, as tired as dogs. 
 
 "Well, I didn't suppose I had slept an hour, dreaming 
 terribly wild sort of dreams about Violet Hyde and elephants, 
 then that I 'd saved her myself, and was stooping to kiss her 
 rosy lips, when a sudden noise on deck startled me. I shoved 
 myself into my clothes, and rushed on the quarterdeck. She 
 had gone aground at her stern in swinging in the water the 
 Portuguese rascal gave her, canted a little over to starboard, 
 away from the shore ; and till morning flood nothing could 
 be done to haul her off. The fog was rolling down with the 
 land-breeze, and the jabber in the woods again thickened the 
 confusion, when all at once a dim flash off the shore glimmered 
 in the white fog, and a round-shot whistled just astern, pretty 
 well aimed for her bilge, which would have cost us some work
 
 A SEA STORY 233 
 
 if it had hit. After that, however, there was no more of it, 
 the fellow probably having spent either all his powder or his 
 balls. As for his fort, I heard the chief officer swearing he 
 would knock it about his ears next day a thing that couldn't 
 have done him much harm, certainly, unless mud were dear. 
 
 " No sooner had the men gone below, leaving the ordinary 
 anchor-watch, than Mr Finch, to my great surprise, walked 
 up to me, and gave me a strange suspicious look, hinting that 
 he began to have a good guess of what I really was, but if any- 
 thing new of the kind turned up, said he, he should know 
 better what to say to me. ' Mr Finch,' said I, starting, { this 
 won't do, sir you '11 either speak your mind before cabin and 
 cuddy, or to-morrow morning, by Jove ! you '11 go quietly 
 ashore with me, sir as I think, now you remind me of it, 
 we settled to do, already ! ' The mate's face whitened, and he 
 eyed me with a glare of malice, as I turned on my heel and 
 began to walk the quarterdeck till he went below. 
 
 " However, the thought of the thing stuck to me, and I 
 kept walking in the dark to get rid of it : the four or five 
 men of the anchor-watch shuffling lazily about, and all thick 
 save ahead up the river, where the land-breeze blew pretty 
 strong, bringing now and then a faint gleam out of the mist. 
 I was leaning against the fore-chains, listening to the ebb- 
 time, and thinking, when I saw one of the men creeping in 
 from the bowsprit, which you just saw, where it ran up thick 
 into the dusk, with scarce a glimpse of the jib-boom and flying- 
 jib-boom beyond. 
 
 " The sailor came up, touching his hat to me, and said he 
 thought he saw something queer off the boom-end. f Well/ 
 said I gruffly, ' go and tell your mate, then.' I didn't know 
 the fellow's voice, though it had a particular twang in it, and 
 he wasn't in Jacobs' watch, I knew. 'Why, your honour,' 
 he persisted, ' I knows pretty well what you air asking your 
 pardon, sir but I think you 'd make more out of it nor any of 
 the mates ! It 's some'at rather skeary, sir/ added he. Ac- 
 cordingly I took hold of the man-ropes and swung myself up 
 the bowsprit, and had my feet on the foot-rope below the jib- 
 boom, when I heard his breath, following behind me. ' Never 
 you trouble yourself, my man,' said I ; * one at a time ! ' and 
 back he went in board again for something curious in his 
 way struck me ; but I wanted to see what he meant. I had
 
 234 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 just got near the flying-jib, half-stowed in as it was on the 
 boom, and I fancied, with a creep of my blood in me, I made 
 out a man's head over the sail ; but next moment a hand like 
 a vice caught me by the throat, and some one growled out, 
 'Now ye infernal man-o'-war hound, I have ye and down 
 you goes for it ! ' 
 
 " The instant I felt it, my coolness came back ; as for 
 grappling, I couldn't, and the ebb current ran below to her 
 bows at a rate fit to carry one out to sea in half-an-hour. 
 I saw the whole plot in a twinkling, and never moved ; instead 
 of that I gave a sort of laugh, and followed the husky twang 
 of the other man to a tee. ' He won't come, Harry, my lad!' 
 said I, and my ugly friend let go before he had time to think 
 twice. ' He be blowed ! ' said Harry, scornfully ; ' an' why 
 won't he, mate ? ' He had scarce the words out of his mouth, 
 though, ere I took him a twist that doubled him over the 
 spar, and down he slipped, hanging by a clutch of the sail. 
 ' I suppose, my fine fellow,' said I, 'you forgot Fernando Po, 
 and those nigger adventures of yours eh ? ' and I went in 
 without more ado. 
 
 " I hadn't been ten minutes on deck, however, when I 
 heard both of them swearing something or other to the first 
 mate. A little after Finch came forward to me, with a ship's 
 lantern, and three or four of the men behind. 'Mr Collins, or 
 whatever 's your name, sir,' said he aloud, 'I believe you've 
 been seen just now at the bowsprit-end, making signals or 
 something to the shore ! You 're in arrest at once, sir, and no 
 more about it ! ' ' What the deuce ! ' said I, my blood up, and 
 pulling out a pair of pocket-pistols I had had in the boat, ' let 
 
 me see the man to ' At the moment a blow of a handspike 
 
 from near the mast laid me senseless on the deck, and I knew 
 nothing more. But I see 'tis too far gone in the night to carry 
 out the yarn, ladies ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 "TT7ELL, ma'am," resumed the commander, "I came to 
 
 * * myself again at last, but when, how, or where, I really 
 
 did not know, nor even what had been the matter with me ;
 
 A SEA STORY 235 
 
 except that I lay on my back upon something or other softer 
 than the planks, my head aching like to split, aud so stupid, 
 I couldn't take the trouble to choose amongst the strange 
 notions that came creeping over me. 'Twas pitch-dark, too, 
 and choking hot. The sole wish I had was for a drop of water; 
 but there I stuck in the same helpless plight, more like a 
 nightmare than aught else ; and as for time, if it went by what 
 I felt, why, I might have lain, then and before, long enough 
 for one of the Seven Sleepers. First one fancy, and then 
 another, came looming up from over my brain, like a sail on 
 the horizon, till my head was full of it. That ugly rascal's 
 story got hold of me, and I thought I was stowed away below 
 in some abominable slaver ; then I was the sick captain lying 
 in my cot dreaming, with all as still and dark as death. As 
 my wits cleared, however, I began to hear plenty of sounds, 
 as it were, buzzing and rustling and booming in my very ears, 
 then far away again. Confused though I was, a horrid idea 
 struck me as I tried to listen that Finch and his under- 
 strappers had put me ashore in the woods or handed me over 
 to some of those villainous blacks with the filed teeth ; and the 
 Seringapatam must be gone, Heaven knew how long ! 
 
 "Suddenly, as if to clinch my notion, I started for a 
 moment at the loud cry of a bell-bird, as I thought at first ; 
 but, the next instant, a sort of a thick crust seemed to clear 
 off my hearing, and I knew it was ' two bells ' going on deck, 
 so that I was still on board ; after which a regular bustle got 
 up of a sudden overhead. I heard people running up the 
 nearest ladder from below ; cadets snouting and clattering, 
 apparently with muskets and cutlasses ; the creak of the 
 davit-blocks letting down the boats, and the chief officer's 
 voice alongside. What with my broken head, though, and the 
 want of air and water, I felt too sick to give them a thought. 
 It wasn't long, either, before the whole Indiaman seemed to be 
 as quiet as a church, except one heavy pair of feet on the 
 quarterdeck above ; then that stopped as well, and I heard 
 nothing but the dull sound of the tide through her thick 
 outer-timbers, gurgling up and poppling along, like to make 
 me mad for thirst. I put up my hand to my head, and found 
 my hair on one side all sticky, and covered with cockroaches ; 
 but though the very touch of their bristly feelers made my 
 blood creep, and the wretches began to dig with their pincers
 
 236 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 into the wound, I was too weak to keep brushing them away 
 as fast as they swarmed about it. 
 
 " It must have been rather some sort of swoon than a doze 
 that I woke out of again, when I heard a man's voice not far 
 off, through the stillness of the 'tween-decks, reading aloud, 
 which I soon made out to be Mr Knowles's, the missionary's ; 
 and, from the key of it, it was evidently the Bible he was 
 reading. In a little while he gave up, and another voice 
 came in, that I knew still better. It was Violet Hyde's low 
 enough, but so clear at times, that it seemed to come into 
 the dark where I lay half-senseless, and afterwards I could 
 even call back some of the very words ; then it came to a 
 stand, and I heard her two or three times apparently answer- 
 ing someone I couldn't hear. All at once, the missionary 
 struck up the first note of a psalm-tune, and her lovely voice 
 slid into it, till there was nothing in the whole ship, as it 
 were, but that singing the old Evening Hymn alone such 
 music, I thought, never was on sea or land when down from 
 some opening above, out of heaven, you might have fancied, 
 fell a chorus like the sound of angels and cherubs joining in 
 at the end, once and again ; catching up the air out of her 
 sweet tongue, and drowning it in a way to ravish one's soul, 
 till it sank into a hush in which you could hear the mis- 
 sionary's voice rise, as he prayed aloud, over the whispers 
 of the ladies and children stealing away from round the 
 skylight with the slight creak of the rudder, now and then,, 
 in its case abaft, and the tide bumping and tapping outside, 
 from the deadwood at her counter to the hollow planking 
 amidships. 
 
 " As for me, at first blush I thought it all part of my queer 
 visions, till somehow or other I began to revive a bit, and 
 felt for the door of the place they had boxed me up into. 
 However, it was fast enough, and as soon as I tried to stand 
 upright, something over my head gave me a shove down 
 again it being evidently one of the steward's store-rooms 
 abaft of the cuddy, full of bags and such like lumber, where 
 the best I could do was to stretch myself on the heap of 
 old canvas again, groaning from sheer weakness and despera- 
 tion. Just then I heard a light step coming close past the 
 door, out of the large cabin, and I gave another groan. A dress 
 rustled, and the foot started to the other side of the passage.
 
 A SEA STORY 237 
 
 " ( For God's sake open the door ! ' said I, in a faint voice. 
 * What who is there ? ' exclaimed Miss Hyde, anxiously ; 
 but my mouth was so dry I couldn't answer her. Next 
 moment she was trying the handle, though to no purpose ; 
 for a little after I caught the sound of her footsteps hasten- 
 ing off, and once more my senses left me. It couldn't have 
 been more than a minute or two, however, for I heard the 
 missionary's voice still praying beside Captain Williamson's 
 cot, when a gush of air suddenly revived me, and I sat up 
 winking at a glare of light, in which Violet Hyde's face 
 seemed to be hovering brighter than the lamp she had in 
 her two hands, as she stood and gazed at me between wonder 
 and dismay ; while the steward held the door only half open 
 behind her, peeping in at me with one eye like a fellow 
 watching a hyena in a cage. ' Miss ! miss ! ' said he, trying 
 to shove the door to again, ' take care he 's a pirate, ma'am, 
 he is ! The chief officer '11 blow me up for it, your ladyship ! ' 
 ' Mr Westwood ! ' exclaimed she, pushing it wide in spite 
 of him, ' what what is this ! you are all over blood, Mr 
 Westwood! Oh, are you wounded? what can be run, 
 run for something/ said she to the steward 'where is the 
 surgeon ? ' ' The doctor 's gone with the rest of 'em, miss,' 
 said he. With this I took hold of something to scramble 
 up, bringing down a bag of cabin-biscuit over me, and got 
 on my legs in the midst of the dust ; but grim enough I must 
 have looked, with my face like a North American Indian's, 
 and the cockroaches sticking in my hair, as I stumbled out 
 of the corner. The little Cockney of a steward seemed to 
 think me dangerous, for all I saw of him next moment was 
 his striped gingham jacket vanishing round a bulkhead aft. 
 ' Oh,' stammered I, leaning against the doorpost, ' it 's it 's 
 nothing, after all only a little water!' The truth was, 
 my brain felt so confused still, that I really was not quite 
 sure how the case stood whether I hadn't in fact bowsed 
 up my jib too taut that night, and tumbled on my head, 
 or kicked up some row or other ; so I suppose I must have 
 looked rather ashamed, which the young lady appeared to 
 notice, by the expression of her face as she moved towards 
 the cuddy, and slipped quietly through one of the folding- 
 doors. ( Hush ! ' said she, gravely, holding up her finger, as 
 she came out again and closed it, carrying a couple of decan-
 
 238 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 ters and a glass ; f poor Captain Williamson seems asleep he 
 was removed there this evening for air.' As I drank one 
 tumbler of water after another, I fancied the young lady 
 watched me curiously ; however, I had scarce quenched my 
 thirst when my own ideas got clear enough, as well as my 
 tongue, to give an offhand account of what had happened. 
 Violet Hyde started, and her voice faltered, as she said, 
 * Then then you must have been shut up here all day oh, 
 how cruel of them ! so hot, too ! Oh, what a wonder you 
 
 were not actually ' ' All day ! ' said I ' what day is it, 
 
 then, Miss Hyde ? ' ' It is Sunday evening ! ' answered she, 
 the tears rushing somehow or other into her eyes. ' Oh, how 
 glad I am that I happened to pass ! But your head what 
 a dreadful wound you must have got, Mr Westwood ! ' con- 
 tinued she ; ' something must be done to it, indeed \ ' 
 
 "What the sweet young creature hesitated and blushed 
 about for the first time, I never guessed ; but I can't help 
 thinking that anything short of an angel would have laughed 
 at the ridiculous figure I must have cut, with powdered 
 biscuit added to the blood, the hair, and the cockroaches 
 although my worthy friend's handspike from behind the fore- 
 mast had laid the bone bare, so that the bleeding saved it 
 from a lump. I hardly know how it came about, but, five 
 minutes after, there I was sitting on the planks of the 'tween- 
 decks, while the charming girl herself stooped over me with 
 a basin in one hand and a sponge in the other the muslin 
 sleeves tucked half up off her two round white arms, as she 
 began to wash the blood carefully off the place. I couldn't 
 stand it a minute, however. To feel her fairy fingers soiling 
 themselves in such dirty work, for such a fellow as me, Ned 
 Collins, made me shiver all over ; so bolt upright I started, 
 carrying away the sponge in the neck of my coat, and squeez- 
 ing a teacupful of water down my back at every wriggle 
 while my lovely sick-nurse stood with one pretty little wrist 
 out, betwixt alarm lest she had hurt me, and surprise at my 
 life-like condition. After giving my face a wipe, however, 
 and swallowing a glass or two of wine, with some of the 
 biscuit I had knocked down, I felt wonderfully well, except 
 for an ache at the top of my head. The next thing that 
 occurred to me, of course, was to have my friend the mate 
 made aware of his mistake ; but as for the curious quietness
 
 A SEA STORY 239 
 
 of the Indiaman at that hour, even of a Sunday evening, I 
 couldn't understand it, and I looked for a cap to go on deck 
 with immediately. The young lady seemed to be looking 
 up the after-hatchway, and listening, I thought, and the lady 
 passengers could be heard talking about the poop ; but when 
 Violet Hyde turned round, and our eyes met again, I caught 
 an anxious expression in them that puzzled me. ' Do you 
 think it will be long before we shall hear them ? ' said she, 
 next moment. ' Who ? whom ? ' asked I, hastily. ' Oh ! ' 
 said she, starting, 'you could not have known they had gone, 
 Mr Westwood. Tell me, Mr Westwood,' said she, coming 
 nearer to me, putting her hand lightly on my arm, and 
 glancing into my face, ' tell me, did you not know that that 
 vessel was in the river ? ' ' Vessel, Miss Hyde ? ' I said, look- 
 ing at her steadily in turn. ' It 's all one riddle to me what 
 vessel do you mean, madam ? ' ' The the pirate ! ' exclaimed 
 she, breathlessly ; and turning towards the hatchway again, 
 while I stood eyeing her stupidly, all abroad, so to speak. 
 ( For heaven's sake, tell me what you mean, Miss Hyde ! ' 
 said I, putting my hand to my head. ' Ah, but you look so 
 white you are not well yet, sir,' said she, softly. ' To think 
 how all the passengers were amused, and even papa too, when 
 
 they heard this morning of your being arrested as a a 
 
 But nobody could know you were so hurt, Mr Westwood. 
 Then when some of the sailors came back, and said they had 
 
 seen the French ship in disguise ' ' By Jupiter ! the 
 
 brig they meant ? ' I broke out. ' Then, good heavens ! they 
 must have painted her lead-colour, and turned her back into 
 a schooner ! That was she, for a thousand ! ' ' And, you 
 know, yesterday morning, sir/ continued the young lady, 'you 
 told me you knew our friends were there, instead of being 
 lost, as we thought ! ' 
 
 " ' Yes, yes ! ' said I, < there must be some bad scheme at 
 the bottom ; but by morning we '11 have a slap at them, for 
 
 certain. For my part I feel ' ' Why,' said Miss Hyde, 
 
 turning anxiously to me, 'almost everybody in the ship has 
 gone already. Whenever the truth was discovered, there was 
 such a confusion amongst the gentlemen and the officers that 
 they could not think of anything else ; and, as soon as the 
 sun had set, they all crowded into the boats and went away 
 together, to surprise the pirates in the dark.' 'Good God!'
 
 240 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 exclaimed I, in sheer amazement, and making toward the 
 hatchway. ' Miss Hyde ! do you say so ! How many were 
 there then, ma'am ? ' I asked. ' Oh,' said she, quickly, ' I am 
 so glad there was such a number five boats quite full, I 
 believe. Not a single gentleman would stay, except little 
 Tommy's father, who is upstairs and papa was one of the 
 first to get down into a boat with his rifle. But do you not 
 think,' added she, with somewhat of a tremble in her voice, 
 ' do you not think the people in the French ship will yield, 
 or at least give our friends up ? ' 
 
 " ' I hope to goodness they may ! ' said I, turning away from 
 the eagerness those soft eyes of hers glittered with, as she 
 leant out before the faint glimmer through the cuddy-door, 
 the light of the lamp in her hand shining bright over her hair 
 and her shoulders ; while the gloomy stillness of the whole 
 ship, below, made me think of the voice that had hailed us 
 through the lagoon, and the same man's face as I had no 
 doubt now it was when I saw it aboard the brig at sea, 
 before the thunder-squall came on. I almost fancied I saw 
 Finch and him meeting at the present moment, with the 
 mate's awkward look as the Frenchman's sword flashed across 
 him my fingers gripped together for the handle of a cutlass, 
 to go tumbling up amongst the men over the schooner's bul- 
 warks in the creek when all at once another notion darted 
 into my head, to remind me where we were in the meantime ; 
 I ran to the companion and sprang up the stair on to the 
 quarterdeck. 
 
 u It was a hot, still night ; but the change from the close- 
 ness below to the deck seemed to make quite a new man of 
 one in an instant. I jumped on the nearest carronade-slide, 
 and looked round to see how the land lay, which at first was 
 difficult enough to do. They had got the Indiaman fair afloat 
 again, I found, a little more off the shore, and farther down 
 the starboard gun I stood upon being, as I guessed by the 
 shape of the trees, about opposite the mud fort, which Finch 
 had probably been peppering at as he threatened, since the 
 port was open, and two or three shot lying in the scuppers 
 beside it. 'Twas somewhere nigh-hand eight o'clock of the 
 evening, I think, and quite black on the nearest bank you 
 couldn't even make out the top of the woods against the sky ; 
 but another cable-length would have served to open the lower
 
 A SEA STORY 241 
 
 reach of the river, where it came brimming up full round the 
 point with the night flow, sending a floating sort of a glimmer 
 along in the dusk over against us. One could even pitch upon 
 a line where it ran side by side with the heavy shadow that 
 took in the ship, going across to the swampy-looking shore off 
 our larboard side, and blackening away up-stream, while the 
 dim bubbles and eddies swept out of the one into the other. 
 I could just catch the low, deep roar of the sea more than a 
 mile off, muffled by the trees and mangroves on both sides 
 between it and us ; and, the tide having come almost to a 
 standstill, you heard the ripple against her bows get gentler 
 and gentler, with a weak plash here and there in the dark 
 among the grass and sedge alongshore, which seemed to wake 
 up a chirping mutter in the bushes and at times you 'd have 
 thought something came wading out from the edge ; till in a 
 few minutes both river and forest had sunk, as it were, into 
 a sleep. The quieter they got, however, the more uneasy I 
 began to feel at the state I saw things in upon deck ; absolutely 
 not a soul to be seen from wheel to bowsprit, except one man 
 walking back and forward by himself on the forecastle, and 
 giving a look now and then carefully enough over at the cable ; 
 Mr Brown being on the poop with his family and the knot of 
 ladies, talking under their breath ; while the old Scotch mate 
 could be seen through the cabin skylight, leaning his bald 
 crown over his two hands, under the lamp near the captain's 
 cot, to listen to the missionary, as he sat gravely whispering 
 and looking at him through his spectacles. 
 
 "For my part, I hadn't a doubt but the ship had been 
 watched from shore all along ; and there was no saying at 
 present who might be keeping an eye upon her, even if this 
 affair of the French brig weren't to catch us in some deep 
 trick or other. If it were really she, and lying where we 
 caught a glimpse of her the day before, 'twould take three or 
 four hours, at night, even to pull there aud back again ; but 
 as for her being an ordinary pirate, I had a strong notion she 
 was no such thing, and the stranger I thought the whole 
 matter throughout. 
 
 " As I peered over the bulwarks into the thick of the tall 
 jungle, the showers of fireflies came here and there flickering 
 out from under the big leaves, lighting up the green of them 
 for a moment, and dancing across a black mouth in the bank
 
 242 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 nearest us, like emerald sparks. By this time, too, the star- 
 light was growing large out over the dusk, till the whole 
 height of the sky had heaved itself above our upper spars, 
 clear as crystal, and sprinkled full of soft silver points, that 
 gathered and got brighter as you looked. One could see the 
 whole breadth of the river floating slowly between, with lazy 
 brown swirls of current twisting and curling round the point, 
 and the eddies rising in the middle, to where the water 
 glistened among the dark wet mangrove stems, or some oily 
 swell near the edge went lipping in with the gleam of a star 
 lengthened upon it. Hot and close though the night still 
 was, while the rank smell of the mud came at times into our 
 nostrils from one side, and of growing leaves from the other, 
 yet it was pleasant enough after being shut up for ever so 
 many hours in a dark hole below. 
 
 " Neither did I think there was any fear of trouble from 
 the natives while this lasted ; but the haze that seemed to be 
 oozing out over the mass of woods, with now and then a cool 
 breath of air from up-river, showed what a fog we might 
 expect as soon as the land-wind began to blow strong from 
 inland. Sometimes I fancied I heard cries in the distance 
 among the woods, over the croaking of the frogs which seemed 
 to get up as one listened ; then again I could make out the 
 hollow booming of the African tree-drum, with a chorus of 
 horns and savage-like shouts, apparently filling up every 
 break in the hum that rose off the ground far enough away, 
 however, to satisfy me the blacks were only making merry 
 before turning in. 
 
 "As for Tom Westwood, he had plainly gone with the 
 boats, clerical though he was, which didn't go to set my mind 
 greatly at rest, knowing him to be one of your slap-dash 
 fellows when roused ; and, either way, it couldn't do much 
 good to a man hailing for a parson to be particularly active 
 on boat-service. But you may easily conceive what a pitch 
 one's anxiety for the upshot rose to, at every whisper and 
 hush of the woods, and every glimmer of the water far astern, 
 where the upper reach could just be seen brimming pale out 
 of the shadow, against a thick fringe of misty cane-clumps, 
 topped with tall palms and cocoas their stems wavering 
 in the thin haze, and their dark crowns seemingly floating 
 off above it like heads coming away from the bodies, as
 
 A SEA STORY 243 
 
 the heavy blue land-fog began to gather like smoke away 
 behind. 
 
 " The flow of tide having of course set the Indiaman's stern 
 up-stream, the ladies on the poop could be seen clustered 
 across the taffrail, with the careful married gentleman in the 
 middle of them, more dignified than ordinary, as they one and 
 all strained their eyes into the dusk before them ; when one 
 of the men came down the poop-stairs behind me, and, on 
 turning, I saw to my surprise that it was Jacobs, he being 
 still more astonished to see me on deck. I soon found, to my 
 great relief too, that, what with the anchor-watch and some 
 lads, there were still seven or eight of the crew aboard, whom 
 I advised him to get on deck and make them keep a bright 
 lookout more especially as he was one of the boatswain's 
 mates, and had charge of the watch at the moment ; for, to 
 tell the truth, seriously speaking, I had more real fear, all 
 along, of some attack from the negroes and Don Jose, than of 
 the French craft they would fancy a pirate, whatever might 
 be her reason for stowing away Rollock and his companions 
 although I told Jacobs I had no doubt now but it was actually 
 she. ' Ay, ay, sir,' said Jacobs in a low voice, giving his 
 trousers an uneasy hitch up, 'not a doubt on it, Mr Collins. 
 Black Harry and his mates clapped eyes on her this forenoon, 
 when they went up for water so they said, anyway ! ' 'What, 
 Bob? ' said I, starting 'was it that scoundrel ? Did they not 
 see her then ? ' ' Well, sir/ replied Jacobs, e as I gather, 'twas 
 rather one of her boats they fell ath'art of. You'll mind 
 Harry was in the cutter that time you boarded the brig at 
 sea, Mr Collins, a week or two 'gone so, you see, he knowed 
 one or two o' the crew at once ; and in course, sir, comin' 
 across one another hereaway, they 'd make shift to have a talk, 
 but none on 'em ever guessed about our passengers bein' 
 
 aboard of her, till ' 'Did the fellow himself think they 
 
 were pirates, then ? ' asked I, more anxiously than before a 
 shivering dread of I didn't know what beginning to creep on 
 me, as I turned suddenly round to eye the river glooming 
 away up from the starlight, through into the blue heaps of 
 hazy forest. 
 
 " ' Why, sir,' answered Jacobs hastily, ' he 's a desperate 
 sort, is that 'ere Foster, if it was only what I 've heard him 
 say, swinging sound asleep in's hammock. I wouldn't tell
 
 244 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 as much otherways ; but I tell ye what it is, sir, my mind 
 misgived me o' this here overnight boat-business ! It 's my 
 sober notion, Leftenant Collins/ gravely added he, seeing I 
 still looked anxiously to him f it's my notion, if that craft's 
 aught of a pirate, Harry Foster and more nor half of his watch 
 'ud think no more o' joining her, on a chance, than one on 'em 
 did o' taking you that clip with a handspike this morning, 
 sir! As for this here brig, Master Ned, your honour,' con- 
 tinued he, ' what did she do, but, to my fancy, she 's keeped 
 a eye on us ever since we first fell foul of her ? ' 
 
 " ' Jacobs ! Jacobs ! ' I broke out directly, ' get every hand 
 up on the foc'sle at once, with everything like arms you can 
 find for God's sake look sharp, and then bear a hand here to 
 have the carronades fore and aft run in, and stuffed full of some 
 old iron or other, as we can't have grape ! ' Hurried as it 
 was, I saw the whole thing a regular deep-laid plot it seemed, 
 too and the first time I had seen light as to what the strange 
 brig could be after. Here had she dodged us, no doubt, for 
 weeks ; got hold of our friends by accident, which would give 
 her a clue how to find us anywhere during the rest of our 
 voyage, as we were too strong-handed for her then. 'Twas 
 very likely they thought we should suspect something, and 
 follow wherever they could manage to lure the Indiaman 
 or else possibly they had run into the river the very 
 same day we did, and perhaps seen us out of the haze which 
 hid the land from us that morning ; and now, if they had 
 studied it for years, they couldn't have contrived a cleverer 
 trap than this that Finch and the passengers had run their 
 heads into, with more than a dozen mutinous dogs, at least, 
 in their company. A prize like an East-Indiaman was worth 
 taking some trouble about, of course ; while such villains as 
 Foster and his messmates, I knew, would fancy a Bengal 
 nabob carried untold treasures with him, and it was plain to 
 me they had something like an understanding with the 
 stranger's crew. ' Ay, ay, sir,' said Jacobs, in answer to me ; 
 ' hows'ever, the first mate left word with Mr Macleod he 'd 
 send up a rocket and a blue-light in case o' a good success, or 
 else come back with the boats.' 'Heaven help them, Jacobs!' 
 said I, taking a hasty turn or two, f for rve can't. But there is 
 something more horrid in the matter than I fancied only all 
 we can do is to look to ourselves and the ship ! Harkye,
 
 A SEA STORY 245 
 
 though, Bob,' added I, following him; ' bring up the beef-kid, 
 will ye ? I feel terribly sharp-set, notwithstanding.' 
 
 "I came back and looked from the quarterdeck down the 
 skylight, where the second mate still sat with his elbows on 
 the table, apparently listening to the missionary ; when the 
 good man suddenly took off his spectacles and peered under 
 Macleod's broad fists, as an undeniable snore broke out 
 between them ; then he glanced toward the captain, who 
 seemed dozing in his cot, raised his mild eyes for a moment 
 through the opening up to the blue starry sky swimming out 
 above, put on his spectacles again, and taking up the Bible, 
 he leant back in his chair to read, as if there were neither 
 pirates, savages, nor aught a man need dread, in the world. 
 
 " ' Strange ! ' I thought. ' Yet, after all isn't there a soul 
 below there, ere a few hours, will go higher aloft than the 
 smallest star that twinkles over the main-truck yonder ? And 
 
 who knows how many of us may ' However, I saw Jacobs 
 
 hurrying aft again, and the rest coming up out of the fore- 
 peak ; so hard to work we set for the best part of an hour, 
 which it took us to get the guns on deck made serviceable, and 
 to find powder enough. Not a cutlass or pistol was left on 
 board, so we had only two or three axes and pikes, with a 
 rusty musket or two, and handspikes, certainly, to spare. 
 
 " As soon as we had taken breath, ' Now, Jacobs, my man,' 
 said I, ' send out the boys to loose the jibs and fore-topsail 
 let's hoist the yard, too, with the sail clued up all ready for 
 slipping her cable at five minutes' warning ! It can't do any 
 harm and I 've no more doubt,' said I, ' than if I saw it, we 
 shall have that schooner coming down with the ebb upon us ! ' 
 'Tide '11 turn in little better nor an hour, sir,' said Jacobs, 
 when we had got this quietly done. ' And by that time the 
 breeze will be blowing with it,' said I, 'bringing down the fog 
 too, however but keep a bright lookout aloft for the signal, 
 Jacobs ! If you see it, or the boats, good and well. But I tell 
 you what it is, Jacobs,' added I, firmly, 'should it be the 
 schooner instead, that instant we must cut and run for it ! I 
 shall carry the ship out to sea, if I can, as I brought her in 
 where we may have a better chance with her in the morning, 
 or get clear off, perhaps ! ' 
 
 " There being no more we could do, and having instructed 
 Jacobs to go down and rouse Mr Macleod himself if he
 
 246 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 saw the signal, I kept stealing back and forward on one side 
 of the quarterdeck alone. The river was still as a mill-pond, 
 except where it trembled in long streaky gleams from the sky, 
 else I should at once have slipped cable and begun to go down, 
 leaving the boats to come after us, if they did come, as they 
 best could. There wasn't a breath of air yet, either, save what 
 seemed now and then to waft out of the thick woods, and to 
 bring the whole whispering buzz of them stifled together along 
 the face of the water, with the heavy scent of the aloes and 
 trailers on the bank, meeting the warm steam that crept across 
 from the mangroves on the opposite shore. A hundred notions 
 ran through my head, as I walked, of what might happen : 
 whether the boats would miss the schooner altogether, and she 
 drop down upon us in the meantime, either by the creek or 
 the river or whether Foster and his crew of Wapping black- 
 guards would carry out what I 'd no doubt they had at heart. 
 
 " But at any rate, as for a set of passengers and merchant 
 sailors catching an armed schooner asleep, with one like that 
 Frenchman in her, I had his fierce dark face too much before 
 me whenever I thought of him to fancy the thing for a 
 moment. That that man was in command of the stranger 
 craft, and had some scheme in hand he would stir heaven and 
 earth to carry out, unless you ground his head to powder, was 
 an idea that came shivering sharp into me as I kept watching 
 the dark mouth of the creek astern, and the glimmering reach 
 beyond looking almost to see the schooner's bowsprit shoot 
 out of one of them, tide or wind though there was none. 
 Frigate to frigate in a breeze, in fact, I should have minded 
 my weather-gage pretty cautiously with him, if a seaman he 
 was ; but if he were bent on having the old Seringapatam at 
 present, by heaven ! what I feared was worse than either 
 plunder or walking the plank seeing there was a prize the 
 judge had left on board, for which I felt a free-cruising captain 
 would give all the treasures that fellows like Foster might 
 think an Indian nabob had in his portmanteau. 
 
 " In fact, I saw Violet Hyde moving restlessly, two or three 
 times, near the break of the poop, as she watched the dim 
 opening astern, while her lady's maid kept close behind her, 
 afraid to stay below ; and waiting, idle as I was, I almost 
 began for the time to forget everything else that might be 
 going on, at thought of her being only a few feet off, with no
 
 A SEA STORY 247 
 
 one by but the servant-maid. The touch of her soft hand about 
 my head an hour ago came back on me, and the drowsy creep- 
 ing kind of hush of the tropical night seemed to bewilder my 
 senses at every rustle of her dress I shan't even deny that 
 the notion seized me for half-a-minute, were the schooner to 
 make prisoners of the boats' crews, how I might carry the 
 Indiaman out to sea, and go Lord knows where with her. 
 Then the idea of defending her, and saving her, made one wild 
 with excitement I felt as if I had the strength of twenty in me, 
 almost longing to see the pirates' faces, especially the dark 
 Frenchman's, and to wait till they came close on, when we 
 could let drive into them, expecting to find us helpless. I 
 made up my mind that Mr Brown there, and the missionary 
 too, should work at a gun as soon as they were wanted when, 
 trip, trip, I heard her footstep coming down the poop-stair 
 behind me, and stood trembling and tingling to my very 
 finger-ends. 
 
 tt e Mr Westwood/ said her low sweet voice, and I turned 
 round. ' Yes, madam,' I answered, gulping down my breath. 
 ' Have you heard do you see anything ? ' ' They 've scarce 
 had time yet,' said I ; ' of course the more cautious they are 
 the better ! ' ' Oh ! ' continued she, her hands clasping together, 
 and the shawl falling half off her head to one shoulder ' oh, 
 if there should really be bloodshed at this moment the river 
 looks so fearfully gloomy and silent ! How is it possible to 
 bear this suspense any longer, sir? If we could only think 
 they were not pirates after all ! ' ' Miss Hyde,' replied I 
 seriously, as she seemed to wish me to speak, ' I can't have 
 any doubt in my own mind what they are ! ' ' How ! what ? 
 for mercy's sake ! ' exclaimed she, gazing earnestly at me. 
 'You musn't suppose all pirates to be bloody murdering 
 ruffians, Miss Hyde,' said I hastily. ' There 's one man belong- 
 ing to that craft yonder, I'm sure, if he saw if he stood where 
 
 I stand just now, so near an angel ' The young lady shrank 
 
 back with a startled look ; but I wasn't master of myself longer, 
 and out I broke : * For God's sake forgive me, but I I 'd serve 
 you like a slave dearest Miss Hyde. I '11 stand up to the 
 
 last drop of my blood before ' ' Mr West wood ! ' was 
 
 the answer, hanging betwixt surprise and terror. But I burst 
 out with, ' Confound that name .'my name is not Westwood, 
 madam, and I 'm no relation at all to the gentleman in India.
 
 248 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 I never said so, but your father mistook ' ( Who then 
 
 what are you what design have you?' was her broken 
 question ; and she put one hand on the bulwarks as if for 
 support, looking round from me to the woods, the river, and 
 back to the ship and me again, so pale and terrified-like, that 
 I could have cursed myself for my stupidity. 
 
 " ' Good heaven, Miss Hyde ! ' said I, lowering my voice, 
 ' I do believe you take me for one of the stranger's crew ? ' 
 1 No no ! ' faltered Violet ; ' I I but the suspicions I heard 
 to-day you you frightened me, sir ! ' f Surely,' said I, 
 ready to kneel at her feet, ' you must have known the truth of 
 the matter, Miss Hyde. Why, here have I come afloat at a 
 day's warning, bound for the East Indies and all because I 
 saw you that evening at the garden-door ! Oh, for kindness' 
 sake, Miss Hyde, pardon my boldness but I couldn't let slip 
 the only chance of telling you it took me unawares, in fact ! 
 I 'm not such a fool as to fancy that such a fellow as I can 
 
 have the least hope in the world ; but but ' She stood 
 
 quite still, not uttering a word, with her face turned from me, 
 but I could notice the colour was all come back to her cheek, 
 and more and saw the shining falls of her loose hair heaving 
 on the bosom of her white muslin dress, as it rose and fell 
 gently. I leant over the bulwarks and ventured to look half- 
 round ; when, oh heavens ! how did my heart quicken in me 
 to see the least bit of a smile come over her lips, though her 
 eyes were dropped toward the gun close by. I can't say what 
 I might have been bold enough to do, in the whirl of the 
 moment when suddenly she started, drew the shawl up from 
 her shoulders again, and seemed to recollect the whole case 
 of the boats with a shudder, as she glanced wildly again up 
 the reach astern of us, bringing me to myself, too, at the same 
 time ; and I stood looking with her, intent to mark the first 
 turn of the tide. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 " HPHE night was warm enough, however, in all conscience ; 
 
 -* and, if one had been fit to eye it calmly, a glorious scene 
 
 to see was the sky that rose above our heads, glowing dark as
 
 A SEA STORY 249 
 
 indigo-blue through the rigging aloft, as the ship's tall spars 
 stood up into it, from one rope-ladder to another ; her main- 
 truck like a white button against the midmost depth, with 
 every line running distinct to its place across knots of stars, 
 and single bright ones piercing sharp through the black squares 
 of the shrouds; while all round from her it widened away, glit- 
 tering and seething with lights, that brought the woods loom- 
 ing out bigger and blacker along the nearest shore, making the 
 dirty brown river look dirtier and drearier than before, as the 
 steam spread over the close mangrove bank on the other side, 
 and began to creep low out upon the water like fleeces of 
 wool, with the stars here and there sparkling from the far 
 horizon through the straggling fringe of cocoas beyond, and 
 the huge bloated baobabs that twisted up out of the tall 
 guinea-grass, as if their roots were in the air. The next 
 glance I caught from Violet Hyde showed nothing but the 
 distress she was in ; and I walked forward to hail Jacobs on 
 the fore-to' -gallant-yard, asking if he saw the signal yet. 
 ' No, no, sir/ answered he, ( not a sign on it up to this time.' 
 
 " So back again I went, gloomy enough myself, but trying 
 to keep up my countenance, and saying I was sure we should 
 see the boats come down with the tide when it turned. 
 
 " ' Have you noticed the stars aloft, Miss Hyde ? ' said I, in 
 a cheerful way, to take off her thoughts till the upshot came ; 
 'they never saw these in Europe, nor a night like this!' She 
 looked up, and for a moment or two the soft blue dark of the 
 hollow seemed to sweep round both of us, catching you up 
 into it ; the Milky Way falling over to westward, like a 
 track astern of the great star-ship down in the south ; 
 and Orion's figure to be made out overhead, with the 
 belt about him, stretching off west out of the Milky 
 Way the Serpent streaming far up to his foot ; then 
 Magellan's two shining bits of cloud, and the dim one, 
 seaward. There were patches to be seen blacker than ink, 
 too, where you seemed to look through the sky, while every 
 now and then a meteor shot far across it and fell, leaving a 
 trail like a silver thread. 'Twas terrible, though, to see up 
 into it, far away as they stood, and as steady as if we weren't 
 there, when heaven only knew what might come down river 
 next half-hour. I felt her shoulder touch me as she leant 
 back the starlight glistening in her blue eyes, and nothing
 
 250 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 but it between her lovely young face and the stars ; and I 
 don't know how, but it appears to me I thought during that 
 half-minute as I never thought before, and as if 1 looked 
 off the other side of the world for the first time yet you 
 couldn't expect a fellow's brain to breed such notions in a 
 merchantman's forecastle, or a frigate's steerage or gun- 
 room, as it did beside an Indiaman's bulwarks, entering for 
 a moment or two into the very feelings of a creature like the 
 judge's daughter, when her warm breath almost lighted on 
 his cheek ! 
 
 "Next minute I noticed over my shoulder, low down in 
 the deep blue swell of the south, where the five bright stars 
 of the Southern Cross were gleaming nearly upright over the 
 top of a cocoa-clump on the opposite bank, for all the world 
 like some diamond ornament ; and I pointed it out to her, 
 though I knew by the bearings of it how far the night was 
 gone toward the middle. Its top and bottom stars flashed 
 out of the pure face of heaven like jewels, each fit to buy the 
 Great Mogul ten times over. The dark fringes of her two 
 eyes showed brown over the light in them, while it looked 
 like the hearts in violet flowers, as she turned. ' At sea,' said 
 I, ' we mids used to know by it when eight-bells would come, 
 to let us go below and turn in. Soon after you lose sight of 
 the Pole-star you rise the Southern Cross and the men had 
 a notion it was a brooch the Virgin Mary lost from her breast, 
 in the daylight, when she went up to heaven! 'Twas her son 
 gave it her, they fancied, but 'twas always to be found in the 
 dark though, meanwhile, 'tis a sign to the Flying Dutchman, 
 as he tries to weather the Cape, that he '11 be forgiven at the 
 day of judgment so that's the reason it has the power of 
 showing what 's o'clock until then, and why the Cape is the 
 Cape of Good Hope ! ' ' Yes, yes ! ' said she ; ' in Paul and 
 Virginia, I remember, when they were so unwilling to part, 
 
 it ' But she stopped with a blush, as her eye met mine ; 
 
 and we were both so confused that, before I knew, I found 
 myself beginning to stammer out all manner of tender words, 
 I daresay, and to whisper her first name near her ear, she 
 scarce seeming to mark the difference in fact one bewildered 
 sort of look was all she gave me at the moment, as if she 
 were listening more to the hum rising out of the woods than 
 to me.
 
 A SEA STORY 251 
 
 " Once or twice the still shine of the lamp up through the 
 open skylight-frame drew my eye to it in spite of me it was 
 the only light burning in the ship, and you saw the gleam of 
 it from the starboard port- window of the cuddy, drawn in as 
 it was for air, thrown on the dusky water, not many fathoms, 
 apparently, off the jungly bank nearest the ship. I can't tell 
 you how, but somehow or other the appearance of it there, 
 like a yellow break in the misty shadow, letting one see the 
 very froth floating over it, and the muddy tint of the river on 
 its edges with the hush below us in the cabin awed me 
 more than aught besides ; and whether it was from mixing 
 the thing with what happened afterwards, or how perhaps the 
 missionary moved inside but when I noticed the gleam on the 
 water quiver and darken for a moment, then shine out again, 
 I felt I knew it was then the captain's spirit passed away. I 
 slipped with a thrill of my blood to the skylight, and saw 
 Macleod still asleep, the missionary settling his spectacles on 
 his nose to read again, as if he had looked up too when I did ; 
 while the cot and bedclothes were hanging white in the 
 shade as before, except that the knees were drawn up, and 
 the head turned away. He might be dozing, though it came 
 into my head I had heard the captain say he should last till 
 the turn of the tide ; and in fact all the sick men I ever knew 
 die, unless there was something uncommon, died as the ebb 
 came on. As I stepped back to the young lady's side, I 
 could mark the Southern Cross by the after-edge of the main- 
 mast, sparkling fairly upright above the cocoa-nut trees, and 
 Orion high up nor' westward seemed farther away it was 
 midnight. The thought flashed through me how something 
 in the sky could draw up a man's soul, as the shot at his 
 hammock-foot would sink his body down deep through blue 
 water at sea but the first light plash of the ebb alongside 
 brought me back to the case in hand, and I gave Jacobs a 
 quiet sign to look out sharp aloft. 
 
 " ' Hark ! ' whispered Violet Hyde, suddenly, glancing side- 
 ways to me with her ear eagerly toward the shore, and putting 
 back her hair with one hand to listen ' what is that ? ' I 
 thought at first I could see a stir along the thick aloe-bushes, 
 and make out the rustle of leaves ; but the land-breeze was 
 sighing in puffs through them already, and the fog beginning 
 to creep out from over the bank, as if to meet the muddy
 
 252 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 stream from the other side; till next minute I heard what she 
 meant, like wild cries from human creatures half choked, or 
 out of breath, sounding along deep in the woods ; then free 
 out it rose in a clear chorus of savage screams and yells, and 
 then seemed smothered up again. 'Twas only a pack of 
 jackals hunting from thick bush to opening, but Violet pressed 
 closer to me as the devilish noise drew nearer the river ; and 
 suddenly my hand met hers to say what I felt, passes me 
 but the very next moment I had it fast clasped in my own, 
 though I hadn't time enough to say what the thing was, 
 before the entire pack of throats seemed to break out right 
 upon the bank a little higher up than the ship, barking and 
 yelping like the very hounds of Satan. ' 'Tis only the chase 
 has taken to the water ! ' continued I, in a low voice, as the 
 infernal uproar stopped at once. 
 
 " However, then, the sweet girl was trembling like a leaf; 
 and, by Jove ! madam, take it as you will, the man who 
 wouldn't have had one arm round her before that, could have 
 been no sailor that 's all. ' For God's sake, dear, dear Miss 
 Hyde,' whispered I 'dearest Violet, let me take you under 
 shelter we may have dangerous work before long ! ' 
 
 " I started up from the bulwarks, in fact, for the river by 
 this time was all aplash alongshore in the haze, and under 
 the ship's bends, beginning to run past her side seaward, as 
 the branches and loose stuff came floating out with the 
 current off a point; the sedge and bulrushes opposite us 
 moaning and clattering, as the breeze rushed through them, 
 bringing the fog rolling down stream. The mist was closing 
 overhead from both sides already, though the stars sparkled 
 through the middle yet; and I knew the moon must be rising, 
 fit to show us anything that came out of the upper reach. 
 1 No no ! ' faltered out Violet, in tears, as she slid herself 
 quickly out of my hold, drawing the shawl over her with a 
 shudder ; ' I cannot go inside till we see them come back 
 my dear, dear father, I must see that he is safe! ' 'By 
 heaven ! though,' exclaimed I, jumping upon the carronade 
 to look out, 'those brutes are swimming after the deer, 
 and the stream is bringing them down on our stern ! ' The 
 Indiaman was swinging her stern down to the ebb, and 
 through the dusk I fancied I just saw their black heads 
 tipping here and there out of the water, amongst the drift-
 
 A SEA STORY 253 
 
 wood and froth, where the light from the cabin port swung 
 slowly into the mist, with the ship. However, they went past; 
 and she hadn't got her bow fair to the current, when a man 
 from the bow sung out, ' Hurrah ! here 's the boats now ! ' 
 
 <e ' Where, where ? ' said I, springing forward to the fore- 
 chains, while the young lady stood as if her life hung on the 
 next word. * There, sir, right ahead almost as she swings,' 
 said the sailor ; and thick as the blue fog was close to us, the 
 cream-coloured haze filling up the reach of the river beyond, 
 was lighting up like white gauze with the moon, in which I 
 saw two or three black objects come dropping out as if from 
 the creek, their oar-blades flashing in it. But I thought they 
 crowded "together awkwardly, like maimed craft, and the 
 weight seemed to keep them down, unless, as I hoped, they 
 were waiting for the others. 'No, no, Mr Collins!' whispered 
 Jacobs, suddenly sliding down a top-mast backstay to my side, 
 ' they 're canoes, sir ! ' ' By the Lord ! so they are,' said I, 
 seeing a flourish of the paddles that betrayed them. 'They're 
 hanging on yet, though, to catch us napping keep cool, Bob, 
 my man,' continued I, for my spirits rose, to find my fears 
 mistaken as yet about our boats. 'But the cable the cable !' 
 added I hastily ' by George, they '11 try to cut it, as sure as 
 fate ! Ready there don't fire a shot till they 're close 
 nothing but stupid nigger heathens after all, my lads ! Quick, 
 a couple of you,' said I, ' bowse up the jib at once, and down 
 foretopsail sheets brace the yard sharp up, to cast her head 
 down if they do cut ! If we go aground, Jacobs, we 're 
 gone ! ' 
 
 " 'Twas vain to think of hindering them, few as we were, 
 and scarce able to see what they did for the fog; but the 
 land-breeze already blew pretty fresh, and the ebb rushing 
 on her bows made the Indiaman heave to it as her jib rose 
 from the boom. I had no time to stand upon ceremony to 
 think of the pilotage again with the savages, the narrow 
 channel in the dusk, and the breakers together, was quite 
 enough. 
 
 " In the very nick of such a breathless moment, I had just 
 fancied I caught the stroke of their paddles coming on 
 when all at once, out of the open cabin-skylight aft, rose a 
 sound, the like of which I never heard in my life between a 
 yell and a cry ; but the mouth of the skylight seemed to send
 
 254 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 it up higher than the mastheads, loud and long, into the slit 
 of starlight between the fog. For a single second the marrow 
 curdled in my bones, and I lost all thought even of the canoes 
 ahead, 'twas so unearthly ; till, catching a glimpse of Violet's 
 white figure crouching in terror to the round-house door, I 
 rushed aft, and looked down at the cuddy. It was all black 
 as midnight below, the stink of the swinging lamp coming 
 out ; but by the horrible tumbling, staggering, struggling 
 sound inside, you 'd have thought it full of some awful thing, 
 doing God knows what in the place then a thump and a 
 groan. I scarce believe I could have mustered heart to go 
 down the companion and see till next moment the Scotch 
 mate's bare head and his shoulders came thrusting up out of 
 the stair, wrestling wildly with three or four pitch-black 
 naked figures the narrow booby-hatch hindering them from 
 sticking together to him, except one that leapt out almost on 
 his back, aiming a fierce stroke with a club at his skull. Quick 
 as thought, however, my coolness had come back to me, and I 
 just sent the bullet from the ship's musket I had snatched up 
 fair flash through his lungs, the blood spouting out of his 
 mouth almost over us, as he spun round with his club in the 
 air, and fell back while smash after smash I brought the 
 stock of my piece down on the crowns of the others, trying to 
 get on deck too thick together ; and Macleod was doing the 
 same like a man, at the skylight, where they were catching at 
 the edge of the frame. The shrieks of the ladies came off the 
 poop above ; and as for the men, they were dodging under the 
 forecastle bulwarks as they fired at the canoes ahead, from the 
 spears and arrows that came whistling over, and quivering 
 into the planks near me. What else the fiendish wretches 
 might be doing I didn't know, but I had no sooner managed 
 to shove the scuttle over the booby-hatch, the second mate 
 loading as fast as he could, and blazing away down into the 
 skylight like a perfect devil, lighting up the black faces and 
 sharp teeth of the savages below at every shot, rushing back, 
 than I felt the Indiaman was broadside on to the tide and 
 current, sweeping down to open the next reach with her jib 
 and topsail full to the land-breeze. I sprang back to seize the 
 wheel, near which Violet Hyde stood cowering with her two 
 hands over her eyes, when, in the midst of it all, you may 
 fancy my horror to catch a glimpse of one hideous black
 
 A SEA STORY 255 
 
 stealing round towards her in the shadow of the round-house, 
 with a hatchet gleaming in one hand, and the other stretched 
 out to clutch her. 'Twas the work of a second. I made one 
 leap, and barely caught the blow on my gun-stock, as he took 
 hold of her dress ; then over he and I rolled on the deck, first 
 one uppermost, then the other, till I found his strength was 
 too much for me, breathless as I was. 
 
 " The fellow had his huge hand round my throat, choking 
 me, and ready to spring up with the hatchet in his other fist 
 'twas the' mulatto that had been with the Portuguese 
 when I saw Violet Hyde dart forward between me and the 
 stars, throwing her large shawl round his head and arm from 
 behind him, and holding it tight, her face turned away white 
 as death. The mulatto loosened his grasp and jumped up, 
 throwing her reeling back to the door ; but I was on my feet 
 as soon as he, twisting his hatchet from his grip, and sent the 
 edge of it with all my force clean down into his brain, through 
 cashmere and everything. Ere he had time to pull it off, he 
 was stretched, breast and knees up, over the carronade-slide 
 at my feet. 
 
 " The dear girl had fainted. I lifted her, and hurried with 
 her to the sofa in the round-house, my heart swelling toward 
 her in a way no man can tell, though there was not a moment 
 to stay, for when I reached the wheel again, a sight broke 
 upon me that showed the fearful danger we were in.. The 
 savages in the cuddy could be heard plunging out of the port 
 to swim ashore ; and though the ebb-tide was taking the ship 
 apparently clear round the woody turn, she had no sooner 
 opened the wide reach, where the fog was scattering before 
 the breeze, than we began to see a stretch of the nearest bank, 
 off our starboard bow, glimmering out to a huge fire on the 
 edge, that lighted up the thick white haze like sulphur 
 throwing a bloody red glow on the eddies in-shore, with two 
 or three black canoes dipping up and down in them ; a crowd 
 of dark naked negroes rushing round the fire, bringing logs 
 and branches to throw in, till up it blazed again ; the sparks 
 flying into the smoke, the feathery black jungle sinking back 
 behind, and the banyan branches shooting out into it, as if 
 they were alive, licking the crimson gleams with their sharp 
 leaves; while a horrible noise of tree-drums beating and 
 buffalo-horns blowing floated off to us.
 
 256 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 " The wretches seemed to expect we were coming straight 
 in to them, and they waited for us. And no wonder ; for it 
 wasn't till Jacobs came running aft, to tell the mate and me, 
 that, to our horror, we found the canoes had got the rest of 
 the cable fastened somehow or other low down to her cut- 
 water, and were coolly towing us in by it. We could neither 
 cut it nor dispose of them, as at every shot there were plenty 
 more to fill places ; while the helm was only enough to steer 
 her, had she been free. 
 
 " ' Jacobs,' said I, ' for heaven's sake bear a hand with two 
 or three of these heavy shot in a hammock let's sling it out 
 to the flying-jibboom end, and I '11 stand by to drop it fair 
 over them quick ! ' Three of us ran out from the bowsprit, 
 with the end of the line, swinging out the weight and hauling 
 it up, till we were nearly over their heads in the foggy gleam 
 from the blaze ashore. The cable tautened fair under us as 
 the blacks gave a stroke ahead together with their paddles, 
 and ' Watch ! ' I sung out above them, in a voice that made 
 them huddle all three canoes in a lump, peering up at us. 
 ' Let go, my lads/ whispered I, and down went the weight of 
 shot full slap upon them, crash through their gunwales, leaving 
 no more than the bits, with the woolly heads bobbing about in 
 the stream. The second mate whirled round the spokes of the 
 wheel, on deck, and her jib and topsail drawing the breeze 
 right again, she began to stand out toward the middle once 
 more. I watched the glare of the fire sinking back into the 
 blue fog, while the hubbub of wild cries showed that they had 
 taken the alarm, aud were pushing off as fast as possible in 
 their canoes from the bank in chase. 
 
 " The next thing I saw, two or three minutes after, was 
 the flash of a large gun away on our starboard quarter, flaring 
 out in the mist round the strange schooner herself, as she 
 came swiftly down astern of us, under her two boomsails and 
 flying-jib, the froth whitening up from her forefoot, and she 
 crushing through amongst the canoes, letting drive at them 
 right and left, flash after flash, and roar after roar her deck 
 crowded with men, too, amongst whom I thought I could 
 make out the dark Frenchman's broad-leafed Manilla hat. 
 However, the wreaths of thick smoke blew curling from her 
 towards us ; and directly after nothing was to be heard but 
 the ripple under our bows, as we went surging toward the
 
 A SEA STORY 257 
 
 river's mouth, with the clear plash upon her copper coming 
 nearer. 
 
 " Jacobs and I, as well as the other hand, hung over the 
 boom together for a little to loose the flying-jib, then out of 
 pure weariness, till I sent Jacobs to take the wheel and steer 
 by my signals ; for the Indiaman had the full force of current 
 and breeze astern of her, carrying her fast toward the bar, as 
 I guessed ; while the second mate let her yaw dreadfully, from 
 fear of going wrong. As for the schooner, we could make out 
 her lights through the fog, the wind bringing us the sound 
 of her cutwater though probably they couldn't know where- 
 abouts we were ; so I hoped she might perhaps go past us in 
 the dark, if she were actually in chase of the Indiaman, as I 
 feared. 
 
 " However, the moment the cheep of our flying-jib hanks 
 on the stay was heard as the sail was hoisted, a sharp hail 
 came along the water. ' Hola ! ' sang out the creaking voice 
 of the little French skipper, who had bamboozled me so at sea. 
 None of us answered, and I ran down the spar to be ready for 
 what might happen, when ' Hola ! oil Ues-vous ? ' shouted he 
 again. ' Hullo ! the Seringapatam, ahoy ! " roared our chief 
 officer himself; to which no sooner had Macleod replied, than 
 we caught three hearty English cheers, and next minute the 
 schooner's canvas was looming up from the yellow glimmer of 
 her lanterns a few fathoms on our starboard quarter the foam 
 hissing off her sharp bright bows, while she raced up with us. 
 Everyone of us started at the jovial sound of old Rollock the 
 planter's voice, shouting, ' All's right, my boys ! ' as if he had 
 risen from the dead out of the sea the schooner slipping 
 easily by, abreast of our high bulwarks ; and the crowd of 
 heads from stem to stern, English, French, and Kroomen, 
 gliding past below, for all the world like a dream to most of 
 us, with the light from the lanterns flaring up red under hats, 
 caps, and tarpaulins, and the black shadow of their figures 
 and small-arms thrown high in two clusters on the broad glare 
 over her fore and main boom-sails. ' Have ye actually taken 
 the blackguards, sir ? ' hailed the Scotch mate ; at which a 
 shout of laughter ran from one end of her to the other ; while 
 one of the cadets seemingly half-drunk, could be seen 
 F daggering aft to the stern as she forged swiftly ahead, just in 
 order to call out, ' Macleod, my old cock, comment vous portez-
 
 258 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 vous ? ' The little French master jumped up on the schooner's 
 taffrail, waving his hand politely: 'J'aurai I'honneur pour 
 vous conduire en debouchant, Messieurs ! ' shouted he ; ' follow 
 de light een my starn ! ' 
 
 " In fact, by this time we were already in the suck of the 
 channel, so that longer speaking was out of the question, as 
 the boom of the surf could be heard wide ahead of the ship. 
 Suddenly a broad gleam of light off the sea struck over our 
 starboard bow, beyond the tumbling water upon the bar, and 
 to starboard the rocky headland broke through the fog rolling 
 out with the breeze : the schooner's stern lifted glimmering 
 before our figure-head, and we lost sight of her again, till we 
 had swept safe round the point. Five minutes more, and 
 both Indiaman and schooner were heaving on the waves from 
 the shadow of the high land, the dark-blue swells cresting up 
 all round against a bank of cloud on the horizon, and the long 
 send of the sea to be felt once more under you the moon 
 rising out of the river, while a fresh breeze blew in the offing, 
 and promised to get a good deal stronger. 
 
 "The schooner soon hove to, and before we could have 
 beaten up to her, being to leeward, we saw one boat after 
 another dropped astern or off the side, till the whole five 
 could be made out pulling for the ship ; but the minute after 
 they were alongside, she filled away again, standing almost 
 right before the breeze up to north-westward. 
 
 " Well, you can fancy the confusion on board of us for a 
 short time, what with questions and explainings, and what 
 with seeing worthy old Rollock again, Ford, Winterton, the 
 Brigadier, and Mrs Brady, after being parted for a number 
 of days in such a way. The young lady Miss Fortescue's 
 meeting with her mother was touching enough to witness, 
 though of course the gentleman had got it all over before ; 
 and in fact they seemed to have made pretty merry aboard 
 the French craft, while we were fighting for fair life with 
 those infernal Congo savages. The dead blacks on deck and 
 below had been thrown overboard already, and the Indiaman 
 crowding sail on her course ; but I saw the judge for a 
 minute before the , round - house door was shut, with his 
 daughter sobbing on his neck ; and as soon as the rest met 
 below in the cuddy, a scene was to be found there which one 
 doesn't easily forget the steward lying in one doorway, dead,
 
 A SEA STORY 259 
 
 with his head smashed by a club ; the missionaiy under the 
 table, still bleeding, though he was alive, and not very much 
 hurt after all. Neither he nor Macleod could tell very well 
 how the thing happened, plain as it was now to me ; but the 
 strangest part of it to see, horrid as it seemed at first, was 
 the body of Captain Williamson. His cot had been knocked 
 to the deck, some of the devilish wretches had given his 
 forehead one gash, and his breast another, each fit to kill 
 a man. There was little or no blood, however ; his face had 
 a peaceful look on it, almost smiling, you 'd have said, by 
 comparison with the poor steward's ; and as soon as his eye- 
 lids were down, the old seaman appeared to be sleeping yet. 
 For my part, I felt as sure as if I 'd seen it, that when the 
 savages struck that body, they might as well have struck at 
 the stars we had seen over the deck. 
 
 " Still, when all was cleared away, and the passengers gone 
 tired out to their berths, I couldn't turn in without a walk on 
 the poop beside the planter, to hear something from him 
 the ship all the time rising on the brisk seas, every stitch of 
 canvas spread, the African coast beginning to drop in the 
 moonshine, and the schooner a dim speck to north-west 
 through the long gleam on the horizon. I found to my great 
 surprise, there was no reason he could think of for the French 
 craft's detaining them, except that the Brigadier had sworn 
 at Bonaparte in the brig's cabin, or else Mrs Brady's having 
 said she would give the world to see him just now at St 
 Helena ; in fact she would go through fire and water only to 
 kiss the hand of such a great hero such an enemy to all 
 Saxons and tyrants, she vowed. But in fact they had been 
 sitting below at the time our boat came aboard, and knew 
 nothing about it ; the French master swore to Rollock, and 
 to the chief officer afterwards, he had mistaken my meaning 
 because I spoke bad French, no doubt ; after which the gale 
 came on, and they never saw the Indiaman again till to-night. 
 As for their going into the river, and changing her rig, the 
 little Frenchman said he found a brig's rig didn't suit a 
 schooner's hull. For my part, however, I didn't see how 
 their course for the Isle of France could be north-west. ' By- 
 the-by, though,' added Rollock, ' Mrs Brady made some 
 mystery about the whole affair. She seemed to have a few 
 private discourses with that strange dark-faced passenger of
 
 260 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 theirs, who, I suspect, had more to do with the vessel than 
 he pretended. But I daresay, Collins, my boy,' said he, 
 laughing, 'she wanted to make us think the foreigner had 
 taken a fancy to her.' 
 
 " As we were both going below, I said, e By-the-way, where 
 is Mr Daniel Snout? I haven't seen him yet.' f Ah!' said 
 the planter, turning round, ' where is Daniel, after all ! / 
 haven't seen him either, since we left the schooner's deck 
 no, by Jove ! sir, he really hasn't come on board, now I think 
 of it ! I recollect we were the last boat, and he wasn't in it, 
 although he was behind me just before I got down.' ' What 
 can the man mean ? ' said I ; and we both stood at the top of 
 the hatchway ladder, looking toward the horizon, at the speck 
 of a schooner. ' By jingo, Collins ! ' exclaimed the planter, 
 chuckling, ' the Yankee is gone to be a pirate ! ' ' 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 "TV /TORE than once that night," resumed Captain Collins, 
 *'' " I woke up with a start, at thought of our late ad- 
 ventures in the river Nouries fancying I was still waiting for 
 the turn of tide to bring down the boats or the schooner, and 
 had gone to sleep, when that horrible sound through the cabin 
 skylight seemed full in my ears again. However, the welter- 
 ing wash of the water under the ship's timbers below one's 
 head was proof enough we were well to sea ; and, being dog- 
 tired, I turned over each time with a new gusto not to speak 
 of the happy sort of feeling that ran all through me, I scarce 
 knew why ; though no doubt one might have dreamt plenty 
 of delightful dreams without remembering them, more especi- 
 ally after such a perfect seventh heaven as I had found myself 
 in for a moment or two, when Violet Hyde's hand first 
 touched mine, and when I carried her in after she had 
 actually saved my life. 
 
 "The broad daylight through our quarter-gallery window 
 roused me at last altogether ; and on starting up I saw Tom 
 Westwood, half-dressed, shaving himself by an inch or two of 
 broken looking-glass in regular nautical style that 's to say, 
 watching for the rise of the ship as she had the wind
 
 A SEA STORY 261 
 
 evidently on her opposite beam, and there appeared to be 
 pretty much of a long swell afloat, with a breeze brisk enough 
 to make her heel to it ; while the clear horizon, seen shining 
 through the port to north-westward, over the dark -blue heave 
 of water, showed it was far on in the morning. ' Well, Ned,' 
 said Westwood, turning round, 'you seemed to be enjoying 
 it, in spite of the warm work you must have had last night on 
 board here I Why, I thought you had been with us in the 
 boats, after all, till I found, by the good joke the cadets made 
 of it, that that puppy of a mate had left you still locked up, 
 on account of some fancy he had got into his head of your 
 being in partnership with the schooner ! For heaven's sake, 
 though, my dear fellow, wash your face and shave you look 
 fearfully suspicious just now ! ' 
 
 " ' No wonder ! ' said I : and I gave him an account of the 
 matter, leaving out most of what regarded the young lady ; 
 Westwood telling me, in his turn, so much about their boat 
 expedition as I didn't know before from the planter. Every- 
 thing went to certify what I believed all along, till this sudden 
 affair in the river. The schooner's people had plainly some 
 cue in keeping hold of our passengers, but hadn't expected to 
 see us so soon again, or perhaps at all as was shown by their 
 hailing the boats at once in a pretended friendly way, when- 
 ever they came in sight up the creek ; while Ford and the 
 rest shouted with delight, off her bulwarks, at sound of the 
 mate's voice. 
 
 " ' I tell you what, Collins,' continued Westwood, ' this may 
 be all very well for you, who are continually getting into 
 scrapes and out of them, and don't seem to care much whether 
 you ship on board an Indiaman or a corn-brig you can always 
 find something to do but to me the service is everything \ ' 
 ' Well, well,' said I, hastily, ' I 'm much mistaken if we don't 
 find something to do in India, Tom only wait, and that uncle 
 of yours will make all right ; for all we know, there may be 
 news from Europe to meet us, and I must say I don't like the 
 notion of being born too late for turning out an admiral. I 'm 
 sure, for my part, I wish old Nap well out of that stone cage 
 of his ! ' ' No, no, Ned,' said Westwood, ' I ought to clear 
 myself at home first ; and sorry I am that I gave in to you by 
 leaving England, when I should have faced the consequences, 
 whatever they were. Running only made matters worse,
 
 262 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Collins ! ' ' No doubt,' I said ; ' and as it was my fault, why, 
 deuce take me, Tom, if I don't manage to carry you out scot- 
 free ! Depend on it, Captain Duncombe's friends would have 
 you strung up like a dog, with the interest he had and sharp 
 as discipline is just now.' Westwood shuddered at the 
 thought. ' I fear it would go hard with me, Ned/ said he, 
 'and I shan't deny that these few weeks have brought me 
 back a taste for life. But, in spite of all, I 'd deliver myself 
 up to the first king's ship we speak, or go home in some 
 Indiaman from the Cape but for one thing, Collins !' 'Ah !' 
 said I, ' what's that?' Westwood gave me a curious half- 
 look, and said, ' One person I mean, Ned and I shouldn't 
 
 like her to hear of me being ' ' Yes, yes,' said I, stiffly, 
 
 ' I know.' ' It must have been by guess, then !' answered he. 
 ' Often as we 've talked of her during the voyage, I thought 
 you didn't know we had met frequently in London before 
 you came home, and and the fact is, I wasn't sure you 
 
 would like me to ' ' Westwood,' said I, quickly, ' Tom 
 
 Westwood what I have to ask is^-do you love her ? ' 'If 
 ever a man loved a woman, Ned,' was his answer, ' 1 do her ; 
 
 but if you ' ' Have you any chance, then ? ' I broke out. 
 
 ' Ay, true true enough, you have the best of chances your 
 way is as clear as could be, Westwood, if you knew it ! Only 
 
 I must know if she is willing does she ' ' I got leave to 
 
 write to her in London,' answered Westwood, 'and I did so 
 pretty often, you may be sure ; but I only had one short little 
 note in answer to the last, I think it was which I had in my 
 breast that morning on Southsea beach, when I expected the 
 bullet would come through it ! ' 
 
 " Here Westwood stooped down to his trunk, and took out 
 a rose-coloured note wrapped in a bit of paper ; I standing the 
 while fixed to the deck, not able to speak, till he was handing 
 it to me. 'No, no!' said I, turning from him angrily, and like 
 to choke ; ' that 's too much, Mr Westwood pray keep your 
 own love-letters for your own reading ! ' ' There 's nothing 
 particular in it, Ned,' answered he, flushing a little, 'only 
 there 's a few words in it I 'd like you to see don't look at it 
 just now, but tell me afterwards what you think. You ought 
 to see it, as the matter seems to depend on you, Ned ; and if you 
 object, you may be sure, so far as I 'm concerned, 'tis all over ! ' 
 
 " Somehow or other, the look of the little folded piece of
 
 A SEA STORY 263 
 
 paper, with the touch and the scent of it, as Westwood slipped 
 it into my hand, made it stick to me. I caught one glance of 
 the address on the back, written as if fairy fingers had done 
 it, and I suppose I slipped it into my coat as I went out of the 
 berth, meaning to go aloft in the foretop and sicken over the 
 thought at my leisure, of Violet Hyde's having ever favoured 
 another man so far, and that man Tom Westwood. The 
 strangeness of the whole affair, as I took it, never once struck 
 me ; all that I minded was the wretched feeling I had in me, 
 as I wished I could put the Atlantic betwixt me and them 
 all ; in fact, a hundred things before we sailed, and during the 
 passage, seemed all at once to agree with what I'd just heard; 
 and I 'd have given thousands that moment it had been some- 
 one else than Westwood, just that I might wait the voyage 
 out coolly, for the satisfaction of meeting him at twelve paces 
 the first morning ashore. 
 
 " On the larboard side of the berth-gangway, opposite our 
 door, I saw the old planter's standing half open, and Mr 
 Rollock himself with his shirt and trousers on, taking in his 
 boots. ' Hallo, Collins, my boy,' he sang out, eagerly, ' come 
 here a moment, I've got something to show you! Look,' said 
 he, standing on tiptoe to see better through the half-port, 
 ' there 's something new been put in my picture-frame here 
 overnight, I think ha ! ha ! ' 
 
 " The first thing that caught my eye, accordingly, was the 
 gleam of a sail rising from over the swell to windward, far 
 away off our larboard quarter, seemingly rolling before the 
 south-easter ; while the Indiaman hove her big side steadily 
 out of water, with her head across the other's course, and 
 gave us a sight of the strange sail swinging to the fair wind, 
 every time we rose on the surge. ' What is it, eh ? ' said the 
 planter, turning to me, ' back or face, Collins ? for, bless me, 
 if I can distinguish tub from bucket, with all this bobbing 
 about great deal of capital indigo wasted hereabouts, my 
 dear fellow ! ' ' Why, you may make out the two breasts of 
 her royals,' said I ' a brig, I think, sir.' ' Not that abomin- 
 able schooner in her first shape again, I hope ! ' exclaimed 
 he; ' perhaps bringing back the Yankee.' 'Too square- 
 shouldered for that, Mr Rollock,' I said ; ' in fact, she seems 
 to be signalling us ; yes, by Jove ! there 's the long pennant 
 at her fore-royal mast-head she 's a brig of war. They 're
 
 264 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 surely asleep on deck, and we shall have a shot directly, if 
 they don't look sharp ! ' ' You 'd better say nothing about 
 the Yankee's absence, Collins,' put in the planter, ' till we 're 
 fairly away. For my part, I really have no notion of wait- 
 ing for anyone particularly a fellow who must have some 
 go-ahead scheme in his noddle, which we Indians don't want. 
 Quietly speaking, my dear fellow, I shall be glad if we 're rid 
 of him ! ' 
 
 " On my mentioning what sort of ' notions ' were found in 
 Mr Snout's berth, and the drowning of his heathen images, 
 the worthy planter went into perfect convulsions, till I 
 thought I should have to slap him on the back to give him 
 breath. ' What the deuce I ' said he at last ; ' Daniel must 
 really have something worth his while to expect before he 'd 
 fail to look after such a treasure ! ' ' Ah/ said I, not attend- 
 ing to him, as I heard a stir on deck, ' there we go at last, 
 cluing up the topsails, I suppose.' 'Seriously, now,' continued 
 Mr Rollock, ' I can not fathom that vessel and her designs ; 
 but I bless my stars at getting clear off from the company 
 of that tall Frenchman with his moustache can't bear a 
 moustache, Collins always reminds me of those cursed 
 Mahrattas that burnt my factory once. Couldn't the man 
 shave like a Christian, I wonder ? I defy you to enjoy mulli- 
 gatawny soup and not make a beast of yourself, with ever so 
 much hair over your mouth. By-the-way, Collins/ added he, 
 eyeing me, ' since I saw you last, you 've let your whiskers 
 grow, and look more like one of your nauticals than Ford 
 himself ! should scarce have known you ! Any of it owing 
 to the fair one up yonder, eh ? ' And the jolly old chap, 
 whose own huge white whiskers gave him the cut of a royal 
 Bengal tiger, pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to- 
 wards the round-house above, with a wink of his funny round 
 eye, that looked at you like a bird's. ' What do you suppose . 
 the Frenchman to be then, sir ? ' asked I, gloomily. ' Oh, 
 either a madman, a spy, or something worse ! Just guess 
 what he asked me suddenly one morning why, if I weren't 
 a distinguished savant, and wouldn't like to study the botany 
 of some island! "No, monsieur, not at all," replied I, in 
 fearfully bad French. "The geology, then?" persisted he, 
 with a curious gleam in his fierce black eyes "does the 
 research of monsieur lie in that direction?" "Why, no," I
 
 A SEA STORY 265 
 
 answered, carelessly, "I don't care a sacrd about stones, or 
 anything of the kind, indeed ; indigo is my particular line, 
 which may be called botany, in a way I 'm perhaps pre- 
 judiced in favour of it, monsieur! " The Frenchman leant 
 his tufted chin on his hand,' continued Mr Rollock, 'medi- 
 tated a bit, then glanced at me again, as if he didn't care 
 though I were studying seaweed in the depths of the ocean 
 rolling round us, and stalked downstairs. Then he took to 
 Mrs Brady again, and lastly to the Yankee, whose conversa- 
 tions with him, I fancy, had a twang of both commerce and 
 politics.' 'What do you think of it all, Mr Rollock?' in- 
 quired I, rather listlessly. ' It didn't strike me at the time,' 
 said the planter, 'but now I just ask you, Collins, if there 
 ain't a certain great personage studying geology at present in 
 a certain island, not very far away, I suppose, where there 's 
 plenty of it, and deuced little botany, too, I imagine ? ' To 
 this question of the old gentleman's I gave nothing but a 
 half-stupid sort of stare, thinking as I was at the same time 
 of something else I cared more about. 
 
 " ' By Jupiter ! though,' cried I, on a sudden, ' instead of 
 heaving the ship to, I do believe we 've set topmast-stu'n- 
 sails, judging from the way she pitches into the water ; 
 there 's the brig nearing the wind a point or two in chase, 
 too ; why, the fellow that has charge of the deck must be 
 mad, sir ! ' Next minute the fire out of one of her bow- 
 chasers flashed out behind the blue back of a swell, and the 
 sudden thud of it came rolling down to leeward over the space 
 betwixt us, angrily, so to speak ; as the brig's fore-course 
 mounted with a wave, the sun shining clear on the seams and 
 reef-points, till you caught sight of the anchor hanging from 
 one bow, and the men running in her lee stun'sail-booms 
 upon the yard-arms. The planter and I went on deck at 
 once, where we found a fine breeze blowing, far out of sight 
 of land, the Indiaman rushing ahead stately enough ; while 
 our young fourth officer appeared to have just woke up, and 
 the watch were still rubbing their eyes, as if every man had 
 been ' caulking it,' after last night's work. Even Mr Finch, 
 when he came hastily up, seemed rather doubtful what to do, 
 till the salt old third-mate assured him the brig was a British 
 sloop-of-war, as anyone acccustomed to reckoning sticks and 
 canvas at sea could tell by this time ; upon which our topsails
 
 266 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 were clued up, stu'nsails boom-ended, and the ship hove into 
 the wind to wait for the brig. 
 
 "When the brig's mainyard swung aback within fifty 
 fathoms of our weather-quarter, hailing us as she brought to, 
 I had plenty to think of, for my part. There she was, as 
 square-countered and flat-breasted a ten-gun model as ever 
 ran her nose under salt water, or turned the turtle in a 
 Bahama squall ; though pleasant enough she looked, dipping 
 as we rose, and prancing up opposite us again with a curtsey, 
 the brine dripping from her bright copper sheathing, the 
 epaulets and gold bands glancing above her black bulwarks, 
 topped by the white hammock-cloth; marines in her waist, 
 the men clustering forward to see us, and squinting sharp up 
 at our top-hamper. It made one ashamed, to take in the 
 taut, lightsome set her spars had, tall and white, with a rake 
 in them, and every rope running clean to its place ; not a 
 spot about her, hull or rig, but all English and ship-shape, to 
 the very gather of her courses and topgallant-sails in the lines, 
 and the snowy hollow her two broad topsails made for the 
 wind, as they brought it in betwixt them to keep her steady 
 on the spot. 
 
 " ' His Britannic Majesty's sloop Podargus I ' came back in 
 exchange for our mate's answer ; and though 'twas curious to 
 me to think of meeting the uniform again in five minutes, I 
 saw plainly this was one of the nice points that Westwood 
 and I might have to weather. Your brig-cruisers are the 
 very sharpest fellows alive, so far as regards boarding a 
 merchant craft ; if they find the least smell of a rat, they '11 
 overhaul your hold to the very dunnage about the keelson ; 
 and I knew that, if they made out Westwood, they 'd be sure 
 to have me too ; so you may fancy that, during the short time 
 her boat took to drop and pull under our quarter, I was 
 making up my mind as to the course. In fact, I was almost 
 resolved to leave the ship at any rate, feeling as I did after 
 what I 'd heard ; but while most of the passengers were 
 running about and calling below for their shoes and what not, 
 the judge and his daughter came out of the round-house, and 
 I caught a single glance from her for a moment, as she turned 
 to look at the brig, that held me at the instant like an anchor 
 in a strong tideway. 
 
 " I kept my breath as the lieutenant's hand laid hold of
 
 A SEA STORY 267 
 
 the man-rope at the head of the side-ladder, expecting his 
 first question ; while he swung himself actively on deck, 
 looking round for a second, and followed by another ; the 
 wide-awake looking young middy in the boat folding his 
 arms, and squinting up sideways at the ladies with an air as 
 knowing as if he 'd lived fifty years in the world, instead of 
 perhaps thirteen. 
 
 "The younger of the lieutenants took off his cap most 
 politely, eyeing the fair passengers with as much respect as 
 he gave cool indifference to the cadets ; the other, who was a 
 careful-like working first-luff, said directly to Mr Finch, ' Well, 
 sir, you seem inclined to lead us a bit of a chase ; but I don't 
 think,' added he, smiling from the Indiaman to the brig, 
 1 you 'd have cost us much trouble after all ! ' Here Finch 
 hurried out his explanation, in a half-sulky way, when the 
 naval man cut him short by saying that ' Captain Wallis 
 desired to know ' if we had touched at St Helena. ' May I 
 ask, sir,' went on the officer, finding we had preferred the 
 Cape, ' if you command this vessel or is the master not on 
 deck Captain Captain Wilson, I think you said ? ' The 
 mate said something in a lower voice, and the lieutenant 
 bared his head more respectfully than before, seeing the 
 Company's ensign, which had been lowered half-apeak while 
 the boat was under our side ; after which Finch drew him to 
 the capstan, telling him, as I guessed, the whole affair of the 
 schooner, by way of a great exploit, with hints of her being a 
 pirate or such-like. 
 
 " The brig's officer, however, was evidently too busy a man, 
 and seemingly in too great a hurry to get back, for listening 
 much to such a rigmarole, as he no doubt thought it ; they 
 had been at the Cape, and were bound for St Helena again 
 where she was one of the cruisers on guard ; so that what 
 with Finch's story, and what with the crowd round the 
 second lieutenant, all anxious to get the news, I saw it 
 wouldn't cost Westwood and me great pains to keep clear 
 of notice. 
 
 " There were some riots in London, and three men hanged 
 for a horrid murder, the Duke of Northumberland's death, 
 not to speak of a child born with two heads, or something 
 all since we left England. Then there \vas Lord Exmouth 
 come home from Algiers ; and Fort Hattrass, I think it was,
 
 268 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 taken in India, which made every cadet prick up his ears ; 
 Admiral Plampin was arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, 
 too, in the Conqueror, seventy-four, and on his way steering 
 for St Helena, to take Sir Pulteney Malcolm's place. All 
 of a sudden, I heard the young luff begin to mention a 
 captain of a frigate's having been shot two months ago, by 
 his own first lieutenant, on Southsea beach, and the lieutenant 
 being supposed to have gone off in some outward-bound ship. 
 ' By-the-by/ said the officer to Mr Rollock, ' you must have 
 left about that time did you touch at Portsmouth ? ' ' Why, 
 yes,' answered the planter, ' we did. What were the parties' 
 names ? ' I edged over to Westwood near the head of the 
 companion, and whispered to him to go below to our berth, 
 in case of their happening to attend to us more particularly ; 
 and the farther apart we two kept the better, I thought. 
 The officer at once gave Captain Duncombe's name, but didn't 
 remember the other ; on which he turned to his first lieutenant 
 with, ' I say, Mr Aldridge, d' you recollect the man's name 
 that shot the captain of the N 1 Oreste, as they called her ? ' 
 ' What, that bad business ? ' said the other ; ' no, Mr Moore, 
 I really don't I hope he 's far enough off by this time ! ' My 
 breath came again at this, for it had just come into my mind 
 that Finch, who was close by, had got hold of the name, 
 although he fancied it mine. 
 
 " I was sauntering down the stair, thinking how much may 
 hang at times on a man's good memory, when I heard the 
 first lieutenant say, ' By-the-by, though, now I recollect, 
 wasn't it Westwood ? ' ' Yes, yes, Westwood it was ! ' said 
 the other. Then came an exclamation from Finch, and 
 shortly after he and the first lieutenant stepped down to- 
 gether, talking privately of the matter, I suppose, to the 
 cuddy, where I had gone myself. The lieutenant looked up 
 at me seriously once or twice, then went on deck, and a few 
 minutes afterwards the brig's boat was pulling towards her 
 again, while the passengers flocked below to breakfast. I 
 saw the thing was settled ; the mate conld scarcely keep in 
 his triumph, as he eyed me betwixt surprise and dislike, 
 though rather more respectfully than before. As for West- 
 wood, he sat down with the rest, quite ignorant of what had 
 turned up ; notwithstanding he threw an uneasy look or two 
 through the cuddy port at the brig, still curveting to wind-
 
 A SEA STORY 269 
 
 ward of us, with her main-yard aback ; for my part, I made up 
 my mind, in the meanwhile, to bear the brunt of it. 
 
 " 'Twas no matter to me now where I went ; whereas, with 
 Westwood, it was but a toss-up betwixt a rope and a prison, 
 if they sent him back to England. No fear of my being tried 
 in his place, of course ; but if there had been, why, to get 
 away both from him and her, I 'd have to run the chance ! 
 There was a bitter sort of a pleasure, even, in the thought of 
 taking oneself out of the way to some purpose, too, if I 
 saved a fellow like my old schoolmate from a court-martial 
 sentence, and a man far worthier to win the heart of such a 
 creature than myself: while the worst of it was, I was afraid 
 I 'd have come to hate Tom Westwood if we had stayed near 
 each other much longer. 
 
 " Accordingly, I no sooner heard the dip of the gig's oars 
 coming alongside again, than one of the stewards brought me 
 a quiet message from Mr Finch, that he wanted to see me 
 on deck ; upon which I rose off my chair just as quietly, and 
 walked up the companion. The fact was as the fellow could 
 scarce have ventured to look his passengers in the face again 
 after a low piece of work like this 'twas his cue to keep all 
 underhand, and probably lay it to the score of my actions 
 aboard, or something ; however, he couldn't throw any dust 
 of the kind in the second lieutenant's eyes, who gave him a 
 cold glance as he stepped on deck, and, picking me out at 
 once where I stood, inquired if I were the person. The first 
 mate nodded, whereupon the brig's officer walked towards 
 me, with a gentlemanly enough bow, and, ' I regret to have 
 to state, sir,' said he, ' that Captain Wallis desires to see you, 
 particularly, aboard the brig.' ' Indeed, sir,' answered I, 
 showing very little surprise, I daresay, gloomy as I felt ; ' then 
 the sooner the better, I suppose.' 'Why, yes/ said the 
 lieutenant, seemingly confused lest he should meet my eye, 
 ' we 're anxious to make use of this breeze, you you know, 
 sir.' ( Hadn't Mr Collins this gentleman better take his 
 traps with him, Lieutenant Moore ? ' said Finch, free and 
 easy wise. ' No, sir,' said the young officer sternly, ' we can 
 spare time to send for them, if necessary ; of course you will 
 keep the Indiaman in the wind, sir, till the brig squares her 
 maiiiyard.' I gave Finch a single look of sheer contempt, 
 and swung myself down by the man-ropes from the gangway
 
 270 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 into the boat ; the lieutenant followed me, and next minute 
 we were pulling for the brig's quarter. The moment I found 
 myself out of the Seringapatam, however, my heart nigh-hand 
 failed me, more especially at sight of the quarter-gallery 
 window I had seen the light from, on the smooth of the swell, 
 that first night we got to sea. I even began to think if there 
 weren't some way of passing myself clear off, without hauling 
 in Westwood ; but it wouldn't do. Before I well knew, we 
 were on board, and the lieutenant showing me down the 
 after-hatchway to the captain's cabin. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 " ' I ^HE captain was sitting with one foot upon the carronade 
 *- in his outer-cabin, looking through the port at the 
 heavy Indiaman, as she slued about and plunged in the blue 
 surge, with all sorts of ugly ropes hanging from her bows, dirty 
 pairs of trousers towing clear of the water when she lifted, and 
 rusty stains at her hawse-holes. A stout-built, hard-featured 
 man he was, with bushy black eyebrows, and grizzled black 
 hair and whiskers, not to speak of a queer, anxious, uneasy 
 look in the keen of his eyes when he turned to me. However, 
 he got half up on my coming in, and I saw he was lame a 
 little of one foot, while he overhauled me all over with his eye. 
 ' I 'm sorry to have to send for you in this way, sir,' said he, 
 rather surprised at my rig, apparently 'very sorry, sir, and 
 no more about it ; but I can't help it, confound me must 
 do my duty.' ' Certainly, sir,' I said. ' In fact,' said Captain 
 Wallis, ' the Admiral ordered us to see after you him, that 's 
 to say at the Cape, you know.' ' Ay, ay, sir,' said I, watching 
 the Indiaman's poop-nettings through the port over his head, 
 as he sat down. ' Pooh, pooh,' continued he, ' you can't be 
 the man just say you don't belong to the service confound 
 it, I '11 pass you ! ' ' Why, sir,' said I, ' I can't exactly say 
 that.' ' I hear you 're Westwood of the Orestes, though,' said 
 he ; ' now I don't ask you to say no, sir ; but everybody knew 
 the Orestes, and I don't like the thing, I must say : so perhaps 
 you're able to swear he is not aboard the Indiaman just now, 
 you know, sir -just now, eh ? '
 
 A SEA STORY 271 
 
 "This tack of his rather dumfoundered me, seeing the 
 captain of the brig meant it well ; but deuced unlucky kind- 
 ness it was, since I couldn't swear to the very thing he fancied 
 so safe, and his glance was as quick as lightning, so he caught 
 the sense of my blank look in a moment as I fancied, at least. 
 'The fact is, sir,' added he, ' the surgeon told me just now he 
 knows Lieutenant Westwood well enough by sight so they 
 locked him up ! You see we could have made you out at any 
 rate, sir however, we'll let the doctor stay till we 're clear of 
 the Indiaman, I think.' ' Then you take me for the gentleman 
 you speak of, Captain Wallis ? ' asked I, faintly ; for at the 
 same moment I could see a light-coloured dress and a white 
 ribbon fluttering on the Seringapatam s poop, the look of 
 which sent the blood about my heart. 'Twas hard to settle 
 betwixt a feeling of the kind, and fear for Westwood; it struck 
 me Captain Wallis wasn't very eager in the affair, and 'twas 
 on my lips to assure him I wasn't the man. ' Hark'ee,' broke 
 in he, with almost a wink, and a smile ready to break out on 
 his mouth, ' the short and the long of it is, I '11 take you ! 
 We must have somebody to show in the case ; though now I 
 remember, there was someone else said to 've gone off with 
 you but we won't trouble him \ If we 've brought away the 
 wrong man, why, hang it, so much the better ! If you 're 
 Westwood, I can tell you, they '11 run ye up to a yardarm, sir ! 
 Much more comfortable than ten years or so in a jail, too, as 
 as no one knows better than / do myself.' 
 
 " Here the captain's face darkened, his eye gleamed, and 
 he rose with a limp to ring a hand-bell on the table. 'White,' 
 said he to the marine that put his head in at the door, with 
 his hand up to it, 'desire the first lieutenant, from me, to send 
 a boat aboard for this gentleman's things.' ' I 'm afraid, sir,' 
 continued he gravely to me, ' you '11 have to reckon yourself 
 under arrest but you '11 find the gentlemen in the gun-room 
 good company, I hope, for a day or two, till we make St 
 Helena.' I saw the captain's mind was made up, and for the 
 life of me I didn't know what to say against it ; but speak I 
 could not, so with a stiff bow and a sick sort of a smile I 
 turned out of the door, and walked along to the gun-room, 
 which was empty. I could see the boat soon after under the 
 ship's side, dipping and rising as they handed down my 
 couple of portmanteaus to the man-o' -war's men ; the young
 
 272 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 reefer came down again as nimble as a monkey, with some 
 letters in his hand, took off his cap to some ladies above, 
 and sang out to give way ; five or six flashing feathers of the 
 oars in the sunlight, and they were coming round the brig's 
 stern. 
 
 "The brig was just squaring away her main-yard at the 
 whistle from the boatswain's mates, when the whole run of 
 the Indiaman's bulwarks was crowded with the passengers' 
 and men's faces, watching the brig gather way to pass 
 ahead ; I could hear the officers on deck hail the India mates, 
 wishing them a good voyage, the ladies bowing and waving 
 their handkerchiefs to the British Union-Jack. Some sort of 
 confusion seemed to get up, however, about the ship's taffrail, 
 where Rollock, Ford, and some others were standing together; 
 the planter jumped up all at once on the quarter-mouldings 
 nearest the brig, then jumped down again, and his straw hat 
 could be seen hurrying towards the quarterdeck. 
 
 " Next I caught a bright glimpse of Violet Hyde's face, as 
 the sun shot on it free of the awnings her eyes wandering 
 with the brig's motion, I fancied, along the deck above me, 
 till suddenly she seemed to start, and Westwood appeared 
 behind her. The next thing I saw was the black-faced figure- 
 head of the Seringapatam rising below her bowsprit, about 
 sixty yards from the gun-room port where I was, and down 
 she went again with a heavy plash, as Tom Westwood himself 
 leapt up between the knight-heads at the bow, hailing the 
 brig's deck with a voice like a trumpet. 'Ahoy! the Podargus 
 ahoy ! For mercy's sake, heave to again, sir ! ' he sung out. 
 ' I 'm the man you want ! ' ' The Indiaman ahoy ! ' I heard 
 Captain Wallis himself hail back. ( What d' ye say ? ' The 
 creak of our yards, with the flap of the jib, and the men's feet, 
 drowned W T estwood's second hail, as it came sharp up to 
 windward ; the sailors in the Indiaman's bows were grinning 
 at him behind, while the first lieutenant of the brig shouted 
 gruffly that she had no time to wait for more letters ; and I 
 heard the gun-room steward say to the marine, on going out 
 with the dirty breakfast-cloth, he wondered if * that parson 
 cove thought the Pedarkis wanted a chapling,' or was only 
 *vun of these fellers that's so troublesome to see the French 
 Hemperor.' 
 
 " ' Well,' said the marine, ' 'twas pretty queer if he took
 
 A SEA STORY 273 
 
 the Pedarkis for the ship to carry him there. I don't think 
 the captain would let a rat into the island if he could help 
 it.' 'Not he/ said the steward; 'plenty on 'em in already, Vite, 
 my man I do think they used to swim off on board here, by 
 the way our cheese vent.' All this time I never stirred from 
 the port, watching with my chin on the muzzle of the gun till 
 the Indiaman was half-a-mile to windward of us, her big hull 
 still rising and falling on the same swells, topped with clusters 
 of heads ; her topsails lowered in honour of the flag, the 
 ensign blowing out half-mast high for the death of Captain 
 Williamson ; a long wash of the water ran outside the brig's 
 timbers, surge after surge, and the plunge at her bows showed 
 how fast she began to run nor' -westward before the wind. 
 You may well fancy my state, after all I 'd done for weeks ; 
 in fact, one scarce knew the extent of what he 'd felt, what 
 he'd looked forward to, till he found himself fairly adrift from 
 it ; 'twould even have been nothing, after all, could I just have 
 thought of Violet Hyde as I'd done two hours ago, on waking 
 with last night in the river on my mind. 
 
 " As it was, 'twould have taken little to make me jump out 
 of the port into the sweep of blue water swelling toward the 
 brig's counter ; the Seringapatam being by this time astern. 
 I couldn't even see her, or aught save the horizon, to wind- 
 ward ; but at this moment the young second lieutenant came 
 below, and, seeing me, he began in a polite enough way, with 
 a kindly manner about it, trying to raise my spirits. ' I suppose, 
 sir,' said I, rather sulkily I daresay, ' I can have a berth just 
 now ? ' ( Oh, certainly,' said he, ' the steward has orders to 
 see to it at once. Will you come on deck a minute or two in 
 the meantime, sir ? ' 
 
 "I looked back from the ship astern to the brig-of-war's 
 clean white decks, flush fore and aft, with the men all forward 
 at their stations, neatly dressed in regular man-o'-war style, 
 everyone alike a sight that would have done me good at 
 another time, small as she was by comparison ; but the very 
 thought of the Indiaman's lumbering poop and galleries was 
 too much for me 'twas as if you 'd knocked out those two 
 round-house doors of hers, and let in a gush of bare sky in- 
 stead. The ship-shape man-o'-war cut of things was nothing, 
 I fancied, to the snug spot under those top-gallant bulwarks 
 of hers, and the breezy poop all a-flutter with muslin of
 
 274 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 an evening, where you found books and little basket affairs 
 stuck into the coils of rope. I thought the old Seringapatam 
 never looked so well, as she commenced trimming sail on a 
 wind, beginning to go drive ahead, with a white foam at her 
 bows, and her whole length broadside-on to us. All at once 
 we saw her clue up courses and to'-gallant sails, till she was 
 standing slowly off under the three top-sails and jib ; the two 
 lieutenants couldn't understand what she was about, and the 
 captain put the glass to his eye, after which he said something 
 to the second lieutenant, who went forward directly. 
 
 " The next thing I saw was the Indiaman coming up in the 
 wind again for about a minute ; she had her stern nearly to 
 us, when the moment after, as she rose upon a long sea, you 
 saw something flash white off her lee gangway in the sunlight, 
 that dropped against it into the hollow of a wave. The next 
 minute she fell off again with her topsails full, and the first 
 shower of spray was rising across her forefoot, when the flash 
 of a gun broke out of her side, and the sound came down to 
 us ; then a second and a third. The brig gave her the same 
 number in answer, and as soon as the smoke betwixt us had 
 cleared away, the ship could be seen under full sail to the 
 south-westward by west. ' That 's her poor skipper's hammock 
 dropped alongside, gentlemen,' said Captain Wallis to his 
 officers; ' God be with him.' 'Amen,' said the first lieutenant, 
 and we put our caps on again. ' Set stu'nsails, Mr Aldridge,' 
 said the captain, limping down the hatchway ; as for me, I 
 leant I don't know how long over the brig's taffrail, watching 
 the ship's canvas grow in one, through the width of air be- 
 twixt us ; my heart full, as may be supposed, not to say what 
 notions came into my head of what might happen to her 
 under Finch's charge, ere she reached Bombay. No one 
 belonging to the brig spoke to me, out of kindness, no doubt; 
 and the ship was hull-down on the horizon, to my fancy with 
 somewhat of a figure like hers, when she stood with the 
 cashmere shawl over her head in the dusk. Then I went 
 gloomily down to my berth, where I kept close by myself till 
 I fell asleep, though the gun-room steward was sent to me 
 more than once to join the officers. 
 
 " It wasn't till the next day, in fact, when I went on the 
 quarterdeck at noon, wearied for a fresher gulp of air, that 
 I saw any of them ; and the breeze having fallen lighter that
 
 A SEA STORY 275 
 
 morning, they were too busy trimming sail and humouring 
 her to give me much notice. I must say I had seldom seen 
 a commander seem more impatient about the sailing of his 
 craft, in time of peace, than the captain of the Podargus 
 appeared to be ; walking the starboard side as fast as the halt 
 in his gait would let him, and the anxious turn of his eyes 
 plainer than before, while he looked from the brig's spread of 
 stu'nsails to the horizon, through the glass, which, I may say, 
 he never once laid down. From where the brig spoke the 
 Indiaman, to St Helena, would be about two or three days' 
 sail with a fair wind, at the ordinary strength of the south- 
 east trade ; though, at this rate, it might cost us twice the 
 time. I noticed the men on the forecastle look to each other 
 now and then knowingly, at some fresh sign of the captain's 
 impatience ; and the second lieutenant told me in a low voice, 
 with his head over the side near mine, Captain Wallis had 
 been out of sorts ever since they lost sight of the island. 
 ' You 'd suppose, sir,' said he, laughing, ' that old Nap was his 
 sweetheart, by the way he watches over him ; and now, I 
 fancy, he 's afraid St Helena may be sunk in blue water while 
 we were away ! In fact, Mr Westwood/ added he, ' it looks 
 devilish like as if it had come up from Davy Jones, all 
 standing ; so I don't see why it shouldn't go down to him 
 again some day ; I can tell you it 's tiresome work cruising to 
 windward there, though, and we aren't idle at all ! ' 
 
 " ' Did you ever see the French Emperor yourself, sir ? ' 
 asked I for I must say the thought of nearing the prison 
 such a man was in made me a little curious. ' Never, sir, 
 except at a mile's distance,' said the second lieutenant ; ' in- 
 deed, it 's hard to get a pass, unless you know the governor. 
 But I 've a notion,' continued he, ' the governor's carefulness 
 is nothing to our skipper's ! Indeed, they tell a queer story 
 of how Sir Hudson Lowe was gulled for months together, 
 when he was governor of Capri island, in the Mediterranean. 
 As for the captain, again, you 'd seek a long time ere you 
 found a better seaman he 's as wide awake, too, as Nelson 
 himself; while the curious thing is, I believe, he never once 
 clapped eyes on Bonaparte in his life ! But good cause he has 
 to hate him, you know, Mr Westwood ! ' ' Indeed,' said I, 
 taking a moment's interest in the thing; and I was just going 
 to ask the reason, when the first lieutenant came over to say
 
 276 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Captain Wallis would be glad if I would dine with him in the 
 cabin. 
 
 " At dinner-time, accordingly, I put on a coat, for the first 
 time, less like those the cadets in the Seringapatam wore, and 
 went aft, where I found the first lieutenant and a midshipman 
 with the captain. He did his best to soften my case, as I saw 
 by his whole manner during dinner ; after which, no sooner 
 had the reefer had his one glass of wine, than he was sent 
 on deck to look out to windward. 'Well, sir,' said Captain 
 Wallis thereupon, turning from his first luff to me, ' I 'm sorry 
 for this disagreeable business ! I believe you deny being the 
 person at all, though ? ' * Why, sir,' said I, ' I am certainly no 
 more the first lieutenant of the Orestes than yourself, Captain 
 Wallis ! 'Twas all owing to a mistake of that India mate, who 
 owed me a grudge.' f Oh, oh, I see ! ' replied he, beginning 
 to smile, 'the whole matter's as plain as a handspike, Mr 
 Aldridge ! But I couldn't do less, on the information.' ' How- 
 ever, sir,' put in the first lieutenant, 'there's no doubt the 
 real man must have been in the ship, or the mistake could not 
 have happened, sir ! ' ' Well you look at things too square, 
 Aldridge/ said the captain. ' All you 've got to do, I hope, 
 sir, is just to prove you 're not Westwood ; and if you want 
 still to go out to the East Indies, why, I daresay you won't be 
 long of finding some outward-bound ship or other off James- 
 town. Only, I 'd advise you, sir, to have your case over with 
 Sir Pulteney, before Admiral Plampin comes in as I fear he 
 would send you to England.' ' It matters little to me, sir,' I 
 answered ; f seeing the reason I had for going out happens to 
 be done with.' Here I couldn't help the blood rising in my 
 face ; while Captain Wallis's steady eye turned off me, and I 
 heard him say in a lower key to the lieutenant, he didn't 
 think it was a matter for a court-martial at all. ' Pooh, 
 Aldridge ! ' said he, ' some pretty girl amongst the passengers 
 in the case, I wager ! ' ' Why,' returned Aldridge, carelessly, 
 'I heard Mr Moore say some of the ladies were pretty enough, 
 especially one some India judge or other's young daughter 
 I believe he was in raptures about, sir.' This sort of thing, as 
 you may suppose, was like touching one on the raw with a 
 marling-spike ; when the captain asked me partly to smooth 
 it over, maybe ' By-the-by, sir, Mr Aldridge tells me there 
 was something about a pirate schooner, or slaver, or some
 
 A SEA STORY 277 
 
 craft of the kind, that frightened your mates that 's all stuff, 
 I daresay but what I want to know is, in what quarter you 
 lost sight of her, if you recollect ? ' 'About nor'-west by north 
 from where we were at the time, sir,' said I. ' A fast-looking 
 craft was she ? ' asked he. ' A thorough-built smooth-going 
 clipper, if ever there was one,' I said. At this the captain 
 mused for a little, till at last he said to his lieutenant : ' They 
 daren't risk it ; I don't think there 's the Frenchman born, 
 man enough to try such a thing by water, Aldridge ? ' ' Help 
 him out, you mean, sir ? ' said the luff; ' why, if he ever got as 
 far as the water's edge, I 'd believe in witchcraft, sir!' ' Give 
 a man time, Mr Aldridge,' answered the captain, ' and he '11 
 get out of anything where soldiers are concerned every year 
 he 's boxed up sharpens him till his very mind turns like a 
 knife, man ! It makes one mad on every point besides, I tell 
 you, sir whereas after he 's free, perhaps, it 's just on that 
 only his brain has a twist in it ! ' ' No doubt, Captain Wallis,' 
 said Aldridge, glancing over to me, as his commander got 
 up and began walking about the cabin, spite of his halt. 
 e D' ye know,' continued he, ' I 've thought at times what I 
 should like best would be to have him ahead of the brig, in 
 some craft or other, and we hard in chase I 'd go after that 
 man to the North Pole, sir, and bring him back ! Without 
 once going aboard to know he was there, I 'd send word it 
 was Jack Wallis had him in tow ! ' ' What is Bonaparte 
 like, then, after all, sir?' I asked, just to fill up the break. 
 ' I never saw him, nor he me,' replied Captain Wallis, stop- 
 ping in his walk ; ' but eveiy day he may have a sight of 
 the brig cruising to windward ; and as for the island, 
 we see plenty of it, I think, Aldridge ? ' ' Ay, ay, sir,' 
 said Aldridge, ' that we do ! For my part, I can't get the 
 ugly stone steeples of it out of my head ! ' 'Well,' continued 
 the captain, ' at times, when we 're beating round St Helena 
 of a night, I '11 be hanged if I haven't thought it began to 
 loom as if the French Emperor stood on the top of it, like a 
 shadow looking out to sea the other way and I 've gone 
 below lest he 'd turn round till I saw his face. I 've a notion 
 Mr Aldridge, if I once saw his face, I 'd lose what I feel against 
 him, just as I used always to fancy, the first five years in the 
 Temple, if he were only to see me, he would let me out ! But 
 they say he 's got a wonderful way of coming over everyone,
 
 278 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 if he likes ! ' After this, Captain Wallis sat down and passed 
 the decanters, the first lieutenant observing, he supposed 
 Bonaparte was a great man in his way, but nothing to Nelson. 
 ' Don't tack them together, Aldridge ! ' said his commander 
 quickly ; ' Nelson was a man all over, he 'd got the feelings 
 of a man and his faults ; but I call him, yonder, a perfect 
 demon let loose upon the world ! To my mind all the 
 blood those republicans shed, with their murdered king's at 
 bottom of it, got somehow into him, till he thought no more 
 of human beings, or aught concerning 'em, than I do of so 
 many cockroaches ! But the terrible thing was, sir, his in- 
 fernal schemes, and his cunning : why, he 'd twist you one 
 country against another, and get hold of both, like a man 
 bending stu'nsail halliards ; there were men grew up round 
 him quick as mushrooms, fit to carry out everything he 
 wanted ; so one couldn't wonder at him enough, Mr Aldridge, 
 if it was only natural ! I can't tell you anything like what I 
 felt/ he went on, 'when I was in Sir Sydney Smith's ship, 
 cruising down Channel, and we used to see the gun-boats and 
 flat-bottoms he got together for crossing the straits ; or one 
 night with poor Captain Wright, that we stood in near enough 
 to get a shot sent at us off the heights the whole shore about 
 Boulogne was one twinkle of lights and camp-fires, and you 
 heard the sound of the hammers on planks and iron, with 
 the carts and gun-carriages creaking not to speak of a hum 
 from soldiers enough, you 'd have thought, to eat Old England 
 up ! And where are they now ? ' 'I don't know, sir, indeed,' 
 said the first lieutenant gravely, supposing by the captain's 
 look, no doubt, that it was a question. ' What, Captain 
 Wallis ! ' exclaimed I, ' were you with Captain Wright, then, 
 sir ? ' Of course, like everyone in the service, I had heard 
 Captain Wright's story often, with ever so many versions ; 
 there was a mystery about his sad fate that made me curious 
 to hear more of what gave the whole navy, I may say, a 
 hatred to Bonaparte not at all the same you regard a fair 
 enemy with. 
 
 " ' With him, say you, sir ? ' repeated the captain of the 
 Podargus, ' ay was I ! I was his first lieutenant, and good 
 cause I had to feel for the end he came to, as I '11 let you 
 hear. One night Captain Wright went ashore, as he VI often 
 done, into the town of Beville, dressed like a smuggler ; for
 
 A SEA STORY 279 
 
 the fact was the French winked at smuggling, only I must 
 say rve used to land men instead of goods. I didn't like the 
 thing that night, and advised him not to go, as they 'd begun 
 to suspect something of late ! However, the captain by that 
 time was foolhardy, owing to having run so many risks, and 
 he was bent on going in before we left the coast ; though, 
 after all, I believe it was only to get a letter that any fisher- 
 man could have brought off. The boat was lying off and on 
 behind a rocky point, and we waited and waited, hearing 
 nothing but the sound of the tide making about the big weedy 
 stones, in the shadow from the lights of the town ; when at 
 last the French landlord of the little tavern he put up at came 
 down upon the shingle and whistled to us. He gave me a 
 message from Captain Wright, with the private word we had 
 between us, saying he wanted me to come up to the town on 
 a particular business. Accordingly I told the men to shove 
 out again, and away I went with the fellow. 
 
 "'No sooner did I open the door of the room, however, 
 than three or four gendarmes had hold of me, and I was a 
 prisoner : as for Captain Wright, I never saw him more. 
 The morning broke as they brought me up on horseback 
 in the middle of them, along the road to Paris, from 
 whence I could make out the cutter heeling to the breeze 
 a mile or two off the land, with two or three gunboats hard 
 in chase. 
 
 " ' Well, sir, at Paris they clapped me into a long gloomy- 
 like piece of masonwork called the Temple, close alongside of 
 the river, where plenty of our countrymen were ; Captain 
 Wright and Sir Sydney Smith himself among the rest, as I 
 found out afterwards. The treatment wasn't so bad at first ; 
 but when you climbed up to the windows, there was nothing 
 to be seen but the top of a wall and roofs of houses all round, 
 save where you 'd a glimpse of the dirty river and some pig- 
 trough of a boat. One day I got a letter from Captain Wright 
 how they let me have it I don't well know saying he was 
 allowed a good deal of comfort in the meantime, but he 
 suspected some devilish scheme in it, to make him betray the 
 British Government, or something of the kind ; that he 'd 
 heard one of the French royalist generals had choked himself 
 in his prison, but never to believe he 'd do the same thing, 
 though every night he woke up thinking he heard the key
 
 280 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 turn in the door. The next thing I heard of was that Captain 
 Wright had made away with himself, sir ! ' 
 
 " Here Captain Wallis got up again, walking across the 
 cabin, seemingly much moved. ' Well, after that I slept with 
 the dinner-knife in my breast, till the jailer took it away ; for 
 I thought at the time that poor Wright had been murdered, 
 though I found cause to change my mind when I knew what 
 loneliness does with a man, not to speak of the notion being 
 put before him to take his own life. For a while, too, Captain 
 Shaw was in the same cell ; by which time we had such bad 
 food, and so little of it, that one day when a pigeon lighted 
 on the window, which used to come there for a crumb or two 
 every afternoon, right along with the gold gleam of the sun 
 as it shot over the dark houses to that window, I jumped up 
 and caught it. Shaw and I actually tore it in bits, and ate it 
 raw on the spot ; though 'twas long ere I could get rid of the 
 notion of the poor bird fluttering and cooing against the bars, 
 and looking at me with its round little soft eye as it pecked 
 off the slab. But what was that to the thought of my old 
 father that had hurt himself to keep me in the navy, and me 
 able now to make his last days comfortable ? or the innocent 
 young girl I had married the moment I got my commission 
 of first lieutenant, expecting to be flush of prize-money ? It 
 even came into my head often, when I sat by myself in the 
 cell they afterwards put me into, alone, how that little blue 
 pigeon might have carried a letter to England for me ; at any 
 rate it was the only thing like a chance, or a friend, I ever 
 saw the whole time I was there ; and foolish as the notion 
 may look, why the window was too high in a smooth wall for 
 me once to reach it. 
 
 e< ' I heard all Paris humming round the thick of the stone 
 every day, and sometimes the sound of thousands of soldiers 
 tramping past below, over the next bridge, with music and 
 such like no doubt when the First Consul, as they called 
 him, went off to some campaign or other : then I 'd dream I 
 felt the deck under me in a fresh breeze at night, till the soul 
 sickened in me to wake up and find the stones as still as 
 before, and now and then hear the sentries challenging on 
 their rounds. 
 
 "'Well, one day, a fellow in a cloak, with a slouch hat 
 over his forehead, was let in to try, as I thought, if there
 
 A SEA STORY 281 
 
 was anything to be got out of me, as they tried two or three 
 times at first ; some spy he was, belonging to that police devil 
 Fouche. What did he offer me, d' ye think, after beating 
 about the bush for half-an-hour, but the command of a French 
 seventy-four under the Emperor, as he was by that time, 
 and, if I would take it, I was free ! On this I pretended 
 to be thinking of it, when the police fellow sidled near me, 
 to show a commission signed with the Emperor's name at 
 the foot. 
 
 e< ' In place of taking hold of it, however, I jumped up and 
 seized the villain's nose and chin before he saw my purpose, 
 stuffed the parchment into his mouth by way of a gag, and 
 made him dance round the cell, with his cloak over his head 
 and his sword dangling alongside of him, to keep his stern 
 clear of my foot ; till the turnkey heard the noise, and he 
 made bolt out as soon as the door was opened. You'd wonder 
 how long that small matter served me to laugh over, for my 
 spirit wasn't broken yet, you see ; but even then, in the very 
 midst of it, I would all of a sudden turn sick at heart, and sit 
 wondering when the exchange of prisoners would be made 
 that I looked for. The worst of it was, at times a horrid 
 notion would come into my head of the French seventy-four 
 being at sea at the moment, and me almost wishing they 'd 
 give me the offer over again I fancied I felt the very creak 
 of her straining in the trough of a sea, and saw the canvas of 
 her topsails over me, standing on her poop with a glass in my 
 hand, till she rose on a crest, and there were the Agamemnon s 
 lighted ports bearing down to leeward upon us, till I heard 
 Nelson's terrible voice sing out, " Give it to 'em, my lads ! " 
 when the flash of her broadside showed me his white face 
 under the cocked hat, and it came whizzing over like a thirty- 
 two-pound shot right into my breast, as I sunk to the bottom, 
 and found myself awake in the prison. 
 
 " ' I don't know how long it was after, but they moved me 
 to another berth, where a man had shot himself through the 
 head, for we actually met his body being carried along the 
 passage ; and more than that, sir, they hadn't taken the 
 trouble to wash his brains off the wall they were scattered 
 on. There I sat one day after another, watching the spot 
 marked by them tuni dry, guessing at everything that had 
 gone through them as long as he was alive in the place, till
 
 282 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 my own got perfectly stupid ; I was as helpless as a child, 
 and used to cry at other times when the jailer didn't bring 
 me my food in time. I fancied they 'd forget all about me in 
 England ; and as for time, I never counted it, except by the 
 notion I had been two or three years in. 
 
 " ' At last the turnkey got so used to me, thinking me no 
 doubt such a harmless sort of a poor man, that he would sit 
 by and talk to me, giving accounts of the Emperor's battles 
 and victories, and such matters. I must say I began to feel 
 as if he was some sort of a god upon earth there was no use 
 to strive against, just as the turnkey seemed to do, more 
 especially when I heard of Nelson's death ; so when he told 
 me one time it wouldn't do for Fouche or the Emperor to let 
 me out yet, I said nothing more. " Will the Emperor not let 
 me out now?" asked I, a long time after. " Diablel" said the 
 man, " do you think His Majesty has time to think of such 
 a poor fellow as you, among such great matters ? No, no, 
 pauvr hommef" continued he; "you're comfortable here, and 
 wouldn't know what to do if you were out ! No fear of your 
 doing as your Capitaine Ourite did, since you 've lived here so 
 long, monsieur." " How long is it now, good Pierre ? " asked 
 I, with a sigh, as he was going out at the door ; and the turn- 
 key counted on his fingers. " Ulm Austerlitz Jena," said 
 he slowly ; " oui, out I scarcely thought it so much it wants 
 only six or seven months of ten years ! " and he shut-to the 
 door. I sprang up off the bed I was sitting on, wild at the 
 thought I may say, for a day or two I was mad ten years ! 
 ten years ! and all this time where was my poor innocent 
 Mary, and the child she expected to bear when I left Exeter 
 where was my old father? But I couldn't bear to dwell on it. 
 Yes, Aldridge, by the God above, they had kept me actually 
 ten years there, in that cursed Temple while he was going on 
 all the time with his victories, and his shows, and his high- 
 flown bulletins! Yet he wasn't too high, it seems, to stoop to 
 give out, through his tools, how Wright and I had both killed 
 ourselves for fear of bringing in the British Government not 
 to offer me a seventy-four in a dungeon me, a man used to 
 wind and water, that loved a breeze at sea like life. 'Twas 
 the very devil's temptation, sir ; but I '11 tell you what, both 
 Captain Wright and myself had been with Sir Sidney Smith 
 at Acre, when he was baffled for the first time in his days thai
 
 A SEA STORY 283 
 
 was the thing, I believe from my soul, that he hated us for. 
 I had a right to be exchanged ten times over, though he 
 might have called Wright a spy ; but what was my poor wife 
 and her new-born baby, or my old father's gray hairs to him, 
 and his great ambition to make everything his own and 
 when the very thought of me in my hole at the Temple would 
 strike him in the midst of his victories, where he hadn't time, 
 forsooth, to trouble himself about a poor man like me. The 
 fact was, I could tell how he offered a British seaman, that 
 had had a finger in nettling him, the command of one of his 
 seventy-fours, which he had nobody fit to manage and that 
 in a prison where I 'd be glad even of fresh air. 
 
 " ' 'Twas then, in fact, the purpose rose firmer and firmer 
 in me, out of the fury that was like to drive me mad, how I 'd 
 get out of his clutches, and spend my life against the very 
 pitch of his power I knew so well about. Till that time I 
 used to look through the bars of the window at the Seine, 
 without ever fancying escape, low down as it was, compared 
 with my last cell. There was a mark in the stone floor 
 with my walking back and forward since they put me in ; 
 and by this time I had the cunning of a beast, let alone 
 its strength, in regard of anything I took into my head ; 
 often I used to think I saw the end of my finger, or the 
 corner of a stone, more like the way a fly sees them, than a 
 man. The turnkey, Pierre, would never let me have a 
 knife to eat my food with, lest I should do as he said all we 
 English were apt to do kill myself which, by-the-way, is a 
 lie ; and I think that fiend of an Emperor yonder must have 
 taught them to blame us with their own crime. However, 
 latterly he let me have a fork for half-an-hour at dinner ; and 
 for a quarter of an hour every day, except those when he 
 stayed to talk to me as I ate it, did I climb up and work with 
 that fork at the top and bottom of one of the window-bars, 
 taking care not to break the fork, and jumping down always 
 in time to finish the meal. It took me four whole months, 
 sir, to loosen them ! Such deadly fear as I was in, too, lest 
 he 'd find it out, or lest they moved me to another cell you 'd 
 have thought I was fond of the walls round the place, where 
 hundreds of men before me had scrawled their last words ; 
 and the one that shot himself had written, " Liberte ane- 
 antissement ! " " Liberty annihilation ! " just over where the
 
 284 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 spatter of his brains had stuck when he laid his head to the 
 spot ! If Pierre had noticed what I 'd been about, my mind 
 was made up to kill him, and then make the trial before they 
 missed him ; but that I had a horror of, after all, seeing the 
 man had taken a sort of liking to me, and I knew he had a 
 wife. 
 
 " ' Well, at last, one day I had the thing finished ; when 
 midnight came I trembled like a leaf, till I began to fear I 
 couldn't carry it through. I tore my shirt and the blanket 
 in strips, to twist into a line, got out the bar by main force, 
 squeezed through, and let myself down. The line was just 
 long enough to let me swing against the cold wall, over a 
 sentry's head going round the parapet below ; as soon as he 
 was past, I dropped on the edge of the wall, and fell along it, 
 my fingers scraping the smooth stone to no purpose, till I was 
 sliding off into the dark, with the river I didn't know how 
 far below me, though I heard it lapping against some boats 
 at the other side. 
 
 " ' For a few moments I was quite senseless from the fall 
 into the water. The splash roused the sentinels, and three 
 or four bullets whizzed into it about me, as I struck out for 
 the shore. Still the night was thick enough to help me clear 
 off among the dark lanes in the city ; and the upshot of it 
 was that I found out some royalists, who supplied me with a 
 pedlar's dress ; till, in the end, after I can't tell you how 
 many ticklish chances, where my luck hung upon a hair, I 
 reached the coast, and was taken off to a British frigate. At 
 home, sir at home, I found I 'd been given up long ago for a 
 dead man in Bonaparte's prisons, and and the old man had 
 been buried seven years, Aldridge but not so long as my 
 wife. The news of my taking my own life in the Temple 
 saved her the rest 'twas too much for her at the time, 
 Aldridge both she and her little one had lain in the mould 
 nine years, when I stood looking at the grass under Exeter 
 Cathedral. I was a young man almost, still ; but my hair was 
 as grizzled when I got out of the Temple in 1813, as you see 
 it now, and I '11 never walk the deck fairly again. Aldridge/ 
 added the captain of the Podargus, turning round and standing 
 still, with a low sort of a deep whisper, ''tis a strange thing, 
 the Almighty's way of working but I never thought in the 
 Temple yonder, longing for a heave of the water under me
 
 A SEA STORY 285 
 
 I little thought John Wallis would ever come to keep guard 
 over his Majesty, the Emperor Napoleon !' 
 
 " When Captain Wallis stopped, the long send of the sea 
 lifting the brig below us, with a wild, yearning kind of ripple 
 from her bows back to her counter, and weltering away astern 
 one felt it, I may say, somewhat like an answer to him, for 
 the breeze had begun to freshen : it had got all of a sudden 
 nearly quite dark, too, as is the case inside the tropics, without 
 the moon. ' Let 's go on deck, gentlemen,' said the captain, 
 coming to himself; 'now clap on those other topmost stu'nsails, 
 Mr Aldridge, and make her walk, sir ! ' 'No saying,' I heard 
 him mutter, as he let us go up before him 'no saying what 
 the want of the Podargus might do, off the island, these dark 
 nights with water alongside, one can't be sure. I warrant 
 me if that man's dreams came true, as mine did, he would be 
 at the head of his thousands again, ruining the whole world, 
 with men rotting out of sight in dungeons while the wind 
 blows ! Ay, dreams, young gentleman ! ' said he to me as we 
 stood on deck ; ' I '11 never get rid of that prison, in my head, 
 nor the way that dead man's brain seemed to come into mine, 
 off the wall ! But for my part, off St Helena, 'tis Napoleon 
 Bonaparte's dreams that enter into my head. If you '11 be- 
 lieve it, sir, I 've heard them as it were creeping and tingling 
 round the black heights of the island at dead of night, like 
 men in millions ready to break out in war-music, as I used to 
 hear them go over the bridge near the Temple or in shrieks 
 and groans ; we all the time forging slowly ahead, and the 
 surf breaking in at the foot of the rocks. I know then who 's 
 asleep at the time up in Longwood ! ' 
 
 "The brig-of-war was taking long sweeps and plunges 
 before the wind ; the Southern Cross right away on her 
 larboard quarter, and the very same stars spread all out aloft, 
 that I watched a couple of nights before, close by Violet 
 Hyde. The whole of what I 'd just heard was nothing to me 
 in a single minute, matched with the notion of never seeing 
 her more. Everything I 'd thought of since we left England 
 was gone, even one's heart for the service ; and what to do 
 now, I didn't know. I scarce noticed it commence to rain, 
 till a bit of a squall had come on, and they were hauling down 
 stu'nsails: the dark swells only to be seen rising with the foam 
 on them, and a heavier cover of dull cloud risen off the brig's
 
 286 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 beam, as well as ahead ; so that you merely saw her canvas lift 
 before you against the thick of the sky, and dive into it again. 
 'Twas just cleared pretty bright off the stars astern of us, how- 
 ever, wind rather lighter than before the squall, when the 
 captain thought he made out a sail near about the starboard 
 beam, where the clouds came on the water-line ; a minute or 
 two after she was plain enough in the clear, though looming 
 nearly end-on, so that one couldn't well know her rig. Think- 
 ing at first sight it might be the schooner, Captain Wallis was 
 for bracing up, to stand in chase and overhaul her; but shortly 
 after she seemed either to yaw a little, or fall off again before 
 the wind like ourselves, at any rate showing three sticks on 
 the horizon, with square canvas spread, and evidently a small 
 ship. 
 
 " ' Some homeward-bound craft meaning to touch at the 
 island,' said Captain Wallis, telling the first lieutenant to 
 keep all fast ; by which time she was lost in the dusk again, 
 and I wasn't long of going below. A fancy had got hold of 
 me for the moment, I can't deny, of its being the Seringa- 
 patam after us on Westwood's owning himself; whereupon I 
 persuaded myself Captain Wallis might perhaps take the risk 
 on him of letting us both go. For my part, I felt by this 
 time as if I 'd rather be in the same ship with her, hopeless 
 though it was, than steer this way for the other side of the 
 line ; and I went down with a chill at my heart like the air 
 about an iceberg. 
 
 " Not being asleep, however, a sudden stir on deck, an hour 
 or two after that, brought me out of my cot, to look through 
 the scuttle in the side. The brig had hauled her wind from 
 aft on to her starboard quarter, making less way than before 
 it, of course ; I heard the captain's voice near the after-hatch- 
 way, too ; so accordingly I slipped on my clothes, and went 
 quietly up. The Podargus was running through the long 
 broad swells usual thereabouts, with her head somewhere 
 toward north-east ; the officers all up, the whole of the crew 
 in both watches clustered beyond the brig's fore-course, and 
 the captain evidently roused, as well as impatient ; though 
 I couldn't at first make out the reason of her being off her 
 course. As soon as she fell off a little, however, to my great 
 horror I could see a light far ahead of us, right in the gloom 
 of the clouds, which for a moment you 'd have supposed was
 
 A SEA STORY 5287 
 
 the moon rising red and bloody, till the heave of the sea 
 betwixt us and it showed how both of us were dipping : and 
 now and then it gave a flaring glimmer fair out from the 
 breast of the fog-bank, while the breeze was sending a brown 
 puff of smoke from it now and then to leeward against the 
 clouds ; through which you made a spar or two licking up the 
 flame, and a rag of canvas fluttering across on the yard. 
 
 "'Twas neither more nor less than a ship on fire no doubt 
 the vessel seen abeam of us that evening a sight at which 
 Captain Wallis seemingly forgot his hurry to make St Helena, 
 in the eagerness shown by all aboard to save the poor fellows. 
 Suddenly there was another wild gleam from the burning 
 craft, and we thought it was over altogether, when up shot a 
 wreath of fire and smoke again, then a fierce flash with a blue 
 burst of flame, full of sparks, and all sorts of black spots and 
 broken things, as if she had blown up while she heaved the 
 last time on the swell. Everything was pitch dark next 
 minute in her place, as if a big blot of ink had come instead ; 
 the brig-of-war herself rolling with a flap of her headsails up 
 against the long heavy bank of cloud that blocked the horizon. 
 ' Keep her away, sirrah ! ' shouted Captain Wallis, and the 
 Podargus surged ahead as before, all of us standing too breath- 
 less to speak, but counting the heads of the waves as they 
 flickered past her weather-beam. ' God's sake ! ' exclaimed 
 the captain at last, ' this is terrible, Aldridge. If I had only 
 overhauled her, as I meant at first, we might have helped 
 them in time ; for no doubt the fire must have been com- 
 menced when we noticed her yawing yonder a couple of hours 
 ago, sir.' f l think not, sir,' said his lieutenant; 'we were 
 against the clear ; and if they 'd been in danger then, she 'd 
 have fired a distress-gun. There couldn't have been much 
 powder aboard, sir more likely rum, I think ! ' 
 
 " ' For Heaven's sake ! ' continued the captain, ' let 's look 
 about she must surely have had boats out, or something, 
 Mr Aldridge ! The best thing we can do is to fire a few times 
 as we bear down see that bow-gun cleared away, Mr Moore, 
 and do it ! ' 
 
 " We might have been about a mile, as was guessed, from 
 where she was last seen, when the brig fired a gun to wind- 
 ward, still standing on under everything. At the second flash 
 that lighted up the belly of the clouds, with the black glitter
 
 288 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 of the swells below them, I fancied I caught a moment's 
 glimpse of something two or three miles away. It was too 
 short to say, however ; and soon after the twinkle of a light, 
 seemingly hoisted on a spar, was seen little more than half- 
 a-mile upon the brig's lee-bow, dipping and going out of sight 
 at times, but plain enough when it rose. Down went the 
 Podargus for the spot, sending the foam off her cutwater ; 
 and it was no long time before a wild hail from several voices 
 could be made out almost close aboard. Ten minutes after 
 she was brought to the wind, heaving a rope to the men on a 
 loose raft of casks and spars, as it pitched alongside of her, 
 with the sail hauled down on a spar they had stuck up, and a 
 lantern at the head of it ; after which the raft was cast off, 
 and the poor fellows were safe on board. 
 
 "Two of them seemed to be half-drowned, the one wrapped 
 up in a wet pilot-coat, his face looking white and frightened 
 enough by the glimmer of the lanterns : the other darker a 
 good deal, so far as I could make him out for the crowd about 
 him, and he didn't seem able to speak ; accordingly both of 
 them were taken at once below to the surgeon. The rest were 
 four half-naked blacks, and a little chap with earrings and a 
 seaman's dress who was the spokesman on the quarterdeck to 
 the captain's questions plainly American by his snuffling sort 
 of drawl. 
 
 " ' Are there no more of you afloat ? ' was the first thing 
 asked, to which the Yankee sailor shook his head. She was an 
 American bark, he said, from a voyage of discovery round the 
 two Capes ; and he was mate himself, and the skipper, being 
 addicted to his cups, had set a cask of rum on fire ; so finding 
 they couldn't get it under besides being wearied at the 
 pumps, on account of an old leak, the men broke into the 
 spirit-room, and got dead drunk. He and the blacks had 
 patched up a raft in a hurry for bare life, barely saving the 
 passenger and his servant who had jumped overboard ; the 
 passenger was a learned sort of a man, and his servant was a 
 Mexican. Most of this I found next day, from the gun-room 
 officers ; however, I heard the mate of the burnt barque inquire 
 of the captain whereabouts they were, as the skipper was the 
 only man who could use a chronometer or quadrant, and the 
 last gale had driven them out of their reckonings a long way. 
 ' Somewhere south of the Line, I guess ? ' said he ; but, on
 
 A SEA STORY 289 
 
 being told, the fellow gave a bewildered glance round him, 
 seemingly, and a cunning kind of squint after it, as I fancied. 
 e Well,' said he, ' I guess we 're considerable unlucky ; but I 
 consider to turn in, if agreeable ! ' The man had a way, in 
 fact, half free-and-easy, half awkward that struck me ; 
 especially when he said, as he went below, he supposed ' this 
 was a war-brig,' and hoped there ' wasn't war between the 
 States and the old country?' 'No, my man,' said the captain, 
 ' you may set your mind at ease on that point ; but I 'm afraid, 
 nevertheless, we '11 have to land you at St Helena ! ' 
 
 "'What, mister?' said the American, starting, 'that's 
 where you 've got Boneyparty locked up ? Well now, if you 
 give me a good berth for a few, mister, I guess I '11 rayther 
 ship aboard you, till I get a better ! What's your wage just 
 now, if I may ask, captain ? ' ( Well, well,' said the captain, 
 laughing, 'we'll see to-morrow, my man!' and the American 
 went below. ' Set stu'nsails again, Mr Aldridge,' continued 
 Captain Wallis, ' and square yards. Why, rather than have 
 such a fellow in the ship's company, Aldridge, I 'd land him 
 without Sir Hudson's leave ! ' 
 
 "For my own part, next day, I should have given more 
 notice to our new shipmates while the brig steered fair before 
 the wind the blacks and the mate leaning about her forecastle, 
 and the other two being expected by the surgeon to come 
 pretty well round before night, though the captain had gone 
 to see them below ; but a thing turned up all at once that 
 threw me once more full into the thought of Violet Hyde, till 
 I was perfectly beside myself with the helpless case I was in. 
 The note Tom Westwood had shown me was still in the pocket 
 of my griffin's coat, though I hadn't observed it till now ; and 
 what did I feel at finding out, that, instead of one from her 
 to Westwood, it was a few words from my own sister, little 
 Jane, saying in a pretty, bashful sort of way, that her brother 
 Ned must come home before she could engage to anything ! 
 You may fancy how I cursed myself for being so blind ; but a 
 fellow never thinks his own sister charming at all and what 
 else could I have done at any rate ? All I hoped for, was to 
 get aboard of some Indiaman at St Helena, and there was 
 nothing else I wearied to see the island again for. I may say 
 I walked the brig's lee quarterdeck till daybreak ; but any- 
 how the lookout from the foreyard had scarce sung out ' St
 
 290 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Helena on the weather-bow!' when I was up, making out the 
 round blue cloud in the midst of the horizon, with a white 
 streak across it, like a bird afloat in the hazy blue, with the 
 clear gleam from eastward off our starboard quarter running 
 round to it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 " A S soon as you near St Helena by a few miles, the trade- 
 * ^- wind falls light, and making the rock, as you do from 
 the South Atlantic, a good deal to leeward of the harbour, 
 'twould be pretty slow work beating round to north-east, but 
 for the breeze always coming off the height, with the help of 
 which one can coast easy enough along. Captain Wallis said 
 no more than to bid the first lieutenant make the brig's 
 number at her mast-head, while she still bore in direct upon 
 the breast of the land, as much out of soundings as the day 
 before ; the smooth heavy swell seeming to float the island up 
 in one huge lump ahead of us, till you saw it rolling into the 
 very foot, with a line of surf, as if it all rose sheer out of the 
 bottom of the sea ; as grim and hard as a block of iron, too, 
 and a good deal the same colour. By noon it hung fairly, as 
 it were, over our mast-heads, the brig looking by comparison 
 as tiny and as ticklish as a craft made of glass, she coasting 
 away round, with yards braced first one way then another, 
 and opening point after point from three hundred to two 
 thousand feet high ; while at times she would go stealing in 
 with a faint ripple at her bows, near enough to hear the deep 
 sound of the sea plunging slowly to the face of the rock, 
 where the surf rose white against it without a break. 
 
 " There wasn't so much as a weed to be seen, the rocks 
 getting redder and more coppery, sending out the light like 
 metal, till you 'd have thought they tingled all over with the 
 heat. Then as you opened another bulge in the line, the 
 sharp sugarloaf hills, far away up, with the ragged cliffs and 
 crags, shot over against the bare white sky in all sort of 
 shapes ; and after a good long spell of the sea, there was little 
 fancy needed to give one the notion that they were changing 
 into these, as we passed ahead, to mock you. There was one
 
 A SEA STORY 291 
 
 peak for all the world like the top of St Paul's, and no end of 
 church spires and steeples, all lengths and ways ; then big 
 bells and trumpets, mixed with wild beasts' heads, grinning 
 at each other across some split in the blue beyond, and 
 soldiers' helmets not to speak of one huge block, like a 
 nigger's face with a cowl behind it, hanging far out over the 
 water. Save for the colour of it all, in fact, St Helena 
 reminds one more of a tremendous iceberg than an island, and 
 not the less that it looks ready in some parts to topple over 
 and show a new face ; while the sea working round it, surging 
 into the hollows below water-mark, and making the air groan 
 inside of them, keeps up a noise the like of which you 
 wouldn't wish to cruise alongside of every day. The strangest 
 thing about it, however, was that now and then, as you came 
 abreast of some deep gully running up inland, a sudden blast 
 of wind would rush out of it, sufficient to make the Podargus 
 reel with a savage thundering roar, too, like the howl out of 
 a lion's mouth ; while you looked far up a narrow, bare, black 
 glen, closing into a hubbub of red rocks, or losing itself up a 
 grey hillside in a white thread of a water-course ; then the 
 rough shell of the island shut in again, as still as before, save 
 the light breeze and the deep hum of the surf along its foot. 
 Curiously enough in a latitude like St Helena's, the island 
 seems, as it were, a perfect bag of air. What with the heat 
 of the rock, its hollow inside, the high peaks of it catching 
 the clouds, and the narrow outlets it has, 'tis always brewing 
 wind, you may say, to ventilate that part of the tropics just 
 as one may keep up cold draughts through and through a 
 wet heap of loose stones, no matter how hot the weather is, 
 as long as he pleases. As for a landing-place, though, there 
 wasn't one of the gullies that didn't yawn over without falling 
 to the sea ; and, not to mention the surf underneath, where 
 the dark swell came in unbroken from deep water without a 
 shoal to soften it, why, watching it from the brig's side, I 
 shouldn't have said a cat could scramble up or down the steep 
 slopes and the wreck of stones, from the water's edge to the 
 jaws of the easiest gully you saw. 
 
 "Once or twice, standing farther off, we caught sight of 
 Diana's Peak over the shoulder of a hill, with the light haze 
 melting about it; at last you noticed a large gun mounted 
 against the sky on a lofty peak, where it looked like a huge
 
 292 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 telescope ; and on clearing another headland, a beautiful 
 frigate came in between us and the burst of light to seaward, 
 cruising to windward under easy sail. She bore up and stood 
 towards the brig-of- war, just as the line of wall was to be seen 
 winding round the middle of Sugarloaf Point, where the 
 sentry's bayonet glittered near his watch-box, and the soldiers' 
 red coats could be seen moving through the covered passage 
 to the batteries. Five minutes after, the Podargus swept 
 round the breast of Rupert's Hill into the bay, in sight of 
 Jamestown and the ships lying off the harbour ; clewing up 
 her sails and ready to drop anchor, as the frigate hove to not 
 far astern. 
 
 " You can fancy land heaving in sight after thrice as many 
 weeks as you Ve been at sea, ladies ; or the view of a ship to 
 a man that 's been long laid up in bed ashore ; or a gulp of 
 fresh water in a sandy desert but I question if any of them 
 matches your first glimpse of Jamestown from the roadstead, 
 like a bright piece of fairy-work in the mouth of the narrow 
 brown valley, after seeing desolation enough to make you wish 
 for a clear horizon again. More especially this time, when 
 all the while one couldn't help bringing to mind one's notion 
 of the French Emperor, how, not long ago, the sight of the 
 French coast, or a strange frigate over the Channel swell, 
 used to make us think of him far ashore, with half the earth 
 for his own, and millions of soldiers. We reefers down in the 
 cockpit would save our grog to drink confusion to Napoleon, 
 and in a rough night near a lee-shore, it was look alive aloft, 
 or choose betwixt cold brine and the clutch of a gendarme 
 hauling you to land. I do believe we looked upon him as a 
 sort of god, as Captain Wallis did in the Temple ; every ship 
 or gunboat we saw taken, or had a hand in the mauling of, 
 why, 'twas for the sheer sake of the thing, and scarce by way 
 of harm to Boney ; while nothing like danger, from breakers 
 on the lee-bow to a November gale, but had seemingly a taste 
 of him. None of us any more thought of bringing him to 
 this, than we did of his marching into London, or of a French 
 frigate being able to rake our old Pandora in a set-to on green 
 water or blue, wiih us to handle her. 
 
 " But there was the neat little cluster of houses, white, 
 yellow, and green, spreading down close together in the 
 bottom of the valley, and out along the sea's edge ; the rough
 
 A SEA STORY 293 
 
 brown cliffs sloping up on each side, with the ladder-like way 
 to the fort on the right, mounting, as it were, out of the very 
 street, to the flagstaff on the top, and dotted with red-coats 
 going up and down ; a bright line of a pier and a wall before 
 the whole, the Government House dazzling through a row of 
 spreading trees, and a little square church-tower to be seen 
 beyond. 'Twas more like a scene in a play, than aught else ; 
 what with the suddenness of it all, the tiny look of it betwixt 
 the huge rocks, the greenness of the trees and bushes, and 
 patches of garden struggling up as far as they could go into 
 the stone, and the gay little toys of cottages, with scarce flat 
 enough to stand upon ; save for the blue swell of the sea 
 plunging lazily in through the bit of a bay, and the streak of 
 air behind, that let you in high over the head of the hollow, 
 up above one height and another, to a flat-headed blue rise in 
 the distance, where Longwood could be seen from the main- 
 cross-trees I had gone to as the sails were furled. 
 
 "The sunlight, striking from both the red sides of the 
 ravine, made the little village of a place, trees and all, glitter 
 in a lump together, out of it, like no spot in the rest of the 
 world ; while elsewhere there wasn't so much as a weed to be 
 seen hanging from the rock, nor the sign of another human 
 habitation, saving the bare batteries on each hand, with a few 
 sheds and warehouses over the beach along the landing-place. 
 Once or twice the same sudden gust as before would come 
 slap down through the valley into the brig's bare rigging, hot 
 as the air was, with a howling kind of a sigh you took some 
 time to get accustomed to, lest there was a hurricane to 
 follow : in fact, one didn't well know whether it was the wild 
 look of it outside, or the lovely spot in its grim mouth of a 
 landing-place, but the whole island gave you the notion of a 
 thing you couldn't be long sure of, without fancying it would 
 give a shake some day or other again ; or else spout fire, as 
 no doubt it had done before, if there wasn't more fear of 
 Napoleon getting back somehow to France, and wreaking 
 bloody vengeance on the kings that shut him up in St 
 Helena. 
 
 " There was apparently a busy scene ashore, however, both 
 in the little town, which has scarce more than a single street, 
 and along the quay, full of residents, as well as passengers 
 from two Indiamen lying in-shore of us, while the Government
 
 294 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 esplanade seeme to be crowded with ladies, listening to the 
 regimental band under the trees. The Newcastle frigate, with 
 Sir Dudley Aldcombe's flag hoisted at her mizzen, was at 
 anchor out abreast at Ladder Hill ; and our first lieutenant 
 had scarce pulled aboard of the Hebe, which was hove-to off 
 the brig's quarter, before I noticed the Admiral's barge lying 
 alongside the Hebe. 
 
 " Seeing Mr Aldridge on his way back shortly after, I came 
 down the rigging, more anxious than ever to have my own 
 matter settled ; indeed, Captain Wallis no sooner caught sight 
 of my face, uncomfortable as I daresay it looked, than he told 
 me he was going to wait on the Admiral aboard the Hebe, 
 and would take me with him at once, if I chose. For my 
 part, I needed nothing but the leave, and in ten minutes' 
 time I found myself, no small mark of curiosity, betwixt the 
 waist and the quarterdeck of the Hebe, where the officers 
 eyed me with as little appearance of rudeness as they could 
 help, and I overhauled the spars and rigging aloft as coolly as 
 I could, waiting to be sent for below. The Hebe, in fact, was 
 the very beauty of a twenty-eight ; taking the shine, and the 
 wind, too, clean out of everything even at Plymouth, where I 
 had seen her once a year or two before ; our poor dear old Iris 
 herself had scarce such a pattern of a hull, falling in, as it did, 
 from the round swell of her bilge, to just under the plank- 
 sheer, and spreading out again with her bright black top-sides, 
 till where the figurehead shot over the cut-water, and out of 
 her full pair of bows, like a swan's neck out of its breast. As 
 for the Iris, our boatswain himself one day privately confessed 
 to me, almost with tears in his eyes, that she tumbled home a 
 thought too much just in front of the fore-chains, and he 'd 
 tried to get it softened off with dead planking and paint, but 
 it wouldn't do ; everybody saw through them. The truth 
 was, to feel this fine ship under one, with her loose topsails 
 hanging high against the gloom of the red gully towards 
 Longwood, and the gay little town peeping just over her 
 larboard bow, a mile away, it somehow or other cleared one's 
 mind of a load. 
 
 " I was thinking already how, if one had the command of 
 such a craft, to do something with her at sea hang it ! but 
 surely that old judge couldn't be too proud to give him a fair 
 hearing. By Jove! thought I had one only wild enough
 
 A SEA STORY 295 
 
 weather, off the Cape, say if I wouldn't undertake to bother 
 even a seventy-four a whole voyage through, till she struck 
 her flag ; in which case a fellow might really venture to hold 
 his head up and speak his mind, lovely as Violet Hyde would 
 be in Calcutta. But then, again, there was St Helena tower- 
 ing red and rough over the ships, with the grand French 
 Emperor hidden in it hard and fast, and all the work he used 
 to give us at an end ! 
 
 "Just at the moment, happening to catch sight of the 
 American mate's sallow black visage over the brig-of-war's 
 hammock-cloths, peering as he did from the cliffs to the lofty 
 spars of the frigate, while his negro shipmates were to be 
 made out nearer the bows somehow or other the whole 
 affair of their being burnt out and picked up started into my 
 mind again, along with our late queer adventures in the 
 Indiaman. Not to mention Captain Wallis's story, it flashed 
 upon me all at once, for the first time, that the strange 
 schooner was after some scheme as regarded the island ; and 
 a man more likely to try something uncommon than the 
 Frenchman I never had seen yet. The truth was, but for my 
 thoughts being otherwise taken up, I 'd have wondered at my 
 own confounded stupidity in not fathoming the thing sooner ; 
 whereas now I 'm not going to deny it, I half began actually 
 to wish him good success, or else a close miss of it, where 
 either way one couldn't well fail having a share in the squall. 
 
 " At any rate, I saw it was cunningly enough gone about ; 
 this same burnt barque of the Yankee's, I perceived in a 
 moment, was part of the plot ; though as for meddling in it 
 till I saw more, 'twas likely to spoil the whole ; let alone 
 making an ass of oneself in case of mistake. I was eyeing 
 the shipwrecked mate, indeed, when one of the lieutenants 
 told me politely the Admiral wanted to see me in the cabin 
 below. 
 
 "Not being much accustomed to admirals' society, as a 
 little white-haired fellow-reefer of mine once said at a tea- 
 party ashore, I came in at the door with rather an awkward 
 bow, no doubt ; for Sir Dudley, who was sitting on the sofa 
 with his cocked hat and sword beside him, talking to Captain 
 Wallis, turned his head at the captain's word, as if he were 
 trying to keep in a smile. A tall, fine-looking man he was, 
 and few seamen equal to him for handling a large fleet, as I
 
 296 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 knew, though his manners were finished enough to have made 
 him easy in a king's court. As for the captain of the Hebe, 
 he was leaning out of an open stern-window, seemingly a 
 young man ; but who he might be I didn't know at the 
 moment. The Admiral had only a question or two to put, 
 before he looked back to Captain Wallis again, remarking it was 
 clear he had brought away the wrong man. ' I didn't think 
 you were so dull in the Podargus,' said he, smiling, ( as to let an 
 Indiaman play off such a trick on you eh, Captain Wallis ! ' 
 
 " Captain Wallis glanced round the cabin, and then side- 
 ways down at Sir Dudley's cocked hat, in a funny enough 
 way, as much as to say he took all the blame on himself; and 
 it struck me more than ever what a kind heart the man had 
 in him if you only set aside his hatred to Bonaparte, which 
 in fact was nothing else but a twisted sort of proof of the 
 same thing. ' Pooh, pooh, Wallis,' continued Sir Dudley, 
 ' we can't do anything in the matter ; though, if the service 
 were better than it really is at present, I should certainly 
 incline to question a smart young fellow like this, that has 
 held His Majesty's commission, for idling in an Indiaman after 
 the lady passengers! I am afraid, sir,' said he to me, ' you 've 
 lost your passage, though unless the captain of the Hebe will 
 give you his second berth here, to make amends. You need 
 not be afraid, Lord Frederick ! ' added he, looking toward the 
 captain of the frigate, and raising his voice; 'you do not know 
 him, after all, I suppose ! ' The captain drew in his head, 
 saying he had been doubtful about one of the pivots of the 
 rudder, then turned full round and looked uneasily at me, 
 on which his face brightened immediately, and he said, e No, 
 Sir Dudley, I do not ! ' I was still in ignorance for a moment 
 or so, myself, who this titled young post-captain might be, 
 though I had certainly seen him before ; till all at once I 
 recollected him, with a start as pleasant to me as his seemed 
 to him at not knowing me. Both Westwood and I had been 
 midshipmen together for a while in the Orion, fifty-gun ship, 
 where he was second lieutenant, several years before. As for 
 me, I was too fond of a frigate to stay longer in her than I 
 could help ; but I remembered my being a pest to the second 
 lieutenant, and Tom's being a favourite of his, so that he 
 stayed behind me, and got master's-mate as soon as he was 
 ' passed.'
 
 A SEA STORY 297 
 
 "The Honourable Frederick Bury he was then, and the 
 handsomest young fellow in the squadron, as well as the best- 
 natured aboard ; I don't believe he knew how to splice in a 
 dead-eye, and any of the masters'-mates could take charge of 
 the ship better in a rough night, I daresay ; but for a gallant 
 affair in the way of hard knocks, with management to boot, 
 there wasn't his match. He never was known to fail when he 
 took a thing in hand ; lost fewer men, too, than anyone else 
 did ; and whenever there turned up anything ticklish for the 
 boats, it was always ( Mr Bury will lead.' ' The Honourable 
 Bury,' we used to call him, and 'Fighting Free-the-deck.' 
 Westwood was one of his school, whereas / had learnt from 
 Jacobs in a merchantman's forecastle ; and many a time did 
 we play off such tricks on the second lieutenant as coming 
 gravely aft to him during the watch, three or four of us 
 together, me carrying a bit of rope where a ' Turk's-head ' or 
 a ' mouse ' was to be worked, while I asked him innocently to 
 show us the way. Or else it was some dispute we contrived 
 beforehand, as to the best plan of sending up new topmasts at 
 sea, or running out of a ' round ' gale in the Indian Ocean, on 
 which the men forward would be all ready to break out laugh- 
 ing ; and the second lieutenant, after thinking a moment, 
 would quietly pitch upon me to go aloft, and study the point 
 for two hours at the mast-head. 
 
 " ' What is your name then, young man ? ' inquired Sir 
 Dudley Aldcombe of me. The instant I told him, Lord 
 Frederick Bury gave me another look, then a smile. 
 ' What ? ' said he, ' Collins that was in the Orion ? ' ' Yes, 
 Lord Frederick/ said I, ' the same ; I was third in the Iris 
 off the West African coast since then.' 'Why,' said he, 
 ' I recollect you quite well, Mr Collins, although you have 
 grown a foot, I think, sir but your eye reminds me of sundry 
 pranks you used to play on board ! What nickname was it 
 your messmates called you, by-the-by ? ' ' Something foolish 
 enough, I suppose, my lord,' replied I, biting my lip ; e but I 
 remember clearly having the honour to steer the second cutter 
 in-shore one dark night near Dunkirk, when your lordship 
 carried the Dutch brig and the two French chasse-marees 
 
 "'Faith,' broke in the captain of the Hebe, 'you've a 
 better memory than I have I do not recollect any chasse- 
 mar^es at all that time, Mr Collins ! ' ' Why,' said I, ' I got
 
 298 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 a knock on the head from a fellow in a red shirt that always 
 kept me in mind.' ' Oh,' remarked the Admiral to Captain 
 Wallis, laughing, ' Lord Frederick Bury must have had so 
 many little parties of the kind that his memory can't be 
 expected to be very nice ! However, I shall go ashore at 
 present, gentlemen, leaving the Hebe and you to dispose of 
 this runaway lieutenant in some way or other. Only you 'd 
 better settle it before Admiral Plampin arrives ! ' ' Have you 
 seen the the Longwood lately, Sir Dudley ? ' asked the 
 captain of the Podargus carelessly. ' Yes, not many days ago 
 I had an interview,' said the Admiral gravely ; ' proud as 
 ever, and evidently resolved not to flinch from his condition. 
 'Tis wonderful the command that man has over himself, 
 Wallis he speaks of the whole world and its affairs like one 
 that sees into them, and had them still nearly under his foot ! 
 All saving those miserable squabbles with Plantation House, 
 which but, next time I shall take my leave, and wash my 
 hands of the whole concern, I am glad to think ! ' 
 
 "Lord Frederick was talking to me meanwhile at the 
 other end of the cabin, but I was listening in spite of myself 
 to Sir Dudley Aldcombe, and noticed that Captain Wallis 
 made no answer. ' By-the-way, Wallis,' continued the Ad- 
 miral, ' 'tis curious that he seemed anxious more than once to 
 know what you think of him I believe he would like to see 
 you ! ' ' To see me ! ' said the commander of the Podargus, 
 suddenly. ' At last, does he ! No, Sir Dudley, he and I 
 never will meet ; he ought to have thought of it twelve years 
 sooner ! God knows,' he went on, ' the commander of a ten- 
 gun brig is too small a man to see the Emperor Napoleon a 
 prisoner ; but in ten years of war, Sir Dudley, what mightn't 
 one have been, instead of being remembered after as only 
 plain John Wallis, whom Bonaparte kept all that time in 
 prison, and who was sent in course of time, to cruise off St 
 Helena ? ' Here the Admiral said something about a British 
 sailor not keeping malice, and Captain Wallis looked up at 
 him gravely. ' No,' replied he ; ' no, Sir Dudley, I shouldn't 
 have chosen the thing ; but in the meantime I 'm only doing 
 my duty. There 's a gloomy turn in my mind by this time, 
 no doubt ; but you 've no idea, Sir Dudley, how the thought 
 of other people comes into one's head when he 's years shut 
 up so / may stand for many a one Bonaparte will never see
 
 A SEA STORY 299 
 
 more than myself, that '11 ring him round surer than those 
 rocks there, though they 're dead and in their graves, Sir 
 Dudley ! ' The Admiral shook his head, observing that 
 Napoleon was no common man, and oughtn't to be judged 
 as such. 'Too many victories in that eye of his, I suspect, 
 Captain Wallis,' said he, ( for either Plantation House or his 
 own conscience to break his spirit ! ' 
 
 "'Ay, ay, sir/ answered the captain respectfully, ( excuse 
 me, Sir Dudley, but there it is so long as he 's got his 
 victories to fall back upon, he can't see how, if he'd regarded 
 common men more, with all belonging to them, he wouldn't 
 have been here ! Why did Providence shut him up in a dead 
 volcano, with blue water round it, Sir Dudley, if it wasn't 
 to learn somehow or other he was a man after all ? ' Sir 
 Dudley Aldcombe shrugged his shoulders and looked to Lord 
 Frederick, upon which he rose, and the two captains followed 
 him out of the cabin ; in five minutes I heard the side piped 
 for the Admiral's leaving, and soon after the captain of the 
 Hebe came below again. 
 
 " ' This is a disagreeable affair of your old messmate's, Mr 
 Collins,' said he seriously. ' You are, perhaps, not aware that 
 Captain Duncombe was a relative of my own, and the fact of 
 his property having fallen by will to myself, rendered my 
 position the more peculiarly disagreeable, had I been obliged 
 not only to recognise Lieutenant Westwood here, but after- 
 wards to urge proceedings against him, even if he were let 
 off by court-martial. I cannot tell you how the sight of a 
 stranger, as I thought, relieved me, sir ! ' ' Indeed, Lord 
 Frederick ! ' replied I, too much confused in the circum- 
 stances to say more. However, his lordship's manner soon 
 set me at my ease, the old good-humoured smile coming over 
 his fine features again, while he went on to offer me the place 
 of his second lieutenant, who was going home very ill by one 
 of the homeward-bound Indiamen ; adding, that Sir Dudley 
 would confirm the appointment ; indeed, he could scarce help 
 himself, he said, as there was nobody else he could get at 
 present. 
 
 " ' You must be a thorough good sailor by this time, 
 Collins,' continued he, ' if you have gone on at the rate you 
 used to do. I remember how fond you were of having 
 charge for a minute or two of the old Orion, or when I let
 
 300 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 you put her about in my watch. Why they called you 
 " Young Green " I never could understand, unless it was 
 ut lucu-s a non lucendo, as we used to say at Eton, you know. 
 Well, what do you say ? ' Now, as you may suppose, the 
 idea of boxing about St Helena, for Heaven knew how 
 long, didn't at all suit my liking with the thought of the 
 Seringapatam steering away from Bombay the whole time, 
 and a hundred notions of Violet Hyde in India 'twould have 
 driven me madder than the Temple did Captain Wallis : but 
 it was only the^r^ part of my mind I gave Lord Frederick. 
 ' What ! ' exclaimed he, with a flush over his face, and drawing 
 up his tall figure, ' you didn't suppose, / should remain here ? 
 Why, the Hebe is on her way for Calcutta and Canton, and 
 will sail as soon as the Conqueror arrives at Jamestown 
 with Admiral Plampin.' ' Your lordship is very kind,' said 
 I, looking down to cover my delight ; ' and if I am not 
 worthy of the post it shan't be my fault, Lord Frederick.' 
 ' Ah, very good ! ' said he smiling ; ' 'tis an opportunity you 
 oughtn't to let slip, Collins, let me tell you ! For my own 
 part, I should just as soon cut out a pirate in the Straits 
 of Malacca as a French brig in the Channel ; and there are 
 plenty of them, I hear, there. As for a chase, sir, I flatter 
 myself you won't easily see a finer thing than the Hebe 
 spreading her cloth after one of those fast proas will be 
 I think you are just the fellow to make her walk, too, 
 Mr Collins pah ! to compare a day on the Derby turf with 
 that, would be a sin ! You have no idea, sir, how one longs 
 for a fair horizon again, and brisk breezes, when so ineffably 
 tired out of all those ball-rooms, and such things as you 
 see about town just now only I fear I shall wish to be 
 second lieutenant again, eh ? ' 
 
 " The noble captain of the Hebe turned to look out 
 through the stern window to seaward, his face losing the 
 weary sort of half-melancholy cast it had shown for the last 
 minute, while his eye glistened ; and it struck me how well 
 matched the Hebe and her commander were ; you 'd have 
 said both had good blood in them, both being models to 
 look at of their kind, and the frigate lifting under you at 
 the moment, from the keel upward, with a check aloft in 
 her main-topsail, that lifted her stem to the surge. A small 
 telescope rolled off the sofa on to the cabin deck, and as
 
 A SEA STORY 301 
 
 I picked it up, another gust could be heard coming down 
 St James Valley from inside the island ; through the gun- 
 port one saw the trees wave over the hot white houses in 
 the bright-coloured little town, while the ship's canvas gave 
 another flutter above-decks. Lord Frederick laughed, and 
 said, ' Then I suppose we need say no more about it, Mr 
 Collins, except referring once for all to Sir Dudley?' I 
 bowed, and the upshot was, that, an hour or two after, I 
 had my acting commission sent me from the Admiral, the 
 same boat having called at the Podargus for my things ; upon 
 which Lord Frederick introduced me to the first lieutenant, 
 and I found myself once more doing duty in the service 
 the Hebe standing out to leeward with the last light, just 
 as the Podargus was tripping anchor to beat round again 
 the other way. As for our friends from the burnt vessel, 
 I must say I had forgot them already, for the time at least. 
 
 " Every block, crag, and knot in the huge crust of the 
 rock shone terribly bright for a minute or two, aloft from 
 over the yard -ends, as she stood suddenly out into the 
 fiery gleam of the sun going down many a mile in the 
 Atlantic. Then up leapt the light keener and keener to 
 the very topmost peak, till you 'd have thought it went in 
 like a living thing behind a telegraph, that stood out against 
 a black cleft betwixt two cliffs. We saw the evening gun off 
 Ladder Hill flash upon the deep blue of the sky, seemingly 
 throwing up the peak and flagstaff a dozen feet higher ; and 
 the boom of the gun sounding in among the wild hills and 
 hollows within the island, as if one heard it going up to 
 Longwood door. Scarce was it lost, ere a star or two were 
 to be seen in the shadow on the other side, and you listened 
 almost, in the hush following upon the gunfire, for an echo 
 to it, or something stranger ; in place of which the Hebe 
 was already forging ahead in the dark to get well clear 
 of the land, every wave bringing its own blackness with it 
 up toward her forechains, then sparkling back to her waist 
 in the seeth of foam as she felt the breeze ; while St 
 Helena lay towering along to larboard, with its ragged top 
 blotting against the deep dark blue of the sky, all filling 
 as it was with the stars. 
 
 " I had the middle watch that night, the ship being under 
 short canvas, and slowly edging down to make the most
 
 302 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 leewardly point of the island, from which she was to beat up 
 again at her leisure by the morning. All we had to do was 
 to keep a good lookout, on the one hand, into the streak of 
 starlight to seaward, and on the other along the foot of the 
 rocks, as well as holding her well in hand, in case of some 
 sudden squall through the valleys from inside. 
 
 " However, I shan't easily forget the thoughts that ran in 
 my mind, walking the quarterdeck with the frigate under 
 charge, the first time I noticed Orion and the Serpent 
 begin to wheel glittering away from over Diana's Peak the 
 others stealing quietly into sight after them, past the leech of 
 our main-topsail ; scarce an English star to be seen for the 
 height of the island off our quarter ; some of the men on one 
 side of the booms humming a song about Napoleon's dream, 
 which you '11 hear to this day in ships' forecastles ; another 
 yarning solemnly, on the other side, about some old sweet- 
 heart of his but all of them ready to jump at my own least 
 word. In the morning, however, there we were, stretching 
 back by degrees to go round the lee side of the island again, 
 the haze melting off Diana's Peak as before, and the sea 
 rolling in swells as blue as indigo, to the huge red lumps of 
 bare crag ; while the bright surges leapt out of them all along 
 the frigate's side, and the spray rose at times to her figure- 
 head. 
 
 " During the day we cruised farther out, and the Hebe had 
 enough to do in seeing off one Indiaman for home, and speak- 
 ing another outward-bound craft, that passed forty miles off 
 or so, without touching ; the Governor's telegraphs were 
 eternally at work on the heights, bothering her for the least 
 trifle, and making out a sail sixty miles off, it was said. For 
 my part, I was pretty well tired of it already, sincerely 
 wishing for the Conqueror, with Admiral Plampin, to heave 
 in sight ; but glad enough all aboard the Hebe were, when, 
 after an entire week of the thing, it came to her turn, with 
 the Newcastle and Podargus, to lie at anchor off Jamestown, 
 where half the ship's company at a time had their liberty 
 ashore. 
 
 " For my part, I had to see after the frigate's water-tanks, 
 and a gang at the rigging, till the afternoon, when Lord 
 Frederick took the first lieutenant and myself ashore with 
 him in his gig ; and no joke it was landing even there, where
 
 A SEA STORY 303 
 
 the swell of the surf nigh-hand hove her right up on the quay, 
 while you had to look sharp, in case the next wave washed 
 you back again off your feet. The whole place was hot as 
 could be from the sun's rays off the rocks, slanting bare red 
 to the cloudless sky, on both sides of the neat little gaudy 
 houses crowded in the mouth of the valley, which narrowed 
 away beyond the rise of the street, till you didn't see how 
 you 'd get farther. But for the air of the sea, indeed, with 
 now and then a breath down out of the hills, 'twas for all the 
 world like a half-kindled oven ; except under the broad trees 
 along the Government esplanade, where one couldn't have 
 stood for people. What with blacks, lascars, Chinamen, and 
 native 'Yamstocks,' together with liberty-men from the 
 men-of-war and Indian) en, as well as reefers trotting about 
 on ponies and donkeys, the very soldiers could scarce get 
 down the foot of the road up Ladder Hill ; as for the little 
 town holding one half of them, it was out of the question, 
 but the noise and kick-up were beyond aught else of the 
 kind, save in a Calcutta bazaar. Accordingly, it was pleasant 
 enough at last to come within a shady walk of thick green 
 fig-trees, growing almost out of the rock near the main 
 battery, above the small sound of the water far below ; the 
 very sea looking bluer through the leaves, while some birds 
 no bigger than wrens hopped, chirruping, about the branches. 
 " Here we met Sir Dudley Aldcombe coming down from 
 the batteries along with some Company's officers from India, 
 and he stopped to speak to Lord Frederick, giving the first 
 lieutenant and me a bow in return, as we lifted our hats and 
 waited behind. The Admiral proposed to get Lord Frederick 
 a pass to visit Napoleon along with himself next day, as the 
 Conqueror would probably arrive very soon. ' You will oblige 
 me greatly, Sir Dudley,' said the captain of the Hebe. ( He 
 seems as fond of seeing a true sailor,' said the Admiral, ' as 
 if we 'd never done him harm. Things will be worse after I 
 go. By-the-way,' added he suddenly, ' 'tis curious enough, 
 but there 's one person in the island at present has made 
 wonderful progress in Sir Hudson's good graces, for the short 
 time that American botanist, or whatever he calls himself, 
 that Captain Wallis took off the burnt vessel on his way here. 
 Your new lieutenant was aboard at the time, you know, Lord 
 Frederick.' ' You saw him, sir, of course ? ' said the Admiral
 
 304 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 looking to me. ' Only for a minute that night, Sir Dudley,' 
 said I ; 'and afterwards both he and his servant were under 
 the surgeon's charge below.' 'Well,' continued Sir Dudley 
 to the captain, ' they seem quite recovered now ; for I saw 
 them to-day up at Plantation House, where the philosopher 
 was in close discourse with the Governor about plants and 
 such things ; while her ladyship was as much engaged with 
 the assistant, who can only speak Spanish. A remarkable- 
 looking man the latter is, too ; a Mexican, I understand, with 
 Indian blood in him, apparently whereas his principal has a 
 strong Yankee twang ; and queer enough it was to hear him 
 snuffling away as solemnly as possible about buttany and such 
 things besides his hinting at some great discovery likely to 
 be made in the island, which Sir Hudson secerned rather 
 anxious to keep quiet from me.' 
 
 " What Sir Dudley said made me prick up my ears, as 
 you may fancy. I could scarce believe the thing ; 'twas so 
 thoroughly rich and so confoundedly cool at once, to risk 
 striking at the very heart of things this way with the Governor 
 himself; but the whole scheme, so far, flashed upon me in 
 a moment, evidently carried on, as it had been all along, by 
 some one bold enough for anything earthly, and with no small 
 cunning besides. All that he needed, no doubt, was somebody 
 else with the devil's own impudence and plenty of talk ; nor, if 
 I 'd thought for a day together, could one have pitched easily 
 upon a customer as plausible as our friend Daniel, who hadn't 
 a spark of fear in him, I knew, just owing to his want of 
 respect for aught in the entire creation. Still, I couldn't, for 
 the life of me, see what the end of their plan was to be, unless 
 the strange Frenchman might have been some general or 
 other under Bonaparte, and just wanted to see his old com- 
 mander once more; which, thought I, I'll be hanged if I don't 
 think fair enough, much pains as he had put himself to for the 
 thing. 
 
 " ' How ! ' asked Lord Frederick, ' a discovery did you say, 
 Sir Dudley?' ' Oh, nothing of the kind we should care about, 
 after all,' said the Admiral ; ' from what I could gather, 'twas 
 only scientific, though the American called it " a pretty im- 
 portaint fact." This Mr Mathewson Brown, I believe, was 
 sent by the States Government as botanist in an expedition 
 to southward, and has leave from Sir Hudson to use his oppor-
 
 A SEA STORY 305 
 
 tunity before the next Indiaman sails, for examining part of 
 the island, and to-day he thought he found the same plants in 
 St Helena as he did in Gough's Island and Tristan d'Acunha, 
 twelve hundred miles off, near the Cape, showing, as he said, 
 how once on a time there must have been land between 
 them, perhaps as far as Ascension ! ' ' Why,' put in Lord 
 Frederick, ' that would have made a pretty good empire, even 
 for Napoleon ! ' 'So it would, my lord,' said Sir Dudley, 
 ' much better than Elba ; but the strangest part of it is, this 
 Mr Brown was just telling his Excellency, as I entered the 
 room, that some of the ancient philosophers wrote about this 
 said country existing in the Atlantic before the Flood how 
 rich it was, with the kings it had, and the wars carried on 
 there ; till, on account of their doings, no doubt, what with an 
 earthquake, a volcano, and the ocean together, thay all sunk 
 to the bottom except the tops of the mountains ! Now, I 
 must say,' continued the Admiral, 'all this learning seemed 
 to one to come rather too much by rote out of this gentleman's 
 mouth, and the American style of his talk made it somewhat 
 ludicrous, though he evidently believed in what may be all 
 very true particularly in mentioning the treasures that must 
 lie under water for leagues round, or even in nooks about the 
 St Helena rocks ; I thought his very teeth watered. As for 
 Sir Hudson, he had caught at the idea altogether, but rather 
 in view of an historical work on the island, from the earliest 
 times till now and I believe he means to accompany the two 
 botanists himself over toward Longwood to-morrow, where we 
 may very likely get sight of them.' 
 
 " ' O h ! ' thought I, and Lord Frederick Bury smiled. 
 ' Rather a novelty, indeed ! ' said he ; and the first lieutenant 
 looked significantly enough to me, as we leant over the 
 battery- wall, watching the hot horizon through the spars of 
 the ships before Jamestown. ' What amused me,' Sir Dudley 
 said again, 'was the American botanist's utter indifference, 
 when I asked if he had seen anything of " The General " in 
 the distance. The Governor started, glancing sharp at Mr 
 Brown,and I noticed his dark companion give a sudden side-look 
 from the midst of his talk with her ladyship ; whereupon the 
 botanist merely pointed with his thumb to the floor, asking 
 coolly ' what it was to science ? ' ' At this/ added Sir Dudley 
 to the captain, ' His Excellency seemed much relieved ; and
 
 306 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 after having got leave for myself and your lordship to-morrow, 
 I left them still in the spirit of it. It certainly struck me 
 that, in the United States themselves, educated men in general 
 couldn't have such a vulgar manner about them in fact, I 
 thought the Mexican attendant more the gentleman of the 
 two his face was turned half from me most of the time, but 
 still it struck me as remarkably intelligent.' ' Ah,' said Lord 
 Frederick carelessly, 'all the Spaniards have naturally a noble 
 sort of air, you know, Sir Dudley they '11 never make re- 
 publicans ! ' ' And I must say,' added the Admiral, as they 
 strolled out of the shade up the battery-steps, 'little as I 
 know of Latin, what this Mr Brown used did seem to me 
 fearfully bad ! ' 
 
 " ( And no wonder ! ' thought I, from a Yankee schoolmaster 
 as I had found my late shipmate was, before he thought of 
 travelling ; but the valuable Daniel turning his hand to help 
 out some communication or other, no doubt, with Napoleon 
 Bonaparte in St Helena, took me at first as so queer an 
 affair, that I didn't know whether to laugh at him or admire 
 his Yankee coolness, when he ran such risks. As for the 
 feasibleness of actually getting the prisoner clear out of 
 the island, our cruising on guard was enough to show me it 
 would be little short of a miracle; yet I couldn't help thinking 
 they meant to try it ; and in case of a dark night, which the 
 south-easter was very likely to bring, if it shifted or freshened 
 a little, why, I knew you needn't call anything impossible 
 that a cool head and a bold heart had to do with, provided 
 only they could get their plans laid inside and out so as to 
 tally. The more eager I got for next day, when it would 
 be easy enough for any of us to go up inland after Lord 
 Frederick, as far as Hut's Gate at least. Meantime, the first 
 lieutenant and I walked up together to where the little town 
 broke into a sort of suburb of fancy cottages, with verandahs 
 and green Venetians in bungalow style, scattered to both sides 
 of the rock amongst little grass-plots and garden patches 
 every foot of ground made use of. And a perfect gush of flowers 
 and leaves it was, clustering over the tiles of the low roofs, 
 while you saw through a thicket of poplars and plantains right 
 into the back of the gully, with a ridge of black rock closing 
 it fair up, and Side Path, as they call the road to windward, 
 winding overhead along the crag behind the houses, out of
 
 A SEA STORY 307 
 
 sight round a mass of cliffs. Every here and there, a runlet of 
 water came trickling down from above the trees to water their 
 roots ; you saw the mice in hundreds scampering in and out of 
 holes in the dry stone, with now and then a big ugly rat that 
 turned round to face you, being no doubt fine game to the 
 St Helena people, ill off as they all seemed for something to 
 do except the Chinese with their huge hats, hoeing away 
 under almost every tree one saw, and the Yamstock fishermen 
 to be seen "bobbing for mullet outside the ships, in a blaze of 
 light sufficient to bake any heads but their own. Every 
 cottage had seven or eight parrots in it, apparently ; a cocka- 
 too on a stand by the door, or a monkey up in a box not to 
 speak of canaries in the window, and white goats feeding 
 about with bells round their necks : so you may suppose what 
 a jabbering, screaming, whistling, and tinkling there was up 
 the whole hollow, added to no end of children and young 
 ladies making the most of the shade as it got near nightfall 
 and all that were out of doors came nocking down Side 
 Path. 
 
 " Both of us having leave ashore that night, for a ball in 
 one of these same little bungalows near the head of the 
 valley, 'twas no use to think of a bed, and as little to expect 
 getting off to the ship, which none could do after gunfire. For 
 that matter, I daresay there might be twenty such parties, full 
 of young reefers and homeward-bound old East Indians, keep- 
 ing it up as long as might be, because they had nowhere to 
 sleep. The young lady of the house we were in was one of 
 the St Helena beauties, called ' The Rosebud,' from her colour. 
 A lovely creature she was, certainly, as it was plain our Hebe's 
 first lieutenant thought, with several more to boot : every sight 
 of her figure gliding about through the rest, the white muslin 
 floating round her like haze, different as her face was, made 
 one think of the Seringapatam's deck at sea, with the men 
 walking the forecastle in the middle watch, and the poop 
 quiet over the judge's cabins. 
 
 " Two or three times I had fancied for a moment that, if 
 one had somewhat stirring to busy himself with, why, he 
 might so far forget what was no doubt likely to interfere 
 pretty much with a profession like my own ; and so it might 
 have been, perhaps, had I only seen her ashore ; whereas 
 now, whether it was ashore or afloat, by Jove ! everything
 
 308 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 called her somehow to mind. The truth is, I defy you to 
 get rid very easily of the thought about one you 've sailed 
 in the same ship with, be it girl or woman : the same bottom 
 betwixt you and the water, the same breeze blowing your 
 pilot-coat in the watch on deck that ripples past her ear 
 below, and the self-same dangers to strive against ! At a 
 break in the dance I went out of the dancing-room into the 
 verandah, where the cool of the air among the honeysuckle- 
 flowers and creepers was delightful to feel ; though it was 
 quite dark in the valley, and you couldn't make out anything 
 but the solemn black-blue of the sky full of stars above you, 
 between the two cliffs ; or right out, where the stretch of 
 sea, widening to the horizon, looked almost white through 
 the mouth of the valley over the house-roofs below ; one 
 heard the small surf plashing low and slow into the little 
 bay, with the boats dipping at their moorings, but I never 
 saw sea look so lonely. Then up at the head of the gully 
 one could mark the steep black crag that shut it up, glooming 
 quiet and large against a gleam from one of the clusters of 
 stars ; the sight of it was awful, I didn't know well why, 
 unless by comparison with the lively scene inside, not to 
 say with one's own whole life afloat, as well as the wishes 
 one had at heart. 'Twas pretty late, but I heard the music 
 strike up again in the room, and was going back again, 
 when all of a sudden I thought the strangest sound that 
 ever came to one's ears went sweeping round and round 
 far above the island, more like the flutter of a sail miles 
 wide than aught else I can fancy ; then a rush of something 
 like those same blasts of wind I was pretty well used to 
 by this time but wind it was not growing in half-a- 
 minute to a rumbling clatter, and then to a smothered roar, 
 as if something more than mortal shot from inland down 
 through the valley, and passed out by its mouth into the 
 open sea at once. I scarce felt the ground heave under 
 me, though I thought I saw the black head of the ravine 
 lift against the stars one terrible plunge of the sea down 
 at the quays and batteries, then everything was still again ; 
 but the whole dancing-party came rushing out in confusion 
 at my back, the ladies shrieking, the men looking up into 
 the sky, or at the cliffs on both sides ; the British flag, 
 over the fort on Ladder Hill, blowing out steadily to a
 
 A SEA STORY 309 
 
 stiff breeze aloft. It wasn't for some time, in fact, that 
 they picked up courage again to say it had been an earth- 
 quake. However, the ball was over, and, as soon as matters 
 could be set to rights, it was nothing but questions whether 
 it had aught to do with him up at Longwood, or hadn't 
 been an attempt to blow up the island some of the officers 
 being so much taken aback at first, that they fancied the 
 French had come. 
 
 " At last, however, we, who had nothing else for it, got 
 stowed away on sofas or otherwise about the dancing-room ; 
 for my part, I woke up just early enough to see the high 
 head of the valley coming out as clearly as before against 
 the morning light, and the water glancing blue out miles 
 away beyond the knot of ships in the opening. The news 
 was only that Napoleon was safe, having been in his bed 
 at the time, where he lay thinking one of the frigates had 
 blown up, they said. Not a word of his that got wind but 
 the people in Jamestown made it their day's text in 
 the want of which they'd even gossip about the coat he 
 wore that morning ; till you 'd have said the whole nest 
 of them, soldiers and all, lay under his shadow as the town 
 did at the foot of the cliffs, just ready to vanish as soon as 
 he went down. The Longwood doctor had told someone 
 in the Jew Solomon's toy-shop, by the forenoon, that Bona- 
 parte couldn't sleep that night for making some calculations 
 about a great battle he had fought, when he counted three 
 separate shocks of the thing, and noticed it was luckily 
 right up and down, or else Jamestown would have been 
 buried under tons of rock. The doctor had mentioned 
 besides that there was twice an earthquake before in the 
 island, in former times ; but it didn't need some of the 
 townspeople's looks to tell you they'd be afraid many a 
 night after, lest the French Emperor should wake up 
 thinking of his battles ; while, as for myself, I must say 
 the notion stuck to me some time, along with my own 
 ideas at that exact moment ; at any rate, not for worlds 
 would I have lived long ashore in St Helena.
 
 310 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 " TVT R NEWLAND ( the first lieutenant) and I set out early 
 T *" in the day, accordingly, with a couple of the Hebe's 
 midshipmen, mounted on as many of the little island ponies, 
 to go up inland for a cruise about the hills. You take Side 
 Path along the crags, with a wall betwixt the hard track and 
 the gulf below, till you lose sight of Jamestown like a 
 cluster of children's toy-houses under you, and turn up above 
 a sloping hollow full of green trees and tropical-like flowering 
 shrubs, round a pretty cottage called The Briars where one 
 begins to have a notion, however, of the bare blocks, the red 
 bluffs, and the sharp peaks standing up higher and higher 
 round the shell of the island. Then you had another rise of 
 it to climb, on which you caught sight of Jamestown and 
 the harbour again, even smaller than before, and saw nothing 
 before your beast's head but a desert of stony ground, running 
 hither and thither into wild staring clefts, grim ravines, and 
 rocks of every size tumbled over each other like figures of 
 ogres and giants in hard fight. After two or three miles of 
 all this, we came in view of Longwood Hill, lying green on a 
 level to north and east, and clipping to windward against the 
 sea beyond ; all round it elsewhere was the thick red crust of 
 the island, rising in ragged points and sharp spires the 
 greenish sugar-loaf of Diana's Peak shooting in the middle 
 over the high ridge that hid the Plantation House side of 
 St Helena to leeward. 
 
 " Between the spot where we were and Longwood is a huge 
 fearful-looking black hollow, called the Devil's Punch-bowl, 
 as round and deep as a pitch-pot for caulking all the ships in 
 the world except on a slope into one corner of it, where you 
 saw a couple of yellow cottages with gardens about them ; 
 while every here and there a patch of grass began to appear, 
 a clump of wild weeds and flowers hanging off the fronts of 
 the rocks, or the head of some valley widening away out of 
 sight, with the glimpse of a house amongst trees, where some 
 stream of water came leaping down off the heights and 
 vanished in the boggy piece of green below. From here over 
 the brow of the track it was all like seeing into an immense 
 stone basin half-hewn out, with all the lumps and wrinkles
 
 A SEA STORY 311 
 
 left rising in it and twisting every way about the black 
 Devil's Punch-bowl for a hole in the middle, where some 
 infernal liquor or other had run through ; the soft bottoms of 
 the valleys just bringing the whole of it up distincter to the 
 green over Longwood Hill ; while the ragged heights ran 
 round on every side like a rim with notches in it, and Diana's 
 Peak for a sort of a handle that the clouds could take hold of. 
 All this time we had strained ourselves to get as fast up as 
 possible, except once near the Alarm House, where there was 
 a telegraph signal-post, with a little guard-hut for the soldiers ; 
 but there each turned round in his saddle, letting out a long 
 breath the next thing to a cry, and heaving-to directly, at 
 sight of the prospect behind. The Atlantic lay wide away 
 round to the horizon from the roads, glittering faint over the 
 ragged edge of the crags we had mounted near at hand ; only 
 the high back of the island shut out the other side save here 
 and there through a deep-notched gully or two and accord- 
 ingly you saw the sea blotched out in that quarter to the two 
 sharp bright ends, clasping the dark-coloured lump between 
 them, like a mighty pair of arms lifting it high to carry it off. 
 Soon after, however, the two raids took it into their wise 
 heads the best thing was to go and climb Diana's Peak, 
 where they meant to cut their names at the very top ; on 
 which the first lieutenant, who was a careful middle-aged 
 man, thought needful to go with them, lest they got into 
 mischief; for my part, I preferred the chance of coming 
 across the mysterious Yankee and his comrade, as I fancied 
 not unlikely, or, what was less to be looked for, a sight of 
 Bonaparte himself. 
 
 " Accordingly, we had parted company, and I was holding 
 single-handed round one side of the Devil's Punch-bowl, 
 when I heard a clatter of horse-hoofs on the road, and saw 
 the Admiral and Lord Frederick riding quickly past on the 
 opposite side, on their way to Longwood which, curiously 
 enough, was half-covered with mist at the time, driving down 
 from the higher hills, apparently before a regular gale, or 
 rather some kind of a whirlwind. In fact, I learned after, 
 that such was often the case, the climate up there being quite 
 different from below, where they never feel a gale from one 
 year's end to the other. In the next hollow I got into, it was 
 hot and still as it would have been in India, the blackberry-
 
 312 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 trailers and wild aloes growing quite thick, mixed with prickly- 
 pear bushes, willows, gumwood, and an African palm or two ; 
 though from the look of the sea, I could notice the south- 
 east trade had freshened below, promising to blow a good 
 deal stronger that night than ordinary, and to shift a little 
 round. 
 
 " Suddenly the fog began to clear by degrees from over 
 Longwood, till it was fairly before me, nearer than I thought ; 
 and just as I rode up a rising ground, out came the roof of a 
 house on the slope amongst some trees, glittering wet as if 
 the sun laid a finger on it ; with a low bluish-coloured stretch 
 of wood farther off, bringing out the white tents of the 
 soldiers' camp pitched about the edge of it. Nearly to wind- 
 ward there was one sail in sight on the horizon, over an 
 opening in the rocks beyond Longwood House, that seem- 
 ingly let down toward the coast ; however, I just glanced 
 back to notice the telegraph on the signal-post at work, 
 signalling to the Podargus in the offing, and next minute 
 Hut's Gate was right ahead of me, not a quarter of a mile 
 off a long-shaped bungalow of a cottage, inside of a wall with 
 a gate in it, where I knew I needn't try farther, unless I 
 wanted the sentries to take me under arrest. Betwixt me 
 and it, however, in the low ground, was a party of man-o'- 
 war's-men under charge of a midshipman, carrying some 
 timber and house-furniture for Longwood, as I remembered, 
 from seeing them come ashore from the Podargus that morn- 
 ing ; so I stood over to give my late shipmates a hail. But 
 the moment I got up with them, it struck me not a little, as 
 things stood, to find three of the four blacks we had taken 
 aboard from that said burnt barque of the American mate's 
 trudging patiently enough under the heaviest loads of the 
 gang. Jetty-black, savage-looking fellows they were, as strong 
 as horses, and reminded me more of our wild friends in the 
 Nouries River, than of States niggers ; still, what caught my 
 notice most wasn't so much their being there at all, as the 
 want of the fourth one, and where he might be. I don't 
 know yet how this trifling bit of a puzzle got hold on me, 
 but it was the sole thing that kept me from what might have 
 turned a scrape to myself namely, passing myself in as officer 
 of the party ; which was easy enough at the time, and the 
 tars would have entered into the frolic as soon as I started it.
 
 A SEA STORY 313 
 
 On second thoughts, nevertheless, I bade them good-day, 
 steering my animal away round the slant of the ground, to 
 see after a good perch as near as possible ; and I daresay I 
 was getting within the bounds before I knew it when another 
 sentry sung out to me off the heights to keep lower down, first 
 bringing his musket to salute for my unifonn's sake, then 
 letting it fall level with a ringing slap of his palm, as much 
 as to say it was all the distinction I 'd get over plain clothes. 
 
 " At this, of course, I gave it up, with a blessing to all 
 lobster-backs, and made sail down to leeward again as far as 
 the next rise, from which there was a full view of the sea, at 
 any rate, though the face of a rough crag over behind me shut 
 out Longwood House altogether. Here I had to get fairly off 
 the saddle rather sore, I must say, with riding up St Helena 
 roads after so many weeks at sea and flung myself down on 
 the grass, with little enough fear of the hungry little beast 
 getting far adrift. This said crag, by-the-way, drew my eye 
 to it by the queer colours it showed, white, blue, grey, and 
 bright red in the hot sunlight ; and being too far off to make 
 out clearly, I slung off the ship's glass I had across my back, 
 just to overhaul it better. The hue of it was to be seen 
 running all down the deep rift between, that seemingly 
 wound away into some glen toward the coast ; while the 
 lot of plants and trailers half covering the steep front of it, 
 would no doubt, I thought, have delighted my old friend 
 the Yankee, if he was the botanising gentleman in question. 
 
 " By this time it was a lovely afternoon far and wide to 
 Diana's Peak, the sky glowing clearer deep-blue at that height 
 than you 'd have thought sky could do, even in the tropics 
 the very peaks of bare red rock being softened into a purple 
 tint, far off round you. One saw into the rough bottom of 
 the huge Devil's Punch-bowl, and far through without a 
 shadow down the green patches in the little valleys, and 
 over Deadwood Camp there was nothing, as it were, between 
 the grass, the ground, the stones, and leaves, and the empty 
 hollow of the air ; while the sea spread far round underneath, 
 of a softer blue than the sky over you. You 'd have thought 
 all the world was shrunk into St Helena, with the Atlantic 
 lying three-quarters round it in one's sight, like the horns of 
 the bright new moon round the dim old one ; which St 
 Helena pretty much resembled, if what the star-gazers say of
 
 314 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 its surface be true, all peaks and dry hollows if, indeed, you 
 weren't lifting up out of the world, so to speak, when one 
 looked through his fingers right into the keen blue overhead ! 
 
 " If I lived a thousand years, I couldn't tell half what I 
 felt lying there ; but, as you may imagine, it had somewhat 
 in it of the late European war by land and sea. Not that 
 I could have said so at the time, but rather a sort of half- 
 doze, such as I 've known one have when a schoolboy, lying 
 on the green grass the same way, with one's face turned up 
 into the hot summer heavens ; half of it flying glimpses, as it 
 were, of the French Revolution, the battles we used to hear 
 of when we were children then the fears about the invasion, 
 with the Channel full of British fleets, and Dover Cliffs 
 Trafalgar and Nelson's death, and the battle of Waterloo, 
 just after we heard he had got out of Elba. In the terrible 
 flash of the thing altogether, one almost fancied them all 
 gone like smoke ; and for a moment I thought I was falling 
 away off, down into the wide sky, so up I started to sit. From 
 that, suddenly I took to guessing and puzzling closely again 
 how I should go to work myself, if I were the strange French- 
 man I saw in the brig at sea, and wanted to manage Napoleon's 
 escape out of St Helena. And first, there was how to get 
 into the island and put him up to the scheme why, sure 
 enough, I couldn't have laid it down better than they seemed 
 to have done all along : what could one do but just dodge 
 about that latitude under all sorts of false rig, then catch hold 
 of somebody fit to cover one's landing? No Englishman would 
 do it, and no foreigner but would set Sir Hudson Lowe on his 
 guard in a moment. Next we should have to get put on the 
 island and really a neat enough plan it was to dog one of 
 the very cruisers themselves, knock up a mess of planks and 
 spars in the night-time, set them all ablaze with tar, and 
 pretend we were fresh from a craft on fire ; when even Captain 
 Wallis of the Podargus, as it happened, was too much of a 
 British seaman not to carry us straight to St Helena ! Again, 
 I must say it was a touch beyond me ; but to hit the 
 Governor's notions of a hobby, and go picking up plants 
 round Longwood, was a likely enough way to get speech 
 of the prisoner^ or at least let him see one was there ! 
 
 " How should I set about carrying him off to the coast, 
 though ? That was the prime matter. Seeing that even if
 
 A SEA STORY 315 
 
 the schooner which was no doubt hovering out of sight- 
 were to make a bold dash for the land with the trade-wind, 
 in a night eleven hours long there were sentries close round 
 Longwood from sunset, the starlight shining mostly always in 
 the want of a moon ; and at any rate there was rock and gully 
 enough, betwixt here and the coast, to try the surest foot 
 aboard the Hebe, let alone an emperor. With plenty of 
 woods for a cover, one might steal up close to Longwood, 
 but the bare rocks showed you off to be made a mark of. 
 Whew ! but why were those same blacks on the island ? I 
 thought ; just strip them stark-naked, and let them lie in the 
 Devil's Punch-bowl, or somewhere, beyond military hours, 
 when I warrant me they might slip up, gully by gully, to 
 the very sentries' backs ! Their colour wouldn't show them, 
 and savages as they seemed, couldn't they settle as many 
 sentries as they needed, creep into the very bed-chamber 
 where Bonaparte slept, and man-handle him bodily away 
 down through some of the nearest hollows, before anyone 
 was the wiser ? The point that still bothered me was, why 
 the fourth of the blacks was wanting at present, unless he 
 had his part to play elsewhere. If it was chance, then the 
 whole might be a notion of mine, which I knew I was apt to 
 have sometimes. If I could only make out the fourth black, 
 so as to tally with the scheme, on the other hand, then I 
 thought it was all sure ; but of* course this quite checked me, 
 and I gave it up, to work out my fancy case by providing 
 signals betwixt us plotters inside and the schooner out of 
 sight from the telegraphs. 
 
 "There was no use for her to run in and take the risk, 
 without good luck having turned up on the island ; yet any 
 sign she could profit by must be both sufficient to reach sixty 
 miles or so, and hidden enough not to alarm the telegraphs or 
 the cruisers. Here was a worse puzzle than all, and I only 
 guessed at it for my own satisfaction as a fellow can't help 
 doing when he hears a question he can't answer till my eye 
 lighted on Diana's Peak, near three thousand feet above the 
 sea. There it was, by Jove ! 'Twas quite clear at the time ; 
 but by nightfall there was always more or less cloud near the 
 top ; and if you set a fire on the very peak, 'twould only be 
 seen leagues off: a notion that brought to mind a similar 
 thing which I told you saved the Indiaman from a lee-shore
 
 316 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 one night on the African coast and again, by George! I saw 
 that must have been meant at first by the negroes as a smoke 
 to help the French brig easier in ! Putting that and that 
 together, why it struck me at once what the fourth black's 
 errand might be namely, to watch for the schooner, and 
 kindle his signal as soon as he couldn't see the island for mist, 
 I was sure of it ; and as for a dark night coming on at sea, 
 the freshening of the breeze there promised nothing more 
 likely ; a bright white haze was softening out the horizon 
 already, and here and there the egg of a cloud could be seen 
 to break off the sky to windward, all of which would be better 
 known afloat than here. 
 
 " The truth was, I was on the point of tripping my anchor 
 to hurry down and get aboard again, but, on standing up, the 
 head of a peak fell below the sail I had noticed in the dis- 
 tance, and, seeing she loomed large on the stretch of water, 
 I pretty soon found she must be a ship of the line. The 
 telegraph over the Alarm House was hard at work again, so 
 I e'en took down my glass and cleaned it to have a better 
 view, during which I caught sight, for a minute, of some 
 soldier-officer or other on horseback, with a mounted red-coat 
 behind him, riding hastily up the gully a good bit from my 
 back, till they were round the red piece of crag, turning at 
 times as if to watch the vessel. Though I couldn't have a 
 better spy at him for want of my glass, I had no doubt he 
 was the Governor himself, for the sentries in the distance 
 took no note of him. 
 
 "There was nobody else visible at the time, and the said 
 cliff stood fair up like a lookout place, so as to shut them out 
 as they went higher. Once or twice after, I fancied I made 
 out a man's head or two lower down the gully than the cliff 
 was, which, it occurred to me, might possibly be the botanists, 
 as they called themselves, busy finding out how long St 
 Helena had been an island ; however, I soon turned the glass 
 before me upon the ship, by this time right opposite the 
 ragged opening of Prosperous Bay, and heading well up about 
 fourteen miles or so off the coast, as I reckoned, to make 
 Jamestown harbour. The moment I had the sight of the glass 
 right for her though you 'd have thought she stood still on 
 the smooth soft blue water I could see her whole beam rise 
 off the swells before me, from the dark side and white band,
 
 A SEA STORY 317 
 
 checkered with a double row of ports, to the hamper of her 
 lofty spars, and the sails braced slant to the breeze, the foam 
 gleaming under her high bows, and her wake running aft in 
 the heave of the sea. She was evidently a seventy-four ; I 
 fancied I could make out her men's faces peering over the 
 yards toward the island, as they thought of ' Boneypart ' ; a 
 white rear-admiral's flag was at the mizzen-royal-masthead, 
 leaving no doubt she was the Conqueror at last, with Admiral 
 Plampin, and, in a day or two at farthest, the Hebe would be 
 bound for India. 
 
 "I had just looked over my shoulder toward Longwood, 
 letting the Conqueror sink back again into a thing no bigger 
 than a model on a mantelpiece, when, all at once, I saw 
 someone standing near the brow of the cliff I mentioned, 
 apparently watching the vessel, with a long glass at his eye, 
 like myself. 'Twas farther than I could see to make out any- 
 thing, save so much ; and, ere I had screwed the glass for 
 such a near sight, there were seven or eight figures more 
 appearing half over the slope behind ; while my hand shook 
 so much with holding the glass so long, that at first I brought 
 it to bear full on the cracks and blocks in the front of the 
 crag, with the large green leaves and trailers on it flickering 
 idly with the sunlight against my eyes, till I could have seen 
 the spiders inside, I daresay. Next I held it too high, where 
 the Admiral and Lord Frederick were standing by their 
 horses, a good way back ; the Governor, as I supposed, sitting 
 on his, and two or three others along the rise. At length, 
 what with kneeling down to rest it on one knee, I had the 
 glass steadily fixed on the brow of the rocks, where I plainly 
 saw a tall dark-whiskered man, in a rich French uniform, 
 gazing to seaward I knew him I sought too well by pictures, 
 however, not to be sadly galled. 
 
 "Suddenly a figure came slowly down from before the rest, 
 with his hands behind his back, and his head a little drooped. 
 The officer at once lowered the telescope and held it to him, 
 stepping upward, as if to leave him alone what dress he had 
 on I scarce noticed ; but there he was standing, single, in the 
 round bright field of the glass I had hold of like a vice his 
 head raised, his hands hiding his face, as he kept the telescope 
 fixed fair in front of me only I saw the smooth, broad round 
 of his chin. I knew, as if I 'd seen him in the Tuileries at
 
 318 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Paris, or known him by sight since I was a boy I knew it was 
 Napoleon ! 
 
 " During that minute the rest of them were out of sight, so 
 far as the glass went you 'd have supposed there was no one 
 there but himself, as still as a figure in iron, watching the 
 same thing, no doubt, as I 'd done myself five minutes before, 
 where the noble seventy-four was beating slowly to windward. 
 When I did glance to the knot of officers twenty yards back, 
 'twas as if one saw a ring of his generals waiting respectfully 
 while he eyed some field of battle or other, with his army at 
 the back of the hill ; but next moment the telescope fell in 
 his hands, and his face, as pale as death, with his lip firm 
 under it, seemed near enough for me to touch it his eyes 
 shot stern into me from below his wide white forehead, and I 
 started, dropping my glass in turn. That instant the whole 
 wild lump of St Helena, with its ragged brim, the clear blue 
 sky and the sea, swung round about the dwindled figures 
 above the crag, till they were nothing but so many people 
 together against the slope beyond. 
 
 "'Twas a strange scene to witness, let me tell you; never 
 can I forget the sightless, thinking sort of gaze from that 
 head of his, after the telescope sank from his eye, when the 
 Conqueror must have shot back with all her stately hamper 
 into the floor of the Atlantic again ! 
 
 " Once more I brought my spy-glass to bear on the place 
 where he had been, and was almost on the point of calling 
 out to warn him off the edge of the cliff, forgetting the 
 distance I was away. Napoleon had stepped, with one foot 
 before him, on the very brink, his two hands hanging loose 
 by his side, with the glass in one of them, till the shadow of 
 his small black cocked hat covered the hollows of his eyes, 
 and he stood, as it were, looking down past the face of the 
 precipice. What he thought of, no mortal tongue can say, 
 whether he was master at the time over a wilder battle than 
 any he 'd ever fought but just then, what was the surprise it 
 gave me to see the head of a man, with a red tassel led cap 
 on it, raised through amongst the ivy from below, while he 
 seemed to have his feet on the cracks and juts of the rock, 
 hoisting himself by one hand round the tangled roots, till 
 no doubt he must have looked right aloft into the French 
 Emperor's face; and perhaps he whispered something
 
 A SEA STORY 319 
 
 though, for my part, it was all dumb show to me, where I 
 knelt peering into the glass. I saw even him start at the 
 suddenness of the thing he raised his head upright, still 
 glancing down over the front of the crag, with the spread 
 hand lifted, and the side of his face half-turned toward the 
 party within earshot behind, where the Governor and the rest 
 apparently kept together out of respect, no doubt watching 
 both Napoleon's back and the ship of war far beyond. The 
 keen sunlight on the spot brought out every motion of the 
 two in front the one so full in my view, that I could mark 
 his look settle again on the other below, his firm lips part- 
 ing and his hand out before him, like a man seeing a spirit 
 he knew; while a bunch of leaves on the end of a wand 
 came stealing up from the stranger's post to Napoleon's very 
 fingers. 
 
 "The head of the man on the cliff turned round seaward 
 for one moment, ticklish as his footing must have been ; then 
 he looked back, pointing with his loose hand to the horizon 
 there was one minute between them without a motion, 
 seemingly the captive Emperor's chin was sunk on his 
 breast, though you 'd have said his eyes glanced up out of 
 the shadow of his forehead ; and the stranger's red cap 
 hung like a bit of the bright-coloured cliff, under his two 
 hands, holding amongst the leaves. Then I saw Napoleon 
 lift his hand calmly, he gave a sign with it it might have 
 been refusing, it might have been agreeing, or it might be 
 farewell, I never expect to know ; but he folded his arms 
 across his breast, with the bunch of leaves in his fingers, and 
 stepped slowly back from the brink towards the officers. I 
 was watching the stranger below it, as he swung there for a 
 second or two, in a way like to let him go dash to the bottom ; 
 his face sluing wildly seaward again. Short though the glance 
 I had of him was his features set hard in some bitter feeling 
 or other, his dress different, too, besides the moustache being 
 off, and his complexion no doubt purposely darkened it 
 served to prove what I 'd suspected: he was no other than the 
 Frenchman I had seen in the brig, and, mad or sensible, the 
 very look I caught was more like that he faced the thunder- 
 squall with than aught besides. Directly after, he was letting 
 himself carefully down with his back to my glass ; the party 
 above were moving off over the brow of the crags, and the
 
 320 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Governor riding round apparently to come once more down 
 the hollow between us. 
 
 " In fact, the seventy-four had stood by this time so far 
 in, that the peaks in the distance shut her out ; but I ran the 
 glass carefully along the whole horizon in my view, for signs 
 of the schooner. The haze was too bright, however, to make 
 sure either way ; though, dead to windward, there were some 
 streaks of cloud risen with the breeze, where I once or twice 
 fancied I could catch the gleam of a speck in it. The 
 Podargiis was to be seen through a notch in the rocks, too, 
 beating out in a different direction, as if the telegraph had 
 signalled her elsewhere ; after which you heard the dull 
 rumble of the forts saluting the Conqueror down at James- 
 town as she came in ; and being late in the afternoon, it was 
 high time for me to crowd sail downward, to fall in with my 
 shipmates. 
 
 " I was just getting near the turn into Side Path, accord- 
 ingly, after a couple of mortal hours' hard riding, and once 
 more in sight of the harbour beneath, when the three of them 
 overtook me, having managed to reach the top of Diana's 
 Peak, as they meant. The first lieutenant was full of the 
 grand views on the way, with the prospect of the peak, where 
 one saw the sea all round St Helena like a ring, and the sky 
 over you as blue as blue water. ' But what do you think we 
 saw on the top, Mr Collins ? ' asked one of the urchins of me 
 a mischievous imp he was himself, too, pock-marked, with 
 hair like a brush, and squinted like a ship's two hawse-holes. 
 ' Why, Mister Snelling,' said I, gruffly for I knew him pretty 
 well already, and he was rather a favourite with me for his 
 sharpness, though you may suppose I was thinking of no trifles 
 at the moment 'why, the devil, perhaps.' 'I must say I 
 thought at first it was him, sir,' said the reefer, grinning ; 
 ' 'twas a black nigger, though, sir, sitting right on the very 
 truck of it, with his hands on his two knees, and we 'd got to 
 shove him off before we could dig our knives into it ! ' ' By 
 
 the Lord Harry ! ' I rapped out, ' the very thing that ' 
 
 ' 'Twas really the case, though, Mr Collins,' said the first 
 lieutenant ; ' and I thought it curious ; but there are so many 
 negroes in the island.' ' If you please, sir,' put in the least 
 of the raids, 'perhaps they haven't all of 'em room to meditate, 
 sir ! ' 'Or sent to the mast-head, eh, Roscoe ? ' said Snelling.
 
 A SEA STORY 321 
 
 * Which you '11 be, sirrah/ broke in the first lieutenant, ' the 
 moment I get aboard, if you don't keep a small helm.' We 
 were clattering down over Jamestown by this time, the sun 
 blazing red off the horizon, into it and the doors of the houses, 
 and the huge hull and spars of the Conqueror almost blocking 
 up the harbour, as she lay anchored outside the Indiaman. 
 The evening gun fired as we pulled aboard the Hebe, which 
 immediately got under weigh by order, although Lord 
 Frederick was not come down yet ; but it fell to her turn 
 that night to supply a guard-boat to windward, and she 
 stood up under full sail round Sugarloaf Point, just as the 
 dusk fell like a shadow over the island. 
 
 " The Newcastle's boat was on the leeward coast that night, 
 and one of our cutters was getting ready to lower, nearly off 
 Prosperous Bay, to windward, while the frigate herself would 
 hold farther out to sea. One of the master's mates should 
 have taken the cutter ; but after giving the first lieutenant a 
 few hints as far as I liked to go, I proposed to go in charge of 
 her that time, myself which was laid to the score of my fresh- 
 ness on the station ; and the mate being happy to get rid of 
 a tiresome duty, I got leave at once. 
 
 " The sharp midshipman, Snelling, took it into his ugly 
 head to keep me company, and away we pulled into hearing of 
 the surf. The moment things took the shape of fair work, in 
 fact, I lost all thoughts of a late kind. In place of seeing 
 the ragged heights against the sky, and musing all sorts of 
 notions about the French Emperor, there was nothing but the 
 broad bulk of the island high over us, the swell below, and the 
 sea glimmering wide from our gunwale to the stars ; so no 
 sooner did we lose sight of the Hebe slowly melting into the 
 gloom, than I lit a cheroot, gave the tiller to the mid, and 
 sat stirring to the heart at the thought of something to come, 
 I scarce knew what. As for Bonaparte, with all that belonged 
 to him, 'twas little to me in that mood, in spite of what I 'd 
 seen during the day, compared with a snatch of old Channel 
 times ; the truth was, next morning I 'd feel for him again. 
 
 "The night for a good while was pretty tolerably starlit, 
 and in a sort of way you could make out a good distance. 
 One time we pulled right round betwixt the two points, 
 though slowly enough ; then again the men lay on their 
 oars, letting her float in with the long swells, till the surf
 
 322 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 could be heard too loud for a safe berth. Farther on in 
 the night, however, it got to be dark below at least the 
 breeze holding steady, and bringing it thicker and thicker; at 
 last it was so black all round that on one side you just knew 
 the rocks over you, with the help of a faint twinkle of stars 
 right aloft. On the other side there was only, at times, the 
 two lights swinging at the mast-head of the Podargus and 
 Hebe, far apart, and one farther to sea than the other ; or now 
 and then their stern-window and a port, when the heave of 
 the water lifted them, or the ships yawed a little. One hour 
 after another, it was wearisome enough waiting for nothing at 
 all, especially in the key one was in at the time, and with a 
 long tropical night before you. 
 
 " All of a sudden, fairly between the brig and the frigate, 
 I fancied I caught a glimpse for one moment of another 
 twinkle ; then it was out again, and I had given it up, when I 
 was certain I saw it plainly once more, as well as a third time, 
 for as short a space as before. We were off a cove in the 
 coast, inside Prosperous Bay, where a bight in the rocks 
 softened the force of the surf, not far from the steep break 
 where one of these same narrow gullies came out a good 
 deal short of the shore, indeed ; but I knew by this time it 
 led up somewhere toward the Longwood side. Accordingly 
 the idea struck me of a plan to set agoing, whether I hit upon 
 the right place or not ; if it was the schooner, she would be 
 coming down right from windward, on the lookout for a signal, 
 as well as for the spot to aim at ; the thing was to lure her 
 boat ashore there before their time, seize her crew, and take 
 the schooner herself by surprise, as if we were coming back 
 all right ; since signal the ships we couldn't, and the schooner 
 would be wary as a dolphin. 
 
 " No sooner said than done. I steered cautiously for the 
 cove, fearfully though the swell bore in, breaking over the 
 rocks outside of it ; and the reefer and I had to spring one 
 after the other for our lives, just as the bowman prized her off 
 into the back-wash. 
 
 " As for the cutter, it would spoil all to keep her off there- 
 abouts ; and I knew, if a boat did come in of the kind I 
 guessed, why she wouldn't lay herself out for strength of 
 crew. Snelling and I were well armed enough to manage half- 
 a-dozen, if they fancied us friends ; so I ordered the men to
 
 A SEA STORY 323 
 
 pull clear off for an hour, at least leaving fair water. In fact 
 there were sentries about the heights, I was aware, if they could 
 have heard or seen us ; but the din of the surf, the dark, and 
 the expectation of the thing, set us both upon our mettle ; 
 while I showed the boat's lantern every now and then, like the 
 light I had noticed, such as the Channel smugglers use every 
 thick night on our own coast. I suppose we might have 
 waited five or ten minutes when the same twinkle was to be 
 caught, dipping dark down into the swell again, about opposite 
 the cove ; next we had half-an-hour more, every now and 
 then giving them a flash of the lantern, when suddenly the 
 reefer said he saw oars glisten over a swell, which he knew 
 weren't man-o' -war's strokes, or else the fellows ought to 
 have their grog stopped. I had the lantern in my hand, 
 slipping the shade once more, and the other to feel for my 
 cutlass-hilt, when the mid gave a cry behind me, and I 
 turned just in time to see the dark figure of a black spring 
 off the stones at our backs. One after another three or four 
 more came leaping past me out of the gloom the Frenchman's 
 red cap and his dark fierce face glared on me by the light of 
 the lantern ; and next moment it was down, with him and me 
 in a deadly struggle over it in the thick black of the night. 
 Suddenly I felt myself lose hold of him in the heave of the 
 swell, washing away back off the rock ; then something else 
 trying to clutch me, when down I swept with the sea bubbling 
 into my mouth and ears. 
 
 " I came up above water again by the sheer force of the 
 swell, as it seemed to me, plunging into the shore ; with the 
 choice, I thought, of either being drowned in the dark, or 
 knocked to a jelly on the rocks ; but out I struck, naturally 
 enough, rising on the huge scud of the sea, and trying to 
 breast it, though I felt it sweep me backwards at every stroke, 
 and just saw the wide glimmer of it heave far and wide for a 
 moment against the gloom of the cliffs behind. All at once, 
 in the trough, I heard the panting of someone's breath near 
 alongside of me, and directly after I was caught hold of by 
 the hair of the head, somebody else grabbing at the same 
 time for my shoulder. We weren't half-a-dozen fathoms from 
 the stranger's boat, the blacks who had fallen foul of me 
 swimming manfully together, and the boat lifting bow-on to 
 the run of the sea, as her crew looked about for us by the
 
 324 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 light of their lantern. I had just got my senses enough 
 about me to notice so much, when they were hauling me 
 aboard ; all four of the negroes holding on with one hand 
 by the boat's gunnel, and helping their way with the other ; 
 while the oars began to make for the light, which was still 
 to be caught by fits, right betwixt those of the two cruisers, 
 as the space widened slowly in the midst of them, standing 
 out to sea. Scarce had I time to feel some one beside me 
 as wet as myself, whether the reefer or the Frenchman I 
 didn't know, when crash came another boat with her bows 
 fairly down upon our gunwale, out of the dark. 
 
 " The spray splashed up betwixt us, I saw the glitter of 
 the oar-blades, and heard Snelling's shrill voice singing out 
 to ' sink the villains, my lads down with 'em remember 
 the second lieutenant ! ' The lantern in the French boat 
 flared, floating out for a single instant amongst a wreck of 
 staves and heads, bobbing wildly together on the side of 
 a wave. One of my own men from the cutter pulled me 
 by the cuff of the neck off the crest of it with his boat- 
 hook, as it rose swelling away past, till I had fast grip of 
 her quarter ; the blacks could be seen struggling in the 
 hollow, to keep up their master's body, with his hands spread 
 helplessly hither and thither above water. The poor devils' 
 wet black faces turned so wistfully, in their desperation, 
 towards the cutter, that I gasped out to save him. They 
 kept making towards us, in 'fact, and the bowman managed 
 to hook him at last, though not a moment too soon, for 
 the next heave broke the unlucky wretches apart, and we 
 lost sight of them ; the cutter hanging on her oars till 
 they had both him and me stowed into tRe stern-sheets, 
 where the Frenchman lay seemingly dead or senseless, and 
 I spitting out the salt water like a cockney after a bathe. 
 
 f( e Why, Mr Snelling/ said I, as soon as I came fully to 
 myself, ' I can't at all understand how I got into the water ! ' 
 ' Nor I either, sir,' said he ; ' I '11 be hanged, sir, if I didn't 
 think it was a whirlwind of niggers off the top of Diana's 
 Peak, seeing I made out the very one we found there this 
 afternoon the four of them took you and this other gentle- 
 man up in their arms in a lump, as you were floundering 
 about together, and took to the water like so many seals, 
 sir ! ' I looked down into the Frenchman's face, where he
 
 A SEA STORY 325 
 
 lay stretched with his head back and his hair dripping. 
 ' Is he gone ? ' said I. ' Well, sir,' said the mid, who had 
 contrived to light the lantern again, ' I 'm afraid he 's pretty 
 near it. Is he a friend of yours, sir ? I thought as much, 
 by-the-way, you caught him the moment you clapped eyes 
 on each other, sir.' ' Silence, sirrah ! ' said I. ' D' ye see 
 anything of the light to seaward ? ' 
 
 " For a minute or two we peered over the swells into 
 the dark, to catch the twinkle of the signal again, but to 
 no purpose ; and I began to think the bird was flown. All 
 of a sudden, however, there it was once more, dipping as 
 before beyond the heave of the sea, and between the backs 
 of it, sliding across the open space, with the blind side to 
 the cruisers. ' Hallo, my lads ! ' said I, quickly, and giving 
 myself another shake as I seized the tiller, ' give way sea- 
 ward stretch your backs for ten minutes, and we have 
 her ! ' We were pulling right for the spot, when the light 
 vanished, but a show of our lantern brought it gleaming 
 fairly out again, till I could even catch a glimpse by it 
 of some craft or other's hull, and the iron of one boom- 
 end, rising over the swells. ' Bow-oar, there ! ' whispered I. 
 ' Stand by, my lad, and look sharp ! ' ' Hola ! ' came a short, 
 sharp hail over the swells, ' d'oit venez-vous ? ' 'Out, oui!' I 
 gang out boldly, through my hand, to cover the difference as 
 much as possible ; then a thought occurred to me, recollecting 
 the French surgeon's .words on board this very craft the first 
 time we saw her ' De la cage de I'Aigle,' I hailed ; ' bonne 
 fortune, mes amis ! ' f C'est possible ! c'est possible, mon 
 capitaine ! ' shouted several of the schooner's crew, jumping 
 upon her bulwarks, ' que vous apportez lui-meme ? ' 
 
 " We are pulling for her side as lubberly as possible, all 
 the time a man ran up on her quarter with a coil of line 
 ready to heave but still the main boom of the schooner 
 was already jibbing, her helm up, and she under way ; they 
 seemed half doubtful of us, and another moment might turn 
 the scales. ' Vite, vite ! ' roared I, choosing my French at 
 hap hazard. ' Oui, oui, jettez votre corde venez au lof, 
 mes amis ! ' luff, that was to say. I heard somebody aboard 
 say it was the American the schooner came up in the wind, 
 the line whizzing off her quarter into our bows, and we 
 came sheering down close by her lee - quarter, grinding
 
 326 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 against her bends in the surge, twenty eager faces peering 
 over at us in the confusion ; when I sung out hoarsely to 
 run for brandy and hot blankets, as he was half-drowned. 
 ' Proniptement promptement, mes amis ! ' shouted I, and 
 as quickly there was a rush from her bulwarks to bring 
 what was wanted, while Snelling and I made dash up her 
 side, followed by the men, cutlass in hand. Three minutes 
 of hubbub, and as many strokes betwixt us, when we had 
 driven the few that stood in our way pell-mell down the 
 nearest hatchway. The schooner was completely our own. 
 
 " We hoisted up the cutter, with the French captain still 
 stretched in the stern-sheet hauled aft the schooner's head- 
 sheets, let her large mainsail swing full again, and were soon 
 standing swiftly out toward the light at the frigate's masthead. 
 
 "When the Hebe first caught sight of us, or rather heard 
 the sound of the schooner's sharp bows rushing through the 
 water, she naturally enough didn't know what to make of us. 
 I noticed our first luffs sudden order to clear away the fore- 
 most weather-gun, with the rush of the men for it ; but my 
 hail set all to rights. We hove-to off her weather quarter, 
 and I was directly after on board, explaining, as simply as 
 possible, how we had come to get a hold of a French craft 
 thereabouts in such a strange fashion. 
 
 " Accordingly, you may fancy the surprise at Jamestown 
 in the morning, to see the Hebe standing in with her prize, 
 let alone the Governor's perfect astonishment at suspecting 
 some scheme to carry off Napoleon, apparently, so far brought 
 to a head. The upshot of it was, to cut this bit of my story 
 short, he and the military folks would have it, at last, that 
 there was nothing of the kind, but only some slaver from the 
 African coast wanting to land a cargo, especially as there 
 were so many blacks aboard of her ; and the Frenchman at 
 once took the cue, the little Monsieur of a mate swearing he 
 had been employed by several of the islanders some months 
 before to bring them slaves. For my own part, all things 
 considered, I had nothing to say, and after some likelihood of 
 a shine being kicked up about it at first, the matter was 
 hushed up. However, the schooner was of course condemned 
 in the meantime, as the Hebe's fair prize, till such time as the 
 Admiralty Court at the Cape should settle it on our outward- 
 bound voyage.
 
 A SEA STORY 327 
 
 " As the Hebe was to sail at once for India, the Governor 
 took the opportunity to send two or three supernumeraries out 
 in the vessel along with us to the Cape of Good Hope, amongst 
 whom was the Yankee botanist ; and though being in the 
 frigate I didn't see him, I made as sure as if I had, it was my 
 old shipmate Daniel. 
 
 " Well, the morning came, when we weighed anchor from 
 St James's Bay for sea, in company with the prize. It wasn't 
 more than ten or eleven days since we had arrived in the 
 Podargus, but I was as weary with the sight of St Helena as 
 if I 'd lived there a year. The frigate's lovely hull, and her 
 taut spars, spreading the square stretch of her white canvas 
 sideways to the Trade, put new life into me. Slowly as we 
 dropped the peaks of the island on our lee-quarter, 'twas 
 something to feel yourself travelling the same road as the 
 Indiaman once more, with the odds of a mail coach, too, to a 
 French diligence. What chance might turn up to bring us 
 together, I certainly didn't see ; but that night, when we and 
 the schooner were the only things in the horizon, both fast 
 plunging, close-hauled, on a fresh breeze, at the distance of a 
 mile, I set my mind, for the first time, more at ease. ' Luck and 
 the anchors stowed ! ' thought I, ' and hang all forethoughts ! ' 
 I walked the weather quarterdeck in my watch as pleasantly as 
 might be, with now and then a glance forward at Snelling, as 
 he yarned at the fife-rail beside a groggy old mate, and at times 
 a glimmer of the schooner's hull on our lee-beam, rising wet out 
 of the dusk, under charge of our third lieutenant. 
 
 " It was about a week afterwards, and we began to have 
 rough touches of Cape weather, pitching away on cross seas, 
 and handing our gallant-sails oftener of a night, that Lord 
 Frederick said to me one evening, before going down to his 
 cabin, ' Mr Collins, I really hope we shall not find your India- 
 man at Cape Town, after all ! ' ' Indeed, Lord Frederick ! ' 
 said I respectfully enough ; but it was the very thing I hoped 
 myself. ' Yes, sir,' continued he ; ' as I received strict in- 
 junctions by Admiral Plampin to arrest Lieutenant Westwood 
 if we fell in with her there, and otherwise, to send the 
 schooner in her track, even if it were to Bombay/ 'The 
 deuce!' I thought, 'are we never to be done with this infernal 
 affair ?' ' 'Tis excessively disagreeable,' continued the captain, 
 swinging his gold eyeglass round his finger by the chain, as
 
 328 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 was his custom when bothered, and looking with one eye all 
 the while at the schooner. 'A beautiful craft, by-the-way, 
 Mr Collins. ' said he, ' even within sight of the Hebe.' 'She 
 is so, my lord,' said I ; ' if she had only had a sensible boat- 
 swain, even, to put the sticks aloft in her.' ' I say, Mr 
 Collins,' went on his lordship, musingly, ' I think I have it, 
 though the way to get rid of this scrape ! ' 
 
 " I waited and waited, however, for Lord Frederick to 
 mention this ; and to no purpose, apparently, as he went 
 below without saying a word more about it." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 " TT7ELL, ma'am," continued our narrator, addressing him- 
 * * self, as usual, to his matronly relative in the chair, 
 and with the accustomed catch-word, which was like the 
 knotting together of his interrupted yarn : " well it was 
 between a fortnight and three weeks after losing sight of St 
 Helena, that, being at last fairly in the latitude of the Cape, 
 the frigate and schooner tacked in company, and stood close- 
 hauled on a wind to the eastward. By the middle watch that 
 night, when the moon set, we could make out the long flat 
 top of Table Mountain heaving in sight off the horizon over 
 against her. Next day, in fact, we were both of us quietly 
 at anchor outside of the shipping in Table Bay ; Cape Town 
 glittering along on the green flat amongst the trees to south- 
 ward, with the hills on each side of it like some big African 
 lion lying on guard close by ; while Table Mountain hove up, 
 square-shouldered, blue to the left, four thousand feet high, 
 as bare and steep as a wall, with the rocks and trees creeping 
 up from the foot, and the wreaths of light cloud resting half- 
 way, like nothing else but the very breakwater of the world's 
 end. The sea stretched broad off to north and west, and a 
 whole fleet of craft lay betwixt us and the land half of them 
 Indiamen amongst which, you may be sure, I kept a pretty 
 sharp lookout with the/ glass, to see if the Seringapatam were 
 there still. 
 
 " I was soon saved further pains on this head, however, 
 when shortly afterwards the frigate was beset by a whole 
 squadron of bumboats, shoving against each other, and squab-
 
 A SEA STORY 329 
 
 bling in all sorts of nigger tongues, Vebo should be first : the 
 chief of them being in evident command of a fat old Dutch 
 Vrouw, with an immense blue umbrella over her, two greasy- 
 looking Hottentot rowers in blankets, and a round-faced 
 Dutch boy, the picture of herself, steering the boat ; as the 
 old lady made a clear berth for herself, by laying about her 
 with her blue umbrella, till she was close under our quarter, 
 sitting all the while with the broad round stern of her bright- 
 coloured gown spread over a couple of beer-barrels, like a 
 peacock's train. In two minutes more the little fellow was 
 up the side, nourishing a bundle of papers under the first 
 lieutenant's very nose, and asking the ship's custom, even 
 whilst the sentries were ordering them all off. A midshipman 
 took this youth by the cuff of the neck, and was handing him 
 rather roughly along to the care of the purser's steward, when 
 I stepped betwixt them ; and a bumboat being the best direc- 
 tory on the point, of course, I soon found the old lady had 
 had dealings with the Seringapatam, which her bluff-built 
 little progeny described as a very good ship indeed, all having 
 paid their bills, except one young officer, who had left a 
 balance standing, for which he had given a letter to his 
 brother in a ship that was to come after, As for the India- 
 man herself, the Dutch boy said she had sailed about a week 
 before our arrival, along with two others ; and he was anxious 
 to know if we were the vessel in question. I accordingly 
 unfolded the open letter, which was addressed : ' Thomas 
 Spoonbill Simm, Esquire, of His Britannic Majesty's ship 
 Nincompoop (or otherwise) ' ; and it ran somehow thus : 
 'Hon. East India Company's ship Seringapatam, Table Bay, 
 September 1, 1816. My dear Brother, This is to certify that 
 I have eaten four dozen and a half of eggs, supplied by the 
 worthy Vrouw Dulcken, the bearer of this, whom I can 
 recommend as an old screw, and am due her for the same 
 the sum of nine shillings and sixpence sterling, which you 
 will kindly pay her, taking her receipt or mark, unless you 
 are willing to forfeit our family watch, herewith deposited by 
 me in the hands of said Mother Dulcken. I may add that, 
 in justice to the worthy Vrouw, three of the above-mentioned 
 eggs ought to be charged as fowls, which, by-the-way, I did 
 not consume ; and, with love to all at home, remain your 
 affectionate brother, JOHN SIMM, H.E.I.C.S. P.S. The watch
 
 330 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 I have discovered to be pinchbeck, and it does not go ; so 
 that a sad trick must have been originally played upon our 
 venerated uncle, from whom it descended. J. S.' 
 
 "This precious epistle was, without doubt, a joke of the 
 fat mid Simm, who used to come such rigs over Ford the 
 cadet, and that jumped overboard one night by mistake out 
 of the Indiaman's quarter-boat, during the voyage. As for 
 the existence of his brother Thomas, or the chance of his 
 touching at that port, I set them down with the coming home 
 of Vanderdecken ; though the thought of this young scamp of 
 a sea-lawyer breakfasting for a fortnight so comfortably, only 
 a few feet distant from my charmer's state-room, sent me all 
 abroad again, and right into the Indiaman's decks, by this 
 time far out of sight of land. Piece of impudent roguery 
 though it was, I was actually loath to part with the scrawl, 
 which the reefer had fisted, no doubt, on the lid of his chest 
 probably with a pipe in his mouth at the time, it smelt so of 
 tobacco only seven days before : I could even see the grin 
 on his fat face as he wrote it below in the steerage, with his 
 chin up, and his eyes looking down past his pipe ; while the 
 little Dutch boy's round flat frontispiece glistened as he 
 peered up at me, in the evident notion of my being the 
 brother expected. 
 
 " In fact, ma'am, I was so soft as to intend paying the 
 nine-and-sixpence myself, and keeping the letter, when I was 
 startled to see the old lady herself had contrived to be hoisted 
 on board amongst her cabbages ; and having got wind of the 
 thing, seemingly, she came waddling towards me to hand over 
 Simm's watch to boot. In another half-minute the letter was 
 being read aloud in the midst of the whole gun-room officers, 
 amongst roars of laughter ; the honest old Dutchwoman hold- 
 ing aloft the precious article, and floundering through to find 
 out the rightful owner, as everyone claimed it and offered the 
 nine-and-sixpence ; while for my part I tried first to get down 
 one hatchway, then another; and Lord Frederick himself came 
 up on the starboard side of the quarterdeck in the height of 
 the scene. Indeed, I believe it was a joke for months after 
 in the Hebe, of a night, to say it was ' the second lieutenant's 
 watch'; the sole revenge I had being to leave Mother Dulcken 
 And her boy to expect the ' ship that was coming after.' 
 
 " A Government boat came aboard in the afternoon ; and as
 
 A SEA STORY SSI 
 
 soon as it left us Lord Frederick took his gig and steered for 
 a, frigate lying some distance off, which had the harbour-flag 
 hoisted at her main, being the only man-o'-war besides our- 
 selves, and commanded by a senior captain. 
 
 "Till it got dark I could see the crews of the nearest 
 merchantmen looking over their bulwarks at us and our prize, 
 apparently comparing the schooner with the frigate, and 
 speculating on her character, as she lay a few fathoms off the 
 Hebe's quarter, both of us rising and falling in turn on the 
 long heave of the Cape swell from seaward. 'Twas hard to 
 say, in fact, so far as their hulls went, which was the most 
 beautiful sample of its kind ; though the schooner's French- 
 fashioned sticks and off-hand sort of rigging, showed rather 
 like jury-gear beside the tall regular sticks aloft of the Hebe's 
 decks, with all her hamper perfect to a tee. The Hebe's men 
 very naturally considered their own ship a model for every- 
 thing that floated a sort of a Solomon's temple, in short ; 
 and to hear the merciless way they ran down the Indiamen 
 all round would have raised the whole homeward-bound fleet 
 against us ; whereas the schooner was our own, at any rate, 
 and she was spoken of much in the manner one mentions an 
 unfortunate orphan, as good as already christened by the 
 name of the Young Hebe. 
 
 " This our learned chaplain said was quite improper, and 
 he gave another name in place of it the Anvceta which 
 meant, as he observed, the Hebe's youngest daughter ; so the 
 Aniceta she was called, happening to be a title that went, 
 according to the boatswain, full as sweetly through the 
 sheave-hole. 
 
 " Next day the schooner had landed not only her passengers 
 from St Helena, but the prisoners also, as we still understood 
 the French and their Kroomen to be. Not long after that 
 Lord Frederick came back from Cape Town, looking grave, 
 and went straight down to his cabin, or ' cabins,' as his lord- 
 ship preferred to have it said. The first lieutenant dined that 
 day with the captain ; but they could scarcely have finished 
 when the ' young gentlemen,' who had been as usual from the 
 reefer's mess, came up with a message from the captain, that 
 his lordship would be glad if I would join the first lieutenant 
 and himself in a glass of wine. I found them sitting at the 
 side of the table nearest the open port, with the decanters
 
 3S2 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 between them, and the broad bright bay in full sight to the 
 shore and the foot of Table Mountain, which rose up blocking 
 the port with the top of it beyond view ; the sounds of the 
 merchantmen clicking at their heavy windlasses, and hoisting 
 in water-casks, floated slowly in from every side, while the 
 schooner had hauled on her cable more abreast of the frigate, 
 leaving the sight clear over the eddy round her low counter. 
 
 " ' A lovely piece of workmanship, certainly ! ' observed 
 Lord Frederick thoughtfully, as he leant back swinging his 
 eyeglass round his finger, with the other hand in the breast 
 of his waistcoat, and looking out at what was seen of the 
 schooner. ' And how one might have improved her spars, 
 too ! ' said Mr Hall, wistfully. ' I should have recommended 
 longer lower-masts altogether, Lord Frederick, and a thorough 
 overhaul, I may say, from the combings upwards ! ' ' I would 
 not have her hull touched for the world, Mr Hall ! ' said the 
 captain; ''tis too excessively provoking, at least! But 
 pass the bottles to Mr Collins, if you please.' I had taken a 
 chair, and quietly filled my glass, wondering what could be 
 the matter, when his lordship turned to me and said, ' Do you 
 know, Mr Collins, this schooner of ours is likely to be laid up 
 in Chancery, heaven knows how long. The Admiralty Court 
 ashore are doubtful of condemning her, apparently, and she 
 must either be sent home or to Monte Video, or somewhere, 
 where the master of her claims to belong ! ' ' Indeed, 
 my lord,' said I, setting down my glass, 'that is curious.' 
 ' Curious, indeed, sir ! ' replied he, biting his lips, ' though, 
 after all, we really can scarce say what she is to be con- 
 demned for only in the meantime I sail to-morrow for 
 India.' 'She's French to the backbone, that I'll swear, 
 
 Lord Frederick ! ' I said ; ' and what 's more, she was 
 
 ' Ah,' broke in the captain, ( I know, I know ; but the less 
 we say of that, in present circumstances, the better ! Once 
 get her entangled with politics, and we may give her up 
 altogether.' Lord Frederick twisted his eyeglass round his 
 forefinger faster than before, still watching the schooner; 
 the first lieutenant held up his claret betwixt himself and 
 the light, and I sipped mine. ' I tell you what, gentlemen,' 
 exclaimed his lordship, suddenly, ' I must have that schooner 
 at any cost ! What is to be done, Mr Hall ? ' ' She 'd be of 
 great service in the China seas, my lord, certainly,' said the
 
 A SEA STORY 333 
 
 first lieutenant, looking thoughtfully into his empty glass ; ' a 
 perfect treasure for light service, especially if new sparred 
 
 and ' I noticed Lord Frederick glancing sideways at 
 
 me, as I thought, with a slight gleam in his eye ; and ac- 
 cordingly I suggested that he might buy her from the 
 Frenchman himself; a very poor idea, no doubt, as both 
 the captain and first luff seemed to think, and we all three 
 kept eyeing her doubtfully through the port, without a 
 word. 
 
 "At this time the schooner's counter had been slowly 
 sheering towards the frigate's beam, owing to the ebb-tide, 
 and her holding only by a single cable, till her stern began 
 to show right opposite the cabin, I should say not twenty 
 feet off. Lord Frederick put his glass to his eye, and was 
 peering through it, when he remarked that they had brought 
 up rather too near, leaving scarce room for the schooner to 
 swing as she did, earlier than we, so that she would be in 
 danger in getting foul of the frigate's cables. 'The worst 
 of it is, Lord Frederick,' said I, ' that in case of a gale from 
 seaward here, she might have to slip and run upon very short 
 warning, whereas the Hebe has plenty of ground-tackle to let 
 her ride it out. Considering it was Table Bay, at this season, 
 he ought to have kept her a clearer berth for herself, or else 
 have gone well outside!' 'Ah!' said Lord Frederick quickly, 
 meeting my eye for half-a-minute, till the gleam came into 
 his again ; and somehow or other mine must have caught it, 
 though I must say the notion that struck me then all at once 
 wasn't in my head before. 'Do you know, that 's well thought 
 of, Collins ! ' said his lordship. ' You 've weathered the Cape 
 before, by-the-by ? ' ' A dozen times, Lord Frederick,' said 
 I ; when a regularly jovial roar of laughter broke fair through 
 the port into the cabin from the schooner's taffrail, as she 
 sheered end-on to the frigate's quarter, and Lord Frederick 
 leant forward with the glass screwed into his right eye to see 
 along their decks, which were covered aft with an awning like 
 the open gable of a tent at a fair. ' Singular ! ' said he ; 'by 
 the Lord Harry, who or what can that be Mr Hammond has 
 got there ? ' Dangling over the French schooner's taffrail 
 were to be seen the soles of two immense boots, with calves 
 and knees to match, and a pair of tightish striped trousers 
 worked up more than halfway, till yoa saw the tops of the
 
 334 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 stockings ; just beyond the knees was the face leaning back 
 in the shade of the awning and a straw hat together, out of 
 which a huge green cabbage-leaf hung like a flap over one 
 eye, while the other kept gazing in a half-closed sleepy sort 
 of way at the sky, and the red end of a cigar winked and 
 glowed in the midst of the puffs of smoke lower down. The 
 first lieutenant started up shocked at the sight, the noble 
 captain of the Hebe sat with his eyeglass fixed, between 
 amusement and wonder ; for my own part, when the voice of 
 this same prodigy broke all of a sudden on us out of the 
 awning, in a mixture of stuttering, hiccuping, Yankee drawl- 
 ing, and puffs at the cigar, 'twas all I could do to hold on, 
 with the knowledge of where I was. ' Wall now, general,' 
 said the American, as if he were talking to someone aloft or 
 in the sky, 'ye-you're qui-quite wrong I ki-kick-calc'late 
 I 've fit a deal more be-be-battles than you have I re-respect 
 you, Ge-Ge-General Washington ; but I ho-ho-hope you know 
 who hie who I am ! ' Here Mr Daniel Snout, who was in 
 a state of beastly intoxication, swayed himself up bodily into 
 the schooner's taffrail, and sat with his arms folded, his long 
 legs swinging over the stern, and his head trying to keep 
 steady, as he scowled solemnly aloft over the frigate's mizzen- 
 royal-masthead ; while the third lieutenant, Mr Hammond, 
 and the master's mate he had aboard with him, could be 
 heard laughing at his back, as if they had gone mad 
 Hammond being a wild sprig of an Irishman, who would go 
 any length for a piece of fun. 
 
 " Just then the American's one eye lighted on the side of 
 the frigate, till it settled lazily on the port of the captain's 
 cabin : first he seemed to notice Lord Frederick Bury, and 
 then myself, the first lieutenant having just recovered him- 
 self enough to rush toward the door to get on deck. Daniel 
 himself surveyed me scornfully for a moment, then with a sort 
 of doubtful frown, and a gravity that passes me to describe, 
 unless by the look of an old cock a-drinking evidently trying 
 to recollect me. ( Hallo, mister ! ' shouted he suddenly, ' you 
 haven't touched those notions of mine, I hope.' With that he 
 made a spring off where he sat, as if to come towards us no 
 doubt thinking of the Seringapatam, and the valuables he had 
 left aboard, without seeing the water between ; and a pretty 
 deep dive Mr Snout would have made of it, into an ebb-tide
 
 A SEA STORY 335 
 
 that would have swept him under the frigate's bottom, if Mr 
 Hammond and the midshipman hadn't both sprung forward 
 in time to catch him by the neck of the coat. There, accord- 
 ingly, was the Yankee hanging like a spread eagle over the 
 schooner's taffrail, yelling and turning round at the same time 
 like a fowl on a spit the third lieutenant's and the mate's 
 faces two pictures of dismay, as they held on, at finding for 
 the first time where the schooner had shied them round to, 
 with their two pairs of eyes fair in front of the captain's eye- 
 glass while Mr Hall was singing out like thunder from the 
 deck above us, < The schooner ahoy ! d' ye see where you 've 
 got to, sir ? Haul ahead on that cable, d' ye hear, you lubbers, 
 and keep clear of the ship ! ' 
 
 " ' Mr Collins,' said his lordship quietly to me, as soon as he 
 could keep his countenance, and looking the sterner for the 
 trouble he was put to in doing it, ' you will get your things 
 and go aboard the schooner directly take her in charge, sir, 
 and send Mr Hammond back here.' 'Very well, my lord,' 
 said I, waiting in the doorway for something more, which, 
 from something in Lord Frederick's look, I had reason to 
 expect, knowing it of old. e I can only spare you a dozen of 
 the men she has,' added he ; ' but if you choose, you can send 
 ashore at once to pick up a few makeshifts, or anything you 
 find ! ' ' Ay, ay, my lord,' said I ; ' the best hand for that 
 would be Mr Snelling, if I may take him, Lord Frederick ? ' 
 'Oh, certainly,' was the answer; 'and harkye, Collins, you 
 had better shift your berth a few cable-lengths farther off, or 
 more, if you please.' ' One thing, my lord,' said I, stooping 
 down to see through the port, ' I don't much like the heavy 
 ground-swell that begins to meet the ebb, and I fancy it won't 
 be long ere Table Mountain spreads its supper-cloth in which 
 case I 'd consider it necessary to slip cable and run out at 
 once, though I mightn't get in again so easily. Am I to find 
 the frigate here again, Lord Frederick ? ' 
 
 ' Deuce take it, man no ! ' said his lordship. He turned 
 his t>ack to hide the evident twinkle of his eye. ' Should .we 
 part company, of course you make for the Bay of Bengal ! 
 You can't be sure of the Hebe, short of the Sandheads and 
 if not there, then opposite Fort William, at Calcutta.' ' Very 
 good, my lord,' said I, and had made my bow to go on deck, 
 when Lord Frederick called me back. 'By-the-by/ said he
 
 336 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 hastily, 'about that Indiaman of yours, Collins she is here 
 no doubt ? ' ' No, Lord Frederick/ answered I, ' I believe 
 she sailed a week ago.' ' Dear me, the deuce ! ' exclaimed 
 he ; ' why, I meant to have sent to-morrow to have your friend 
 Westwood arrested and brought aboard ! ' I started at this, 
 on which his lordship explained that if Westwood got to 
 Bombay, whither the Seringapatam was bound, the authorities 
 there would have news of the thing by this time, and could 
 send him overland at once to England, which would be far 
 worse for him than being carried to Calcutta, where his uncle 
 the Councillor's interest might do some-thing for him. ' The 
 best thing you can do, Collins,' added Lord Frederick, f if you 
 are obliged to run out to sea, is to look after that Indiaman ! 
 With such a neat thing of a sea-boat under you, you might do 
 anything you please ; so cruise to windward or leeward in 
 chase, find her out and take out Westwood bodily lose him 
 afterwards in the Hoogley, if you like carry away those old 
 spars of hers, and send up new ones only don't lose the 
 schooner, I beg ; so good-bye to you, my dear fellow, lest we 
 should not meet on this side the line again ! ' ' Good-bye, my 
 lord ! ' said I cheerfully, and hurried on deck, understanding 
 all he wanted as well as if I 'd been ordered to set her jib 
 that moment and heave up anchor. In ten minutes I was 
 over the frigate's side, and in ten more Hammond was back 
 in her, with the men who were to leave ; while I sent my 
 baggage below, set the hands to work shifting the schooner's 
 berth, and by sundown we were lying beyond hail of the ship, 
 opposite the custom-house, and a long line of a main street in 
 Cape Town, where we could see the people, the carriages, 
 and the Dutch bullock-carts passing up and down ; while 
 Table Mountain hove away up off the steep Devil's Hill and 
 the Lion's Rump, to the long level line a-top as blue and bare 
 as an iron monument, and throwing a shadow to the right 
 over the peaks near at hand 
 
 " Our friend from the United States being by this time in 
 quite an oblivious condition, the first thing I did was to have 
 him put quietly into the boat with which Mr Snelling was to 
 go ashore for fresh hands, and I instructed the reefer to get 
 clear of him anyhow he liked, if it was only above tide- 
 mark. When they were gone I walked the schooner's little 
 quarter-deck in the dusk by myself, till the half-moon rose
 
 A SEA STORY 337 
 
 with a ghostly copper-like glare over the hollow in the Lion's 
 Rump, streaking across the high face of Table Mountain, and 
 bringing out all its rifts and wrinkles again. The land-breeze 
 began to blow steadily with a long sighing sweep from the 
 north-east, meeting the heavy swell that set into the broad 
 bay ; and the schooner, being a light crank little craft, got 
 rather uneasy ; whereas you could see the lights of the frigate 
 heaving and settling leisurely, less than half-a-mile off. I 
 had only six or seven good hands aboard altogether at the 
 time, which, with those the midshipman had, were barely 
 sufficient to work her in such seas ; so with all I had to do, 
 with the difficulty of getting men in the circumstances, a 
 long voyage before us, and things that might turn up, as I 
 hoped, to require a touch of the regular service, why the very 
 pleasure of having a command made me a good deal anxious. 
 Even of that I didn't feel sure ; and I kept watching Table 
 Mountain, eager for the least bit of haze to come across the 
 top of it, as well as sorry I had sent Snelling ashore. ' I 'd 
 give a hundred pounds at this moment,' thought I, ' to have 
 had Bob Jacobs here ! ' 
 
 "As the moon got higher, I could see the swell washing 
 up between the different merchantmen in sight, into their 
 shadows, and heavy enough some of them seemed to roll 
 round their cables, betwixt a breeze and a swell running the 
 contrary ways ; first one let go a second anchor, and then 
 another, to help their heads shoreward ; but still there was 
 no danger, as things went. It wasn't long before I made out 
 two boats coming from toward the town, round the stern of 
 one of the ships, the frigate lying betwixt her and us, so that 
 they took her by the way, and a good deal of hailing seemed 
 to pass between them. I could even see epaulets glisten over 
 the Hebe's quarter, as if there was a stir made aboard ; after 
 which the boats were plainly pulling for the schooner. What 
 all this might mean I couldn't very well conceive, unless it 
 were either Snelling come back already, or else some hands 
 Lord Frederick himself had provided before this, as I saw 
 both boats were full of people. ' Forward there ! ' I sung out, 
 ' hail those boats.' * Ay, ay, the schooner ahoy ! ' was the 
 answer in a sharp voice from the headmost of them, ' from 
 the shore all right ! Stand by to heave us a line, will 
 ye ? ' Next came a hail from Snelling, in our own gig ; 
 
 Y
 
 338 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 so I at once gave orders to heave them a rope and 
 have both boats brought under the gangway, naturally sup- 
 posing the sharp little fellow had come some marvellous 
 good speed in shipping hands. As soon as he jumped on 
 deck, I accordingly inquired how many men he had brought, 
 when to my great surprise he informed me there was only 
 one, 'a scuffy sort of a swab,' as he expressed it, f who 
 would do for cook ! ' ' The devil he will ! you young rascal,' 
 I broke out. 
 
 " ' Hush, sir, for heaven's sake,' said he, making some 
 extraordinary sign, which I didn't understand ; ( it '11 all be 
 right in the end, Mr Collins. Now then, sir,' to someone in 
 the boat alongside, as he carefully handed him the accom- 
 modation-ropes, ' here you are hold on, sir so-o ! ' This 
 was a rather youngish fellow in a huge pilot-coat and a 
 glazed cap, with some kind of uniform inside, and a large 
 breastpin in his shirt, who handed me a paper the moment 
 he stood firm on deck, without speaking a word ; though, 
 by the light of the deck-lantern, I didn't much like the 
 look of his foxy sort of face, with the whiskers on it coming 
 forward from both cheeks to his mouth, nor the glance he 
 gave round the schooner with his pair of quick sharp little 
 eyes. f Much more like a custom-house officer than a cook ! ' 
 thought I, ' unless we mean to have a French one ' ; but what 
 was my astonishment, on opening the paper, to find him called 
 ' Gilbert Webb, harbour master's assistant, hereby authorised 
 by the Admiralty Court, sitting in Cape Town, to take charge 
 of the doubtful vessel described in her papers as the Ludovico, 
 belonging to Monte Video from the officer commanding the 
 prize crew of his Brittanic Majesty's ship Hebe.' My first 
 thought was to have Mr Gilbert Webb pitched over into his 
 boat again, when Lord Frederick's own signature met my eye 
 at the bottom of the paper, addressed below to ' Lieutenant 
 Collins of His Majesty's schooner Aniceta at sea.' 
 
 "A wonderfully mysterious squint from Snelling, behind 
 the officer, was sufficient to clinch the matter in my own mind, 
 showing that the reefer was as sharp as a needle ; and I 
 handed back the document to the harbour gentleman, with a 
 ' Very well, sir, that will do.' ' I suppose I 'd better have my 
 men up, Lieutenant Collins ? ' said he, with a quick pert kind 
 of accent, which made me set him down at once for a Londoner,
 
 A SEA STORY 339 
 
 while at the same time he seemed impatient, as I thought, to 
 get the management. ' Why, sir,' said I, ' I suppose you had.' 
 
 " Hereupon up mounted four or five decent enough looking 
 stevedores* one or two of whom had rather the air of sailors, 
 the rest being broad-beamed, short-legged Dutchmen, with 
 trousers like pillow-slips followed by a whole string of 
 fourteen or fifteen Indian Lascars, their bundles in their 
 hands, and an ugly old serdug at their head ; while a lame, 
 broken-down, debauched-like fellow ot a man-o'-war's-man, 
 that Snelling had found sitting on a timberhead ashore, got 
 aboard with our own boat's crew. Our gangway was choke- 
 full, to my fresh dismay, for, to get rid of such a tagrag-and- 
 bobtail, in case of running to sea, was impossible ; even if 
 they weren't odds against us, here was it likely to get a thick 
 night, the swell growing under the schooner till she began 
 to jerk at her anchor, head to wind, like a young filly at a 
 manger; so that dropping them back into their boat when 
 needful, as I intended at first, was out of the question for the 
 present. I found from the harbour officer that the number of 
 hands would all be required with the morning tide, when his 
 orders were to have the schooner towed in opposite the Battery 
 Dock, especially as there was much chance of the wind blow- 
 ing strong from seaward next day. The swell on the water, 
 he said, was such that, after putting off, he thought of going 
 back again till the tide began to turn ; if he had not been 
 encouraged to stick to it and keep on by the midshipman, 
 whom he fell in with near the quay. This piece of news was 
 the finish to the rage I felt brewing in me, vexed as I natur- 
 ally was to give up the notion of a free cruise, in command of 
 a craft like the schooner ; and as soon as Mr Webb was 
 comfortable in the cabin, over a tumbler of stiff grog and 
 some cold beef, I sent for Snelling to my own cupboard of a 
 state-room. 
 
 " ' You cursed unlucky little imp, you ! ' I burst out, the 
 moment he made his appearance, ' what 's the meaning of this, 
 sirrah, eh ? ' ' What is it, if you please, sir ? ' said Snelling, 
 pretending to hold down his shock-head like a frightened 
 schoolboy, and looking up all the time both at me and the 
 lamp at once, while he swayed with the uneasy heave of the 
 
 * Men employed in the stowing of ship's cargoes.
 
 340 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 deck in such a way as made me grip him by the arm in a 
 perfect fury, fancying he had got drunk ashore. ' You young 
 blackguard, you ! ' said I, shaking him, ' didn't I tell you to 
 get hands didn't you know I meant to to ' Oh yes, 
 
 Mr Collins/ gasped the reefer, ' I did indeed you meant to 
 cut and run I saw it by your eye, sir, and don't shake me 
 any more, sir, or you '11 spoil my hair and I don't deserve it 
 it 's all right ! ' And on my letting him go, the ugly little 
 scamp sunk down on a chair with his eyes starting from his 
 head, and a leer like a perfect demon incarnate : but so per- 
 fectly laughable it was, not to mention the air of complete 
 confidence between us that he threw into it, that I sat down 
 myself, ready to grin at my bad luck. 'Well, Mister Snelling/ 
 said I quietly, ' you are a touch beyond me ! Let 's have the 
 joke, at least out with it, man, else another shake may 
 be ' 
 
 "The reefer pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to 
 the cabin, shoved his chin forward, and whispered, ' Why, sir, 
 I 'm only doubtful whether you could make him third officer 
 but at any rate, he '11 always be useful at a rope, Mr Collins 
 won't he, sir ? ' I gave Snelling one look, meant to be as 
 grave as an Old Bailey chaplain's, but it wouldn't do my 
 conscience wouldn't stand it in fact the very self-same notion 
 seemed to me to have been creeping into my mind. ' You 
 young rascal ! ' was all I could manage to say, before making 
 bolt to go on deck. ' By-the-by, Mister Snelling,' said I, 
 turning and looking down from the hatchway, 'you must 
 want a glass of grog tell the boy to let you have some and 
 go and keep the officer company, sir.' 
 
 " By this time it was raining hard, the half-moon coming 
 out at moments and shining through it with a sudden sharp 
 gleam, in some gust of the wind off the land showing the 
 swell in as far as the wet white custom-house and the bare 
 quays, the ships with their hazy lights all hither and thither, 
 while Table Mountain was to be seen now and then peering 
 half over the mist, first one corner and then another, of a 
 colour like dead ashes. One time I looked down toward the 
 dusky little cabin, where the midshipman, quite in his element, 
 was sitting with the harbour officer, the lamp jerking and 
 making wild swings betwixt them, while Snelling evidently 
 egged on his companion to drink ; then I gave a glance sea-
 
 A SEA STORY 341 
 
 ward, where there was nothing but a glimmer of rain and 
 spray along the dark hollows of the water. 
 
 " I couldn't make up my mind, all I could do it was too 
 barefaced a thing to slip from the roadstead with a breeze 
 blowing off-shore ; but the worst of it was, that I didn't feel 
 easy at the idea of parting with an anchor in the circum- 
 stances, not to say carrying off the Government people, unless 
 forced to it. I accordingly went below to mix myself a 
 stiffener, and found the officer a cool head, for, in spite of all 
 Snelling could do, the reefer himself had got provoked, 
 whereas the sharp Mr Webb was only a little brisker than 
 before. ' A rough sort of night,' said I, nodding to him, as I 
 knocked the water out of my cap. ' Well, it seems,' said he, 
 free and easy. ' S'pose I go on deck then, gentlemen I 've 
 refreshed, I assure you, so you needn't trouble about this 'ere 
 schooner no farther glad to get quit of it and turn in, I 
 desay lieutenant?' 'No trouble in the world, Mr Webb,' 
 said I, going on with my mixture, ' far from it ; but sit down 
 a minute, pray, sir Mr Snelling here will take charge of the 
 deck for us in the meantime ' ; and Snelling vanished at once, 
 Mr Webb apparently flattered at my wishing his company. 
 ' Will that cable of yours hold, think ye, Lieutenant Collins ? ' 
 asked he, filling up another glass. f Why,' said I, almost 
 laughing, ' to tell you the truth, I begin to feel rather doubtful 
 of it.' e What ! ' broke out the harbour officer, starting up, 
 ' then I must 'ave another put down immediately : why, what 's 
 the effect, sir we '11 be carried out to sea ! ' ' You said it 
 exactly, Mr Webb,' I said : ' 'twould have been much worse, 
 I suppose, if we were driven ashore, though ! Now look you, 
 if I were to let go a second anchor at present, I couldn't light 
 upon a better plan either to break her back or lose both 
 anchors in the end, from the difference of strain on the two 
 cables with this ground-swell. The fact is, my good fellow, 
 you 're evidently not fit to take charge at present.' 
 
 "'What, lieutenant!' said he, looking fierce and foolish at 
 the same time, ' here 's strange lang'age to a Gov'ment officer, 
 sir ; I hask the meanin' of it at once, mister ! ' ' But I depend 
 a good deal on your knowledge of Table Bay weather,' I con- 
 tinued, leaning back with my weather eye screwed to bear 
 upon him. ' D' ye think this wind likely to moderate soon, 
 sir ? come now.' ' No,' replied he sulkily, ' I 'm sure it won't ;
 
 342 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 and to-morrow it's certain to blow back ten times worse.' 
 ' Then, Mr Webb/ said I, rising, ' you oughtn't to have come 
 aboard to-night ; as the short and the long of it is, I shall get 
 the schooner an offing the first possible moment ! ' The officer 
 stared at me in a bewildered manner ; and as for the schooner, 
 she seemed to be bolting and pitching in a way worse than 
 before, with now and then a plunge of the swell on her broad- 
 side, as if she had been under weigh. Suddenly Snelling 
 lifted the skylight-frame and screamed down into the cabin : 
 ' Mr Collins, Mr Collins ! she 's been dragging her anchor for 
 the last ten minutes, sir ! " 
 
 ce I sprang on deck at two bounds ; the schooner had some- 
 how or other got her anchor out of hold at the time, with the 
 cable as taut as a fiddle-string. It was quite dark aloft, and 
 not a vestige of Table Mountain to be seen, though the 
 moonshine, low down to westward, brought out two or three 
 tracks of light along the stretch of water, aud you saw the 
 lights in the ships slowly sweeping past. Where we happened 
 to be, it blew two ways at once, as is often the case in Table 
 Bay, round the bluffs of the mountain, and as soon as she 
 brought up again with a surge at the windlass, the heave of 
 a long swell took her right on the quarter, lifting her in to 
 her anchor again with a slack of the hawser, at which every 
 second man sung out to ' hold on ! ' Over she went to port, 
 a sea washing up the starboard side, and throwing a few dozen 
 bucketfuls at once fair into the companion, where our friend 
 the harbour officer was sticking at the time ; so down plumped 
 Mr Webb along with it, and the booby hatch was shoved close 
 after him, while the poor devils of Lascars were huddled to- 
 gether as wet as swabs in the lee of the caboose forward. ' A 
 hand to the wheel ! ' shouted I, as soon as I recovered myself ; 
 when to my great surprise I saw Snelling' s new hand, poor crea- 
 ture as I 'd thought him, standing with a spoke in each fist, 
 as cool and steady as possible, and his eye fixed on me in the 
 true knowing way which I felt could be trusted to. ' Jib 
 there ! ' I sung out, ' see all clear to run up a few hanks of 
 the jib stand by to cut the cable at the bitts ! ' ' Ay, ay, 
 sir,' answered Snelling, who was working away with the 
 harbour men, his bare head soaked, and altogether more like 
 an imp than a young gentleman of the navy 'all 's clear, sir.' 
 
 "Five minutes I daresay we stood, everyone in the same
 
 A SEA STORY 343 
 
 position, while I waited for a good moment in the run of the 
 swell looking into the binnacle ; till she hung slack, as it 
 were, in a wide seething trough of the sea, when I signed to 
 the man behind me to put the helm gradually to starboard. 
 I glanced at the fellow again, caught his sharp weatherly eye 
 once more then putting both hands to my mouth I sung out to 
 bowse on the jib-halliards. ' Now cut the cable ! ' shouted 
 I, springing forward in my anxiety. 
 
 " The schooner rose away from her anchor on the heavy roll 
 of the sea ; I saw two quick strokes of the axe on the instant, 
 and she was spinning head off from the wind, heeling over 
 betwixt the force of it and the ground-swell together, while 
 the mass of black water was washing bodily away with us ; 
 the new helmsman showing down below me he as leant to the 
 wheel, like somebody at the foot of a slide. If he had'nt 
 helped her at the moment with a back turn of the spokes to 
 port, 'twould have been all up with us. As it was, the 
 schooner fell off gallantly in his hands, with a sliding surge 
 into the lee of the next swell, that buried her sharp bows in 
 the green sea till it foamed about our very shoulders as we 
 hung on like grim death to the weather bulwark. She was 
 just shaking herself free, and rising like a buoy over the broad 
 tops of the waves, when Snelling, myself, and two or three of 
 the men staggered down to her mainmast to swing up the 
 throat-halliards, letting her feel a little of the boom mainsail ; 
 and we had scarce belayed, as the last glimpse of the frigate's 
 lights was caught astern of us, heaving and setting, as she 
 rode with her two bower anchors down ; we had driven past 
 close enough to have heard the creak of her hamper aloft. 
 After that I had the fore-staysail set on her, then the reefed 
 mainsail, and the lively schooner yielded to the long rolling 
 seas so well, as very soon to make her own weather of it, 
 especially since clear of the high land about Table Bay it 
 was blowing only a strong breeze ; and the more I began to 
 feel master of her, the more inclined I was to let her show her 
 good qualities. 
 
 "Such a craft I never had had the full management of 
 before in my life ; and you may easily fancy how I felt at 
 dividing the hands into the two watches, giving little Snelling 
 command of one, as first mate, and picking out our men in 
 turn. I looked round amongst mine, rather at a loss for one
 
 344 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 to make a second mate for the cruise, though there were three 
 prime enough man-o'-war's-men, and I had chosen one of the 
 Government officer's gang for his activity. As for the Lascars, 
 we slumped in half of the number to each of us, for make- 
 weights when Snelling's fresh hand, who had fallen to my 
 share, caught my eye again as he stood at the wheel. Every 
 half-spoke he gave the schooner told ; she was topping the 
 heavy seas as they rose, and taking them just where they 
 melted one to the other, with a long floating cleave that 
 carried her counter fairly free of the after-run, though nearly 
 right before the wind : the main-boom had been guyed over 
 to the lee-quarter, till a third of the sail hung clear of her 
 hull, and the breeze swept into the hollow of it, thick with 
 spray. The light from the little binnacle shone up distinctly 
 on the man's face, and with all the desperate, used-up, 
 marbled sort of look of it, like one getting the better of a 
 long spree ashore, 1 thought there was something uncommonly 
 promising about him, not to say greatly above the run of 
 foremast men. The wet, the wind, and the work he was at 
 took off the seediness of his clothes ; even the old rag of a 
 handkerchief round his hairy neck had got a gloss to it, and 
 he stood handling the wheel with a strange mixture of reck- 
 lessness and care, as he glanced from the compass to the gaff 
 of the mainsail against the scud, and down again. 
 
 " The very contrast between the man's manner and his out- 
 ward rig was sufficient to strike one, though plenty of seamen 
 are to be found in the like state ashore ; but what fixed me to 
 him above all was the expression in those two keen, searching, 
 living eyes of his, when they once or twice met mine on their 
 way from aloft to the compass-boxes. 'Twas as if they 'd 
 woke up since he came aboard out of a sleepy, maudlin con- 
 dition, with the ' blue-devils,' or scarce fully out of 'em ; like 
 a sick man's in the lull of a fever, suddenly seen watching 
 you out of the dusk of the bed, when one happens to glance 
 up from the nurse's seat. 
 
 " ' What 's your name, my man ? ' asked I, stepping aft to 
 the binnacle. ' My name is Jones, sir,' said he readily. ' And 
 your first name?' I said. 'Jack,' was the answer in an off- 
 hand way, with a hitch of one shoulder, and a weather-spoke 
 to the wheel ; spoken in an accent you 'd have expected more 
 in a West-End drawing-room than from a common sailor.
 
 A SEA STORY 345 
 
 ' Ah/ said I sharply. ' Jack Jones ? I wonder how many 
 Jack Joneses there are afloat ! An able seaman, I think., 
 Jones ? ' ' Why, sir/ replied the man, ' I never rate myself, 
 sir 'tis all one to me, able, ordinary, landsman, or boy I 
 carry no papers, and leave my betters to rate me.' ' Where 
 were you last, my man ? ' I asked ; whereupon I met such 
 a cool, steady, deep look out of the fellow's strange light- 
 coloured eyes, bloodshot as they were with drinking, that I 
 felt almost our very two souls jostle in it ; as much as to say : 
 To all eternity fathom me if you can! 'Well, I forget where, 
 sir,' said he, lowering his look to the compass-box again ; 
 'always the way with me after a trip, a cruise, a voyage, 
 or whatever it may be. I 've got ha ! ' and he yielded his 
 body coolly to a jerk of the schooner's wheel. 'A sweet 
 craft this, sir, but a little ticklish ! ' ' You 've got what ? ' 
 said I, not unwilling to wear out the time. ' I 've got no 
 memory ! ' 
 
 " Still there was somewhat so gloomy and mournful in the 
 next glance aloft, I don't know how it was, but I felt inclined 
 to offer him a mate's place on trial, and so I hinted, if he 
 knew half as well how to handle a craft as he did of steering 
 her. To my own surprise, Jones's wonder didn't seem to be 
 roused at the notion, except that he gave me another quick 
 glance, from head to foot, with a queer smile that struck me 
 as if I were being questioned, instead of him ; then he looked 
 down over his own outfit, judging by which you 'd have said 
 he 'd been shipwrecked. ' Well,' said I, ' I daresay you 've 
 been hard put to it, somehow, Jones -so as soon as you leave 
 the wheel, you can go below to the steward, and get a sea- 
 going suit of my own, till we see Calcutta, when your mate's 
 wages will set you all right again.' The man touched his 
 battered old straw hat ; but I noticed his eyes gleam for a 
 moment by the binnacle light, and a strange twitch run 
 round his mouth at the mention of the mate's wages, the 
 only way I could account for it at the time being his late 
 hard-up condition ; and nothing to my mind was more 
 deucedly pitiable than to see the thought of a few paltry 
 additional rupees light up a head like that, with the glisten- 
 ing sort of expression of a miser as I fancied. 
 
 " The man had a head on him, in fact, when you eyed him, 
 fit for a gentleman's shoulders, or more his hair and his
 
 346 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 whiskers curly and dark, draggled though they were with 
 the rain, not to say Cape Town mud while the wearing away 
 of the hair about the temples, and the red grog-streaks in the 
 veins of his face, made him, no doubt, a dozen years older to 
 appearance than he was. For my part I was quite convinced 
 already, this same Jack Jones hadn't been sent out a cabin 
 boy ; there was not only a touch of high blood in him at 
 bottom, but I 'd have sworn he had been some time or other 
 in the place of a gentleman, afloat or ashore, though plainly 
 now ' going to the devil.' 
 
 "Meanwhile the breaking look of the clouds away on our 
 larboard bow showed it wasn't far off dawn ; so, sending 
 another hand to the wheel, and finding a snug spot under a 
 stern-grating for a snooze on deck, I told Jones to begin with 
 taking charge of the deck for me. ' One thing, sir,' said he, 
 touching his hat again, as I lay down, ' I 've only shipped for 
 the outward voyage, and leave at the first port.' 'Why, 
 what ! ' said I, lifting my head ; ' what do you mean to do 
 there, eh ? ' ' I I want to go ashore,' answered he, eagerly ; 
 'ay, if we're years on the cruise, so much the better, sir, but 
 so soon as she drops anchor off Calcutta, I 'm my own master?' 
 ( Have your own way, then,' said I ; 'at any rate I '11 try you 
 in the meantime so Mister Jones, let 's see how you mind the 
 schooner till eight bells ! ' Whereupon I turned myself over 
 to sleep, and it was as broad daylight as we had any likelihood 
 of about the Cape, when I woke. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 " TT still blew a stiff breeze, but the waves rose with a length 
 * and a breadth in them you find in no other sea ; deep- 
 blue sparkling hills of water, with green gleams about the 
 crests, of which every single wave had a hundred or so ; and 
 a long seething, simmering, glassy hollow of a still valley 
 between, where the flecks of foam slid away glittering out 
 of the shadow. But, oh ! it was glorious to feel the schooner 
 rising quietly in the trough, with the mount of a wave, to the 
 very ridge of it ; then with a creak of all her timbers and 
 bulkheads below, a slight shake to windward, and a jerk at
 
 A SEA STORY 347 
 
 her bows, lean over to leeward again, and go hissing through 
 the breast of a huge sea, till you thought she 'd go down into 
 it ; while there she was, however, lifting head up, with a 
 swift flash of her cutwater, on the cross half- wave that joined 
 every first and third one ' billow ' and ' sea,' as you may say. 
 The breeze having drawn more easterly toward morning, 
 Jones had braced her more upon a wind, with reefed main 
 and foresails, and fore-staysail set, which brought out the 
 Aniceta's weatherly qualities to a marvel, as, notwithstanding 
 almost a head-wind and a swelling sea, she went nearly as fast 
 as the frigate would have done before the breeze, and not a 
 sign of the land was to be seen from her cross-trees. 
 
 " It was not till the afternoon, when the midshipman and 
 I had both been busy together seeing various things done 
 about the rigging, as well as having preventer-braces and 
 guys clapped on the booms and gaffs, that we had time to 
 look about us ; the schooner still driving along with the 
 breeze strong abeam, and a floating plunge from one wide 
 dark -blue sea to another, as if they handed her onward. 
 
 " Jones had got himself made decent below, as I told him, 
 till what with different clothes, and a shave together, besides 
 refreshment from sea weather, he was quite a different man to 
 look at. Even Snelling owned to his sailor-like appearance, 
 though rather surprised at my notion of making him a mate ; 
 while as for the men, they didn't know but he had come 
 aboard as such, and to tell the truth, he was having the main- 
 staysail got up and ready to bend at the time, like one 
 accustomed to give orders. By this time I remembered the 
 harbour officer, Webb, whom we'd carried off so uncere- 
 moniously, and found he was still in his ' bunk ' below, half- 
 sulky and half-sick, consoling himself with brandy and water 
 till we should get into Table Bay again, as he said. ' Only 
 put him into my watch, Mr Collins,' said Snelling gravely, 
 'and I '11 work him up, sir.' The reefer himself, in fact, had 
 all of a sudden turned out in a laughingly dignified style, to 
 meet his new post in full midshipman's rig, dirk and all, 
 with his cocked hat which I sent him down immediately to 
 change ; but he had brushed up his mop of hair, and begun 
 to cultivate the 'down on his upper lip; while being a deep- 
 shouldered, square-built, short-armed little fellow, as muscular 
 as a monkey, you 'd have thought from the back of his coat
 
 348 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 he was a man cut shorter,, and for his face, he had contrived 
 to put such a sour effect into it meant for great experience, 
 no doubt that it was only by his eyes one saw he was a boy 
 of sixteen or so ; and they were brimful of wild glee, as he 
 jumped about wherever he was needed, doing the work of a 
 couple of ordinary men, and actually delighted when a spray 
 came over the weather bulwarks on top of him, seeing that, 
 instead of the frigate, she was ' our schooner that did it. 
 
 " ( I think she walks, Mr Collins ! ' observed Snelling, 
 holding up his head stiffly, and looking aloft as we went aft, 
 after snaking ourselves from one of these same sprays. f No 
 denying that, Mr Snelling,' said I as gravely ; ' I only wish 
 your fond parents could see you just now, first mate of such a 
 smart craft, Mr Snelling ! ' His father was a country baronet, 
 who had sent him off to sea with an allowance I daresay 
 because his looks were no ornament, and there were plenty 
 more coming, though Snelling always pretended his worthy 
 progenitor was an old man. ' Fond, be blowed ! ' said he, 
 starting ; f I just see him at this moment at the foot of that 
 blessed old mahogany, proposing my health before the ladies 
 
 go, and ' Here the schooner rose on a sharp, short wave, 
 
 making a plunge through it that sent the helmsman swinging 
 to the lee-side of the wheel, while a sea washed up over her 
 forecastle, and away aft with the tubs, buckets, and spars, 
 knocking everybody right and left. Snelling and I held on 
 by the weather main-rigging with our feet in a bath, till she 
 lifted bodily through it, careefhig to her lee-gun'ale. 
 
 " ' By George, though ! ' broke out the reefer, smacking his 
 lips as we drew breath, e I wish he did see me wouldn't it 
 cheer his declining years, when I got to hand the governor 
 carefully below ! And such a rough night as we 're going to 
 have of it, too, sir ! ' ' You unfilial young dog,' said I ; ' but 
 so I 'm afraid we shall and no joke either ! ' Jones was 
 standing near us, watching the looks of the weather, with evi- 
 dent uneasiness, and I asked him what he thought of it. ' In 
 my opinion, sir,' said he, ' you '11 have some pretty sudden 
 shift of wind ere long, of a kind I have seen more than once 
 off the Cape before and that as furious as a south-easter 
 ordinarily is hereabouts. Look away yonder, sir ! ' 
 
 " It had got to a clear, dry north-easterly gale that shook 
 our canvas every time she lifted, singing through the ropes,
 
 A SEA STORY 349 
 
 and bitter cold. Long and heavy as the roll of the sea was, 
 the sky was as keen and clear as glass all round about and 
 aloft, save the mist kicked up by the spray off a wave here 
 and there. If a rag of white cloud appeared, it was blown 
 away, and you saw the black wrinkled side of one wave at a 
 time, a mile wide, you 'd have said, freckled all over with 
 spots of foam, and its ridge heaving against the eye of 
 the blast. The waves had begun to break shorter. The 
 schooner, buoyant as she was, and sharp as a dolphin, pitched 
 and rolled at times like mad, and the men forward were 
 standing by to let go the fore-halliards, throat and peak, 
 to ease her a little ; when Jones pointed out the bank of gray 
 cloud ahead ot us, scarce to be seen through the troughs of 
 the water, except when she lifted well upon a swell of sea. 
 The sun going down in a wild red glare to leeward of us, 
 threw a terrible glitter across the huge slant of one single 
 wave, that rose stretching away far and wide from her very 
 bow, then brought out the sulky wrinkled blue in it ; the 
 hissing green crests curled over to the very sunset, as it were, 
 while we sank slowly into the long dark lulling trough, and 
 saw the broken shaft of a rainbow stand glimmering for a 
 moment or two into a black hollow right ahead, when the 
 gale drove it back upon us like an arrow, as the schooner 
 surged through the breast of the next wave. I looked from 
 Snelling to the new mate, who still held on by a belaying-pin 
 and watched the clouds, giving me back a glance that showed 
 he thought the matter more serious than ordinary. 'The 
 sooner we strip her to the storm-staysails,' said I quickly, as 
 we fell into the trough again, ' the better, I think. If it blows 
 harder, we must lie-to with her at once.' My eye was anxiously 
 fixed on Jones, for large as the schooner was, between two and 
 three hundred tons, yet no craft in the world is so nice to 
 bring to the wind in a gale with a heavy sea running. Scud- 
 ding before it might have done for the frigate, with her full 
 bows, and spars high enough to keep her main-topsail full in 
 spite of the troughs ; but even that would have taken us out 
 cf our course after the Indiaman. Besides that, to tell the 
 truth, I didn't sufficiently understand fore-and-aft rigged craft 
 in all weathers yet, to be quite sure of what I did at a pinch 
 like the present. 'Yes, yes, sir,' answered he ; 'but if you'll 
 take an older man's advice, before that you '11 wear her round
 
 350 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 on the other tack to it. We 've the worst to come, or else 
 I rn mistaken, sir.' ' You 're accustomed to schooners ? ' asked 
 I firmly, and gazing him in the face. 
 
 I saw his lips open in the sweep of the wind through our 
 after-rigging, and he made a sign with his hand, while a 
 gnawing sort of spasm, as it were, shot through the muscles 
 of his jaw, and for a moment he gave me a fierce, keen glance, 
 almost a glare, from under his strong straight eyebrows 
 then turned away. ' Take the trumpet then, Mr Jones,' said 
 I, singing out into his ear ; ' I '11 leave her to you, sir. Mr 
 Snelling, let 's see the hatches all fast ! ' And we scrambled 
 along by the belaying-pins. 
 
 " ' Are you all ready fore and aft ? ' came Jones's voice like 
 thunder in the next dip she made, and he leapt up bareheaded 
 on the breech of one of the small carronades aft, holding on 
 with one hand by the weather mainshrouds, and watching the 
 run of the waves as they glimmered off our lee-beam into the 
 dusk, for full five minutes. I had hold of a rope near him, 
 and his eye was as steady as if he were picking out hills in a 
 view. I had full confidence in the man ; but I must say it 
 was a nervous moment to me, when I saw him lift the trumpet 
 to his mouth and furiously as the wind shook the schooner, 
 you heard his hoarse cry, ' Put your helm up slack off the 
 mainsheet brail up the mainsail ease down the weather 
 boom -guy main -stay sail sheet.' And the rest was lost in 
 the wild shriek of the north-east gale. We were hard at it, 
 however, staggering as we hauled and held on, even to the 
 poor half- drowned, terrified Lascars, whom the midshipman 
 had roused out of the caboose and long-boat, shoving the 
 ropes into their leathery hands. But I knew little else till I 
 saw the schooner had payed off before the wind, shearing 
 with a hiss like red-hot iron right through the ridge, betwixt 
 two tremendous combing waves. It swelled green over her 
 larboard bulwark as she heeled over, and she gave a heavy 
 dead lurch with it, as if she would let the next sea break 
 aboard. 
 
 " ' Now ! now ! ' shouted Jones, at a pitch of voice like 
 no earthly sound ; ' aft the mainsheet, for your lives ! ' He 
 jumped to the wheel himself, at a single bound. We were in 
 two floundering heaps, as we dragged at the mainboom aft, 
 and the head-sheets on the forecastle, while she came trembling
 
 A SEA STORY 351 
 
 up in the long bight of the sea, and took the gale steadily 
 before her other beam. It was blowing harder than ever ; 
 and the awful ' scud ' of the sea rolled her bodily away, as she 
 met it with her weather-bow, washing white over the head- 
 rail, with spray from cathead to bowsprit ; the gale heaving 
 her down on the lee-beam till she plunged to the brim on 
 that side, at every forward pitch, so that all hands on deck 
 had to keep crowded together aft. Still it was keen starlight 
 overhead, the gale dry, though it was bitter cold, and the seas 
 long and pretty regular. The schooner behaved wonderfully, 
 being as tight as a bottle ; and at the same time we were not 
 only lying our course either for the Mozambique or Indian 
 Ocean, but instead of running farther into the gale, as before, 
 and getting more into the wild Cape latitudes, why, at present 
 she tended to clear out of them. I accordingly agreed with 
 Jones to hold on with everything as long as possible, in spite 
 of the way she was sometimes flung off with the crest of a 
 wave, as it were, making a clear dive with her nose under 
 water through a white seething sea that seemed to swell round 
 the whole horizon ; the black bank of cloud off our weather- 
 beam towered like icebergs against the cold green sky to 
 south-east, the stars glittering and twinkling over it, with little 
 hazy rings round them, after a fashion that one of us liked no 
 more than the other. 
 
 " About midnight, we had got everything off her to the two 
 small storm-staysails, main and fore, the wind blowing great 
 guns, and the half-moon shining right over the long bank, as 
 if the back of it were dead white ; while betwixt it and the 
 washing glimmer of moonlight halfway you 'd have thought 
 the black heave of the ridges vanished into a bulk of shadow 
 ten times blacker, save for the heads of spray tossing dimly 
 over in it here and there. All at once, in the very height of 
 the gale, as the black floating clouds from the bank began to 
 cross over the gray scud flying fast aloft, a blue flash of light- 
 ning shot zigzag into the very comb of a wave ahead of us, 
 then came the clap of thunder, loud enough to be heard above 
 the wind, and in half-a-minute there was a sudden lull. You 
 saw the fleecy rags of scud actually settling together under 
 the dark vapour moving above them, and heard nothing but 
 the vast washing welter of the billows rising and seething for 
 miles round, as if the world were water, while the schooner
 
 352 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 rolled helplessly away, with her storm-staysails flapping, into 
 the trough. The midshipman almost gasped as he looked to 
 me not from fear, but as much as to say, ' What next ? ' 
 Our strange mate stood against the fife-rail of the mainmast, 
 apparently too intent on the sky and sea for speaking. For 
 my own part, I let go my belaying-pin, and half-tumbled to 
 the wheel, almost knocking the sailor down in my haste to put 
 the helm hard up for I saw how the blast was to come, fairly 
 before the beam, upon us. ' Hard a-starboard with it ! ' 
 shouted I ; ( haul down the main-staysail there let her fall 
 as she rises.' 
 
 " The last words were never heard, for next moment there 
 was another flash of lightning, this time a blaze all round into 
 the troughs of the sea ; I saw a body of mist coming down 
 upon us from south-east, through which the gale struck her 
 on the starboard beam, having suddenly shifted eight points 
 or so. The heavy rolling swell from north-east was close 
 aboard, and as soon as I knew what I was about, here she was 
 leaning over to the full tremendous force of the storm, without 
 power to surge ahead, though struggling to rise like a cart- 
 horse down on his knees with a load uphill of him. 'Twas by 
 instinct, as they say, I found myself scrambling along to her 
 weather main-channels, where I managed to get out on the 
 side, slippery as it was, and drenched with the blinding 
 showers of spray. I had got my knife at work, cutting the 
 lanyards of the shrouds to let the mainmast go, when I saw 
 Snelling creep after me, like a fearless little fellow as he was, 
 dirk in hand ; although what was come of Jones I couldn't 
 see, unless he had lost heart and skulked. All at once, to my 
 great joy, the main-staysail blew inway to leeward out of the 
 bolt-ropes, like a scrap of paper, the main-topmast crashed 
 at the cap and went alongside, when the schooner righted to 
 her keel, with a wild bolt forward through the whole width of 
 an immense wave one of the ' third waves ' it was, commonly 
 the last and the hugest in a single roll of the sea off the Cape, 
 before you sink into a long gliding valley, with a sort of a 
 lull in it. The scene was so terrible at the moment, though 
 we bore up for full half-a-minute to the fair steady stroke of 
 the awful gale, nothing but a yeast of mist, scud, and darkness 
 ahead, the spray torn off the ridge of the wave and flying with 
 us, while the triple run of the heavy seas astern was in danger
 
 A SEA STORY 353 
 
 of sweeping her decks from over the poop that I felt we 
 must try ]ying-to with her at once. 
 
 " Indeed, Snelling and I hardly knew whether we were 
 holding on or not, as we were half washed inboard and half 
 crawled round the rigging ; but Jones had already seized the 
 exact point when she sank in the hollow to have the helm 
 eased down to leeward. Meanwhile he had got the reefed 
 foresail balanced and set, with the sheet hauled aft beforehand 
 a tackle hooked on to the clue, and bowsed amidships 
 everything else was off her ; and with this sail she came slowly 
 up close to the wind on the slant of the next wave, lying-to 
 nearly head toward the force of the sea, as her helm was kept 
 fast two or three points to leeward. I never had seen a craft, 
 of the kind hove-to in a gale before, and a very nice matter it 
 is, too. We drew breath, scarce able to credit our eyes, while 
 the schooner rode apparently safe on a sea rolling mountain- 
 high ; rising and falling off from the breasts to the sides of 
 the waves, so far as leeway went, and forging ahead a little 
 at the same time through the fierce spray that showered out 
 of the dark over her weather-bow. 
 
 " Cape weather as bad I had seen before, but always in 
 good-sized ships ; and I owned to Snelling I would rather have 
 handled any one of them, even with a lee-shore near, ten times 
 over, than this schooner of ours in the present case. How- 
 ever, none of us were in any mood for speaking at the time, 
 let alone the waste of breath it was. The best thing we had 
 to do, after getting somewhat satisfied of her weathering 
 it this way, was to have the grog served out to the men, 
 swig off a stiff pannikin oneself, and make oneself as com- 
 fortable as possible with his pea-coat in the lee of something. 
 
 "The sight of the sea ridging up with a dim glimmer 
 against the dark, kept your eye fixed to it ; first you thought 
 it would burst right aboard, crash down upon the decks ; then 
 she lifted with it, swelling broad under her, while the long 
 steady sweep of the gale drove just over the bulwarks with a 
 deep moan ; for half-a-minute, perhaps, a shivering lull, when 
 you heard the bulkheads and timbers creak and strain below 
 from stem to stern, and the bilge-water yearning, as it were, 
 to the water outside. Then, again, it was a howl and a shriek, 
 a wide plunge of sea bore up her weather-bow, and the 
 moment ere she came fairly to, one felt as if the schooner 
 
 z
 
 354 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 were going to pitch God knows where. Her whole bulwarks 
 shook and shivered, the wind found out every chink in them, 
 whistling round every different rope it split upon, while all 
 the time the loose, wet, dreary spars behind the long-boat 
 kept slatting and clattering against each other in the lashings, 
 like planks in a woodyard of a November night. This was 
 the way we stuck till the morning watch showed it all in a 
 drizzling, struggling sort of half-light, blowing as hard as ever, 
 the Cape seas rolling and heaving mountain-high, of a pale 
 yeasty hue, far and wide to the scud ; the spray drifting from 
 the crests, and washing over her bare forecastle, with now and 
 then the white wings of a huge albatross to be seen aslant to 
 windward, riding on the breast of a long wave down into 
 the trough. 
 
 "Well, the whole blessed day did this sort of thing con- 
 tinue, only varied by now and then a huger sea than ordinary 
 lifting close aboard of us, and we being hove up to get a 
 glimpse of the long glaring streak of horizon through the 
 troughs of the waves; sometimes an unluckier splash than 
 usual over the bow and through the forechains, that made us 
 look sharp lest the canvas of the foresail should go, or the 
 schooner broach end-on to the sea. Otherwise, all we had to 
 do was to watch the binnacle, hold on with one hand to a rope, 
 and with the other to our caps ; or turn out and in with each 
 other down the booby-hatch for a snatch of sleep, and a bit 
 of biscuit and cold beef, with a glass of grog. Mr Webb, the 
 harbour officer, was to be seen below in his berth all this time, 
 lying as peaceable as a child ; whether he was dead sick or 
 only confoundedly afraid I didn't know ; but I must say I felt 
 for the poor fellow when I heard him ask Snelling in a weak 
 voice, if he would get somebody to stand off the bull's-eye in 
 the deck over his berth, as it always made him think there 
 was a new hurricane coming on. 'You low, skulking hound!' 
 said the reefer, who had wonderfully little pity in his make, 
 ' it can't be worse what d' ye want light for, eh ? ' ' Only to 
 see the opposite wall,' said Webb meekly; 'do, sir oh now!' 
 ' Oh, you lubber, ye ! ' said Snelling, ' don't you know a bulk- 
 head from a wall yet ? If you 'd come on deck to bear a hand 
 like others, you wouldn't need light ; and / thought you 
 might do for a mate aboard, too pah, you scum ! ' 
 
 "'Mr Snelling,' said I sharply, as he came through the
 
 A SEA STORY 355 
 
 cabin, ' a worm will turn when it 's trod upon, and so you may 
 find yet, sir ! ' ' Well, Mr Collins,' said he, as confidently as 
 if I hadn't meant to give him a set-down, f I don't like the 
 fellow's eye. I '11 look after him, sir ! ' 
 
 " Not to mention the young rogue's power of face, which 
 was beyond brass, he had a way of seeing you in two places at 
 once with that upward squint of his, as if his eyes were the 
 points of a pair of compasses, that made the officers of the 
 Hebe always send him to the mast-head directly, for fear it 
 should take the frown out of them. In fact, when Snelling's 
 twinkling weather-eye lighted on one's neck, without the 
 other, you almost felt it tickle you, and as usual I turned 
 away with a ' Pshaw ! ' 
 
 " On the second morning, the gale at last began to break, 
 shifting southward ; on which, as soon as the sea ran a little 
 easier, I had the helm cautiously put up at a favourable 
 moment, the reefed mainsail, fore-topmast-staysail, and square 
 fore-topsail set as she got before the wind, and away the 
 schooner went; rising on the wide deep-blue swells with a 
 long roll in them, then shearing ahead through their breasts, 
 wrinkled and seething pale-green, till she sank with the fall 
 of the wave the stump of her aftermast standing, and the 
 fore one shortened by the to'gallant-mast. You may easily 
 believe there was no one aboard more eager to get clear of 
 this weather than myself; as in ordinary circumstances, with 
 a craft like this, in two or three days more we might have 
 been in a high enough latitude to begin looking out for the 
 Indiaman. For my part, I can't deny that the wish for having 
 Tom Westwood safe out of harm's way, and with me in the 
 schooner, strong as it was, played second to the notion of 
 seeing sweet Violet Hyde in any way again, if it was only the 
 last time before she went out of reach altogether ; for her 
 getting amongst East India ways of doing, high-flying civilians 
 and soldiers, shows, and sights, either in Calcutta or up-country, 
 was equal to anything else, in my mind. Still, we had six or 
 seven days longer of the heavy seas and hard gales, before 
 north-easting enough could be made to take us beyond the 
 Cape winter, just then coming on, and which the Seringctpotam 
 had very likely escaped by two or three days, so that she 
 would have a considerable start of us. 
 
 " By this time we were standing well up for the Mozam-
 
 356 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 bique Channel, which I had heard the Indiaman intended to 
 take in company ; a piece of information that made me the 
 more anxious to overtake the Seringapatam, at latest, by the 
 time they reached open water again, where, being the only 
 ship for Bombay, she would no doubt part from her consorts. 
 We had a cruiser that year, as I knew, in the Mozambique, 
 where there were some rumours of pirates after the war, so 
 that in case of her happening to speak the Seringapatam close, 
 and having got any word of West wood's affair, he ran a 
 chance of being picked off. However, that wasn't by any 
 means the thing that troubled me most ; somehow or other, 
 whenever the picture of Violet's face brought the Indiaman's 
 decks clear into my mind, with all about her, I couldn't get 
 rid of the notion that some ill-luck would come across that 
 ship before she got into port. If any pirate craft were to 
 dodge the whole bevy of Indiamen up the head of the channel, 
 as was pretty sure to be the case, he would probably wait for 
 some signs of separating, and be down upon a single one not 
 long after she cleared the Leychelles Islands, where a lonely 
 enough stretch of the Indian" Ocean spreads in. The more I 
 entered upon the thought of it, the more unsufferable it got ; 
 especially one day in the mouth of the Mozambique, when it 
 fell a dead calm with a heavy up-and-down swell, fit to roll 
 the sticks out of her ; the high blue land of Madagascar being 
 in sight, sometimes to starboard, sometimes to port, then 
 astern, and the clear horizon lying away north-west, dark with 
 a breeze from round the coast. As the hot sun blazed out 
 above us, and the blue water came plunge up over the rail, 
 blazing and flashing, first one side dipped, then the other, I 
 could fancy the passengers on the Indiaman's poop in a light 
 breeze with a suspicious lateen-rigged sail creeping up on her 
 quarter. I thought I saw Violet Hyde's eyes sparkle against 
 the glare of light, and her lips parting to speak till I actually 
 stamped on the deck, my fists clenched, and I made three 
 strides to the very taffrail of the schooner. All at once I met 
 my second mate's eye coolly fixed on me, which brought me 
 to my senses in a moment, the more so as there was something 
 about this man Jones I couldn't make out, and I had made up 
 my mind to keep a sharp eye on him ; though the fact was, 
 it annoyed me most to feel him seeing into me, as it were, 
 without troubling himself. ' We shall have the breeze before
 
 A SEA STORY 357 
 
 long, sir, round Cape Mary yonder,' said he, stepping forward. 
 ' So I expect myself, Mr Jones/ said I, ' though you evidently 
 know the coast better than I do.' With that I gave him a 
 careless side-look, but to all appearance there was nothing 
 particular in his, as he told me he had seen it two or three 
 times before. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 " TTTITH the evening we were once more running sharp on a 
 * * wind up channel ; and when she did get her own way 
 in a good breeze, the schooner's qualities came out. 'Twas a 
 perfect luxury to look over the side and see the bubbles pass, 
 her sharp bows sliding through it like a knife, she eating into 
 the wind all the time, in a way none but a fore-and-aft clipper 
 could hope to do, with a glassy blue ripple sent back from her 
 weather-bow as far as the fore-chains ; then to wake of a 
 morning and feel her bounding under you with a roll up to 
 windward, while the water gushed through and through 
 below the keel, and ran yearning and toppling away back 
 along the outer timbers into her boiling wake, working with 
 the moving rudder. And our man-o'-war's-men were quite 
 delighted with the Young Hebe, as they still called her. 
 Snelling was in his element while we were having the new 
 spars sent up aloft a set of longer sticks than before till 
 she had twice the air, as well as a knowing rake aft. Next 
 thing was to get the long brass nine-pounder amidships from 
 under the boat, where the Frenchmen had kept it, besides 
 which we found another in her hold ; so that, added to six small 
 carronades already on deck, we made a pretty show. Mean- 
 while, for my own part, I kept cracking on with every stitch 
 of canvas that could be clapped upon the spars, including 
 studding-sails. Jones himself didn't know better than I did 
 by this time how to handle the craft, schooner though she 
 was, in the way of making her use what weather we had to 
 the best purpose. Variable as it proved, too, I was aware the 
 Indiamen would have pretty much the same now as we had ; 
 so that, on going aloft with the glass, as I did every watch in 
 the day, I soon began each time expecting one or other of 
 them to heave in sight.
 
 358 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 " As for the five hands from Cape Town, they seemed to 
 have fallen in cheerfully enough with our own, and as soon as 
 the fine weather came, the gang of Lascars were set to duty 
 like the rest. Snelling would have them even trained to 
 work the guns, although, if it blew at all hard, not one could 
 be got to go aloft, except their old serang and the tindal, his 
 mate. What surprised me most was the harbour officer him- 
 self at last asking, as Mr Snelling told me, to be put in a 
 watch ; but as the midshipman said there was no doubt Webb 
 had made a voyage or two before, somewhere or other, I 
 agreed to it at once. ' I 'm not sure, sir,' added the midship- 
 man, with one of his doubtful double looks, ' but the gentleman 
 may have seen blue water the first time at Government ex- 
 pense, and not in the service either he don't look fore and 
 aft enough, Mr Collins, harbour officer though he be ; but, 
 never mind, sir, I '11 see after him ! ' ' Pooh,' said I, laughing ; 
 ' if he does turn to, Mr Snelling, it shan't be in the watch you 
 have to do with ! Hand him over to Mr Jones.' By this time 
 I had changed the mid into my own watch, and given Jones 
 charge of the other so to him the harbour officer went. 
 
 " The main character aboard of us, to me at anyrate, was 
 this Jones himself. The fact was, at first I had my doubts of 
 him altogether, partly owing to the queer way we got hold of 
 him, partly on account of his getting the upper hand so much 
 through chance, in the tremendous weather we had at the 
 outset, till I wasn't sure but it might come into the fellow's 
 head of itself, to be upon some drift or other that might cost 
 me trouble, as things stood. However, I no sooner felt where 
 I was, and got the craft under my own spoke, than I came to 
 set him down for nothing but one of those strange hands you 
 tall in with at sea sometimes, always sailing with a ' purser's 
 name/ a regular wonder of a shipmate, and serving to quote 
 every voyage after, by way of a clincher on all hard points, 
 not to say an oracle one can't get beyond, and can't flow sky- 
 high enough. To tell the truth, though, Jones was as 
 thorough a seaman as ever I met with never at a loss, never 
 wanting on any hand ; whether it was the little niceties we 
 stood in need of for setting the schooner's rigging all right 
 again, which none but a blue-water long-voyage sailor can 
 touch, or, what comes to be still better in tropical latitudes, a 
 cool head and a quick hold, with full experience for all sorts
 
 A SEA STORY 359 
 
 of weather, 'twas much the same to him. He was all over like 
 iron, too, never seeming to stand in need of sleep, and seeing 
 like a hawk. At any hour I came on deck in his watch, there 
 was Jones, all awake and ready, till hearing him walk the 
 planks over my head of a fine night made me at times keep 
 my eyes open, listening to it and the wash of the water 
 together. I fancied there was something restless in it, like 
 the sea, with now and then an uneven sort of a start ; 
 and at last it would come to full stop, that gave me the 
 notion of how he was standing quiet in the same spot ; whether 
 he was looking aloft, or thinking, or leaning over the side, or 
 what he was going to do, troubled me wonderfully. The only 
 want in his seamanship I noticed, he evidently wasn't used to 
 handle a large ship ; but craft of some kind I was pretty sure 
 he had commanded in the course of his life. As for taking 
 observations, he could do it better than I could then, while 
 the knowledge he had on different heads, that came out by 
 chance, made you think more of a Cambridge graduate than a 
 common sailor, such as he had shipped for with us. The 
 strangest part of all about him, though, was what I couldn't 
 well name, not to this day ; 'twas more grained in with his 
 manner, and the ring of his voice at particular moments, as 
 well as his walk, though these were the smart seaman's no less ; 
 but one couldn't help thinking of a man that had known the 
 world ashore some time or other, in a different enough station 
 from now ay, and in a way to bring out softer lines in his 
 face than reefing topsails or seeing the main-tack ridden down 
 would do. The nearest I could come to calling it, far apart 
 as the two men stood, was to fancy he reminded me of Lord 
 Frederick Bury himself; especially when he looked all of a 
 sudden to the horizon in that wide, vacant kind of fashion, as 
 if he expected it farther off than it was ; only Jones's face 
 was twice the age, like a man's that had had double the 
 passions in it at the outset, and given them full swing since 
 then ; with a sleeping devil in his eye yet, besides, as I 
 thought, which only wanted somewhat to rouse it. Only for 
 that, I had a sort of leaning to Jones myself ; but, as it was, 
 I caught myself wishing, over and over, for something to 
 make us fall regularly foul of each other, and get rid of this 
 confounded doubtful state. One hitch of a word to take hold 
 of, and, by Jove ! I felt all the blood in my body would boil
 
 360 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 out in me to find how we stood, and show it ; but nothing 
 of the kind did Jones let pass and as close as the sea itself 
 he was in regard to his past life. As for the men from the 
 frigate, at least, they seemingly looked on him with no great 
 fondness, and a good deal of respect, in spite of themselves, 
 for his seamanship ; whereas, if he had been left in the fore- 
 peak in place of the cabin, I 've no doubt in a short time it 
 would have been no man but Jones. You light now and then 
 upon a man afloat, indeed, that his shipmates hold off from, 
 as healthy dogs do from a mad one ; and you saw they had 
 some sort of an inkling of the gloomy close nature Jones had 
 in him by the way they obeyed his orders. Webb's three 
 Cape Dutchmen seemed to have a notion he was some being 
 with mysterious powers, while the Lascars ran crouching at 
 his very word some of them being, as I found, Malays, and 
 the rest Mussulmans from Chittagong ; but Jones could send 
 them about in their own language, Dutchmen and all a part 
 of the matter which did not tend to keep me less careful over 
 him. Still I observed, since his coming aboard, that Jones 
 never once touched liquor, which had plainly enough been 
 his ruin ashore ; whether on account of meaning to pull up 
 once for all and mend, or only to have a wider bout at next 
 port, or else to keep himself steady for aught that might turn 
 up, I couldn't settle in my own mind, Though deucedly 
 doubtful of its being the first, the very idea of it made one 
 feel for the man ; and, in case of his doing well, I had no 
 small hopes of something in the upshot to save a real sailor 
 like him from going to the devil altogether, as he seemed 
 doing. 
 
 " Now, after our getting clear of the rough Cape weather, 
 and the dead-lights being taken out of the stern-windows, I 
 had given a look, for the first time, into the schooner's after- 
 cabins, which were pretty much as the people she belonged to 
 before had left them, except for the rough work the gale had 
 played. There were two of them, one opening into the other; 
 and I must say it was a melancholy sight to meet the bright 
 sunlight streaming into them from off the water astern, with 
 all the little matters either just as if the owners were still 
 inside, or else tumbled about at sixes and sevens. One 
 drawer, in particular, had come out of a table, scattering 
 what was in it on the deck : there was a half-open letter, in a
 
 A SEA STORY 36l 
 
 woman's hand, all French, and showing a lock of hair, with a 
 broken diamond cross of the French Legion of Honour, 
 besides a sort of paper-book full of writing and two printed 
 ones bound in morocco. I picked up the letter and the cross, 
 put them in again, and shoved the drawer back to its place, 
 though I brought the books away with me to have a glance 
 over. What struck me most, though, was a plaster figure of 
 the French Emperor himself, standing fastened on a shelf, 
 with one hand in the breast of his greatcoat, and looking 
 calmly out of the white sightless eyes ; while right opposite 
 hung a sort of curtain which you 'd have thought they were 
 fixed upon. When I hauled it aside, I stared there on a 
 shelf to match the other, was a beautiful smiling child's head 
 to the shoulders, of pure white marble, as if it leant off the 
 bulkhead like a cherub out of the clouds. 
 
 " Spite of all, however, the touch of likeness it had to the 
 head I got such a glimpse of at Longwood, even when the hot 
 sunlight showed it in my spy-glass so pale and terrible, was 
 sufficient to tell me what this was Napoleon's own little son, 
 in fact, who was made King of Rome, as I remembered hear- 
 ing at the time. The thought of the schooner's strange 
 French captain and his desperate scheme came back on me 
 so strong, joined to what I saw he had an eye to in fitting 
 out his cabins, that, for my own part, I hadn't the heart to 
 use them myself, and at first sight ordered the dead-lights to 
 be shipped again, and the door locked. 
 
 " 'Twas a good many days after this, of course, and we had 
 made a pretty fast run up the Mozambique, in spite of the 
 sharp navigation required, sighting nothing larger than the 
 native and Arab craft to be seen thereabouts ; we were be- 
 ginning to clear out from amongst the clusters of islands and 
 shoals at the channel-head, when two large sail were made in 
 open water to nor'-eastward. Next morning by daybreak we 
 were to windward of the weathermost a fine large Indiaman 
 she was, crowding a perfect tower of canvas. Shortly after, 
 however, the schooner was within hail, slipping easily down 
 upon her quarter, which seemed to give them a little uneasi- 
 ness, plenty of troops as she seemed to have on board, and 
 looming like a frigate. After some show of keeping on, and 
 apparently putting faith in the man-of-war pennant I hoisted, 
 she hove into the wind, when we found she was the Com-
 
 
 362 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 pany's ship Warringford, and the other the something Castle, 
 I forget which, both for Calcutta. The next thing, as soon as 
 they found we were tender to His Majesty's frigate Hebe, was 
 to ask after the Seringapatam ; on which I was told she was 
 three or four days' sail ahead with the Mandarin, bound to 
 China, neither of them having put in at Johanna Island to 
 refresh. 
 
 " I was just ready to put our helm up again and bid good- 
 bye, when the tiffin-gong could be heard sounding on the 
 Indiaman's quarter-deck, and the old white-haired captain 
 politely asked me if I wouldn't come aboard with one or 
 two of my officers to lunch. Mr Snelling gave me a wist- 
 ful glance there were a dozen pretty faces admiring our 
 schooner out of the long white awnings; but even if the 
 notion of bringing up Snelling himself as my first officer 
 hadn't been too much for me, not to speak of either Jones 
 or Webb, why the very thoughts that everything I saw 
 recalled to me, made me the more eager to get in sight of 
 the Seringapatam. ( Thank you, sir,' answered I. ' No I 
 must be off after the Bombay ship.' ' Ah,' hailed the old 
 captain, ' some of your Admiral's post-bags, I suppose. Well, 
 keep as much northing as you can, sir, and I daresay you '11 
 find her parted company. She 's got a jury fore-topmast up, 
 for one she lost a week ago ; so you can't mistake her for the 
 Mandarin, with a good glass.' ' Have you noticed any 
 suspicious craft lately, sir ? ' asked I. { Why, to tell you 
 the truth, lieutenant,' sang out he, looking down off the 
 high bulwarks at our long nine-pounders and the knot of 
 Lascars, ' none more so than we thought you, at first, sir ! ' 
 The cadets on the poop roared with laughter, and an old 
 lady with two daughters seemed to eye Snelling doubtfully, 
 through an opera-glass as the reefer ogled both of them at 
 once. 
 
 " ' By-the-by,' sang out the captain of the Indiaman to 
 me again, ' I fancy the passengers in that ship must have got 
 somehow uncomfortable one of our Bengal grandees aboard 
 of her wanted a berth to Calcutta with us, t'other day in the 
 Mozambique ; but we 're too full already ! ' ' Indeed, sir ? ' 
 said I ; but the schooner's main boom was jibbing over, and 
 with two or three more hails, wishing them a good voyage, 
 and so on, away we slipped past their weather-bow. The
 
 A SEA STORY 363 
 
 Warringford got under weigh at her leisure, and in an hour 
 or two her topsails were down to leeward of us. On I 
 cracked with square and studding-sails to the quartering 
 breeze, till the schooner's light hull jumped to it, and aloft 
 she was all hung out of a side, like a dairyman's daughter carry- 
 ing milk ; with the pace she went at, I could almost say to an 
 hour when we should overhaul the chase. 
 
 " Still, after two or three days of the trade- wind, well out 
 in the Indian Ocean, and not a spot to be seen, vre had got so 
 far up the Line as to make me sure we had overrun her. 
 Accordingly, the schooner was hauled sharp on a wind to 
 cruise slowly down across what must be the Indiaman's 
 track, judging as we could to a nicety, with a knowledge of 
 the weather we had had. For my part, I was so certain of 
 sighting her soon, that I ordered the after-cabins to be set to 
 rights, seeing a notion had taken hold of me of actually 
 offering them to Sir Charles Hyde for the voyage to Calcutta 
 fancy the thought ! 'Twas too good to be likely ; but Violet 
 herself actually being in that little after-cabin and sleeping in 
 it the lively schooner heading away alone for India, and they 
 and Westwood the sole passengers aboard why, the very idea 
 of it was fit to drive me crazy with impatience. 
 
 " Well, one fine night, after being on deck all day, and the 
 whole night before, almost, I had turned into my cot to sleep. 
 From where I lay I could see the moonshine off the water 
 through the stern-light in that after-cabin, by the half-open 
 door. I felt the schooner going easily through the water, 
 with a rise and fall from the heave of the long Line-swell ; so 
 close my eyes I couldn't, especially as the midshipman could 
 be heard snoring on the other side like the very deuce. 
 Accordingly I turned out into the after-cabin, and got hold 
 of one of the Frenchman's volumes to read, when, lo, and 
 behold ! I found it was neither more nor less than Greek, all 
 I knew being the sight of it. Next I commenced overhauling 
 the bundle of handwriting, which I took at first for a French 
 log of the schooner's voyage, and sat down on the locker to 
 have a spell at it. So much as I could make out, in spite of 
 the queer outlandish turn the letters had, and the quirks of 
 the unnatural sort of language, it was curious enough a 
 regular story, in fact, about his own life, the war, and Bona- 
 parte himself.
 
 364 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 " At another time I 'd have given a good deal to go through 
 with it at odd hours and a strange affair I found it was some 
 time afterwards ; but meanwhile I had only seen at the 
 beginning that his name was Le Comte Victor I Allemand, Capi- 
 taine, de la Marine Franqais, and made out at the end how 
 there was some scheme of his beyond what I knew before, to 
 be carried out in India when it struck me there was no one 
 on the quarterdeck above. I listened for a minute through 
 the stern-window, and thought I heard someone speaking, 
 over the schooner's lee-quarter, as she surged along ; so 
 slipping on jacket and cap, I went on deck at once. 
 
 " It was middle-watch at the time ; but as soon as I came 
 up I saw all was quiet Webb near the gangway talking to 
 the old Lascar serang, and breaking the English wonderfully 
 betwixt them ; while the Lascars of the watch were sitting 
 like tailors in a ring on the forecastle planks, each waiting for 
 his turn of one cocoa-nut hookah, that kept hubble-bubbling 
 away gravely under the smoker's nose, as he took a long suck 
 at it, while the red cinder in the bowl lighted up his leathery 
 Hindoo face and moustache like a firefly in the root of a banyan, 
 till he handed it, without even a wipe, to his neighbour. 
 These fellows had begun to get much livelier as we made the 
 tropics ; and this same serang of theirs had put out his horns 
 once or twice to Snelling lately, though he drew them in again 
 the moment he saw me a sulky old knotty-faced, yellow-eyed 
 devil I thought him at any rate, while his dish-cloth of a 
 turban, his long blue gown and red trousers, reminded you at 
 sea in a gale of a dancing dervish. The day we spoke the 
 Indiaman, in fact, I noticed there was something in the wind 
 for a minute or two with him and his gang, which put in my 
 head at first to offer them to the captain for a couple of good 
 English hands ; and as I passed him and Webb this time the 
 serang stopped his talk and sidled off. 
 
 " However, a beautiful night it was, as ever eye looked upon 
 even in the blue Indian Ocean : the heavens cloudless, the 
 full round moon shining high off our weather-beam again, the 
 stars drawn up into her bright light, as it were, trembling 
 through the films of it like dewdrops in gossamer of a summer 
 morning : you saw the sea meet the sky on every hand, with- 
 out a speck on the clear line of horizon, through the squares of 
 our ratlins and betwixt the schooner's too long fore-and-aft
 
 A SEA STORY 365 
 
 booms. A pretty strongish breeze we had too, blowing from 
 east to west with a sweep through the emptiness aloft, and 
 a wrinkling ripple over the long gentle swells as deep in 
 the hue as if fresh dye came from the bottom, and crisping 
 into a small sparkle of foam wherever they caught it full. 
 Something pleasant, one could not say what, was in the air ; 
 and every sheet being hauled taut to hold wind, the slant 
 gush of it before her beam drove her slipping ahead toward 
 the quarter it came from, with a dip down and a saucy lift of 
 her jibs again, as if she were half balanced amidships, but little 
 noise about it. I took a squint aloft and an overhaul all round, 
 and nothing was to be seen. The size of the sky through the 
 moonlight looked awful, as it were, and the strength of the 
 breeze seemed to send a heavenly blue deep into the western 
 quarter till you saw a star in it. The night was so lovely, in 
 fact, it somehow made one think of one's mother, and old 
 times, when you used to say your prayers. Still I couldn't see 
 the mate of the watch on the weather quarterdeck, which 
 surprised me the more in Jones's case, since he was always 
 ready for me when I came up ; and, to tell the truth, I 
 shouldn't have been sorry to catch him napping for once, 
 only to show he was like men in common. I walked aft by 
 the weather-side of the large mainsail, accordingly, till I saw 
 him leaning with his head over the lee-bulwark, and heard 
 him again, as I thought, apparently speaking to someone down 
 the schooner's side ; upon which I stepped across. 
 
 " Jones's back was to me as I looked over too ; but owing 
 to what he was busy with, I suppose, and the wash of the 
 water which was louder there than inboard, while you heard 
 the plash from her bows every time she forged he evidently 
 didn't hear me. You may fancy my wonder to find he was 
 reading aloud out to himself from the other of the French- 
 man's volumes, which I had no doubt left in the dining-cabin 
 the book open in both hands, he giving it forth in long 
 staves, with a break between and regular Greek it was too. 
 You 'd have thought he timed them to the plash alongside ; 
 and I must say, as every string of long-tailed words flowed 
 together like one, in Jones's deep voice, and the swell rose 
 once or twice with its foam- bells near his very hands, I almost 
 fancied I made a meaning of them each like a wave, as it 
 were, sweeping to a crest, and breaking. The gusto the man
 
 366 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 showed in it you can't conceive, and, what was more, I had no 
 doubt he understood the sense of it, for all of a sudden, after 
 twenty staves or so of the kind he stopped. e There ! ' said he, 
 ' there, old Homer women, wine, and adventure what could 
 the devil ask more, blind old prater, with a sound in you 
 like the sea ? Ay, wash, wash, wash away, lying old blue- 
 water, you can't wash it out and wine no, not the strongest 
 rum in Cape Town can wash you out ! ' With that Jones laid 
 his head on his arms, with the book still in one hand, mutter- 
 ing to himself, and I listened in spite of me. ' Still, it rouses 
 the old times in me ! ' said he. ' Here comes this book across 
 me, too. Ay, ay, and the rector fancied, sitting teaching me 
 Greek out of old wild Homer all weekday and and his girl 
 slipping out and in 'twould do to don the cassock of a Sunday 
 and preach out of the pulpit against the world, the devil, and 
 the flesh then warn me against the sea ha ! ' 
 
 " The laugh that came from him at that moment was more 
 like a dog than a human being ; but on he went muttering 
 ' Women, wine, and adventures, said ye, old Greek, and a 
 goddess too ; still he was a good old man, the rector no guile 
 nor evil in him, with his books in the cases yonder, and the 
 church-spire seen through the window over the garden, and 
 his wife with ah, the less of that the better. 'Twas in me, 
 though, and all our blood and in her dark eyes, too, Mary 
 though she was ! ' He broke out again, after a bit, as if he 'd 
 been arguing it with something under the side : e I didn't 
 take her the first time I came home nor the second but 
 but ay, I came back ! Oh that parting-stile in sight of the 
 sea and that packet-ship but O God ! that night that 
 night with the schooner forging ahead through the blue- 
 blue ' And he stopped with a groan that shook him as 
 
 he leant over. ' Hellish ! ' he said, suddenly standing upright 
 and looking straight aloft with his bare head and face to the 
 wide empty sky, and the moonlight tipping the hair on his 
 forehead, from over the high shadow on the leeside of the 
 mainsail, where it glistened along the gaff. e She was pure 
 to the last ! ' I heard him say, though I had walked to the 
 other side of the boom ; ' ay, though I rot to perdition for it ! 
 Down, old fiend ! ' as he lifted his one hand with the book, 
 and drove it alongside, seemingly watching it settle away 
 astern.
 
 A SEA STORY 367 
 
 " Now I had heard nothing from Jones that I couldn't have 
 fancied before, and there was even a humour to my mind in 
 the notion of clapping it all on old Homer, if Homer it was, 
 and heaving him overboard with such a confoundedly com- 
 plimentary burial-service. But some of the words that 
 dropped from him shot through one's veins like icicles ; 
 and now there was something fearful in the sight of him 
 standing straight again, with a look right into the heavens, 
 as if he 'd have searched them up and up in that lovely 
 night too, spread far and wide the very rays of the moon- 
 light sparkled down the weather-side of the sail I was on, 
 trembling on the leech-ropes and brails as they swayed, 
 and into the hollows they made in the belly of the taut 
 canvas ; the long shining spot of it wavered and settled on 
 the same two planks of the quarterdeck, beyond the shadow 
 of the bulwark from the moon's eye, fast as the schooner 
 moved through the water, and it was like a hand laid upon 
 her, with the air and wind stretching between. Of a sudden 
 I saw Jones wheel slowly round where he stood, like a man 
 turned about by main strength, with his eyes fixed aloft, and 
 his one arm raising from the shoulder till his forefinger 
 pointed to something, as I thought, about the fore-to' gallant- 
 sail. His face was like ashes, his eye glaring, and I sprang 
 across to him under the main-boom. ' See ! ' said he, never 
 turning his head, and the words hissed betwixt his teeth, 
 'look at that!' 
 
 " ' For Heaven's sake, what, Mr Jones ? ' said I. ' Her 
 her,' was his answer, 'coming against the wind dead fore- 
 and-aft in the shade of the sails ! ' On the lee-sides of them 
 the high boom-sails made a sort of a thin shadow against the 
 moonshine off the other beam, which came glimpsing through 
 between them out of a world of air to the south-east, with a 
 double of it flickering alongside on the water as it heaved 
 past to leeward ; and whether it was fancy, or whether it was 
 but the reflection aloft from below, I thought as I followed 
 Jones's finger, I saw something like the shape of a woman's 
 dress floating close in with the bonnet of the fore-topmast- 
 staysail, from the dusk it made to the breast of the fore- 
 topsail, and even across the gush of white light under the 
 yard long and straight, as it were, like a thing lifted dripping 
 eut of water, and going, as he said, right against the schooner's
 
 368 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 course. ' Now in the foresail ! ' whispered Jones, his eye 
 moving as on a pivot, and a thrill ran through me at the 
 notion ; for I made out one single moment what I thought a 
 face against the sky at the gaff-end, white as death, shooting 
 aft towards the mainsail though next instant I saw it was 
 but a block silvered by the moon as the schooner lifted. 
 ' Now the mainsail ! ' said he, huskily, ' and now now by the 
 heavens rising rising to the gaff-topsail away! O Lord! 
 Mary I' 
 
 " He was leaning aft toward the width of the sky, with 
 both hands clutched together before him, shuddering all over. 
 For the first minute my own blood crept, I must say ; but 
 directly after I touched him on the shoulder. ' This is strange, 
 Mr Jones," said I ; ' what 's the matter ? ' ( Once in the 
 Bermudas ! ' said he, still wildly, ' once in the Pacific and 
 now ! Does the sea give up its dead, though, think ye ? ' 
 ' You 've a strong fancy, Mr Jones, that 's all,' I said sternly. 
 ' Fancy ! ' said he, though beginning to get the better of him- 
 self ; ' did ye ever fancy a face looking down down at you in 
 the utterest scorn down sideways off the shoulder of the 
 garment, as it sticks wet into every outline like life ? All the 
 time gliding on the other way, too, and the eyes like two stars 
 a thousand miles away beyond, as kind as angels' neither 
 wind nor sea can stop it, till suddenly it rises to the very cope 
 of heaven still looking scornfully down at you ! No, sir, 
 fancy it you couldn't ! ' 
 
 " The glance he gave me was somehow or other such as I 
 couldn't altogether stomach from the fellow, and he was turn- 
 ing to the side when I said quietly, ' No, nor Homer either, I 
 daresay ! ' Jones started and made a step towards me. ' You 
 heard me a little ago ! ' rapped out he, eyeing me. ' Yes,' I 
 said ; ' by Jove ! who could help being curious to hear a sailor 
 spout Greek as you were doing, Mr Jones ? ' 
 
 " ' The fact is, Mr Collins,' answered he, changing his tone, 
 ' I was well brought up the more shame to me for bringing 
 myself to what you saw me. I had a sister drowned, too, on 
 her passage to America one voyage, when I was mate of the 
 ship myself. No wonder it keeps my nerves shaking some- 
 times, when I've had too long about shore.' 'Well, well, 
 Jones,' said I, rather softening, ' you 've proved yourself a first- 
 rate seaman, and I 've got nothing to complain of; but I tell
 
 A SEA STORY 369 
 
 you fairly I had my doubts of you ! So you '11 remember 
 you 're under the Articles of War aboard here, sir/ added I, 
 ' which, as long as I have this schooner under hand, I '11 be 
 hanged if I don't carry out ! ' All at once the thought struck 
 me, a little inconveniently, of my carrying off Webb, and his 
 people, and I fancied Jones's quick eye wandered to the Lascars 
 forward. ' I know it, sir,' said he, looking me steadily in the 
 face; 'and what's more, Mr Collins, at any rate I couldn't 
 forget you picked me out, confounded low as I looked, to come 
 aft here. 'Tis not every captain afloat that has such a good 
 eye for a seaman, as / know ! ' ' Oh, well, no more about it,' I 
 said, walking forward on the weather-side, and leaving him on 
 the lee one as distinctly as Lord Frederick Bury could have 
 done to myself in the frigate. Jones no doubt thought I 
 didn't notice the slight wrinkle that gathered round his lee 
 eye when he gave me this touch of butter at the end ; but I 
 put it down for nothing more, gammon though it was. 
 
 " It was near the end of the watch, the moon beginning to 
 set, while it still wanted three hours of daybreak in those 
 latitudes, when the look-out on the topgallant-yard, who was 
 stationed there in man-o'-war cruising fashion, reported a 
 sail to windward. Just then the midshipman came on deck 
 to his watch, wonderfully early for him indeed, and on my 
 remarking it was probably the Indiaman at last, Jones himself 
 went aloft with the night-glass to make her out. 'Mr 
 Snelling,' said I, 'see the hands on deck ready for going 
 about.' Next minute I saw him rousing up the rest of the 
 Lascars, who slept watch and watch on the forecastle. Only 
 five or six of the Hebe's men were up, and all of them, save 
 the man at the wheel, ran aloft to rig out stunsail-booms to 
 windward, as soon as the schooner was fairly on the starboard 
 tack, standing to nor' -east ward. Suddenly I saw a scuffle 
 between the midshipman and the tindal,* a stout, dark-faced 
 young Bengalee, with a jaunty skull-cap and frock, whom 
 Snelling had probably helped along with a touch of a rope's 
 end, and in a moment two or three more of them were upon 
 him, while the reefer drew his dirk, and sung out to me, 
 scarce before I was with him, the Lascars rolling into the lee- 
 scuppers at two kicks of my foot. 
 
 "Webb and three of the men from Cape Town were 
 * Lascar boatswain's mate. 
 
 2 A
 
 370 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 hoisting a stunsail at the time, the smart man-o'-war's-men 
 aloft singing out to them to bear a hand. What with the 
 noise of the sail flapping, and its being betwixt my own men 
 and the deck, they could know nothing of the matter ; and 
 the Lascars let go the halliards in a body, making a rush at 
 Snelling and myself with everything they could pick up in 
 the shape of a spar. 
 
 " This would have been nothing, as in two or three minutes 
 more the men would have been down, and the cocoa-faced 
 rascals dodged every way from the handspike I got hold of; 
 but I just caught a glimpse on one side of the sly old serang 
 shoving on the fire-scuttle to keep down the watch below ; 
 and on the other, of Webb looking round him, evidently to see 
 how matters stood. Two Dutchmen seized the first sailor 
 that came down the rigging, by the legs, and I saw the affair 
 must be finished at once, it had so much the look of a regular 
 plot on Webb's part, if Jones wasn't concerned in it too. I 
 made one spring upon my Cape Town gentleman, and took 
 him by the throat with one hand, while I hit the biggest 
 Dutchman full behind the ear, felling him to the deck, on 
 which the man-o'-war's-man grappled his watch-mate, and 
 Webb was struggling with me sufficiently to keep both my 
 hands full, when I had a pleasant inkling of a Malay Lascar 
 slipping toward my back with a bare kreese in his fist, 
 
 " I just looked over my shoulder at his black eyes twinkling 
 devilishly before he sprang, when someone came sliding fair 
 down from the fore-topmast-head by a back-stay, and pitched 
 in a twinkling on top of his head a thing enough to break 
 the neck of a monument. Directly after, I saw Jones himself 
 hitting right and left with his night-glass, from the moonlight 
 to the shadow of the foresail, while Snelling tumbled over a 
 Lascar at every slap, standing up in boxer-style. By the time 
 the rest of the men came down all was settled the Dutchmen 
 sulking against the bulwarks, and Webb gasping after I let 
 him go. ' Boatswain,' said I to one of the sailors, ' clap that 
 man in irons below Mr Snelling, see the watch called, sir.' 
 * I 'ad the law with me,' said Webb, gloomily. ' You plotted it, 
 then, Mr Webb ? ' I said. ' Didn't you carry us off illegally ? ' 
 said he. ' I only meant to recover the vessel upon my 
 honour, nothing more, sir ; and if you 're 'ard with me, you '11 
 have to answer for it, I assure you ! ' Here he looked round
 
 A SEA STORY m 
 
 to Jones in a strange way, as I fancied, for a moment ; but 
 Jones turned on his heel with a sneer. ' Why, Mr Webb,' 
 answered I, 'you lost that tack by offering yourself in a 
 watch, which makes the thing neither more nor less than 
 mutiny so take him below, do ye hear, bo'sun ! ' And down 
 he went. 
 
 "'Now, Mr Jones,' said I, as soon as all hands were on 
 deck, ' you '11 be so good as have half of these Lascars seized 
 to the rigging here, one after the other, and see a good dozen 
 given to each of their backs ; then these two Dutchmen, each 
 three dozen then pipe down the watch, sir.' 
 
 "Jones glanced at me, then at the fellows, then at me 
 again. I thought he hung aback for an instant ; but do it I 
 was determined he should, for a reason I had ; and I gave 
 him back the look steady as stone. ' Ay, ay, sir,' said he, at 
 last, touching his hat. I walked aft to the capstan, and stood 
 there till every mother's son of them had got his share, the 
 Lascars wriggling and howling on the deck after it, and the 
 Dutchmen twisting their backs as they walked off. 'Twas the 
 first time I did that part of duty in command, and I felt, in 
 the circumstances, I was in for carrying it out with a taut 
 hand. 
 
 " By this time the moon was setting, and in the dusk we 
 lost sight of the sail to windward ; but as we were heading 
 well up to weather upon her, and going at least ten knots, I 
 turned in below for a little, leaving the midshipman. Accord- 
 ingly, it wasn't very long before Snelling called me in broad 
 daylight. ' She 's a large ship, Mr Collins,' said he, ' standing 
 under all sail on a wind. I hope to goodness, sir, it 's that 
 confounded Indiaman at last ! ' I hurried on deck, took the 
 glass aloft, and soon made out the jury fore-topmast shorter 
 than the main, as the old captain mentioned. Accordingly, it 
 was with somewhat of a flutter in me I came down again, 
 watching the schooner's trim below and aloft, to see if I 
 couldn't take an hour or so off the time betwixt that and once 
 more setting eyes on the judge's daughter.
 
 372 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 " A FTER breakfast-time the breeze freshened again, and 
 the ship had evidently perceived us, as well as the fact 
 of our having hauled on a wind to make up with her course ; 
 for we could see her hoisting out one stunsail after another to 
 the lee-side, and keeping off in order to give them full play. 
 This was what I was afraid of, in fact, that our looking her way 
 in the circumstances would make her show her heels ; and 
 being hull down, almost dead to windward of us, with her 
 spread of sail to such a breeze as the present, it was like to be 
 a troublesome matter ere we got within signalling distance ; 
 especially if she had kept hold of her wind a little more, 
 instead of falling off before it as she did, which tended the 
 schooner always steadily to weather upon her, the sharper we 
 kept her nose to the sun in the spray. Indeed, the wind 
 during the forenoon came gradually round more in our favour, 
 till it stood south-east by east or so ; by which time, however, 
 we had dropped her topsails from the deck, then her to'- 
 gallantsails, to a white speck far down on the lee-bow. We 
 weathered fast upon her, and I fancied I made out the yellow 
 India patches in her canvas ; when, on turning about, I caught 
 Jones's glance at me, as if he couldn't understand my eager- 
 ness, or else had got curious what the schooner wanted 
 with the ship at all. ' She loses, I think, sir,' said he looking 
 off to her again. ' Little doubt of that, Mr Jones,' said I. 
 ' I know that Indiaman's sailing to a tee but we shan't 
 overhaul her at this rate an hour too soon, before she might 
 have a chance of dropping us in the dark, or our running to 
 leeward of her again.' ' Why, yes,' said Jones, carelessly, 
 'if they knew how to do it, sir.' 'By George! Mr Collins,' 
 exclaimed Snelling, ' I see her stern-gallery sparkling in the 
 run of the surges.' 
 
 " In a little while we could notice her canvas darken slowly 
 from the courses to the to'gallant-sails, leaving the royals and 
 studding-sails whiter than before : they were wetting her 
 sails. * She must take us for something bad, Lieutenant 
 Collins ! ' remarked Jones, as if the thing were at all doubtful. 
 ' A pirate, in fact,' added the reefer, with a grin. ( Why, sir,' 
 said he, ' these Company's men seem to think the sea swarms
 
 A SEA STORY 873 
 
 with pirates, though I 'm blessed if we 've been so lucky as to 
 sight even the tail-feather of one my eye ! though, how the 
 griffins must be skipping about just now ! ' 
 
 " The truth was, the nearer we got, the more it struck me 
 that, altered as the schooner was aloft, our red streak and 
 lead-coloured sides were just as the first time I saw them ; 
 which wouldn't do much toward settling the Indiaman's 
 doubts of us, for they couldn't fail to rememher her the 
 moment our hull came in sight ; and as for my own character 
 all along aboard the Seringapatam, why, neither first nor last 
 did it seem to stand in good odour. ' Mr Jones,' said I, as we 
 slipped quietly through the water, 'have you got any old 
 canvas at hand, sir ? be so good as have it ripped up in 
 lengths, and fast clapped outside from stem to stern along 
 that red streak of ours, up as far as the plank sheer, missing 
 the ports give her a good broad white stripe, sir, instead ! ' 
 ' Ay, ay, sir ! ' answered he, with a gleam in his eye as he 
 turned off, half knowing, half in surprise. ' And, Mr Snelling,' 
 continued I, ' hark ye, see all the hammocks stowed over the 
 bulwarks in her waist and run both those long-guns forward, 
 chock in to the eyes of her, to bring her down by the head a 
 little keep the men on the foc'sle too she looks rather 
 rakish at present, I must confess ! ' 
 
 "All this the young gentleman seemed to do with as 
 rueful a look as if he were putting knee-breeches and gaiters 
 in place of white ducks, on his own lower timbers ; and 
 presently he came aft to ask if he mightn't stick a shot into 
 each of the guns. ' What for ? ' said I. ' Oh,' said the mid- 
 shipman, ' won't she show fight at all, sir, then ? ' Just 
 then the white range of the Indiaman's heavy quarter-gallery 
 came into view, then the bulge of her big hulking body half 
 on to us, with a port-lid or two raised in the white band : we 
 were to windward of her already, stealing up on her quarter. 
 ' My eye ! ' said Snelling, ' she could blow us out of water, 
 if she choose, Mr Collins, and only had pluck enough.' 
 ' Why, that 's all you know about it, Mr Snelling,' said I, with 
 a laugh, ' since she don't carry long muzzles in her side, and 
 in a light breeze like this we could however, as we happen 
 to be friends, that's of no moment, Mr Snelling.' ' After all, 
 though/ I added, ( you may load once, and stand by to fire 
 across her course, if required ; but, for the life of you,
 
 374 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 Snelling,' said I, seriously, ' in any case, if I give' the word to 
 fire, don't let anything in the shape of iron go near that ship's 
 hull ! By Jove ! sir, I 'd let her blow us out of the water first, 
 or else show her our heels, myself ! ' 
 
 " Well, about four in the afternoon, there we were coming 
 down actually on the ship's quarter, from windward ; when we 
 took in our flying-kites, clued up gaff and fore-topsails, and 
 to'gallant-sail, leaving St George's flag fluttering bright at the 
 main-peak, and our long coach-whip streaming from the mast- 
 head, while she kept gliding easily ahead under nothing but 
 the two boomsails and large jib. Still the Indiaman gave no 
 other sign except showing the British ensign, then her striped 
 Company's flag under it, at the mizzen-peak : she went jogging 
 steadily on, as I was afraid she would, like a fellow giving you 
 the go-by in the street. ' Nothing else for it, after all, Mr 
 Snelling,' said I, walking forward, as we got within long 
 range. ' The confounded fools ! ' I couldn't help saying, ' do 
 they think a piratical craft would give herself the trouble of 
 hoisting all the flags in Christendom one after the other, and 
 she, of course, with a long-Tom on a pivot amidships? Mr 
 Jones, oblige me by pitching a shot right across her fore-foot ? ' 
 Jones stepped forward, had the gun slued, and blew the match. 
 * Are you ready ? ' said I ' now mind your eye fire ! ' and 
 the ball went spinning from the top of one swell to another 
 beyond the Indiaman's bows, rather wide of the mark, as I 
 thought : when, all at once, the smoke had scarce cleared 
 away betwixt us ere I saw her jib-sheets fly, and the Indiaman 
 luffing up in the wind. Jones started, as almost next moment 
 we could see the spritsail-yard hanging in two across the 
 spars I must say, rather to my own surprise, in spite of a 
 good deal of old cruising practice. 
 
 " ' A good aim, sir ! ' remarked he, turning round. ' There 
 goes her mainyard, now ! ' said Snelling ; and she seemed to 
 be heaving-to, when the mainsail filled again, and on she 
 stood as before ; then actually broach ed-to, all aback, and 
 gathering stern-way with her bows fairly facing us ; while the 
 black figurehead under the bowsprit showed me his turban 
 again once more, like a fellow leaning over a horse he couldn't 
 manage. ' What the mischief are the lubbers about ! ' I said, 
 ' can't they heave-to at once and be done with it, now that I 
 fancy they see their mistake ? '
 
 A SEA STORY 375 
 
 " Here Jones, who had got aft and stood up on the taffrail, 
 jumped down again all at once, and met me at the capstan. 
 ' Lieutenant Collins/ said he in a low voice, and looking me 
 straight in the face with a very queer expression, ' the ship 
 has struck I ' ' Struck ! ' repeated I, starting ; and he, Snelling, 
 and I sprang to the taffrail together. There was the Indiaman, 
 in fact, at length heaving into the wind, about three-quarters 
 of a mile off our lee-beam, with her two ensigns hauled down, 
 and something flying instead of them at the gaff-end, which 
 I couldn't make out. Our helm was put up, and the schooner 
 edged swiftly down to her, slipping along in sight of her 
 stretch of bulwarks till we had hove-to abreast of her starboard 
 bow. 
 
 " ' What ship is that ? ' hailed I from abaft, as we ran past 
 in the shadow of her sails ; and I saw my gentleman ' first 
 officer,' Finch, standing up in her mizzen-chains with the 
 trumpet, more dashing than ever, as he had poor Captain 
 Williamson's uniform coat and hat on, apparently, and a 
 sword by his side : her whole quarter-bulwark bristling with 
 spy-glasses and gun-barrels turned upon the schooner, though 
 not another head could be seen. ' The Honourable East In 
 began Finch ; but that moment there was a perfect hubbub of 
 cries and cheers, as a dozen faces I knew well showed them- 
 selves popping up from the quarterdeck : Old Rollock in a 
 huge straw hat and his shirt-sleeves, with a ship's musket in 
 his fists ; Ford, Winterton, and the cadets the long-faced 
 Scotch surgeon, and Macleod's screwed nose and red whiskers 
 every eye fixed on me, as I fancied, not to say three or four 
 rusty barrels. Their confusion and bewilderment was rare to 
 witness ; and being forty hands of us the Lascars' outlandish 
 physiognomies and all why, the schooner must have looked 
 rather respectable as she still slid ahead. 
 
 " In the meantime, the look of our smart Hebe's men, with 
 the frigate's name shining in front of their regular-built hats, 
 and everything about us, not to say the reefer's naval uniform 
 and mine, seemed to have set the Indiaman's people more at 
 their ease ; till, when our gig's crew was ready to lower away, 
 there was even a glimpse of ladies to be seen along toward 
 her poop. Every moment I expected the sight of a certain 
 face to flash on me from over the black rail, as the ship rolled 
 and plunged in the heave of water opposite us, showing her
 
 376 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 broad white band, with the drips of rust across it from her 
 chain-plates. 'We made somewhat of an awkward mistake, 
 sir ! ' hailed Finch, eyeing me queerly enough, and trying to 
 appear at his ease. ' So I supposed, sir/ said I ; ' I shall send 
 a boat aboard of you directly ' ; and I turned to the midship- 
 man, who stood surveying the ship from stern to stern with 
 his nose turned away from her, and his hands in the tails of 
 his coat, speaking all the time to Mr Jones, though the latter 
 was apparently the least interested of the two, for he had his 
 eye seaward. 
 
 " ' Mr Snelling,' said I, ' d' ye see that gentleman yonder 
 near the main-rigging, with the black hat on ? You '11 go 
 aboard in the gig, sir, give your commanding-officer's com- 
 pliments to the captain of the Indiaman, and mention to him 
 that that gentleman is wanted here Westwood his name is.' 
 
 c< To tell you the truth, my head was in a perfect whirl at 
 knowing that, if I chose, five minutes could set me within 
 speaking distance of Violet yet you 'd scarce believe I 
 actually almost made up my mind not to go on deck again 
 till our sheets were hauled aft, and we leaving the ship 
 astern. Bless your heart ! I wasn't aware till that minute 
 what I felt for her ; everything about the voyage from Ports- 
 mouth came back so fresh on me, at sight of the different 
 parts about the old Serin gapat 'am' s bulwarks, to the very odds- 
 and-ends of ropes hanging alongside that blessed lumbering 
 coach-house of hers amidships, and the live-stock cackling 
 and bleating in it between times ! And there was I glancing 
 aft into our little stern-cabins, which I fancied two or three 
 days ago might serve for their passage. But now, though I 
 had a pretty sharp guess these same cabins were meant 
 originally for neither more nor less than an emperor himself, 
 why, I saw the very notion was too ridiculous to mention ! 
 f Mr Jones,' said I, speaking up the skylight, ' as soon as you 
 see that passenger is in the boat, have the head sheets hauled 
 aft, sir, and the helm put up to make sail.' ' Ay, ay, sir,' said 
 he ; but directly after, he added in a low voice, ' I believe 
 though, sir, we are not likely to part company from this ship 
 so soon ! ' ' How, sir ! ' exclaimed I sharply, and starting up 
 off the chair to see him, for something in the cool, collected 
 tone of his voice jarred on me the more on account of the state 
 I was in myself ' what do you mean by that ? ' I had merely
 
 A SEA STORY 377 
 
 to catch sight of my mate's broad throat and hairy chin, how- 
 ever, as he stood with his full chest thrown back, and one 
 hand in his waistcoat, looking aloft by the skylight, when, 
 following his eye to our main-gaff, it was easy to know the 
 last fanning of the wind ; which, taken together with the 
 schooner's yerking motion abaft, was sufficient to give you 
 word of a calm. ' We have lost the breeze for to-night, at 
 any rate, sir,' said Jones, letting his eyes suddenly fall upon 
 me, and meeting the flicker of pleasure I couldn't help 
 showing on my face. ' Confound the thing ! you don't say 
 so, Mr Jones ! ' rejoined I quickly. ' Then as long as she has 
 a foot's steerage-way, sir, let her slip off the Indiaman's bow 
 at once else the two of us will be grinding together ere day- 
 light like a couple of mill-stones without corn ! ' 
 
 " On deck there were twenty things worth noticing, that 
 struck one at the same time. The schooner's light spars and 
 white canvas seen sharp against the white glare of light in 
 the west, as she settled round on the ship's other bow ; while 
 the light air high aloft in the Indiaman's royals still kept 
 steadying her with her lee-side to the sunset, where it made a 
 red trough along the horizon down through a golden cloud or 
 two, that looked like bright-winged things whirling off and 
 about the sun. 
 
 "Our gig was holding off by the boat-hook from her lee- 
 quarter, the oars up-ended, and two or three sailors, with their 
 heads shoved out under a port-lid on the main deck, talking to 
 the boat's crew, while a few of the men hung over the high 
 black top-sides, peering aft at the gig ; the rest being gathered 
 in the ship's bows, with their eyes fixed on the schooner. The 
 huge round of the sun went down astern like the mouth of a 
 furnace, sending a broad stream of red light across the face 
 of the water with every wet streak and wrinkle shown heaving 
 in it, right up to the Indiaman's white band and her pitch- 
 black bulwarks. Her quarter-galleries lashed out, and you 
 saw the passengers' heads aft through the red arch under the 
 wide mainsail-foot, till every face shone crimson-bright out of 
 the awning below ; and I could see the midshipman's gold 
 band glisten as he took his cap off to some ladies coming down 
 the poop-stair, amidst a hubbub of cadets turning round to 
 eye the schooner. For half-a-minute the smooth sea all astern 
 of the ship seemed to wash to her water-line in a flood of
 
 578 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 light and blood almost, as if the horizon vanished ; then the 
 tip of the sun went down like a burning ruby, the blue heave 
 of water sank away from the copper at the Indiaman's bows, 
 giving us an easy lift at the other side of the swell, and the 
 whole compass of the sea appeared to slide round cool and 
 clear against the soft flush of all possible tints in the west ; 
 till the deep indigo hue of the calm spread melting off from 
 both of us. 
 
 " What I gave most heed to was the knots of men's faces 
 on the Seringapatam s forecastle, as the golden gleam of light 
 and the red glare struck across them with all sorts of queer 
 touches, that brought back every one of them clearly to mind 
 at once ; and, stepping forward where Mr Jones's figure was 
 to be seen dark against the pale glow in the west, I could 
 easily make out ugly Harry's big buffalo head, as he leant his 
 chin on his two hands, and surveyed us up and down, with 
 his dirty tarpaulin on the back of his head as usual, and his 
 shaggy black hair like thatch over his forehead, almost down to 
 the meeting of his thick eyebrows. The moment I appeared, 
 Mister Harry Foster shifted himself with a start, looked aloft 
 to his own ship, and began to whistle as if for wind ; the same 
 moment Jones turned and noticed me, too, and the difference 
 of the two men's faces struck me the more, that I couldn't 
 help thinking extremes met. 'That fellow there seems to 
 like us so well, Mr Jones,' said I, laughing, 'that I've half a 
 mind to bring him aboard, as I could \ ' ' Who which, sir ? ' 
 said the mate, looking to every part of the Indiaman but the 
 right one. ' Why, that misbegotten-like rascal you were look- 
 ing at,' said I ; ( I know a little of him, and a more thorough 
 blackguard doesn't walk planks ! ' ' There 's the boat, though, 
 Lieutenant Collins !' said Jones suddenly : the boat-hook struck 
 our mizzen-chains on the other side in the dusk, and next minute 
 Tom Westwood swung himself on board, with the midshipman 
 and Old Rollock the planter following in his wake ; the last, to 
 my surprise, carrying two hat-boxes and an umbrella. 
 
 " ' Why, Ned Collins ! ' broke out Westwood, ' what is the 
 meaning of all this what wind has blown you here ? ' 'My 
 dear fellow ! ' shouted the planter, almost jumping on top of 
 me, ' I never in my life saw the like of you the very same 
 infernal schooner, too ! Come, let 's hear have you taken 
 'em all then, head and tail have you '
 
 A SEA STORY 379 
 
 " ' For Heaven's sake, Mr Rollock,' said I, sheering out of 
 his way as well as I could, 'come below, sir, if I must answer 
 all these questions ! ' ' So you are actually in command ? ' 
 said Westwood ; and hereupon I gave him the bearings of his 
 own affair, with the fact of my falling in with Lord Frederick 
 Bury, of course ; and of all men in the world, I believe, the 
 ' Honourable Bury ' was the one Westwood could feel com- 
 fortable under, as his face showed at the time. ' Whether I 
 lose you or not in the Hooghly, Tom,' said I, ' I daresay you '11 
 find yourself in the end aboard the Hebe, in some shape or 
 other ! and meantime I shall be glad of you here for a first 
 mate.' ' Well, well,' put in the planter again, impatiently, 
 after having kept questioning me every now and then for the 
 last ten minutes, which I answered without well knowing 
 what he said ' then you hung him, of course ? ' ' Hung 
 whom ? ' asked I, obliged to attend by Mr Rollock's per- 
 severance. 'Why, El Americano, to be sure the Yankee 
 Snout ! ' said he, trying to lengthen his face for the news. 
 ' Hung him no ! ' said I, laughing ; ' when I saw him on 
 deck there, last, he was lively enough, and anxious to get 
 those images of his out of the Seringapatam.' The planter's 
 rosy gills turned a shade or two paler, and he started off his 
 seat. f God bless me ! ' said he, in a low voice, and looking 
 over his shoulder, f you don't mean to say you've brought 
 the man back on me. I declare to you I lost a few pounds of 
 my weight here before, by his actually conceiving a friendship 
 for me ! ' Old Rollock's dismay was so comical that I could 
 scarce find in my heart to ease his mind, as I did. 
 
 " ' Why, my dear fellow,' said Westwood, with a smile, ' I 
 assure you that disappearance of yours took me by surprise. 
 Indeed, I only guessed, from something Captain Finch let 
 drop afterwards, how it came about ; and till the very moment 
 the brig-of-war got under way, I fancied you had some other 
 plan in view, or else you never would have carried it out. 
 The fact was, Ned, if your heart was bound for India, mine 
 was ashore in old England, and I 'd rather have run the risk 
 to go back ! ' Here Tom caught my glance, and looked shyly 
 into one waistcoat pocket, then into another, fidgeting on his 
 chair, poor fellow ! in a way that brought my sister Jane's 
 grey eyes, and her demure little arch face, distinctly before 
 me, thousands of miles as there were between us and Croydon.
 
 380 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 The thought of the Seringapatam being so near, on the other 
 hand, somehow rushed on me at the same time, and I felt 
 wonderfully mild toward Tom. ' Hang it, Tom ! ' said I, 
 f never mind thinking of it mix your grog, man, and con- 
 found all care to the bottom of the sea. You're well off! 
 For my part,' said I, ' 1 had no notion at all how that case 
 stood, so I made a cursed mistake in the matter but here '& 
 luck ! ' 
 
 " ' However, said he, ' 1 saw your drift by that time ; and 
 the young lady herself was in the fore-cabin when I told her 
 father the whole story, not long after you went off. 'Twas no 
 use with Sir Charles, though, to say you were only carrying 
 out the joke to screen me, and amuse yourself at the same 
 time he was sure you were after some scheme ; and all the 
 while Miss Hyde sat sewing on the sofa behind us, as quiet 
 and careless as if she didn't hear a word, or trouble herself 
 about the matter. When I came upon your vanishing so 
 suddenly in the brig, however, and said I was sure, by that 
 time, you did so in order to let me clear off, I had my eye on 
 the looking-glass opposite the young lady ; and whatever you 
 may make of it, Ned, I can tell you she started and glanced 
 up at that point.' ' Well, and what of that ? ' I asked. But 
 Westwood went on ' It was all one to Sir Charles, neverthe- 
 less, whatever way I turned it. According to him, this was 
 just of a piece with the rest of your doings, which showed the 
 bad effects of the naval service. 'Twas no use my standing up 
 for you, saying how fast you had risen, and would rise, if you 
 had the right thing to do for the old gentleman allowed 
 everything, adding it was so much the worse for such fellows 
 to be set loose. " I tell you what, Mr Westwood," said he, 
 looking round sharply, as if he were speaking at somebody 
 else, " there is a soul of mischief in that young man that 
 nothing will root out, unfitting him for everything else, how- 
 ever admirably it may be suited to maritime pursuits or to 
 savage warfare. In short," added the judge, drawing himself 
 up, "it is my conviction he will either be drowned or knocked 
 
 on the head '' ' ' The precious old curmudgeon ! ' I rapped 
 
 out, betwixt laughter and rage at the thought of her hearing 
 all this pretty character of me. ' " And I must say, my young 
 friend," said the judge, " I felt much relieved at finding 
 Councillor Westwood's nephew so different an individual ex-
 
 A SEA STORY 381 
 
 ceedingly relieved ! Besides that, you cannot, of course, 
 continue in the navy ! " Just at this moment,' continued 
 Westwood, ' I saw the young lady gather up her work behind 
 us with a sparkle in her eye, rise off the sofa, and walk straight 
 aft through the cabin-door.' 
 
 " ' Was that all ? ' said I, biting my lip. ' All, you heathen ! ' 
 answered Tom, laughing. ' Why, what would you have ? I '11 
 be bound the judge didn't mean all that for my use, my dear 
 fellow. But the worst of it was, that next day, when I met 
 her with the Brigadier's lady on the poop, the young beauty 
 passed me with as scornful an air as possible ; and for a week 
 or so, whenever the judge happened to ask me into the 
 round-house cabins, either she wasn't there, or took an oppor- 
 tunity of walking out the most I got was a bow or a " good- 
 morning " ; so you see the real Simon Pure didn't prosper 
 half so well as the false one ! ' ' Pooh ! ' said I, gloomily, 
 thinking of the little ground I had made myself, ( all contra- 
 diction the fact is, you 're too simple for women's ways, 
 Westwood.' Westwood looked down and gave a queer smile 
 as much as to say, I suppose, the case stood just the 
 contrary ; and I must own, it struck me he must be rather a 
 knowing fellow that could fathom my sister, seeing that, for 
 my part, I understood her no more than my mother's house- 
 maid did, with her high-flown music and poetry, and all that 
 sort of thing. 
 
 " ' However,' said Westwood, ' I contrived by degrees to 
 get over all this, and for the last week or two we were as 
 good acquaintances as before in fact, the judge was evidently 
 bent on it. And I tell you what it is, Ned, as charming a 
 girl, in her way, as Violet Hyde I can't well fancy but one 
 more hopeless to deal with, for a fellow that hasn't got hold 
 of her heart, I believe doesn't breathe ! Why, young as she 
 is, you 'd feel her playing you round her pretty forefinger as a 
 woman would, looking at you all the time under her soft eye- 
 lids with those bright eyes of hers, as if you could fancy her 
 falling in love in a moment with someone else, but never with 
 yourself!' 'By Jove, yes!' said I, feeling as dismal as I 
 daresay I looked. ' Do you know,' Westwood went on, * her 
 figure and walk always remind me of a Hindoo girl's, all over 
 English as her face and hair are, with a touch of the tropical, 
 you can't say where, about it owing to her being born in
 
 382 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 India, as I believe she was ; and altogether, Ned, I 'm glad 
 
 to ' Here Westwood shrugged his shoulders, and I 
 
 poured myself out another glass of grog in pure despair. 
 
 u ' The truth is,' said I, ' I wish I had never seen that con- 
 founded Seringapatam I Didn't she say any didn't you in 
 fact, Tom, what do you think of the matter, plump and plain, 
 stem and stern ? ' said I manfully. ' Why,' said Tom, in a 
 thoughtful way, ' not to set you at all wrong on either side, 
 the thing that strikes me is, I don't think she ever once men- 
 tioned you, Ned, except in passing. But to my mind, in the 
 circumstances, that's not so much against you. The young 
 lady can say little when she pleases, I assure you ; for only 
 last night, in that fine moonlight, we happened to touch on 
 that affair in the river you know ? ' ' Yes,' I said, for it 
 wasn't easy to forget. ' Now I always thought that night a 
 turning-point with you,' Westwood said ; 'and it was the last 
 night you were aboard ; so I spoke of you a good deal, and 
 never a word did Miss Violet utter, save " Yes " and " No," 
 while her face being in the shadow, I couldn't see it. Oh, 
 by-the-by, though,' continued he, ' she did say one thing ! ' 
 
 " ' For Heaven's sake, what was it ? ' I broke out eagerly. 
 * Well, then, Ned,' answered he, leaning back on the two back 
 legs of his chair, and eyeing me with a comical air, which 
 surprised me a little ; ' do you consider yourself good-looking ? * 
 I started up. ' What do you mean by that, Tom ? ' said I ; but 
 next moment I sat down again with a sulky ' No, I '11 be 
 hanged if I do ! so e No more does your lady-love, 
 
 then,' said Westwood, 'for she made the remark very coolly, 
 and even without my asking her but don't be down-hearted 
 at that, my dear Ned, for I think more of that little sentence, 
 in the way it was said, than of all she did not say !' 'The 
 greater the difference between us, I suppose,' said I savagely. 
 ' Why,' replied Tom, ' 'tis my conviction you never hear a 
 woman say the man she likes is handsome and from a 
 
 perverse young gipsy like ' ' Well, by Jove ! Westwood,' 
 
 said I, losing my temper altogether, and giving the table a 
 slap with my fist that sent my glass crash to the deck, ' you 
 beat everything ! I suppose if she 'd called me a fool and a 
 blessed lubber, you 'd turn it to my favour. But the truth is, 
 I don't understand your niceties I want something broad 
 and above-board, that a fellow can lay hold of and the short
 
 A SEA STORY 3SS 
 
 and the long of it is ' With that I laid my face on my 
 
 arms down in the spilt grog on the table, and fairly groaned. 
 My head reeled till I scarce knew it was myself that was 
 sitting there, as all of a sudden one thought after another 
 crowded on me. Somehow I seemed for a single moment 
 to be out and out in the open sea, the different faces I 'd seen 
 along the ship's bulwarks rushing past me, with Jones's face, 
 and the look of the Indiaman in the sunset ; through all 
 sorts of weather, too, in that confounded moment. 
 
 " Then, I can't say why, but my hair crept as I came back 
 to the thought of the Indiaman and the schooner in the calm 
 at the time, and I almost fancied I heard a whisper at my 
 ear. I looked up, and saw Tom Westwood sitting opposite 
 me, with a musing air, and rather melancholy. The sight of 
 my wild stare, with the grog I suppose trickling down my 
 forehead, and dripping off my nose, appeared to startle him, 
 and our eyes met queerly enough for half-a-minute till all at 
 once the notion seemed to strike both of us, of the absurdity 
 of two fellows hobnobbing and lackadaisying away this 
 fashion in a hole of a schooner's cabin, thousands of miles 
 from land ; and I 'm blessed if we didn't both burst at the 
 same moment into regular roars of laughter first one broad- 
 side, then 'bout ship, as it were, to deliver the other, gun 
 after gun. By George ! though, I felt it do me good, as if 
 something deadly went off with it. ' Hallo ! ' sung out the 
 planter, blocking up the moonlight that shone misty-white 
 down the steps of the companion, to a blue glimmer at the 
 foot of them ; ' both surviving yet, I declare ' ; and we felt the 
 scent of his cheroot in the hot calm as he walked aft again. 
 
 "'Well, Ned/ said W'estwood, still laughing, 'there's one 
 thing more I did contrive to get out, and it is certainly broad 
 enough to lay hold of, as you say. Do you know, from some 
 hints the judge let drop in course of the passage, after he 
 got to know me, I have a rather sharp suspicion he has some- 
 one in view for his daughter already ! ' At this I gasped once 
 more. 'Whether she knows it herself or not, I 'm not sure,' 
 added Tom ; ' but, very naturally, the gentleman I mean was 
 often enough mentioned in Sir Charles's cabins for who do 
 you imagine, of all persons in the world, it is ? ' 
 
 " I made no trial at a guess, but sat eyeing Westwood in 
 perfect silence, and he went on 'Who but don't look so
 
 384 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 fierce, my dear fellow just this this said nabob of an uncle 
 of mine, the Bengal Councillor ! Why, you 've no conception/ 
 said West wood, ' what presents of pearl necklaces, fans, cash- 
 mere shawls, and China ivory work-boxes, and so on, the 
 Councillor must have sent home to her at different times, for 
 the Seringapatam to bring back again. I didn't see her wear 
 any of them ; but every now and then Sir Charles would point 
 to something that lay about, telling me it came from my 
 uncle ! He is a bachelor, you know, not so old as Sir Charles 
 himself, who isn't so old as he looks, and they seem to be 
 sworn friends ! ' ' Tuts, man!' said I, brightening a bit, ' can't 
 you see he wants to adopt her?' 'So I should have imagined,' 
 answered Westwood ; ' but the fact is, two or three times, as 
 I told you, Sir Charles Hyde hinted as much as that it was an 
 idea of long standing between himself and his friend the 
 
 Councillor, so ' The old villain ! ' I roared. ' Begging 
 
 your pardon, Westwood but I must say you are the pattern 
 of a Job's comforter, and no mistake ! ' ' Well,' answered he, 
 ' if you had heard the way in which the young lady mentioned 
 my uncle to me, you wouldn't be much afraid of your rival, 
 Ned. Why, she said she thought she remembered him when 
 she was a little girl, bringing her Indian sweetmeats from the 
 bazaar in his carriage she actually supposed he must be older 
 than her father, when the judge set her right eagerly enough 
 but, you must know, he no more seems able to say a sharp 
 word to her, than Jacobs yonder would. So what did she say 
 next, after apparently thinking a little, but that, now she 
 recollected, my uncle used to have gray hair and white 
 whiskers, like Mr Rollock, which for my part I knew no 
 more about than the table, when her father broke out 
 describing him as warmly as possible ; and suddenly Miss 
 Hyde looked at him with a little turn of her pretty lip, and 
 a twinkle in her eye, that sent the old gentleman fiddling 
 about his coffee-cup, and stopped him in a moment as if she 
 had been a little witch ! ' 
 
 " ' What 's to be done, Tom ? ' I faltered out, after a long 
 stop. * I 'm sure I don't know, Ned,' said he gravely ; ( let's 
 go on deck at any rate, for it 's too hot here to sleep.' The 
 moment the sight of the calm burst upon us, however, with 
 the two vessels together in the midst of it, in the hazy sort of 
 moonlight, the same notion seemed to strike both of us in a
 
 A SEA STORY 385 
 
 different way. ' I '11 tell you what, Collins,' said Westwood, 
 half-jokingly, half in earnest, ' uncle though he be, if you can 
 contrive to cut out the Councillor anyhow, I '11 forgive you, for 
 one ! ' 'How, though how, by Jove ! ' replied I c if they go 
 to Bombay in the Indiaman, by the time they reach Calcutta, 
 I shall be in the Pacific ! ' ' 'Tis a difficult case,' said West- 
 wood, ' no doubt. And even suppose you had the opportunity, 
 'twould be hard to manage an elopement ashore in India, 
 travelling "dauk" in two palanquins. Seriously speaking, 
 Ned, I see nothing for it but to wait till you come back from 
 the Pacific.' 
 
 " I looked hopelessly round : the calm and heat together 
 gave one a helpless feeling, and every notion of an active sort 
 appeared desperate. A perfect calm it was, too : there was 
 some filmy scum of a haze aloft, that served to spread the 
 moonlight all over, shutting out the shape of the sky, and 
 softening off the horizon ; with the moon standing slant up in 
 it, like a brighter spot, and a few stars low down in the east. 
 But for the long wide tremble of the water, in fact, as it 
 glanced up with a blue flicker, you 'd have fancied we mightn't 
 be far from land ; while the big Indiaman lay off the 
 schooner's bow, without the least motion one could see ; the 
 moonshine edging round her spars and ropes from the other 
 side, and her sails hanging shadowy against it, except below, 
 under her brailed-up courses, where the masts, the thick of 
 the rigging, and the tops of her deck-lumber, glistened as if 
 they were newly wet. Half of her watch were on the bow- 
 sprit, sending out a ' fished ' spritsail-yard, the same we had 
 set dangling about their ears that afternoon, and we could 
 hear them speaking plain enough ; every time they sang out 
 at a haul, it went far away on all sides ho-ho-ho-he-ho-ho-o 
 till you lost it in the dead calm, as if somebody had gone 
 there. Now and then the Seringapatam made a slight plunge 
 by the head, as the wide soft swell floated up with her ; and 
 the glossy black shadow, that seemingly gave her hull the 
 height of a tower, came wavering in quicksilver circles to our 
 very cutwater, while the lights from her after-windows went 
 twisting away round her heavy counter to the moonshine, 
 like yellow snakes ; the schooner all the time lying as quiet 
 as if she were on a pond, except that by little and little she 
 kept shifting her bearings to the Indiaman, and things were 
 
 2 B
 
 386 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 confoundedly like our both sticking together in course of the 
 morning, if the calm held. I went forward to the forecastle 
 and desired Jones to get all hands down into the boats, and 
 have her towed off to safe distance, seeing that the worst of it 
 would be sure to fall to our share. 
 
 "This was doing, and we drew slowly off the ship's bow, 
 where her men coolly knocked off working to watch ours, and 
 pass jokes on our gang of Lascars, as they handled the oars in 
 awkward style ; -in fact, by the way the Indiaman's watch 
 carried on, most of them seemed to have passed the grog-can 
 pretty freely, being Saturday night, which we could hear they 
 were still keeping up below in the forecastle, when our quarter 
 came abreast of her larboard bow. ' Hurrah ! ' said one, wav- 
 ing his tarpaulin ; and ' Pull, you beggars ! ' roared another ; 
 when my old customer, ugly Harry, all at once leant out of 
 her forechains, and sung out to Jones, who was next him in 
 the stern-sheets of our gig : ' I say, mate, so ye 're clearing 
 off, are ye ? The better for that 'ere nutshell of a schooner o' 
 yours, I reckon ! ' Jones made no answer, and the fellow 
 added ; ' Come aboard when you 've got a safe berth, anyhow, 
 and drink " sweethearts and wives," will ye ? ' I saw Jones 
 start, and turn his face fiercely into the shadow of the ship's 
 main-course on the water, rising half-up with one fist clenched, 
 but he said nothing. ' Oh, you 're blasted proud ! ' Foster 
 called out : ' you forgets a man, blow me ! D' ye think I 
 doesn't know a fellow I got glorious with myself, in old Van 
 StinkofFs, at Cape Town ? Sink me, mates,' said he, as loud 
 as before, turning round on the rail of the bulwarks to the 
 rest, ' I picked him out o' the street scuppers, under the sign 
 of the Flying Dutchman, an' I 'm blowed if I didn't think it 
 beneath me at the time ! ' Here the end of our main-boom 
 opened us in sight of the ugly ruffian, and he was sinking 
 down inboard, when I hailed the Indiaman's quarterdeck, 
 where the Scotch mate was to be seen. ' Ay, ay, the 
 schooner ahoay ! ' sung out he, coming to the gangway. ' Did 
 you hear that man's impertinence, sir,' said I sternly, ' to my 
 officer on duty there ? I expect you to see him punished, sir.' 
 The Scotchman said he 'd inquire into it ; but shortly after he 
 came back, saying he ' doubted ' he couldn't be sure of the 
 man ; and, at any rate, he could have ' meant no ill.' The 
 boats had towed us by this time almost out of fair hearing,
 
 A SEA STORY 387 
 
 but Harry Foster was to be seen coolly eyeing us from the 
 midst of his watchmates, as he slung a couple of blocks over 
 his shoulder ; when he turned away with as much indifference 
 as if we had been a Thames collier, growling some two or three 
 words or other that brought a loud laugh from the Indiaman's 
 forecastle to her bowsprit, where the men were turning lazily 
 to their business again. 
 
 " Being now clear off the ship, with the rake of her hull in 
 our command if I chose, and free of her broadside at the same 
 time, I hailed the boats to leave off towing and come aboard. 
 As Jones came on deck, I saw that in his face to make me 
 think he took the thing to heart, seeing he met my first look 
 with his lips set together and a steady gleam of his eyes. 
 The truth was, I never in my life came across a man that 
 struck me so much with the notion of his having a devil in 
 him, seeking to get the better of what was good. 
 
 " ' I think we shall do, Mr Jones ? ' I said. c Quite safe, 
 sir,' said he, quietly ; at that moment, standing as we did out 
 of earshot, with the setting moon in sight past the Indiaman, 
 shining in a rusty yellow glare to her hanging sails, 'twas 
 strange how the odds of our different stations passed off. We 
 were foot to foot, in fact ; I was fully aware, if never before, 
 what an enemy Jones would make he had great daring and 
 knowingness in him, and all on the wrong side of the hedge 
 for me at the time, seeing I had such a ticklish part to play 
 with the Indiaman. I caught myself, on the instant, measur- 
 ing youth and activity, not to say regular breeding to the 
 service, and a clear conscience besides, against him and his 
 thews and sinews ; but as for turning and twisting with the 
 man before me, I saw it was the tack likely to throw him to 
 windward of me. My voice changed, and I lowered it as I 
 said : ' Mr Jones, I happened to sail half the voyage as a 
 passenger in that ship, and I 've no common reason to be 
 anxious about her getting safe into port. There 's one single 
 being in her at this moment I 'd willingly lose my life to save 
 from anything like what one could fancy ay, so help me 
 God, suppose I'd no chance of ever setting eyes on her again!' 
 Jones never stirred a feature, but looked past me into the 
 gleam of the moon over my shoulder. 
 
 " ' Well, Mr Jones,' I said, ' I '11 acknowledge to you frankly, 
 as from one seaman to another, the question is, Are you for me
 
 388 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 or not ? ' ' We speak as man with man, it seems, Mr Collins !' 
 said Jones quietly ; ' then I am -for you ! ' and he struck his 
 hand all at once into mine ; e here 's a hand that never lied, 
 whatever the tongue may have done bad or good ; I am for 
 you, sir, and no more of it ! I knew as well as if you 'd told 
 me, Mr Collins, by the looks of the passengers, that you had 
 sailed aboard that ship in some way or other and what 's more, 
 
 sir, I saw ' here he stopped, looking at me with his back 
 
 to the sinking gleam of light beyond the ship's hull, from the 
 moon as she touched the water, and I saw nothing but the 
 shape of his head under the straw hat, with a shadow blurring 
 his face together, though I felt him eyeing me out of it all the 
 time ' what some would think more worth while than if you 
 were a Spanish plate-ship,' he went on ; and he lowered his 
 voice nearly to a whisper as he added, ' I tell you what, Mr 
 Collins, 'tis my conviction that, if you chose, you might do what 
 you liked in the end with that Indiaman and all aboard her ! ' 
 I stepped back with a shiver through me, as the sudden setting 
 of the moon blended everything black in with Jones's shoulders, 
 leaving his head instead of her against a glimmer of light, till 
 for a moment it seemed peering at me off the horizon with 
 the whole lump of shadow betwixt the two craft for a body ; 
 and I must say I thought of old stories about the Tempter in 
 human form. ' Devil ! ' said I hoarsely, while the last gleam 
 to westward went out, and it got so dark I could have fancied 
 Jones had vanished from the bulwarks without stirring a foot ; 
 in fact, on my moving to the place I touched the cool planks 
 with my hand he was actually gone ! Nothing was visible 
 beyond our own decks, save a slight glimmer such as one 
 would make in sculling with a single oar ; and I saw at once 
 he had taken the small boat alongside to go aboard the 
 Indiaman ! All the rest was that thick heavy darkness only 
 to be found in a calm in the Indian Ocean, towards morning : 
 you may not only say you see it, but could stir it, as it were, 
 with a stick. 
 
 " A horrid notion of Jones's purpose crept through my mind 
 at first ; but on second thoughts I easily saw this wasn't the 
 occasion for him to choose, if he had really meant ill, and 
 accordingly there was more the reason to trust him. Indeed, 
 as I stood listening and watching, after Westwood and the 
 planter went below, the Indiaman's binnacle lamp seemed to
 
 A SEA STORY 389 
 
 go slowly out, while at the same time the sound of her watch 
 speaking on the forecastle apparently got distincter, till I 
 could hear them clear of the ship's hull and rigging, like low 
 voices muttering in the air betwixt her and us. 'Twas only 
 her having sheered gradually bow-on to the schooner again, 
 however, as a calm near the equator has always something 
 like a pulse in it but it struck me there were men out on her 
 jib-boom, which being of course the very privatest part of any 
 in a ship for talk why, to find more than one going out there, 
 of a dark night, and with no work to do, never looks other- 
 wise than suspicious. Nothing of this kind surprised me at 
 present in the Seringapatam, with the opinion I had of her ; but 
 the curious thing was, that the fellows must have supposed it 
 the farthest point they could get out of sight of us, as well as 
 from their own decks, she having had her beam to the schooner 
 when the moon set. 
 
 "The desperate feelings that steal upon a man in such a 
 case, and the fearful notions that breed in his head, with the 
 quickness of his senses and the way he holds on by a single 
 rope, you can scarcely conceive, though if a cry had come 
 from the Indiaman at that moment I daresay I should have 
 sprung in head foremost to get to her, when all at once, from 
 up in the air again, I thought I heard the smart click of a 
 flint and steel ; at any rate, I saw the sparks showering from 
 it in the midst of the black space before me even the pair of 
 fists as they knocked together, then a mouth blowing the 
 match, till there was a light in a lantern between four heads 
 leaning towards each other over the spar. Queer enough it 
 would have been to see, in ordinary circumstances, but you '11 
 readily fancy what a thing it looked all of a sudden, right out 
 in the midst of the pitch-black night, one didn't know how or 
 where in fact, two of them faced each other in the stream of 
 light from one side of the lantern, like the two edges of a 
 rent in the dark, and another was like a sprawling blot in the 
 centre you just saw they were faces and heads, with a foot 
 or two of the thick round boom slanting up betwixt them ; 
 but as for their bodies, they were all of a piece with the 
 perfect blackness beyond. I could see one of them hold up 
 the lantern and pass it round the three others' faces, bringing 
 out their chins and noses, as if to be sure who they were a 
 piece of caution which served almost equally well for me, for
 
 390 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 I remembered each of them by headmark amongst the crew, 
 only I didn't see the said fellow himself, even when he drew 
 out some paper or other in one hand, seemingly unfolded it with 
 the help of his teeth, and spread it over the jib-boom under the 
 lantern, whereupon the whole four of the heads drew close 
 together in a black lump round the light, peering down upon 
 the paper, and muttering away as much at their ease, no doubt, 
 as if they 'd been in a tap-room. All I wished for was a good 
 rifle-barrel in my hand at the time, to have knocked the light 
 out from the midst of them, and sent the bullet by accident 
 through the tarpaulin hat behind it especially when a glaring 
 red flipper was shoved out on the white paper, and the thumb 
 planted steadily on a particular spot. All at once, however, 
 the light was put out in the lantern, and I heard them going 
 in-board, as the noise of the morning watch being called, at 
 four o'clock, got up round the fore-hatchway. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 " TN about half-an-hour the faint glimmer of Jones's oar in 
 -* the water showed how hard it was to find the schooner 
 again ; however, he managed to get aboard at last, by which 
 time I was walking carelessly past the binnacle in the dark, 
 and as soon as he sought me out and began to speak, I saw it 
 was all right. Mr Snelling came on deck to his watch, blowing 
 up the men for letting out the only light aboard, as he didn't 
 know fore-and-aft from 'thwart-ships, nor north from south. 
 The cabin lamp under the skylight had gone out too for want 
 of oil, without being noticed as long as the moon shone, and 
 not even the planter's cheroot was to be seen. From the 
 snatches of their conversation he had time to gather, I agreed 
 with Jones that, whatever the four fellows on the jib-boom 
 might have intended beforehand, their present cue wasn't at 
 all to try seizing the ship ; in fact, the schooner's sudden 
 appearance in this latitude, with what they knew of her 
 before, had naturally enough brought out a number of the 
 crew in different colours to what they 'd stick to after getting 
 a fright and finding their mistake though by this time I had 
 no doubt in my own mind that the villain who bent on his silk
 
 A SEA STORY 391 
 
 neckerchief to the signal halliards in that hurry the afternoon 
 before actually meant it for the black flag, while the absurdity 
 of an Indiaman striking at all to a cruiser that wanted her 
 just to heave-to, was a sign how most of the crew's minds 
 went, as long as they fancied us pirates. However, Jones had 
 seen sufficient of the lantern affair on the boom to explain it 
 to my great relief; the ringleader of them, no other I was 
 sure than ugly Harry himself, seemed to scrub trousers 
 ordinarily for one of the quarterdeck officers, and had got 
 hold of an old chart in his berth that same evening, which 
 the four had come out there to get a private overhaul of. All 
 Jones could get room to see was that it was a chart of some 
 islands, with a particular mark at one of them, on which the 
 fellow with the lantern put his thumb, when another asked if 
 there weren't any trees on it. 'Trees, ay, trees enough to 
 hang all the blasted lubbers afloat ! ' said the first, as Jones 
 listened. ' I 'd as soon think of sailing in a craft without 
 spars as aboard a dazart ileyand without trees ! ' One was 
 tired of the Indiaman, another sick of the world, and a third, 
 with Jack down on the bowsprit, wanted to chase buffaloes 
 and shoot birds. As for the rest, the head of the gang 
 assured his mates there were plenty of other islands not far 
 off, and natives in them ; whereupon the light was put out, 
 and, in short, they made it up amongst them to take one of 
 the ship's boats quietly some night as soon as she got in the 
 latitude of the Maldives, and steer for this said island ; 
 although, in case of their being dogged about by the 
 schooner, of which the chief scoundrel seemed, by Jones's 
 account, to have a wholesome fear, it wouldn't be so easy 
 a matter. Indeed the last words he was heard to say, as 
 they crept inward down the boom, were to the effect that 
 he thought there were some aboard as anxious to drop the 
 cruiser as they were. ' 'Faith, Mr Jones,' said I, glad to find 
 this was what they wanted, ' if that 's all, I shan't stand in 
 their way so as soon as the breeze springs up, we 'd better 
 clear off altogether. The smoothest way is to let them take 
 themselves quietly off and I 've no fear of the ship) only, 
 before fairly shaping our own course for Bengal, we must 
 manage to have another sight of her under full sail for 
 Bombay ! ' 
 
 " Neither of us thought of turning in, for by the next half-
 
 392 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 hour, in fact, the Indiaman's hull and canvas began to blacken 
 out of the gloom on one side the blue of the water spread 
 round till it glittered against the ring of light kindling and 
 kindling on the horizon, till it rose seemingly in a perfect fire 
 at one spot in the rim of it, blazing up toward the cool blue 
 aloft ; then the sun was out. As long as we had to stick to 
 your niceties and fine manners, in fact, I felt as much afraid 
 of meeting Violet herself as a country booby would I '11 be 
 hanged if I wasn't in doubt of her cutting me dead, suppose 
 I met her, and I shouldn't have had a word to say ; whereas 
 with a spice of the rough work I thought of all night, or even 
 a chance of something desperate behind, why, a fellow needn't 
 to mind much how he went about it seeing that in the midst 
 of a hubbub the words come into your mouth of themselves, 
 and you 're not expected to stand upon ceremony. 
 
 et The Scotch mate, being now first officer, had the side- 
 ropes handed us civilly enough, having just seen the decks 
 washed down in his own thorough manner, carronades, ropes, 
 and all ; but as the captain wasn't turned out yet, I went up 
 the poop, where a couple of boys were still swabbing up the 
 wet. The moment I reached it, the sight of the only two 
 passengers that were out so early, rather took me aback, one 
 of them being the last I cared to meet namely, the Irish 
 Brigadier's lady, who was walking the deck in pattens, the 
 boys evidently keeping clear of her with their swabs; and the 
 stout red-faced Brigadier himself, buttoned up to the throat, 
 while he stalked dismally fore-and-aft with her on his arm. 
 At the first glimpse of me, General Brady stopped short and 
 stared I daresay he was doubtful whether to call me out or 
 not. 'Glad to say you again, sir!' said he. 'Well, now,' said 
 his lady, ' you 're the very man I wanted to see ! ' I still 
 looked at her, unable to say the like of herself, but terrified 
 to speak a wrong word, with the knowledge of her confounded 
 temper: the Brigadier had planted himself betwixt me and 
 the poop-stairs, and never having fairly come across her since 
 the affair about her dog and the shark, why, absurd as it was, 
 I didn't know what the woman might make of my con- 
 nection with the same craft that carried her off so soon after. 
 
 " ' Yes, indeed, and 'twas foolish of me not to see it in ye 
 at first ! ' she went on, shaking her parasol at me in a knowing 
 way, and eyeing the schooner again. ' Howiver, / heard of
 
 A SEA STORY 393 
 
 you ! ' said she, with another look that set me all alive, ' and 
 a mighty bold sort of admirer you are ! ' 'Faith, sir,' said the 
 Brigadier, 'if I 'd commanded the batthery down there last 
 night, I 'd have waited till ye got nearer, and blown you out 
 of the wather.' f 'Tis only a lieutenant you are?' said his 
 Jady, speaking without scruple in the midst of his words, and 
 frowning him quiet. ' Nothing more, ma'am,' I said. ' Well, 
 now, Mister Lieutenant/ said the lady suddenly, ' what d'ye 
 mean to do ? You didn't find us out here, I suppose, and 
 actually take these cowardly ship-people of ours by sayge- 
 like a bold fellow, for nothing ? ' After a few words more, 
 Mrs Brady all of a sudden vanished down the little quarter- 
 gallery stair near the ship's taffrail ; though I had scarce 
 missed her ere she appeared again, making me a signal. 
 ( Hush, now ! ' said she in a whisper out of the stairway, ' and 
 step after me like a cat amongst broken Mottles, for he 's 
 shaving yonder just now on the opposite side I saw his 
 kitmagar taking in the hot water. Next moment I had 
 followed her into the small state-room in the larboard quarter, 
 where she opened an inner door and left me. By Jove ! I 
 could have hugged that Irishwoman on the spot, vixen as she 
 was no matter though the very ship might be out of sight 
 in a few hours, and I never set eyes on her again ; I thought 
 no more of it at the moment than I did of her skipper waiting 
 for me everything was lost in the notion of seeing Violet 
 Hyde's face come out of that door. All the time there was a 
 whispering, a rustling, and a confusion in the berth, as if she 
 were taken by surprise, naturally enough then I caught a 
 word or two of the young lady's own, that made me think it 
 was all up. 
 
 " The door-handle turned, and the door half opened, then 
 it shut to again, and I heard Mrs Brady's voice in a coaxing 
 sort of strain, till at last she opened the door wide and said : 
 ' Then you won't, my dear ? So Mister Lieutenant what 's- 
 
 liis-name,' added she, 'you may be off to your vessel, and ' 
 
 Suddenly I saw Violet's figure shrinking back, as it were, 
 behind the Brigadier's lady, into the berth ; but all at once she 
 walked straight out to the state-room, half frowning and half 
 laughing, with an angry kind of blush all over her face. Her 
 hair was only looped up on the side, and braided on the other, 
 as if it weren't rightly ship-shape yet for the day ; while as for
 
 394 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 her dress, I remember nothing except its being some brown 
 cloak or other wrapped so close about her that one couldn't 
 even see her hands, like the picture of a nun. * Mrs Brady 
 seems so astonished to see you here again, Mr Collins,' said 
 she, rather sharply, as I thought, ' that she cannot rest with- 
 out all the passengers meeting you, I suppose, before you go?' 
 With that she looked back, but Mrs Brady had walked out, 
 though I heard the young lady's waiting-girl moving about 
 inside the berth yet. ' 'Twas all an accident, my happening 
 to come on board just now, Miss Hyde,' said I, anxiously, f or, 
 indeed, my having orders to speak the Indiaman at all ! ' 
 ' Ah ! ' she answered ' and it was so strange of Mrs Brady to 
 to persist ! ' The lovely girl had scarce condescended to 
 look at me yet, but here she glanced past me through the 
 quarter - gallery window at the schooner, where there was 
 nothing betwixt her and the gay little state-room save the 
 blue heaving water and the light then her eye seemed to 
 pass from the epaulet on my shoulder to the other that had 
 none, till it lighted for the first time on my face, with a smile. 
 "'How beautiful your schooner looks just now, Mr Collins!' 
 said she, turning hastily again ; ' it is the the same that 
 that we saw before ? ' Now there was something in those 
 blue eyes of hers, with the dark lashes over them and under 
 them, that made me lose sight at the moment of everything 
 in the way of my success, fear and all a sort of a flying glance 
 it was, that I couldn't help turning to my favour. ' For God's 
 sake, Miss Hyde,' said I, ' let me have something one way or 
 other to know my fate by it 's no use telling my mind after 
 all that 's come and gone ; but as I mayn't see you again 
 
 and the breeze will be up directly why ' Violet stood 
 
 all the while gazing down on the state-room carpet, making 
 no answer : there was a dead stop, and I heard the first ripple 
 of the breeze work against the ship's rudder below by Jove ! 
 I could have hanged myself at that moment when I saw her 
 shoulder tremble as she looked down, her soft eyelids just 
 lifted till I caught the blue of her eye, and the smile came 
 over her lip. How I got hold of her hand for that con- 
 founded cloak, or whatever it was, I really don't know ; but 
 so it was, and out I came with the words, ' Violet I love you 
 to the last drop of my blood, that 's all ! ' I said ; e and I only 
 wish I had the chance of showing it ! ' Violet Hyde drew
 
 A SEA STORY 395 
 
 her hand gently out of mine, and looked me straight in the 
 face for a moment with a merry sort of a quizzical air, as if I 
 meant some other adventure and ' Oh no ! I hope not ! ' 
 added she, with a shudder, and then a blush, no doubt think- 
 ing of the African river. 
 
 " ' But Violet, Violet ! ' said I, eagerly, as she made a move 
 toward the nearest door, ' won't you say, then something, for 
 Heaven's sake, to keep one in hope ? ' ' Why, what would 
 you have, sir ? ' said she, quickly, still turning away but bless 
 me ! I don't exactly remember what followed, in the despera- 
 tion I felt nor how near she was to me when I heard her 
 begging me to ' go, go, if I really loved her ! ' ' Dearest 
 girl ! ' I said, ' I shall be far enough off in a short time ! ' 
 ' Do you actually sail so soon, then ? ' said Violet, in a low 
 voice. ' Why, they 're bracing round the ship's yards already, 
 I hear,' answered I ; ' but indeed I think the schooner might 
 
 keep near for a few days, too ' ' No no ! ' said she 
 
 anxiously, ' go altogether, else my father will be still more set 
 
 against against Perhaps,' she added, f we may see you 
 
 in Calcutta, when you are ' and her eye glanced from one 
 shoulder of my uniform to the other. ' When I 've got my 
 epaulet shifted to the right shoulder?'* asked I, eagerly; 
 ' then may I see you ? ' e See yes,' was the whisper I caught 
 and ' Dearest, dearest Violet,' said I, almost going down on 
 the deck before her, ' suppose I manage to ship them on 
 both, in this confounded peace, will you ' Hush ! ' said 
 
 Violet, listening, and all in a flutter, 'indeed you must go, 
 else / must ! ' ' For God's sake, Violet,' I went on, keeping 
 hold of her hand as she tried to get away, ' will you wait a 
 year or two and give me the chance of a war in China or up 
 
 the Mediterranean or But here the wild notions I had 
 
 for a moment left me. 
 
 " Somehow or other at that instant a terrible glimpse, as it 
 were, of Bonaparte standing up on the crag in St Helena 
 flashed across me ; and as the folly of the thing, let alone the 
 impudence of it, struck me, I nigh-hand groaned, while Violet 
 Hyde's fingers slipped out of mine. Just then she turned 
 full round with a soft look of her eyes, and was going to say 
 
 * At that period the distinguishing mark of a commander, as the epaulet 
 on the left shoulder, of a lieutenant, and the epaulet on both, of a post, 
 captain.
 
 396 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 something, as I thought ; but the handle of the aftermost 
 door turned, and the Brigadier's lady hastened in. As I 
 glanced round, something or other dropped lightly into the 
 palm of my hand, and next moment Violet was gone. 'Twas 
 only a little knot of white ribbon I 'd got, though the scent 
 and the warm touch of it together were enough to startle one 
 I almost thought she 'd changed into it ; and to this day, 
 ma'am, I '11 be hanged if I know what that was the scent ot 
 unless it was sandal wood ! 
 
 " ' Quick ! ' said Mrs Brady, in a hurry, ' what d' ye stand 
 staring there for, man alive ? Sir Charles is upstairs, and 
 you can't go this way ; so through the cabins with ye, lieu- 
 tenant, and out on the quarther-dheck ! ' Before I well knew 
 what I was doing, accordingly, we were in the judge's main- 
 cabin, where the ship's masts and the men gathering about 
 the ropes could be seen through the round-house doors as they 
 stood open. ' Mrs Brady,' said I, suddenly stepping back to 
 
 her, ' you 're an angel, ma'am, and ' ' You unprincipled 
 
 young villain ye ! ' said she, springing aft with her fingers 
 spread, and begining to raise her voice, ' what would ye do f 
 Brigadier ! D' ye think 'tis deaf I was in the stair yonder, 
 
 you promiscuous young However, I gave her one 
 
 bewildered look, and heard no more of it, bolting as I did 
 through the nearest door right against the man coming to the 
 wheel ; while the midshipman was on the look-out for me 
 everywhere to say that the captain of the Indiaman was 
 waiting for me below in his cabin. 
 
 " Indeed she was moving slowly through the water already, 
 as the light cat's-paws ruffled it here and there, and drew 
 aloft into her royals ; our own little craft beginning to slip 
 gently along to leeward of the ship, with the dark Lascars' 
 faces under the foot of her white fore-topmast-staysail, giving 
 her a doubtful enough air, I must own. I had nothing 
 particular to say to Finch, in fact ; but, captain as he was 
 of the Indiaman for the time, 'twas the least I could do 
 to see him ; besides that somehow or other, I had a sort 
 of feeling as I came on board half-an-hour before, I couldn't 
 exactly say why, that made one anxious for a near sight 
 of him. If he suspected anything wrong amongst his crew, 
 why at any rate he would have an opportunity of mentioning 
 it ere we parted company ; but, awkward as our meeting
 
 A SEA STORY 397 
 
 each other again was, of course, and both being on such 
 different footing from before, while my own mind was 
 naturally full of what had just happened, it turned out 
 much as might be expected. Finch was evidently not the 
 same man he had been a few weeks before, except in his 
 puppy fine gentleman manners and way of dress, which were 
 twice as high-flown ; with his hair curled, a white handker- 
 chief hanging half out of his breast-pocket, a regular East 
 India uniform, and everything showing the tiptop skipper. 
 The thing that set me less at my ease with him was, that I 
 was sure, by one glance of his eye, he had a pretty fair guess 
 of where I had been last, and saw it in my manner which 
 made me the more careful, as matters stood, to give 110 signs 
 of more meddling with the Indiaman. However, I threw in 
 a hint or two, when Finch out and told me quite frankly, there 
 had been a little disorderly conduct on board after they left 
 the Cape, but he had thoroughly put it down, without letting 
 the passengers know anything about it, as he said : only, the 
 very day before, at the time when the schooner fired, there 
 were a few of the men, he told me, that seemed inclined to 
 disobey orders fellows he wished he could get rid of. 
 
 " ' Now, Captain Finch,' said I, as I looked over my 
 shoulder at them from the capstan, ' will you point out the 
 men you spoke of, sir, that showed themselves mutinous ? ' 
 Finch drew back at this, however, and hummed and hawed 
 at the word. ' Yes, mutinous,' repeated I ; ' there 's no use 
 mincing the matter, I suppose. Just be so good as let me 
 see the fellows, and I '11 rid you of them at once ! ' Finch's 
 glance followed mine as it lighted on Harry Foster's shaggy 
 head watching us with the eye of a buffalo, past a knot of 
 slouching, hulking, foremastmen of his own kidney. The 
 moment I caught sight of Jacobs' broad, hearty, brown face, 
 standing apart a bit with his friends, Tom, Bill, the red- 
 haired Irish topman, and three other honest-like man-o'-war's- 
 men, I took my cue for the meantime. 'My lads,' said I, 
 walking quietly forward, ' I want a few hands for the Hebe 
 frigate you know her, I daresay and that 's enough ; for a 
 model like the Hebe doesn't float the water now, I can't 
 press any of you ! ' Here a general laugh ran along both 
 rows, and I heard a growling chuckle from ugly Foster. 
 ' But,' added I, laughing too, ( you can volunteer ! '
 
 398 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 "There was a dead silence, in the midst of which Tom, the 
 fore-topman, the most dashing fellow in the ship, stepped aft 
 with his hat in his hand, then Jacobs, then Bill, and my 
 acquaintance the ' Savage/ then the three others. In place 
 of grumbling, in fact, there began to be a hurrah amongst the 
 rest, except some of Foster's chums ; a few more seemed in- 
 clined to follow, and as for my gentleman captain, he ap- 
 peared not to know what to do. ' Now, my man,' said I, 
 stepping straight up to ugly Harry, and eyeing him right in 
 the face as he stood, ' you 're a fine seaman-like fellow true- 
 blue, I 'm sure I 've taken a particular fancy to ye won't 
 you ship for the Hebe eh ? ' Foster didn't know where to 
 look, twisting himself round, hitching up his trousers, and 
 altogether taken fairly aback ; every eye was on him, and 
 I '11 be hanged if I don't think he turned it in his mind to 
 agree. ' Come, Foster,' said I, in a low voice, ' I know you, 
 my man, but if you ship I '11 look over the whole ! ' All at 
 once Captain Finch walked up to me, saying, ' If you persist 
 in taking these men, sir, you '11 have to answer for it, I can 
 tell you ! ' ' I know my own meaning, sir,' said I firmly ; ' I 
 am in the regular course, and answer for it I will ! Say the 
 word, my man, and ship ? ' said I again. ' Blowed if I do ! ' 
 said Harry, turning on his heel with a grim scowl ; l none o' 
 yer frigates for me ! ' and he walked off. Jacobs and the 
 others came on the gangway with their bags, however, and 
 pitched them to the men in the boat, without anyone offering 
 to interfere ; indeed, Finch had seemingly given it up sooner 
 than I expected. 
 
 "'Now, Captain Finch,' said I, before stepping over the 
 side after Mr Snelling and the men, ( I 'd much rather we 
 could have hit upon the right men ; however, the more need 
 for my keeping in sight of you to windward, as I shall do at 
 least till we steer for the Bay of Bengal. I couldn't do less, 
 you see,' added I, on getting no answer, ' than make myself 
 strong enough to help you if needful ! ' ' 1 shall report to the 
 Admiral at Bombay, sir ! ' said he fiercely. ( You may do 
 that, Captain Finch,' I said, 'as soon as possible; but, in the 
 meantime, you can't be sure of what may turn up of a dark 
 night, and a couple of lights at your main-yardarm, or any- 
 where, will bring the schooner down in half-an-hour or so if 
 there 's a breeze. As for a calm,' said I, turning round but
 
 A SEA STORY ;;;>.') 
 
 such a strange white look had come over Finch's face as he 
 glanced after me, that, thinking he was beside himself with 
 rage, I went down the side without another word. ' Take 
 your own way ! ' I fancied I heard him mutter betwixt his 
 teeth ; but next moment we were pulling off. 
 
 " Well, the breeze ere this time was steady, though light, 
 and we drew gradually to windward of the Indiaman, till by 
 the afternoon the white band on her hull was just awash with 
 the water, and there I kept her, with a little variety, pretty 
 near the whole night, and most of the following day. 
 
 " The next night came almost as dark as it had been that 
 night of the calm ; but the breeze freshened again pretty 
 strong, and accordingly I kept the schooner down to get 
 nearer the ship, which we had seen in the first dog-watch 
 dead to leeward. I was rather uneasy for a while at not being 
 able to make out her lights, and we slipped fast through the 
 water, when all at once both Jones and Westwood called out 
 from forward that they saw them, and I walked to the bows. 
 
 " ' All right,' said I, ' but, no, by heaven ! ' That 's the 
 signal I named to the captain ! Set stunsails, Mr Jones, and 
 make her walk, for God's sake ! ' Two lights it was aloft in 
 the gloom, right to leeward as before : there was something 
 wrong, or else she wanted to speak us ; so away we flew before 
 the wind, under everything that could be set. I looked and 
 looked, when a thought struck me ; not another light was to 
 be seen below, and they weren't high enough from the heave 
 of the sea for even a ship's lower mast. 
 
 " ' Yes, by George ! ' said I hurriedly to Westwood and 
 Jones, ' that 's a trick \ The fellow means to give us the slip. 
 Clap the helm down, Mr Snelling, and haul aft the sheets 
 there luff, luff!' We were losing our weather-gage; in 
 fact, the Indiaman must actually be to windward of us ere 
 then, and if the breeze freshened we might lose them alto- 
 gether. The thing that troubled me most was, that I couldn't 
 believe the man had thought of such a plan himself; and if 
 he once took a hint from any of the scoundrels I knew were 
 aboard, why, there was no saying what might be the upshot in 
 the end. Finch was a common enough character at bottom ; 
 but with such notions as I was sure were working in his head 
 about Miss Hyde, one step might lead him on to another, till 
 any chance occasion might make a desperate villain of him,
 
 400 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 especially if he suspected myself of aught like good fortune 
 with the young lady. It wasn't much past midnight, the air 
 was wonderfully heavy and sweltering, and the swell going 
 down, when we heard a murmur amongst the men on the fore- 
 castle, and saw a red fire-ball pass high over to nor'ard for 
 half-a-minute, leaving a trail in the dark sky beyond the 
 headsails. 
 
 " A queer ghastly sort of ruddy gray streak opened out in 
 the black of the horizon, where some of them thought they 
 made out the ship ; but soon after we could hear a low hollow 
 kind of a hum, rushing as it were from east to west, till it 
 grew almost like the sound of waves on a beach ; which made 
 us begin to look to ourselves. There was a bright line of light 
 directly in the opposite quarter, and the sea far away seemed 
 getting on fire, with a noise and hubbub coming along below, 
 that nobody appeared to know the meaning of ; while aloft it 
 was as still as a church. For a moment I saw the Seringapatam 
 quite plainly several miles off; but from the confusion, I never 
 could say whether it was north or east ; in fact, we kept watch- 
 ing the canvas, expecting to have a hurricane into it next 
 minute. Suddenly the sea came gleam-gleaming and flicker- 
 ing on, as it were, with a washing bubble and a hissing smother 
 of foam, till it splashed right against our larboard bulwarks, 
 heaping up like perfect fire upon the schooner's side, and 
 running past both stern and bows, away with a long rolling 
 flash to the other horizon. All was pitch-dark again after 
 that, and a whisper went about our decks and round the 
 binnacle lamp of 'The ripplesl It's the ripples !'* 'Nothing 
 more, sir ! ' said Jones, even he seemingly taken by surprise at 
 first. Twice again we had it, though each time fainter, right 
 out of the midst of the gloom ; after which it was as calm as 
 before. f Thank God ! ' said I, breathing hard, f we '11 have 
 that Indiaman in the morning, at any rate ! ' ' Why, sir,' 
 answered Jones, thoughtfully, 'after this we are likely to have 
 the south-west monsoon upon us ere long 'tis just the place 
 and the season for it.' 
 
 " And so it was. Instead of sighting the Seringapatam at 
 daybreak, I had a strong suspicion she had gone to eastward ; 
 but of course the faster the schooner was, why if it were the 
 
 * The " Ripples" a marine phenomenon peculiar, apparently, to the 
 Indian Ocean.
 
 A SEA STORY 401 
 
 wrong way we should only get from her the farther, and miss 
 her altogether, without ever knowing how matters went, even 
 if she got quietly into port ; so, being the best plan I could 
 think of for the meantime, away we drove north-westward, 
 sweeping the horizon with the glass every morning. We had 
 run so far, indeed, without success, that I was sure she couldn't 
 be ahead ; when one day I asked Mr Jones to bring me up the 
 chart for those parts, as we took the latitude. We were a long 
 way to westward of our own course at the time, and Jones's 
 finger went along eastward till it stopped right upon the 
 Maldive islands, while he looked up with a sudden sharp 
 glance. f By heaven,' said I, f yes ! I forgot that story 
 altogether be so good as to send that man there, Jacobs, to 
 me. Jacobs,' said I, ' which of the officers' clothes did that 
 fellow Foster use to scrub lately, in the Indiaman ? ' Jacobs 
 gave his hair a rub, recollected a moment, and answered, 
 ' Why, sir, the captain's own.' ' Oh ! ' I said, 'well, that'll do, 
 Jacobs ' and Jacobs walked forward again. ' Mr Jones/ said 
 I, quickly, ' that chart belonged to the captain ! I '11 have a 
 look at that said desert island, sir ! ' We found something 
 answering to it on the chart ; and in a few minutes the 
 schooner was bowling before the dregs of the monsoon to 
 eastward. 
 
 " ' At all events,' added I, ' we '11 see if these vagabonds 
 mean to keep their word and turn hermits either we catch 
 them there, Mr Jones, or else we must find that Indiaman, 
 though she were in sight of Colibah * lighthouse ! ' Jones's 
 eye lighted, and he turned his nostrils to the monsoon as if he 
 snuffed it in ; in fact, he was that sort of man that needed 
 somewhat out of the common way to keep him right." 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 " ' ^T^> Westwood/ said I, ' it can't be the right one nor 
 
 -*-^ any of these, indeed ! ' And on looking at the chart, 
 
 which was one not meant for anything but navigation in open 
 
 water, with the channels laid down clearly enough, but 
 
 evidently rather offhand as to the islands, Jones himself 
 
 * Outside the harbour of Bombay. 
 
 2 C
 
 402- A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 seemed to get uncertain about the matter ; partly owing to 
 the short glimpse he 'd had of the other chart, and partly to 
 its being, as he thought, an old one made for a purpose, by a 
 hand that knew the islands well. After two or three days' 
 sail, we were getting into the thick of the Maldives, where 
 the reefs and sandbanks stretching out on every side, and 
 beginning to lap in upon each other, made it more and more 
 dangerous work ; but at any rate the islands we saw were 
 either very small, or else low and muddy-like, with a few 
 scrubby-looking cocoas upon them, like bulrushes growing out 
 of a marsh. No runaway sailors would ever think of taking 
 up their quarters hereabouts, even if we hadn't caught sight 
 of a smoke now and then, and once of some native craft with 
 a couple of brown mat-sails, and an out-rigger, that showed 
 the clusters hereaway to have people about them. Besides, 
 there was no pretext any Indiaman could have for steering 
 near enough to such a jungle of mud and water, to give a boat 
 the chance of making towards it with any certainty. 
 
 " I saw at once that the spot in question must lie tolerably 
 for the course of a ship to Western India, otherwise they 
 wouldn't have appeared so sure of their mark as Jones said 
 they did. All this, at the same time, kept me the more bent 
 on searching the matter out ere I did aught else, seeing that 
 in fact the Indiaman's attempt to get rid of the schooner was 
 the very thing likely to bring her on this track ; fancying, as 
 she would, that we were either in chase of her toward Bombay, 
 or off on our own course again. Now, on the one hand, nothing 
 could fit better for the said runaway scheme of Harry Foster's ; 
 and on the other hand, nothing would have pleased me more, 
 and greatly eased my mind too, than to catch him and his 
 chums on their spree ashore. The worst of it was, that I began 
 to have my doubts of Jones again. He was the only man that 
 could put us on the right scent ; yet he seemed either to have 
 lost it, or to have something creeping on his mind that made 
 him unwilling to carry it out. 
 
 " ' Mr Jones/ said I, as the schooner was hove-to, and he 
 stood musing gloomily by the binnacle, with a glance now and 
 then in at the compass, and out at the chart again, ' if you 're 
 at a loss now, sir, just say and I shall try my own hand for 
 want of a better ! ' 
 
 "'No, Lieutenant Collins!' answered he suddenly, in a
 
 A SEA STORY 403 
 
 husky voice ' no, sir, that 's not it, but God help me ! no, 
 there 's no use standing against fate, I see. Whatever it costs 
 me, Mr Collins,' he went on firmly, ' I 'm with you to the 
 end of it ; but -there is something horrible about all this ! ' 
 ' How ! what do you mean ? ' said I, startled by the difference 
 in his manner, and the quiver of his lip. ' Oh,' said he, ' as 
 for the present matter, there may be nothing more in it than 
 what I heard on the ship's boom yonder. The truth is, I 
 didn't know at first but this cluster here might have b?en the 
 one though I see now there is only one island in the whole 
 chain that can answer the description, and that is not here.' 
 With that he pointed to another piece of the chart, showing 
 no more than a few spots upon the paper, not to speak of 
 shades in it standing for reefs and shoals, towards the ' Head' 
 of the Maldives ; one spot lying away from the rest, with the 
 single name of Minicoy for them all. I asked him hastily 
 enough what it was called, and all about it, for the whole affair 
 made me more and more uneasy ; but on this point Jones 
 seemed inclined to keep close, plainly not liking the topic, 
 except that I found it went by several names, one of which I 
 had heard before myself White-water Island. 
 
 " About the time I was a boy in a merchantman's forecastle, 
 'twas a sort of floating yarn amongst some seamen, this White- 
 water Island, I remembered ; but I never met with a man that 
 had seen it, every one having had it from a shipmate last 
 voyage, though a terrible place it had been, by all accounts, 
 without one's knowing exactly where it was. One craft of 
 some kind had gone to find out a treasure that was buried in 
 it, and she never was heard of more ; a man took a fancy to 
 live ashore in it, like Robinson Crusoe, and he went mad, while 
 the reason there were no ' natives ' was owing to the dreadful 
 nature of it, though at the same time it was as beautiful as a 
 garden. The right name, however, according to Jones, was Incoo. 
 ( There's no good in blinding one's self to it, Mr Collins,' he 
 went on ; ' that 's the island the men meant, only their chart 
 set me wrong owing to the greater size of it you had better 
 beat out of this at once, and keep up for the eight-degrees 
 channel there.' 
 
 " We were in open sea again, out of sight of land from the 
 mast-head, steering for somewhere about north -north -east, 
 with a very light breeze from nearly the monsoon quarter, and
 
 404 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 sometimes a flying squall, sometimes no more than a black 
 pour of rain, that left it hotter than before. The clear, deep 
 blue of the Indian Ocean got to a sickly heavy sort of dead 
 colour towards noon, like the bottoms of old bottles, and still 
 we were standing on without signs of land, when, almost all at 
 once, I noticed the water in the shadow of the schooner had a 
 brown, coffee-like tint I had never exactly seen hitherto ; 
 indeed, by the afternoon, it was the same hue to the very 
 horizon, with a clean seaboard on all sides. I had the deep- 
 sea lead-line hove at length, and found no soundings with a 
 hundred and fifty fathoms ; there was neither land nor river, 
 I knew, for hundreds and hundreds of miles to the coast of 
 Arabia ; as for current, no trial I could think of showed any ; 
 and there were now and then patches of small glittering sea- 
 jellies and sea-lice to be seen amongst a stalk or two of weed 
 on the soft heave of the water, going the way of the breeze. 
 A dozen or so of Portuguese men-of-war, as they call them, 
 held across our bows one time ; little pink blubbers, with their 
 long, shining roots seen hanging down in the clear of the 
 surface, and their little blue gauze sails with the light through 
 them, ribbed like leaves of trees, as they kept before the wind. 
 Westwood and I both fancied we could feel a queer sulphury 
 smell as we leant over the side, when a surge came along the 
 bends. Not a single fish was to be seen about us, either, 
 except the long big black-fish that rose one after the other 
 at a distance, as the wind got lighter. One while you heard 
 them groaning and gasping in the half-calm, as if it were the 
 breathing of the sea far and wide every time it swelled ; 
 another, one saw them in a cluster of black points against the 
 bright sky-line, like so many different shaped rocks with the 
 foam round them, or a lot of long-boats floating bottom up, 
 with their back-horns for humps on the keel. As for Jones, 
 he looked graver and graver, till all of a sudden we saw him 
 go below ; but after a little he came up with an almanack in 
 his hand, and his finger fixed where the time of the next new 
 moon was given, as I found when I took it from him, for he 
 seemed not inclined to speak. 'Why, what has that to do 
 with the thing ? ' I said. ' We are heading fair for the Minicoy 
 cluster, I think.' ' Yes, sir,' said he; f if one needed any- 
 thing to prove that, he has only to look at the sea ; at this 
 season, I knew how it would turn out.' 'Well, that's what I
 
 A SEA STORY 405 
 
 can't understand, Mr Jones/ said I ; ' the water seems as deep 
 as St Paul's Cathedral thrice over ! ' 
 
 " ' Do you not know then, sir, why that island is called 
 what it is ? ' was the answer. ' But, wait wait till night ! ' 
 And with that Jones turned round to the bulwarks, leaning 
 his arms on the rail. In the meantime Jacobs and some of 
 the men had drawn a bucket of water, which we noticed them 
 tasting. A pannikin full of it was handed along to the 
 quarterdeck, and the taste struck you at once, owing to the 
 want of the well-known briny twang of real blue water, and 
 instead of that a smack as it were of iron, though it was as 
 clear as crystal. Everyone had a trial of it but Jones him- 
 self; indeed, he never once looked round, till it had occurred 
 to me to pour the tin of water into a glass, and hold it with 
 my hand over it inside the shade of the binnacle, when I 
 thought I made out little specks and sparks shooting and 
 twisting about in it, as if the water had a motion of itself; 
 then it seemed to sink to the bottom, and all was quiet. Just 
 then I looked up and caught Jones's scared, restless sort of 
 glance, as if he were uneasy. There was a strange life in that 
 man's brain, I felt, that none could see into ; but owing as it 
 plainly was to something far away from the present matter, I 
 knew it was best to let him alone. In fact, his doing as he 
 did showed well enough he meant fair by ourselves. Nothing 
 on earth ever gave me more the notion of a wreck in a man 
 than the kind of gaze out of Jones's two eyes when he 'd turn 
 to the light and look at you, half-keen, half-shrinking, like a 
 man that both felt himself above you, and yet, somehow or 
 other, you 'd got him under you. 
 
 " I 'm blessed if I didn't trust him more because he had 
 been too desperate a character in his deeds beforehand to turn 
 his mind to little ones now, than for anything good in him ; 
 being one of those fellows that work their way from one port 
 to another in ships' forecastles, and get drunk ashore, though, 
 all the time, you 'd say there wasn't one aboard with them, 
 from the skipper to the chaplain, knew as much or had flown 
 as high some time. Some day at sea the hands are piped 
 round the grating, hats off, and the prayer-book rigged 
 down goes ' Jack Jones ' with a plash and a bubble to his 
 namesake, old ' Davy,' and you hear no more of him ! 
 
 "Well, just after sundown, as the dusk came on, Westwood
 
 406 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 and I left the deck to go down to supper with the planter, the 
 midshipman being in charge. There was nothing in sight, 
 sail or land ; indeed, the queer dark-brown tint of the horizon 
 showed strongly against the sky, as if it had been the 
 mahogany of the capstan-head inside its brass rim ; the night 
 was cloudy, with a light breeze, and though the stars came 
 out, I expected it to get pretty dark. As I went down the 
 companion, I heard nothing but the light wash of the water 
 from her bows, and the look-out stepping slowly about betwixt 
 her knight-heads on the forecastle ; while it struck me the 
 smooth face of the sea seemed to show wonderfully distinct 
 into the dusk, the completer it got, as if a sort of light rose up 
 from off it. Down below we felt her stealing pleasantly 
 through all, and Tom and I sat for I didn't know how long, 
 trying to settle our differences on the main point about the 
 Seringapatam, of course, and which way she was likely to be 
 gone. Tom plumed himself mightily on his common-sense 
 view of a thing, and having by this time got back a good deal 
 of his cheerfulness, he and Mr Rollock almost laughed me 
 over to his line of thinking. 
 
 " We then agreed that the ship must be at present edging 
 up on one side or other of the Maldives, but both of them 
 thought the less we had to say to her the better. ' I say, 
 though,' exclaimed the planter, whose face was turned the 
 opposite way to ours, ' I 'd no idea it was moonlight ! ' ' Moon- 
 light ! there 's no moon till morning/ I said. ' Look into the 
 stern-cabin there, then ! ' said Rollock ; and I turned round, 
 seeing into the door of the after-cabin, where, to my no small 
 surprise, there was a bright white glare through the little 
 square stern-light, gleaming on the rim of the sill, and seem- 
 ingly off both the air and the water beyond. Quite confounded, 
 as well as wondering what Snelling could be about, I hurried 
 up the companion, the planter and Westwood hard at my 
 heels. 
 
 " For so long as I had kept at sea, and a good many 
 different latitudes I had been into, yet I must say I never in 
 my life before saw such a strange sight as broke on us the 
 instant we put our heads out of the booby-hatch, fresh from 
 the lamp-light in the cabin. Indeed, I can't but own to my 
 first feeling being fright ; for what it was I couldn't under- 
 stand, unless we were got into a quarter of the world where
 
 A SEA STORY 407 
 
 things weren't natural. There were a few stray clouds in the 
 sky, scattered away ahead, and clearing eastward to settle 
 along before the breeze ; all aloft of us, high over the sharp 
 dark edge of the sails and gaffs, the air seemed to open away 
 out, pale and glimmering like a reflection in the ice ; all round 
 you caught a glimpse of the stars weakening and weakening 
 toward the horizon. 
 
 " But the water itself that was the sight that bewildered 
 one ! On every side the whole sea lay spread out smooth, and 
 as white as snow you couldn't fancy how wide it might stretch 
 away astern on our lee-beam, for not a mark of horizon was to 
 be seen, save on the north-west, where you made it out, 
 owing to the sky there being actually darker than the sea 
 but all the time the wide face of it was of a dead ghastly pale- 
 ness, washing with a swell like milk to our black counter as 
 we forged ahead. It wasn't that it shone in the least like 
 blue water at night in the ordinary tropics by Jove! that 
 would have been a comfort but you 'd have thought there 
 was a winding-sheet laid over all, or we were standing across 
 a level country covered with snow only when I stood up, and 
 watched the bows, there was a faint hissing sparkle to be seen 
 in the ripple's edge that first brought me to myself. The 
 Lascars had woke up where they lay about the caboose, and 
 were cowering together for sheer terror ; the men standing, 
 each one in his place, and looking ; while Jones, who had 
 relieved the midshipman, leant by himself with his head on 
 the capstan, as if to keep out the sight of it all ; the schooner's 
 whole dusky length, in fact, with every black figure on her 
 decks, and her shape up to the lightest stick or rope of her 
 aloft, appearing strange enough, in the midst of the broad 
 white glare, to daunt anyone that wasn't acquainted with the 
 thing. ' Mr Jones,' said I quickly, on going up to him, 'what 
 the devil is this?' I '11 be hanged if I didn't begin to believe 
 in witchcraft or something. * Where are we getting to ? ' 
 ' Nothing, nothing, sir/ said he, lifting his head ; ' 'tis natural 
 enough ; only the milk-sea, as they call it the white-water, 
 sir, that comes down twice a year hereabouts from God knows 
 where you only see it so at at night ! ' 
 
 " ' Oh, then, according to that,' I said, ' we shan't be long 
 of sighting your island, I suppose?' 'No,' said he ; 'if the 
 breeze freshens at all, keeping our present course, the mast-
 
 408 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 head ought to hail it in two or three hours ; but, God knows, 
 Lieutenant Collins, natural though the sight is, there 's some- 
 thing a man can't get rid of, especially if He stood up, 
 walked to the side, and kept facing the whole breadth of the 
 awful-looking sea, as it were, till it seemed to blind him. ( I 
 tell you what, sir,' said he, slowly, ( if that water had any use, 
 a priest would say 'twas sent to wash that same island clean 
 of what 's been done on it ; but it couldn't, Mr Collins, it 
 couldn't till the day of judgment ! ' He leant over till his 
 dark face and his shoulders, to my notion, made the milk- 
 white surge that stole up to the schooner's bends take a whiter 
 look. ' If that water could wash me now,' muttered he, ( ay, 
 if it could only take the soul out of me, but I 'd go down, 
 down this moment to the bottom ! ' With that he gave a 
 sudden move that made me catch him by the arm. ' No, no, 
 Mr Collins,' said he, turning round ; ' the truth is, I mean to 
 go through with it ; I '11 let it carry me where I am bound 
 for ! Wasn't I born without asking my leave, and I '11 kick 
 the bucket the same way, if it was on a blasted dunghill ! ' 
 e Come, come, Mr Jones,' said I, in a soothing sort of a way, 
 ' go below for a little, and sleep ; when we hail the land I '11 
 have you called.' ' I 'd rather not, sir/ said Jones, quietly ; 
 ' the truth is, it strikes me there 's something strange in my 
 happening to be aboard here, at this particular season, too ; 
 and see that same island, now, I must ! It's fate, Lieutenant 
 Collins,' added he ; ' and I must say, I think it 's the more 
 likely something may turn out there. Either you '11 see that 
 ship, or the men, or else I 'II be there myself, in some way or 
 other ! ' 
 
 (e Now there was something in all this that began at 
 moments quite to bewilder one, the more excited the state 
 was it put you in. There was nothing for it but to push 
 on, and see what might come of it. Indeed, the weather 
 favoured us better on our present course than on any other ; 
 and I felt, if I didn't keep active, I should go distracted. 
 'Twas almost as if what Jones said had a truth in it, and a 
 sort of a power beyond one were drawing the schooner the 
 way she steered ; while at the same time there was every 
 little while somewhat new in the extraordinary looks of 
 things to hold you anxious. Even a flying touch of a squall 
 we had about midnight didn't the least do away with the
 
 A SEA STORY 409 
 
 whiteness of the water all around ; on the contrary, as the 
 dark cloud crept down upon us, widening on both sides like 
 smoke, the face of the sea seemed to whiten and whiten, 
 casting up a ghastly gleam across the cloud, with its ripples 
 frothing and creaming ; till, not knowing how things might 
 go hereabouts, you almost expected the first rush of the wind 
 to send it all in a flame to our mastheads. 
 
 " Then up she rose on a surge like a snowdrift, and off we 
 drove heeling over to it, gaffs lowered and canvas down, every- 
 thing lost sight of, save the white sea heaving up against the 
 mist; while the clear-coloured plash of it through our weather 
 bulwarks showed it was water sure enough. The squall went 
 off to leeward, however, the rain hissing like ink into the 
 swell it left, and spotting it all over till the last drops seemed 
 to sink in millions of separate sparkles as far as you could see. 
 The schooner rose from one heave to another to an even keel 
 on the smooth length of it, hoisting her spanking gaffs, 
 hauling aft the sheets, and slipping ahead once more to a 
 breeze fed by the rain. As the sky cleared, the dead white 
 glare the water sent up into it was such you didn't know the 
 one from the other toward the horizon ; and in the midst 
 there was only the smooth faint service, brushing whiter with 
 the breeze, as if it was nothing else kept it from going out of 
 sight ; with a few streaky clouds turning themselves out like 
 wool in a confused rift of the air aloft ; the schooner walking 
 in it without ever a glimpse of a shadow on one side or 
 another ; while, as for seeing a sail on the horizon, you might 
 as well* have looked for a shred of paper. It wasn't light, 
 neither nor was it haze ; nothing but a dead colour off the 
 very sea's face for the schooner rose and plunged without 
 letting you see a hair's-breath of her draught below the 
 water-line. Every man rubbed his eyes, as if it were all 
 some kind of a dream, and none the less when suddenly 
 we were right upon a long patch of black stripes winding 
 away through the white, like so many sea-serpents come up 
 to breathe, with both ends of them lost in the faintness. 
 Nobody stirred, or said, ' Look-out ' ; stripe after stripe she 
 went slipping through them as if they 'd been ghosts, without 
 a word or an extra turn of the wheel. I daresay, if we had 
 commenced to rise in the air, every man would have held on 
 like grim death, but he wouldn't have wondered much ; 'twas
 
 410 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 just, 'whatever might happen to please them as had the 
 managing of it/ which was Jacobs' observation when we talked 
 of it after. 
 
 " Mr Snelling was the only one that ventured to pass a 
 joke ; when Jones, who I thought was out of hearing, looked 
 at the reefer with such a fierce glance, and so scornful at the 
 same time, that I couldn't help connecting what happened the 
 very next moment with it for without the slightest warning, 
 both of us were flung to leeward, and Snelling pitched into 
 the scuppers, as a huge rolling ridge of the white water came 
 down upon our beam ; while the schooner broached-to in the 
 wind, floundering on the swell with her sails aback. Had the 
 breeze been stronger, I think it would have fairly swamped 
 us with the sternway she had ; and heave after heave swelled, 
 glaring and weltering out of the pale blind sky, till our decks 
 swam with light in the dusk under the bulwarks, and about 
 the dark mouths of the hatchways. Just as suddenly the 
 rollers seemed to sink in the smooth of the sea, and at last we 
 payed off with the breeze as before, at the cost of a good 
 fright and a famous ducking. Two or three times in the 
 course of the middle watch did this happen, except that we 
 were taken less by surprise, and had the hatches closed, with 
 every rope ready to let go ; the breeze strengthening all the 
 time, and the same sort of look continuing all round and 
 aloft.* 
 
 * The description of this peculiar phenomenon of the Indian Ocean, as 
 given by Captain Collins, surprised us as much as the reality seems to have 
 done him. However, on consulting a seafaring old gentleman of much 
 experience in all parts of the world, we are informed that such an 
 appearance is periodically to be met with for some distance between the 
 Laccadive and Maldive Islands, as he had reason to know. The old Dutch 
 Captain Stavorinus also furnishes an account substantially similar, having 
 particularly attended to the cause of it in his voyage to the East Indies. 
 It reaches also to some of the south-eastern islands at a great distance from 
 India, near Java or at all events appears there. In the Atlantic, Humboldt 
 says there is a part of the sea always milky, although very deep, in about 57 
 degrees W. longitude, and the parallel of the island of Dominica. Of the 
 same nature, probably, are the immense olive-green spaces and stripes seen 
 in blue water by Captain Scoresby and others, toward the ice of the north 
 polar regions. The pale sea alluded to is supposed either to move from the 
 shores of Arabia Felix, and the gulfs in that coast, or, by some to arise, 
 from sulphureous marine exhalations appearing to rot the bottoms of 
 vessels, and to frighten the fish. Both at the Laccadives and near Java it
 
 A SEA STORY 411 
 
 " About four o'clock or so, the appearance of the sky near 
 where the horizon ought to be, right ahead, struck Westwood 
 and me as stranger than ever ; owing to a long lump of 
 shadow, as it were, lying northward like the shape of a bow 
 or the round back of a fish miles long, though it softened off 
 at one end into the hollow of the air, and the gleam of the 
 white water broke past the other like the streaks of the 
 northern lights on a frosty night toward the Pole, save for the 
 thin, shadowy tint of it, and the stars shining plainly through. 
 I 'd have fancied it was high land ; when suddenly the half- 
 moon was seen to ooze like a yellow spot out of the shapeless 
 sort of steam to eastward, like a thing nobody knew, shedding 
 a faint brown glimmer far below where you hadn't seen there 
 was water at all. 
 
 "The bank of shadow softened away towards her, till in 
 little more than five minutes the dark rippling line of the sea 
 was made out, drawn across the dusk as if it had been the 
 wide mouth of a frith in the polar ice, opening far on our 
 weather-bow. A soft blue shimmering tint stole out on it by 
 contrast, leaving the milk-white glare still spread everywhere 
 else, astern, ahead, and on our lee-beam, into the sightless 
 sky : 'twas the old blue water we caught sight of once more, 
 with the natural night and the stars hanging over it ; and the 
 look-out aloft reported blue water stretching wide off to the 
 nor'ard. There was one full hurrah from the seamen in the 
 bows, and they ran of themselves naturally enough to the 
 ropes, standing by to haul the schooner on a wind to head 
 up for the old salt sea, no doubt. 
 
 " ' Lieutenant Collins,' said Jones in a low voice, ' do you 
 mean to steer for that island, sir ? ' ' Yes,' I said, ' certainly, 
 Mr Jones I shall see this matter out, whatever the upshot 
 may be ! ' e Then keep on, sir,' said he firmly, ' keep in the 
 white water 'tis your only plan to near it safely, sir ! ' This 
 I didn't well understand ; but, by Jove ! there was so much 
 out of the common way hereabouts, that I had made up my 
 mind to follow his advice. Another hail from aloft, at length 
 ' Something black on our lee-bows, sir right in the eye of 
 
 is seen twice a year, often with a heavy rolling of the sea and bad weather. 
 The first time, at the new moon in June, it is called by the Dutch the 
 "little white- water " ; again, at the new moon in August, the great " white- 
 water"; by English seamen, generally, the milk-sea, or the "blink."
 
 412 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 the white it is, sir ! ' We were now running fast down in the 
 direction where there was least possibility of seeing ahead at 
 all, although, in fact, the little moonshine we had, evidently 
 began to make this puzzling hue of the surface less distinct 
 turning it of a queer ashy drab, more and more like the brown 
 we noticed by daytime ; while the light seemed as it were to 
 scoop out the hollow of the sky aloft, when a dark spot or 
 two could be observed from the deck, dotting the milky 
 space over one bow you couldn't say whether in the air or 
 the water, as they hung blackening and growing together 
 before us through below the foot of the jib. 
 
 " Larger and larger it loomed as we stood before the breeze, 
 till there was no doubt we had the bulk of a small lo\v island 
 not far to windward of us, a couple of points or thereabouts 
 on our larboard bow when she fell off a little lying with the 
 ragged outline of it rising to a top near one end, its sliape 
 stretched black and distinct in the midst of the pale sea ; 
 while the white water was to be seen taking close along the 
 edge of the island, showing every rock and point of it in the 
 shadow from the moon, till it seemed to turn away all of a 
 sudden like a current into the broad, dreamy glimmer that 
 still lay south-eastward. On the other side of the island you 
 saw the dark sea-ripples flickering to the faint moonlight, and 
 some two or three more patches of flat land just tipping the 
 horizon, with the thin cocoa-nut trees on them like reeds 
 against the stars and the dusk ; while the one nearest us was 
 sufficiently marked out to have saved me the trouble even of 
 the look I gave Jones, which he answered by another. ' You 
 have seven or eight fathoms water here, sir,' added he ; f and 
 as soon as she rounds the point yonder, we can shoal it by 
 degrees to any anchorage you like, as long as we keep in the 
 white water but we must hold to it ! ' It was accordingly 
 found so with the lead, and ere long, having kept past the 
 point, the same milky hue could be noticed as it were jagging 
 off through the darker water, and winding away hither and 
 thither all round the other side, till you lost it. 
 
 " However, here we brailed up and hauled down everything, 
 letting go an anchor little more than half-a-mile from a small 
 sloping beach, where the strange water actually surged up 
 through the shadow of the land in one glittering sheet, like 
 new-fallen snow, while the back-wash seethed down into it all
 
 A SEA STORY 413 
 
 along the edge in perfect fire. Nothing stirred on it, appar- 
 ently ; not a sound came from it, save the low wash of the 
 surf on that lonely bare beach ; and you only made out that 
 part of the island was covered with trees, with the ground 
 rising to a flat-topped hummock toward one end. So being 
 pretty wearied by this time, impatient though I was for a 
 clearer view of matters, most of us turned in, leaving the deck 
 to a strong anchor-watch, in charge of Jones especially as it 
 was towards morning, and the breeze blowing fresh over the 
 island through our ropes. But if ever a man walked the deck 
 overhead in a fashion to keep you awake, it was Jones that 
 morning : faster and faster he went, till you 'd have thought 
 he ran ; then there was a stop, when you felt him thinking, 
 and off he posted again. No wonder, by George ! I had ugly 
 dreams ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 " T COULD scarce believe it wasn't a dream still, when, 
 * having been called half-an-hour after daybreak, I first 
 saw the change in the appearance of things all about us. 
 The horizon lay round as clear as heart could wish not a 
 speck in sight save the little dingy islets at a distance ; the 
 broad blue ocean sparkling far away on one side, and the 
 water to windward, in the direction we had come, showing 
 the same brownish tint we had seen the day before, while 
 it took the island before us in its bight, and turned off east- 
 ward with the breeze till it spread against the open sky. 
 The top of the land was high enough to shut out the sea-line, 
 and being low water at the time, it was plain enough now 
 why Jones wished to keep the white streaks over-night ; for, 
 where the dingy-coloured ripples melted on the other side 
 towards the blue, you could see by the spots of foam, and 
 the greenish breaks here and there in the surface, that all 
 that coast of the island was one network of shoals and reefs, 
 stretching out you didn't know how wide. White- water 
 Island, in fact, was merely the head of them the milky 
 stream that had so startled us just washing round the deep 
 end of it, and edging fair along the side of the reefs, with a 
 few creeks sent in amongst them, as it were, like feelers, ere
 
 414 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 it flowed the other way : we couldn't otherwise have got so 
 near as we were. But the island itself was the sight to 
 fasten you, as the lovely green of it shone out in the morning 
 sun, covering the most part of it close over, and tipping up 
 beyond the bare break where it was steepest, with a clump of 
 tall cocoas shooting every here and there out of the thick 
 bush ; indeed, there was apparently a sort of split lengthways 
 through the midst, where, upon only walking to the schooner's 
 bow, one could see the bright greenwood sinking down to a 
 hollow out of sight, under the clear gush of the breeze off a 
 dark blue patch of the sea that hung beyond it like a wedge. 
 
 " As the tide made over the long reefs, till the las f line of 
 surf on them vanished, it went up the little sandy cove oppo- 
 site us with a plash on the beach that you could hear ; the 
 place was just what a sailor may have had a notion of all his 
 life, without exactly seeing it till then ; and though as yet 
 one had but a rough guess of its size, why, it couldn't be less 
 than a couple of miles from end to end, with more than that 
 breadth, perhaps, at the low side toward the reefs. Not a 
 soul amongst the man-o' -war's men, I daresay, as they pressed 
 together in the schooner's bows to see into it, but would have 
 taken his traps that moment, if I 'd told him, and gone ashore 
 on the chance of passing his days there ; so it wasn't hard to 
 conceive, from the state it seemed to put their rough sun- 
 burnt faces in, honest as they looked, how a similar fancy 
 would work with Master Harry Foster, even if it tried his 
 virtue a little. 
 
 "I had no more doubt in my mind, by this time, of its 
 being the fellow's intended ' hermitage/ than I had of its being 
 the same White-water Island I had heard of myself, or the 
 spot which Jones seemed to know so well ; 'twas likely the 
 foremast-man had got an inkling of it somewhat in the way I 
 did ; and, lying, as it happened to do, between no less than 
 three channels which the Indiaman might take, after dodging 
 us in this fashion round the long cluster of the Maldives, she 
 couldn't make north-westward again for the open sea without 
 setting Foster and his mates pretty well upon their trip. 
 
 " Indeed, if she were to eastward of the chain at present, as 
 I was greatly inclined to believe, tl e course of the breeze 
 made it impossible for her to do otherwise ; but there was one 
 thing always kept lurking about my mind, like a cover to
 
 A SEA STORY 415 
 
 something far worse that I didn't venture to dwell upon 
 namely, that Captain Finch might get wind of their purpose, 
 and drive them on another tack by knocking it on the head, 
 either at the time or beforehand, without the courage to settle 
 them. Nothing in the world would have pleased me better 
 than to pounce upon ugly Harry at his first breakfast ashore 
 here ; but the bare horizon, and the quiet look of the island 
 since ever we hove in sight of it, showed this wasn't to be. 
 At any rate, however, I was bent on seeing how the land lay, 
 and what sort of a place it was ; so, accordingly, as soon as 
 the hands had got breakfast, Westwood and I at once pulled 
 ashore, with a boat's-crew well armed, to overhaul it. We 
 found the sandy beach covered, for a good way up, with a 
 frothy slime that no doubt came from the water on that side, 
 with ever so many different kinds of blubber, sea-jelly, star- 
 fish, and shell, while the rocky edge round to windward was 
 hung with weed that made the blocks below it seem to rise 
 out of every surge, like green-headed, white-bearded mermen 
 bathing. Glad enough we were to get out of the queer 
 sulphury smell all this stuff gave out in the heat, letting the 
 men take every one his own way into the bushes, which they 
 enjoyed like so many schoolboys, and making ourselves right 
 for the highest point. Here we saw over, through the cocoa- 
 nut trees and wild trailing-plants below, down upon a broad 
 bushy level towards the reefs. 
 
 " It was far the widest way of the island ; indeed making 
 it apparently several miles to go round to the different points ; 
 and as the men were to hold right to windward, and meet 
 again after beating the entire ground, Westwood and I struck 
 fair through amongst the tangle of wood, to see the flat 
 below. 
 
 " We roused out a good many small birds and paraquets, 
 and several goats could be noticed looking at us off the grassy 
 bits of crag above the trees, though they didn' t seem to know 
 what we were. As for most of the wood, it was mainly such 
 bushes and brush as thrive without water, with a bright 
 green flush of grass and plants after the rain at the monsoon, 
 the prickly pear creeping over the sandy parts, till we came 
 on a track where some spring or other apparently oozed 
 down from the height, soaking in little rank spots amongst 
 the ground leaves, with here and there a small rusty plash
 
 416 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 about the grass-blades, as if there were tar or iron in it. 
 Here there were taller trees of different kinds on both sides, 
 dwindling off into the lower bush, while, to my surprise, some 
 of them were such as you 'd never have expected to meet 
 with on an island of the size, so far off the land bananas, 
 mangoes, a shaddock or two, and a few more, common enough 
 in India ; though here they must evidently have been planted, 
 the cocoas being the only sort natural to the place, and of 
 them there were plenty below. Suddenly it led down into a 
 shady hollow, out of sight of the sea altogether, where we came 
 on what seemed to have been a perfect garden some time or 
 other ; there were two or three large broad-leaved shaddock- 
 trees, and one or two others, with a heap of rubbish in the 
 midst of the wild Indian corn and long grass, some bi-oken 
 bamboo-stakes standing, besides a piece of plank scattered 
 here and there about the bushes. 
 
 " Right under the shade of the trees was a hole like the 
 mouth of a draw-well, more than brimful at the time with the 
 water from the spring, for, owing to the late rains, it made a 
 pool close by the side, and went trickling away down amongst 
 the brushwood. Every twig and leaf grew straight up or out, 
 save in a narrow track toward the rising ground no doubt 
 made by the goats, as we noticed the prints of their hoofs on 
 the wet mud. 'Twas evident no human being had been there 
 for heaven knew how long, since, by the care that had been 
 taken with the place, it was probably the only spring in the 
 island perhaps for leagues and leagues round indeed. Trees, 
 branches, green grass, and all they had such a still, moveless 
 air under the heat and light, in the lee of the high ground, 
 with just a blue spot or two of the sea seen high up through 
 the sharp shaddock-leaves, and the cool-looking plash of water 
 below them, that Westwood and I sat down to wait till we 
 heard the men. Still, there was a terribly distinct, particular 
 cast about the whole spot, which, taken together with the 
 ruin and confusion, as well as the notion of Foster and his 
 shipmates actually plotting to come there, gave one almost an 
 idea of the whole story beforehand, dim as that was the 
 longer you looked the more horrid it seemed. Neither natives 
 nor a single man could have brought the different trees to the 
 island, or contrived a tank-well of the kind, seeing it was 
 apparently deep enough to supply a ship's casks, while at the
 
 A SEA STORY 417 
 
 same time I couldn't help thinking someone had lived there 
 since it was made, or perhaps much used. 
 
 " By the space taken up with the hut that had been there, 
 and the little change in the wild state of things, most likely 
 it was by himself he had been, and for no short time. It 
 looked, however, as if he had been carried off in the end, 
 otherwise his bones would have been hereabouts ; probably 
 savages, as Westwood and I concluded from the scatter they 
 had made of his premises. For my own part, I wondered 
 whether Jones mightn't have been the man, in which case 
 most of that disturbed mind he showed lately might come 
 of remembering the dreary desolate feeling one must have, 
 living long on a desert island. No doubt they had ' marooned ' 
 him for something or other, such as not being a bloody enough 
 captain ; and I could as easily fancy one having a spice of 
 madness in him, after years ashore here, as in Captain Wallis 
 after a French prison. Still it startled one to see one's face 
 in the black of the well ; and we couldn't make up our minds 
 to drink out of it. Even the pool at its side had a queer taste, 
 I thought but that may have been all a notion. All at once, 
 by the edge of this same pool, Westwood pointed out two or 
 three marks that surprised us both, being quite different from 
 what the goats could have made ; and on observing closer, 
 they were made out to be more like the paws of a wild beast 
 stamped in the mud. ' By Jove ! ' I said, ' no wolves on the 
 island, surely ! ' ' All of them seem to stick to the pool in 
 preference to the well, at any rate,' said Tom ; ' they appear to 
 have the same crotchet with ourselves, Ned ! ' ' Strange ! ' 
 said I, ' what the devil can it be ? ' 
 
 " Westwood eyed the prints over and over. ' What do you 
 think of a dog ? ' he asked. ' Good heavens ! ' exclaimed I, 
 looking down ' yes ! ' and there we sat gazing at the thing, 
 and musing over it, with somehow or other a curious creeping 
 of the blood, for my part, that I can't describe the reason of. 
 At last we heard the men hallooing to each other on the level 
 beneath, when we hurried down, and coasted round till we 
 came upon the boat again, where the coxswain was amusing 
 himself gathering shells for home and we pulled back to the 
 schooner. 
 
 " My first resolve after this was to keep before the breeze 
 again, try to get sight of the ship, and tell Finch out and out, 
 
 2 D
 
 418 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 as I ought to have done at once, what was afoot amongst his 
 crew ; or else to let Sir Charles Hyde know of it, and make 
 him a bold offer of a passage to Calcutta. However, I soon 
 saw this wouldn't do ; and a regular puzzle I found myself 
 in, betwixt inclining to stick to the island and catch Foster if 
 he came, and wishing to know how the Indiaman stood on her 
 course if he didn't. Jones must have read my thoughts as I 
 leant upon the capstan, looking from White-water Island to 
 the horizon and back again ; for he stepped aft, and said in a 
 low voice, ' Lieutenant Collins, there 's one thing I didn't tell 
 you about that island before, because, as I said, I wasn't at 
 first sure it was the one the men meant ; it may help to decide 
 you, sir/ said he gravely. ' Ah ? ' I said. f In that island,' he 
 went on, his ordinarily dark face as pale as death, ' there is 
 enough gold, at this moment, to buy half an English county 
 ay, and better than gold, seeing that only one man knows the 
 spot where it is, and he would rather sail round the world 
 without a shirt to his back than touch one filing of the hell's 
 dross ! ' 
 
 " I looked at Jones in perfect amaze as he added, ' You 
 may fancy now, Mr Collins, whether if a man of the kind 
 happened to get wind of this, he would not stir heaven and 
 earth to reach the place ? But, rather than that gold should 
 come into living hands,' said he fiercely, ' I would wait for 
 them by myself ay, alone alone ' ; and a shudder seemed to 
 run through him again as he gave another glance to the island. 
 For my part, I drew a long breath. What he mentioned 
 had all at once relieved my mind wonderfully ; for if this was 
 Master Foster's cue, as I now saw it must have been the 
 whole voyage over, why, he would be just as sure not to spread 
 the thing widely, as he would be to get here some time, if he 
 could. On second thoughts, it wasn't so plain how the rest of 
 the crew might work with it, on the least inkling; but inclined 
 as I naturally was to look upon the best side of the matter, 
 you needn't wonder at my making up my mind as I did. 
 The short and the long of it was that, in an hour more, Jones 
 and myself, with Jacobs and four other good hands and, 
 somewhat to my annoyance, Mr Rollock, who persisted in 
 coming were pulling back for the island ; while the schooner, 
 under care of Westwood and Snelling, was hauled on a wind 
 to stand up across the Nine Degrees Channel, which the
 
 A SEA STORY 419 
 
 Indiaman would no doubt take as the safest course for Western 
 India, if all went well, and supposing I had reckoned correctly 
 why we missed her so long. In that case, three or four days 
 at most couldn't fail to bring her up ; and on first sighting 
 her at the horizon, they could easily enough strip the schooner 
 to her sticks, keeping her stern on so as to let the ship pass 
 without noticing the loom of so small a craft ; whereas if they 
 didn't see her at all, in that time, they were to bear up before 
 the wind again for the island. Of all things, and every 
 circumstance being considered, I agreed with Westwood it 
 was best not to come across her again, if we could help it. 
 
 " For our own part, in the boat, we were fully provisioned 
 and armed for all the time we could need, not to speak of what 
 the island itself afforded ; and after watching the schooner 
 stand heeling off to sea, round the deep end of it, we cruised 
 close along, not for the beach this time, but seeking for a cove 
 in the rocks where the boat could be hauled up out of sight, 
 and safe from the surf at high water. This we weren't very 
 long of finding behind some blocks that broke the force of the 
 surge, where the wild green trailers from above crept almost 
 down to the seaweed ; and after helping them a little to hide 
 her perfectly, the whole of us scrambled ashore. The first 
 thing was to post a look-out on the highest point, the sharp 
 little peak next to the reef-side, overlooking the spring and 
 the level ground between ; on the other side of the long green 
 valley, full of bush in the midst, was the flat-topped rise 
 towards the brown water, from which I and the planter 
 watched the schooner softening for an hour or two, till she 
 reached the blue sea-gleam, and lessened to a speck. By that 
 time, the men had pitched a little canvas tent on the slope 
 opposite to us, over the hollow Jones evidently being anxious 
 to keep clear of the spot, which somebody else had picked out 
 beforehand ; in fact the highest ground was betwixt us and it ; 
 and on coming down through the thicket to our quarters, after 
 a stroll in which Rollock shot a couple of rose-coloured paro- 
 quets, declaring them to be splendid eating, we found Jones 
 had had to send over the other way for water.
 
 420 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 " T WOKE up in the tent perhaps an hour before midnight, 
 -* as I judged on looking through the opening at the stars 
 that shone in the dark sky through the north-east end of the 
 valley above the sea. At the other end, being higher, you 
 just saw the scattered heads of the bushes against a pale 
 floating glimmer of ail', with a pale streak of horizon. Behind 
 us was the height where we had the look-out, and in front 
 the flat top of the crag drawn somehow or other as distinct 
 as possible upon the faint starlight in that quarter, roughening 
 away down on both sides into the brushwood and dwarf 
 cocoa-nut trees. With the stillness of the place all round, the 
 bare sight of that particular point gave me a dreamy, desolate, 
 ghastly sort of feeling, beyond aught I ever saw in my life 
 before : it was choking hot and heavy inside, and seemingly 
 throughout the hollow, though a good deal of dew began to 
 fall, glistening on the dark-green bushes nearest us, and 
 standing in drops on the fern-like cocoa-leaves which Jacobs 
 and the other men had roofed themselves with. They were 
 sound asleep ; and the glimpse of the soles of their shoes 
 and their knees, sticking out of the shadow you saw their 
 rough faces in, with the sight of their cutlass-hilts, served to 
 give one a still wilder notion of the place. One felt scarce 
 sure of being able to wake them, in case of anything turning 
 up ; and, at any rate, a dread came over you of its being 
 possibly somewhat unnatural enough to make the thing 
 useless. 
 
 " On the other hand, the planter kept up such a confounded 
 snoring inside the canvas close by me, that although there was 
 no doubt of his being alive, the sound of it put stranger 
 thoughts into your head. Sometimes his breath would be 
 jogging on like that of a tolerably ordinary mortal, then get 
 by degrees perfectly quiet ; and then all of a sudden go rising 
 and rising, faster and faster, as if some terrible dream had 
 hold of him, or there was some devilish monster hard in chase 
 of his soul, till out it broke into a fearful snort that made your 
 very heart j ump whereupon he 'd lie as if he were finished, 
 then go through the whole story again. I can't tell you how 
 that cursed noise troubled me ; 'twas no use shoving and 
 speaking to him, and all the time the old boy was evidently
 
 A SEA STORY 421 
 
 quite comfortable, by something he said at last about 'indigo 
 being up.' The best I could do was to get out and leave him 
 to himself; in fact, where Jones had gone at the time I didn't 
 know, till suddenly I caught sight of his dark figure standing 
 on the rise at the back of our post, and went up to him. 
 Jones was certainly a strange mixture, for here had he been 
 all round the low side of the island by himself, yet I found 
 him leaning bareheaded on the barrel of his musket, listening 
 like a deer. He assured me solemnly he thought he had 
 heard voices for the last hour on the other side, where he 
 hadn't been, and asked me if I would go with him to 
 see. Then down came our look-out from the peak, rolling 
 through the bushes like a sea-crow, to report his not having 
 seen anything, and to say they 'd forgot to relieve him aloft ; 
 so rousing up Jacobs, I sent them both back together, 
 while Jones and I held the opposite way for the other 
 height. 
 
 "The moment we had got to it, there was the same faint 
 blotted-out horizon as we had had all astern of us the night 
 before, the same strange unnatural paleness cast off the face 
 of the sea, making it look black by contrast to north-eastward 
 and east, against the blue shadow with the bright stars in it, 
 where the sea rippled as usual ; while the keenest glare in the 
 middle seemed to stream right to the breast of the island, like 
 the reflection of daylight down a long break in the ice only 
 it was dead and ghastly to behold. The white water washed 
 round under the black edge of the rocks before us, to the 
 bare sloping beach, where it came up fairly like a wide plash 
 of milk, glimmering and sparkling back amongst the little 
 sea-creatures you fancied you saw moving and crawling out 
 or in : till it ran along by where the reefs were, and turned off 
 to the dim sky again. Everything else was still, and Jones 
 drew a breath like one relieved : ' Nothing after all, I think, 
 sir ! ' said he. But to my mind there was something a long 
 sight more awful in the look of that unaccountable white 
 water bearing down like snow upon the island, as it were, 
 with the wrinkles and eddies to be seen faintly in it here and 
 there back toward the glaring breadth of it, and the floating 
 streaks in the sky above ; especially when he told me he 
 thought it was owing to millions upon millions of living things 
 in it, that made the same show there at two different seasons
 
 422 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 in the year, for a week or so at a time the appearance of it 
 getting less distinct every night. 
 
 "However, I had begun to grow uneasy again about the 
 Indiaman, and the schooner too, as well as doubtful of the 
 fellows coming to the island at all ; on the contrary, as I said 
 to Jones, if they saw the schooner, and Westwood didn't 
 manage as I told him, why both she, the ship, and ourselves 
 might possibly get the finishing-stroke altogether. f The 
 more I think of it,' said I, ' the more foolish it seems to be 
 here instead of aboard ! ' ' Why it is, Mr Collins, I don't 
 know,' replied Jones, f yet I feel as sure these men will land 
 here as if I heard them in the woods ; and if I wasn't aware 
 how one crime breeds another, for my part I shouldn't be 
 here at present, sir. Many a night afloat has the thought of 
 this place weighed on me, lest there was something new doing 
 in it ; but what's buried here I 'm resolved no man shall stir 
 up, if I can help it, sir ! ' A little after, as we got up and 
 went down to the beach, all of a sudden like a thing he 
 couldn't avoid Jones began to give me some snatches of 
 what had happened here some years before, which, according 
 to him, he had got from a shipmate of his that died ; and I 
 must say it made the blood creep in me to listen to it. 
 
 " ' At the beginning of the war,' he said, ' the island had 
 been a nest of regular pirates, who had taken pains to make 
 it, from a mere muddy head of a reef with some cocoas upon 
 it, probably into a resort on occasions especially as even the 
 wild Maldive natives to southward had somehow a dislike to 
 it. The whole gang being taken by some cruiser or other at 
 sea, however, too far off to leave any clue to their harbourage 
 hereabouts, they were all hanged, and the place lost sight 
 of, till, a good many years after, a country Arab craft, bound 
 for Dacca up the Ganges, was driven in a gale upon the reefs 
 some way off, without seeing the island at all till the sea went 
 down, and she was going to pieces. 
 
 "'There were only two Europeans aboard, both having 
 turned Mussulmans, and the youngest of them was mate. 
 There was a passenger, a native Indian merchant, and his 
 servants, with, as was believed, his harem below in the after- 
 cabins, for nobody ever had seen them ; but the Arab rais of 
 the vessel and several more being washed off when she struck, 
 the other Mussulmans took to the only boat they had, and got
 
 A SEA STORY 423 
 
 ashore, leaving the two Englishmen with the passenger. 
 Next day the two men had contrived a raft of the spars, 
 whereupon the Hindoo at last brought up his three women, 
 veiled from head to foot, and the whole got safe to the island. 
 Here all the Mahometans herded together amongst them- 
 selves, forcing the two Englishmen to keep on the other side 
 of the island, as they had no firearms, while the old Hindoo 
 merchant and his native servant got a tent pitched on the 
 highest point for the women, where they were no more seen 
 than before, and a flag hoisted on a stick all the time for a 
 signal to ships poor simple devil ! ' as Jones said with a 
 laugh. ' Every day he offered the Arab crew more of the gold 
 and jewels he had with him, to make for India and get him 
 brought of, till at last some of the Arabs came round to the 
 mate and his companion, wanting them to take the boat and 
 go instead, otherwise they would kill both of them at once. 
 The two men accordingly had provisions given them, and 
 hoisted sail on the boat before the breeze to eastward ; they 
 had almost dropped the island, when all at once the one in the 
 boat's bows stepped aft to him that had the tiller, and said it 
 struck him the Arabs couldn't mean well to the Hindoo and 
 his wives, in trying to get clear of others. 
 
 " ' All his companion did,' Jones said, ' was to ask if he was 
 man enough to go back, face them boldly, and offer to take 
 the passenger and his harem too, when some craft or other 
 might come back for the Arabs, since they weren't seamen 
 enough to venture first in the boat. " I tell you what," said 
 the first, " try the two largest breakers of water there ! " The 
 water for use next after the open one was tasted, and it was 
 salt. " Will you stand by me ? " the second man said, after 
 awhile. The other had a dog with him of his own, that had 
 swam ashore from the vessel after the raft he landed upon, 
 and it was sleeping in the boat's bow at the moment, near 
 him ; the dog lifted its head as they spoke, eyed the two, and 
 lay down again with a low sort of growl. " Ay," answered 
 the other, " to the last I will as long as you stick by me \ " 
 They hauled over the sheet, laid the boat sharp on a wind, 
 and as soon as it was dusk began to pull back toward the 
 island, where they got ashore in the dark before morning.' 
 
 " Here Jones stopped, turned suddenly round to the glare 
 of the white water plashing upon the beach, and said no more.
 
 42* A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 'Why, Jones/ said I, ' is that all you 've to tell ? What came 
 of them ? For God's sake, yes what was the upshot ? ' 
 *'Tis enough to show how one bad thing breeds another, as I 
 said, sir/ answered he. ( Probably in the end, though at any 
 rate I only fancy the rest 'tis a horrible dream to me, for a 
 a squall came on when that shipmate of mine got so far, 
 and we had to reef topsails. He went overboard off the yard 
 that very night/ said Jones wildly. 
 
 " e The man must have been there,' said I, in a pointed way, 
 'to give all the particulars he was the mate himself, Mr 
 Jones ! ' He made no answer, but kept gazing out to sea. 
 ' And how long was this ago ? ' I asked. ' Oh/ answered he, 
 ' years enough ago, no doubt, sir, for both of us to be children, 
 if you were born, Mr Collins ' and he turned his face to me 
 as ghastly as the water toward the horizon he was looking at 
 before 'at least I hope to God it was so the man was a poor 
 creature, sir, bless you, and old, as it seems to me twice my 
 own age at the time, Lieutenant Collins ! At all events, 
 though/ he went on, rambling in a strange way that made 
 me think he was going out of his mind, ' he remembered well 
 enough the first time he saw the white water coming down 
 upon the island. He was hunting hunting through the 
 bushes and up and down, and came up upon the crag.' 
 'Hunting?* I said. c Yes, you didn't know how it lived, or 
 where it kept, but every night it was on the look-out there. 
 There was no one else, save the girl sleeping over beyond in 
 the hut, and the man almost fancied the water of the sea was 
 coming down to the rocks and the beach, like the Almighty 
 himself, to show He was clear of all that had happened if he 
 could but have finished that brute, testifying like the very 
 devil, he 'd have been happy, he felt ! Harkye/ said he, 
 sinking his voice to a whisper, ' when he went back at day- 
 light the woman was dying she had borne a what was as 
 innocent as she was, poor, sweet, young heathen ! ' 
 
 " And if I hadn't guessed pretty well before that Jones 
 was the man he 'd been speaking of, his glittering eye and his 
 stride from the beach would have shown it ; apparently he 
 forgot everything besides at that moment, till you 'd have 
 thought his mind gloated on this piece of his history. ' The 
 woman ! ' I couldn't help saying, ' what woman ? Had the 
 rest left you in the boat, then ? '
 
 A SEA STORY 425 
 
 " Jones looked upon me fiercely, then turned away ; when 
 all of a sudden such a long unearthly quaver of a cry came 
 down through the stillness, from somewhere aloft in the 
 island, that at first I didn't know what to think, unless one of 
 our look-out men had met with an accident, and tumbled 
 down. 'Twas so dark where they were, however, there was 
 no seeing them. Without looking for himself, Jones faced 
 me, shivering all over. ' What is that, Mr Collins ? ' whispered 
 he, catching my arm with a clutch like death ; l is there any- 
 thing yonder behind behind sir ? ' On the flat head of 
 the crag north-westward, black against the pale glimmer 
 over the very spot where we had stood half-an-hour before, 
 to my utter horror, there was some creature or other sitting as 
 if it looked toward the sea; and just then another wild, quiver- 
 ing, eddying sound came evidently enough from it, like a 
 thing that would never end. It wasn't a human voice, that ! 
 my brain spun with it, as I glanced to Jones. 'Good heavens!' 
 I said, ' what ? But, by Jove ! now I think of it ; yes 'tis the 
 howl of a dog nothing else ! ' ' Eight ten years ! ' said 
 Jones, hoarsely, ' without food, too, and enough in that well 
 to have poisoned whole gangs of men for twenty years can 
 it be an earthly being, sir ? ' The stare he gave me at the 
 moment was more frightful than aught else, but I mentioned 
 what Westwood and I had observed the day before. 
 
 " Before I well knew what he meant, Jones was stealing 
 swiftly up the rising ground to the shoulder of it. I saw him 
 get suddenly on a level with the creature, his musket aiming 
 for it there was a flash and a shot that left the height as bare 
 as before and next minute, with a short whimpering howl, 
 the animal flew down the hill, while I heard Jones crashing 
 through the bushes after it, till he was lost in the dark. 
 Such a terrible notion it gave me of his strange story being 
 true, whereas before I had almost fancied it partly a craze of 
 his, from having lived here alone that for a moment or two 
 it seemed to my mind we were still in the midst of it. I 
 hurried back to our post, and close upon morning Jones came 
 over and lay down by himself, without a word, haggard and 
 covered with sweat. 
 
 "All next day the horizon on every side was clear of a 
 single speck ; no signs either of ship or schooner, till I began 
 to wish we were out of it, hoping the Seringapatam had, after
 
 426 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 all, kept the old course for Bombay, in spite of us. I found 
 Jones had warned the men not to get our water out of the 
 tank ; it being poisoned in a way fit to last for years, as the 
 pirates knew how to do. For our parts, we had to amuse our- 
 selves the best way we could, waiting for the schooner to come 
 down again for us, which was the only thing I looked for 
 now. That night the white appearance of the water to north 
 and windward seemed a good deal gone, save where it hung 
 like a haze in the direction it took off the island : the stars 
 shone out, and in two or three nights more I found from Jones 
 there would be nothing of it, which I hoped I should have to 
 take on his word. 
 
 " At daybreak, however, our look-out could all of a sudden 
 be seen hoisting the signal for a sail in sight, and waving his 
 hat for us to come. No sooner had we hurried up, accordingly, 
 than a sail could be made out in the south-east, hull down ; 
 and the schooner not being likely thereaway, a certain nutter 
 in me at once set it down for the Indiaman at last, on her way 
 far past the island for the open channel. Being broad day- 
 light, too, with a fresh breeze blowing, we saw that Foster and 
 his party, if they carried out their scheme, would have to wait 
 till she was a long way to windward at night-time, in order 
 to get clear off. In fact, I had everyone kept down off the 
 height, lest the ship's glasses might possibly notice some- 
 thing ; while, at the same time, we hadn't even a fire kindled 
 to cook our victuals. I was watching her over the brow of 
 the hill, through the telescope, when she evidently stood 
 round on the other tack to get up to windward, which brought 
 her gradually nearer. She was a large ship, under full 
 canvas ; and at last she rose her hull to the white streak 
 below the bulwarks, till I began to think they intended 
 passing the island to eastward to make the channel. I went 
 down for Jones, and asked him how far the reefs actually ran 
 out, when he told me there would probably be signs enough 
 of them in such a strong breeze ; besides, as he reminded me, 
 if she was the Indiaman, it was the captain himself that had 
 a chart of them ; in which, from the particular nature of it 
 being an old buccaneering chart, as he thought they would 
 be laid down quite plainly. 
 
 " Indeed, when we both returned to the height, there were 
 lines of surf to be noticed here and there, more than three
 
 A SEA STORY 427 
 
 miles out ; and seeing her by that time so distinctly, a new 
 uneasiness began to enter my head. There were no signals 
 we could make, even if they didn't serve the other way ; and, 
 to tell the truth, I didn't much like the idea of being found 
 there. Still, it was terrible to see her getting nearer and 
 nearer, without the power of doing the least thing to warn her 
 off; spreading and heightening before you, till you counted her 
 sails, and saw the light betwixt them, with the breeze always 
 strengthening off that side the island, and of course making it 
 the safer for her to pass it to leeward. The blue surges rose 
 longer to the foam at their crests, till one's eye got confused 
 between them and the spots of surf rippling greenish over the 
 tongues of reef; in fact, it wasn't far off being low- water at 
 the time, and the whole was to be seen better from the height 
 than elsewhere, stretched out like a floor that the breeze was 
 sweeping across, raising a white dust where the blue melted 
 into the light-brown tint of the sea to leeward. The breeze 
 came so fresh that she even ha^ed down her sky-sails and 
 fore-royal, falling off to go to leeward of the island. At the 
 same moment, I made out with the glass that she was actually 
 the Seringapatam, and also that she 'd got a leadsman at work 
 in the chains. Five minutes more, and she 'd have gone time 
 enough into the distinct brown-coloured swells to stand past 
 the deep end : without help from the glass, I saw the sun 
 sparkle in the spray from her black bows ; she made a sliding 
 forge ahead with her whole beam on to us ; when, next 
 moment, as if she had taken a sudden yaw and broached-to in 
 the wind, she came fairly end on, showing the three piles of 
 canvas in one. A wild boding of the truth crept on me as 
 I sprang on the peak, waving my arms and stamping like a 
 lunatic, as if they could hear me. 
 
 "The next instant she had fallen a little over, her fore- 
 topmast and main-to'gallantmast gone out of their places at 
 the shock, and the heavy blue swells running to her highest 
 side in a perfect heap of foam ; while the spray rose in white 
 jets across her weather bulwarks at every burst of them. 
 The Indiaman had struck on a rib of reef, or else a spit of 
 sand, near the very edge of the whole bank : had it been only 
 high-water as I had reason to believe afterwards she'd 
 have gone clear over it. As soon as the first horror of the 
 thing was a little past, I looked, without a word, to Jones,
 
 428 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 and he to me. ' The fellows have come at last, certainly ! ' 
 said he, in a serious enough tone. ' Mr Collins/ he added, 
 ' the moment I set foot on ground here, I felt sure something 
 would come out of it ! ' ' Get the men down at once, sir,' I 
 said, ' and let 's pull out to the ship ! ' ' Why, sir,' answered 
 he, ' the breeze is likely to keep for some time as it is, and 
 if she 's completely gone, they '11 be able to bring all hands 
 safe ashore. If you take my advice, Mr Collins, you '11 hold 
 all fast, and show no signs of our being here at all, in case of 
 having something or other to manage yet that may cost us 
 harder ! ' It didn't need much thought to see this, in fact ; 
 and in place of going down, ten minutes after we were all 
 close amongst the bushes on the slope, watching the wreck. 
 What was at the bottom of all this I didn't know ; whether 
 Captain Finch had really got wind of Foster's scheme, and 
 been playing with some hellish notion his heart failed him to 
 carry out, or how it was ; but what he was to make of this 
 was the question. 
 
 " Well, toward afternoon, the wreck seemed pretty much 
 in the same state, though by that time they had evidently 
 given her up, for the boats were beginning to be hoisted out 
 to leeward. We couldn't see what went on there, till one of 
 them suddenly appeared, pulling out for the island, about 
 three miles off; then the large launch after it. There were 
 ladies' dresses to be made out in both, their cloaks and shawls 
 fluttering bright to the breeze as the boats dipped in the 
 short swells ; and they were full an hour ere they got out of 
 our sight, near the broad beach, on the level side, where the 
 tide was ebbing fast again, making it a hard matter to pull 
 the distance. Two more boats came off the ship, filled full of 
 casks and other matters, save the crews ; the rest of the 
 passengers and men no doubt waiting for the launch and 
 jolly-boat to go back and take them ashore for, soon after, 
 they both could be seen rounding the point on their way out. 
 On coming within hail of the fresh boats, however, they 
 apparently gave in, since we could see the two of them, to 
 our great surprise, strike round, and make for the beach again 
 with their shipmates, spite of signals from the wreck, and 
 shots even fired after them. The breeze by that time flagged, 
 leaving less of a sea against the ship's hull in the dead water 
 from the other reefs, and she had fallen over again to leeward
 
 A SEA STORY 429 
 
 a proof of her sticking fast where she struck, without much 
 fear of parting very soon in such weather ; but the sun was 
 going down, and this being the first sign of foul play we had 
 observed, it was plain at all events we should have to look 
 sharp about us. We kept close up the height, bolted our cold 
 junk and biscuit, washing down with a stiff caulker, and 
 looked every man to his tools. 
 
 "To my great satisfaction, the planter, who had watched 
 everything seemingly in pure bewilderment, woke up out of 
 it when he knew how matters stood, and handled his double- 
 barrel as cool as a cucumber, putting in two bullets above the 
 small shot he had got for the birds, and ramming down with 
 the air of a man summing up a couple of bills against a 
 rascally debtor. For my own part, I must say I was longer of 
 coming to feel it wasn't some sort of a dream, owing to Jones's 
 broken story ; till the thought of who was to all likelihood on 
 the very island below, with the rest of the ladies, amongst a 
 set of all sorts of foremast-men thrown loose from command 
 half of them probably ruffians, with some hand in the matter 
 it came on me like fire at one's vitals. Meantime we sat 
 there patiently enough for want of knowing what was to do 
 first, or which way we had best keep to avoid bringing matters 
 to a head, worse than they yet were. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 " HPHE night came out of the dusk a fine starlight to sea- 
 -* ward, beyond the reefs where the Indiaman lay, the 
 high side of the island glooming back against the deep blue 
 glistening sky, till you didn't see how large it might be ; 
 while the white water hung glimmering off to leeward from 
 the rocks. The ship's crew had kindled a fire on the long 
 strand near the boats, and we heard their noise getting louder 
 and louder above the sound of the sea plashing upon it 
 evidently through their making free with liquor. Jones, 
 being no doubt well acquainted with every part of the 
 ground, proposed to go over and see how things stood, and 
 where the passengers might be ; at the same time, as Mr 
 Rollock was more likely to come conveniently to speech of
 
 430 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 them, both for explaining our being here and putting them 
 on their guard, he agreed to go too. 
 
 " One or other of them was to hurry back as quickly as 
 possible, while the men and myself waited in readiness for 
 whatever might turn up. Hour after hour passed, however, 
 till I was quite out of patience, not to say uneasy beyond 
 description. All was still, save below toward the water's edge 
 the seamen's voices at times mixing with the washing hum 
 of the surge on the sand, then rising over it in the chorus of 
 a forecastle song, or a sudden bit of a quarrelsome uproar ; 
 notwithstanding which they began apparently to settle down 
 to sleep. 
 
 " At last the planter came skirting round the hill through 
 the trees, quite out of breath, to say they had discovered the 
 spot where the ladies had no doubt been taken by their 
 friends, as Captain Finch himself, with one of the ship's 
 officers, and two or three cadets, were walking about on the 
 watch, all of them armed. To judge by this, and the fact of 
 the other gentlemen being still apparently on the wreck, 
 Finch mistrusted his men. However, the planter thought it 
 better not to risk a hasty shot through him by going nearer ; 
 and, to tell the truth, I thought it better myself to wait till 
 daylight, when we should see if the rest got ashore ; or 
 possibly, as I wished to Heaven were the case, the schooner 
 might heave in sight. ' Where is Mr Jones, though ? ' asked 
 I ; on which I found he had gone over for the first time 
 towards the well for some water, as he told Mr Rollock. 
 Indeed, the passengers were settled near the thick of the 
 wood on this side of the watering-place, none of the India- 
 man's people seeming to know as yet there was such a thing 
 on the island. 
 
 " We each of us held our breath, and listened to hear Jones 
 come back. I was just on the point of leading my party that 
 way, when I caught the sound of some one panting, as it were 
 up the ridge from the shore, and next moment saw, to my 
 great surprise, it was the creature Jones had such a horror of 
 the dog that had run wild on the island, sniffing with his 
 nose to the ground as if he were in chase of something ; 
 while the straw hats and tarpaulins of half-a-dozen fellows 
 with ship's muskets and cutlasses followed him over the hill, 
 not thirty paces above us.
 
 A SEA STORY 431 
 
 " I signed to Jacobs to keep quiet, as they halted together, 
 looking at the dog ; and, from what I could catch of their 
 words, they had noticed it ever since sundown, sitting at the 
 foot of the hill watching what went on, till the animal ran 
 toward them as if they were friends, every now and then 
 turning and making for the heights with a bark and a 
 whimper, as it did at present. One of the men was Foster. 
 ' I tell ye what it is,' said he, ' there 's some fellow on the 
 island already, mates. If we ketch him, why, we'll have it 
 out of him then down with it quietly to the shore, and go 
 off in the long-boat, seeing as how this blasted fool of a 
 skipper of ours has spoiled our pleasure ! ' The dog turned 
 again, wagged his tail, and put his nose to the ground. I 
 thought at first he 'd bring them right upon us, when suddenly 
 he broke off with a yelp exactly into the track Jones had 
 taken with Mr Rollock on leaving us. The sailors kept away 
 in his wake, down through the bushes into the thick dusk of 
 the trees ; upon which the planter and I started to our feet 
 at once, and held cautiously after them, the five man-o'-war's- 
 men following at our heels, Indian file. 
 
 "Jones, however, had either heard the dog, or got an 
 inkling of the thing, and he had taken a long round so as to 
 join us from behind : the Indiaman's men keeping on for a 
 quarter of an hour or so, when they brought up again, seem- 
 ingly doubtful whether to follow the creature or not ; and we 
 dropped like one man into the shadow, till they made sail 
 once more. Soon after, the planter pointed to the trees where 
 the passengers were, and, on a sign from me, the whole of us 
 edged down to the spot, till we were standing within sight 
 of the half-finished fire, where the Judge's kitmagar was 
 sitting asleep, tailor-fashion, with his flat turban sunk to his 
 breast. One of the cadets stood down the slope a little, 
 betwixt that and the beach where the crew were, leaning 
 sleepily on his gun, and nodding, while in the midst was a 
 sort of shed, run up with branches and cocoa-nut leaves, 
 where you could see a glimpse of the different ladies' dresses, 
 young and old, asleep on the ground. 
 
 "The starlight fell right down into the opening, and 
 showed the glistening edges of the leaves, with the sea broad 
 out beyond the cocoas at the foot of the rising ground ; so 
 bidding Jones look out sharp, I stepped carefully through.
 
 432 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 My eye lighted at once on Sir Charles Hyde lying in one nook 
 of the shelter, wrapped up in his pilot-coat the first time in 
 the old gentleman's life for a good while, I daresay, that he 
 had passed his night on the ground, especially with such a lot 
 of berths taken up beside him. Still, he was sound enough at 
 the time, to judge by his breathing, trifle as it was to the 
 planter's ; and close by him was his daughter, with her cloak 
 drawn half over her head in the shadow her hair confused 
 about her cheek as it pressed white into the bundle of red 
 bunting she had for a pillow, and one hand keeping the cloak 
 fast at the neck, as if she dreamt of a stiff breeze. The sight 
 went to my heart, and so did the notion of waking her ; but I 
 heard sounds below on the beach, as if the rest of the crew 
 missed their shipmates, probably getting jealous after their 
 booze, and not unlikely to seek them up the island, so the 
 more it struck me there was no time to be lost in coming to 
 an understanding. Accordingly, I stooped down quietly, and 
 touched her on the shoulder. 
 
 " Violet Hyde opened her eyes at once, and looked at me ; 
 but whether it was the starlight showing my uniform, or her 
 fancying it was still the Indiaman in the Atlantic, in place of 
 crying out, why, there was almost a smile on her lips as she 
 saw me from the ground. Next moment, however, she drew 
 her hand across her eyelids, sat up with the help of the other 
 arm, and gazed on me in a bewildered way, naming me at 
 the same time below her breath. ' Yes, Miss Hyde ! ' I said 
 hastily ; and a few words served to give her a notion of the 
 case as well as to advise her to wake up the Judge, with the 
 rest of the ladies, and be ready to move the moment we came 
 back. My first thought was to take Foster's own plan, and 
 secure the long-boat, if we could only get betwixt the India- 
 man's crew and the water ; or even try our own, or the opposite 
 side of the island, and carry off the other boats to the wreck ; 
 after which we might keep off till the schooner appeared, as 
 she couldn't be long of doing in this weather. 
 
 " I had just stolen back to the men and Mr Rollock, when 
 all at once there was a wild cry, not twenty yards off, among 
 the brushwood. A heavy blow and a struggle, in the midst 
 of which three shots, one after the other, were heard from the 
 cadets ; next minute, with oaths and curses to the mast-head, 
 and a crash through amongst the branches in the dark, Foster
 
 A SEA STORY 433 
 
 and his shipmates came making for the opening. Something 
 horrible flashed through my mind as I fancied I had caught 
 Finch's voice, whether one way or the other I couldn't say, 
 for I had no thought at the time excepting for Violet. Shriek 
 upon shriek broke from the ladies ere I well knew I had big 
 Harry himself by the hairy throat of him, as he was aiming a 
 left-handed stroke of his cutlass at the Judge, who had sprung 
 betwixt him and his daughter. The strength of that ruffian 
 was wonderful, for he flung me off and levelled Sir Charles 
 Hyde at the same moment, the Judge's body tripping me. 
 
 " Jones and my own men, as well as the planter, were hard 
 at work with the other five desperate villains, while the 
 cadets and the second officer of the Seringapatam rushed in 
 from the trees all of it passing in half- a -minute. As I 
 started to my feet, Foster had lifted Violet Hyde in his arms, 
 and was dashing through the darkest of the wood with her 
 toward the hollow, when, just as I was hard upon him, doubly 
 to my horror, above all the screams of the ladies I could hear 
 the wild drunken shouts of the crew below coming up from 
 the beach like so many devils. Foster had got as far as the 
 next opening where the rubbish of the hut was, and, no doubt 
 catching the sound as well as myself, all at once he dropped 
 the young lady on the grass in a faint as she was, and her 
 white dress stained with blood, as I thought from herself. 
 * Now, ye ' shouted he, turning bolt round till her move- 
 less figure lay betwixt us, with a flourish of his cutlass, which 
 I fancied was bloody too, ' who are you ? You '11 have a dozen 
 on ye directly, but what's meat for the skipper's meat for 
 
 the passenger, so ' Devil ! ' said I, through my teeth, as 
 
 I edged round ; and Foster was in the very act of rushing at 
 me, whether he trod on her or not, when my voice or dress 
 seemed to strike him in the dusk. ' How the bloody comfort 
 did you -' said he, shrinking back for a moment ; ' so much 
 the better,' and he sprang forward again right upon me, with 
 a swinging boarder's blow at my head, which flashed off my 
 blade with a force enough to have shivered it, had it not been 
 a first-rate old cut-and-thrust I had tried pretty stiffly before. 
 If I hadn't been in such a fury of rage and a hurry at once, 
 'twould have been Harry's last nit ; but, at the third he made, 
 I caught him fair under it, the point going through and 
 through his body, as I thrust him back stride by stride his 
 
 2 E
 
 434. A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 cutlass waving fiercely all the time in the air clear of my head, 
 for the stroke came under his arm. The moment he fell, 
 though I knew nothing before that of where we were, there 
 was a heavy plunge ; I had nearly followed on top of him, as 
 he went head-foremost down the tank -well under the trees ; 
 but next moment, without a thought more to him in the heat 
 of the struggle, I was lifting Violet off the grass. What I did 
 or what I said, to see if she would revive, I don't really know ; 
 but I remember as well as if it were last night the very sound 
 of her voice as she told me she wasn't hurt. The affair in the 
 wood below us had suddenly ceased during these five or ten 
 minutes indeed, as I found afterwards, Jones and my party 
 had settled every one of the five, either altogether or for the 
 time ; but the uproar of more than twenty fierce voices could 
 be heard beyond them, cursing and yelling as they came 
 stumbling and crashing up amongst the brushwood in a body ; 
 while the ladies and their companions struggled up from all 
 sides toward the height, wild with terror. I met Sir Charles 
 Hyde hurrying to seek his daughter, however; and the 
 moment he had her in his arms, I rushed down, pistol in 
 hand, to join my men, who were standing firm below, as the 
 mutineers burst into the opening, no doubt with the notion 
 they had only the cadets to do with. 
 
 " ' Here, my lads ! ' I sang out ; ' make every man of them 
 prisoner down with 'em to the schooner ! ' And as I broke 
 suddenly through in the starlight in the midst of them, Jones, 
 Jacobs, the planter, and the other four man-o' -war's -men 
 sprang after me, one by one taking the cue, and shouting as 
 if to ever so many behind us, ' Here they are, shipmates this 
 way settle the blackguards ! ' In fact, the moment I appeared, 
 the gang of half-drunken fellows were taken aback. One of 
 them roared as if he saw the very devil ; and giving them no 
 time to think, we drove them scattering down toward the 
 beach. One of Foster's party, however, being only stunned, 
 had contrived to get down amongst them ; and in a little 
 while, seeing we didn't follow, the whole lot of them appeared 
 to get an inkling of the truth, on which they rallied. It 
 wasn't long ere I saw they had got desperate, and were plan- 
 ning to divide, and come somewhere over upon us round the 
 heights; so that, in the dark, with our small party, not 
 knowing their numbers, the best we could do was to gather
 
 A SEA STORY 435 
 
 up toward the peak, and secure the ladies. Accordingly, we 
 passed an uncomfortable enough time during the rest of the 
 night, till daybreak, when still no signs of the schooner, as 
 we saw in the clear to north-eastward. Frightful notions 
 came into my head of something having happened to her ; 
 the mutineers below were on both sides of the island, and 
 they held the watering-place. We hadn't provisions for a 
 single breakfast to half the party of us and the fellows being 
 now fairly in for it, they could starve us out if they chose. 
 You may conceive, accordingly, what a joyful sight met my 
 eyes, when, on the dusk lifting off to northward, we could see 
 the lovely craft under all sail not six miles off, bearing down 
 before a fresh breeze for the deep end of the island ! 
 
 " The wind had headed her off on her way back ; and, 
 knowing nothing of the wreck, Westwood might have landed 
 at the mercy of the villains in the bush. But the minute we 
 saw his boat out, the whole of us, save the Judge and the 
 planter, made a clean charge down upon them the schooner's 
 men joining us with the oars and boat-stretchers ; and in half- 
 an-hour the whole gang, having lost heart, were taken and 
 lashed fast by the wrists on-the beach, to a single man. 
 
 " On searching the watering - place during the day, we 
 found someone had covered the mouth of the tank with sticks 
 and leaves, through which Harry Foster had gone when he 
 fell. The stuff had fallen in over him ; and the well being 
 evidently made deep into the rock, to hold water the longer, 
 with the roots of the trees growing out into it, his body never 
 came up. Somehow or other, no one liked to sound it to 
 the bottom ; but the thing that horrified all of us the most 
 was to find Captain Finch himself lying quite dead amongst 
 the brushwood near where the passengers had pitched their 
 quarters, with a cut through his skull enough to have killed 
 an ox. It was supposed Foster had suddenly come upon him, 
 as he and his shipmates looked out for the hoard they thought 
 the pirates had in the island, while Finch was on guard over 
 the ladies. Whether the fellow took a new notion at the 
 moment, or what it was, the whole gang of them made their 
 rush upon the second mate and the cadets, the minute after 
 the captain met his death. 
 
 " As for Jones, he told me he had noticed the dog watching 
 the seamen below, and the idea got into his head of what
 
 436 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 might happen. There was that about the animal to give 
 one a dread you couldn't describe. How it had lived all this 
 time, and how the customs came back on it, after growing 
 perfectly wild, of carrying on like what it did that night, was 
 a mystery ; but Jones said he hadn't heard it bark before, 
 neither had the man he knew of, since the time he was first 
 left alone on White- water Island. In fact, the whole of us 
 might have hunted it down before we left. But ' No ! ' Jones 
 said ; ' there 's a perfect fiend in the brute, I do believe yet 
 it strikes me by this time, the creature belongs to to the 
 Almighty, sir ! ' The men and passengers had been taken off 
 the Indiaman's wreck, which there was no chance of getting 
 off the reef; so, taking out the best of her stores and the 
 passengers' property, we had every soul aboard the schooner, 
 and at last set sail to the south-east, meaning to go in at 
 Madras, where a sloop might be sent to recover more from the 
 ship. 'Twas with no ordinary state of things, from stem to 
 stern, that we dropped White-water Island astern. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 " "\T7"ELL, ma'am, the rest you may easily fancy. We made 
 Madras Roads, and there I expected to lose sight of 
 the Judge and his daughter again, as we did of most of the other 
 passengers ; but to my perfect delight Sir Charles preferred 
 carrying out the voyage on to Calcutta in the schooner, where 
 they had the after-cabins to themselves. The Indiaman's 
 crew I kept, prisoners and all, till we should meet the frigate 
 off the Sunderbunds. 
 
 "Just conceive standing up the hot Bay of Bengal with 
 flagging south-westerly breezes, shifting at times to a brisk 
 south-easter, or a squall, as we 've done ourselves this week. 
 The moon wasn't at the full then, of course, so we only had 
 it like a reaper's sickle in the dog-watches ; but it was fine 
 weather, and you may imagine one sometimes contrived, 
 betwixt Westwood and myself, to have Violet on the quarter- 
 deck of an evening without the Judge. Tom would step 
 forward suddenly to see a small pull taken on a sheet, and 
 Snelling knew pretty well not to walk aft of the capstan;
 
 A SEA STORY 437 
 
 so I could lean over the taffrail near her, and look at the 
 schooner's wake glimmering and sparkling up in the bubbles 
 astern. 
 
 " Then, to save trouble, you need but picture to yourselves 
 some such sort of a daybreak as we had this morning ; a cool 
 blue cloudless sky all aloft, dappled to eastward with a mighty 
 arch, as it were, of small white spots and flakes, as a perfect 
 sea of light flows up into it before the sun under the horizon, 
 and a pale slanting shaft of it seems to hang grey in the 
 yellow above him.* 
 
 "The sea heaves deep-blue and deeper blue under the 
 schooner ; the wide flock of small clouds burn from gold to 
 fire ; the slanting streak of light fades and vanishes, and the 
 sun comes up like a gush of flame sending a stream of 
 glittering radiance along the water to our starboard bow, 
 while it shows a long flat line of land far on the other beam. 
 The planter is smoking his first cheroot for the day at the 
 stern gratings, when we make out three or four faint points 
 over the streak of land shining like gold in the dawn ; while 
 at the same time three hazy pillars, as it were, are seen 
 standing up betwixt sea and sky, beyond the rippling blue in 
 the north-eastern board. 'Tis the spires of Juggernaut 
 pagoda on one side ; and as the brisk morning breeze drives 
 the water into short surges, till the schooner rises the ship 
 upon the other, all of a sudden she looms square and white 
 upon our starboard bow. As the hull lifted higher and higher 
 under her canvas, there was less doubt every few minutes of 
 her being a frigate ; and by the time Violet and her father 
 were standing together on the quarter-deck, the glorious old 
 Hebe was signalling us from her fore-royal-masthead, as she 
 kept close on a wind to cross our course. 
 
 " We spoke the pilot-brig that evening, took out the pilot, 
 and stood up into the mouth of the Hooghly with the night- 
 tide in the moonlight dropping the Hebe at Diamond 
 Harbour next day ; while Lord Frederick, and a Government 
 gentleman he had with him from St Helena, went up to 
 Calcutta with us in the schooner. The whole of the India- 
 man's late crew and officers were left in the frigate till further 
 notice, notwithstanding which we were pretty well crowded 
 
 * The zodiacal light, seen at sunrise and sunset.
 
 4S8 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 on our way up ; Westwood and I were glad of a couple of 
 hammocks in the half-deck ; and, in fact, I saw little more of 
 Violet Hyde till they went ashore opposite Fort William. 
 
 " In half-an-hour we were lying at anchor in the midst of 
 the crowd of Indiamen, country ships, Arab craft, and all 
 sorts of craft besides, stretching far up to the next reach ; 
 the long front of flat- topped buildings, with their green 
 Venetians and balustrades, shining white over the row of 
 trees on the right bank, like a string of palaces spreading 
 back through the huge mass of the city to the pale, hot 
 eastern sky a tall cocoa-nut tree or a sharp spire breaking it 
 here and there ; while the pile of Government House was to 
 be seen dotted with adjutant-birds; and the opposite shore 
 showed far off in a line of green jungle, faced by a few gay- 
 looking spots of bungalows. All the rest of the day Jones 
 busied himself seeing all made regular and ship-shape below 
 and aloft, till I began to think he had taken a fancy to the 
 schooner, and meant to go with her and the frigate to the 
 China seas. Next morning, however, as soon as breakfast 
 was over in the cabin, he came to me and said that, as there 
 was nothing more to be done at present aboard, according to 
 our agreement he would bid us good-bye. Nothing I could 
 say was of the least use, so at last I had to give it up. Having 
 little money about me, however, except in bills, and intending 
 to go ashore myself, I told him I should pay him his mate's 
 wages at once at a banker's in the town. By the time I 
 came on deck, Jones had hailed a dingey, and the native 
 boatman paddled us to the ghaut below the Sailors' Home 
 together. 
 
 " I had shaken hands with him, and stood watching him 
 from the bank verandah, as his manly figure, in the blue 
 jacket, white duck trousers, and straw hat, passed away down 
 Flag Street, stepping like a seaman fresh from blue water 
 through a stream of Hindoos in white muslin, Mussulman 
 servants, tall-capped Armenians, Danes, Frenchmen, China- 
 men, Arabs, and Parsees. Three or four Coolies with painted 
 umbrellas were shouting and scrambling in his way, mention- 
 ing their names, salaaming, and s'ahbing him to the nines ; a 
 couple of naked black boys were trying to brush his shoes in 
 the dust ; a tray of native sweetmeats seemed to be shoved 
 every now and then under his nose ; and two or three children
 
 A SEA STORY 439 
 
 with heads as big as pumpkins were stuck before him, their 
 mothers begging for ' Buckshish ! buckshish ! ' Jones held 
 on like a man accustomed to every sort of foreign scenes in 
 the world ; and, out of curiosity to see where he would go, 
 I followed him for a little towards the thick of the noise and 
 crowd, through Tank Square, where the water-carriers were 
 sprinkling the ground from the sheep-skins on their backs as 
 they walked, serpent-charmers and jugglers exhibiting, and a 
 dirty Fakir rolling at the corner in seeming agony, with a 
 crowd of liberty-men in Sunday toggery all round him. 
 
 "Jones looked up at the church steeping in the white 
 heat, and across the glare of light to the city beyond, stand- 
 ing like a man that didn't know what to do, or hadn't seen 
 Calcutta before ; then passed carelessly by the half-slued 
 sailors, who hailed him as if he were a ship. At length he 
 got to the turn of a street running into the native town, 
 where you caught a glimpse of it swarming this way and that 
 with turbans in the close overhanging bazaars. Some Hindoo 
 procession or other was coming along with tom-toms, gongs, 
 tambourines, and punkahs, sweeping on through a babel of 
 heathenish cries and songs ; a knot of dancing-girls, with red 
 flowers in their sleek black hair, could be seen in a hackery 
 drawn by two hump-backed bullocks ; and a white Brahmin 
 bull was poking its head amongst the heaps of fruit at a 
 stall ; whilst you heard a whole ship's crew hurrahing and 
 laughing amongst the confusion, as they drove along. Sud- 
 denly, I saw Jones hail a palanquin near him, and get in. 
 The four mud-coloured bearers took the pole of it on their 
 shoulders, fore and aft greasy-looking fellows, with ochre- 
 marks on their noses and foreheads, a tuft of hair tied back 
 on their heads like women, and as naked as they were born, 
 save the cloth round their middle and next moment away 
 they trotted, grunting and swinging the palanquin, till I 
 lost sight of them in the hubbub. 'Twas the last I saw of 
 Jones." 
 
 Here the captain stopped ; the Gloucester's crew were 
 getting the anchors off her forecastle to her bows for next 
 day, when the light-ship off the Sandheads was expected to 
 be seen ; and, from his manner and his silence together, he 
 evidently considered the yarn at an end. " That 's all then?"
 
 440 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 carelessly asked the surgeon, who was a chess-player, and 
 had heard only this part of the Captain's adventures, and the 
 first two, so that he appeared to perceive a slight want of 
 connection. "All?" was the unanimous voice of the lady 
 passengers, most of whom had been faithful listeners the 
 younger ones were obviously disappointed at something. 
 
 "Why, yes," said Captain Collins, with a look which might 
 be interpreted either as modest or " close " " the fact is, I 
 fancied the affair might serve to while away a single evening 
 or so, and here have I been yarning different nights all this 
 time ! 'Tis owing to my want of practice, no doubt, ma'am." 
 "Come, come," said the matron of the party, "you must 
 really give us some idea of a denouement. These girls of mine 
 won't be satisfied without it, Captain Collins ; they will think 
 it no story at all, otherwise ! " 
 
 " An end to it, you mean ? " answered he. " Why, ma'am, 
 if there were an end to it, it couldn't be a ' short ' yarn at 
 all that would be to finish and ' whip ' it, as we say, before 
 it 's long enough for the purpose : whereas, luckily, my life 
 hasn't got to a close yet." 
 
 "Oh!" said the lady, "no sea casuistry for us ; besides, 
 / am aware of the sequel, you know!" "Why, ma'am," 
 answered the Captain, looking up innocently, "it wasn't for 
 two years and a half afterwards that I I settled, you know ! 
 Do you mean me to tell you all that happened in that time, 
 about the Frenchman, and what befell the schooner in the 
 China seas ? 'twould last the voyage home ; but if you'll go 
 back with me, I 've no particular objection, now I 've got 
 into the way." 
 
 "No, no, my dear Captain," said the lady, "we have had 
 enough for the present of your nautical details I beg pardon 
 but tell us how you succeeded in " 
 
 " Well," interrupted the narrator, rather hastily, " 'twas 
 somewhat thus : I was at home at Croydon, being by that 
 time first lieutenant of the Hebe ; but she was just paid off. 
 One morning, at breakfast, the letter-bag from the village was 
 brought in as usual, my mother taking them out, reading off 
 all the addresses through her spectacles, while Jane made the 
 coffee. My mother handed Jane a ship-letter, which she put 
 somewhere in her dress, with a blush, so that I knew in a 
 moment it must be from Tom Westwood, who was in the
 
 A SEA STORY 441 
 
 Company's civil service in India, up-country. e None for me, 
 mother ? ' asked I eagerly ; for the fact was, I had got one or 
 two at different times, at Canton and the Cape of Good Hope, 
 during the two years. ' Yes, Ned,' said my mother, eyeing it 
 again and again, anxiously enough, as I thought; 'there is 
 but I fear it is some horrid thing from those Admirals ' the 
 Admiralty, she meant 'and they will be sending you off 
 immediately or a war, or something. Oh dear me, Ned/ 
 exclaimed the good woman, quite distressed, 'won't you do as 
 I wish you, and stay altogether ! ' By the Lord Harry ! when 
 I opened it, 'twas a letter from Lord Frederick Bury, who had 
 succeeded to his eldest brother's title while we were out, 
 saying he had the promise of a commandership for me, as 
 soon as a new brig for the West-India station was ready. ' I 
 shan't have to go for six or seven months at any rate, mother,' 
 said I, 'by which time I shall be confounded tired of the land, 
 / know!' She wanted me to buy a small estate near Croydon, 
 shoot, fish, and dig, I suppose ; while Jane said I ought to 
 marry, especially as she had a girl with money in her eye for 
 me. Still, they saw it was no use, and began to give it up. 
 
 "Why I never heard at all from a certain quarter, I 
 couldn't think. Till that time, in fact, I had been as sure of 
 her proving true as I was of breezes blowing ; but now I 
 couldn't help fancying all sorts of tyranny on the Judge's part 
 and her mother's, not to speak of Tom's uncle, the Councillor. 
 I went down the lane for the twentieth time, past the end 
 of the house they had lived in, where the windows had been 
 shuttered up and the gates close ever since I came. All of a 
 sudden, this time, I saw there were workmen about the place, 
 the windows open, and two servants washing down the yellow 
 wheels of a travelling-carriage. I made straight back for our 
 house, went up to Jane, who was at her piano in the drawing- 
 room, and asked, quite out of breath, mho was come to the 
 house over the park behind us. ' Did you not know that old 
 Nabob was coming back from India ? ' said Jane. ' His face 
 was getting too yellow, I suppose ; and, besides, his wife is 
 dead from his crossness, no doubt. But the young lady is an 
 heiress, Ned, and as I meant to tell you, from good authority ' 
 here the sly creature looked away into her music ' passion- 
 ately fond of the sea, which means, you know, of naval officers.' 
 ' The devil she is, Jane ! ' I broke out ; ' what did Westwood 
 
 2 F
 
 442 A NAVAL LIEUTENANT 
 
 mean by that ? but when are they coming, for Heaven's sake ? ' 
 ' Why,' said Jane, ' I believe, from what I heard our gardener 
 say, they arrived last night.' ' Then, by Jove, my dear girl ! ' 
 said I, ' I '11 tell you a secret and mind, I count on you ! ' 
 
 " My little sister was all alive in a moment, ran to the door 
 and shut it, then settled herself on the sofa to hear what I 
 had to say, as eagerly as you please. So I told her what the 
 whole matter was, with the state of things when we left 
 Calcutta. Jane seemed to reckon the affair as clear as a die ; 
 and you 've no notion what a lot of new ropes she put me up 
 to in a concern of the kind, as well as ways to carry it out 
 ship-shape to the end, in spite of the Judge or else to 
 smooth him over. 
 
 " The long and short of it was, I didn't leave till about 
 seven months after, when the Ferret was put in commission ; 
 but by that time it was all smooth sailing before me. The 
 Judge had got wonderfully softened ; and you may be sure, I 
 continued to see Violet Hyde pretty often before I went to 
 sea. You 'd scarce believe it, but, after that twelve months' 
 cruise, I actually didn't leave the land for two years, which I 
 did owing to the chance I had of seeing sharp service in the 
 Burmese war, up the rivers, while General Campbell had 
 tough work with them inland. So that 's all I can say, 
 ma'am ! " 
 
 " Very good, sir ! " was tne surgeon's cool remark. " And, 
 in fact, sir, I fancy if every one of us were to commence telling 
 his whole life over, with everything that happened to him and 
 his friends, he must stop short somewhere however long it 
 might be ! " The Captain smiled ; they sat on the poop 
 talking for awhile, sometimes saying nothing, but watching 
 the last night at sea. 
 
 The pilot-brig is spoken to windward next morning, even 
 while the deep-sea lead-line is being hove to sound the bottom. 
 Falling sudden from the foreyard, the weight takes the long 
 line from hand after hand back to the gangway, till it trembles 
 against the ground. 'Tis drawn up slowly, the wet coil secured, 
 and the bottom of the lead showing its little hollow filled with 
 signs of earth " Grey sand and shells ! " They stand on till 
 the pilot is on board, the low land lifts and lengthens before 
 the ship ; but the flow of the tide has yet to come, and take
 
 A SEA STORY 443 
 
 them safely up amongst the winding shoals into the Indian 
 river's mouth. A new land, and the thoughts of strange new 
 life, the gorgeous sights and fantastic realities of the mighty 
 country of the Mogul and Rajahs, crowd before them after the 
 wide solitary sea. The story is already all but forgotten. 
 
 AND THE ANCHOR IS LET GO ! 
 
 THE END.
 
 BOOKS 
 
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