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The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

by Harry Collingwood · English · Gutenberg #25818 · 453,091 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The First Mate: The Story of a Strange Cruise

Author: Harry Collingwood

Illustrator: E. S. Hodgson


        
Release date: June 17, 2008 [eBook #25818]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25818

Credits: Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRST MATE: THE STORY OF A STRANGE CRUISE ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




The First Mate, by Harry Collingwood.

________________________________________________________________________
The hero of this story is Walter Leigh, who takes a job as second mate
aboard a gasoline-powered yacht owned by a Mrs Vansittart, whose
husband is an American industrialist.  Julius Vansittart is a rather
nasty 12-year-old, who, despite his life being saved by Leigh, when he
had fallen overboard, hates the English, and never misses an opportunity
of being as unpleasant as possible, even to the point of stupidity.

There are numerous disasters in this story, with the First Mate's death
occurring soon after the start of the book, and Leigh's promotion to the
position.  After that there are an attack by pirates, a shipwreck, an
attack by hostile natives, all of which Leigh does his best to cope
with.  Eventually even the dreadful Julius becomes a bit more civilised,
and apologises for his bad behaviour hitherto.

They drop a large number of floating messages asking for help, into the
sea, and eventually they are rescued.  This is not a very long book,
taking only 8.5 hours to read as an audiobook.

________________________________________________________________________
THE FIRST MATE, BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD.



CHAPTER ONE.

THE "STELLA MARIS" AND MRS VANSITTART.

"Well, young man, what do you think of her?"

The question was addressed to me in a very pleasantly modulated female
voice, carrying just the slightest suspicion of an American accent.  For
the fraction of a second I was a wee bit startled.  I had not had the
ghost of a suspicion that anyone was nearer me than the gang of
labourers who were busily engaged in unloading a big delivery wagon and
transferring the contents, in the shape of numerous packing cases, to
the deck of the vessel which I was scrutinising.  It was afternoon of a
grey day in the latter part of October three years ago; and the scene
was one of the wharves of the east basin of the London Docks, round
which I had been prowling in search of a ship.  I had been thus engaged
ever since nine o'clock that morning, interviewing skippers and mates,
so far unsuccessfully, when I was "brought up all standing" by finding
myself in close proximity to a white-hulled, ship-rigged craft of, I
estimated, some two thousand five hundred tons measurement.

She was steel-built, with steel lower masts, bowsprit, and lower and
topsail yards; and even if she had not been sporting the ensign of the
New York Yacht Club at her ensign staff and its burgee at her main
royal-mast-head, I should still have known her for a yacht from the
perfection of her lines, the dainty and exquisite beauty of her shape,
the whiteness of her decks (notwithstanding their somewhat littered
condition), the beautiful modelling of her boats, her polished teak
rails, and generally the high finish and perfect cleanliness of her deck
fittings.  She was as heavily rigged as a frigate; moreover, although no
guns were visible, I observed that her main-deck bulwarks were pierced
with six ports of a side, in the wake of which steel racers were bolted
to the deck; also she sported hammock rails, which I had never seen
before except in pictures of old-fashioned wooden men-o'-war.  A gilt
cable moulding ornamented her sheer strake; a beautifully carved and
gilded full-length figure of a woman wearing a star of cut-glass facets
on her forehead formed her figurehead; and her quarters were adorned
with a considerable amount of gilded scroll-work.  Her elliptical stern
bore, in large gilded block letters, the words: Stella Maris.  New York.

As the enquiry with which I have opened this story reached my ears, I
wheeled round and found myself face to face with a little lady.  She was
very richly dressed in silk and furs, quite colourless as to complexion,
but with a fine pair of deep violet eyes and a quantity of dark chestnut
hair loosely coiled under an immense hat rigged with black ostrich
plumes.  I put her down in my own mind as being something over
thirty-six years of age, and I subsequently learned that I was not very
far out.

Her eyes were dancing with amusement as I wheeled sharply round upon
her; and as my hand went up to my cap she laughed a low, musical laugh.

"Guess I startled you some, didn't I?" she remarked in that pleasant
voice of hers.  "You were so completely absorbed by the charms of
_Stella Maris_ that you had neither eyes nor ears for anybody else.
Well, what do you think of her?"

I was bareheaded by this time, but still a trifle confused at the
suddenness and unconventionality of my companion's address; yet I
quickly recovered my equanimity.

"She is the most lovely craft I ever set eyes on, bar none," I answered
with enthusiasm.

"Yes, she is a real daisy," agreed my companion.  "Do you know what she
is?"

"I know what she ought to be," I said; "and that is, flagship of the
Club.  But I see by her burgee that she is merely the property of one of
its members."

"That is so," returned the lady; "but I guess it's good enough.  Say,
would you like to go aboard and have a look at her from inside?"

"Indeed I should, if her owner would not--"

I hesitated.

"Well, come along, then," cut in my companion.  "I'm the owner, and I
promise you that I won't."

So saying, my strange acquaintance led the way to a narrow gang plank
stretching from the wharf to the ship's poop.  Laughingly declining my
proffered assistance, she tripped lightly along it, and as lightly
sprang down upon the deck of narrow planking paid with white-lead
instead of the more usual pitch.

Allowing me a few moments to look round, my companion presently led me
forward to the break of the poop, where, standing at the head of one of
the ladders leading down to the main-deck, I obtained a view of the
whole length of the ship.  The first thing to attract my attention was
the wheelhouse, a teak structure raised upon massive steel standards,
lofty enough to allow the helmsman a clear view ahead and astern.

Some ten feet ahead of it was the after hatchway, the coamings of which
stood about eighteen inches high, and, like those aboard a man-o'-war,
were protected by rails and stanchions.  The hatchway was open, and
there was a ladder leading down through it.  Just beyond this was the
mainmast; a little way forward of which was the main-hatch, also open,
and, like the other, protected by rails and stanchions.  Beyond this
hatchway there stood, in chocks, a fine powerful screw launch, about
forty feet long by ten feet beam; and just ahead of her rose the
foremast.  Before the foremast gaped the fore-hatchway, also open; then
came a handsome capstan; and ahead of it, leaving just comfortable room
to work, rose the bulkhead of the turtle-back topgallant forecastle.  In
addition to the launch, the vessel carried four other boats in davits,
namely, two cutters, some thirty-five feet long, and two whaler gigs,
each about twenty-five feet long.

My companion--or hostess, rather, I suppose I ought to call her--allowed
me to stand about five minutes at the break of the poop, as I ran my eye
over the deck and noted, with many approving comments, the various items
that especially appealed to me.  Then she invited me to accompany her
below.

I will spare the reader a detailed description of the apartments--I
cannot call them cabins--to which I was now conducted; suffice it to say
that, in their several ways, they were a combination of magnificence,
luxury, and comfort that seemed to me almost incredible, remembering
that I was aboard a ship.

Having duly expressed my admiration for these truly beautiful and
luxurious apartments, I was shown two other but much smaller rooms, one
on either side of the companion stairway.  These two rooms occupied the
extreme fore end of the poop, and could be entered from the main-deck as
well as from the vestibule.  The one on the starboard side was the
chart-room, and was fitted up with a bookshelf crammed with nautical
works of various descriptions, a table large enough to spread a good big
chart upon, a cabinet in which reposed a complete set of the most
recently published charts, a case containing no less than four
chronometers, and a cupboard wherein were securely packed a whole
battery of sextants and other instruments.  The corresponding room on
the port side was fitted up as a writing room, and here the log slate
was kept and the logbook written up from time to time.  Here also the
ship's clock and a very fine aneroid barometer were securely bolted to
the bulkhead, side by side, in such a position that they could be seen
from outside by merely glancing through the window.  And near them, hung
in gimbals from a long bracket, was a very fine Fitzroy mercurial
barometer.

My hostess seemed genuinely gratified at the admiration which I freely
expressed, especially for the noble array of charts and nautical
instruments; these, to be quite candid, appealing to me even more
strongly than the sumptuous elegance of the drawing and dining-rooms.
She smiled brightly as I expatiated with enthusiasm upon these matters,
and when at length I paused, she said:

"Now let us go below, and I will show you the officers' and men's
quarters."

We descended from the vestibule by way of a staircase at the back of the
main companion, and presently entered the wardroom, which adjoined the
dining-room, but was only about half its size.  This was the living-room
of the executive officers of the ship, and was a very fine, comfortable
room, although, of course, its fittings and furnishings were much less
sumptuous than those belonging exclusively to the owner.

On the side of the ship opposite the wardroom, and with a good wide
passage between the two, was the block of officers' cabins, the comfort
and convenience of which left nothing to be desired.  Next came the
petty officers' berthage, of which the same may be said, although, as
was to be expected, the space here was rather more restricted, and the
fittings somewhat plainer than in those of the other officers.

Next came the kitchen--it would be an outrage to dub such a place a
"galley"--and forward of it again came the men's quarters, a great, airy
place, well-lighted by scuttles in the ship's sides, with sleeping
accommodation for eighty men.  This consisted of two tiers of hammocks,
forty hammocks on either side of the room, their head-clews suspended
from hooks bolted to the sides of the ship; while the foot-clews were
secured to steel stanchions hinged to the deck above, and so arranged
that they could be triced up out of the way when required, leaving ample
room for the men's mess tables.

I very willingly and very fully expressed my admiration for everything
shown me, not only because all was well worthy of admiration, but also
because I saw that it gratified my hostess, who explained to me that she
had planned everything herself.

At length my inspection of the beautiful and wonderful ship came to an
end.  As we ascended to the deck by way of the fore-hatch ladder my
hostess remarked:

"There!  I guess that's all there is to show.  And,"--glancing at an
elegant little watch which she wore attached to a bracelet--"my stars,
if it ain't just five o'clock!  I want my tea.  Do you drink tea, young
man?"

"I should really enjoy a cup of tea, madam, if you would be so kind as
to offer me one," I said.

"Are you a teetotaller, then?" the lady asked.

"Well, no; hardly that," I replied.  "That is to say, I have never
formally forsworn intoxicants; but I very rarely take them--never,
indeed, I may say, except when I have been exposed for several hours to
extreme cold, or have been wet to the skin, or something of that kind.
Even then I am inclined to think a cup of scalding hot coffee really
does one more good."

"Well, I guess you're as nearly right as makes no matter," returned my
hostess.  "Now, just you come into my drawing-room, and I'll give you a
cup of real good tea.  Ah! there is Lizette, my chief stewardess.  I
guess she is looking for me to tell me that tea is served, so come
along."

The lady was right in her surmise, for the trig, decidedly pretty, and
exceedingly capable-looking young woman, in a black dress, with white
cap and apron, who at that moment stepped out on deck, came forward and
duly made the anticipated announcement.

It was a distinctly novel experience for me to find myself seated in
that elegant apartment, drinking the most delicious tea I had ever
tasted out of a hand-painted cup of china which I knew must be worth its
weight in gold, munching cakes and biscuits of wonderful flavour, and
being treated quite as an equal by this smartly dressed and vivacious
American lady.  Not the least of her charms was that she had the knack
of putting one absolutely at one's ease; and presently she began to
question me about myself.

"I guess I don't know now whether I've done you any kindness in inviting
you aboard to see over the _Stella Maris_," she said.  "I reckon your
own ship will seem a bit dowdy in comparison, won't she?"

"I am sure she will--when I find her," I replied.  "Unfortunately, I
haven't a ship just now; indeed, I had been prowling round the docks all
day looking for one when the sight of your yacht brought me up all
standing.  I love a pretty ship, and anxious though I am to get another
berth, I could not deny myself the pleasure of taking a good look at
her."

"Y-e-s," my companion agreed; "I can understand that feeling and
sympathise with it too.  There's nothing made by the hand of man that I
admire more than a handsome ship.  And so you're out of a berth, Mr--"

"Leigh," I supplied; "Walter Leigh, at your service, madam."

"Thank you!" she answered.  "Any relation to the Lees of Virginia?"

"No," I said, "I am afraid not.  I am a Leigh of Devon, you know--
L-e-i-g-h, not L double e."

"I see," she responded.  "Well, Mr Leigh, if it's not a rude question
to ask, how do you come to be out of employment?"

"Not through any misconduct of mine, I am happy to say," I answered.
"The way of it is this.  The City line of ships--the line in which I
served and have only recently completed my apprenticeship--is
amalgamating with, or, rather, is being absorbed by, the firm of Hepburn
Brothers, the one-time rivals of the City line.  Hepburns are, of
course, taking over many of the City officers, as well as the ships.
But Mr Clayton, Hepburns' present manager, was once master of a City
liner in which I was serving; and--well, something happened which caused
Clayton to lose his berth, and unfortunately for me it was through me
that the matter came to light.  Consequently, now that Clayton has the
chance to do me a bad turn, he is doing it by refusing to take me on
with the new firm."

"Is that so?  Well, I call that real mean," exclaimed my hostess, in
accents of indignation.  "And is that the reason why you have not been
able to get other employment?"

"Oh, no!"  I said, "excepting, of course, so far as Hepburn Brothers are
concerned.  My failure to-day arises simply from the fact that none of
the skippers I have spoken to happen to have any vacancies."

"Nothing wrong with your discharge, I suppose?"

"Nothing whatever," I answered, whipping the document out of my pocket
and handing it to her.

She read it carefully and handed it back.

"Thank you!" she said.  "I guess that looks all right.  How old are you,
Mr Leigh?"

"I shall be eighteen on the ninth of next December," I replied,
beginning now to wonder whether this questioning was likely to lead to
anything, or whether it was merely the result of kindly curiosity on the
part of my hostess.

"Eighteen!" she exclaimed.  "Well, I declare to goodness I'd have said
you were at least three years older, if I'd been asked to guess.  Only
eighteen!  And what kind of a berth have you been looking for, may I
ask?"

"Well," I said, "I had it in my mind to get into some big craft as third
mate, if I could find an opening.  It would afford me a chance to work
up for my ticket, which I am naturally anxious to obtain as soon as
possible."

"Sure," she agreed.  "And do you know anything about navigation?  But I
guess you do, by the way that you looked at those charts and instruments
just now."

"Oh, yes!"  I said; "I rather fancy myself as a navigator.  Navigation
is quite a hobby of mine."

"Tell me how much you know," she said.  "I'm something of a navigator
myself.  In fact, Mr Leigh, I am one of the few women who hold a
master's certificate and are qualified to take command of a ship sailing
to any part of the world.  I am captain of this yacht, in fact as well
as in name; I brought her across from New York to the Nore without the
ghost of a hitch, and I guess I can take her the rest of the trip round
the world, upon which we are bound.  Now, go ahead and tell me what you
know about navigation."

I named the several problems in navigation, one or more of which I had
been accustomed to practise daily and nightly under my late skipper; and
the lady was graciously pleased to express her cordial approval of my
knowledge.

"Yes," she said; "if you can do all those things I guess you are pretty
good--quite as good, in fact, as Neil Kennedy, my chief officer, and he
is no slouch as a navigator.  Now, Mr Leigh, I have not been putting
you through your facings just out of sheer feminine curiosity; I've been
doing it with a purpose.  I am Mrs Cornelia Vansittart, wife of Julius
Vansittart of New York, engineer, the inventor of the Vansittart
gasoline engine.  I am passionately fond of yachting, so my husband made
me a present of the _Stella Maris_, and consented to my making a voyage
in her round the world.  She is a good ship, and I have a good crew; but
I have only two mates, and Kennedy says that in a ship of this size, and
on such a cruise as we are contemplating, I ought to have a third.  At
first I didn't propose to do anything of the kind, for I don't like
being told by anybody what I ought to do, or to have; but somehow, when
I saw you lost in admiration of my ship, I sort of took a fancy to you.
I like the look of you, and thought that if I must have a third mate,
I'd like one something like you; so I invited you to come aboard, that I
might have a chance to talk to you and find out if you came up to
sample.  I mean to have a good time this trip, and I mean that my
officers and crew shall have a good time too, if it rests with me.  I've
taken a whole lot of trouble to pick the right sort of men to man this
ship, and I've come to the conclusion that you are the right sort.  So
if you care to accept the position I am ready to ship you as third mate
of the _Stella Maris_.  The pay is thirty per, with all found, uniforms
included.  Now, what do you say?"

I had a sufficient knowledge of American colloquialisms to be aware that
the expression "thirty per" meant thirty dollars--or six pounds--per
month, which was considerably better than I had hoped for, or was at all
likely to get elsewhere.  I liked the ship, and I was immensely taken
with my prospective new skipper; therefore I at once unhesitatingly and
gratefully accepted the offer.

I was then gracefully dismissed, with instructions to be prepared to
"sign on" at eleven o'clock on the morrow, and to have my dunnage aboard
not later than noon, since the yacht would haul out of dock and proceed
down the river early in the afternoon.

I had taken my leave of Mrs Vansittart, and was already out on deck on
my way to the gangway, when the lady rushed after me and called upon me
to stop, exclaiming:

"Sakes alive! what's come over me?  I declare to goodness I clean forgot
that you haven't yet been measured for your uniforms.  Colson,"--to one
of the seamen who were engaged in striking packing cases down
below--"pass the word for Mr Grimwood, please.  Mr Grimwood," she
explained, "is the purser.  I'll turn you over to him, and he will take
you to the tailor, who will soon rig you out."

A shout down the after hatchway resulted in Mr Grimwood's prompt
appearance on deck, and to him I was in due form introduced.

"Mr Grimwood," said Mrs Vansittart, "this is Mr Walter Leigh--
L-e-i-g-h, you know--who will sign on at eleven o'clock to-morrow
morning as third mate of this ship.  I want you to take him below to
Snip, who will measure him for his uniforms.  Please tell Snip to
arrange things so that Mr Leigh's working uniform shall be ready for
him by noon.  When you have done that, have the goodness to assign a
cabin to Mr Leigh; and at the same time I'd like you to introduce him
to the rest of the wardroom officers.  You'll see to that?  Thank you!
Once more, good afternoon, Mr Leigh!"

As the lady turned and left us, Grimwood chuckled.

"So the skipper's taken Kennedy's advice, after all, to ship a third
mate," he remarked.  "Guess he's put one over Briscoe this time, anyway.
Briscoe's our `second', you know, and he bet Kennedy that he couldn't
persuade Mrs Vansittart to ship a `third'.  Kennedy'll be a bit set up
when he hears the news, because, between you and me, he doesn't take
overmuch stock in Briscoe, and has held all along that we ought to have
a third mate to take his place if necessary.  Oh, yes, Briscoe's all
right, so far as he goes; but he doesn't go far enough.  He's not
exactly the right sort of man for a ship of this kind, and I think that,
for once in a way, Mrs Vansittart made a mistake when she picked him.
But I guess you'd better not take too much notice of what I say; I don't
want to prejudice you against him."

We found Snip--by the way, that was the tailor's actual name, and not a
nickname, as I had at first imagined--comfortably ensconced in a little,
well-lighted workroom under the topgallant forecastle.  He quickly took
my measure, promising, somewhat to my amazement, to have my working
uniform ready for me to try on as early on the following morning as I
chose to come aboard--the earlier the better, he assured me.  This
matter settled, the purser--to whom I took an immediate liking--led me
aft and down below to the wardroom, where we found Mr Neil Kennedy, the
chief officer, Mr Alexander Mackenzie, the chief engineer, and Doctor
Stephen Harper, the ship's medico, chatting and smoking together.  To
these I was introduced by Grimwood; and I was at once admitted as a
member of the fraternity with much cordiality.

I liked those three men immensely.  Neil Kennedy was a huge man,
standing six feet three in his socks, as I afterwards learned, and being
bulky in proportion, was the sort of man that a "hazing" skipper would
at once have singled out as eminently suited to keep a refractory crew
in order and get the last ounce of work out of the laziest skulker.  But
it happened that Kennedy was not that sort of man at all.  Although
admirably fitted by Nature for the part, he was not the typical
quarterdeck tyrant and bully, but a genial, merry, great-hearted
Irish-American of the very best stamp.  He could, however, if occasion
demanded it, display a sternness and severity of manner well calculated
to subdue the most recklessly insubordinate of mariners.  His voice was
like the bellow of a bull, and could be heard from the taffrail to the
flying jib-boom end in anything short of a full-grown hurricane.

The doctor was quite another type of man--tall, lean, clean-shaven,
slightly bald, with a pair of piercing black eyes that seemed to look a
man through and through.  Possessed of a quiet, well-modulated and
cultured voice, and a deliberate yet firm manner of speaking, he was
apparently a man of high attainments, and unmistakably a gentleman.

As for Mackenzie, the chief engineer, he was but a trifle less
formidable in appearance than Kennedy--red-haired, with a shaggy red
beard and moustache, the former of which he had a trick of pushing up
over his mouth and nose when he was meditating deeply, and immense hands
as hairy as a monkey's.  He was apparently between forty and fifty years
of age, and had been domiciled in America for the last twenty years,
which he had spent in Mr Vansittart's workshops, but his accent was as
broad as though he had just come straight from Glasgow.  He happened to
make some passing reference to a certain Mackintosh as being busy with
"the engines down below"; and when I enquired with some surprise what
engines he referred to, he exclaimed:

"Hoots, laddie!  D'ye no' ken that we're an auxiliary-screw, then?"

"Auxiliary-screw!"  I ejaculated.  "No, certainly not.  I had a good
look at the craft before I came aboard, but I saw no sign of a
propeller.  And besides, where is your funnel?"

"Funnel, man!" he retorted.  "We ha'e no need o' a funnel.  Our engines
are operated by gasoline, and we ha'e ane o' twa hunner and feefty
horse-power, giving the ship a speed o' seven knots, forbye anither ane
o' a hunner and feefty to drive the dynamos and work the capstan and
winches.  Man, I tell ye this bonnie boat is richt up-to-date, and dinna
forget it.  As to the propeller, naiturally ye wadna see't, the watter
bein' sae thick."

At Kennedy's pressing invitation I remained aboard to dine, and
incidentally to be introduced to the remaining members of the wardroom
mess--Mr Samuel Briscoe, the second officer, and Mr Robert Mackintosh,
the second engineer.  Before the meal was over I had come to agree with
the purser that in selecting Briscoe for her second officer Mrs
Vansittart had not been quite so happily inspired as in the case of the
other members of the mess.  He was a pasty-faced fellow of about forty
years of age, baggy under his watery-looking, almost colourless blue
eyes, slow in his movements, glum and churlish of manner, and unpolished
of speech; also I had a suspicion that he was more addicted to drink
than was at all desirable in a man occupying such a responsible position
in such a ship.  He would doubtless have done well enough as "dicky" in
an ordinary wind-jammer, but on the quarterdeck of such a craft as the
_Stella Maris_ I considered he was distinctly out of place.

During the progress of the meal I learned that, as I had already
suspected, the yacht was a brand-new ship, this being her first voyage.
Her exact measurement, it appeared, was two thousand six hundred and
seventeen tons.  She had originated in the office of Herreshoff, the
world-famous yacht designer, and embraced in her construction every last
refinement known to the most up-to-date naval constructor.  She had been
built to the order of Mr Julius Vansittart, the multi-millionaire
engineer and steel magnate, as a birthday present to his wife.  Mrs
Vansittart's passion was yachting, and she was wont to knock about New
York Bay, the Hudson River, and Long Island Sound, with occasional
adventurous stretches down the coast as far as Delaware Bay, or even to
Baltimore, in a sturdy little ten-ton sloop, the while she studied
seamanship and navigation and Mr Vansittart attended to his business.

I further learned that the lady's boast to me, that she was captain of
the yacht in fact as well as in name, was literally true, she having not
only picked and shipped the entire crew, officers as well as men, but
taken command of the ship when the pilot left her, and sailed and
navigated her across the Atlantic and up the English Channel with no
more assistance from her officers than a shipmaster usually receives.

"I tell you, sor, it's a treat to see her put this ship about, blow
high, blow low," Kennedy remarked admiringly; "though how the mischief
she learned the way to handle a square-rigger it puzzles the sowl of me
to know."

It transpired that Mrs Vansittart was accompanied on this trip by her
daughter Anthea, aged sixteen--"as bonnie a lassie as you e'er set eyes
upon," Mackintosh interjected--and her son Julius, a lad of twelve--"and
thoroughly spoiled at that, more's the pity," the doctor added.  There
was also a certain Reverend Henry James Monroe, M.A., a middle-aged,
refined, and very scholarly man, who served in the dual capacity of
chaplain of the ship and tutor to the aforesaid Julius.  He was one of
the saloon party, and was held in the highest honour and respect by Mrs
Vansittart, who deferred to his opinion in all things save in the matter
of discipline where her darling boy was concerned.  I also learned that
the yacht was manned by a crew of no less than eighty seamen, every one
of whom was rated as A.B.; so that, with the saloon party, officers,
petty officers, stewards, and stewardesses, we should make the
respectable muster of one hundred and eight all told when we went to sea
on the morrow.



CHAPTER TWO.

WE GO TO SEA.

It was past nine o'clock, and a cold, dreary night, with a drizzle of
rain, when at length I quitted the hospitable wardroom of the yacht and
wended my way back to my rather frowsy lodging in Nightingale Lane.
Arrived there, I forthwith proceeded to write a letter to my mother,
whose home was in the picturesque little village of Newton Ferrers, near
Plymouth, informing her of my good fortune in having secured so
satisfactory a berth, and explaining my inability to run down and see
her before my departure owing to the fact that we were to sail on the
following day.  Then, having posted my letter, I got my few traps
together, bundled them all into my sea chest, and turned in to take my
last sleep on English soil for many a long day to come.

I was up and astir again by seven o'clock the next morning, my first
move being to go along to the yacht and interview Snip, the tailor, in
accordance with my arrangement of the previous evening.  To my
amazement, I found that the man, with characteristic American "hustle",
had got my working suit of uniform far enough advanced for me to try it
on.  The cut and fit proved to be everything: that could be desired, and
I was faithfully promised that the suit should be ready for me to don
upon joining the ship after signing articles.

In keeping with our pretensions to be a "swagger" ship and crew, the
wardroom mess took lunch, instead of dinner, at one o'clock, dining at
seven o'clock in the evening.  This was the hour adopted by the saloon
party, who, I learned, were regularly reinforced by one or more members
of the wardroom contingent, by special invitation from Mrs Vansittart.

It was just two o'clock in the afternoon when the boatswain piped "All
hands unmoor ship"; and by half-past two we were through the dock gates
and heading down the river, impelled by our own engine.

Bearing out what Kennedy and the others had already told me as to Mrs
Vansittart being the actual as well as nominal captain of the yacht, at
the call of "All hands" the lady had appeared on deck.  She was arrayed
in an exceedingly neat and workmanlike costume of navy-blue serge, the
jacket of which was fastened with gilt buttons bearing the insignia of
the New York Yacht Club, the cuffs being adorned with four rows of gold
braid, the top row showing the "executive curl", while her smartly
dressed chestnut hair was surmounted by a navy cap of the most approved
pattern, the peak edged with the usual trimming of a wreath of oak
leaves embroidered in gold thread, while the front of the cap bore the
New York Yacht Club badge.

True, she did not give her orders respecting the unmooring of the ship
directly to the crew, as this would probably have resulted in unduly
straining her voice, singularly sweet and pure in quality, of which, as
I subsequently discovered, she was very justly proud.  She gave her
orders to Kennedy, who acted as her _aide_ and repeated them in
trumpet-like notes that could be distinctly heard all over the ship.

It was then, while we were hauling out of dock, that I got my first
glimpse of Miss Anthea, Master Julius, and the Reverend Henry James
Monroe, all of whom came on deck to witness the passage of the ship
through the dock gates and down the river.  I was stationed in the
waist, and therefore only obtained at that moment a comparatively
distant glimpse of the saloon party on the poop, but even that sufficed
to confirm the testimony of the second engineer as to Miss Anthea's
physical charms.  But I did not altogether like her expression, which
was a blank, save for a hint of hauteur mingled with dissatisfaction at
things in general.

Her brother was so exactly like her in features that the two might have
been twins, but he was a good three inches shorter than his sister, as
well as a trifle thinner in the face.  He talked incessantly in a sharp,
high-pitched, and most unmusical voice, the unattractiveness of which
was further heightened by a pronounced nasal American accent.  From such
scraps of his conversation as reached me from time to time I gathered
that his talk was almost wholly about himself, his doings, his opinions,
his likes and dislikes--chiefly the latter.  I liked his expression even
less than that of his sister.  It was a most objectionable mingling of
peevishness, insolence, and self-assurance; while his manner, even to
his mother, was domineering and dictatorial to a perfectly disgusting
degree.  There was no doubt in my mind that he had been thoroughly
spoiled from the moment of his birth onward, and the process was still
going on, if I was anything of a judge of such matters.

As regards the Reverend Mr Monroe, all I need say about him at this
juncture was that he appeared to answer in every respect to the verbal
portrait that had been drawn of him in the wardroom during the preceding
evening.

Shortly after we had cleared the dock gates I got a message from Snip
requesting me to present myself in his workshop as early as possible to
try on my mess jacket and waistcoat; which, like the new rig I had
donned little more than an hour earlier, I found fitted me excellently.
I was promised that the entire suit should be ready for me in time for
mess that night (it appeared that everything was done in tip-top style
aboard the _Stella Maris)_.

About five o'clock, Marsh, the chief steward, presented himself with a
message from Mrs Vansittart, requesting the pleasure of my company at
dinner at seven o'clock, which invitation I of course accepted, as in
duty bound.

We were just abreast the eastern extremity of Canvey Island when the
second bugle call sounded for dinner.  I was by that time dressed and
quite ready, and joined Kennedy, who had also been invited; and together
we repaired to the drawing-room, where Mrs Vansittart, gorgeously
attired and wearing many diamonds, very graciously received us and then
proceeded to introduce me in due form to the parson, her daughter, and
her son.

As regards the parson, I need only say that his manner was everything
that the most fastidious person could possibly desire.  He was a
gentleman, in the highest sense of that often misused term; and although
his conversation subsequently, during dinner, evidenced that he was a
most erudite and finished scholar, there was nothing of the pedant about
him.  Information exuded from him naturally and simply because he could
not help it; it seemed impossible to broach a topic upon which his
knowledge was not complete, and he was brilliant without the slightest
apparent effort.

As for Miss Anthea, she looked lovely in a perfectly simple white satin
dinner frock, her only jewellery being a thin gold necklet, from which
was suspended a very fine opal in a quaint and curious gold setting.
She acknowledged my introduction to her with the slightest possible
inclination of her head, and thereafter ignored my existence for the
rest of the evening.  And her brother's greeting of me was equally
frigid.

Mrs Vansittart's graceful and kindly geniality, however, made ample
amends for the disdainful attitude of her children.  She chatted in
animated fashion with Monroe, Kennedy, and me for some minutes, and then
Marsh, the chief steward, appeared with the announcement that dinner was
served.  Thereupon she turned to me and said:

"Mr Leigh, you are the stranger of the party to-night; do me the favour
to take me down to dinner."

That dinner--as indeed were all those at which I was subsequently a
guest--was a banquet.  The viands were the choicest of their several
kinds, and perfectly prepared; the wines were of rare vintages--at least
so Monroe asserted (I was no judge of wines, and contented myself with a
single glass of sherry taken with my soup); and the table appointments
were on a par with the food and the sumptuous character of the apartment
in which the meal was served.  There were choice flowers in profusion
upon the table; a fire burned cosily in the handsome fireplace; and the
table was brilliantly illuminated by handsome, softly shaded electric
candelabra of massive silver.

The finishing touch to the enjoyment of the meal was given by Mrs
Vansittart's charming manner and sparkling conversation.  For the moment
we were not her servants but her welcome guests, and she contrived to
make us feel this without the faintest suggestion of condescension.  She
was both brilliant and witty, and in some subtle manner peculiar to
herself she not only put us perfectly at our ease, but also put us upon
our mettle, so that I at least found myself saying clever things of
which I had not before believed myself in the least capable.

It was all so very different from what I had hitherto been accustomed to
that I could scarcely persuade myself I was not dreaming some splendid
and unusually vivid dream; and I heartily congratulated myself upon the
lucky chance which had thrown me into the midst of such delightful
surroundings.  The dinner, although smartly served, demanded
three-quarters of an hour for its consumption; and at its close our
hostess took wine with us all, nodded to her daughter, and, rising from
the table, retired to the drawing-room.

When the ladies disappeared, Monroe, Kennedy, and young Vansittart
resumed their seats, somewhat to my surprise; and a moment later Marsh
brought forward cigars, cigarettes, and a jar of choice tobacco.  I had
been picked for the first mate's watch, and it was our eight hours out
that night, consequently by rights I ought to have been on deck at that
moment; therefore, as soon as Mrs Vansittart and her daughter vanished,
I turned to Kennedy and said:

"If you gentlemen will excuse me, I'll run away and change, and go on
deck.  I am in your watch, you know, Mr Kennedy, and ought to be on
duty now--"

"Bring yourself to an anchor, me bhoy," interrupted Kennedy, pointing to
the chair alongside him.  "Do ye shmoke?  No?  Quite right; shmoking is
very bad for growing lads," with a glance at Master Julius, who was
coolly lighting a cigarette.  "If ye don't shmoke ye can at least sit
and listen to Mr Monroe's and my illuminatin' conversation until it's
time for us to join the ladies.  Mrs Vansittart--God bless her kind
heart!--allows us just half an hour for an afther-dinner shmoke; then
she expects us to join her in the drawing-room until ten o'clock, and to
contribute, each in our separate ways, toward the entertainment of the
rest.  Do ye sing by anny chance?"

I modestly replied that I did, a little, and that in a very amateurish
way I also played the fiddle.  I may as well frankly confess that in my
inmost heart I rather prided myself upon my musical accomplishments,
music being a perfect passion with me.  I had often been complimented
upon the quality of my baritone voice and my manner of using it, while
some who might be supposed to be competent judges had told me that I
ought to have devoted my energies to becoming a professional violinist.
But I was careful not to say anything of this.

"Good!  That's capital!" exclaimed Monroe.  "Mrs Vansittart will be
pleased to hear that, I know; for she is devoted to music, is herself a
brilliant musician, and will warmly welcome anyone who can contribute in
the slightest degree to the pleasure of our evenings.  You have the
trick of telling a story well, too, Leigh; our hostess thoroughly
enjoyed the humour of that yarn of yours.  You should cultivate the art
of story-telling; there are very few people who are able to tell a story
really well."

"Guess that's all nonsense, Mr Monroe," remarked Master Julius.  "It's
the easiest thing in the world to talk.  Anybody can do it."

"Well--yes, I suppose anybody can," returned Monroe.  "But," he
continued, meaningly, "it is not everybody who can talk sense, Julius.
Moreover, the art of conversation consists in knowing when to talk--and
when to be silent."

Master Julius, however, did not agree with this.  He argued the point
with Monroe so volubly and persistently that anything like general
conversation became impossible, and he kept it up until Kennedy, with a
glance at the clock on the mantelpiece, deposited his cigar stub in an
ash tray and announced that the half-hour was up, and that it was time
to adjourn to the drawing-room.

"Ah, here you are!" exclaimed Mrs Vansittart, who was seated at the
open piano as we filed into the drawing-room, Master Julius well in
advance.  The boy marched straight across the room, without taking the
slightest notice of his mother, and seated himself beside his sister,
who occupied a settee in the far corner, and was apparently so deeply
absorbed in a book that she was unaware of our entrance.

"Now, then," continued our hostess, "it has gone one bell, and we have
not very much time to spare.  Which of you gentlemen will favour us with
a song?"

"I suggest, madam, that you should call upon Mr Leigh," said Monroe.
"In response to a leading question put to him by our friend Kennedy, the
young man has pleaded guilty to a limited ability as a singer, and he
has also admitted that there are times when he scrapes upon a fiddle.
Knowing Britishers as I do, it is my experience that when one of them
goes so far as to say he can play or sing at all, he--or she--can
usually do it pretty well; I am therefore not without hope that in Leigh
we shall find we have a valuable addition to our stock of musical
talent."

"You don't say!" ejaculated Mrs Vansittart vivaciously.  "Well, I am
glad; for I believe I have heard every one of your songs at least half a
dozen times, Mr Monroe; and Mr Kennedy's too, to say nothing about the
doctor and the purser.  Do you sing and play by ear, or from music, Mr
Leigh?"

I explained that I did both, but preferred to have the music before me;
and in answer to a further question I admitted the existence of certain
books and sheets of music among my other belongings.  Thereupon I was
ordered off to my cabin, with instructions to fetch them and my fiddle
forthwith.  When I returned, Kennedy was trolling forth the song
"Kathleen Mavourneen" in a deep, rich bass voice that made the spacious
apartment ring again, while Mrs Vansittart accompanied him on the
piano.  But for all the attention that the youngsters gave to the song
they might as well have been deaf!

When the song was finished, Mrs Vansittart beckoned me to her, and,
taking my music from me, glanced through it.  Among it were two volumes
of _Standard English Songs_, a book of songs by Schubert, a book of
sacred melodies consisting chiefly of solos and duets from the
oratorios, another containing a selection of songs from various operas,
and, in sheet, a few ballads and a quantity of music specially composed
for the violin.  As she glanced through my budget, our hostess volubly
expressed her delight, and was pleased to compliment me very highly upon
the taste which had dictated my choice.  Then, opening one of the books
of English songs and placing it before her on the piano, she invited me
to sing "Twickenham Ferry".  The song happened to be rather a favourite
of mine, and when I noticed the exquisite perfection with which she
played the few bars of the introduction I just let myself go, and was
rewarded for my pains by receiving what sounded like very genuine and
hearty applause when the song came to an end.

Then Monroe, who was gifted with a really beautiful tenor voice, sang
with much taste and feeling an old plantation song; after which Mrs
Vansittart sang in Italian.  Then, by way of a change, we had Gounod's
"Ave Maria", Mrs Vansittart playing the accompaniment on the piano
while I played the air on my fiddle and Monroe joined in with an
obligato on the organ.  So, in a very delightful way, to me at least,
the evening was passed until four bells chimed out, when we closed the
concert by rendering "Hail, Columbia!" with all the vocal and
instrumental strength at our command.

As Kennedy and I took our leave, Mrs Vansittart very graciously thanked
us both for giving her the pleasure of our company, and expressed the
hope that we should spend together many equally enjoyable evenings; but
Miss Vansittart scarcely deigned to acknowledge, by the curtest nod of
her head, our farewell bows.  As for the boy, he was, or pretended to
be, fast asleep.

Taking my beloved fiddle with me, I hurried away to my cabin, placed the
instrument safely in my bunk, shifted hurriedly into my working clothes,
and went on deck, where I was presently joined by Kennedy.  The pilot
was in charge on the poop, and Mrs Vansittart, wrapped in a voluminous
cloak, was also up there, taking a look round and a brief promenade
before turning in; so the first mate and I fell into step and walked
fore and aft in the waist, between the break of the poop and the fore
rigging.

It was a lovely night, very clear and brilliantly starlit.  There was no
moon, the satellite, then well advanced in her fourth quarter, not
rising until toward morning; and it was very cold, a light breeze from
the north-east having sprung up about the end of the second dog-watch.
We were by that time well down toward the mouth of the Thames estuary,
the Tongue lightship being about a point and a half before our port
beam, while Margate lights were broad on our starboard bow, the ship
heading a trifle to the south of east as she edged in toward the land
preparatory to hauling round the North Foreland.

There was a small easterly swell running, just enough to impart motion
to the ship and let us know that we were afloat, and we were slipping
along at a fine rate upon the last of the ebb tide, and as smoothly and
as free from vibration as though we had been under sail.

We rounded the North Foreland just before midnight; and when at eight
bells Mr Briscoe came on deck to relieve Mr Kennedy I heard the latter
instruct him to get the ship under canvas, and, as soon as she was under
command, stop the engine and have the propeller feathered.  Then I went
below, very tired, to snatch four hours' sleep before turning out to
keep the morning watch.

I tumbled into my bunk and instantly fell asleep, only to be awakened
the next moment, as it seemed to me, by a quartermaster, who informed
me, as he switched on the light, that it wanted ten minutes to eight
bells.  Accordingly I hopped out of bed, washed and dressed, and was in
the act of ascending the poop ladder when eight bells struck.

I found the ship under all plain sail, heading south-west, with the
lights of Dover just abaft the starboard beam, some five miles distant;
and was informed by Mr Briscoe that the pilot had left us about half an
hour earlier, and that we were now "on our own".  There was a fine fresh
breeze blowing from the north-east, and we were sweeping along in fine
style, with squared yards and the mainsail brailed up.  After a good
look at the sky the first mate gave it as his opinion that the wind was
going to haul round more from the eastward, accordingly as soon as the
watches had been changed he gave the order to set fore, main, and mizen
royal, topgallant, and topmast studding sails on both sides, and lower
studding sails for'ard.  Now came the advantage of our strong crew; for
although we were working with the port watch only, we had the whole of
those studding sails set in less than half an hour; whereas, had we been
manned after the rate of an ordinary merchantman of our tonnage, the job
would have kept us busy during the entire watch.  As soon as we were
through with this work Mr Kennedy instructed me to ship and set the
patent log, which I did, taking the exact time when it started, and
noting what it registered fifteen minutes later.  The result was that we
found we were doing just twelve knots, with the wind dead aft and our
head sails practically becalmed by our after canvas.

The first mate's prophecy concerning the easting of the wind proved a
true one, for when we hauled up a couple of points after rounding
Dungeness it followed us, keeping dead astern.  At four bells (six
o'clock) we mustered holystones and scrubbing-brushes, attached the hose
to the fire hydrant, and industriously washed, scrubbed, and holystoned
the decks and cleaned paintwork for an hour, after which the planks were
thoroughly squeegeed and dried.  Then all hands went to work to polish
brasswork until eight bells, by which time the ship looked as spick and
span as if she had been kept under a glass case, just removed.

When eight bells struck, Beachy Head bore North-North-West by compass,
distant fourteen miles.  Prompt at the stroke of the bell, Mrs
Vansittart came up on deck, dressed in her blue serge seagoing rig, and
bade us a cheery good morning.  After receiving Kennedy's report and
verifying the bearing and distance of the headland, she gave orders for
the course to be altered to west-half-south for the run down channel.

It was at this time a clear and brilliant morning, the sky a hard blue,
streaked here and there with mare's tails, the sun, pallid and without
warmth, hanging low over the French coast well on our port quarter.  The
breeze was blowing fresh and very keen, although, running before it as
we were, we did not feel anything like the full strength of it.  Of this
we could only get a correct idea by observing the run of the short,
bottle-green channel surges breaking in foam all round us, and the way
in which a few brigs and schooners, the former under single-reefed
topsails, beating up channel, lay down to it and flung the spray over
their weather catheads.  There were a good many craft going our way too,
both steam and sail, the latter, like ourselves, making the utmost of
the good fair wind by showing to it every rag that they could spread.
But we overhauled and passed them, one after the other, with the utmost
ease; and when, a little later, the breeze freshened, we began to give
some of the steamers the go-by as well.

By noon we had brought Selsea Bill square abeam, some sixteen miles
distant; and at two o'clock in the afternoon, when I went on deck after
luncheon, Saint Catharine's was a point abaft the beam, distant eight
miles.  At nine o'clock that night we were abreast of the Start, when,
Mrs Vansittart having determined our distance from the Point by a
couple of bearings taken an hour apart, ordered the studding sails to be
taken in and the royals and mizen topgallant sail to be furled.  We then
"took our departure", and, hauling our wind on the port tack, shaped a
course for Ushant, which was sighted and passed at three bells in the
following morning watch, our next port of call being, as I now learned,
Lisbon.

During the day occupied by our run down channel all hands had an easy
time of it, there being nothing much for them to do except keep the ship
clean and take an occasional pull at a halyard or brace.  I therefore
had ample time to take stock of the crew and improve my acquaintance
with my shipmates generally.

As regards the crew, I had an idea that in a quiet way they were
watching me and seeking to "reckon me up".  I was a "Britisher", the
only one in the ship; and my experience of Americans, which up to that
time had been but slight, led me to the belief that the people, taken as
a whole, held the Britisher in but light esteem.  I therefore decided
that, so far at least as the crew of the _Stella Maris_ was concerned,
the reputation of my countrymen was to some extent in my hands, and I
determined to let slip no opportunity to vindicate it.  I was the more
strengthened in this resolution by hearing the boy Julius remark to his
sister, in tones which I felt were fully intended to reach my ear, that
"he had no use for Britishers, and took no stock in them, for they were
never of much account."

I do not know whether my brother officers shared the lad's view, or
whether they, as I half-suspected the men of doing, were quietly waiting
to see of what stuff I was made; but, in either case, they never, with
the solitary exception of Briscoe, the second mate, permitted such an
attitude to appear.  On the contrary, they were genial, cordial, and
friendly in a very marked degree, so that within the first twenty-four
hours of our being at sea I felt thoroughly at home with all of them.
If I had a preference for any above the others it was for Monroe, the
boy's tutor, and Harper, the medico of the ship, both of whom were
extremely broad-minded men, in addition to being exceptionally well
informed and polished in manner.  As for our skipper, the more I saw of
her the better I liked her.  I soon discovered that nothing escaped her
notice; she was as smart a seaman as Kennedy himself; she was an expert
navigator; the heavens and their portents were an open book to her; she
issued her orders with the utmost confidence and decision, and never
hesitated to find fault if things did not please her; and yet with it
all she was most gracious and friendly in her manner to us all, from the
highest to the lowest.

As for Miss Anthea, I am bound to admit that, with the exception of
Monroe and the doctor, she treated us all alike with the utmost
impartiality, merely acknowledging our salutes with a careless, scarcely
perceptible inclination of the head, and otherwise completely ignoring
our existence.  Her amusements, while on deck, consisted of reading,
playing bull, shuffle-board, or deck quoits with her brother,
promenading the poop with her mother, and occasionally condescending to
exchange a few remarks with the parson or the doctor.  But she was a
musician of rare ability, and possessed a soprano singing voice of
exquisite richness and purity, as I had frequent opportunity of judging
by hearing her playing and singing in the drawing-room below while I was
on duty on the poop.

That Mrs Vansittart was an ardent sportswoman was evident from the very
outset by the way in which she sailed the yacht.  She "carried on"
consistently, day and night, as though we were sailing in a race, and no
sooner were we past Ushant, and the breeze showed signs of freshening,
than she ordered preventer backstays rigged fore and aft, and hung on to
her canvas until our lee rail was awash and the lee main-deck flooded to
such an extent from the topgallant forecastle to the poop that its
passage became an impossibility except by swimming.

We swept across the Bay like smoke driven by a strong breeze,
overhauling and passing everything that was going our way, excepting a
big Cape liner; and we actually held our own with her for some hours,
until the breeze eased up sufficiently to allow the steamer to draw
gradually away from us.  We must have presented a most beautiful picture
to the people aboard that boat as we swept along for a time neck and
neck with her, our snow-white cotton canvas gleaming in the brilliant
sunlight or flecked with sweeping blue shadows as the yacht rushed
through and over the foaming surges with the water all aboil about her
and every perfectly cut sail, to her three royals, accurately set and
drawing like a team of cart horses.

The fresh easterly breeze which had swept us down channel in such
splendid style lasted long enough to carry us to the mouth of the Tagus
shortly after nine o'clock in the morning of our fifth day out from
London; and by noon of that day we were riding at anchor off the city of
Lisbon.  Here we remained two days, our next destination being the
island of Madeira.

From Madeira we went on to Teneriffe, and from Teneriffe to Gibraltar;
after which we gradually worked our way up the Mediterranean, calling in
at a number of interesting places on the way.  We were at Ajaccio on
Christmas Day; and it was characteristic of our skipper that she so
arranged matters as to spend the day aboard with us, giving the crew a
rare good time and inviting the whole of her officers to dine with her
in the evening.

We left Ajaccio on the evening of New Year's Day, and, passing through
the Straits of Bonifacio, headed for the Bay of Naples, where we arrived
at nine o'clock on the morning of the third of January.  From Naples we
proceeded to Messina; thence to Malta, Athens, Constantinople, and
Jaffa, where we were all afforded an opportunity to make the trip to
Jerusalem; and from Jaffa we proceeded to Port Said, where, after
remaining at anchor some four or five hours, we ran through the Canal
during the night, with an enormous searchlight suspended from our
bowsprit end to light us on our way.  We anchored at Suez the next day,
and Mrs Vansittart then announced that we should remain there at least
a week, during which the men would be granted daily leave, while the
officers were to make their own arrangements, subject to the approval of
Kennedy, who was left in charge.  I thus had an opportunity not only to
visit Cairo, but also to take a run out to the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
As a matter of fact we remained at Suez nearly a fortnight, awaiting our
skipper's return, when we hove up our anchor and proceeded down the Gulf
of Suez into the Red Sea, duly noting Mount Sinai on our port hand as we
passed it.



CHAPTER THREE.

AN INDIAN OCEAN HURRICANE.

I am not writing this story as a mere diary of travel, and will
therefore push on as rapidly as possible to the point where the real
living interest of the voyage began, contenting myself with a mere brief
reference to the various spots at which we touched.  We took eight days
to make the passage to Aden, where we arrived early on a certain
morning, leaving at five o'clock the same afternoon, after a visit to
the famous Tanks.  Our next port of call was Zanzibar, whence we
proceeded to Durban, in Natal.  From Durban we proceeded to Mauritius,
remaining in Port Louis harbour two days to permit of a visit to that
extraordinary natural curiosity, the Peter Botte Mountain.

From Mauritius we sailed for Colombo.  The weather was glorious when we
left Port Louis, and for two days afterward, with moderate breezes from
the south-east; toward sunset, on our third day out, however, we began
to notice signs of a change.  The barometer had started to decline
shortly after noon; and as the afternoon advanced the breeze weakened,
so that from a speed of fourteen knots we dropped down to a bare five,
although we were under royals, had all our staysails set, and were
showing our whole flight of starboard studding sails as well, the wind
being about a point and a half abaft the beam.  At the same time the
aspect of the sky underwent a subtle change.  The clear, rich blue of
the vault became gradually obscured by a veil, at first scarcely
perceptible, of dirty, whitish-grey haze, from which, by the time of
sunset, every trace of blue had completely vanished.

Gradually, too, the sun became shorn of his rays, although there was no
perceptible diminution of heat, until at length when the great luminary
was upon the point of sinking below the horizon, he had changed into the
semblance of a huge, shapeless mass of molten copper hanging suspended
in the midst of an almost equally shapeless conglomeration of flame and
smoke.  Then he slowly vanished from view; the flaming, smoky western
sky seemed to blaze up for a few moments into a still fiercer
conflagration, the hues deepened until they became a mingling of blood
and soot, when with startling suddenness they died out and an inky
blackness enveloped the ship.  At the same time the small remains of the
wind died away, leaving the yacht rolling and lurching heavily upon a
sea that seemed to have no run in it, but heaved itself up into great
hummocks, only to subside again in the same purposeless manner.

It was drawing on toward the end of the first dog-watch, and as a matter
of fact I was off duty.  But one never spends a dog-watch below in the
tropics if it can be avoided, and Kennedy and I had gone up on the poop
together to watch the sunset and discuss with Briscoe, the second mate,
the meaning of the portents.  Kennedy had never before been in that part
of the world, but I had, and while he did not quite know what to make of
the aspect of the sky, I had already made up my mind pretty well
regarding what was in store for us, and had expressed my opinion as to
what we might expect.  The first mate did not altogether agree with me,
and had proposed that we should refer the matter to Briscoe, who, like
myself, knew, or professed to know, the Indian Ocean pretty well.  So up
we went; and presently, when the last gleam of light was vanishing from
the sky, Kennedy beckoned Briscoe to him and said:

"Well, Mr Briscoe, what d'ye think all that grand show away to the
west'ard means?  Mr Leigh here, who has been in these parts before,
says he belaives we're in for a hurricane."

"Hurricane be hanged!" retorted Briscoe, who always seemed to find a
peculiar pleasure in belittling any opinion that I might express.  "What
we are in for is a thunderstorm that will make some of ye sit up and
take notice.  I guess it will bring with it some pretty considerable
squalls, so it will be a good plan to stow a few of them flyin' kites of
ours.  They're doin' no good anyway, and will only thrash themselves
threadbare if we leave 'em abroad."

"That's so, and I guess you'd better see about it at once, Mr Briscoe,"
remarked Mrs Vansittart, emerging from the companion at that moment.
She had apparently heard Briscoe's last words as she came up the
companion way.  "I've just been looking up the weather remarks in the
_Indian Ocean Directory_," she continued; "and from what it says I guess
there's a hurricane brewing, Mr Kennedy, so--"

"Why," interrupted Kennedy, "that's what Mr Leigh here says.  But Mr
Briscoe, who ought to know something about the Indian Ocean, says no,
it's only going to be a thunderstorm, probably accompanied by heavy
squalls."

"And do you know the Indian Ocean, Mr Leigh?  Have you ever been here
before?" demanded the skipper.

"Several times, madam," I answered.  "And once I was caught in a
hurricane which dismasted us.  The appearance of the sky then was very
much what it was this evening, while the barometer behaved pretty
similarly to what ours has been doing."

"Then that settles it," exclaimed Mrs Vansittart.  "There are two to
one--the _Indian Ocean Directory_ and Mr Leigh against you, Mr
Briscoe; and I guess we'll prepare for the hurricane.  Stow all the
light canvas; stow everything, in fact, except the fore and main
topsails and the fore-topmast staysail; then we shall be ready for
anything that comes--eh, Mr Leigh?"

"Assuredly much better prepared than we are at the present moment," I
said.  "But if I may be permitted to offer a suggestion--"

"You may, Mr Leigh," replied the skipper.  "Yes; go ahead.  What do you
advise?"

"Well, madam," I said, "since you are good enough to give me leave, I
would advise that the staysail be stowed also, the topsail yards lowered
to the caps,"--we carried patent reefing topsails--"the royal and
topgallant yards and topgallant masts sent down on deck, as well as the
studding sails out of the tops; and that extra lashings be put upon the
boats and booms.  Then I have no doubt we shall ride out whatever may
come with reasonable comfort and safety.  And when it comes, I would
heave the ship to with her close-reefed fore topsail aback; also I would
have a small tarpaulin ready to lash in the weather mizen rigging in
case the topsails should blow away.  Finally, I would direct Mackenzie
to see that his engine is all ready for starting at a moment's notice,
if need be."

"Sakes alive!" exclaimed Mrs Vansittart, "do you really believe it's
going to be so bad as all that?"

"I certainly think it not at all improbable, madam," I said.

"Then I guess we'll do as you say," exclaimed the lady.  "It's the right
thing to err on the safe side, and I won't take any chances.  But it
will be bad for the men to have to work in this darkness.  When does the
moon rise?"

"She is due to rise at about eight forty-five to-night," I said.  "But I
am afraid it will be useless for us to look for any help from her; we
shall get no light from her to-night."

"You think not?" she said.  "Then--ah! there is four bells," as Briscoe,
having descended to the main-deck, came up on the poop and struck the
bell.  "Let the men get to work at once, Mr Kennedy, both watches, and
see that Mr Leigh's suggestions are carried out.  And, say, I guess I
won't risk having the topsails blown away; we'll furl everything while
we're about it; and if the hurricane comes we'll heave to under bare
poles.  How will that do, Mr Leigh?"

"Admirably, madam," I replied.  "You will then have done everything
possible to provide for the safety of the ship; and when the blow comes,
as I feel sure it will, there will be no need to risk the lives of any
of the crew."

The necessary orders were at once given, and we all repaired to our
several stations.  My duty was to supervise operations on the mizenmast,
Kennedy having charge of the men working upon the mainmast, and Briscoe
supervising those upon the foremast, and when I went aft I found Miss
Anthea and her brother seated in a couple of basket chairs by the
taffrail.  It was necessary for me to stand quite close to them for a
few minutes; and I had no sooner taken up my position than I heard the
boy say to his sister, in tones loud enough to reach my ears:

"Say, 'Thea, why does Momma pay so much attention to what the Britisher
says?  I guess I don't like it--and I don't like him, either.  I am
going to speak to her about it.  Who is he, that he is to be consulted
before Kennedy and Briscoe?  They're Amuricans, while he is only a
Britisher, and they've been to sea longer than he has; and anyway, an
Amurican is a darn sight better than a Britisher any day."

"Yes, I guess you are right, Ju," replied the young lady; "only you need
not allow your dislike to betray you into vulgarity.  I hate Englishmen,
but I do not find it necessary to use the word `darn', and I wish you
wouldn't; it is only common, vulgar people who use it.  And I wouldn't
speak to Momma either, if I were you; it is not worth while.  Momma
thinks the man is clever, but, of course, he isn't, and she will find it
out sooner or later."

So that was it!  I had often wondered at the attitude of latent
hostility of these two youngsters toward me; and now I understood.  They
hated Englishmen!  Well, their hatred did not trouble me in the least;
it was passive, or at all events was only so far active as to prompt
them now and then to make offensive remarks in my hearing, and taking
into consideration who and what they were, I could put up with a good
deal of that.  But it had the effect of putting me upon my mettle.  I
was determined to prove to them that they were mistaken in their
estimate of Englishmen, not because I attached any value personally to
their good or bad opinion, but because eventually they would be man and
woman, if they lived, and, from the position which their wealth would
give them, would have the power of influencing the opinion of their
fellow countrymen to a certain limited extent.  I felt that it was my
duty to do what I could to lessen the unreasoning dislike of my fellow
countrymen which I had noticed in so many Americans.

It was at this time a dead calm, with a very heavy, confused swell
running, so that the only sounds heard, apart from our own voices, were
the wash and gurgle of the water alongside, as the ship wallowed
uneasily, the loud rustle and flap of the canvas aloft, and the creaking
of the spars.  Moreover, it was intensely dark--to such an extent indeed
that I found it impossible to superintend operations from the deck.
Presently, therefore, I sprang into the mizen rigging and made my way
aloft to the mizen topmast crosstrees, from which I directed the
operation of sending down the royal and topgallant yards, and afterwards
took a hand in sending down the topgallant mast, having the satisfaction
of finding, when I returned to the deck, that we on the mizenmast had
beaten both Briscoe and Kennedy.  I reckoned that, on board a
well-disciplined, old-fashioned British man-o'-war, the task of sending
down royal and topgallant yards and masts and stowing all canvas would
have been accomplished, under similar circumstances, in about twelve
minutes, at the utmost; but it took us thirty-five minutes by the ship's
clock.  This I thought not at all bad, however; for in the first place
we were nothing like so heavily manned as a man-o'-war of our size would
have been, nor had our hands the constant practice in such evolutions
that a frigate's crew would have had.  But the main thing was that our
lady skipper was satisfied, and was good enough to say so.

It remained intensely dark until close upon ten o'clock that night, when
the thinnest imaginable suggestion of moonlight came filtering weakly
through the dense curtain of cloud that now overspread the heavens, just
enough of it to enable us to see objects close at hand and avoid hurting
ourselves by running foul of them, as we had been doing while moving
about the decks.  The weather still remained stark calm, and the ship
was rolling so furiously that I should not have been at all surprised to
see the masts go over the side at any moment.  The gear was all good and
new, however, and held bravely; but the motion was so intensely
disagreeable, and we shipped so much water over both rails, flooding the
main-deck and necessitating the battening down of the hatches, that at
length Mrs Vansittart gave orders to start the engine, and the ship was
then put stem-on to the swell, which had now become more regular,
setting out from about North-North-East.  This action brought us
immediate relief, as it enabled the helmsman to keep the ship out of the
trough, though the violent rolling was exchanged for almost as violent a
pitching.  But the thunderstorm which Briscoe still persistently
maintained was coming, failed to eventuate; and hour after hour dragged
away with no indication of any immediate change, save that the feeble
glimmer of moonlight, instead of increasing, gradually died away again,
leaving us in almost as bad a plight as before.

At midnight, when I went on deck to keep the middle watch, Mrs
Vansittart was still up; and I thought that her temper seemed to be
rather on edge, perhaps owing to the strain of the long-spun-out
suspense.  At least she responded rather sharply to Kennedy's and my
greeting when we joined her on the poop.

I thought that perhaps Briscoe had been talking to her during his watch,
and doing his best to discredit my judgment, for no sooner had we joined
her than she turned upon me, and, in very incisive tones, informed me
that she had come to the conclusion that I had been mistaken, and that
there was going to be no hurricane after all, otherwise it would have
come before then.  But I knew that the Indian Ocean hurricane sometimes
takes a long time brewing; indeed, in the case of my previous experience
it had threatened for more than ten hours before it actually burst upon
us.  I explained this to her; and also said that there was nothing in
the aspect of the weather to make me alter my original opinion.  We were
still engaged in debating the matter when a peculiar low, moaning sound
became audible in the air, rapidly increasing to a weird, unearthly
howl, and a wild, scuffling gust of hot wind swept over us from the
north and went whining away astern of us until we lost sound of it
altogether.

"It is coming at last, madam," I said; "we shall probably have three or
four more such gusts as that, each lasting longer than the one preceding
it, and--"

"And, begorra, here comes number two, now!" exclaimed Kennedy, as a
similar sound once more became audible; and with a vicious swoop another
gust smote us so fiercely that the yacht stopped dead, unable to make
headway against it.  For a full minute or more it seemed as though half
a dozen separate and distinct winds were battling together for the
mastery, the yacht being the centre and focus round which the battle
raged.  We on the poop were buffeted helplessly this way and that, so
that it was only with the utmost difficulty we could keep our feet;
indeed, Mrs Vansittart was literally lifted off her feet for a moment
and blown across the deck with such violence that, had she not luckily
been forced straight into my arms, so that I was able to catch and hold
her, she would probably have been seriously injured by being dashed
furiously against the poop rail.

She thanked me breathlessly as I dragged her by main force to the
mizenmast and passed a couple of turns of the topgallant halyard round
her waist, securing her to a belaying pin; and by the time that this was
done the gust, like the first, had passed.  I begged her to go below,
before worse happened, assuring her that Kennedy, who was in charge,
would know exactly what to do; but the little lady was grit to the
backbone, and positively refused to leave the deck.  On the contrary,
she ordered Kennedy to counter-brace the yards with the head yards
aback, and then heave the ship to on the port tack, after which
everybody but ourselves and the look-outs was to go below, and while she
was giving these orders she deftly passed a few more turns of the
halyard about herself, so that she could not possibly be blown away
unless the mizenmast was blown out of the ship.  Also she begged the
loan of my black silk neck scarf, which she tied over her head and under
her chin, so that her yachting cap might not be blown overboard, as mine
had been.

By this time the air all about us was in a state of continuous
agitation, the wind sometimes swooping down upon us in savage gusts, and
anon easing up for a moment until it was scarcely more than a zephyr;
but these lulls momentarily became of briefer duration, until in the
space of about ten minutes it was blowing hard but very unsteadily, the
heavy gusts following each other with ever-increasing rapidity.  And now
we felt the full benefit of our earlier preparations; for with the
counter-bracing of the yards--a task accomplished in less than a
minute--everything that was possible had been done; and all that
remained was to ride out the gale as best we could.

We were now afforded an opportunity--the first that had ever occurred,
as Kennedy yelled for my information--to see what a really magnificent
sea boat we had under our feet, for under the scourging of that terrible
wind the sea rose with appalling rapidity, notwithstanding that the top
of every sea, as it rose, was torn off and swept to leeward in blinding
and drenching clouds of spindrift.  And although our engine had been
stopped, the ship lay to in the most perfect manner, heading well up
into the wind and taking the seas, as they came at her, as buoyantly as
a gull, shipping very little water except what came aboard in the form
of spindrift or scud water, with an occasional spattering over the
weather cathead.

But this was only the beginning of the hurricane--merely its awakening,
so to speak.  With the passage of the minutes the wind steadily
increased in strength until the wailing and shrieking of it through the
spars and rigging aloft resembled the tones of a mighty organ, drowning
every other sound; while the yacht lay down to it until her lee rail was
completely buried and the water was right up to her main-hatch coamings.
As the wind increased, however, we rode somewhat easier, for after a
time it became impossible for the sea to rise; indeed, the strength of
the wind was such that it actually flattened the sea down, every wave,
as it reared its head, being swept away as a deluge of spray.  The air
was full of it--as full as it is of water during a tropical shower; and
the only manner in which we could distinguish it from rain was by the
salt taste of it upon our lips.

I think the worst feature of it all, however, was the hideous darkness
in which we were enwrapped; for outside the small circle of light
emanating from the skylights it was impossible to see anything save a
faint, ghostly white radiance representing the phosphorescent surface of
the foaming sea, in the midst of which the hull of the yacht stood out
black, vague, and shapeless, it being impossible to see the whole length
of her because of the dense clouds of spindrift which enveloped us.

At length it occurred to me to wonder how our lady skipper was faring in
the midst of this awful turmoil of wind and sea; and, watching my
opportunity, I made a dash for the spot where, dimly outlined in the
sheen of light from the foremost skylight, I could just distinguish her
form huddled up against the foot of the mizen mast.  As I reached her I
noticed that she seemed to be hanging limply in her lashings, and,
stooping closer, I presently discovered that the plucky little lady had
fainted.  The buffeting of the wind and the pitiless incessant pelting
of the spray had been too much for her; and unable to call for
assistance, or to escape unaided, she had succumbed.  This fact
established, I lost no time in summoning Kennedy to my assistance, when,
having cast her adrift, we managed between us to convey her safely to
the companion and carry her below to her cabin.  We then roused the
doctor and Lizette, the chief stewardess, and turned her over to their
care, after which we left her there and returned to the deck to complete
our watch.

I think that middle watch was the longest four hours hat I had ever
spent, chiefly because of its extreme discomfort and the fact that there
was nothing to do.  First of all, I was drenched to the skin, the
conversation in which I was engaged with Mrs Vansittart when the
hurricane started having rendered it impossible for me to go below and
get into my oilskins.  Then there was the unceasing buffeting of the
wind, which seemed at times as though it would drag me limb from limb.
There was also the continuous scourging of the spray, which stung like
the lash of a million whips; and finally, there was the oppression of a
very real anxiety, for, as I think I have mentioned, the yacht was as
heavily rigged as a frigate, and notwithstanding the relief afforded by
sending down her tophamper, she lay down so alarmingly that at length I
began seriously to question whether it would not eventually end in her
turning turtle.  Eight bells came at length, however; and when shortly
afterward I got below, shed my streaming garments, towelled myself dry,
and tumbled into my bunk, my discomfort and anxiety promptly left me as
I sank into a sound and dreamless sleep.



CHAPTER FOUR.

I SAVE JULIUS'S LIFE.

When, shortly before eight bells, I was called by the wardroom steward,
I at once became aware that a change of some sort had occurred in the
weather.  For, on the one hand, the list of the ship to starboard seemed
to be no longer so heavy as it had been when I turned in; while, on the
other, the motion was far and away greater--so violent indeed was it
that, seasoned as I was to the movements of a heaving deck, I
experienced the greatest difficulty in maintaining my balance.  When
presently I went on deck, my previous impressions were fully confirmed;
for although it was still blowing a whole gale, the maniacal fury of the
hurricane was past, while the sea, no longer flattened down and kept
practically level by the irresistible strength of the tempest, had risen
rapidly and was now an almost terrifying sight to behold.  Especially
was this the case when the ship settled into the trough, with one great
foaming liquid mountain rushing away to leeward of her, while another
enormous grey-back, towering above us as high as our lower mast-heads,
came swooping down upon us from to windward with hissing angry crest,
threatening to hurl itself bodily down upon our decks and sink us out of
hand.

Yet that threat was never fulfilled, for the yacht was behaving
magnificently.  She came to in most perfect style as she climbed the
breast of each oncoming comber, heeling steeply to it the while and
turning up a bold weather bow to meet its onslaught.  Then, as the crest
curled in over her turtle-back topgallant forecastle, smothering it in
whirling and blowing foam and spray, she would swing upright and, with a
lift of her stern and an easy weather roll, go sliding down into the
trough beyond, her head paying off as she did so.  And although she was
still under bare poles, with her head yards aback, I could see, upon
looking over the side, that she was forging ahead at a speed of about a
knot and a half.

But although the wind was no longer blowing with hurricane force it
still had the strength of a heavy gale, and while a reference to the
barometer showed that the mercury had begun to rise, there was no other
sign of improvement in the weather.  The sky was almost as black and
threatening in its aspect as ever, with innumerable shreds and tatters
of dirty whitish-grey cloud sweeping athwart at a speed that made one
giddy to look at; while there could be no question that the sea was
gathering height, weight, and volume with the passage of every minute.
The air was still heavily charged with flying spume and spindrift,
necessitating the use of oilskins and sou'westers, and keeping our
spars, rigging, and decks streaming; but we could see with tolerable
clearness for at least a mile in every direction.

Yet although the general feeling out on deck was one of dampness and
discomfort, we had not the added misery of cold to deal with.  On the
contrary, it was so warm that shortly after I went on deck, having
breakfasted, I felt my long oilskin coat and sea boots so uncomfortably
warm that I presently slipped below again for a moment, and, removing
them and my socks, donned a short oilskin jacket and returned to the
deck barefooted, for the sake of the greater comfort.  I took it for
granted that Miss Anthea would never dream of turning out in such
weather, while I felt sure that Mrs Vansittart would excuse me, under
the circumstances, the more so as she had often before come on deck
while we were paddling about, barelegged, washing decks.  And indeed
when, shortly afterward, she emerged through the companion way, encased
in a thin mackintosh reaching to the hem of her dress, and with a light
sou'-wester on her head which in nowise detracted from her good looks,
she at once set me at my ease by laughingly complimenting me upon the
sensible character of my attire.  Then, in a very different tone of
voice, she thanked me for having come to her rescue on the previous
night when, overcome by the terrific buffeting of the hurricane, she had
swooned while lashed to the mast.

We--that is to say, Mrs Vansittart, Kennedy, and I--were still standing
together under the lee of the wheelhouse, discussing the weather
generally, and the probable duration of the gale in particular, when the
boy Julius came up from below, emerging from the companion way at the
precise moment when the ship, with a terrific lee roll, was climbing to
the summit of an exceptionally heavy sea.  Precisely how it happened I
could not possibly say, it occurred so suddenly, and moreover I only saw
the last part of it; but I imagine that the lad must have lost, or
inadvertently released, his hold upon the side of the companion at the
critical moment when the velocity of the ship's roll was at its highest.
Be that as it may, Julius no sooner stepped out on deck than he went
with a run straight to the lee rail of the poop, fetched up against it
with a force that must have knocked the breath out of him, and then--
although the rail was breast-high to him--in some inconceivable fashion
seemed to lurch forward upon it, turn a complete somersault over it, and
plunge headlong into the sea.  It was Mrs Vansittart's shriek of
"Julius!" and her look of petrified horror, that caused me to wheel
round, and I was just in time to see the lad go whirling over the rail.

One's thoughts move with lightning-like rapidity in moments of
emergency, and as I saw the boy going I thought, "Kennedy is no good;
those heavy sea boots of his would drag him down and sink him in a few
seconds; I must go myself!"  And as the thought flashed through my brain
I tore off my oilskin jacket and, shouting to Kennedy, "Lifebuoy--bend
to signal halyards!" made a dash for the rail, while Mrs Vansittart's
shrieks lent wings to my feet.

As I reached the rail the ship topped the surge, which went rushing and
roaring away beneath her and to leeward in a tremendous boil of foam, in
the rear of which there was a space of almost glass-smooth
indigo-coloured water, down through which I thought I saw something that
might be the boy's body.  Without hesitating an instant I vaulted the
rail, landing upon the curved turtle-back outboard, flung my hands above
my head, and plunged straight for the spot where, a moment before, I
thought I had seen the lad's body.

I went deep, kicking and striking out vigorously as I felt the water
close about me, for the thought occurred to me that if the boy had
really hurt himself badly when colliding with the rail, he would
probably not rise to the surface at all, but would slowly sink.  As I
forced my way downward I looked about me, and presently saw a glimmering
white something far below which might be the object of my quest, for the
boy was dressed entirely in white.  Desperately I urged myself downward,
the gloom increasing with every stroke; and at length, when I felt as
though my lungs would burst and I could not retain my breath another
second, I grabbed something, I scarcely knew what, and turning, struck
upward toward the blue glimmer of light far overhead.

How I managed to hold my breath during that seemingly endless climb to
the surface I cannot say, but I did it somehow, my head emerging from
the water at the very instant when the air escaped from my lungs in one
long gasp.  I quickly filled them again, looked to see what I had
brought to the surface with me, and found that, as I expected, it was
the apparently lifeless form of Master Julius.  I had grabbed the lad by
his ankle, so that he hung head downward in my grasp.  That would never
do; so, treading water vigorously, I shifted the position of the body
until I had the head resting upon my shoulder; and at that moment I felt
myself being hove up, up, up, and the next instant a very mountain of
water went hissing and roaring over my head, plunging me helplessly
hither and thither and momentarily threatening to tear my prize from my
hold.

As soon as I had again got my breath, I looked round for the yacht.  She
was nowhere in sight; but presently, as I began to wonder what had
become of her, I saw her topmast-heads swing into view beyond the head
of the comber that had just swept past me, and then up she swept until
the whole of her hull was visible.  I saw a crowd of people gathered aft
by the taffrail, and others in the rigging, all peering out under the
sharp of their hands in various directions.  Then, as the craft
surmounted the grey-back and came sliding down its weather slope,
rolling to windward until I could see nearly half her main-deck, one of
the figures suddenly pointed toward me, and in an instant every face
turned my way, while one man, whom I presently recognised as Kennedy,
put one hand to the side of his mouth, as though shouting, while he
pointed with the other.

Not a word could I hear, however, for my ears were still full of water,
while such sound as entered them was merely the hiss and roar of the
sea.  But I guessed what the mate was pointing at, the more readily as I
saw one man paying out a thin line over the rail; so I looked eagerly
about me, and presently saw, some thirty fathoms away, a white lifebuoy
floating in the midst of a wide surface of foam, the ship at this time
being perhaps twice as far from me as the lifebuoy.  But just as I
started to strike out for the buoy, another heavy sea swept over me,
treating me pretty much as the first had done, and all but suffocating
me into the bargain.

I thought that, hampered as I was with the boy's inert body, I should
never reach the buoy, for I seemed utterly unable to make so much as an
inch of progress in that frightful sea; and once, after I had been
overwhelmed about a dozen times, the thought came to me that if I wanted
to save myself I must give up the idea of saving the body, which after
all would be a useless task, since I felt certain that the lad was dead.
But no; I could not return to the ship and face the lad's mother
empty-handed.  I could picture her despair under such circumstances, for
Julius was Mrs Vansittart's only son, and, spoiled as he was, I
believed that she loved him more than her husband, more than her
daughter, more than her own life.  No, it was not to be thought of; I
had undertaken the task and I must execute it.  I had raised her hopes,
and I would not disappoint them if God would only give me strength to
reach that buoy.

At length, after what seemed like a century of effort, I did reach it,
and, laying my hand upon its nearest rim, tilted it over my head and
under my armpits, at the very moment--as I afterward learned--when those
aboard had paid out four sets of signal halyards to the bare end of the
fourth set!

And now came the delicate and difficult task of hauling me alongside in
the shortest possible space of time, without parting the halyards on the
one hand or drowning me on the other.  But Kennedy was the man for the
job.  Even as I vaulted the rail and plunged into the water his active
mind, aided by past experience, had enabled him not only to grasp the
full import of my hasty words concerning the lifebuoy and the signal
halyards, but also to foresee exactly what must inevitably happen.  And
while he was in the very act of unreeving the peak ensign halyards,
preparatory to bending them on to the lifebuoy which his ready knife had
slashed off the taffrail, he was shouting for somebody to pass the word
for Mackenzie, the engineer.

When Mac, already issuing from his cabin to learn what all the sudden
outcry was about, received the message and came rushing aft in response
to the call, he in turn was fully prepared for the order which Kennedy
gave him, to go below and set his engine going dead easy astern.  Thus
by the time that I reached and got into the buoy, the ship's way through
the water was stopped, and, highly dangerous though such a proceeding
undoubtedly was, under the circumstances, they were able to haul me
gradually alongside and up under the counter without mishap, the engine
of course being stopped again at the right moment.  And when once they
had got me under the lee quarter of the ship all the rest was of course
comparatively easy.  Two of the hands standing by hove me a couple of
standing bowlines on ropes' ends, one of which I slipped over the
inanimate Julius's head and under his armpits; and when I saw that they
had got the body safely in over the rail I slipped into the other
myself, and was hauled aboard amid the triumphant yells of the crew--to
swoon as my feet touched the deck.

But there was nothing much the matter with me.  I had swooned simply
through over-exertion, coupled perhaps with the reaction at finding
myself once more safely aboard the yacht; and Harper, the surgeon,
having had the foresight to order someone to stand by with brandy as a
restorative, in case of need, they soon brought me round again.  By
Kennedy's orders I was helped below to my cabin, to turn in and rest for
a bit, learning, as I went, that Harper and the boy's mother had taken
charge of the lad the moment that he was hauled aboard, and had carried
him below to his cabin.  I afterward heard, however, that before she
quitted the deck, Mrs Vansittart had given orders that she was to be
informed, at the earliest possible opportunity, how things were going
with me; and I further learned that, upon being told I was doing well,
she fell upon her knees by the side of her boy's bed and, bursting into
tears, sobbed forth audible thanks to God for my preservation.

As for me, after vomiting a considerable quantity of salt water, I was
helped to undress, given a vigorous towelling, and put into my bunk,
where, having swallowed a tumblerful of hot brandy and water, I quickly
dropped off to sleep, and remained asleep until after four bells of the
afternoon watch had struck.  Then, feeling pretty much my former self,
although a bit shaky on my pins, and very sore about the chest, I turned
out, donned a dry suit of clothes, and sallied forth to the wardroom,
with the twofold object of ascertaining if there was any news as to
Master Julius's fate and getting something to eat.

Upon entering the wardroom I found Kennedy, Mackenzie, Grimwood the
purser, and, somewhat to my astonishment, the doctor, present and
chatting animatedly.  Moreover, I gathered that they were talking about
me, for as I passed through the open doorway Kennedy looked up and
exclaimed:

"And begorra here's himself, no less!  Talk of the--Here, bring yourself
to an anchor on the sofa, lad, and let's have a look at ye!  Faith! but
your morning's experience has taken it out of ye, by the looks of ut.
But never ye mind that, me bhoy, ye'll weather it all right, and ye'll
always have the memory of havin' done a gallant thing, whatever happens.
By the Piper, lad, we're all proud of ye, from the skipper downward."

They all came crowding round me as I sank upon the sofa, and insisted
upon shaking hands with me, saying so many nice and complimentary things
to me that I presently began to feel quite abashed.  Then Harper
interfered authoritatively.

"There!" he exclaimed, waving the crowd away, "that will do, you chaps.
Let up upon the youngster a bit and give him a chance.  What you want,"
he continued, turning to me and laying his fingers upon my pulse, "is a
meal first--not a heavy meal, but something good and nourishing, and
then another spell of sleep.  Mac, have the goodness to press the button
for the steward, and I'll give him an order.  How is your appetite, my
British hero?"

"Why," said I, "to confess the truth I turned out because I felt hungry,
and came in here with the hope of getting something to eat.  But,
Doctor, I want to know about the boy.  I did the best I could for him,
and was determined to bring him back with me if I was fortunate enough
to fetch the ship again; but I felt certain there was no life left in
him, even before I got hold of the buoy."

"And that is just where you were mistaken, young man.  Oh! here you are,
steward," as that individual entered in response to the summons of the
bell.  "I want you to go to the cook and tell him--from me, you
understand--to give you a good big basin of that chicken broth I
instructed him to prepare, and bring it here for Mr Leigh, with a slice
of bread from a loaf baked yesterday, if anything of the sort remains.
Then, when you have brought the broth, go to Mr Marsh and ask him to
give you a small bottle of Mumm, and bring it along here.  Now get a
move on, and let me have those things quick."

"Well, Doctor, what about Master Julius?"  I prompted, as the steward
retired.

"Why, as it happened, he was not dead when we hauled him aboard,"
replied Harper, "though he was so near to it that it cost me two solid
hours or more of strenuous work to restore animation.  But I believe I
shall pull him through now, with luck.  He dropped off to sleep about
half an hour ago, and I left him in charge of his mother and the chief
stewardess, with instructions to send for me upon the instant of his
waking.  How do you like your broth?"

"It is delicious," I replied, "and I am enjoying it; although I feel a
bit mean in taking it, for I suppose it was prepared for Julius, wasn't
it?"

"Don't you trouble about that, young un," returned the doctor.  "The
cook has my orders; and if he has attended to them--as I have no doubt
he has--there will be plenty for the pair of you.  Will you have some
more?"

But I declined; I had had quite sufficient, I said.  Thereupon Harper
opened the half-bottle of wine which the steward had brought, poured the
contents into a tumbler, and ordered me to toss it off and then go back
to my bunk and get another sleep.

"Sleep just as long as you care to," he said, "and don't worry about
watches until I give you leave.  A night in ought to fix you up again, I
think; but we will see what you look like when you turn out for
breakfast to-morrow."

I was soon asleep again, but the first bugle call for dinner awakened
me, and, feeling a good deal better, I turned out and dressed, noticing,
as I did so, that the ship's movements were very much easier and more
rhythmical than when I had lain down.  Indeed, I had the feeling that
she was sailing again; and, glancing through my porthole, I found that
this was so, and that the weather had cleared.  The sea, now a deep
sapphire blue, had gone down very considerably, the sky was clear of
clouds, and upon looking more closely at the water I was able to detect
the shadow of the ship upon it, and thereby determine that she was under
her three topsails, courses, fore-topmast staysail, and spanker.  And by
the swirl of yeast past my port I estimated that she must be reeling off
about eight knots.

While I was still engaged in dressing there came a gentle tap at my
door, to which I answered "Come!" whereupon the door opened and Harper
entered.

"So you are turning out again," he said, after standing and looking at
me a moment.  "How do you find yourself?"

"Oh! ever so much better," I replied; "indeed, I think I may say that I
am practically all right again.  The soreness of my chest is all but
gone, and--"

"Let me feel your pulse," he commanded; and I stretched out my arm to
him.

He laid his finger on my pulse and kept it there for about half a
minute.

"Yes," he said, "you'll do; nothing very much the matter with you.  Now,
look here, boy, Mrs Vansittart has instructed me to come and see how
you are getting on, and to say that if you feel equal to it, she would
like you to join the saloon party at dinner to-night--just themselves,
you and I, you know, alone.  The fact is that they are all eager to tell
you what they feel about your exploit of this morning, and they will not
be happy until they have done so.  Do you feel equal to the ordeal; or
shall I go back and say that they must excuse you for a little while
longer?  I think you can stand it, you know.  What say you?"

"Oh, yes!"  I replied, "I dare say I can stand it.  I suppose it will
have to come sometime, so I might as well get it over and done with.
But, I say, Doctor, just give them a hint to go easy with their thanks,
will you, there's a good fellow.  If there is one thing I hate more than
anything else, it is being made a fuss of.  You understand me?"

"Why, of course I _do_, my dear chap," was the reply.  "It is
frightfully trying, I know; but you mustn't grudge them the satisfaction
of expressing their gratitude to you--see?  I'll take care that they
shall not carry the thing too far.  I'll tell 'em that you're not in
condition to stand very much excitement just yet.  Well, then, so long.
See you again later."

As soon as I had finished dressing I seated myself in the very
comfortable revolving chair in front of my writing desk, to await the
second bugle call to dinner; but I had scarcely done so when a steward
came along to my cabin, bearing a medicine glass containing a draught
which he said the doctor had sent me, with instructions that I was to
take it at once.  I accordingly tossed it off; and a few minutes later
the second dinner call sounded, and I made my way aft and up the
companion way to the drawing-room, where I found Mrs Vansittart, her
daughter, Monroe, and the doctor already assembled.

As one of the stewards flung open the door and announced me, Mrs
Vansittart came forward, seized my hands in both of hers, and looked up
into my face with eyes that were swimming with tears.  For a moment her
lips quivered, speechless; then, recovering command of herself, she
said:

"Welcome--a thousand welcomes, Mr Leigh!  Doctor Harper has explained
to us that it is only by making a great effort you find yourself able to
meet us to-night and give us a chance to express our lifelong gratitude
to you for your noble, gallant deed."  Again her emotion overcame her;
and presently, after a brave but ineffectual struggle to be formal and
restrained, she suddenly let herself go, and, bursting into tears,
exclaimed:

"Oh! you dear, dear boy, Walter, how can I ever thank you enough?  I am
a happy, grateful woman to-night, for the doctor has just assured me
that Julius will certainly recover; whereas, but for you, he would--
would--have been--" She could get no further; so in lieu of words the
dear lady lifted my hands to her lips and kissed them repeatedly.  Then,
to my intense relief, Harper stepped forward, and, gently taking her by
the arm, led her to a seat, saying:

"Now, my dear lady, this will never do, you know.  You must pull
yourself together, or I shall have another case upon my sick list.  If I
had suspected that this was going to happen I would not have allowed
Leigh to come to you so soon.  This has been a very trying day for you,
I know, but--"

"Yes, it has, Doctor," she sobbed, "and of course it has upset me a bit;
but just leave me alone for a minute or two, and I shall be all right
again."

While she was saying this, Miss Anthea came forward, and, frankly
extending her hand, expressed her own thanks to me for having saved her
brother's life.  "And, Mr Leigh," she continued in a low voice, "I take
back every one of those horrid things that I've said about Englishmen in
your hearing.  I am downright ashamed of myself.  Will you forgive me?"

"Why, of course I will, very freely and willingly," I said.  "Please
forget all about them, as I shall."

"Thank you!" she said.  "My brother--"

But at this moment Marsh flung open the door, and, in his most
impressive manner, announced that dinner was served, thus putting an end
to what I felt to be a most embarrassing situation.

"You are to take me down to dinner, if you please, Mr Leigh," said Miss
Anthea, linking her arm in mine.  "I insisted upon it," she explained,
"because I want to make you understand how sorry and ashamed I am at the
way I have behaved to you all through the voyage--"

"But," I said, "I thought it was agreed that that should be all
forgotten."

"So it shall be," she said, "since you are so generous as to wish it.
But before we entirely relegate the matter to oblivion, I want to
explain that my stupid prejudice against Englishmen is not at all
founded upon experience, for the few Englishmen whom I have met--true,
they have been very few--have all been unexceptionable.  I don't know
why it is, but it seems to be the fashion for us Americans to speak and
think of Englishmen as being of a different clay from ourselves,
something infinitely inferior to us in every respect--effete, and all
that sort of thing; and so much is this the case that a good many of us
really come to believe it at last.  There!  I have made my confession,
cried _peccavi_, and have been forgiven; and I feel ever so much
happier.  Now, please tell me about yourself.  I want to know whether
you have quite recovered from the effect of your dreadful exertions this
morning.  My!  I don't believe I shall ever forget how I felt when I
rushed up on deck to find out what all the confusion was about, and saw
you swimming in the water, ever so far away, with Julius hanging over
your shoulder."



CHAPTER FIVE.

WE FALL IN WITH A DERELICT; AND MEET WITH AN ACCIDENT.

That evening, short though it was--for Harper insisted that we should
all retire early--was the most delightful that I had ever spent,
although everybody would persist in talking of what they termed my
"exploit", the ladies telling me over and over again how profound was
their gratitude to me for saving the life of the being who was
evidently, to them, the most important person in the world, while the
men said all sorts of complimentary and flattering things about my
courage in plunging overboard in such a tremendous sea, and so on, so
that my cheeks were aflame with blushes all the time.  But the absolute
sincerity of their gratitude and admiration and the friendly warmth of
their feeling toward me were so transparently evident in everything they
said, that despite the feeling of embarrassment that oppressed me, I was
very happy, the more so that nothing was said or even hinted at
concerning a reward for what I had done.  For--perhaps because of my
youth--my pride was intensely sensitive; and while I greatly valued
their gratitude and friendship--and I may as well be frank enough to
add, their admiration--any hint of reward would have wounded my
self-respect to the quick.

In consequence of the doctor's injunction as to our early retirement
that night, we did not adjourn to the drawing-room, as usual, but when
the cloth was removed Mrs Vansittart announced her intention of
remaining with us while we sipped our coffee and Harper and Monroe
smoked their cigars; and Miss Anthea also remained.  And it was then
that I learned how very narrow had been the escape of the lad Julius
from drowning.

It appeared that when, owing to the sudden and violent lurch of the
ship, he had been hurled athwart the deck and against the lee rail of
the poop, the impact of his body upon the hard wood was so severe that
the breath was completely knocked out of him, while the pain must have
been so great as practically to paralyse him for the moment and render
him quite unable to do anything to help himself.  Hence the probability
was that, once in the water, he would have sunk for good and all, and
that but for my promptitude in diving after him he would never again
have been seen.  And when at length he was got aboard, he was so nearly
gone that Harper's skill and resources were taxed to their uttermost for
more than two hours before any sign of returning animation manifested
itself; while it was not until the afternoon was well advanced that the
medico was able to assert with assurance that the lad would recover.
Even so, there was the probability that, with all the care and skilful
treatment he could possibly receive, it would be at least three or four
days before Julius could be up and about again.

According to routine, it was my eight hours out that night; but Harper's
fiat had already gone forth that I was to spend the whole night in my
bunk.  Therefore upon leaving the dining-room I at once retired to my
cabin, turned in, and slept soundly until I was called at eight o'clock
on the following morning, when I arose, thoroughly recuperated, and
feeling as well as ever.

The first thing I noticed, while dressing, was that it was a brilliantly
fine morning, for the sunshine was streaming powerfully in through my
port, flooding the cabin with its radiance; and the next thing was that
the ship's motion was easy and buoyant, from which I inferred that the
gale was over and that we had passed beyond the area over which it had
swept.  But in this last supposition I was mistaken, as was to appear
later.  Still, when I went on deck everything went to justify the
belief, for the sky was cloudless, the wind had sunk to a royal breeze
from the eastward, the sea had gone down, leaving nothing but a long low
northerly swell, and we were reeling off our twelve knots easily and
comfortably, as I learned had been the case ever since midnight.

When I climbed to the poop, Mrs Vansittart was already there, attired
in a fine-weather rig of white, with a white cover on her yachting cap.
She immediately came up to me and, shaking hands, expressed the hope
that I had entirely recovered from the effects of yesterday's ducking
and exertions.  Then, as I replied in the affirmative and in return
enquired how her son was progressing, she deftly drew me aft to the
taffrail, out of earshot of Briscoe, the second mate, who was sourly
regarding us both, and said:

"Now, Walter, there is just a word or two that I want to say to you, and
this is as good an opportunity as any to say it.  I will not repeat what
I said to you last night in reference to my gratitude to you for saving
dear Julius's life, for I hope I then made it quite clear to you that I
shall always regard myself as under an obligation to you which it will
be quite impossible for me ever adequately to repay.  But this is what I
wish you to understand.  I have decided that in the interests of good
discipline, and to guard against the possibility of arousing unworthy
jealousy,"--here, whether by accident or design, she allowed her gaze to
rest for a moment upon the second mate's somewhat ungainly figure--"I
shall treat you, while on duty, precisely as I do my other officers,
making no distinction whatever in my behaviour between you and them.  I
feel sure that you would prefer it so; would you not?  Of course.  Very
well, then, that is clearly understood between us; but I thought it best
to mention the matter, so that there shall be no misapprehension.

"And now, as to Julius.  The dear boy is very much better, I am thankful
to say; but Dr Harper thinks it is best that he should remain in bed
for to-day at least.  I find that he has not the faintest recollection
of what happened to him after he fell into the water until he came to
himself in his bed, so I have told him everything, and made it perfectly
clear to him that he owes his life to you.  Of course he is grateful,
and wishes you to go down and see him a little later on in order that he
may personally thank you; but--well--if he should seem not quite so
grateful to you as he ought to be I beg that you will not think badly of
him, Walter.  Having been unconscious all the time that he was in the
water, I can quite understand--cannot you?--that he is unable to
appreciate very clearly the awful risk you ran in effecting his rescue,
and the magnitude of his indebtedness to you.  And--yes--there is
another thing.  He is an only son--and--well, I am beginning to think
that perhaps we have all united together to spoil him a bit, so that,
you see--"

The poor lady was becoming more and more embarrassed with every word she
uttered, I therefore thought it high time to come to her relief; so I
said:

"Dear madam, I beg that you will not distress yourself by attempting any
further explanation.  I see exactly how the matter stands; and believe
me, I shall not be in the smallest degree disappointed if I find that
Julius's gratitude is less eloquent in its expression than your own.
After all, he is still very young; he has no knowledge of what actually
happened, except what you have told him; and I doubt very much whether
any boy of his age possesses the capacity to conjure up a very lively
feeling of gratitude for an obligation of which he knows nothing except
from hearsay.  Therefore I hope that you will not allow yourself to
worry over any seeming lukewarmness on his part."

"Thank you, Walter; a thousand thanks!" she said, laying her hand upon
my arm.  "It is generous of you to feel about it as you do, and it
increases the load of my obligation to you.  But I see that you
perfectly understand, so I will say no more about it.  As soon as Dr
Harper says you can see Julius, I will send for you."

The interview with Julius took place shortly after six bells in the
forenoon watch, the boy's mother and the doctor being present; and after
what the former had said to me by way of preparation, I was not at all
surprised to find that Master Julius's thanks were expressed in a very
perfunctory, offhand manner, with not much of the ring of sincerity
about them.  But I made allowances for him, for I saw that the lad was
still only in the early stage of convalescence; also, it was perfectly
clear that he did not in the least realise the fact that he had all but
lost his life.

The cabin in which he lay was very large, light, airy, and most
beautifully furnished, with every convenience and luxury that the most
fastidious person could possibly desire; and it was quite painful to see
its occupant, on his handsome and capacious brass bedstead, under a most
beautiful embroidered silk coverlet, and surrounded by everything that
heart could wish for, lying there wan, peevish, irritable, dissatisfied
with everybody and everything, seemingly because his doting parents had
gratified his every whim and humoured his every caprice.  It was quite
evident that he regarded me with almost if not quite as great distaste
as ever; he even seemed to consider it a grievance that he owed his life
to a despised Britisher; and seeing how acutely his mother was
distressed at his ungracious manner toward me, I contented myself by
saying a few words of sympathy with him on his illness, and brought my
visit to a speedy close.

Five bells in the afternoon watch had just been struck, and I was once
more on duty, when a man who had been sent aloft to attend to some small
matter hailed the deck from the main topsail yard to report that, some
ten miles distant, and broad on our weather beam, there was something
that had the appearance of a dismasted wreck.  In reply to this the
skipper, who was on deck, requested Kennedy to take the ship's telescope
up into the main topmast crosstrees and ascertain what the object really
was.  This was done; and in due time the mate came down and reported
that the object, as seen through the glass, proved to be a biggish lump
of a craft, either a ship or a barque, totally dismasted, with the
wreckage of her spars still floating alongside, and to all appearance
derelict.  We at once hauled our wind, and shortly afterward tacked; and
by eight bells we were up with the wreck and hove to within biscuit-toss
to leeward of the craft.  Then Briscoe, the second mate, in charge of
one of the whalers, was sent away to give the derelict--for such she
seemed to be--an overhaul.

The craft was a wooden vessel, of about our own tonnage, painted black
with a broad white ribbon chequered with false ports; she had a Dutch
look about her; and, from her model, was evidently somewhat elderly.
She had been ship-rigged, and from the appearance of the wreckage
alongside had been caught unawares, very probably by the recent
hurricane, and dismasted.  She had a short, full poop, and as she rolled
heavily toward us we caught sight of what looked like the shattered
framework of a deckhouse close abaft the stump of her foremast; also,
there were the remains of two boats dangling from davits on her
quarters; from all of which appearances we concluded that she had passed
through a pretty desperate experience.

But what had become of her crew?  There had been no sign of them when we
closed with and hailed her, nor had any of them appeared since; yet the
wreckage of the boats hanging from her davits made it difficult for us
to believe that they had abandoned the ship.  True, there was no sign of
a longboat such as is usually stowed on the main-hatch of a merchantman,
but we could hardly believe that the crew had taken to her in preference
to the two quarter boats; for after the fall of the spars it would have
been difficult to launch so heavy a boat, unless indeed they had run her
overboard, fisherman fashion, through the wide gap in her bulwarks
amidships on both sides, where not only the planking but also the
stanchions had been swept away.

Shortly after the departure of Briscoe we drifted into a position which
enabled us to get a view of the stranger's stern.  This confirmed our
first surmise respecting her origin, for beneath a row of smashed cabin
windows we read the words: "Anna Waarden.  Amsterdam."

Briscoe remained aboard the wreck about three-quarters of an hour; and,
upon his return, reported that the craft was derelict, and that there
was nothing to show how the crew had left her, except that it appeared
to have been with the utmost suddenness, for there was no sign of their
having taken anything with them.  Even the ship's papers--which he found
in the captain's stateroom and brought away with him--had been left
behind; and that the disaster could only have occurred very recently was
proved by the logbook, which had been entered up to within a few hours
of the moment when the hurricane struck us, while Briscoe had found the
chronometer still going.

He added that he had sounded the well and found barely a foot of water
in it; and that, after careful examination, he had come to the
conclusion that the hull was sound.  If Mrs Vansittart would supply him
with a crew, he believed he could fit the craft with a jury rig and take
her into port.  The logbook showed that she had sailed from Batavia,
homeward bound for Amsterdam, sixteen days before the date upon which we
fell in with her; while her papers made it clear that she was laden with
a cargo quite rich enough to justify the attempt at salvage.  The result
of this report was that Mrs Vansittart summoned the crew aft, explained
to them, through Kennedy, the nature of the second mate's report and his
request to be allowed to salve the hull and cargo, and then called for
volunteers for the job.

The prospect of salvage money proved tempting enough to induce some
twenty men to come forward, of whom Kennedy chose fifteen, including the
boatswain's and carpenter's mates; whereupon the purser was instructed
to make up the men's accounts to date and pay them off.  While the first
part of this business--namely, the making up of the accounts--was being
attended to, those who had volunteered went below and packed their kits,
then brought them on deck and threw them into the first cutter, which
Mrs Vansittart gave them, after which they went aboard the Hollander
and got to work.

The arrangement was that if Briscoe found the ship sound, he was, if
possible, to follow us to Colombo.  If the yacht should be there upon
his arrival, he was to turn over his salvaged vessel to the proper
authorities, and, with his crew, rejoin the _Stella Maris_.  But if for
any reason this plan should be found impracticable, he was to act
according to his own discretion, preferably navigating the ship to the
nearest port at which she could be refitted, and thence taking her home.

Half an hour afterward Grimwood, the purser, reported that he had made
up his accounts and withdrawn from the safe the amount of money required
to pay off the volunteers, whereupon I was ordered to take the whaler,
which was still in the water, veered astern, convey the purser aboard
the other craft, and, while he was engaged upon his business, take a
look round and consult with Briscoe, to determine whether the latter had
all that he was likely to require.

Investigation showed, as was of course to be expected, that the craft
was amply supplied with provisions and water for a long voyage, and also
that both were undamaged, while she was also well found in every other
respect.  As soon, therefore, as the purser had finished his task--not
without having some of his accounts disputed--we bade the adventurers
farewell, wished them a safe and prosperous voyage, climbed down into
our boat, and returned to the yacht, which, after I had made my report
to the skipper, filled away and proceeded for Colombo, just as the sun
was dipping below the horizon.

I may mention here that we saw no more of Briscoe and his crew.  They
did not turn up at Colombo during our sojourn there; and it was not
until long afterward that I learned that, after a very protracted and
adventurous voyage, the _Anna Waarden_ safely reached Durban, where she
refitted, ultimately arriving safely in Amsterdam.

At ten o'clock in the morning of the fifth day after parting company
with Briscoe, we entered Colombo harbour and came to an anchor in six
fathoms.  The boy Julius was by this time sufficiently recovered to show
once more on deck, but his health was still such as to cause his mother
some anxiety; therefore, after anxious consultation with Harper, it was
arranged that he should be taken up to Kandy and given a fortnight's
thorough change of air and scene.  The whole party--that is to say, Mrs
Vansittart, her son and daughter, and Monroe--therefore packed up their
traps and went ashore immediately after luncheon; and we saw no more of
them for a full fortnight.  At least we saw no more of them down aboard
the yacht; but after they had been gone some three or four days Kennedy
received an invitation to go up to Kandy, to dine and spend the next day
there; and when he returned he brought with him a similar invitation for
me, it being now impossible for us both to be out of the ship together,
since, immediately upon Briscoe's departure, I had been temporarily
promoted to the position of second mate, with the promise of permanent
confirmation in the event of Briscoe not rejoining us.  So in my turn,
up I went to Kandy, and enjoyed the trip immensely, being most warmly
received by everybody except Julius, who seemed wholly unable to conquer
his antipathy toward me.

When the party returned to the yacht they were all, Julius included,
looking vastly better for their sojourn among the hills; indeed the boy
appeared better in health than I had ever seen him before, and I thought
there was a shade of improvement in his temper also.  They came aboard
about half-past five o'clock in the evening, and, we having been
previously warned by letter, the moment that they stepped in on deck we
hove up our anchor, started our engine, and proceeded to sea, in order
that we might avoid spending the night in the insufferable heat of the
harbour.  We kept the engine going until we had rounded Dondra Head and
were heading north, with Adam's Peak square off our port beam, when we
made sail, bound for Calcutta, where we arrived exactly a week later.

We lay at Calcutta a whole month, during which Mrs Vansittart and her
party toured India from end to end, seeing, according to her own
account, everything worth seeing.  And while she was thus engaged, we of
the wardroom did our modest best to enjoy ourselves, first of all seeing
everything that was worth seeing in and about the city; and afterward
engaging a native pilot to take us in the motor launch to the
Sunderbunds, where, braving malaria, snakes, and all other perils, we
spent a week shooting, the four of us who constituted the party bagging
seven tigers between us, to say nothing of other and less formidable
game.

From Calcutta we sailed for Moulmein, where we remained four days,
getting a hurried glimpse of Burma and the Burmese; then we sailed for
Singapore, at the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula.  But on the
night of our third day out from Moulmein, while we were bowling merrily
along with a spanking wind abeam, reeling off a good twelve knots by the
log, we struck something which we conjectured to be a piece of
practically submerged wreckage; for when we afterwards came to
investigate the matter, the look-out on the forecastle head vowed by all
his gods that, although he was keenly alert, he had seen nothing.  The
incident occurred during the middle watch, while Kennedy was in charge,
consequently I was below and asleep at the time.  But I was awakened by
the shock, although it was not very severe.  Kennedy rushed aft to the
taffrail to see if he could catch a glimpse of the object, whatever it
might be; but although the night was starlit it was too dark to see very
distinctly, and although he imagined that, as he stood there at gaze, he
saw something break water some eight or ten fathoms astern, he could not
be sure.

He wheeled about, and, running forward to the break of the poop, gave
orders to let fly the royal and topgallant halyards and sheets and to
back the mainyard, also instructing the carpenter to sound the pump
well.  For a few moments, while these things were doing, there was some
confusion, what with the watch bustling about the decks, and those below
rushing up on deck to see what had happened--among them being Mrs
Vansittart, who appeared on the poop wrapped in a dressing-gown.  But
presently the ship was brought to the wind and hove to, and the
confusion began to subside, especially when the carpenter reported that
the ship was making no water.

Mrs Vansittart, apprehensive that we might have run down some small
native craft, ordered our remaining cutter to be lowered and sent me
away in charge to investigate; but after pulling about for more than an
hour I was unable to find anything, and at length returned to the ship
in response to a rocket recall.  Meanwhile, the carpenter had been
below, and, after a most careful investigation, had returned with the
report that he could find no indication that the ship had sustained the
slightest damage; consequently, upon my return, the cutter was hoisted
up and sail was again made.  But on the morrow, with the arrival of
daylight, the discovery was made that all three blades of our propeller
had been completely shorn off, a mishap which, a little later on,
resulted in landing us in what might have been a very awkward mess.

Possibly this accident may have had the effect of reminding our lady
skipper of something that had all but slipped her memory.  Be that as it
may, the loss of our propeller blades had no sooner been discovered than
she issued certain orders, in response to which several heavy cases were
swayed up on deck and opened, with the result that when the sun went
down that night the _Stella Maris_ was an armed ship, sporting two
main-deck batteries of beautiful four-inch quick-firing guns of the most
up-to-date pattern, six of a side, with two one-pound Hotchkisses on her
forecastle, and four Maxims on her poop.



CHAPTER SIX.

KENNEDY'S BANSHEE.

It was shortly after noon, on our fifth day out from Moulmein, and we
were just within the Malacca Strait, when the wind began to fail us; and
by two bells in the first dog-watch it had fallen stark calm, and the
yacht's head was slowly boxing the compass.  We were close enough in
with the land to see from the deck the ridge of the mountain range that
forms the backbone, as it were, of the Malay Peninsula, though not the
coast line itself; but there were quite a number of islands in sight,
some of which were of respectable size, while there were others that
could not have had an area of more than a few acres--some of them indeed
being scarcely more than rocks.  Most of them, however, seemed
inhabited, for even on some of the smallest we were able, with the help
of our telescopes, to distinguish one or more ramshackle huts, some
perched on the top of long, stilt-like poles; also there were at least a
hundred small fishing craft in sight, as well as a few proas, probably
coasting craft, becalmed like ourselves.

"Now," said Mrs Vansittart, addressing herself to Kennedy and me as we
sat upon the poop rail, longing for the sun to go down and leave us the
comparative coolness of the night, "here is just where we miss our
propeller.  If it had not been for that accident I guess we could have
started the engine; and we should at least have had the draught caused
by the ship's passage through the water to cool us; whereas we shall
have to wait where we are and just simmer until a breeze springs up
again.  And I guess I see no sign of one as yet, while the glass stands
very high.  Mr Leigh, do you happen to know whether there is such a
thing as a dry dock at Singapore?"

"I have never been to Singapore," I replied, "so I cannot say for
certain; but I seem to recollect having heard such a thing mentioned.
Does not the Directory say anything about it?"

"There now!  I declare to goodness that I never thought to look,"
exclaimed the lady.  "But," she continued, "I'll go and do so now; and
if there happens to be a dock there big enough to take in this vessel, I
guess I will have the _Stella Maris_ docked and cleaned and another
propeller fixed.  We've got a spare one down below; and I guess
Mackenzie is man enough to fit it, once we get into harbour, even if
there is no dock--though I hope there will be one.  I'll turn up the
Directory now, and see what it says;" and therewith she descended to the
chart-room, fanning herself with a palm-leaf fan as she went.

As soon as Mrs Vansittart was fairly out of earshot, Kennedy turned to
me and said:

"Ever been through here before?"

"No," I replied.  "The nearest I have ever been to it was two passages
through Sunda on a voyage to and from Canton."

"M-m!" returned Kennedy.  "Did annything out of the common happen to ye
that voyage?"

"N-o, I think not," said I, trying to remember precisely what, if
anything, had happened.  "Why do you ask?"

"Well," replied my companion, "chiefly, I think, because yonder's the
Malay coast, and here we are, a valuable ship, becalmed, and helpless
because we've lost the blades of our propeller."

"Oh! but that is sheer nonsense," I said.  "You are thinking about
pirates, I suppose.  But, my dear chap, with the incoming of steam,
piracy went out, because it no longer paid to be a pirate.  You never
hear of such a thing in these days."

"Not very often, I admit," agreed Kennedy.  "Yet it was only about a
week before we sailed from New York that I read in the _Herald_ a story
of a ship being picked up derelict, in this same Strait; and when she
was boarded, her crew, consisting of twenty-seven men, were found lying
about her decks, murdered; while her main-hatchway was open, and the
signs that she had been plundered were as plain as large print."

"Indeed!"  I said.  "I do not remember hearing anything of that case.
Anyhow, it only happens once in a blue moon.  And I don't think that,
with our pretty double row of teeth and our Maxims and Hotchkisses for
close-quarter fighting, we need be very greatly afraid."

"No," agreed Kennedy, with a laugh.  "I guess ye're right there, me lad.
Wid those guns, and hands enough to fight them, I calculate we are well
fixed, and could beat off a whole fleet of proas.  But I'm rale sorry
that the skipper didn't think of havin' them mounted before, so that the
men might have had a chance to practise the workin' of them a bit.  An'
there's another thing--But here comes the skipper; I guess I'll spake to
her about it."

At that moment Mrs Vansittart returned to the poop with the information
that, according to the Directory, Singapore possessed a dry dock capable
of taking in the _Stella Maris_; and, that being the case, she would
have the ship docked and the spare propeller fitted as soon as possible
after our arrival.

"And a very wise thing, too, ma'am," agreed Kennedy.  "I am only sorry
that we haven't got it shipped this very minute."

"Are you?" returned Mrs Vansittart, looking up sharply as she detected
the serious tone of the first mate's voice.  "Why?  Any reason in
particular?"

"Sure!" answered Kennedy.  "As I was sayin' to Leigh a minute ago,
yonder is the Malay coast, and here are we, becalmed and unable to move.
Now, I don't want to raise a scare, there's no need for it, but I hold
that it's better to be ready for a thing, even if it doesn't happen,
than to be caught unprepared.  No doubt ye're well aware, ma'am, that
the Malays have the name of bein' always ready to undertake a piratical
job if they think there's half a chance of ut bein' successful; and I
wouldn't be a bit surprised if anybody was to tell me that hundreds of
eyes have been watchin' us all this afternoon and their owners
speculatin' as to the sort of reception they'd meet with if a few
hundred were to come off to us some time durin' the small hours of the
mornin'.  Av coorse we may not be here then; a breeze may spring up and
carry us far enough away.  But then again, it mayn't, and in my opinion
the bettin' is against it; therefore, if I may be allowed to offer a
suggestion, it would be somethin' like this.

"I'd recommend ye to send for Bledsoe, the gunner, and ordher him to
tell off crews to every one of these guns.  Then let him explain to the
captain of each gun how the thing works; and afther he has done that,
send him down to the magazine and let him sort out a few rounds of
ammunition for each gun and have them handy to send up on deck.  Also
let each gun be loaded, ready in case of need.  If not needed, the
charges can easily be withdrawn and sent below again to-morrow, while,
if they are, they'll be ready.  Also, it might be quite worth while to
have the small arms ready for servin' out at a moment's notice."

"My!" exclaimed Mrs Vansittart, "are you quite serious, Mr Kennedy?
Because, if you are, it sounds as though we might be in for a real big
fight.  What do you think, Mr Leigh?"

"I fully agree with Mr Kennedy, madam," said I; "not so much because I
anticipate an attack upon the ship, as that I clearly see the force of
his argument as to the advantage of preparedness."

"Yes," agreed Mrs Vansittart; "I guess you are both right, and I will
act upon your advice, Mr Kennedy.  Please send for the gunner and tell
him what to do.  I had something of this sort in my mind when I gave the
order for those guns to be put on board."

By the promptitude with which Kennedy sent for the gunner, and, when he
arrived, mustered the crew, I could clearly see that the good man was
distinctly anxious, although I did not believe he had much cause to be
so.  Still, I quite agreed with him that the wise and proper thing was
to be prepared for every possible contingency, and I cheerfully did my
share of the work.  Fortunately, Bledsoe was an ex-man-o'-war's-man, and
had held a gunner's warrant in the United States navy; he therefore knew
his business from A to Z, and gave us all the help that we needed.

First, all hands were mustered and paraded; then a crew was told off to
each gun, including the Hotchkisses and Maxims--Kennedy undertaking the
supervision of the Hotchkisses, and I that of the Maxims.  Bledsoe next
took each gun's crew separately in hand, showed one how to work their
weapon, and left them to practise the movements of loading, sighting,
firing, and sponging, while he passed on to the next, until both
batteries were assiduously engaged in repeating the several motions time
after time.  Finally he worked his way round to me, explained the
mechanism of the Maxim, and showed how the belts of cartridges were
fixed and the gun was handled.  It was very simple, and I picked the
whole thing up in a few minutes, the weapon being to so large an extent
automatic.  Finally every piece was loaded, ten rounds for each were
brought on deck, the covers were put on, and the hands were piped down.

It was my eight hours in that night; and by this time it had come to be
a regular custom and a recognised thing for me to dine in the saloon on
such occasions, that is to say, every other night, the arrangement with
regard to Kennedy being similar, so that he and I dined in the saloon on
alternate nights, the doctor, the purser, and the two engineers forming
the other guests.  Thus as soon as our exercise with the guns was over I
rushed off below, took a tepid bath, and then dressed for dinner,
completing my preparations just in time to respond to the second bugle
call.  There was some disposition to make merry over Kennedy's "scare",
as the boy Julius would persist in designating it; but as the lad was
the only one who seemed to regard the matter purely from the jocular
point of view, the conversation was soon steered in another and more
agreeable direction, and we spent a very pleasant evening, breaking up
shortly after ten o'clock.

Before retiring to my cabin I went up on deck to take a look round.  It
was a most glorious night, still a breathless calm, the heavens
perfectly clear, save for a low cloud bank hanging over the land, the
stars shining brilliantly, and a half-moon shedding a soft, mysterious
radiance upon the scene powerful enough to enable us to distinguish with
tolerable clearness the nearer islands and some half a dozen craft lying
becalmed within two miles of us, inshore.  The moon would set about
midnight; yet even then we should still have the stars, if the night
remained clear.

Kennedy was seated in a deck chair, with a powerful night glass reposing
upon his knees, when I went up on the poop; and he informed me that
although he had been keeping a careful watch upon matters inshore, he
had seen nothing whatever of a suspicious character.

"But then," he explained, "I didn't expect to.  If those Malays are as
'cute as I take them to be, and are cherishing designs against us, you
may bet your bottom dollar that they'll be careful not to do anything
that would appear to us in the least suspicious.  I may be a fool, but
things look almost too quiet, ashore there, to be wholly satisfactory to
me.  I would rather see a little more movement, a fishing boat or two
coming out, or something like that.  Why, I've known cases where, a ship
bein' becalmed as we are, widin a few miles of the shore, the natives
have come off in scores wid fruit and fish and curios to sell; but those
chaps ashore there have kept most religiously away from us.  Ah, well!
that cloud yonder is risin'--slowly, I admit, still it's risin', and I
hope it'll bring a breeze wid it, if it's only enough to give us
steerage way.  I don't like things as they are, not the least little
bit."

"Why, man," I exclaimed, "what is the matter with you to-night?  If I
didn't know better I should be almost inclined to think you were
afraid!"

"Afraid, is ut?" he laughed.  "Begorra! what would I be afraid of, in
such a ship as this, wid all those beautiful guns and what not to
purtect us?  No, Leigh, it's not afraid I am, as you know well; and yet
I have a curious feelin'--I can't describe ut, but it's a sort of
feelin' of--Howly Sailor!--what in the nation is that?  Did ye hear it,
boy?"

Hear it?  I should think so; and so had every other individual on deck,
if one might judge by the sudden silence that fell upon the men grouped
about the fore deck, followed by an equally sudden fusillade of low,
quick ejaculations and the swift rush of bare feet to the rails.  It
began as a low, weird moan, which rose rapidly to a sort of sobbing wail
and culminated in a sharp, unearthly scream that sent cold shivers
running down my spine and caused the hairs of my head to bristle upon my
scalp.  It seemed to come from the water almost immediately under our
bows.  I saw a little crowd of men spring up the ladder leading to the
topgallant forecastle, rush to the rail, and peer eagerly down into the
black water.  Then one of them straightened up suddenly and hailed:

"Poop, there! did ye hear that strange cry, sir?"

"Ay, ay," answered Kennedy, "I heard it right enough.  D'ye suppose I'm
deaf?  What is ut, anyway, that's makin' it?"

There was a brief but animated confab on the forecastle, and then the
voice that had hailed came back:

"Can't see anything anywhere, sir; but the sound seemed to come from
away yonder, on the starboard bow."

Instantly there arose a hubbub of protesting voices, one of which,
louder than the rest, could be heard exclaiming:

"You chump! what d'ye mean by sayin' that?  Don't ye know the difference
between starboard and port?  It was away off here to port that the sound
came from."

But this assertion in turn was contradicted by the first speaker and his
adherents, so that in less than a minute a strenuous argument was
proceeding on the forecastle, both parties to which, it seemed to me,
were in the wrong.

"Ay, ay, there ye are," commented Kennedy.  "Nobody knows where the
sound came from.  'Twas the _banshee_, me bhoy, that's what ut was; and
some Oirishman aboard this good ship is goin' to lose the number of his
mess shortly."

"Oh, nonsense!"  I exclaimed.  "You surely do not believe that--"

I had got so far with my protest when again the blood-curdling cry rang
out over the dark water, this time sounding more distant than before.
Once more a clamorous dispute arose on the forecastle as to the
direction from which the sound proceeded, for, curiously enough, no two
individuals seemed quite agreed upon the point, while even I felt it
impossible to make an authoritative statement as to whether the cry
arose from ahead or astern.  And, in the midst of the discussion, up
came the saloon party, _en masse_, to enquire what was the matter.

I was, for some not very definite reason, glad that Kennedy did not
again assert his _banshee_ theory; he merely stated the facts of the
case, leaving the others to draw their own conclusions.  The boy,
Julius, no sooner heard the chief mate's statement than he was ready
with an explanation.  In a high-pitched tone of voice, which could be
distinctly heard from one end of the ship to the other, he positively
asserted that the cries were those of a sea bird, although I had never
in my life heard a sea bird utter such terrible sounds, nor had the men
forward, if one might judge by the low, contemptuous laughter from the
forecastle with which the assertion was greeted.  But although Kennedy
demurred, the boy insisted that he was right; he knew all about it, and
finally rushed off to his cabin for some book, a certain passage in
which, he declared, would support his contention.  And I seized the
opportunity thus afforded to retire in good order to my own cabin.

When I went on deck again, at eight bells, the moon was just on the
point of ruddily setting, while the cloud bank which I had noticed
earlier in the evening hanging low over the land had risen until its
upper edge was almost over our mast-heads, blotting out about half the
stars.  It was now so dark away to the eastward that nothing whatever
could be seen, not even the faintest loom of the nearest islands; while,
if it had not been for a faintly glimmering light here and there, we
could not have told that there were any craft of any kind in our
neighbourhood.  There had been no repetition of those strange, weird
sounds that had startled us all earlier in the night, so Kennedy
informed me; but he was still firmly convinced that they had emanated
from the banshee, and when I laughingly tried to argue him out of his
conviction he took me up rather sharply with the assertion that, had I
been of Irish birth or extraction, I would know better than to make
light of the matter.  To my amazement, he seemed quite depressed and
low-spirited at the mere mention of it, so I quickly dropped the subject
and asked him if during his watch he had observed anything to confirm
his earlier suspicion that we might possibly be attacked.  He admitted
that he had not, but added:

"I niver expected to see annything so long as the light lasted.  It's
now that they'll be beginnin' to make a musther if those ginks mane
comin' off to us at all, so for the love o' Mike keep your eyes skinned
and your ears wide open all through your watch.  We can keep them off
aisily, if we only get warnin' enough; but if by anny chance they can
conthrive to creep up close enough to take us unawares and lay us
aboard, they may take the ship through sheer force av numbers."

"Why," said I, "you talk as though you felt absolutely certain that an
attack will be made upon the ship!  I can't understand you a bit
to-night, and that's a fact."

"Faith, boy, I cannot undherstand mesilf," replied Kennedy, seriously.
"I've never before felt as I do this blessed night; but somehow I _know_
that something's goin' to happen.  And then, there's the banshee--"

"Oh," I interrupted, "banshee be hanged!  I thought you were much too
sensible a fellow to be moved by superstitions of any kind.  Now, take
my advice--you've got a touch of the sun.  Go down to the doc, get him
to give you a good stiff dose of quinine, and turn in.  You'll feel a
different man when you are roused at eight bells and find that the ship
is all right.  And as to anything creeping up and taking us unawares,
you may trust me to see that nothing of that sort happens.  I will keep
a bright look-out, never fear."

"Well, I hope ye will, that's all," returned Kennedy, as he stepped
toward the head of the poop ladder on his way below.  "And, by the by,
there's one precaution ye may as well take.  Unship the side lights and
stow them somewhere handy but where their gleam will not show.  They're
quite useless, since we're becalmed, unless a steamer should happen
along, and if she does ye'll see her lights and hear her propeller in
plenty of time to show her where ye are.  And mask the skylights, too.
Then, maybe, if annybody comes lookin' for us wid evil intentions,
they'll not find us.  Good night--and keep a bright look-out."

With this final caution the first mate took himself off, much to my
relief; for, truth to tell, his undisguised anxiety and uneasiness were
beginning to get a bit upon my nerves.  As soon as he was out of the way
I went forward and, in obedience to what I took to be his order, caused
the red and green side lights to be unshipped and placed inboard, just
inside the topgallant forecastle door, at the same time cautioning the
look-outs to keep their eyes skinned, as we were in somewhat dangerous
waters.  Then I went aft, masked the skylights, and slipped into the
saloon for a moment to extinguish all the lights save one, and draw the
blinds across the open ports.

This task took me less than a couple of minutes, and then I returned to
the poop and took a good look round.  But I could see nothing except
four dim glimmers of light spaced at irregular intervals, which I took
to be the lights of the becalmed craft which we had seen inshore of us
earlier in the evening.  And as for sound, there was nothing to be heard
save an occasional faint gurgle of water under the counter when the ship
lifted to the almost invisible swell, accompanied by a low flap of
canvas aloft, a gentle patter of reef points, or the slight creak of a
parral or block sheave; but so breathlessly still was the night that
these sounds, faint as they really were, sounded almost appallingly
loud.  There was not the smallest murmur of subdued talk for'ard, for
the watch had curled themselves up in the most comfortable places they
could find in order to steal a "caulk", and I did not attempt to disturb
them, knowing that at my first call they would be upon their feet in a
moment.

To keep myself awake I proceeded to pace the poop to and fro in my
rubber-soled shoes, taking care to avoid passing over that portion of
the deck which formed the roof of our lady skipper's stateroom; and
while I was thus engaged I nearly collided with a ghostly figure which
proved, upon investigation, to be that of Monroe, the tutor parson, in
pyjamas and slippers.  He explained that he found it too hot to sleep
below, so had come up on deck in the hope of being able to cool off a
bit prior to having another try.  He fell into step alongside me, and
began to talk in a low voice, presently turning the conversation to
Kennedy and the queerness of his seemingly rooted conviction that we
should be attacked.  I let him talk on until he appeared to have said
all that he had to say upon the subject and was about to go below again,
when I said to him:

"I am glad that you came up on deck, because it affords me an
opportunity to say something that Kennedy's queer talk has rather forced
upon my mind.  It is this.  If by any chance we should be attacked, will
you undertake to see that Mrs Vansittart, her daughter, and the boy
are, any or all of them, prevented from coming on deck?  Their presence
here under such circumstances could be of no possible assistance to us;
on the contrary, it would be a distinct hindrance."

"Yes," acknowledged Monroe; "I see what you mean.  But suppose that any
of them should take it into their heads to come on deck, how am I to
prevent them?  I have no authority over them, not even over the boy."

"You must bring your moral suasion to bear upon her, if need be," I
said.  "Point out to her that the beating off of a piratical attack--Oh!
hang it, what bosh I am talking, to be sure; as though there was the
least likelihood of such a thing!  The talk of that ass Kennedy seems to
have hypnotised me as well as himself!  But to return to what I was
saying--_if_ such an utterly improbable thing should happen, point out
to her that fighting is men's work, and that the presence of women and
children would be worse than useless at such a time.  Let her remain
below herself, and exercise her authority over that boy of hers to make
him stay below also.  I don't suppose that Miss Anthea would need any
persuading."

"No," agreed Monroe; "she is all right, and on the whole a very sensible
girl, despite her foolish pride.  But let me give you a hint, Leigh.  In
the event of, as you say, such an exceedingly unlikely thing as an
attack occurring, don't trust too much to my powers of persuasion, but
act upon your own responsibility.  Lock the door of the drawing-room,
and Mrs Vansittart will be unable to get out on deck, however anxious
she may be; and then slip down below and lock Master Julius into his
cabin; that is all you will need to do.  There will probably be a row
afterward, but I will back you up by saying that what you did was done
by my advice.  And now, good night!  I feel a trifle cooler than I did,
and hope I shall be able to--Hallo!  Listen!  Did you hear anything?"



CHAPTER SEVEN.

ATTACKED BY PIRATES.

We both halted and listened intently, Monroe with one foot on the top
step of the companion, on his way below.

"What did you think you heard?"  I questioned in a half-whisper.

"Well, I can scarcely say," was the low-spoken reply.  "As a matter of
fact, I am not sure that I heard anything.  I am beginning to think that
Kennedy's stupid talk must have affected us all aft here, more or less,
but it certainly seemed to me that while I was bidding you good night
just now I caught the faintest suggestion of--Ah! by Jove! there it is
again.  Did you catch it?"

"Yes," I said, "unless--But no; I don't believe it was imagination.  I
thought I heard a sound like the groaning of an oar against a thole pin,
some distance off in that direction," with a flourish of my hand toward
the east.

"Yes," agreed Monroe; "that describes the sound exactly.  Surely
Kennedy's apprehensions cannot have been well-founded, after all, can
they?"

"Don't know in the least," I returned; "but I guess we shall, very soon
now.  Meanwhile, since it must be obvious to you that I cannot possibly
leave the deck at this juncture, perhaps you will have the goodness to
slip down below and do that key-turning trick you suggested to me just
now."

"Sure!  I will," answered the parson.  "It was my advice, and I will
take the responsibility of carrying it out," and he vanished down the
companion way.

As he disappeared I went down the poop ladder at a run, hurried forward,
and made my way to the forecastle head, where I found the look-out
leaning against the guard rail with his arms folded and his chin sunk
upon his chest.  He was not asleep, for as he heard the light patter of
my shoes upon the ladder he straightened himself and turned to see who
was coming; but I had a very shrewd suspicion that the stillness of the
night had induced in him a condition very much the reverse of alertness.

"Is that Johnson?"  I demanded sharply.

"No, sir," he replied.  "I'm Maguire."

"Then, Maguire," I said, "I am afraid you have not been keeping quite so
wideawake as you ought, considering that it's your look-out.  For
instance, have you heard any unusual sounds, such as you ought to have
reported, since you came on watch?"

"No, sir," replied the man.  "And as to--"

"That will do," I interrupted.  "Now, pull yourself together and
listen."

We both set ourselves intently to listen, but before half a dozen
seconds had passed I heard loud voices--those of Monroe and the boy,
and, almost immediately afterward, that of Mrs Vansittart--the parson's
in remonstrance, the boy's in loud and angry protest, and that of the
lady in anxious enquiry.  It seemed as though Monroe had somehow
mismanaged his rather delicate task, for as I started to go aft again I
heard the lad shout, "I _will_ go on deck if I feel like it, and you,
Monroe, aren't going to stop me.  And as for the Britisher, do you think
I care what he says?"  But here Mrs Vansittart cut in with an
injunction to Julius to hold his tongue, following it up with an enquiry
as to what all the fuss was about.  I felt that it was time I took a
hand; so, cautioning Maguire to keep a bright look-out and listen for
all he was worth, I sprang down the forecastle ladder on my way aft.
And as I did so I ran into a couple of men who had just crept out from
beneath the launch, evidently curious to learn what the disturbance was
about.

Halting for a moment, I ordered the two men to rouse the watch quietly,
and stand by for an "All hands" call, and then continued on my way aft,
meeting the trio just by the foot of the poop ladder.  Mrs Vansittart
was evidently in something of a temper, for, as I joined the party, she
turned sharply and demanded:

"Is that Mr Leigh?"

"It is, madam," I replied.  "Hush, Julius!"  I continued, for the boy
also had turned angrily upon me.  "Pray stop your outcry, for Heaven's
sake!  Silence is of vital importance to us all at this moment, for we
may be on the very verge of a crisis.  Mr Monroe and I are both of
opinion that we very recently heard certain sounds that--"

"I know all about that," interrupted Mrs Vansittart; "Mr Monroe has
already explained that to me.  What I want to know now is by what right
you presumed to instruct him to lock the door of the drawing-room, and
so prevent me from coming out on deck?"

"Yes," added the boy, in that high-pitched, clamorous voice of his,
which would carry so far over the water on such a night, "and what right
have you to order me to be locked in my cabin?  Who are you, I should
like to know--"

"Craft on the port quarter--two of 'em--three--four--a whole fleet of
small craft headin' dead for us!" yelled the look-out at this moment.

"Good heavens!"  I ejaculated, "then Kennedy's extraordinary premonition
was right after all;" and, unceremoniously quitting the little group
under the break of the poop, I rushed forward, shouting:

"All hands to general quarters!  Throw open the ports.  Off with the gun
covers; slew the guns, and point them out through the ports.  Pass the
word for the gunner, and send him aft to me."  Then I turned and went
aft again, once more encountering the saloon party, now made complete by
the appearance of Miss Anthea, clad, like her mother, in a very becoming
dressing-gown.

"Madam," said I, addressing Mrs Vansittart, "there is no time for
explanation at this moment, for, unless I am very greatly mistaken, we
are about to be attacked by a fleet of pirate craft.  But I most
earnestly beseech you to retire below, taking your son and daughter with
you out of harm's way.  If my suspicions are well-founded, none of you
can be of the slightest assistance on deck, while at any moment we may
have shot flying about our ears, and--"

"Yes," the skipper agreed, "you are quite right.  Mr Leigh is perfectly
right, Julius, therefore I order you to go to your cabin at once.  And
you too, Anthea.  Mr Monroe, if Julius will not go quietly, I authorise
you to use such force as may be necessary to compel him to go.  And when
you have seen him safe in his cabin, lock him in, and bring me the key.
Now, sir,"--very haughtily to me--"be good enough to accompany me to the
poop, and let us see what justification there is for all this sudden
alarm and confusion."

It was very evident that the lady was tremendously indignant with me.
And at this, when I came to think of it, I was not greatly surprised,
for it certainly was a tremendous liberty for a second officer to
consent to, much less order, the locking of a skipper and owner in her
own cabin.  I therefore followed her, very much crestfallen, up the poop
ladder, and at once looked away out over the port quarter in search of
the supposed pirate fleet.

It was at this time so very dark that for several seconds I could see
nothing.  The moon had set, and the bank of cloud already referred to
had overspread more than half the sky; moreover, a mist had come
creeping up from the eastward, not dense enough to merit the name of
fog, yet sufficiently thick to dim the light of the stars still shining
in the western half of the heavens, while it added still more to the
darkness which gloomed away to the eastward of us.  But presently, down
in the midst of the dusky blackness broad on our port quarter, I caught
a glimpse of a small, indeterminate shape of still deeper blackness,
then another, and another, and another, until I had counted ten of them;
and concentrating my gaze intently upon them, I felt sure I could
occasionally distinguish a small, evanescent, silvery gleam like that of
sea fire stirred into brilliance by the slow passage of a moving object
through the water.

"Yes," I exclaimed, pointing, "there they come, ten of them, if not
more.  Have you any particular orders to give, madam, or will you leave
the defence of the ship to Mr Kennedy and me?"

"Why, of course I leave it to Kennedy--and you--to do the best you can,"
replied Mrs Vansittart.  "I know nothing at all about fighting tactics;
and I shall not attempt to interfere.  Further than that, I shall go
below--although I do not like the idea of quitting the deck at the
approach of an enemy--for I am sensible enough to recognise that I can
do no good up here, and should only be in the way.  But, Walter, never,
under any circumstances whatever, again dream of turning a key upon me.
It was a most unwarrantable liberty, which not even such a crisis as
this can justify; and for a few minutes I was really furiously angry
with you.  But I believe what you did was done with the very best of
intentions, so I will say no more about it.  Now, here comes Kennedy, so
I will just say a word or two to him, and then go.  Take care of
yourself, my dear boy, and see that you do not get hurt."

There was no time for me to express my gratitude to the lady for her
exceeding kindness in thus overlooking what at best could only be
described as a serious error of judgment--although, even so, I could not
refrain from reminding myself that the fault originated with Monroe--for
at that moment the first mate came bounding up the poop ladder,
struggling into his jacket as he came.

"Whoopee!" he shouted, as he reached the level of the poop.  "What did I
tell ye, bhoy?  Where are the shpalpeens?  Show 'em to me--Oh! beg your
pardon, ma'am; I didn't expect to find you here--"

"Where did you expect I should be, then, pray, Mr Kennedy?" demanded
the skipper.  "Hiding in the shaft tunnel, I suppose--"

"By the piper! ye might be in a worse place than that same, ma'am.  Up
here, for instance," interrupted Kennedy.  But Mrs Vansittart was in no
mood to discuss that unfortunate subject any further, just then at all
events; she therefore cut in upon the first mate's remarks by saying:

"Now, that will do, Mr Kennedy.  Please listen to me, for time is
pressing.  I have just been explaining to Mr Leigh that I know nothing
about fighting, therefore I shall leave you and him to do the best you
can for our defence, and go below out of the way, since I can be of no
use up here.  Good night, and take care of yourselves!  And let me know
when it is all over."  With which the lady took herself off, to our
intense relief.

"Now, then," exclaimed Kennedy, turning to me, "where are the cut-throat
pirates that I'm afther hearin' about?"

"There they are, less than half a mile off," I replied, pointing.  "They
are coming along very slowly, hoping to catch us unawares, perhaps.
But, goodness knows, that young rip, Julius, was making noise enough
just now to be heard at double that distance, and to show that some of
us at least are broad awake."  Then I briefly explained what orders I
had so far given, and waited to hear what he had to say.

"Have the small arms been served out yet?" he demanded.

"Not yet," I answered.  "But they are ready at a moment's notice."

"Right!" he approved.  "Let them be served out at once; a cutlass and a
brace of fully loaded automatics to each man, not forgettin' our noble
selves.  With these Maxims we shall not need any rifles, I guess."

I turned away to issue this order, when I was met at the head of the
poop ladder by Bledsoe, the gunner.

"You sent for me, sir?" he asked.

"I did, Bledsoe," said I.  "Come up.  Mr Kennedy is here, and he may
have some orders for you."  Then I turned to Kennedy and said:

"Here is the gunner.  I sent for him a few minutes ago, thinking you
might wish to see him.  Also, I had it in my mind to order him to send a
few portfires up on deck.  It occurred to me that if those fellows
insist on closing with us, it would be a good plan to have a hand up in
the maintop with some portfires; it would enable us to see what we are
doing."

"It would that," agreed Kennedy; "and we'll do ut.  See to it, Mr
Bledsoe, if ye plaise.  And ye may also send up some ammunition for the
four-inches and Maxims.  I guess we'll not need the Hotchkisses.
That'll do, gunner; let's have that ammunition quick.  Mr Leigh, be
good enough to attend to that matther of the shmall arms, and then come
back here and take charge of the Maxims.  It's about time we let those
ginks know that we're awake, so I'll step down to the main-deck and see
about throwin' a shot over 'em."

We descended to the main-deck together, all hands being by that time on
deck and at stations; and while I went below to attend to the sending up
and distribution of the cutlasses and automatics, Kennedy planted
himself in rear of Number 2 gun of the port battery.  A minute later the
deep, ringing report and jar of the discharge were heard and felt, but
with what effect I knew not, being on the deck beneath.  A minute later
a second gun roared overhead, and while my ears were still ringing with
the report I heard the boom of a distant gun, and listened breathlessly
for the impact of the shot.  I heard nothing, however, so concluded that
the missile had flown wide.  By the time that our third gun spoke my
task below was completed; I therefore snatched at a cutlass, buckled the
belt round my waist, took a brace of automatic pistols from the man who
was loading them, thrust them into my belt, and rushed up on deck.  I
encountered Kennedy near the foot of the poop ladder, reported to him
what I had done, and received from him the order to go up on the poop
and open fire with the Maxims forthwith.

"We've hit one of thim, and she seems to be sinkin'," he said; "but the
rest of the divvies are comin' for us like mad, wid their sweeps
churnin' up the wather like the paddles of one av your London tugs.
Shtop 'em from layin' us aboard, if ye can, bhoy.  We want no
hand-to-hand fightin' wid thim, for they'll outnumber us ten to one, I
calculate."  He added this last item in a confidential whisper.

I dashed up on the poop, and, to my great satisfaction, found both the
Maxims manned and well supplied with ammunition.  But although it was
now easy enough to hear the grind and splash of the sweeps with which
the attackers were urging their craft through the water, ay, and even to
hear their shouts of encouragement to each other, the darkness and the
mist together still combined to render them too indistinctly visible to
permit of effective firing from our Maxims.  I therefore shouted to
Kennedy a suggestion that he should order the man in the maintop to
light his portfires, so that we might have light to see what we were
about.  And Kennedy was in the very act of giving the order when three
of the approaching craft fired upon us almost at the same instant; and a
_moment_ later I heard a sharp, splintering crash, followed by a dull,
crunching sound below me on the main-deck.  One of the enemy's round
shot had got home through our port bulwark, so far as I could judge.

I was in a perfect fever of impatience to get additional light, though
it were ever so little, and had about made up my mind to open fire with
the Maxims without further delay, for the approaching craft were by this
time perilously close--not more than two cables' lengths distant, I
believe--when I caught a faint flicker of light from aloft, and the next
instant the baleful, blue-white glare of a portfire illuminated the
scene and revealed ten small sailing craft foaming down upon us under
the impulse of from twelve to sixteen powerfully-manned sweeps apiece.
Each craft carried a gun, which looked to be about the calibre of a
twelve-pound smooth-bore, mounted in the eyes of her; their decks were
crowded with Malays of most ferocious, malignant, and determined aspect,
and I caught the gleam and flash of the light from innumerable krisses
and rifle barrels as their owners waved them above their heads in savage
anticipation of presently getting to close-quarters with us.

It was evident that we were confronted with a most formidable and
dangerous situation, demanding the utmost promptitude of action, and I
at once turned to the crew of the port Maxim, with the command upon my
lips to them to open fire, when a cry of horror arose from the gun's
crew on the main-deck immediately below where I was standing, and a man,
looking up to me and pointing with his hand, shouted that the mate was
killed.  Glancing down over the poop rail, I saw the body of poor
Kennedy stretched out on the deck in the midst of a pool of blood, with
the top of his head shot away, doubtless by the round shot that, a few
seconds earlier, I had heard crash through the bulwarks.

"Let them have the contents of every gun that will bear!"  I shouted.
Then turning to the Maxim crews, I added: "Open fire upon them--the
nearest craft first; and clear their decks of men, if you can, before
they get alongside."

The light was the only thing that our lads--and the pirates too,
apparently--had been waiting for, for the next moment the guns of our
port battery crashed forth, one after the other, while our port Maxim--
the only one of the two that could be brought to bear--started its
savage thud-thudding tattoo, and in less than half a minute the ship was
enveloped in a cloud of acrid smoke which, hanging motionless in the
stagnant air, effectually cloaked the approach of the attacking force,
and as effectually prevented anything like accurate shooting.

Nor were the enemy one whit behindhand in availing themselves of the
assistance afforded by the light of the portfires; indeed, they had
rather the best of it, for although the hull of the yacht was speedily
enveloped in smoke, the portfire brilliantly illuminated our canvas, and
thus afforded them an excellent guide in aiming.  And now the round shot
began to fly thick and fast, while bullets and slugs hummed and sang
about our ears like a swarm of angry hornets.  Luckily for us, the aim
of the pirates was atrociously bad--probably the fire of our Maxim
disconcerted them--and although we afterward found that five round shot
had passed through our sails, only one struck our hull, while, by what
seemed like a miracle, the bullets all missed our bodies, though in many
cases by only the merest hair's-breadth.  For perhaps half a minute the
fire of the pirates was maintained with the utmost fury, and then all in
a moment it died away to a few desultory shots, which presently ceased.

Putting my whistle to my lips, I blew a shrill blast upon it, which I
followed up with the order:

"Main-deck guns, cease firing!"  And as I uttered the words I thought I
felt a faint draught of air upon my face.  I was not mistaken, for at
the same moment the heavy pall of smoke which enveloped us began lazily
to shape itself into fantastic wreaths that slowly swept away to the
westward, while our lighter canvas rustled gently, and then filled to a
small air from the eastward.  As it happened, our sails were correctly
trimmed, so that all that was needed was just to allow the ship to come
up to her proper course when she gathered way.

Meanwhile, with the dispersion of the smoke, we were able once more to
get a glimpse of the enemy, and that glimpse revealed them to be in full
flight.  They must have suffered frightfully from our fire before their
courage gave way, for of the ten craft which constituted the original
attacking force only six were now visible, while every one of these
appeared to be more or less in difficulties--three of them, indeed, very
much more than less.  I perceived that only one of the half-dozen
appeared to be working her full complement of sweeps, while another was
hobbling off under the impulse of but a single pair.  Shells, though
they be of but four-inches diameter, are capable of inflicting serious
damage when they hit and explode.

The breeze, which at first came away as a mere breathing, gained
steadily in strength, until the yacht was sliding along at a six-knot
pace, and it would have been easy for us to have overtaken our audacious
attackers and sunk them out of hand.  But I had my doubts as to whether
any of them would remain afloat long enough to get back to the small
hidden harbour from which they had emerged; while in any case it seemed
to me that the rascals had received so severe a punishment that it would
be long before they again attempted to attack a seemingly helpless ship.
I therefore allowed them to go their way without further molestation,
and, boarding the fore and main tacks, brought the ship to her course.
This done, I gave orders for the guns to be secured, the charges to be
drawn, the unused ammunition to be returned to the magazine, and the
small arms to the armourer, and the decks to be cleared up generally.

Meanwhile poor Kennedy's body had been carried forward and laid upon the
fore-hatch, covered over with a tarpaulin.  Poor chap!  I was sincerely
grieved at his loss, for he was both a first-rate seaman and a
thoroughly stanch messmate.  And as, passing round the deck to satisfy
myself that all my orders had been satisfactorily executed, I paused for
a moment to gaze regretfully at the shrouded form under the tarpaulin, I
could not help wondering a little at the memory that he, the only
victim, should have been the one to have experienced a premonition,
practically amounting to certainty, not only of the encounter, but also,
as I now felt convinced, that it would prove fatal to him.

Having completed my inspection of the decks, and satisfied myself that
everything was all right, I called the boatswain aft to take temporary
charge, and then entered the drawing-room, intending to pass through it
to the door of Mrs Vansittart's cabin, to make my report.  But on
entering the apartment I was surprised to find the lady seated there,
fully dressed, and evidently waiting with some impatience for news.  As
I advanced she rose to her feet and held out her hand to me.

"Well, Walter," she exclaimed, "it is all over--the dreadful fighting, I
mean--and you are unhurt.  Is it not so?"  Then, as I briefly replied in
the affirmative, she continued: "But why are you looking so serious?
And why have you come to me instead of Mr Kennedy?  I most sincerely
hope that nothing dreadful has happened."

"We have got off much more easily than at one moment I dared to hope," I
said.  "But I grieve to inform you that the fight has cost us the life
of one man, and he the man whom we can least of all afford to lose.  You
will guess at once that I mean poor Kennedy, who was killed by a round
shot--the only shot that did any damage worth mentioning."

For a moment Mrs Vansittart seemed scarcely able to credit my news.  I
believe that up to then she had never quite realised the fact of our
peril; but now that one of our men had actually lost his life it was
suddenly brought home to her with startling vividness, and she was
correspondingly upset.  She stared at me unbelievingly, gasped: "What?
Neil Kennedy killed?  Oh, Walter, you cannot possibly mean it!" and
then, as I nodded my head, she sank back into her chair and burst into
tears.  I thought it best to let her have her cry out in peace, for
tears seem to be the natural safety valve of a woman's emotions; and
while she sat there with her face buried in her hands and the tears
streaming through her fingers, Miss Anthea, Monroe, and Julius came up
from below.  Of course they all wanted to know what was the matter, and
I was obliged to explain.  In the course of the explanation, which took
something of the form of a brief narrative of the entire adventure, I
happened to remark:

"What puzzles me more than anything is how it happened that those
fellows were able to find us so accurately on so dark a night.  I took
the greatest care to mask all our lights effectually; yet when we first
sighted them they were heading as straight for us as if we were in plain
sight."

"And so we were," remarked Monroe; "for which we have to thank our young
friend Julius, here.  When, in obedience to his mother's command, I took
him below to his cabin before the fight began, I not only found the open
port of his cabin uncovered, but all three of the electric-lights
ablaze, so that the port must have shown up in the dark like a
lighthouse.  The young gentleman explained to me that he couldn't sleep
because of the heat, and had therefore been reading in bed!"



CHAPTER EIGHT.

A WEIRD AND STARTLING EXPERIENCE.

The untimely death of poor Kennedy resulted in my being promoted to the
position of first mate of the _Stella Maris_, young as I was; while the
boatswain, who knew nothing of navigation, but was an excellent seaman,
was temporarily given the post of second mate, until someone more suited
to the position could be found.

At ten o'clock in the morning following our brush with the Malays the
hands were mustered for church parade, as on Sundays, and Kennedy's body
was committed to the deep with all solemnity.  Monroe read the burial
service so impressively that even the lad Julius was visibly affected,
while Mrs Vansittart and her daughter--both of them attired in black
for the occasion--wept freely.  Three days later we arrived in
Singapore, and on the following day the yacht was docked for examination
and the fitting of the spare propeller.

Upon examination the hull was found to be quite undamaged, yet we must
have hit the wreckage, or whatever it was that we ran foul of, a pretty
severe blow, for not only was the weed completely scoured off the ship's
bottom where contact had occurred, but the anti-fouling composition had
also been removed as effectually as though a scraper had been employed.

We stayed at Singapore exactly a week, and then, with bottom scraped
clean, two fresh coats of anti-fouling composition applied, the outside
of the hull, up to the level of the rail, repainted, and our spare
propeller fitted, we sailed for Hong-Kong.  It was Mrs Vansittart's
intention to ship a second and a third mate at Singapore; but she
forbore to do so, no suitable men happening to be available during our
stay.  The temporary arrangement was therefore allowed to stand a little
longer, our lady skipper hoping to find what she required at Hong-Kong.

We went to sea in fine weather, and made excellent but uneventful
progress during the first four days of the trip.  Then, on our fourth
night out, when we were in the neighbourhood of the Vanguard Bank, the
wind fell light, and finally died away, leaving us becalmed, very much
as had happened with us in the Strait of Malacca.  This time, however,
there was neither land nor craft in sight, and we were therefore under
no apprehension of a repetition of our experiences on that occasion.  I
ought, by the way, to have stated that upon our arrival at Singapore we
duly reported our adventure to the authorities, with the result that the
British gunboat _Cormorant_ was dispatched to the scene of the outrage.
But we were given to understand that it would probably prove exceedingly
difficult, if not impossible, to lay hands upon the guilty parties; and
as a matter of fact we afterwards learned that the only result of the
_Cormorant's_ visit to the spot was the discovery of a considerable
quantity of wreckage and several dead bodies floating about.

As I have said, the wind began to drop late in the afternoon of our
fourth day out from Singapore, and by eight bells of the second
dog-watch we had lost steerage way.  As soon as this happened the matter
was reported to Mrs Vansittart, and I enquired whether she wished the
engine to be started; but she replied that she was in no especial hurry
to reach Hong-Kong, and therefore, as there was no particular reason for
pushing on, she would not waste gasoline.  The engine was therefore
permitted to remain inactive, but we furled all our light canvas, to
save wear and tear, and hauled up our courses, leaving the ship under
topsails, topgallant sails, and jib.

The fact is that none of us quite knew what to make of the weather.  The
glass stood fairly high, with a rising rather than a falling tendency,
yet the sky was hazy without being exactly overcast.  Nor, considering
where we were, was the weather particularly hot; the atmosphere,
however, seemed surcharged with damp, although no rain fell.  With the
going down of the sun it fell exceedingly dark, for the moon was far
advanced in her last quarter, and did not rise until very late--or
rather in the early morning--while the haze was thick enough to shut out
the light of the stars effectually.  The water was smooth, excepting for
a low, easterly swell to remind us of the breeze that had died away.

It chanced to be my eight hours in that night, and, as had become a
firmly-established custom on such occasions, I was dining with the
saloon party, with all of whom, excepting Julius, I was now upon
excellent terms.  Mrs Vansittart had graciously listened to my
explanation of, and accepted my apologies for, the colossal liberty I
had taken in suggesting that she should be locked in her cabin on the
memorable night of the piratical attack upon us; and not only had she
freely forgiven me, but I believe that, after I had fully explained the
motives which actuated me, she felt almost inclined to admit that I was
to a certain extent justified.  Possibly she would have admitted this
but for the fact that such an admission might have been subversive of
discipline.  Monroe and I had always got on splendidly together; and
even the once haughty Miss Anthea had at length thawed completely, even
to the extent of singing duets with me and playing my accompaniments
while I sang or fiddled.  It was only the boy whom I seemed utterly
unable to placate; he had taken a violent dislike to me from the very
first, and not even the fact that I had undoubtedly saved his life
seemed to make any apparent difference in his attitude toward me.

Since leaving Singapore we had resumed our musical evenings after
dinner, temporarily interrupted by Kennedy's death, and we were enjoying
ourselves as usual on the evening of which I am now speaking when, while
I was playing a violin solo to Miss Anthea's accompaniment, we were all
startled by a sudden but very slight jarring sensation, as though the
ship had lightly touched the ground for a moment.  I knew that we were
in the neighbourhood of the Vanguard, Prince Consort, and Prince of
Wales Banks, and although I also knew that, according to our position as
determined that afternoon, and the course and distance since run, we
ought to be far enough away from them to be perfectly safe, the thought
for a moment seized me that in some extraordinary and wholly
unaccountable manner we might have been mistaken.  Flinging down my
violin, I rushed out on deck, closely followed by Mrs Vansittart and
Monroe.

On reaching the deck I found that the jar had already created quite a
small commotion, the boatswain's watch being all on the alert, while the
hands below, awakened by the unaccustomed sensation, were swarming up to
learn what had happened.  Parker, the boatswain, was shouting for one
hand to bring along the hand lead, and to another to bring a lighted
lantern.

My first glance was over the side; but it was so dark that I could see
nothing save a faint gleam under the lighted ports.  Then the men with
the lead line and lantern came along, and we took several casts of the
lead.  "No bottom", was the report; but even while the line was being
coiled up after the last cast, the same sensation was again experienced,
this time a little stronger.  And then, while we were debating what it
could possibly mean, one of the hands from forward came along and
reassured us.

"I know what it is, sir," he explained.  "I've felt the very same thing
before, and not very far from here, too--while we was lyin' in Manila
harbour.  We couldn't make out what the mischief it was at first; but
when the skipper went ashore shortly afterwards they told him that
there'd been a slight shock of earthquake."

The explanation seemed quite reasonable and satisfactory, so after some
little further talk we returned to the drawing-room and resumed our
music.  But shortly afterward we were again disturbed twice by
recurrences of the same phenomenon; we accordingly gave it up, and I
went off to my cabin, debating within myself whether I should change
into my working rig or turn in.

Finally I decided upon the former alternative, since I did not feel much
inclined for sleep, and when I had effected the change I went up on
deck, thinking that possibly a spell of fresh air would bring on the
desired drowsiness.

As I reached the main-deck four bells (ten o'clock) were struck, and the
look-out had just responded with the stereotyped cry of "All's well!"
when there occurred another shock, so violent and protracted that some
of the hands cried out in terror.  It is difficult to gauge the passage
of time accurately at such a moment, but I think this shock must have
lasted nearly, if not quite, two minutes; and the sensation to which I
can most nearly compare it is that of a ship being swept and jolted over
the rough surface of a coral reef by a red-hot tide.

So strong and so alarming was the shock that it created something almost
amounting to panic among the crew, a few of whom, in their alarm, raised
a cry to launch the boats; and it was not without some difficulty that
they were eventually persuaded that the yacht was quite uninjured, and
that they were therefore far safer on her deck than they could possibly
be in any boat.  I was not greatly surprised at their alarm, for the
phenomenon was of so unusual and startling a character that, to confess
the truth, I felt my own self-possession a little inclined to "wilt", as
my companions would probably have put it.

Meanwhile the saloon party, like everybody else, had rushed on deck in
alarm, and were eagerly discussing the occurrence.  Monroe assured the
two ladies that they need not be in the least degree uneasy, since,
strange as the phenomenon might be to us, it was really not so very
extraordinary or unusual, especially in the region where we now found
ourselves; and he was making good headway in his effort to reassure his
audience when suddenly there occurred another and still more violent
shock.  This was so pronounced that it set the sea all a-quiver with
ripples, which seemed to run in the direction of all the points of the
compass, crossing and recrossing each other at every conceivable angle
with such rapidity that the "shaling" of the water was like that of a
strong rapid, while the interlacing--so to speak--of the ripples created
a sort of network of miniature breakers, easily visible because of the
phosphorescence set up.

The jar and jolting of this last shock were so severe that I really
began to entertain serious fears as to whether the ship could withstand
them.  It seemed to me that if the thing continued very long every rivet
in her would be shaken or torn out of place, and the entire fabric must
fall to pieces; for the deck was now quivering and jolting so violently
that, to maintain our footing, we all instinctively clung to the nearest
thing we could lay hands upon.

I must confess that I was more than a little astonished at the courage
manifested by Mrs Vansittart and her daughter.  There could be no doubt
that they were greatly alarmed, yet they were more self-possessed than
any of the rest of us--so much so, indeed, that Mrs Vansittart's voice
was almost steady as she directed me to find Mackenzie and instruct him
to start the engine.  "I think I should feel more comfortable if we had
the ship under command," she explained.

I had just executed this commission and returned to the poop, and the
ship was already beginning to gather way, when above the hiss of the
agitated water a low rumble became audible, increasing with,
inconceivable rapidity to a frightful, deafening roar.  The vibrations
grew still more violent, and suddenly, with an awful, ear-splitting
explosion, we saw a great column of flame shoot high into the air, some
two miles away and almost directly ahead of us.  It looked for all the
world as though a gigantic cannon, planted vertically in the sea, muzzle
upward, had been discharged, except that the flash of fire, instead of
being only momentary, as in the case of a gun, was continuous.  It
remained visible for quite ten minutes, and probably endured for a much
longer period.  The emission of flame was accompanied by a frightful
roaring sound, like that of a thousand blast furnaces, intermingled with
frequent terrific explosions; and we continued to hear these long after
we had lost sight of the fire.

At the first outburst of flame I instinctively sprang to the wheelhouse
and ordered the dazed and terrified quartermaster to put his helm hard
a-port, and let the ship sweep round in a complete half-circle, so that
we might get away from the dangerous spot as speedily as possible.  But
we had hardly begun to turn, in response to our hard-over helm, before
dense clouds of steam commenced to rise from the water round about the
flame; and these soon obscured it to such an extent that the glare,
which at first was almost as strong as daylight, rapidly dwindled until
it became merely a great shapeless luminous blotch, growing less and
less brilliant until we lost sight of it altogether as we went at full
speed ahead away from it.  But it was quite a quarter of an hour before
we were fairly clear of the extraordinary danger that had so suddenly
leaped up in our path; and within the first minute following the
explosion great masses of incandescent rock mingled with flaming cinders
began to fall about us on all sides, so that I regard it as nothing
short of a miracle that none of the larger masses fell upon our decks.
Had they done so, we must inevitably have been destroyed.  As it was, we
were kept busy with the hose for fully half an hour extinguishing the
cinders that fell upon our deck.

Not the least remarkable circumstance connected with the phenomenon was
that soon after we started the pumps the water rapidly became so hot
that the men could not bear the contact of it upon their bare feet, and
were obliged to don their sea boots hurriedly.  At first we were fearful
that the dense clouds of steam generated by the flame would spread and
overtake us; but we were spared this, for almost immediately a small
breeze sprang up, blowing toward the fire, and as we advanced it
strengthened until it became quite a stiff breeze.  To this circumstance
I attribute the fact that none of our sails were set on fire by the
falling cinders, for it necessitated the hurried clewing up and furling
of all our canvas.

For a full hour we travelled south at full speed; and then, having
apparently run beyond the limit of the danger zone, we shifted our helm
and headed east until daylight, when, perceiving no sign of the
eruption, and the wind having drawn round from the eastward, we set our
canvas and stopped the engine.  A week later we arrived at Hong-Kong
without further adventure, and were amazed to learn that nothing was
known there of the submarine volcanic outburst--for such, of course, it
was--from which we had so narrowly escaped destruction.  Nor, although
we remained a week in the roadstead, during which several craft arrived
from the south, and two from the Philippines, could we learn that any
others than ourselves had beheld the phenomenon.

Before our arrival at Singapore it had been Mrs Vansittart's intention
to proceed from that port to Manila, she being somewhat curious to see
something of the United States' farthest East possession on our way
north.  But the United States' consul at Singapore had very strongly
dissuaded her from making such a visit; we therefore skipped the
Philippines, and, after spending a week at Hong-Kong, during which the
saloon party made a trip to Canton and back, weighed and stood out of
the harbour _en route_ for Yokohama.

We had a good run up through the China Sea, doing the trip in ten days
from port to port without being obliged to use the engine at all.
Arrived in the magical land of the chrysanthemum, our lady skipper
"spread herself", as she graphically expressed it, devoting a full month
to the exploration of the country, and returning to the ship loaded down
with priceless treasures of porcelain, pictures, carving and lacquer
work, mostly designed as presents for her more stay-at-home friends in
"little old N'York", when she should get back.  Of course her children
went with her, and Monroe, equally of course, "went along" as escort.

While Mrs Vansittart and her party were enjoying themselves the crew
also had an opportunity to see something of what many regard as the most
wonderful country and people in the world, the same generous rule with
regard to shore leave prevailing here as elsewhere.  For myself, I did
not see nearly as much of the country as I should have liked, for it
unfortunately happened that at the time of our visit the relations
between Japan and the United States were somewhat strained in connection
with the settlement of Japanese subjects on United States soil, and the
Stars and Stripes was not altogether welcome in Japanese ports.  Indeed,
within the first week of our arrival in Yokohama harbour we had reason
to suspect that a malicious attempt had been made either to damage or to
destroy the yacht; and as she was in my charge during the owner's
absence I did not care to leave her for more than a day at a time--and
only once as long as that.  But of course it must be understood that
such ill feeling as undoubtedly existed was only openly manifested by
private persons, and those almost entirely of the lower classes.
Official Japan was the very essence of politeness and urbanity whenever
we came into contact with it.

There was just one element of regret for Mrs Vansittart in her visit to
Japan, and that was the unfortunate fact that Monroe developed typhoid
on the very day of the party's return to Yokohama, and had to be left
behind in hospital.  She would most willingly have prolonged her stay
until the patient's recovery; but Harper, our doctor, intervened,
pointing out that, since our next cruise was to be among the Pacific
Islands, it would be most inadvisable for a person newly recovered from
typhoid to accompany us, as a relapse would almost certainly follow; and
that the better plan would be to arrange for Monroe's return home direct
by mail boat via 'Frisco.  This was accordingly done, Mrs Vansittart
making every arrangement for the care and comfort of the patient during
his sojourn in Yokohama, and his journey to New York in all ease and
comfort afterward, before giving the word for our departure.

We hove our anchor out of the mud of Yokohama harbour at ten o'clock on
a certain lovely September morning, which, as Mrs Vansittart informed
me incidentally, happened to be the anniversary of the yacht's departure
from New York.  Starting our engine, we proceeded down Yedo Bay, through
Uraga Strait, and so to sea, passing Cape Mela about eight bells in the
afternoon watch.  Then, to a fine spanking westerly breeze, we set all
plain sail and headed south for the Ladrones.

I arrive now at a point where, for a space of over two months, I find no
entry in my diary of any incident worthy of special mention; this period
may therefore be dismissed with the simple remark that it was spent in
visiting several of the most interesting islands in the Pacific
archipelago.

We sailed from Taputeuea, in the Gilbert Group, in the middle of
November, and for more than a week we headed west, making good headway
on the whole, although there were times when we were detained by
vexatious calms, to counterbalance which we "carried on" when the wind
favoured us and we had a clear sea ahead.

Such happened to be the case on a certain day in the first week of
December.  We had a slashing easterly breeze behind us, and fine clear
weather; and the chart told us that there were no lurking dangers in our
path; we therefore gave the yacht the whole flight of studding sails on
both sides, and laid ourselves out to make up a little of our lost time.
And we were doing so in handsome style, too, for the ship reeled off
her fourteen knots hour after hour until the end of the afternoon watch,
when the wind suddenly hauled four points to the southward and
freshened; and although this shift of wind necessitated our handing our
star board studding sails, it gave our fore-and-aft canvas a chance to
put in some good work, which it did, the ship's speed going up to
sixteen knots within the next hour.  And for a sailing ship, sixteen
knots is a very respectable speed, let me tell you, although I can
recall more than one occasion when we logged nineteen, and that not only
for a brief spell, but for three or four hours at a stretch.  Still,
sixteen knots is a pretty good pace; and it was an exhilarating sight to
watch the rush of the white yacht over that glorious sapphire sea, with
every sail accurately set and trimmed and tugging at the beautiful hull
like a team of cart horses, the long, weighty swell chasing us,
wind-whipped and capped with seething crests of snow-white foam, while
the great, glass-smooth bow wave went roaring away on either hand with
its hissing and leaping crown of froth sparkling like gems in the rays
of the declining sun.

I think Mrs Vansittart was never more proud of her beautiful ship than
she was on that particular evening, as she stood with me on the poop and
critically marked our rush through the water and every perfection of
hull, spar, and sail.  The yacht was a lovely picture, even as beheld by
us from her poop; but I would have given a trifle for the privilege of
seeing her as she must have appeared at such a moment from a passing
ship, had there been such a craft.  But, as it happened, there was not;
we had the sea to ourselves, for we chanced just then to be traversing a
stretch of water very rarely frequented by craft of any description.

It happened to be my eight hours out on that particular night, and when,
at eight bells of the first watch, I turned the ship over to Parker, the
boatswain, we were still reeling off our sixteen knots, with a fresh,
steady breeze from the south-east.  It was a dark night, for the moon
was only two days old, and had set long ago, while a thin veil of cloud
hid most of the stars.  Had we been in much-frequented waters I should
perhaps have considered it a bit reckless to drive the ship so hard
through the darkness; but we were not, and I retired to my cabin with an
easy mind, and, undressing at once, tumbled into my bunk and fell sound
asleep almost as my head touched the pillow.



CHAPTER NINE.

WRECKED!

How long I slept I have no means of knowing.  All I can remember is that
from a sound, dreamless sleep, I was startled into sudden wakefulness by
experiencing a shock of such tremendous violence that my first real
consciousness of anything being amiss was caused by me finding myself
hurled headlong out of my bunk to the deck of my cabin.  I fell so
awkwardly that I seemed to land fair upon my right temple, and, after an
instant of sharp pain, I forthwith lost all consciousness for a length
of time that must have been considerable, although I never had the means
to guess it even approximately.  But I remember one thing distinctly.
Even as I was in the very act of falling, a terrific rending crash
sounded in my ears, and the thought flashed through my brain: "There go
the masts by the board!"

The return of consciousness manifested itself in a hazy and quite
detached perception that I was being violently shaken by the shoulder;
while a voice, pitched in aggrieved and petulant tones--which I
presently recognised as those of the lad, Julius--exhorted me to "Wake
up!"  At first these exhortations produced no particular effect upon me.
I was aware of them, but that was all; they had no definite meaning so
far as I was concerned.  I did not even trouble to ask myself why I
should wake up.  Then after a period of silence, during which I perhaps
slipped back into unconsciousness, I became aware that water was being
vigorously dashed in my face, while Julius's voice resumed its petulant
appeal.

"Oh, I say, dash it all! do wake up, Leigh," I heard the boy exclaim.
"Wake up, I tell you!  Momma's blocked into her cabin, and Sis and I
can't get her out.  And you're the only one of the crew left!"

I suppose my wits must have been reasserting themselves by that time,
for these words conveyed some sort of definite meaning to me, especially
that last statement: "You're the only one of the crew left."  The only
one of the crew!  What crew?  Why, of course, the crew of the _Stella
Maris_, in which I had some recollection of having spent a very pleasant
time.  Then, as memory began to work, I recalled the tremendous shock
which had hurled me, scarcely awake, out of my bunk, and the jarring,
rending crash that had reached my ears in the very act of falling.  What
did these things mean?  I asked myself, and the answer came without much
groping for.  What could they mean, except that some disaster had
overtaken the yacht?

I opened my eyes, and by the light of a rapidly growing dawn perceived,
first, that I was still in my own cabin, and secondly, that Julius was
bending over me with a water jug in one hand and a tumbler in the other,
from the latter of which he had just dashed a quantity of water in my
face.  Also I was conscious of a splitting headache, and a burning,
smarting sensation in the right temple.  I put up my hand, passed it
over the seat of the pain, and was immediately conscious of an increased
smart.  As I lowered my hand I looked at it stupidly: it was smeared
with blood.

"Oh, that's nothing!" commented the boy, as I looked questioningly at
the ruddy stain; "you've cut your forehead a bit, that's all.  Thank
goodness, you've woke up at

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