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The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant

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Title: The Green Hand: Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant

Author: George Cupples


        
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Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREEN HAND: ADVENTURES OF A NAVAL LIEUTENANT ***

    THE GREEN HAND




    THE
    GREEN HAND

    Adventures of a Naval Lieutenant

    BY
    GEORGE CUPPLES
    AUTHOR OF "THE TWO FRIGATES"


    [Illustration]


    SANDS & COMPANY
    23 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
    AND EDINBURGH.




LIFE OF GEORGE CUPPLES

(AUTHOR OF "THE GREEN HAND")


Excepting for one short episode--that, indeed, to which we owe "The
Green Hand"--the life of George Cupples was almost devoid of those
external incidents and vicissitudes which lend the interest of romance
to biographical narrative. It is therefore possible, even within the
narrow limits assigned to the present sketch, to satisfy reasonable
curiosity regarding the mere facts of this distinguished author's
career.

Cupples was, by virtue of two or three generations, a son of the manse.
His grandfather, the Rev. George Cupples, was the minister of Swinton;
and his father, who bore the same name, was also a minister. The George
Cupples with whom we have to do was born at Legerwood, in Berwickshire,
on the 2nd of August 1822. He was the eldest of the family, which
consisted, including George, of three sons and one daughter. The father
was a clergyman of orthodox views, and from the descriptions of him that
have been left we may infer that the severity of his Calvinism had
imparted a decided severity to his character. "He was much respected,"
says his son Joseph, "and, indeed, a good deal feared." The children
were accordingly treated by him with rigid strictness, modified by their
mother's greater leniency.

This stern master was George's only teacher during the first ten years
of his life. His books were an Arithmetic, Cordery, Ruddiman's
Rudiments, and Cornelius Nepos. In his tenth year he and his brother
Joseph went to school at Earlston, "walking daily a weary four and a
half miles and back again--to lessons at home!"

George was in his twelfth year when his father was "translated" to
Stirling. While the family was settled here, the wish to go to sea
seems to have grown in the boy's mind to a settled determination,
fostered, it appears, by his reading of novels, of which he was
extremely fond. He was sixteen years of age when his father, probably
much against his will, allowed him to be apprenticed as a sailor. So it
came about that the minister's son, nurtured on the classics and
Calvinism with quite different purposes in view, made a voyage to India
and back--an eighteen months' affair it turned out--as a ship's boy.

On the nature of his experiences we need not speak here, for whoever
reads "The Green Hand" will understand it without further aid. As his
biographer strikingly says: "It had a physical effect on him ... made
him quiet and still in every expression, in every externality of life
afterwards." At all events, the young adventurer returned home perfectly
cured of his taste for the sea, petitioned his father to get his
indentures cancelled, and declared he would content himself for the
future on land.

Resuming his interrupted studies, he proceeded to Edinburgh University,
where he took the Arts course. One of the professors was Wilson, the
famous "Christopher North," for whom Cupples felt an admiration scarcely
short of hero-worship, and of whom he afterwards wrote a "Memorial
Sketch." Later on he went through the Divinity course, and had the
privilege of sitting at the feet of the great Chalmers, of whom he
always writes with enthusiasm.

But though prepared and equipped for the paternal calling, Cupples
"recoiled from the stairs of the pulpit," more, it would seem, from a
growing inclination to literature than from any heterodoxy in his
religious views. He became a contributor to _Blackwood's Magazine_,
where his essay on Emerson appeared in 1848. In _Maga_ also was first
published "The Green Hand," that magnificent story of the sea which we
are now sending forth, to delight and enthral, we feel sure, a new
generation of readers. Two opinions may here be quoted of the story, to
which each of our readers may afterwards add his own. George MacDonald
pronounced it "the best sea-novel I have ever read"; and Clark Russell,
whose right to speak on such a subject will scarcely be disputed,
declares "it is the colours of 'The Green Hand' that I have nailed to my
mast."

Cupples was a constant and unwearied writer. Much of his work was done
for newspapers and periodicals, but even the most ephemeral of his
productions bore testimony to the earnest and solid qualities of the
man. That these qualities were duly appreciated is proved by the
frequent kindly mention of him by men of the highest literary repute.

He was married, in 1858, to Ann Jane Douglas, an Edinburgh lady, who,
though much younger than her husband, was singularly congenial in her
tastes and pursuits. She has written a large number of books, mostly for
children.

Even before the time of his marriage, Cupples suffered from the
_sequelæ_ of hip-joint disease, and all the remainder of his life he
seems never to have been quite free from the burden of ill-health. His
home during his literary career was in different parts of Edinburgh or
its vicinity, latterly in Newhaven, where he succumbed to heart-disease
on the 17th of October 1891. His tombstone testifies to the admiration
of his friends for his "varied literary gifts, and his simple, upright,
and reverent character."

One of the literary projects which Cupples had long cherished has been
happily carried out since his death in the publication, by Messrs
Blackwood, of a splendid volume on "Scotch Deerhounds and their
Masters." This volume contains a fine portrait of the author, and also
an interesting memoir, written by Dr. Hutchison Stirling, which is in
itself at once a tribute and a testimony to the lasting impression which
both the works and the character of George Cupples made upon cultured
and critical minds.




AUTHOR'S PREFACE


The popularity of "The Green Hand," both among seamen and others, as
being true to life, has been wide. It has, however, been thought
desirable to issue a revised edition, freed from various expressions now
to a certain extent obsolete or otherwise unsuitable, so as to make it
more thoroughly fit for juvenile readers.

Some considerable time has now elapsed since the period to which these
adventures refer, not without producing a good deal of alteration in
much that goes on at sea, most especially in the outward accessories of
nautical life. The spanking frigate of former days, for instance, is now
no more; her place being, to the eye at any rate, ill taken up by the
ironclad screw-steamer. The mechanical appliances have been improved,
particularly in the merchant service, as, for example, by the
Patent-Reefing-Topsail, which is only one of the countless new helps to
the seaman. In navigation, instead of now taking five, six, or seven
months to reach Australia from this country, the captain of any
clipper-line sailing ship would be ashamed of himself if he did not do
it within three. Not to multiply cases, Jack himself has, as a rule,
added the moustache to his exuberance of whisker; he thinks better than
he used to do of these excellent institutions, the Sailors' Homes; he is
frequently a temperance man, and has even been known to take the chair
at a meeting for vindication of sailors' rights.

But the state of the case, from a plain practical point of view, is
pretty well illustrated by an anecdote current at sea among forecastle
story-tellers. According to them, a singular discovery was made, some
forty years or so back, in Portsmouth harbour, aboard no less
conspicuous a craft than that immortal three-decker hulk, H.M.S.
_Victory_ herself, when some alterations were being made down in her
lower decks. There certain of the dock-yard people, having occasion to
lift a small out-of-the-way lazarette hatch, down on the after-part of
the orlop, which had been long covered with old coils of hawsers or the
like, were surprised to find a man lying beneath, who rubbed his eyes,
stretched himself as if waking out of sleep, and was finally brought up
on deck. From undoubted evidence, it turned out that he had been shut
down in joke, under the effect of some strange potion, his rough
messmates having, of course, intended to release him before long; but a
sudden commotion of a more important nature had arisen, owing to which
they had forgotten him until too late, being themselves appointed on
active service abroad. Hence it occurred that he had been left there,
fast enclosed and asleep, ever since shortly after Trafalgar, when the
_Victory_ had come home with Nelson's body, and been paid off,
dismantled, and moored in her place as a hulk. From a young reefer, this
gentleman had meanwhile grown into a grizzled oldster, on midshipman's
half-pay, not likely to have his services further required, seeing that
the French had long ceased to offer battle afloat. He was, however,
freely invited into professional society, where his opinions on the
changes that had taken place were naturally much looked to. The things
he is said to have principally remarked as new, were that pigtails had
gone out of fashion; the midshipmen's messes were supplied with silver
forks; boatswains--in stimulating the men at work--put more force into
their language, less into their rattans, and that the leading-blocks of
the mizzen-topsail-reef-tackles hung at the slings of the yard instead
of being as formerly at the rim of the round-top; nor did he ever feel
sure that such changes were for the better. This yarn, with a good moral
tacked on at the end, in one form or another, still affords
entertainment to many a tarry audience in ships outward bound, at second
dog-watch time, when rolling down the Trades; particularly if spun by
some fluent ex-man-o'-war's-man from any of Her Majesty's iron-clads.
The said moral generally being to the effect, that little difference is
made in essentials at sea by progress in the mere shoregoing world.

In the following story no great amount of correction requires to be made
in bringing it up to date; and, except in a few minor points, I have
left this to be done by each juvenile reader for himself, supposing the
case that he should ever find reason in his own professional
experience. The terms _larboard_ and _starboard_ are both left in use
throughout the book, although the former has long been replaced by the
word port--which, in my time, was chiefly confined to the helm, when the
resemblance of sound would always have been dangerous at a sudden
emergency. The cry "All larbowlins ahoy!" no longer is added to the
summons that rouses the sleepy watch below. But after everything is
said, the main realities of sea-life continue to be what they were.
There is constant truth in those grand words known to us all:

     Thy shores are empires, changed in all save Thee--

       *       *       *       *       *

     Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play, Time writes no wrinkle
     on thine azure brow.

The strangeness of foreign sights and tropical wonders has not altered;
nor the thrill of excitement amid tempest; wind and weather are no-way
different; the sailor feels as much pride as ever in his ship's good
qualities; the occasion of danger still brings out his manhood;
hearts-of-oak will always be ready to man our floating bulwarks so long
as Britain remains.

If it were only in order to express a hearty belief in this, I am glad
to have had the opportunity afforded by the few words prefixed to a
fresh edition of "The Green Hand." And to all you young readers who must
ere long embark upon the troubled sea of life, success and a good voyage
to you is the cordial wish of your sincere friend,

  THE AUTHOR.

  _Edinburgh, August 31, 1878._




    CONTENTS


                           PAGE
    CHAPTER I                 1
    CHAPTER II               19
    CHAPTER III              38
    CHAPTER IV               58
    CHAPTER V                69
    CHAPTER VI               79
    CHAPTER VII              89
    CHAPTER VIII             98
    CHAPTER IX              109
    CHAPTER X               125
    CHAPTER XI              135
    CHAPTER XII             162
    CHAPTER XIII            170
    CHAPTER XIV             188
    CHAPTER XV              203
    CHAPTER XVI             218
    CHAPTER XVII            234
    CHAPTER XVIII           248
    CHAPTER XI              260
    CHAPTER XX              270
    CHAPTER XXI             290
    CHAPTER XXII            310
    CHAPTER XXIII           328
    CHAPTER XXIV            346
    CHAPTER XXV             357
    CHAPTER XXVI            372
    CHAPTER XXVII           390
    CHAPTER XXVIII          401
    CHAPTER XXIX            413
    CHAPTER XXX             420
    CHAPTER XXXI            429
    CHAPTER XXXII           436




THE GREEN HAND




CHAPTER I


"Ah! Come, old ship, give us a yarn!" said the younger forecastlemen to
an old one, on board of an Indiaman then swiftly cleaving the waves of
the western Atlantic before the trade-wind, and outward-bound, with a
hearty crew and a number of passengers. It was the second of the two
dog-watches; and, the ship being still in the region of evening
twilights, her men, in a good humour and with leisure, were then usually
disposed, as on this occasion, to make fast their roaming thoughts by
help of a good yarn, when it could be got. There were plenty of
individuals, amongst a crew of forty, calculated by their experience, or
else by their flow of spirits and fancy, to spin it. Each watch into
which they were divided had its especial story-teller, with whose merits
it twitted the other, and on opportunity of a general reunion, they were
pitted against one another like two fighting-cocks. The one was a grave,
solemn, old North-Sea whaler, with one eye, who professed to look down
with contempt upon all raw head-work, on navigation compared with
seamanship, and fiction against fact. As for himself, he rested all his
fame upon actual experience, and told long dry narratives of old
shipmates, of his voyages and adventures, and sometimes of the most
incredible incidents, with a genuine briny gusto, which pleased the
veteran stagers beyond expression. They were full of points of
seamanship--expedients for nice emergencies, tacks, knots, and splices;
he gave the very conversation of his characters, with all the "says he"
and "says I"; and one long recital of the old fellow's turned upon the
question between himself and a new-fangled second-mate, about the right
way to set up back-stays, in which he, the sailor, was proved correct by
the loss of the ship. The other story-teller, again, was a Wapping man;
a lively, impudent young Cockney, who had the most miraculous faculty of
telling lies--not only palpable lies, but lies absolutely impossible;
yet they were so sublimely told often, and he contrived to lug into them
such a quantity of gorgeous tinsel ornament, as, in his happier efforts,
decidedly to carry the day against his opponent. The London hand had
seen _life_ too, of which, with respect to what is called the world, his
competitor was as ignorant as a child. He had his sentimental vein,
accordingly, in which he took the last love-tale out of some "Penny
Story-Teller" or fashionable novel he had spelled over below, and made
of it a parody that would have thrown its unfortunate author into
convulsions of horror, and his critics into shrieks of laughter. The
fine language of lords and ladies, of romantic heroines, or of foreign
counts and bandits, was gravely retailed, and gravely listened to by a
throng of admiring jack-tars; while the old whaler smoked his pipe
sulkily apart, gave now and then a scornful glance out of his
weather-eye, and called it "all _high-dic'_ and soger's gammon."

On this occasion, however, the group for'ard did not solicit the
services of either candidate, as they happened to have present among
them a shipmate who, by general confession, "took the shine" out of
both, although it was rarely they could get hold of him. "Old Jack," the
captain's private steward, was the oldest seaman on board, and having
known the captain when the latter went to sea, had sailed with him
almost ever since he commanded a ship, as well as lived in his house on
shore. He did not now keep his watch, nor take his "trick at the helm,"
except when he chose, and was altogether a privileged sort of person, or
one of "the idlers." His name was Jacobs, which afforded a pretext for
calling him "Old Jack," with the sailor's fondness for that Christian
cognomen, which it is difficult to account for, unless because Jonah and
St John were seafaring characters, and the Roman Catholic holy clerk St
Nicholas was baptised "Davy Jones," with sundry other reasons good at
sea. But Old Jack was, at any rate, the best hand for a yarn in the
_Gloucester_ Indiaman, and had been once or twice called upon to spin
one to the ladies and gentlemen in the cuddy. It was partly because of
his inexhaustible fund of good-humour, and partly from that love of the
sea which looked out through all that the old tar had seen and
undergone, and which made him still follow the bowsprit, although able
to live comfortably ashore. In his blue jacket, his white canvas
trousers edged with blue, and glazed hat, coming forward to the galley
to light his pipe, after serving the captain's tea of an evening, Old
Jack looked out over the bulwarks, sniffed the sharp sea-air, and stood
with his shirt-sleeve fluttering as he put his finger in his pipe, the
very embodiment of the scene--the model of a prime old salt who had
ceased to "rough it," but could do so yet if needful.

"Come, old ship!" said the men near the windlass, as soon as Old Jack
came forward, "give us a yarn, will ye?" "Yarn!" said Jack,
smiling--"what yarn, mates? 'Tis a fine night, though, for that
same--the clouds flies high, and she's balling off a good ten knots sin'
eight bells." "That she is, bo'--so give us a yarn now, like a reg'lar
old A1, as you are!" said one. "'Vast there, mate," said a
man-o'-war's-man, winking to the rest--"you're always a-cargo-puddling,
Bill! D'ye think Old Jack answers to any other hail nor the Queen's? I
say, old three-decker in or'nary, we all wants one o' your close-laid
yarns this good night. Whaling Jim here rubs his down with a thought
overmuch o' the tar, an' young Joe dips 'em in yallow varnish--so if you
says nay, why, we'll all save our grog, and get slewed as soon as may
be." "Well, well, mates," said Jack, endeavouring to conceal his
flattered feelings, "what's it to be, though?" "Let's see," said the
man-o'-war's-man--"ay, give us the Green Hand!" "Ay, ay, the Green
Hand!" exclaimed one and all. This "Green Hand" was a story Old Jack had
already related several times, but always with such amusing variations,
that it seemed on each repetition a new one--the listeners testifying
their satisfaction by growls of rough laughter, and by the emphatic way
in which, during a pause, they squirted their tobacco-juice on the deck.
What gave additional zest to this particular yarn, too, was the fact of
its hero being no less than the captain himself, who was at this moment
on the poop quarter-deck of the ship, pointing out something to a group
of ladies by the round-house--a tall good-looking man of about forty,
with all the mingled gravity and frank good-humour of a sailor in his
firm weather-tinted countenance. To have the power of secretly
contrasting his present position and manners with those delineated by
Old Jack's episode from the "skipper's" previous biography, was the
_acme_ of comic delight to these rude sons of Neptune, and the narrator
just hit this point.

"Ye see," began he, "'tis about six-an'-twenty year gone since I was an
able seaman before the mast, in a small Indyman they called the _Chester
Castle_, lying at that time behind the Isle of Dogs in sight of
Grennidge Hospital. She was full laden, but there was a strong breeze
blowing up that wouldn't let us get under weigh; and, besides, we waited
for the most part of our hands. I had sailed with the same ship two
voyages before; so, says the captain to me one day, 'Jacobs, there's a
lady over at Greenwich yonder wants to send her boy to sea in the
ship--for a sickening I s'pose. I'm a-going up to town myself,' says he,
'so take the small quarter-boat and two of the boys, and go ashore with
this letter, and see the young fool. From what I've heard,' says the
skipper, 'he's a jackanapes as will give us more trouble than thanks.
However, if you find the lady's bent on it, why she may send him aboard
to-morrow if she likes. Only we don't carry no young gentlemen, and if
he slings his hammock here, you must lick him into shape. I'll make a
sailor of him, or else a cabin boy.' 'Ay, ay, sir,' says I, shoving the
letter into my hat; so in half-an-hour's time I knocks at the door of
the lady's house, rigged out in my best, and hands over the screed to a
fat fellow with red breeches and yaller swabs on his shoulders, like a
captain of marines, that looked frightened at my hail, for I thou't he'd
been deaf by the long spell he took before he opened the door. In five
minutes I hears a woman's v'ice ask at the footman if there was a sailor
a-waiting below. 'Yes, marm,' says he; and 'show him up,' says she.
Well, I gives a scrape with my larboard foot, and a tug to my hair, when
I gets to the door of _sich_ a fine room above decks as ever you see,
all full o' tables, an' chairs, an' sofers, an' piangers, an' them sort
o' high-flying consarns. There was a lady all in silks and satins on one
of the sofers, dressed out like a widow, with a pretty little girl as
was playing music out of a large portmankey--and a picter of a man upon
the wall, which I at once logged it down for his as she'd parted
company from. 'Sarvint, marm,' says I. 'Come in, my good man,' says the
lady. 'You're a sailor?' says she--asking, like, to be sure if I warn't
the cook's mate in dish-guise, I fancy. 'Well, marm' I raps out, 'I make
bould to say as I hopes I am!'--an' I catches a sight o' myself in a big
looking-glass behind the lady, as large as our sky-sail--and, being a
young fellow in them days, thinks I, 'Blow me, if Betsy Brown axed me
that now, I'd up an' hax her if _she_ war a _woman_!' 'Well,' says she,
'Captain Steel tells me, in this here letter, he's a-going to take my
son. Now,' says she, 'I'm sore against it----couldn't you say some'at to
turn his mind?' 'The best way for that, yer ladyship,' says I, 'is for
to let him go, if it was only the length of the Nore. The sea'll turn
his stomich for him, marm,' I says, 'an' then we can send him home by
the pilot.' 'He wanted for to go into the navy,' says the lady again,
'but I couldn't think on that for a moment, on account of this here
fearful war; an', after all, he'll be safer in sailing at sea nor in the
army or navy--doesn't you think so, my good man?' 'It's all you knows
about it,' thinks I; hows'ever, I said there wasn't a doubt on it. 'Is
Captain Steel a rash man?' says she. 'How so, marm?' says I, some'at
taken aback. 'I hope he does not sail at night, or in storms, like too
many of his profession, I'm afeard,' says she; 'I hope he always weighs
the anchor in such cases, very careful.' 'Oh, in course,' says I, not
knowin', for the life of me, what she meant. I didn't like to come the
rig over the poor lady, seein' her so anxious like; but it was no use,
we was on such different tacks, ye see. 'Oh yes, marm,' I says, 'Captain
Steel al'ays reefs taups'ls at sight of a squall brewing to wind'rd; and
then we're as safe as a church, ye know, with a man at the wheel as
knows his duty.' 'This relieves my mind,' the lady says, 'wery much';
but I couldn't think why she kept sniffing all the time at her
smelling-bottle, as she wor agoin' to faint. 'Don't take it to heart so,
yer ladyship,' I says at last; 'I'll look after the young gentleman till
he finds his sea-legs.' 'Thank you,' says she; 'but I beg your parding,
would ye be kind enough for to open the winder, and look out if you see
Edward? I think he's in the garding--I feel sich a smell of pitch and
tar!' I hears her say to the girl! and says she to me again, 'Do you
see Edward there?--give a call to him, please. Accordently, I couldn't
miss sight of three or four young slips alongside, for they made plenty
of noise--one of 'em on top of a water-barrel smoking a sea-gar; another
singing out inside of it for mercy; and the rest roaring round about it,
like so many Bedlamites. 'No wonder the young scamp wants off to sea,'
thinks I, 'he's got nothin' arthly to do but mischief.' 'Which be's the
young gentleman, marm?' says I, lookin' back into the room--'is it him
with the sea-gar and the red skull-cap?' 'Yes,' says the lady--'call him
up, please.' 'Hallo!' I sings out, and all runs off but him on the
barrel, and 'Hallo!' says he. 'You're wanted on deck here, sir,' I says;
and in five minutes in comes my young gemman, as grave as you please.
'Edward,' says his mother, 'this is one of Captain Steel's men.' 'Is he
going to take me?' says the young fellow, with his hands in his pockets.
'Well, sir,' I says, ''tis a very bad look-out, is the sea, for them as
don't like it. You'll be sorry ten times over you've left sich a berth
as this here, afore you're down Channel.' The young chap looks me all
over from clue to earing, and says he, 'My mother told you to say that!'
'No, sir,' says I, 'I says it on my own hook.' 'Why did you go yourself,
then?' says he. 'I couldn't help it,' answers I. 'Oh,' says the
impertinent little beggar, 'but you're only one of the common sailors,
ain't you?' 'Split me!' thinks I, 'if I doesn't show you the odds
betwixt a common sailor, as ye call it, and a lubber of a boy, before
long!' But I wasn't goin' to let him take the jaw out o' me, so I only
laughed, an' says I, 'Why, I'm captain of the foretop at sea, anyhow.'
'Where's your huniform, then?' says the boy, lowering his tone a bit.
'Oh,' I says, 'we doesn't al'ays wear huniform, ye know, sir. This
here's what we call ondress.' 'I'm sorry, sir,' says the lady, 'I didn't
ax you to sit down.' 'No offence at all, marm,' I says, but I took a
couple o' glasses of brandy as was brought in. I saw 'twas no use goin'
against the young chap; so, when he asked what he'd have to do aboard, I
told him nothing to speak of, except count the sails now and then, look
over the bows to see how the ship went, and go aloft with a spy-glass.
'Oh,' says his mother at this, 'I hope Captain Steel won't never allow
Edward to go up those dangerous ladders! It is my pertic'lar request he
should be punished if he does.' 'Sartinly, marm, I'll mention it to the
captain,' I says, 'an' no doubt he'll give them orders as you speak on.
The captain desired me to say the young gentleman could come aboard as
soon as he likes,' says I before goin' out of the door. 'Very well,
sir,' says the lady, 'I shall see the tailor this same arternoon, and
get his clothes, if so be it must.' The last word I said was, I puts my
head half in again to tell 'em, 'There was no use gettin' any huniforms
at present, seein' the ship's sailmaker could do all as was wanted
arterwards, when we got to sea.'

"Well, two or three days after, the captain sent word to say the ship
would drop down with the morning tide, and Master Collins had better be
aboard by six o'clock. I went ashore with the boat, but the young
gemman's clothes warn't ready yet; so it was reg'lar made up he was to
come on board from Gravesend the day after. But his mother and an old
lady, a friend of theirs, would have it they'd go and see his bedroom,
and take a look at the ship. There was a bit of a breeze with the tide,
and the old Indyman bobbed up and down on it in the cold morning; you
could hear the wash of the water a-poppling on to her counter, with her
running-gear blown out in a bend; and Missus Collins thought they'd
never get up the dirty black sides of the vessel, as she called 'em. The
other said her husband had been a captain, an' she laid claim to a
snatch of knowledge. 'Sailor,' says she to me, as we got under the
quarter, 'that there tall mast is the main-bowsprit, ain't it? and that
other is the gallant bowling you call it, don't you?' says she. 'No
doubt, marm,' says I, winking to the boys not to laugh. 'It's all
right,' I says. Howsoever, as to the bedroom, the captain showed 'em
over the cabin, and put 'em off by saying the ship was so out of order
he couldn't say which rooms was to be which yet, though they needn't
fear Master Ned would get all comfortable; so ashore the poor woman
went, pretty well pleased, considerin' her heart was against the whole
consarn.

"Well, the next afternoon, lying off Gravesend, out comes a wherry with
young master. One of the men said there was a midshipman in it.
'Midshipman be blowed!' says I; 'did ye ever see a reefer in a wherry,
or sitting anywheres out o' the starn-sheets? It's neither more nor less
nor this precious greenhorn as we've got.' 'Why don't the bo'sun pipe to
man side-ropes for him?' says t'other; but, 'my eye, Bob,' says he to
me, 'what a sight of traps the chap's got in the boat!--'twill be enough
to heel the _Chester Castle_ to the side he berths upon, on an even
keel. Do he mean to have the captain's cabin, I wonder!' Up the side he
scrambles, with the help of a side-ladder, all togged out to the nines
in a span-new blue jacket and anchor buttons, a cap with a gould band,
and white ducks made to fit--as jemmy-jessamy a looking fellow as you'd
see of a cruise along London parks--with the waterman singing out
alongside to send down a tackle for the dunnage, which it took a pair of
purchase-blocks to hoist them out on board. 'What's all this?' says the
mate, coming for'ard from the quarter-deck. ''Tis the young gemman's
traps, sir,' I says. Says the mate, 'D'ye think we've got spare room to
stow all this lumber? Strike it down into the fore-hold, Jacobs--and get
out a old blue shirt or two, and a Scotch cap, for the young whelp
first, if he wants to save that smooth toggery of his for his mammy.
You're as green as cabbage, I'm feared, my lad!' says he. By this time
the boy was struck all of a heap, an' didn't know what to say when he
saw the boat pulling for shore, except he wanted to have a sight of his
bedroom. 'Jacobs,' says the mate, laughing like an old bear, 'take him
below, and show him his bedroom, as he calls it!' So down we went to the
half-deck, where the carpenter, bo'sun, and three or four of the
'prentices, had their hammocks slung. There I leaves him to overhaul his
big donkey of a chest, which his mother had stowed it with clothes
enough for a lord ambassador, but not a blessed thing fit to use--I
wouldn't 'a given my bit of a black locker for the whole on it, ten
times over. There was another choke-full of gingerbread, pots o'
presarves, pickles, and bottles; and, thinks I, 'The old lady didn't
know what _shares_ is at sea I reckon. 'Twill all be gone for footing,
my boy, before you've seen blue water, or I'm a Dutchman.'

"In a short time we was up anchor, going down with a fast breeze for the
Nore; and we stood out to sea that night, having to join a convoy off
Spithead. My gentleman was turned in all standing, on top o' some sails
below; and next day he was as sick as a greenhorn could be, cleaning out
his land-ballast where he lay, nor I didn't see him till he'd got
better. 'Twas blowing a strong breeze, with light canvas all in aloft,
and a single reef in the tops'ls; but fine enough for the Channel,
except the rain--when what does I see but the 'Green Hand' on the
weather quarter-deck, holding on by the belaying pins, with a
yumbereller over his head. The men for'ard was all in a roar, but none
of the officers was on deck save the third mate. The mate goes up to
him, and looks in his face. 'Why,' says he, 'you confounded longshore,
picked-up son of a greengrocer, what _are_ you after?' an' he takes the
article a slap with his larboard-flipper, as sent it flying to leeward
like a puff of smoke. 'Keep off the quarter-deck, you lubber,' says he,
giving him a wheel down into the lee-scuppers--'it's well the captain
didn't catch ye! Come aft here, some of ye,' sings out the third mate
again, 'to brace up the main-yard; and you, ye lazy beggar, clap on this
moment and pull!' At this the greenhorn looks round doubtful, like, then
at last he takes out a pair o' double gloves, shoves his fingers into
'em, and tails on to the rope behind. 'Well!' says the mate, 'if I ever
see the likes o' that! Jacobs, get a tar-bucket and dip his fists in it;
larn him what his hands were made for! I never could a-bear to see a
fellow ashore with his flippers shoed like his feet; but at sea,
confound me, it would make a man green-sick over again.' If you'd only
seen how Master Collins looked when I shoved his missy fingers into the
tar, and chucked them gloves o'board! The next moment he ups fist and
made a slap at me, when in goes the brush in his mouth; the mate gives
him a kick astarn; and the young chap went sprawling down into the
half-deck ladder, where the carpenter had his shavin'-glass rigged to
crop his chin--and there he gets another clip across the jaws from
Chips. 'Now,' says the mate, 'the chap'll be liker a sailor to-morrow.
He's got some spunk in him, though, by the way he let drive at you, my
lad,' says he; 'that fellow'll either catch the cat or spoil the monkey.
Look after him, Jacobs, my lad,' says the third mate; 'he's in my watch,
and the captain wants him to rough it out; so show him the ropes, and
let him taste an end now an' then. Ha, ha, ha!' says he, again,
laughing, ''tis the first time I ever see a embrella loosed out at sea,
and but the second I've seen brought aboard even. He's the greenest
hand, sure enough, it's been my luck to come across! But green they
say's nigh to blue, so look out if I don't try to make a sailor of the
young spark!'

"Well, for the next three or four days the poor fellow was knocked about
on all hands; he'd got to go aloft to the 'gallant cross-trees, and out
on the yard foot-ropes the next morning, before breakfast; and, coming
down, in course, ye know, the men made him fast till he sent down the
key of his bottle-chest to pay his footing. If he closed his eyes a
moment in the watch, slash comes a bucketful o' Channel water over him.
The third mate would keep him two hours on end, larnin' to rig out a
sterns'l boom, or grease a royal mast. He led a dog's life of it,
likewise, in the half-deck; bein' last come, in course, he had al'ays to
go and fill the bread-barge, scrub the planks, an' do all the dirty
jobs. Them _owners' 'prentices_, sich as he had for messmates, is always
worse to their own kind by far nor the '_comming sailors_,' as the
longshore folks calls a foremast-man. I couldn't help takin' pity on the
poor lad, bein' the only one as had known the way of his upbringing, and
I feels a sort of a charge of him like; so one night I gets a quiet
spell with him in the watch, an' as soon 's I fell to speak kind-ways,
there I seed the water stand i' the boy's eyes. 'It's a good thing,'
says he, tryin' to gulp it down--'it's a goo--good thing mother don't
see all this!' 'Ho, ho!' says I, 'my lad, 'tis all but another way of
bein' sea-sick! You doesn't get the land cleared out, and sniff the blue
breeze nat'ral like, all at once! Hows'ever, my lad,' says I, 'take my
advice--bring your hammock an' chest into the foc'sle; swap half your
fine clothes for blue shirts and canvas trousers; turn to, ready and
willing, an' do all that's asked you--you'll soon find the differings
betwixt the men and a few petty officers an' 'prentices half out their
time. The men'll soon make a sailor of you; you'll see what a seaman is;
you'll larn ten times the knowledge; an', add to that, you'll not be
browbeat and looked jealous on!'

"Well, next night, what does he do but follers what I said, and afore
long most of his troubles was naterally over; nor there wasn't a
willin'er nor a readier hand aboard, and every man was glad to put Ned
through anything he'd got to do. The mates began to take note on him;
and though the 'prentices never left off calling him the Green Hand,
before we rounded the Cape he could take his wheel with the best of
them, and clear away a sternsail out of the top in handsome style. We
were out ten months, and Ned Collins stuck to the foc'sle throughout.
When we got up the Thames, he went ashore to see his mother in a check
shirt and canvas trousers made out of an old royal, with a tarpaulin hat
I built for him myself. He would have me to come the next day over to
the house for to have a supper; so, havin' took a kindness to the young
chap, why, I couldn't say nay. There I finds him in the midst of a lot
o' soft-faced slips and young ladies, a spinning the wonderfullest yarns
about the sea and the East Ingees, makin' em swallow all sorts of
horse-marines' nonsense, about marmaids, sea-serpents, and sich like.
'Hallo, my hearty!' says he, as soon as he saw me, 'heave a-head here,
and bring to an anchor in this here blessed chair. Young ladies,' says
he, 'this is Bob Jacobs, as I told you kissed a marmaid hisself. He's a
wonderful hand, is Bob, for the fair ones!' You may fancy how
flabbergasted I was at this, though the young scamp was as cool as you
please, and wouldn't ha' needed much to make him kiss 'em all round; but
I was al'ays milk-and-water alongside of women, if they topped at all
above my rating. 'Well,' thinks I, 'my lad, I wouldn't ha' said five
minutes agone, there was anything of the green about ye yet, but I see
'twill take another voy'ge to wash it all out.' For to my thinkin',
mates, 'tis more of a land-lubber to come the rig over a few poor
creaters that never saw blue water, than not to know the ropes you
warn't told. 'Oh, Mister Jacobs!' says Missus Collins to me that night,
before I went off, 'd'ye think Edward is tired of that 'ere horridsome
sea yet?' 'Well, marm,' I says, 'I'm afeared not. But I'll tell ye,
marm,' says I, 'if you wants to make him cut the consarn, the only thing
ye can do is to get him bound apprentice to it. From what I've seen of
him, he's a lad that won't bear aught again his liberty; an' I do
believe, if he thought he couldn't get free, he'd run the next day!'
Well, after that, ye see, I didn't know what more turned up of it; for I
went round to Hull, myself, and ships in a timber-craft for the Baltic,
just to see som'at new.

"Now, one day, the third voy'ge from that time, no sooner does we get up
to Blackwall than we hears of a strong press from the men-o'-war; and as
I'd got a desperate mislike to the sarvice, there was a lot of us
marchantmen kept stowed away close in holes an' corners till we could
suit ourselves. At last we got well tired, and a shipmate o' mine and I
wanted to go and see our sweethearts over in the town. So we hired the
slops from a Jew, and makes ourselves out to be a couple o' watermen,
with badges to suit, a-carrying of a large parcile and a ticket on it.
In the afternoon we came back again within sight of the Tower, where we
saw the coast was clear, and makes a fair wind along Rosemary Lane and
Cable Street. Just then we saw a tall young fellow, in a brown coat, an'
a broad-brim hat, a-standing in the door of a shop, with a paper under
his arm, on the look-out for someone. 'Twig the Quaker, Bob!' my
shipmate says to me. As soon as he saw us, out the Quaker steps, and
says he to Bill, in a sleepy sort of a v'ice, 'Friend, thou'rt a
waterman, I b'lieve?' 'Yes,' says Bill, with an oath, 'that's what we
hails for. D'ye want a boat, master?' 'Swear not, friend,' says the
broad-brim; 'but what I want is this, you see. We have a large vessel,
belonging to our house, for to send to Havannah, and willin' to give
double wages, but we can't find any marineers at this present time for
to navigate. Now,' says he, 'I s'pose this onfortunate state o' things
is on account of the sinful war as is a-goin' on--they're afraid of the
riskses. Hows'ever, my friends,' says he, 'perhaps, as you knows the
river, thee could put us upon a way of engagin' twenty or more bold
marineers, as is not afeared of venturing for good pay?' and with this
he looks into his papers; and says Bill, 'Well, sir, I don't know any
myself--do you, Bob?' and he gives me a shove, and says under the rose,
'No fear, mate,' says Bill, 'he's all over green--don't slip the chance
for all hands of us at Jobson's.' 'Why, master,' I says, 'what 'ud ye
give them marineers you speaks on, now?' 'Four pound a month, friend,'
says he, looking up; 'but we gives tea in place of spirits, and we must
have steady men. We can't wait, neither,' says he, 'more nor three days,
or the vessel won't sail at all.' 'My eye!' says Bill, ''twon't do to
miss, Bob!--stick to him, that's all.' 'Well, sir,' I says, 'I thinks I
does have a notion of some'at of the sort. If you sends your papers to
Jobson's Tavern to-night, second lane 'twixt Barnaby Street and the Blue
Anchor Road, over the water, why, I might get ye as many hands for to
sign as you wants.' 'Thanks, friend,' says the young broad-brim, 'I
will attend to thine advice.' So he bids us good-day, and stepped into
his door again. 'Bill,' says I, as we went off, 'now I think on it, I
can't help a notion I've seen that chap's face afore.' 'Very like,' says
Bill; 'for the matter o' that, 'tis the same with me--them broad-brims
is so much of a piece. But that 'ere fellow don't know nothin' of ships,
sure enough, or he wouldn't offer what he did, and the crimps' houses
all of a swarm with hands!'

"'Take my word, mate,' says I, 'it's a paying trip, or he wouldn't do
it--leave a Quaker alone for that. Why, the chap's a parfit youngster,
but I am blessed if he don't look as starched as if he'd sat over a dask
for twenty year!'

"Well, strike me lucky, mates all, if the whole affair warn't a complete
trap! Down comes a clerk with the papers, sure enough; but in ten
minutes more the whole blessed lot of us was puckalowed, and hard an'
fast, by a strong press-gang. They put us into a cutter off Redriff
Stairs, and the next noon all hands was aboard of the _Pandora_ frigate
at Sheerness. The first time of being mustered on deck, says Bill to me,
'Cuss my eyes, Bob, if there isn't the 'farnal Quaker!' I looked, and
sees a midshipman in uniform like the rest, and so it was. 'The sly,
soft-sawderin' beggar!' says I. 'All fair in war, and a press, mate!'
says one o' the frigate's men. All the while I kept looking and looking
at the midshipman; and at last I says to Bill when we got below, giving
a slap to my thigh, 'Blessed if it ain't! It's the _Green Hand_
himself!' 'Green Hand!' says Bill, sulky enough, 'who's the Green Hand?
Blow me, Bob, if I don't think we're the green hands ourselves, if
that's what you're upon!' So I told him the story about Ned Collins.
'Well,' says he, 'if a fellow was green as Chinee rice, cuss me if the
reefers' mess wouldn't take it all out on him in a dozen watches. The
softest thing I know, as you say, Bob, just now, it's to come the smart
hand when you're a lubber; but to sham green after that style, ye know,
why, it is a mark or two above either you or I, messmate. So, for my
part, I forgives the young scamp, 'cause I ought to ha' known better.'

"By the time the frigate got to sea the story was blowed over the whole
main-deck; many a good laugh it gived the different messes; and Bill,
the midshipman, and me, got the name of the 'Three Green Hands.'

"One middle-watch Mister Ned comes for'ard by the booms to me, and says
he, 'Well, Bob Jacobs, you don't bear a grudge, I hope?' 'Why,' says I,
'Mister Collins, 'twould be mutiny now, I fancy, you being my officer.'
So I gave a laugh; but I couldn't help feelin' hurt a little, 'twas so
like a son turnin' against his father, as 'twere. 'Why, Bob,' says he,
'did ye think me so green as not to know a seaman when I saw him? I was
afeared you'd know me that time.' 'Not I, sir,' I answers; 'why, if we
hadn't sailed so long in company, I wouldn't know ye now!' So Master Ned
gived me to understand it was all for old times he wanted to ship me in
the same craft; but he knew my misliking to the sarvice, though he said
he'd rather ha' lost the whole haul of 'em nor myself. So many a yarn we
had together of a dark night, and for a couple of years we saw no small
sarvice in the _Pandora_. But if ye'd seen Ned, the smartest reefer
aboard, and the best liked by the men, in the fore-tops'l bunt in a
gale, or over the main-deck hatch, with an enemy's frigate to leeward,
or on a spree ashore at Lisbon or Naples, you wouldn't ha' said there
was anything green in his eye, I warrant ye! He was made
acting-leftenant of a prize he cut out near Chairboorg, before he passed
examination; so he took me for his prize-bo'sun, and carried her into
Plymouth. Soon after that the war was ended, and all hands of the
_Pandora_ paid off. Master Ned got passed with flying colours, and
confirmed leftenant besides, but he had to wait for a ship. He made me
say where I'd be found, and we parted company for about a year.

"Well, I was come home from a short trip, and one day Leftenant Collins
hunts me up at Wapping Docks, where I'd had myself spliced, six years
before, to Betsy Brown, an' was laid up for a spell, having seen a good
deal of the sea. Ye must know the young leftenant was fell deep in love
with a rich Indy naboob's daughter, which had come over to take her back
to the East Ingees. The old fellow was hard close-hauled again the
match, notwithstanding of the young folks makin' it all up; so he'd
taken out berths aboard of a large company's ship, and bought over the
captain on no account to let any king's navy man within the gangways,
nor not a shoulder with a swab upon it, red or blue, beyond the ship's
company. But, above all, the old tyrant wouldn't have a blue-jacket,
from stem to starn, if so be he'd got nothing ado but talk sweet; I
s'pose he fancied his girl was mad after the whole blessed cloth. The
leftenant turns over this here log to me, and, says he, 'I'll follow her
to the world's end, if need be, Bob, and cheat the old villain!' 'Quite
right, too, sir,' says I. 'Bob,' says he,' I'll tell you what I wants
you for to do. Go you and enter for the _Seringapatam_ at Blackwall, if
you're for sea just now; I'm goin' for to s'cure my passage myself, an'
no doubt doorin' the voy'ge something'll turn up to set all square; at
any rate, I'll stand by for a rope to pull!' 'Why, here's a rum go!'
thinks I to myself. 'Is Ned Collins got so green again, spite of all
that's come and gone, for to think the waves is a-goin' to work wonders,
or ould Neptune under the line's to play the parson and splice all!'
'Well, sir,' I says, 'but don't you think the skipper will smoke your
weather-roll, sir, at sea, as you did Bill Pikes an' me, you know, sir?'
says I. 'Oh, Bob, my lad,' says the leftenant, 'leave you that to me.
The fellow most onlikest to a sailor on the Indyman's poop will be me,
and that's the way you'll know me.'

"Well, ship I does with the _Seringapatam_ for Bombay--plenty of
passengers she had; but only clerks, naboobs, old half-pay fellows, and
ladies, not to speak o' children and nurses, black and white. She sailed
without my seein' Leftenant Collins, so I thought I was to hear no more
on it. When the passengers began to muster on the poop, by the time we
got out o' Channel, I takes a look over the ladies, in coilin' up the
ropes aft, or at the wheel; I knowed the said girl at once by her good
looks, and the old fellow by his grumpy, yallow frontispiece. All on a
sudden I takes a note of a figger coming up from the cuddy, which I made
out at once for my Master Ned, spite of his wig and a pair o'
high-heeled boots, as gave him the walk of a chap a-treading amongst
eggs. When I hears him lisp out to the skipper at the round-house if
there was any fear of wind, 'twas all I could do to keep the juice in my
cheek. Away he goes up to windward, holding on by everything, to look
over the bulwarks behind his sweetheart, givin' me a glance over his
shoulder. At night I see the two hold a sort of collogue abaft the
wheel, when I was on my trick at the helm. After awhile there was a row
got up amongst the passengers, with the old naboob and the skipper, to
find out who it was that kept a-singing every still night in the first
watch, alongside of the ladies' cabin, under the poop. It couldn't be
cleared up, hows'ever, who it was. All sorts o' places they said it
comed from--mizzen-chains, quarter-galleries, lower-deck ports, and
davit-boats. But what put the old hunks most in a rage was, the songs
was every one on 'em such as 'Rule Britannia,' 'Bay of Biscay,'
'Britannia's Bulwarks,' and 'All in the Downs.' The captain was all at
sea about it, and none of the men would say anything, for by all
accounts 'twas the best pipe at a sea-song as was to be heard. For my
part, I knowed pretty well what was afloat. One night a man comed
for'ard from the wheel, after steering his dog-watch out, and 'Well, I'm
blessed, mates,' says he on the foc'sle, 'but that chap aft yonder with
the lady--he's about the greenest hand I've chanced to come across. What
d'ye think I hears him say to old Yallow-chops an hour agone?' 'What was
it, mate?' I says. 'Says he, "Do you know, Sar Chawls, is the hoshun
reelly green at the line--_green_ ye know, Sar Chawls, _reelly_ green?"
"No, sir," says the old naboob, "'tis blue." "Whoy, ye don't sa--ay so!"
says the young chap, pullin' a long face.' 'Why, Jim,' another hand
drops in, 'that's the very chap as sings them first-rate sea-songs of a
night. I seed him myself come out o' the mizzen-chains!' 'Hallo!' says
another at this, 'then there's some'at queer i' the wind! I _thought_ he
gave rather a weather-look aloft, comin' on deck i' the morning. I'll
bet a week's grog that chap's desarted from the king's flag, mates!'
Well, ye know, hereupon I couldn't do no less nor shove in my oar, so I
takes word from all hands not to blow the gaff,[1] an' then gives 'em
the whole yarn to the very day, about the Green Hand--for somehow or
another I was al'ays a yarning sort of a customer. As soon as they heard
it was a love consarn, not a man but swore to keep a stopper on his jaw;
only, at findin' out he was a leftenant in the Royal Navy, all hands was
for touching hats when they went past.

  [1] Let out the secret.

"Hows'ever, things went on till we'd crossed the line a good while; the
leftenant was making his way with the girl at every chance. But, as for
the old fellow, I didn't see he was a fathom the nearer with _him_;
though, as the naboob had never clapped eyes on him to know him like,
'twan't much matter before heaving in sight o' port. The captain of the
Indyman was a rum, old-fashioned codger, all for plain sailing and old
ways--I shouldn't say overmuch of a smart seaman. He read the sarvice
every Sunday, rigged the church an' all that, if it was anything short
of a reef-taups'l breeze. 'Twas queer enough, ye may think, to hear the
old boy drawling out, 'As 'twas in the beginning--'then, in the one key,
'Haul aft the mainsheet----' 'is now, and ever shall be----' 'Small pull
with the weather brace----' 'Amen----' 'Well the main-yard----' 'The
Lord be with you----' 'Taups'l yard well!' As for the first orficer, he
was a dandy, know-nothing young blade, as wanted to show off before the
ladies; and the second was afraid to call the nose on his face his own,
except in his watch; the third was a good seaman, but ye may well fancy
the craft stood often a poor chance of being rightly handled.

"'Twas one arternoon watch, off the west coast of Africay, as hot a day
as I ever mind on, we lost the breeze with a swell, and just as it got
down smooth, land was made out, low upon the starboard bow, about
south-east-and-by-sou', as near as may be. The captain was turned in
sick below, and the first orficer on deck. I was at the wheel myself,
and I hears him say to the second as how the land breeze would come off
at night. A little after, up comes Leftenant Collins, in his black wig
and his 'long-shore hat, an' he begins to squint over the starn to
nor'west'ard. 'Jacobs, my lad,' whispers he to me, 'how do ye like the
looks o' things?' 'Not overmuch, sir,' says I; 'small enough sea-room,
leastways for a sky like that 'ere.' Up goes he to the first officer,
after a bit. 'Sir,' says he, 'do ye notice how we've risen the land
within the last hour and a half?' 'No, sir,' says the first mate. 'What
d'ye mean?' 'Why, there's a current here, takin' us inside the point,'
says he. 'Sir,' says the Company's man, 'if I didn't know what's what,
d'ye think I'd learn it off a gentleman as is so confounded green?
There's nothing of the sort,' he says. 'Look on the starboard quarter,
then,' says the leftenant, 'at the man-o'-war bird afloat yonder with
its wings spread. Take three minutes' look!' says he. Well, the mate did
take a minute or two's squint through the mizzen-shroud, and pretty
blue he got, for the bird came abreast of the ship by that time.

"'It's a underdrift,' says the leftenant, wonderful
knowing-like--'though it's nothing on the surfage, look ye, why, with
the draught the ship has it's a-taking her along like a tideway, below!
Now, d'ye think you'd weather that there point two hours after this, if
a gale come on from the nor'-west, sir?' 'Well,' says the first mate, 'I
dare say we shouldn't--but what of that?' 'Why, if you'd cruised for six
months off the coast of Africa, as I've done,' says the leftenant,
'you'd think there was something ticklish about that white spot in the
sky, to nor'-west! But on top o' that, the weather-glass is fell a good
bit since four bells.' 'Weather-glass!' the mate says, 'why, that don't
matter much in respect of a gale, I fancy.' Ye must understand,
weather-glasses wan't come so much in fashion at that time, except in
the Royal Navy. 'Sir,' says the mate again, 'mind _your_ business, if
you've got any, and I'll mind mine!' 'If I was you,' the leftenant says,
'I'd call the captain.' 'Thank ye,' says the mate--'call the captain for
nothing!' Well, in an hour more the land was quite plain on the
starboard bow, and the mate comes aft again to Leftenant Collins. The
clouds was beginning to grow out of the clear sky astarn too. 'Why,
sir,' says the mate, 'I'd no notion you was a _seaman_ at all! What
would you do yourself now, supposin' the case you put a little ago?'
'Well, sir,' says Mr Collins, 'if you'll do the thing, I'll put ye up to
it at once----'"

At this point of Old Jack's story, however, a cabin-boy came from aft,
to say that the captain wanted him. The old seaman knocked the ashes out
of his pipe, which he had smoked at intervals in short puffs, put it in
his jacket pocket, and got up off the windlass end. "Why, old ship!"
said the man-o'-war's-man, "are ye goin' to leave us in the lurch with a
_short yarn_ again?" "Can't help it, bo'," said old Jack; "orders must
be obeyed, ye know," and away he went. "Well, mates," said one, "if the
yarn's been overhauled before, what was the upshot of it? I didn't hear
it myself." "Blessed if I know," said several--"Old Jack didn't get the
length last time he's got now." "More luck!" said the man-o'-war's-man;
"'tis to be hoped he'll finish it next time!"




CHAPTER II


We left the forecastle group of the _Gloucester_ disappointed by the
abrupt departure of their story-teller, Old Jack, at so critical a
thread of his yarn. As old Jacobs went aft on the quarter-deck, where
the binnacle-lamp before her wheel was newly-lighted, he looked in with
a seaman's instinct upon the compass-boxes, to see how the ship headed;
ere ascending to the poop, he bestowed an approving nod upon his friend
the steersman, hitched up his trousers, wiped his mouth with the back of
his hand in a proper deference to female society, and then proceeded to
answer the captain's summons. The passengers, in a body, had left the
grand cabin to the bustling steward and his boys, previously to
assembling there again for tea--not even excepting the little coterie of
inveterate whist-players, and the pairs of inseparable chess-men, to
whom an Indian voyage is so appropriately the school for future nice
practice in etiquette, war, and commerce. Everybody had at last got rid
of sea-sickness, and mustered for a promenade; so that the lofty poop of
the Indiaman, dusky as it was, and exposed to the breeze, fluttered with
gay dresses like the midway battlement of a castle by the waves, upon
which its inmates have stolen out from some hot festivity. But the long
heave from below, raising her stern-end slowly against the western space
of clear-obscure, in the manner characteristic of a sea abaft the beam,
and rolling her to either hand, exhibited to the eyes on the forecastle
a sort of _alto relievo_ of figures, amongst whom the male, in their
blank attempts to appear nautical before the ladies, were distinguished
from every other object by their variety of ridiculous postures. Under
care of one or two bluff, good-humoured young mates--officers polished
by previous opportunities of a kind unknown either to Navy-men or mere
"cargo-fenders," along with several roguish little quasi-midshipmen--the
ladies were supported against the poop-rail, or seated on the
after-gratings, where their contented dependence not only saved them
from the ludicrous failures of their fellow-passengers, but gained them,
especially the young ones, the credit of being better sailors. An
accompaniment was contributed to this lively exercise on the part of the
gentlemen promenaders, which otherwise in the glimmering sea-twilight,
would have been striking in a different sense; by the efforts, namely,
of a little band of amateur musicians under the break of the poop, who,
with flute, clarionet, bugles, trombone, and violin, after sundry
practisings by stealth, had for the first time assembled to play "Rule
Britannia." What, indeed, with the occasional abrupt checks, wild
flourishes, and fantastic variations caused by the ship's roll; and what
with the attitudes overhead, of holding on refractory hats and caps, of
intensely resisting and staggering legs, or of sudden pausing above the
slope which one moment before was an ascent, there was additional force
in the designation quaintly given to such an aspect of things by the
foremast Jacks--that of a "cuddy jig." As the still increasing motion,
however, shook into side-places this central group of cadets, civilians,
and planters adrift, the grander features of the scene predominated: the
broad mass of the ship's hull--looming now across and now athwart the
streak of sinking light behind--drawn out by the weltering outline of
the waters; the entire length of her white decks ever and anon exposed
to view, with their parallel lines, their nautical appurtenances, the
cluster of hardy men about the windlass, the two or three "old salts"
rolling to and fro along the gangway, and the variety of forms blending
into both railings of the poop. High out of, and over all, rose the
lofty upper outline of the noble ship, statelier and statelier as the
dusk closed in about her--the expanse of canvas whitening with sharper
edge upon the gloom; the hauled-up clues of the main-course, with their
huge blocks, swelling and lifting to the fair wind--and the breasts of
the topsails divided by their tightened buntlines, like the shape of
some full-bosomed maiden, on which the reef-points heaved like silken
fringes, as if three sisters, shadowy and goddess-like, trod in each
other's steps towards the deeper solitude of the ocean; while the tall
spars, the interlacing complicated tracery, and the dark top-hamper
showing between gave graceful unity to her figure; and her three white
trucks, far overhead, kept describing a small clear arc upon the deep
blue zenith as she rolled: the man at the wheel midway before the doors
of the poop-cabin, with the light of the binnacle upon his broad throat
and bearded chin, was looking aloft at a single star that had come out
beyond the clue of the main-topsail.

The last stroke of "six bells," or seven o'clock, which had begun to be
struck on the ship's bell when Old Jack broke off his story, still
lingered on the ear as he brought up close to the starboard
quarter-gallery, where a little green shed or pent-house afforded
support and shelter to the ladies with the captain. The erect figure of
the latter, as he lightly held one of his fair guests by the arm, while
pointing out to her some object astern, still retained the attitude
which had last caught the eyes of the forecastle group. The musical
cadets had just begun to pass from "Rule Britannia" to "Shades of
Evening"; and the old sailor, with his glazed hat in his hand, stood
waiting respectfully for the captain's notice. The ladies, however, were
gazing intently down upon the vessel's wake, where the vast shapes of
the waves now sank down into a hollow, now rose seething up into the
rudder-trunk, but all marked throughout with one broad winding track,
where the huge body of the ship had swiftly passed. From foaming
whiteness it melted into yesty green, that became in the hollow a path
of soft light, where the sparks mingled like golden seed; the wave-tops
glimmered beyond; star-like figures floated up or sank in their long
undulations; and the broad swell that heaped itself on a sudden under
the mounting stern bore its bells, and bubbles, and flashes upwards to
the eye. When the ship rose high and steady upon it, and one saw down
her massy taffrail, it looked to a terrestrial eye rather like some
mystic current issuing from the archway under a tall tower, whose
foundations rocked and heaved; and so said the romantic girl beside the
captain, shuddering at the vividness of an image which so incongruously
brought together the fathomless deep and the distant shores of solid old
England. The eye of the seaman, however, suggested to him an image more
akin to the profession, as he directed his fair companion's attention to
the trough of the ship's furrow, where, against the last low gleam of
twilight, and by the luminous wake, could be seen a little flock of
black petrels, apparently running along it to catch what the mighty
ploughshare had turned up; while a grey gull or two hovered aslant over
them in the blue haze. As he looked round, too, to aloft, he exchanged
glances with the old sailor who had listened--an expression which even
the ladies understood. "Ah! Jacobs," said the captain, "get the lamp
lighted in my cabin, and the tea-kettle aft. With the roll she has on
her, 'twill be more ship-shape there than in the cuddy." "Ay, ay, sir,"
said the old seaman. "How does she head just now, Jacobs?"
"Sou'-west-and-by-south, sir." "She'd lie easier for the ladies though,"
said the captain, knowing his steward was a favourite with them, "were
the wind a point or two less fair. Our old acquaintance, Captain
Williamson of the _Seringapatam_ now, Jacobs, old-fashioned as he was,
would have braced in his lee-yard only to steady a lady's tea-cup." "Ay,
your honour," replied Jacobs, and his weather-eye twinkled, "and washed
the foc'sle under, too! But ye know, sir, he'd got a reg'lar-built
naboob aboard, and a beauty besides!" "Ah, Mr Jacobs!" exclaimed the
romantic young lady, "what was that? Is it one of your stories?" "Well,
your ladyship, 'tis a bit of a yarn, no doubt, and some'at of a cur'ous
one." "Oh!" said another of the captain's fair _protégées_, "I _do_ love
these 'yarns,' as you call them; they are so expressive, so--and all
that sort of thing." "Nonsense, my love," said her mother; "you don't
understand them, and 'tis better you should not--they are low, and
contain a great many bad words, I fear." "But think of the imaginative
feeling, aunt," rejoined the other girl, "and the adventures! Oh, the
ocean of all places for that! Were it not for sea-sickness, I should
dote upon it! As for the _storm_ just now, look how safe we are, and see
how the dear old ship rises up from the billows, with all her sails so
delightfully mysterious one over another!" "Bless your heart, marm,
yes," responded Old Jack, chuckling; "you talks just like a seaman,
beggin' your pardon. As consarns the tea, sir, I make bold to expect
the'll be a shift o' wind directly, and a slant deck, as soon as we get
fair into the stream, rid o' this bit of a bubble the tail of it kicks
up hereabouts." "Bear a hand then, Jacobs," said the captain, "and see
all right below for the party in the cabin--we shall be down in a few
minutes." The captain stood up on the quarter-gallery, to peer round
into the dusk and watch the lifting of the main-royal; but the next
minute he called to the ladies, and their next neighbours, to look
towards the larboard bow, and see the moon rise. A long edge of gray
haze lay around the eastern horizon, on which the dark rim of the sea
was defined beyond the roll of the waves, as with the sweep of a soft
brush dipped in indigo; while to westward it heaved up, weltering in its
own watery light against the gloom. From behind this low fringe of
vapour was silently diffusing, as it were, a pool of faint radiance,
like a brook bubbling from under ice; a thread of silver ran along the
line of haze, growing keener at one point, until the arch of the moon
shot slowly up, broad and fair: the wave-heads rising between were
crested here and there with light; the bow of the ship, the bellies of
her fore-canvas, her bowsprit with the jibs hanging idly over it, and
the figure-head beneath, were tinged by a gentle lustre, while the
hollow shadows stole out behind. The distant horizon, meanwhile, still
lay in an obscure streak, which blended into the dark side of the low
fog-bank, so as to give sea and cloud united the momentary appearance of
one of those long rollers that turn over on a beach, with their
glittering crest: you would expect to see next instant what actually
seemed to take place--the whole outline plashing over in foam, and
spreading itself clearly forward, as soon as the moon was free. With the
airy space that flowed from her came out the whole eastern seaboard
liquid and distinct, as if beyond either bow of the lifting Indiaman one
sharp finger of a pair of compasses had flashed round, drawing a
semi-circle upon the dull background, still cloudy, glimmering, and
obscure. From the waves that undulated towards her stern, the ship was
apparently entering upon a smoother zone, where the small surges leapt
up and danced in moonshine, resembling more the current of some estuary
in a full tide. To north-westward, just on the skirts of the dark, one
wing of a large, soft-grey vapour was newly smitten by the moon-gleam;
and over against it on the south-east, where the long fog-bank sank
away, there stretched an expanse of ocean which, on its farthest verge,
gave out a tint of the most delicate opal blue. The ship, to the
south-westward of the Azores, and going large before the trade-wind, was
now passing into the great Gulf Stream, which there runs to the
south-east; even the passengers on deck were sensible of the rapid
transition with which the lately cold breeze became warmer and fitful,
and the motion of the vessel easier. They were surprised, on looking
into the waves alongside, to perceive them struggling, as it were, under
a trailing network of seaweed; which, as far as one could distinctly
see, appeared to keep down the masses of water, like so much
oil--flattening their crests, neutralising the force of the wind, and
communicating a strangely sombre green to the heaving element. In the
winding track of the ship's wake the eddies now absolutely blazed; the
weeds she had crushed down rose to the surface again in gurgling circles
of flames, and the showers of sparks came up seething on either side
amongst the stalks and leaves; but as the moonlight grew more equally
diffused, it was evident that she was only piercing an arm of that local
weed-bed here formed, like an island, in the _bight_ of the stream.
Farther ahead were scattered patches and bunches of the true Florida
Gulf-weed, white and moss-like; which, shining crisp in the level
moonlight, and tipping the surges as it floated past, gave them the
aspect of hoary-bearded waves, or the garlanded horses of Neptune. The
sight still detained the captain's party on deck, and some of the ladies
innocently thought these phenomena indicative of the proximity of land.

"I have seldom seen the Stream so distinct hereabouts," said Captain
Collins to his first officer, who stood near, having charge of the
watch. "Nor I, sir," replied the chief mate; "but it no doubt narrows
with different seasons. There goes a flap of the fore-topsail, though!
The wind fails, sir." "'Tis only drawing ahead, I think," said the
captain; "the stream _sucks_ the wind with its heat, and we shall have
it pretty near from due nor'-west immediately." "Shall we round in on
the starboard hand, then, sir, and keep both wind and current _aft_?" "I
think not, Mr Wood," said the captain. "'Twould give us a good three
knots more every hour of the next twenty-four, sir," persisted the
officer eagerly--and chief mates generally confine their theories to
mere immediate progress. "Yes," rejoined the captain, "but we should
lose hold of the 'trade' on getting out of the stream again. I intend
driving her across, with the nor'-wester on her starboard beam, so as to
lie well up afterwards. Get the yards braced to larboard as you catch
the breeze, Mr Wood, and make her course south-west by west." "Very
well, sir." "Ladies," said the captain, "will you allow me to hand you
below, where I fear Jacobs will be impatient with the tea?"

"What a pity, Captain Collins," remarked the romantic Miss Alicia,
looking up as they descended the companion--"what a pity that you cannot
have that delicious moonlight to shine in at your cabin windows just
now; the sailors yonder have it all to themselves." "There is no favour
in these things at sea, Miss Alicia," said the captain, smiling. "Jack
shares the chance there, at least, with his betters; but I can promise
those who honour my poor suite of apartments this evening both fine
moonshine and a steadier floor." On reaching the snug little
after-cabin, with its swinging lamp and barometer, its side
"state-room," seven feet long, and its two stern-windows showing a dark
glimpse of the rolling waters, they found the tea-things set, nautical
style, on the hard-a-weather, boxed-up table--the surgeon and one or two
elderly gentlemen waiting, and old Jacobs still trimming up the
sperm-oil lights. Mrs St Clair, presiding in virtue of relationship to
their host, was still cautiously pouring out the requisite half-cups,
when, above all the bustle and clatter in the cuddy, could be heard the
sounds of ropes thrown down on deck, of the trampling watch, and the
stentorian voice of the first officer. "Jacobs!" said the captain, a
minute or two afterwards; and that worthy factotum instantly appeared
from his pantry alongside of the door--from whence, by-the-way, the old
seaman might be privy to the whole conversation--"stand by to _dowse_
the lamp when she heels," an order purposely mysterious to all else but
the doctor. Everyone soon felt a change in the movement of their
wave-born habitation; the rolling lift of her stern ceased; those who
were looking into their cups saw the tea apparently take a decided
inclination to larboard--as the facetious doctor observed, a "tendency
to _port_." The floor gradually sloped down to the same hand, and a
long, wild, gurgling wash was suddenly heard to run careering past the
timbers of the starboard side.

"Dear me!" fervently exclaimed every lady at once; when the very next
moment the lamps went out, and all was darkness. Captain Collins felt a
little hand clutch his arm in nervous terror, but the fair owner of it
said nothing; until, with still more startling effect than before, in a
few seconds there shot through both stern windows the full rays of the
moon, pouring their radiance into the cabin, shining on the backs of the
books in the hanging shelves by the bulkhead, on the faces of the party,
and the bald forehead of old Jacobs "standing by" the lamp--lastly, too,
revealing the pretty little Alicia with her hand on the captain's arm,
and her pale, terrified face. "Don't be alarmed, ladies!" said the
surgeon, "she's only hauled on the starboard tack!" "And her counter to
the east," said the captain.

"But who put out the lamp?" rejoined the doctor. "Ah, I see, sir!--'But
when the moon, refulgent lamp of night.'" "Such a surprise!" exclaimed
the ladies, laughing, although as much frightened for a moment by the
magical illumination as by the previous circumstances. "You see," said
the captain, "we are not like a house--we can bring round our scenery to
any window we choose." "Very prettily imagined it was, too, I declare!"
observed a stout old Bombay officer, "and a fine compliment to the
ladies, by Jingo, sir!" "If we had any of your pompous Bengal '_Quy
hies_' here though, colonel," said the doctor, "they wouldn't stand
being choused so unceremoniously out of the weather side, I suspect."
"As to the agreeable little surprise I meant for the ladies," said
Captain Collins, "I fear it was done awkwardly, never having commanded
an Indiaman before, and laid up ashore these half-a-dozen years. But
one's old feelings get freshened up, and without knowing the old
_Gloucester's_ points, I can't help reckoning her as a lady too--a very
particular old 'Begum,' that won't let anyone else be humoured before
herself--especially as I took charge of her to oblige a friend." "How
easily she goes now!" said the doctor, "and a gallant sight at this
moment, I assure you, to anyone who chooses to put his head up the
companion." "Ah, mamma!" said one of the girls, "couldn't you almost
think this was our own little parlour at home with the moonlight coming
through the window on both sides of the old elm, where we were sitting a
month ago hearing about India and papa?"

"Ah!" responded her cousin, standing up, "but there was no track of
moonshine dancing beyond the track of the ship yonder! How blue the
water is, and how much warmer it has grown of a sudden!"

"We are crossing the great Gulf Stream," said the captain--"Jacobs! open
one of the stern-ports." "'Tis the very place and time, this is,"
remarked a good-humoured cotton-grower from the Deccan, "for one of the
colonel's tiger-hunts, now!" "Sir!" answered the old officer, rather
testily, "I am not accustomed to thrust my _tiger-hunts_, as you choose
to call my humble experiences, under people's noses!" "Certainly not, my
dear sir," said the planter--"but what do you say, ladies, to one of
the captain's sea-yarns, then? Nothing better, I'm sure, here now,
sir--eh?" Captain Collins smiled, and said he had never spun a yarn in
his life, except when a boy, out of matter-of-fact old junk and tar.
"Here is my steward, however," continued he, "who is the best hand at it
I know, and I daresay he'll give you one." "Charming!" exclaimed the
young ladies; and "What was that adventure, Mr Jacobs," said Miss
Alicia, "with a beauty and a nabob in it, that you alluded to a short
time ago?" "I didn't to say disactly include upon it, your ladyship,"
replied old Jacobs, with a tug of his hair, and a bow not just _à la
maître_; "but the captain can give you it better nor I can, seeing as
his honour were the Nero on it, as one may say." "Oh!" said the surgeon,
rubbing his hands, "a lady and a rupee-eater in the case!" "There seems
something curious about this said adventure of yours, my dear captain,"
said Mrs St Clair, archly, "and a beauty too! It makes me positively
inquisitive, but I hope your own fair lady has heard the story?" "Why,
not exactly, ma'am," replied Captain Collins, laughing as he caught the
doctor looking preternaturally solemn, after a sly lee-wink to the
colonel, who, having his back to the moonlight, stretched out his legs
and indulged in a grim, silent chuckle, until his royal-tiger
countenance was unhappily brought so far _flush_[2] in the rays as to
betray a singular daguerreotype, resembling one of those cut-paper
phantasmagoria thrown on a drawing-room wall, unmistakably black and
white, and in the character of Malicious Watchfulness. The rubicund,
fidgety little cotton-grower twiddled his thumbs, and looked modestly
down on the deck, with half-shut eyes, as if expecting some bold
revelation of nautical depravity; while the romantic Miss Alicia
coloured and was silent. "However," said the captain, coolly, "it is no
matrimonial secret, at any rate! We both talk of it sometimes when we
read the Church Service of a Sunday night at home, with Jacobs for the
clerk." "Do, Mr Jacobs, oblige us!" requested the younger of the girls.
"Well, miss," said he, smoothing down his hair in the doorway, and
hemming, "'tain't neither for the likes o' me to refuse a lady, nor
accordin' to rules for to give such a yarn in presence of a supperior
officer, much less the captain; with a midship helm, ye know, marm, ye
carn't haul upon one tack nor the other. Not to say but next forenoon
watch----" "I see, Jacobs, my man," interrupted Captain Collins,
"there's nothing for it but to fore-reach upon you, or else you'll be
'Green-Handing' me aft as well as forward; so I must just make the best
of it, and take the _winch_ in my own fashion at once!" "Ay, ay,
sir--ay, ay, your honour!" said Old Jack demurely, and concealing his
gratification as he turned off into the pantry, with the idea of for the
first time hearing the captain relate the incidents in question. "My old
shipmate," said the latter, "is so fond of having trained his future
captain, that it is his utmost delight to spin out everything we ever
met with together into one endless yarn, which would go on from our
first acquaintance to the present day, although no ship's company ever
heard the last of it. Without falling knowingly to leeward of the truth,
he makes out every lucky coincidence almost to have been a feat of mine,
and puts in little fancies of his own, so as to give the whole thing
more and more of a marvellous air the farther it goes. The most amusing
thing is, that he almost always begins each time, I believe, at the very
beginning, like a capstan without a paul--sticking in one thing he had
forgot before, and forgetting another; sometimes dwelling longer on one
part--a good deal like a ship making the same voyages over again. I
knew, now, this evening, when I heard the men laughing, and saw Old Jack
on the forecastle, what must be in the wind. However, we have shared so
many chances, and I respect the old man so much, not to speak of his
having dandled my little girls on his knee, and being butler, steward,
and flower-gardener at home, that I can't really be angry at him, in
spite of the sort of every man's rope he makes of me!" "How very amusing
a character he is!" said one young lady. "A thought too tarry, perhaps?"
suggested the surgeon. "So very original and like a--a seaman!" remarked
Miss Alicia, quietly, but as if some other word that crossed her mind
had been rejected, as descriptive of a different variety, probably
higher. "_Original_, by Jove!" exclaimed the colonel; "if my
_Khansa-man_, or my _Abdar_,[3] were to make such a dancing dervish and
_tumasha_[4] of me behind back, by the holy Vishnu, sir, I'd rattan him
myself within an inch of his life!"

  [2] _Flush_--_i.e._ level.

  [3] Steward and butler.

  [4] Sport.

"Not an unlikely thing, colonel," put in the planter; "I've caught the
scoundrels at that trick before now." "What did you do?" inquired the
colonel, speculatively. "Couldn't help laughing, for my soul, sir; the
_puckree-bund_[5] rascals did it so well, and so funnily!" The irascible
East-Indian almost started up in his imaginative fury, to call for his
palkee, and chastise his whole verandah, when the doctor reminded him
that it was a long way there. "Glorious East!" exclaimed the medico,
looking out astern, "where we may cane our footmen, and whence,
meanwhile, we can derive such Sanscrit-sounding adjurations, with such
fine moonlight!"

  [5] Turban-wearing.

The presence of the first officer was now added to the party, who came
down for a cup of tea, fresh from duty, and flavouring strongly of a
pilot cheroot. "How does she head, Mr Wood?" asked the captain.
"Sou'-west-by-west, sir--a splendid night, under everything that will
draw--spray up to the starboard cathead!"

"But as to this story, again, Captain Collins?" said Mrs St Clair, as
soon as she had poured out the chief mate's cup. "Well," said the
captain, "if you choose to listen till bedtime to a plain draught of the
affair, why I suppose I must tell it you; and what remains then may
stand over till next fine night. It _may_ look a little romantic, being
in the days when most people are such themselves, but, at any rate, we
sailors--or else we should never have been at sea, you know; so you'll
allow for that, and a spice to boot of what we used to call at sea
'lovemaking'; happily there were no soft speeches in it, like those in
books, for then I shouldn't tell it at all.

       *       *       *       *       *

"By the time I was twenty-four, I had been nine years at sea, and at the
end of the war, was third lieutenant of a crack twenty-eight, the saucy
_Iris_--as perfect a sloop-model, though over-sparred certainly, as ever
was eased off the ways of Chatham, or careened to a north-easter. The
Admiralty had almost learned to build by that day, and a glorious ship
she was, _made_ for going after the small fry of privateers, pirates,
and slavers, that swarmed about the time. Though I had roughed it in all
sorts of craft, from a first-rate to a dirty French lugger prize, and
been eastward, so as to see the sea in its pride at the Pacific, yet the
feeling you have depends on the kind of ship you are in. I never knew
so well what it was to be fond of a ship and the sea; and when I heard
of the poor _Iris_, that had never been used to anything but blue water
on three parts of the horizon at least, laying her bones not long after
near Wicklow Head, I couldn't help a gulp in the throat. I once dreamt I
had gone down in her, and risen again to the surface with the loss of my
brains, such as I had had; while at the same moment, there I was, still
sitting below on a locker in the wardroom, with the arms of her
beautiful figure-head around me, and her mermaid's tail like the
best-bower cable, with an anchor at the end of it far away out of
soundings, over which I bobbed and dipped for years and years, in all
weathers, like a buoy. We had no Mediterranean time of it, though, in
the _Iris_, off the Guinea coast, from Cape Palmas to Cape Negro;
looking out to windward for white squalls, and to leeward for black
ones, and in-shore for Spanish cattle-dealers, as we called them, had
made us all as sharp as so many marling-spikes; and our captain was a
man that taught us seamanship, with a trick or two beyond. The slavers
had not got to be so clever then, either, with their schooners and
clippers: they built for stowage, and took the chance, so that we sent
in _bale_ after bale to the West India admiral, made money, and enjoyed
ourselves now and then at the Cape de Verdes. However, this kind of
thing was so popular at home, as pickings after the great haul was over,
that the _Iris_ had to give up her station to a post-frigate, and be
paid-off. The war was over, and nobody could expect to be promoted
without a friend near the blue table-cloth, although a quiet hint to a
secretary's palm would work wonders, if strong enough. But most of such
lucky fellows as ourselves dissipated their funds in blazing away at
balls and parties, where the gold band was everything, and the ladies
wore blue ribbons and anchor brooches in honour of the navy. The men
spent everything in a fortnight, even to their clothes, and had little
further chance of eating the king's biscuit with hopes of prize-money; I
used to see knots of them, in red shirts and dirty slops, amongst the
foremast Jacks in outward-bound ships, dropping past Greenwich, and
waving their hats to the Hospital. You knew them at once by one of them
giving the song for the topsail-halliards, instead of the merchantmen's
bull's chorus; indeed, I could always pick off the dashing
men-o'-war's-men, by face and eye alone, out from among the others, who
looked as sober and solitary, with their serious faces and way of going
about a thing, as if everyone of them was the whole crew. I once read a
bit of poetry called the 'Ancient Mariner,' to old Jacobs, who by-the-by
is something of a breed betwixt the two kinds, and his remark was: 'That
old chap warn't used to hoisting altogether with a run, your honour! By
his looks I'd say he was bred where there was few in a watch, and the
watch-tackle laid out pretty often for an eke to drag down the
fore-tack.'

"As I was riding down to Croydon in Surrey, where my mother and sister
had gone to live, I fell in with a sample of the hard shifts the
men-o'-war's-men were put to in getting across from harbour to some
merchant port, when all their money was chucked away. It was at a little
town called Bromley, where I brought to by the door of a tavern and had
a pail for the horse, with a bottle of cider for myself at the open
window, the afternoon being hot. There was a crowd of townspeople at the
other end of the street, country bumpkins and boys--women looking out at
the windows, dogs barking, and children shouting--the whole concern
bearing down upon us.

"'What's all this?' said I to the ostler.

"'Don't know, sir,' said he, scratching his head; ''tis very hodd, sir!
That corner _is_ rather a sharp turn for the coach, sir, and she do
sometimes run over a child there, or somethink. But 'tain't her time
yet! Nothink else hever 'appens 'ere, sir.'

"As soon as I could hear or see distinctly for the confusion, I observed
the magnet of it to be a party of five or six regular blue-jackets, a
good deal battered in their rig, who were roaring out sea-songs in grand
style as they came along, leading what I thought at first was a bear.
The chief words I heard were what I knew well. 'We'll disregard their
tommy-hawks, likewise their scalping-knives--and fight alongside of our
mates to save our precious lives--like British tars and sowldiers in the
North Americay!'

"On getting abreast of the inn door, and finding an offing with good
holding-ground, I suppose, they hove to and struck up the 'Buffalo,'
that finest of chants for the weather forecastle with a spanking
breeze, outward bound, and the pilot lately dropped:

          "Come, all you young men and maidens, that _wishes_ for to sail,
            And I will let you hear of where you must a-roam;
          We'll embark into a ship which her taups'ls is let fall,
            And all unto an ileyand where we never will go home;
          Especiallye you _ladies_ that's anxious for to rove--
            There's _fishes_ in the sea, my love, likewise the buck an'
            doe,
          We'll lie down--on the _banks_--of yon pleasant shadye gro-ove,
    Through the wild woods we'll wander and we'll chase the
    buffalo--ho--ho--
    We'll chase the buffalO!

"I really couldn't help laughing to see the slapping, big-bearded
fellows, like so many foretopmen, showing off in this manner--one
mahogany-faced thoroughbred leading, the rest thundering in at the
chorus, with a tremendous stress on the 'Lo--ho--ho,' that made the good
Bromley folks gape. As to singing for money, however, I knew no true tar
with his members whole would do it; and I supposed it to be merely some
'spree ashore,' until the curious-looking object from behind was lugged
forward by a couple of ropes, proving to be a human figure above six
feet high, with a rough canvas cover as far as the knees. What with
three holes at the face, and the strange colour of the legs, which were
bare--with a pair of turned-up India shoes, and the whole shape like a
walking smoke-funnel over a ship's caboose--I was puzzled what they
would be at. The leading tar immediately took off his hat, waved it
round for a clear space, and gave a hem! while he pointed to the
mysterious creature. 'Now my lads!' said he, 'this here wonderful bein'
is a savitch we brought aboard of us from the Andyman Isles, where he
was caught one mornin' paddling round the ship in a canoe made out of
the bark of a sartain tree. Bein' the ownly spice of the sort brought to
this country as yet is, and we havin' run short of the needful to take
us to the next port, we expects every lady and gemman as has the
wherewithal will give us a lift by consideration of this same cur'ous
sight, and doesn't----' 'Heave ahead, Tom, lad!' said another
encouragingly, as the sailor brought up fairly out of breath. 'Doesn't
want no man's money for nou't d' ye see, but all fair an' above board.
We're not agoin' to show this ere sight excep' you makes up
half-a-guinea amongst ye--arter that all hands may see shotfree--them's
the articles!' 'Ay, ay, Tom, well said, old ship!' observed the rest;
and, after a considerable clinking of coin amongst the crowd, the
required sum was poured, in pence and sixpences, into Tom's hat. 'All
right!' said he, as soon as he had counted it--'hoist away the
tarpaulin, mates!' For my part, I was rather surprised at the rare
appearance of this said savage, when his cover was off--his legs and
arms naked, his face streaked with yellow, and both parts the colour of
red boom-varnish; his red hair done up in a tuft, with feathers all
round it, and a bright feather tippet over his shoulders, as he stood,
six feet in his yellow slippers, and looking sulkily enough at the
people. 'Bobbery puckalow!' said the nautical head-showman, and all at
once up jumped the Andaman islander, dancing furiously, holding a
little Indian _punkah_ over his head, and flourishing with the other
hand what reminded me strongly of a ship's top-maul--shouting
'Goor--goor--gooree!' while two of the sailors held on by the ropes. The
crowd made plenty of room, and Tom proceeded to explain to them very
civilly, that 'in them parts 'twas so hot the natives wouldn't fight,
save under a portiable awning.' Having exhibited the points of their
extraordinary savage, he was calmed again by another uncouth word of
command, when the man-o'-war's-man attempted a further _traverse_ on the
good Bromley folks, for which I gave him great credit. 'Now, my lads and
lasses,' said he, taking off his hat again, 'I s'pose you're all British
subjects and Englishmen!' at which there was a murmur of applause. 'Very
good, mates all!' continued the foretopman, approvingly. 'Then, in
course, ye knows as how whatsomever touches British ground is _free_!'
'Britons never, never shall be slaves!' sung out a boy, and the
screaming and hurrahing was universal. Tom stuck his tongue in his cheek
to his messmates, and went on: 'Though we was all pressed ourselves, and
has knocked about in sarvice of our king and country, an' bein' poor
men, we honours the flag, my lads!' 'Hoorah! hoorah! hoor-r-ray!' 'So
you see, gemmen, my shipmates an' me has come to the resolve of lettin'
this here wild savidge go free into the woods--though bein' poor men, d'
ye see, we hopes ye'll make it up to us a bit first! What d' ye say, all
hands?--slump together for the other guinea, will ye, and off he goes
this minute, and--Eh? what d' ye say, shipmates?' 'Ay, ay, Tom, sink
the damage, too!' said his comrades; 'we'll always get a berth at
Blackwall, again!'

"'Stand by to ease off his tow-lines, then,' said Tom--'now look sharp
with the shiners there, my lads--ownly a guinea!' 'No, no!' murmured the
townspeople, 'send for the constable--we'll all be scalped and murdered
in our beds!--no, no, for God's sake, mister sailors!' A grocer ran out
of his door to beg the tars wouldn't think of such a thing, and the
village constable came shoving himself in with the beadle. 'Come, come,'
said the constable, in a soothing style, while the beadle tried to look
big and blustering, 'you mustn't do it, my good men--not on no
desideration, _here_--in his majesty's name. Take un on to the next
parish--I horder all good subjects to resist me!' '_What!_' growled the
foretopman, with an air of supreme disgust, 'han't ye no feelin's for
liberty hereaway? Parish be blowed! Bill, my lad, let go his moorings,
and give the poor wretch his nat'ral freedom!' 'I'm right down ashamed
on my country,' said Bill. 'Hullo, shipmates, cast off at once, an'
never mind the loss--I hasn't slept easy myself sin' he wor cotched!'
'Nor me either,' said another; 'but I'm feared he'll play old Harry when
he's loose, mate.'

"I had been watching the affair all this time from inside, a good deal
amused, in those days, at the trick--especially so well carried out as
it was by the sailors. 'Here, my fine fellows,' said I at last, 'bring
him in, if you please, and let me have a look at him.' Next minute in
came the whole party, and supposing from my plain clothes I was merely
some longshore traveller, they put their savage through his dance with
great vigour. 'Wonderfully tame he's got, your honour!' said the topman;
'it's nothing to what he does if you freshens his nip.' 'What does he
eat? 'I asked, pretending not to understand the hint. 'Why, nought to
speak on, sir,' said he; 'but we wonst lost a boy doorin' the cruise,
nobody know'd how--though 'twas thought he went o'board, some on us had
our doubts.' 'Curiously tatooed, too,' I said; 'I should like to examine
his arm.' 'A bit obstropolous he is, your honour, if you handles him.'
'Never mind,' said I, getting up and seizing the wrist of the Andaman
islander, in spite of his grins; and my suspicions were immediately
fulfilled by seeing a whole range of familiar devices marked in blue on
the fellow's arm--amongst them an anchor with a heart transfixed by a
harpoon, on one side the word 'Sal,' and on the other 'M. O., 1811.'
'Where did you steal this top-maul, you rascal?' said I, coolly looking
in his face; while I noticed one of the men overhauling me suspiciously
out of his weather-eye, and sliding to the door. 'I didn't stale it at
all,' exclaimed the savage, giving his red head a scratch, ''twas Bill
Green there--by japers! whack pillalew, mates, I'm done!' 'Lor! oh lor!'
said Bill himself, quite crestfallen, 'if I didn't think 'twas him.
We're all pressed again, mate, it's _the_ leftenant.' 'Pressed, bo'?'
said Tom; 'more luck, I wish we was--but they wouldn't take ye now for a
bounty, you know.' Here I was fain to slack down and give a hearty
laugh, particularly at recognising Bill, who had been a shipmate of
Jacobs and myself in the old _Pandora_, and was nicknamed 'Green'--I
believe from a small adventure of ours--so I gave the men half-a-guinea
a piece to carry them on. 'Long life to your honour,' said they; and
said Tom, 'If I might make so bould, sir, if your honour has got a ship
yet, we all knows ye, sir, and we'd enter, if 'twas for the North Pole
itself.' 'No, my lad,' said I, 'I'm sorry to say I have not got so far
yet. Dykes, my man, can you tell me where your old messmate Jacobs has
got to?' 'Why, sir,' replied Bill, 'I did hear he was livin' at Wapping
with his wife, where we means to give him a call too, sir.' 'Good day,
your honour,' said all of them, as they put on their hats to go, and
covered their curiosity again with his tarpaulin. 'I'm blessed, Bill,'
said Tom, 'but we'll knock off this here carrivanning now, and put
before the wind for Blackwall,' 'Won't you give your savage his freedom,
then?' I asked. 'Sartinly, your honour,' replied the roguish foretopman,
his eye twinkling as he saw that I enjoyed the joke. 'Now, Mick, my lad,
ye must run like the devil so soon as we casts ye off.' 'Oh, by the
powers, thry me!' said the Irishman; 'I'm sick tired o' this cannible
minnatchery. By the holy Moses, though, I must have a dhrop o' dew in
me, or I'll fall!' Mick accordingly swigged off a noggin of gin, and
declared himself ready to start. 'Head due nor'-east from the sun, Mick,
and we'll pick you up in the woods, and rig you out all square again,'
said the captain of the gang, before presenting himself to the mob
outside. 'Now, gemmen and ladies all,' said the sailor coolly, 'ye see
we're bent on givin' this here poor unfort'nate his liberty--an' bein'
tould we've got the law on our side, why, we means to do it. More by
token, there's a leftenant in the Roy'l Navy aboard there, as has made
up the little salvage-money, bein' poor men, orderin' us for to do
it--so look out. If ye only gives him a clear offing, he'll not do no
harm. Steady, Bill--slack off the starboard sheet, Jack--let go--all!'
'Oh! oh!--no! no!--for God's sake!' screamed the bystanders, as they
scuttled off to both hands--'shame, shame--knock un down, catch
un--tipstaff, beadle!' 'Hurrah!' roared the boys, and off went Mick
O'Hooney in fine style, flourishing his top-maul, with a wild
'hullaloo,' right away over a fence, into a garden, and across a field
towards the nearest wood. Everybody fell out of his way as he dashed on;
then some running after him, dogs barking, and the whole of the seamen
giving chase with their tarpaulins in their hands, as if to drive him
far enough into the country. The whole thing was extremely rich, seen
through the open air from the tavern window, where I sat laughing till
the tears came into my eyes, at Jack-tars' roguishness and the stupefied
Kent rustics, as they looked to each other; then at the sailors rolling
away full speed along the edge of the plantation where the outlandish
creature had disappeared; and, lastly, at the canvas cover which lay on
the spot where he had stood. They were actually consulting how to guard
against possible inroads from the savage at night, since he might be
lurking near, when I mounted and rode off; I daresay even their hearing
that I was a live and real lieutenant would cap the whole story.

"Croydon used to be a pretty, retired little town, you know, so quiet
and old-fashioned that I enjoyed the unusual rest of it, and the very
look of the canal, the market-place, the old English trees and
people--by comparison with even the _Iris's_ white decks, and her
circumference of a prospect, so different every morning or hour of the
day. My mother and my sister Jane were so kind--they petted me so, and
were so happy to have me down to breakfast and out walking, even to feel
the smell of my cigar--that I hardly knew where I was. I gave them an
account of the places I had seen, with a few tremendous storms and a
frigate-fight or two, instead of the horse-marine stories about mermaids
and flying Dutchmen I used to pass upon them when a conceited
youngster. Jane, the little gipsy, would listen with her ear to a large
shell, when we were upon sea matters, and shut her eyes, saying she
could fancy the things so well that way. Or was it about India, there
was a painted sandal-wood fan carved in open-work like the finest lace,
which she would spread over her face, because the seeing through it, and
its scent, made her feel as if she were in the tropics. As for my
mother, good simple woman, she was always between astonishment and
horror, never having believed that lieutenants would be so heartless as
to mast-head a midshipman for the drunkenness of a boat's crew, nor
being able to understand why, with a gale brewing to seaward, a captain
tried to get his ship as far as he could from land. The idea of my going
to sea again never entered her head, the terrible war being over, and
the rank I had gained being invariably explained to visitors as at least
equal to that of a captain amongst soldiers. To the present day, this is
the point with respect to seafaring matters on which my venerated and
worthy parent is clearest: she will take off her gold spectacles,
smoothing down her silver hair with the other hand, and lay down the law
as to reform in naval titles, showing that my captain's commission puts
me on a level with a military colonel. However, as usual, I got tired by
little and little of this sort of thing; I fancy there's some peculiar
disease gets into a sailor's brain that makes him uneasy with a firm
floor and no offing beyond; certainly the country about Croydon was to
my mind, at that time, the worst possible--all shut in, narrow lanes,
high hedges and orchards, no sky except overhead, and no horizon. If I
could only have got a hill, there would have been some relief in having
a look-out from it. Money I had no want of; and as for fame or rank, I
neither had the ambition, nor did I ever fancy myself intended for an
admiral or a Nelson; all my wish was to be up and driving about, on
account of something that was _in_ me. I always enjoyed a good breeze as
some do champagne; and the very perfection of glory, to my thinking, was
to be the soul of a gallant ship in a regular Atlantic howler: or to
play at long bowls with one's match to leeward, off the ridges of a sea,
with both weather and the enemy to manage. Accordingly, I wasn't at all
inclined to go jogging along in one of your easy merchantmen, where you
have nothing new to find out; and I only waited to hear, from some
friends who were bestirring themselves with the Board, of a ship where
there might be something to do. These were my notions in those days,
before getting sobered down, which I tell you for the sake of not
seeming such a fool in this said adventure.




CHAPTER III


"Well, one evening my sister Jane and I went to a race-ball at Epsom,
where, of course, we saw all the 'beauty and fashion,' as they say, of
the country round, with plenty of the army men, who were in all their
glory, with Waterloo and all that; we two or three poor nauticals being
quite looked down upon in comparison, since Nelson was dead, and we had
left ourselves nothing at the end to fight with. I even heard one belle
ask a dragoon 'what uniform that was--was it the horse-artillery corps?'
'Haw!' said the dragoon, squinting at me through an eyeglass, and then
looking with one eye at his spurs, and with the other at his partner,
'not at all sure! I _do_ think, after all, Miss----, 'tis the--the
marine body--a sort of amphibious animals! They weren't with _us_,
though, you know--_couldn't_ be, indeed, though it _was Water_loo! Haw!
haw! you'll excuse the joke, Miss----?' 'Ha! ha! how extremely witty,
Captain----!' said the young lady, and they whirled away towards the
other end of the hall. I never felt more inclined to pull a fellow's
nose, till all of a sudden my head turned, and I forgot there was such a
thing as a dragoon in the world, for I saw what I thought the loveliest
young creature ever crossed my eyes, coming out of the refreshment-room
with two ladies, an old and an elderly one. The first was finely dressed
out, and I set her down for an aunt, she was so unlike; the other for a
governess. The young lady was near sixteen to appearance, all in white.
There were many beauties in the ball-room you would have called
handsomer; but there was something about her altogether I could compare
to nothing else but the white figure-head of the _Iris_, sliding gently
along in the first curl of a breeze, with the morning sky far out on the
bow--curious as you may think it, ladies! Her hair was brown, and her
complexion remarkably pale notwithstanding; while her eyes were as dark
blue, too, as--as the ocean near the line, that sometimes, in a clear
calm, gets to melt till you scarcely know it from the sky. 'Look,
Edward!' whispered my sister, 'what a pretty creature! She can't be
English, she looks so different from everybody in the room. And such
pearls in her hair! such a beautifully large diamond in that brooch! Who
can she be, I wonder?' I was so taken up, however, that I never
recollected at all what Jane said till at night, in thinking the matter
over; and then a whole breeze of whisperings seemingly came from every
corner of the cloakroom, of 'Who is she?' 'Who can she be?' 'Who's her
father?' and so on, which I remembered to have heard. I only noticed at
the time that somebody said she was the daughter of some rich East India
nabob or other, just come home. A post-captain who was present--one of
Collingwood's flag-lieutenants--went up to the old _chaperon_, whom he
seemed to know, and got into talk with her: I found afterwards she was
an admiral's widow. In a little I saw him introduced to the young lady,
and ask her to dance; I fancied she hung back for a moment, but the next
she bowed, gave a slight smile to the captain's gallant sea-fashion of
deep respect to the sex, and they were soon swimming away in the first
set. Her dancing was more like walking with spread wings upon air than
upon planks with one's arms out, as the captain did. I'd have given my
eyes, not to speak of my commission and chances to come, to have gone
through that figure with _her_. When the captain had handed her to her
seat again, two or three of the dragoons sauntered up to Lady Somers's
sofa: it was plain they were taken; and after conversing with the old
lady, one of them, Lord Somebody, as I understood, got introduced, in
his turn, to the young beauty. As may be supposed, I kept a look-out for
his asking her to dance, seeing that, if she had done so with one of the
embroidered crew, and their clattering gear, I'd have gone out that
instant, found out the Waterloo fellow next day, and, if not shot
myself, have drilled him with an anchor button for a bullet, and run off
in the first craft I could get. The cool, easy, impertinent way this
second man made his request, though--just as if he couldn't be refused,
and didn't care about it--it was as different from the captain of the
_Diomede's_ as red from blue! My heart went like the main-tack blocks
thrashing when you luff too much; so you may guess what I felt to see
the young lady, who was leaning back on the sofa, give her head a
pettish sort of turn to the old one, without a word, as much as to say
she didn't want to. 'My love!' I heard the old lady say, 'I fear you are
tired! My Lord, your lordship must excuse Miss Hyde on this occasion, as
she is in delicate health!' The dragoon was a polite nobleman, according
to his cloth; so he kept on talking and smiling, till he could walk off
without seeming as if he'd got his sabre betwixt his feet; but I fancied
him a little down by the head when he did go. All the time the young
beauty was sitting with her face as quiet and indifferent as may be,
only there was a sparkle in her blue eyes, and in nothing else but the
pearls in her hair, as she looked on at the dancing; and, to my eye,
there was a touch of the rose came out on her pale cheek, clear though
it was before the dragoon spoke to her. Not long after, an oldish
gentleman came out with a grey-haired old general from the
refreshment-room: a thin yellow-complexioned man he was, with no
whiskers and bald forehead, and a bilious eye, but handsome, and his
face as pompous and solemn-looking as if he'd been First Lord, or had
got a whole court-martial on his shoulders for next day. I should have
known him from a thousand for a man that had lived in the East, were it
nothing but the quick way he looked over his shoulder for a servant or
two, when he wanted his carriage called--no doubt just as one feels when
he forgets he's ashore, like I did every now and then, looking up out to
windward, and getting a garden-wall or a wood slap into one's eyesight,
as 'twere. I laid down the old gentleman at once for this said nabob; in
fact, as soon as a footman told him his carriage was waiting, he walked
up to the young lady and her companions, and went off with them, a
steward and a lady patroness convoying them to the break of the steps.
The only notion that ran in my head, on the way home that night with my
sister, was, 'By heavens! I might just as well be in love with the bit
of sky at the end of the flying-jibboom!' and all the while the
confounded wheels kept droning it into me, till I was as dizzy as the
first time I looked over the fore-royal-yard. The whole night long I
dreamt I was mad after the figure-head of the _Iris_, and asked her to
dance with me, on which she turned round with a look as cold as water,
or plain 'No.' At last I caught firm hold of her and jumped overboard;
and next moment we were heaving on the blue swell in sight of the black
old Guinea coast--when round turned the figure and changed into Miss
Hyde; and the old nabob hauled us ashore upon a beautiful island, where
I woke and thought I was wanted on deck, although it was only my mother
calling me.

"All I had found out about them was, that Sir Charles Hyde was the name
of the East Indian, and how he was a Bengal judge newly come home; where
they lived, nobody at the ball seemed to know. At home, of course, it
was so absurd to think of getting acquainted with a rich Indian judge
and his daughter, that I said no more of the matter; although I looked
so foolish and care-about-nothing, I suppose, that my mother said to
Jane she was sure I wanted to go to sea again, and even urged me to
'take a trip to the Downs, perhaps.' As for going to sea, however, I
felt I could no more stir, _then_, from where I was, than with a best
bower down, and all hands drunk but the captain. There was a favourite
lazy spot of mine near the house, where I used to lie after dinner, and
puff away amongst the grass, at the back of a high garden-wall with two
doors in it, and a plank across a little brook running close under them.
All round was a green paddock for cows; there was a tall tree at hand,
which I climbed now and then half-mast high, to get a look down a long
lane that ran level to the sky, and gave you a sharp gush of blue from
the far end. Being a luxurious dog in those days, like the cloth in
general when hung up ashore, I used to call it 'The Idler's Walk,' and
'The Lazy Watch,' where I did duty somewhat like the famous bo'sun that
told his boy to call him every night and say the captain wanted him,
when he turned over with a polite message, and no good to the old
tyrant's eyes.

"Well, one afternoon I was stretched on the softest bit of this retreat,
feeling unhappy all over, and trying to think of nothing in particular,
as I looked at the wall and smoked my cheroot. Excuse me if I think
that, so far as I remember, there is nothing so consolatory, though it
can't of course cure one, as a fine Manilla for the 'green sickness,' as
our foremast fellows would say. My main idea was that nothing on earth
could turn up to get me out of this scrape, but I should stick
eternally, with my head sails shivering aback, or flapping in a
sickening dead calm. It was a beautiful hot summer afternoon, as quiet
as possible, and I was weary to death of seeing that shadow of the
branch lying against the white wall, down to the keyhole of the nearest
door. All of a sudden I heard the sweetest voice imaginable, coming down
the garden as it were, singing a verse of a Hindostanee song I had heard
the Bengal girls chant with their pitchers on their heads at the well,
of an evening:

    La li ta la, ta perisi,
    La na comalay ah sahm-rè,
    Madna, ca--rahm
    Ram li ta, co-ca-la lir jhi!
    La li ta la, vanga-la ta perisi.

'Coc-coka-cokatoo!' screamed a harsh voice, which I certainly could
distinguish from the first. 'Pretty cockatoo!' said the other coaxingly;
and the next minute the large pink-flushed bird itself popped his head
over the top-stones above the door, floundering about with his throat
foul of the silver chain fast to his leg, till he hung by his beak on my
side of the wall, half-choked, and trying to croak out--'Pretty--pretty
cocky!' Before I had time to think, the door opened, and, by heavens!
there was my very charmer herself, with the shade of the green leaves
showered over her distressed face. She had scarcely seen me before I
sprang up and caught the cockatoo, which bit me like an imp incarnate,
till the blood ran down my fingers as I handed it to its mistress, my
heart in my mouth, and more than a quarter-deck bow in my cap. The young
lady looked at me first in surprise, as may be supposed, and then, with
a smile of thanks that set my brain all afloat, 'Oh, dear me!' exclaimed
she, 'you are hurt!' '_Hurt!_' I said, looking so bewildered, I suppose,
that she couldn't help laughing. 'Tippoo is very stupid,' continued she,
smiling, 'because he is out of his own country, I think. You shall have
no sugar to-night, mister cockatoo, for biting your friends.'

"'Were you--ever in India--madam?' I stammered out. 'Not since I was a
child,' she answered; but just then I saw the figure of the nabob
sauntering down the garden, and said I had particular business and must
be off. 'You are very busy here, sir?' said the charming young creature
archly. 'You are longing till you go to sea, I daresay--like Tippoo and
me.' 'You?' said I, staring at the keyhole whilst she caught my eye, and
blushed a little, as I thought 'Yes, we are going--I long to see India
again, and _I_ remember the sea, too, like a dream.'

"Oh, heavens! thought I, when I heard the old gentleman call out--'Lota!
Lota, _beebee-lee_! _Kabultah, meetoowah?_'[6] and away she vanished
behind the door, with a smile dropped to myself. The tone of the judge's
voice, and his speaking Hindoo, showed he was fond of his daughter at
any rate. Off I went, too, as much confused as before, only for the new
thought in my head. 'The sea, the sea!' I shouted, as soon as out of
hearing, and felt the wind, as 'twere, coming from aft at last, like the
first ripple. 'Yes, by George!' said I, 'outward bound for a thousand.
I'll go, if it was before the mast.' All at once I remembered I didn't
know the ship's name, or when. Next day, and the next again, I was
skulking about my old place, but nobody appeared--not so much as a
shadow inside the keyhole. At last one evening, just as I was going
away, the door opened; I strolled slowly along, when, instead of the
charming Lota, out came the flat brown turban of an ugly _kitmagar_,
with a moustache, looking round to see who was there. '_Salaam_, sah'b,'
said the brown fellow, holding the door behind him with one paw. '_Burra
judge sahib bhote bhote salaam_ send uppiser[7] sah'b--'ope not
_dekhe_[8] after sahib cook-maid.' '_Joot baht, hurkut-jee_,'[9] said I,
laughing. 'Sah'b been _my_ coontree?' inquired the Bengalee more
politely. '_Jee_, yes,' I said, wishing to draw him out 'I Inglitsh can
is-peek,' continued the dark footman, conceitedly; 'ver well sah'b, but
one misfortune us for come i-here. Baud _carry_ make--plenty too much
_poork_--too much graug drink. Termeric--chili--banana not got--not
coco-tree got--pah! Baud coontree, too much i-cold, sah'b?' 'Curse the
rascal's impudence,' I thought, but I asked him if he wasn't going back.
'Yis, sah'b, _such baht_[10] Al-il aláh? Mohummud _burra Meer-kea_. Bote
too much i-smell, _my_ coontree.' 'When are you going?' I asked,
carelessly. 'Two day this time, sah'b.' 'Can you tell me the name of the
ship?' I went on. The _kitmagar_ looked at me slyly, stroked his
moustache, and meditated; after which he squinted at me again, and his
lips opened so as to form the magic word, _Buckshish_? '_Jee_,' said I,
holding out a crown piece, 'the ship's name and the harbour?' 'Se,'
began he; the coin touched his palm--'ring'; his fingers closed on it,
and 'patahm,' dropped from his leathery lips. 'The _Seringapatam_?' I
said. '_Ahn_, sah'b.' 'London, eh?' I added; to which he returned
another reluctant assent, as if it wasn't paid for, and I walked off.
However, I had not got round the corner before I noticed the figure of
the old gentleman himself looking after me from the doorway; his worthy
_kitmagar_ salaaming to the ground, and no doubt giving information how
the 'cheep uppiser' had tried to pump him to no purpose. The nabob
looked plainly as suspicious as if I had wanted to break into his house,
since he held his hand over his eyes to watch me out of sight.

  [6] Little girl! Do you hear, sweet one?

  [7] Officer.

  [8] Look.

  [9] 'Tis a lie, you scoundrel.

  [10] That is true.

"At night, I told my mother and sister I should be off to London next
day for sea. What betwixt their vexation at losing me, and their
satisfaction to see me more cheerful, with talking over matters, we sat
up half the night. I was so ashamed, though, to tell them what I
intended, considering what a fool's chase it would seem to anyone but
myself, that I kept all close; and, I am sorry to say, I was so full of
my love-affair, with the wild adventure of it, the sea, and everything
besides, as not to feel their anxiety enough. How it was to turn out I
didn't know; but somehow or other I was resolved I'd contrive to make a
rope if I couldn't find one; at the worst, I might carry the ship, gain
over the men, or turn pirate and discover an island. Early in the
morning I packed my traps, drew a cheque for my prize-money, got the
coach, and bowled off for London, to knock up Bob Jacobs, my sea
godfather; this being the very first step, as it seemed to me, in making
the plan feasible. Rough sort of confidant as he may look, there was no
man living I would have trusted before him for keeping a secret. Bob was
true as the topsail sheets; and if you only gave him the course to
steer, without any of the 'puzzlement,' as he called the calculating
part, he would stick to it, blow high, blow low. He was just the fellow
I wanted for the lee brace, as it were, to give my weather one a
purchase, even if I had altogether liked the notion of setting off all
alone on what I couldn't help suspecting was a sufficiently harebrained
scheme as it stood; and, to tell the truth, it was only to a
straightforward, simple-hearted tar like Jacobs that I could have
plucked up courage to make it known. I knew he would enter into it like
a reefer volunteering for a cutting out, and make nothing of the
difficulties--especially when a love matter was at the bottom of it: the
chief question was how to discover his whereabouts, as Wapping is rather
a wide word. I adopted the expedient of going into all the tobacco-shops
to inquire after Jacobs, knowing him to be a more than commonly hard
smoker, and no great drinker ashore. I was beginning to be tired out,
however, and give up the quest, when, at the corner of a lane near the
docks, I caught sight of a little door adorned with what had apparently
been part of a ship's figure-head--the face of a nymph or nereid, four
times as large as life, with tarnished gilding, and a long wooden pipe
in her mouth that had all the effect of a bowsprit, being stayed up by a
piece of marline to a hook in the wall, probably in order to keep clear
of people's heads. The words painted on its two head-boards, as under a
ship's bow, were 'Betsy Jacobs,' and 'licensed' on the top of the door;
the window was stowed full of cakes of cavendish, twists of negrohead,
and coils of pigtail; so that, having heard my old shipmate speak of a
certain Betsy, both as sweetheart and partner, I made at once pretty
sure of having lighted, by chance, on his very dry-dock, and went in
without more ado. I found nobody in the little shop, but a rough voice,
as like as possible to Jacobs' own, was chanting the sea-song of 'Come,
cheer up, my lads, 'tis to glory we steer,' in the back-room, in a
curious sleepy kind of drone, interrupted every now and then by the suck
of his pipe, and a mysterious thumping sound, which I could only account
for by the supposition that the poor fellow was mangling clothes, or
gone mad. I was obliged to kick on the counter with all my might, in
competition, before an eye was applied from inside to the little window;
after which, as I expected, the head of Jacobs was thrust out of the
door, his hair rough, three days' beard on his chin, and he in his shirt
and trousers. '_Hisht!_' said he, in a low voice, not seeing me
distinctly for the light, 'you're not calling the watch, my lad! Hold on
a bit, and I'll serve your orders directly.' After another stave of
'Hearts of oak are our ships,' etc., in the same drawl, and a still more
vigorous thumping than before, next minute out came Bob again; with a
wonderful air of importance, though, and drawing in one hand, to my
great surprise, the slack of a line of 'half-inch,' on which he gave now
and then a tug and an ease off, as he came forward, like a fellow
humouring a newly-hooked fish. 'Now, then, my hearty!' said he, shading
his eyes with the other hand, 'bear a----' 'Why, Jacobs, old ship,' I
said, 'what's this you're after? Don't you know your old apprentice,
eh?'

"Jacobs looked at my cap and epaulette, and gave out his breath in a
whistle, the only other sign of astonishment being that he let go his
unaccountable-looking piece of cord. 'Lord bless me, Master Ned!' said
he--'I axes pardon, Lieutenant Collins, your honour!' 'Glad you know me
this time, Bob, my lad, 'said I, looking round--'and a comfortable berth
you've got of it, I daresay. But what the deuce _are_ you about in
there? _You_ haven't a savage, _too_, like some friends of yours I fell
in with a short time ago! Or perhaps a lion or a tiger, eh, Jacobs?'
'No, no, your honour--lions be blowed!' replied he, laughing, but
fiddling with his hands all the while, and standing between me and the
room, as if half-ashamed. ''Tis ownly the tiller-ropes of a small craft
I am left in charge of, sir. But won't ye sit down, your honour, till
such time as my old 'ooman comes aboard to relieve me, sir? Here's a
_cheer_, and may be you'd make so free for to take a pipe of prime
Americane, your honour?' 'Let's have a look into your cabin though, Bob,
my man,' said I, curious to know what was the secret; when all at once a
tremendous squall from within let me sufficiently into it. The old salt
had been rocking the cradle, with a fine little fellow of a baby in it,
and a line made fast to keep it in play when he served the shop. 'All
the pitch is in the fire now, your honour,' said he, looking terribly
nonplussed; 'I've broached him to, and he's all aback till his mammy
gets a hold of him.' 'A good pipe the little rogue's got though,' said
I; 'and a fine child he is, Jacobs--do for a bo'sun yet.' 'Why, yes,
sir,' said he, rubbing his chin with a gratified smile, as the urchin
kicked, threw out his arms, and roared like to break his heart; 'I'm
thinking he's a sailor all over, by natur', as one may say. He don't
like a calm no more nor myself; but that's the odds of being ashore,
where you needs to keep swinging the hammocks by hand, instead of havin'
it done for you, sir.' In the midst of the noise, however, we were
caught by the sudden appearance of Mistress Jacobs herself--a
good-looking young woman, with a market-basket full of bacon and greens,
and a chubby little boy holding by her apron, who came through the shop.
The first thing she did was to catch up the baby out of the cradle, and
begin hushing it, after one or two side-glances of reproach at her
husband, who attempted to cover his disgrace by saying, 'Betsy, my girl,
where's your manners? why don't you off hats to the leftenant?--it's my
wife, your honour.' Mrs Jacobs curtsied twice very respectfully, though
not particularly fond of the profession, as I found afterwards; and I
soon quite gained her smiles and good graces by praising her child, with
the remark that he was too pretty ever to turn out a sailor; for, sharp
as mothers are to detect this sort of flattery to anybody else's
bantling, you always find it take wonderfully with respect to their own.
Whenever Jacobs and I were left to ourselves, I struck at once into my
scheme--the more readily for feeling I had the weather hand of him in
regard of his late appearance. It was too ridiculous, the notion of one
of the best foretopmen that ever passed a weather-earing staying at home
to rock his wife's cradle and attend the shop; and he was evidently
aware of it as I went on. It was a little selfish, I daresay, and Mrs
Jacobs would perhaps have liked me none the better for it; but I
proposed to him to get a berth in the Indiaman, sail with me for Bombay,
and stand by for a foul hitch in something or other. 'Why, sir,' said
he,' it shan't be said of Bob Jacobs he were ever the man to hang back
where a matter was to be done that must be done. I doesn't see the whole
bearings of it as yet, but ownly you give the orders, sir, and I'll
stick to 'em.' ''Tis a long stretch between this and Bombay, Jacobs,'
said I, 'and plenty of room for chances.' 'Ay, ay, sir, no doubt,' said
he, 'your honour can _talk_ the length of the best bower cable.' 'More
than that, Bob, my lad,' said I, 'I know these Company men; if they once
get out of their regular jog, they're as helpless as a pig adrift on a
grating; and before they grow used to sailing out of convoy, with no
frigates to whip them in, depend upon it Mother Carey will have to teach
them a new trick or two.' 'Mayhap, sir,' put in Jacobs, doubtfully, 'the
best thing 'ud be if they cast the ship away altogether, as I've seen
done myself for the matter of an insurance. Ye know, sir, they lets it
pass at Lloyd's now the war's over, seein' it brings customers to the
underwriters, if so be ownly it don't come over often for the profits.
Hows'ever it needs a good seaman to choose his lee-shore well, no
doubt.' 'Oh!' answered I, laughing, 'but the chances are, all hands
would want to be Robinson Crusoe at once! No, no--only let's get aboard,
and take things as they come.' 'What's the ship's name, sir?' inquired
Jacobs, sinking his voice, and looking cautiously over his shoulder
toward the door. 'The _Seringapatam_--do you know her?' I said. 'Ay, ay,
sir, well enough,' said he, readily--'a lump of a ship she is, down off
Blackwall in the stream, with two more--country-built, and tumbles home
rather much from below the plank-sheer for a sightly craft, besides
being flat in the eyes of her, and round in the counter, just where she
shouldn't, sir. Them Par_chee_ Bombay shipwrights _does_ clap on a lot
of onchristien flummeries and gilt mouldings, let alone
quarter-galleries fit for the king's castle!' 'In short, she's
tea-waggon all over,' said I, 'and just as slow and as leewardly, to
boot, as teak can make her?' 'Her lines is not that bad, though, your
honour,' continued Jacobs, 'if you just knocked off her poop--and she'd
bear a deal o' beating for a sea-boat. They've got a smart young mate,
too; for I seed him t'other day a-sending up the yards, and now she's as
square as a frigate, all ready to drop down river.' The short and long
of it was, that I arranged with my old shipmate, who was fully bent on
the cruise, whether Mrs Jacobs should approve or not, that, somehow or
other, we should both ship our hammocks on board of the
_Seringapatam_--he before the mast, and I wherever I could get. On going
to the agent's, however--which I did as soon as I could change my
uniform for plain clothes--I found, to my great disappointment, from a
plan of the accommodations, that not only were the whole of the
poop-cabins taken, but those on the main-deck also. Most of the
passengers, I ascertained, were ladies, with their children and nurses,
going back to India, and raw young cadets, with a few commercial and
civilian nondescripts; there were no troops or officers, and room
enough, except for one gentleman having engaged the entire poop, at an
immense expense, for his own use. This I, of course, supposed was the
nabob, but the clerk was too close to inform me. 'You must try another
ship, sir,' said he, coolly, as he shut the book. 'Sorry for it, but we
have another booked to sail in a fortnight. A1, sir; far finer
vessel--couple of hundred tons larger--and sails faster.' 'You be
hanged!' muttered I, walking out; and a short time after I was on board.
The stewards told me as much again; but on my slipping a guinea into the
fingers of one, he suddenly recollected there was a gentleman in
state-room No. 14, starboard side of the main skylight, who, being
alone, might perhaps be inclined to take a chum, if I dealt with him
privately. 'Yankee, sir, he is,' said the steward, by way of a useful
hint. However, I didn't need the warning, at sight of the individual's
long nose, thin lips, and sallow jaw-bones, without a whisker on his
face, and his shirt-collar turned down, as he sat overhauling his traps
beside the carronade, which was tethered in the state-room, with its
muzzle through the port. He looked a good deal like a jockey beside his
horse; or, as a wit of a schoolboy cadet said afterwards, the Boston
gentleman, calling himself Daniel C. Snout, Esquire--like Daniel praying
in the lion's den, and afraid it might turn round and roar. I must say
the idea didn't quite delight me, nor the sight of a fearful quantity of
baggage which was stowed up against the bulkhead; but after introducing
myself and objecting to the first few offers, I at last concluded a
bargain with the American for a hundred guineas, provisions exclusive,
which, he remarked, was 'considerable low, I prognosticate, mister!'
'However,' said he, 'I expect you're a conversationable individual a
little: I allowed for that, you know, mister. One can't do much of a
trade at sea--that's a fact; and I calculate we'll swap information by
the way. I'm water-pruff, I tell you, as all our nation is. You'll not
_settle_ at Bumbay, I reckon, mister?' But though I meant to pay my new
messmate in my own coin at leisure afterwards, and be as frank and open
as day with him--the only way to meet a Yankee--I made off at present as
fast as possible to bring my things aboard, resolving to sleep at
Blackwall, and then to stow myself out of sight for sick, until there
was somebody to take off the edge of his confounded talk.

"Next afternoon, accordingly, I found myself once more afloat, the
Indiaman dropping down with the first breeze. The day after, she was
running through the Downs with it pretty strong from north-east, a fair
wind--the pilot-boat snoring off close-hauled to windward, with a white
spray over her nose; and the three _dungaree_ topsails of the
_Seringapatam_ lifting and swelling, as yellow as gold, over her white
courses in the blue Channel haze. The breeze freshened till she rolled
before it, and everything being topsyturvy on deck, the lumber in the
way, the men as busy as bees setting her ship-shape--it would have been
as much as a passenger's toes were worth to show them from below; so
that I was able to keep by myself, just troubling my seamanship so much
as to stand clear of the work. Enjoy it I did, too; the first sniff of
the weather was almost enough to make me forget what I was there for. I
was every now and then on the point of fisting a rope, and singing out
to the men; till at length I thought it more comfortable, even for me,
to run up the mizzen shrouds when everybody was forward, where I stowed
myself out of sight in the cross-trees.

"About dusk, while I was waiting to slip down, a stronger puff than
ordinary made them clue up the mizzen-royal from deck, which I took upon
myself to furl offhand--quick enough to puzzle a couple of boys that
came aloft for the purpose, especially as, in the meantime, I had got
down upon the topsail-yard-arm out of their notice. When they got on
deck again, I heard the little fellows telling some of the men, in a
terrified sort of way, how the mizzen-royal had either stowed itself, or
else it was Dick Wilson's ghost, that fell off the same yard last
voyage--more by token, he used always to make fast the gaskets just that
fashion. At night, however, the wind having got lighter, with half
moonlight, there was a muster of some passengers on deck, all sick and
miserable, as they tried to keep their feet, and have the benefit of
air--the Yankee being as bad as the worst. I thought it wouldn't do for
me to be altogether free, and accordingly stuck fast by Mr Snout, with
my head over the quarter-deck bulwarks, looking into his face, and
talking away to him, asking all sorts of questions about what was good
for sea-sickness, then giving a groan to prevent myself laughing, when
the spray splashed up upon his 'water-pruff' face, he responding to it
as Sancho Panza did to Don Quixote, when the one examined the other's
mouth after a potion. All he could falter out was, how he wondered I
could speak at all when sick. 'Oh! oh dear!' said I with another howl.
'Yes--'tis merely because I can't _think_! And I daresay you are
thinking so much you can't _talk_--the sea is so full of meditation, as
Lord Byron----oh--oh--this water will be the death of me!' 'I feel as
if--the whole--tarnation Atlantic was--inside of my bowels!' gasped he
through his nostrils. 'Oh!' I could not help putting in, as the ship and
Mr Snout both gave a heave up, 'and coming out of you!'

"During all this time I had felt so sure of my ground as scarcely to
trouble myself about the Bengal judge and his treasure of a daughter;
only in the midst of the high spirits brought up by the breeze, I hugged
myself now and then at the thought of their turning out by degrees as
things got settled. Nobody would suspect the raw chap I looked, with
smooth hair and a high collar, of any particular cue: I must say there
was a little vanity at the bottom of it, but I kept thinking more and
more how snug and quietly I'd enjoy all that went on, sailing on one
tack with the passengers and the old nabob himself, and slipping off
upon the other when I could come near the charming young Lota. The
notion looks more like what some scamp of a reefer, cruising ashore,
would have hit upon, than suits my taste nowadays; but the cockpit had
put a spice of the imp in me, which I never got clear of till this very
voyage, as you'll see, if we get through the log of it.

"The first time I went down into the cuddy was that evening to tea,
where all was at sixes and sevens like the decks; the lamps ill-trimmed,
stewards out of the way, and a few lads trying to bear up against their
stomachs by the help of brandy and biscuits. The main figure was a
jolly-looking East Indian, an indigo-planter, as he turned out, with a
bald forehead, a hook nose, and his gills covered with white whiskers
that gave him all the cut of a cockatoo. He had his brown servant
running about on every hand, and being an old stager, did his best to
cheer up the rest; but nothing I saw showed the least sign of the party
I looked after. I was sure I ought to have made out something of them by
this time, considering the stir such a grandee as Sir Charles Hyde would
cause aboard; in fact, there didn't seem to be many passengers in her,
and I began to curse the lying scoundrel of a _kitmagar_ for working
'Tom Cox's traverse' on me, and myself for being a greater ass than I'd
fancied. Indeed, I heard the planter mention by chance that Sir Charles
Hyde, the district judge, had come home last voyage from India in this
very _Seringapatam_, which, no doubt, I thought, put the Mahommedan
rascal up to his trick.

"I was making up my mind to an Indian trip, and the pure pleasure of
Daniel Catoson Snout, Esquire's, company for two blessed months, when
all of a sudden I felt the ship bring her wind a-quarter, with a furious
plunge of the Channel water along her bends, that made every landman's
bowels yearn as if he felt it gurgle through him. One young fellow, more
drunk than sick, gave a wild bolt right over the cuddy table, striking
out with both arms and legs as if afloat, so as to sweep half of the
glasses down on the floor. The planter, who was three cloths in the wind
himself, looked down upon him with a comical air of pity as soon as he
had got cushioned upon the wreck. 'My dear fellow,' said he, 'what do
you feel--eh?' 'Feel, you--old blackguard!' stammered the griffin, 'I
feel _everything_! Goes through--through my vitals as if--I was a
con--founded _whale_! C--can't stand it!' 'You've drunk yourself
aground, my boy!' sung out the indigo-man; 'stuck fast on the coral--eh?
Never mind, we'll float you off, only don't flounder that way with your
tail!--by George, you scamp, you've ruined my toe--oh dear!' I left the
planter hopping round on one pin, and holding the gouty one in his hand,
betwixt laughing and crying; on deck I found the floating Nab Light
bearing broad on our lee-bow, with Cumberland Fort glimmering to
windward, and the half-moon setting over the Isle of Wight, while we
stood up for Portsmouth Harbour. The old captain, and most of the
officers, were on the poop for the first time, though as stiff and
uncomfortable from the sort of land-sickness and lumber-qualms that
sailors feel till things are _in_ their places, as the landsmen did
until things were _out_ of them. The skipper walked the weather side by
himself and said nothing; the smart chief officer sent two men, one
after another, from the wheel for 'cows' that didn't know where their
tails were; and as for the middies, they seemed to know when to keep out
of the way. In a little, the spars of the men-of-war at Spithead were to
be seen as we rose on a sea; before the end of the first watch, we were
running outside the Spit Buoy, which was nodding and plashing with the
tide in the last slant of moonshine, till at last we rounded to, and
down went the anchor in five fathoms, off the Motherbank. What the
Indiaman wanted at Portsmouth I didn't know; but, meantime, I had given
up all hopes of the nabob being in her, and the only question with me
was, whether I should take the opportunity of giving all hands the slip
here, even though I left my Yankee friend disconsolate, and a clear
gainer by dollars beyond count.

"Early next morning there were plenty of wherries looking out for fares;
so, as the Indiaman was not to sail before the night-ebb, when the
breeze would probably spring up fair again, I hailed one of them to go
ashore at the point, for a quiet stroll over Southsea Common, where I
meant to overhaul the whole bearings of the case, and think if it
weren't better to go home, and wait the Admiralty's pleasure for a ship.
I hadn't even seen anything of Jacobs, and the whole hotel-keeping ways
of the Indiaman began to disgust me, or else I should have at once
decided to take the chance of seeing Lota Hyde somehow or other in
India; but, again, one could scarcely endure the notion of droning on in
a frigate without so much as a Brest lugger to let drive at. It was
about six o'clock; the morning-gun from the guard-ship off the dock-yard
came booming down through the harbour, the blue offing shone like
silver, and the green tideway sparkled on every surge, up to where they
were flashing and poppling on the copper of the frigates at Spithead. I
noticed them crossing yards and squaring; the farthest out hove up
anchor, loosed fore-topsail, cast her head to starboard, and fired a gun
as she stood slowly out to sea under all sail, with a light air
freshening abeam. The noble look of her almost reconciled me of itself
to the service, were it for the mere sake of having a share in driving
such a craft between wind and water. Just then, however, an incident
turned up in spite of me, which I certainly didn't expect, and which had
more, even than I reckoned at the time, to do with my other adventure;
seeing that it made me, both then and afterwards, do the direct opposite
of what I meant to do, and both times put a new spoke in my wheel, as we
say at sea here.

"I had observed a seventy-four, the _Stratton_, lying opposite the Spit
Buoy, on board of which, as the waterman told me, a court-martial had
been held the day before, where they broke a first lieutenant for
insulting his captain. Both belonged to one of the frigates: the captain
I had seen, and heard of as the worst tyrant in the navy; his ship was
called a 'perfect hell afloat'; that same week one of the boys had tried
to drown himself alongside, and a corporal of marines, after coming
ashore and drinking a glass with his sweetheart, had coolly walked down
to the point, jumped in between two boats and the jetty, and kept
himself under water till he was dead. The lieutenant had been dismissed
the service, and as I recognised the name, I wondered whether it could
actually be my schoolfellow, Tom Westwood, as gallant a fellow and as
merry as ever broke biscuit. Two sail-boats, one from around the
_Stratton's_ quarter, and the other from over by Gosport, steering on
the same tack for Southsea, turned my attention as I sauntered down to
the beach. The bow of the nearest wherry grounded on the stones as I
began to walk quicker towards the town-gates, chiefly because I was
pretty ready for an early breakfast at the old Blue Posts, and also
because I had a slight notion of what these gentlemen wanted on Southsea
Beach at odd hours. Out they jumped, however--one man in naval undress,
another a captain in full fig, the third a surgeon--coming right athwart
my course to bring me to. The first I almost at once remembered for the
notorious captain of the _Orestes_, or _N'Oreste_, as the midshipmen
called her, from her French build and her character altogether. 'Hallo,
you sir!' said the other captain, decidedly, 'you must stand still.'
'Indeed,' said I; 'and why so, if you please?' 'Since you _are_ here, we
don't intend allowing you to pass for some few minutes.' 'And what if I
should do as I choose, sir?' I asked. 'If you stir two steps, sir, I
shall shoot you,' replied the captain, who was one of the bullying
school. 'Oh, very well,' I said, rather confounded by his impertinence,
'then I shall stay'; and I accordingly stood stock-still, with my arms
folded, until the other boat landed a party of two. They were in plain
clothes; nor did I give them any particular heed till the seconds had
stationed their men, when the captain of the _Orestes_ had his back to
me, and his antagonist stood directly facing. As his pale resolved
features came out before me with the morning sun on them, his lips
together, and his nostrils large, I recognised my old friend Westwood.
The captain had broke him the day before, and now had accepted his
challenge, being a known dead shot, while the lieutenant had never fired
a bullet in cold blood; there was, no doubt, a settled purpose in the
tyrant to crush the first man that had dared to thwart his will.
Westwood's second came forward and mentioned to the other that his
friend was still willing to withdraw the words spoken in first heat, and
would accordingly fire in the air. 'Coward!' shouted the captain of the
_Orestes_ immediately, 'I shall shoot you through the heart!' 'Sir,'
said I to his second, 'I _will not_ look on; and if that gentleman is
shot, I will be witness against you both as murderers.' I dropped down
behind a stone out of the line of fire, and to keep my eyes off the
devilish piece of work, though my blood boiled to knock the fellow down
that I was speaking to. Another minute, and the suspense was too great
for me to help looking up. Just at that moment I saw how _set_
Westwood's face was; he was watching his enemy with an eye that showed
to me what the other's must be--seeking for his life. The seconds gave
the word to each other in the middle, and dropped two white
handkerchiefs at once with their hands together; I caught the flash of
Westwood's pistol, when, to my astonishment, I saw the captain of the
_Orestes_ next moment jerk up his arm betwixt me and the sky, fire in
the air, and slowly fall back--he was dead!--shot through the heart. One
glance at his face gave you a notion of the devilish meaning he had had;
but what was my surprise when his second walked up to Westwood, and said
to him, 'Sir, you are the murderer of Captain Duncombe--my friend fired
in the air as you proposed.' 'You are mistaken, sir,' answered Westwood,
coldly; 'Captain Duncombe sought my life, and I have used the privilege
of self-defence.' 'The surgeon is of my opinion,' said the other; 'and I
am sorry to say that we cannot allow you to depart.' 'I shall give
myself up to the authorities at once,' said Westwood. 'We have only your
word for that, which I must be permitted, in such a case, to doubt,'
replied the captain, whose evident wish it was to detain Westwood by
force or threats while he sent off his surgeon. The worst of it was, as
I now found, that since the court-martial and the challenge, an
Admiralty order had arrived, in consideration of several gallant acts
during the war, as well as private representation, restoring him to the
service; so that he had, in fact, called out and shot his superior
officer. As for the charge now brought forward, it was too absurd for
any to believe it, unless from rage or prejudice; the case was bad
enough, at any rate, without it.

"In the meantime I had exchanged a word or two with Westwood's friend;
after which, lifting a second pistol which lay on the sand, I went up to
the captain. 'Sir,' said I, 'you used the freedom, a little ago, of
forcing me into your concerns, and I have seen the end of it. I have now
got to tell you, having watched your conduct, that either you must
submit to be made fast here for a bit, else, by the God that made me,
I'll shoot you through the head.' The captain looked at me, his surgeon
sidled up to him; and being a man near my own size, he suddenly tried to
wrench the pistol out of my hands. However, I had him the next moment
under my knee, while Westwood's second secured the little surgeon, and
took a few round sea-turns about his wrists and ankles with a
neckerchief. My companion then gave me a hand to do the same with his
superior officer--the medico all the time singing out like a bull, and
the captain threatening--while the dead body lay stark and stiff behind
us, the eyes wide, the head down, and the breast up, the hand clenching
a pistol, just as he had fallen. Westwood stood quite unconscious of
everything we did, only he seemed to be watching the knees drawn up as
they stiffened, and the sand-flies gathering about the mouth. 'Shall we
clap a stopper between their teeth?' said the second to me--he had been
at sea, but who he was I never knew--'the surgeon will be heard on the
walls, he bellows so!' 'Never mind,' said I, 'we'll just drop them
beyond tide-mark--the lee of the stones yonder.' In fact, from the noise
the tide was making, I question if the shots could have been heard even
by the watermen, who had prudently sheered out of sight round a point. I
couldn't help looking, when we had done this, from the captain's body to
his own frigate, as she was sluing round head on to us, at single
anchor, to the turn of tide, with her buoy dancing on the brisk blue
sweep of water, and her figure-head shining in the sunlight. As soon as
we had covered over the corpse with tangle, Westwood started as if we
had taken something away from him, or freed him of a spell. 'Westwood!'
said I, laying my hand on his shoulder, 'you _must_ come along with
me.' He said nothing, but followed us quietly round to the wherries,
where I told the watermen that the other party had gone a different way
to keep clear, and we wanted them to pull for Gosport. At Gosport we had
Westwood rigged out in black clothes, his hair cropped, and whiskers
shaved off--as I thought it the fittest thing for his case, and what he
could best carry out, to go aboard of the Indiaman with me as if he were
a missionary. Poor fellow! he didn't well know _what_ he was. So, having
waited till dusk, to let the watermen lose our track, and his friend
having posted off for Dover, he and I both got safe over to the
_Seringapatam_, where I had him stowed in the first convenient
state-room I could find. I had actually forgot, through the excitement,
all about having missed my first chase; from one hour to another I kept
watching the tide-marks ashore, and the dog-vane on the ship's quarter,
all impatience to hear the word given for 'all hands up anchor,' and
hoping our worthy friends on Southsea Beach were still lying within
hearing of the Channel flood. At last the order did come; round went the
capstan merrily enough, till she had hove short and up with fore-topsail
set; the anchor was catted, and off went the lumbering old craft through
the Solent about midnight, before a fine rattling breeze, in company
with six or seven others, all running for the Needles. They were loosing
the Indiaman's royals when I heard a gun from the guard-ship in harbour;
and a little after up went a rocket, signalling to some frigate or other
at Spithead; away they kept at it, with lights from the telegraph to her
mast-head, for several minutes. 'All's up!' thought I, 'and both
Westwood and myself are in for it!'

"Next morning at daybreak, accordingly, no sooner did the dawn serve to
show us Portland Light going out on the weather quarter, with a whole
fleet of Channel craft and Mediterranean brigs about us, we surging
through it as fast as the Indiaman could go--than _there_ was a fine
forty-four standing off and on right in our course, in fact the very
identical _Orestes_ herself! She picked us out in a moment--bore up,
stood across our weather-bow, and hailed. 'What ship's that?' said the
first luff in her mizzen rigging.

"'The _Seringapatam_, Honourable Company's ship, Captain Williamson!'
sung out our first officer, with his cap off. 'Heave to, till I send a
boat aboard of you,' hailed the naval man, and there we bobbed to each
other with mainyards backed. In a few minutes a master's mate with gig's
crew was under our lee-quarter, and the mate came on deck. 'Sir,' said
he, 'the Port Admiral will thank you to deliver these despatches for Sir
Charles Hyde, who I believe is aboard.' 'Certainly, sir,' said the first
officer, 'they shall be given to him in an hour's time.'

"'Good morning, and a fine voyage,' said the master's mate politely; and
I took the occasion of asking if Captain Duncombe were on board the
_Orestes_. 'No, sir,' answered the midshipman, 'he happens to be ashore
at present.' I have seldom felt so relieved as when I saw the frigate
haul round her main-yard, and go sweeping off to leeward, while we
resumed our course. By noon we had sunk the land about Start Point, with
a breeze which it was no use wasting at that season to take
'departures'; and as the afternoon set in hazy, we were soon out of
sight of old England for good. For my part, I was bound eastward at last
with a witness, and, like a young bear again, 'all my troubles before
me.'

"There is two bells though," interrupted the narrator, starting. "Let us
see what sort of night it is before the ladies retire."




CHAPTER IV


The evening after that on which the commander of the _Gloucester_
Indiaman introduced his adventures, nearly the same party met on the
poop to hear them continued.

"Well then," began Captain Collins, leaning back against a stanchion of
the quarter-rail, with folded arms, legs crossed, and his eyes fixed on
the weather-leech of the mizzen-topsail to collect his thoughts; "well
then, try to fancy the _Seringapatam_ in chase of the _Gloucester_; and
if I _do_ use a few extra seaterms, I consider the ladies good enough
sailors for them already. At any rate, just throw a glance aloft now and
then, and our good old lady will explain herself; to her own sex, she
ought to be as good as a dictionary, with signs for the hard words!

"The second day out we had the wind more from seaward, which broke up
the haze into bales of cloud, and away they went rolling in for the Bay
of Biscay; with a longer wave and darker water, and the big old Indiaman
surged over it as easily as might be, the blue breeze gushing right into
her main-tack through the heave of the following seas, and the tail of
the trade-wind flying high above her trucks in shreds and patches.
Things got more ship-shape on deck; anchor-flukes brought in-board on
the head-rail, and cables stowed away--the very best sign you can have
of being clear of the land. The first officer, as they called him, was a
good-looking fellow, that thought no small-beer of himself, with his
glossy blue jacket and Company's buttons, white trousers, and a gold
thread round his cap; he had it stuck askew to show how his hair was
brushed; and changed his boots every time he came on deck. Still he
looked like a sailor, if but for the East-India brown on his face, and
there was no mistake about his knowing how to set a sail, trim yards, or
put the ship about; so that the stiff old skipper left a great deal to
him, besides trusting him for a first-rate navigator that had learned
head-work at a naval school. The crew were to be seen all mustering
before tea-time in the dog-watch, with their feet just seen under the
foot mat of the fore-course, like actors behind a playhouse curtain--men
that I warrant you had seen every country under heaven amongst them--as
private as possible, and ready to enjoy their pots of tea upon the
forecastle, as well as their talk.

"However, all this was nothing to me, as I saw no sign of the passengers
I had counted on. I could do little for poor Westwood but leave him to
mope below, over his own thoughts.

"If the Indian judge really chanced to be on board after all, he
evidently fought shy of company, and perhaps meant to have his own
mess-table under the poop as long as the voyage lasted; scarcely any of
the ladies had apparently got their sea-qualms over yet, and, for all I
knew, _she_ might not be with him, even if he were there; or, if she
were, her father seemed quite Turk enough to keep her boxed up with
jalousie-blinds, Calcutta fashion, and give her a walk in the middle
watch, with the poop tabooed till morning. The jolly, red-faced
indigo-planter was the only one that tried to get up anything like
spirit at the table; indeed, he would have scraped acquaintance with
me, if I had been in a mood for it; all I did was to say 'Yes' and 'No,'
and to take wine with him. 'Poor fellow!' said he, turning to three or
four of the cadets, that stuck by him like pilot-fish to an old shark,
'he's thinking of his mother at home, I daresay.' The fools thought this
was meant for a joke, and began to laugh. 'Why, you unfledged griffins
you,' said the planter, 'what d'ye see to nicker at, like so many
jackals in a trap? D'ye suppose one thinks the less of a man for having
a heart to be sick in, as well as a stomach--eh?' 'Oh, don't speak of
it, Mr Rollock!' said one. 'Come, come, old boy,' said another, with a
white moustache on his lip, ''twon't do for you to go the sentimental,
you know.' 'Capsize my main-spanker, 'tis too funny, though,' put in a
fellow who wore a glazed hat on deck, and put down all the ropes with
numbers on paper, as soon as he had done being sick. The planter leant
back in his chair, looked at them coolly, and burst out a-laughing.
'Catch me ever "going home" again,' said he. 'Of all the absurd
occasions for impudence with the egg-shell on its head coming out, hang
me if these fifteen thousand miles of infernal sea-water ain't the
worst. India for ever!--that's the place to _try_ a man. He's either
sobered or gets room to work there; and just wait, my fine fellows, till
I see _you_ on the Custom-house _Bunda_ at Bombay, or setting off up
country--you're all of you the very food for _sircars_ and _coolies_.
That quiet lad there, now, soft as he looks'--meaning me--'I can tell by
his eye he won't be long a griff--he'll do something. I tell you what,
as soon as he's tasted his first mango-fish, he'll _understand_ the
country. Why, sir,' said he again, smacking his lips, ''tis worth the
voyage of itself--you begin a new existence so to speak. I'll be bound
all this lot o' water don't contain one single mango-fish. Remember,
boys, I promised you all a regular blow-out of mango-fish, and
_florican_ with bread-sauce, whenever you can get across to Chuckbully
Factory.' 'Blow, good breeze, then; blow away the main jib!' said the
nautical young gentleman; 'I'll join you, old fellow!' 'Not the best way
to bring it about, though,' said the indigo-planter, good-naturedly, not
knowing but there _was_ such a sail on the ship.

"The yellow setting sun was striking over the starboard quarter-boat,
and the Bay of Biscay lay broad down to leeward for a view--a couple of
large craft, with all studding-sails set before the wind, making for
land, far enough off to bring their canvas in a piece, and begin to look
blue with the air--one like a milk-woman with pitchers and a hoop; the
other like a girl carrying a big bucketful of water, and leaning the
opposite way to steady herself. There was one far to north-east, too, no
more than a white speck in the grey sky; and the land-cloud went up over
it into so many sea-lions' heads, all looking out of their manes. The
children clapped their hands and laughed; and the ladies talked about
the vessels, and thought they saw land--Spain or the Pyrenees, perhaps.
However, it wasn't long before my American friend Snout caught sight of
me in the midst of his meditations, as he turned bolt round on his toes
to hurry aft again. 'The fact is, mister,' said he, '_I'm_ riled a
little at _the_ tarnation pride of you Britishers. There now,' said he,
pointing at the blaze of the sun to westward, with his chin, 'there's
_a_ consolation. I calculate the sun's just over Noo-York, which I
expect to give you old country folks considerable pain.'

"'No doubt,' said I, with a sigh; 'one can't help thinking of a banker
run off with ever so much English gold.' 'You're a sensible chap, you
are. It's _a_ right-down asylum _for_ oppressed Eur_o_pains--that can't
be denied.' 'And Africans, too,' I put in. 'Indy, now,' said he; 'I
reckon there's a sight of dollars made in that country--you don't s'pose
I'm goin' out there for _nothing_? We'll just take it out o' your hands
yet, mister. I don't ought to let you into the schim till I know you
better, you see; but I expect to want a sort o' company got up before we
land. There's one of your nabobs now came into the ship at Possmouth,
with a whole tail of niggurs dressed up----' 'And a lady with him, I
think?' said I, as coolly as I could. 'I'll somehow open on that chap
about British tyranny, I guess, after gettin' a little knowledge out of
him. We'd just _rise_ the niggurs, if they had _not_ such a right-down
cur'ous _my_thullogy--but I tell you now, mister, that's one of the very
p'ints I expect to meet. Miss'naries won't do it so slick off in two
thousand years, I kinder think, as this identical specoolation will in
_ten_--besides payin' like Peruvain mines, which the miss'nary line
don't. I'm a regoolar down-easter, ye see--kinder piercin' into a
subject, like our nation in gin'ral--and the whull schim hangs together
a little, I calculate, mister?' 'So I should think, Mr Snout, indeed,' I
said. Here the American gave another chuckle, and turned to again on his
walk, double quick, till you'd have thought the whole length of the poop
shook, when who should I see with the tail of my eye but my friend the
_kitmagar_ salaaming to Mr Snout by the break of the quarter-deck. The
Yankee seemed rather taken aback at first, and didn't know what to make
of him. 'S'laam sah'b,' said the dark servant with an impudent look, and
loud enough for me to hear, as I stepped from aft. 'Judge sahib i-send
genteeman salaam--say too much hivvy boot he get--all same as
_illimphant_. S'pose master not so much loud walk _this_ side?'
'_Well!_' broke out the American, looking at the Bengalee's flat turban
and moustache, as if he were too great a curiosity to be angry with,
then turning on his heel to proceed with his walk. 'Now, mister,' said
he to me, 'that's what I call an incalculable imp_u_dent black; but he's
the first I ever saw with hair on his lip, it's a fact.' 'Master not
_mind_?' said the _kitmagar_, raising his key next time Mr Snout wheeled
round. 'Judge sahib burra burra buhadoorkea!--ver' great man!' 'Low
niggur!' said Mr Snout, tramping away aft; 'there's your British
regoolations, I say, young man--niggurs bààing on the quarter-deck, and
free-born citizens put off it!' '_Bhote khoob_, mistree!' squeaked out
the native again; 'burra judge sahib not to i-sleep apter he dine, eh?
Veri well; I tell the sahib, passiger mistree moor stamp-i-stamp all the
moor I can say!' So off he went to report in the poop-cabin. A little
after up shot a head wrapped in a yellow bandana, just on the level of
the poop-deck, looking through the breast-rail; and the next thing I saw
was the great East-Indian himself, with a broad-flapped Manilla hat over
his topgear, and a red-flowered dressing-gown, standing beside the
binnacle with Captain Williamson. 'What the deuce, Captain Williamson,'
said the judge, with an angry glance up to the poop,' cannot I close my
eyelids after dinner for one instant--in my own private apartments,
sir--for his hideous noise? Who the deuce _is_ that person there--eh,
eh?' 'He's an American gentleman, I believe, Sir Charles,' replied the
captain. '_Believe_, sir,' said the judge; 'you ought to _know_ every
individual, I think, Captain Williamson, whom you admitted into this
vessel. I expressly stipulated for quiet, sir--I understood that no
suspicious or exceptionable persons should travel in the same conveyance
with _my_ suwarry. I'd have taken the whole ship, sir!' 'I've no more to
do than tell him the regulations aboard, Sir Charles,' said the captain,
'and the annoyance will cease.' '_Tell_ him, indeed!' said the judge, a
little more good-humouredly. 'Why, captain, the man looks like a
sea-pirate. You should have taken only such raw griffins as that young
lad on the other side. Ho, _kitmagar_!' '_Maharaj?_' said the footman,
bowing down to the deck. '_Slippers lao!_' '_Jee khodabund_,' answered
the native, and immediately after he reappeared from the round-house
door, with a pair of turned-up yellow slippers. 'Take them up with my
salaam to that gentleman there,' said Sir Charles, in Hindoostanee, 'and
ask him to use them.' 'Hullo!' sung out Mr Snout, on being hove-to by
the _kitmagar_, with one hand on his breast, and the other holding the
slippers, 'this won't do! You'd better not _rile_ me again, you cussed
niggur you. Out o' my way!' There they went at it along the poop
together, Mr Snout striding right forward with his long legs, and the
_kitmagar_ hopping backward out of his way, as he tried to make himself
understood; till, all at once, the poor darkey lost his balance at the
ladderhead, and over he went with a smash fit to have broken his neck,
if the captain's broad back hadn't fortunately been there to receive it.
The rage of Sir Charles at this was quite beyond joking; nothing else
would satisfy him but the unlucky Yankee's being shoved off the poop by
main force, and taken below--the one stamping and roaring like an old
buffalo, and the other testifying against all 'aristocratycal
t_y_ranny.'

"At eight bells again I found it a fine, breezy night, the two upper
mates walking the weather quarter-deck in blue-water style, six steps
and a look to windward, then a wheel round, and, now and then, a glance
into the binnacle. I went aft and leant over the _Seringapatam's_ lee
quarter, looking at the white back-wash running aft from her bows, in
green sparks, into the smooth alongside, and the surge coming round her
counter to meet it. Everything was set aloft that could draw, even to a
starboard main-topmast stunsail; the high Indiaman being lighter than if
homeward-bound, and the breeze strong abeam, she had a good heel-over to
port; but she went easily through the water, and it was only at the
other side you heard it rattling both ways along the bends. The shadow
of her went far to leeward, except where a gleam came on the top of a
wave or two between the sails and under their foot. Just below the sheer
of the hull, aft, it was as dark as night, though now and then the light
from a port struck on it and went in again; but every time she sank, the
bight of her wake from astern swelled up away round the counter, with
its black side as smooth as a looking-glass. I kept peering into it, and
expecting to see my own face, while all the time I was very naturally
thinking of one quite different, and felt uneasy till I should actually
see her. 'Confound it,' I thought, 'were it only a house, one might walk
round and round it till he found out the window.' I fancied her
bewitching face through the garden-door, as clearly as if I saw it in
the dark head of the swell; but I'd have given more only to hear that
imp of a cockatoo scream once--whereas there was nothing but the water
working up into the rudder-case; the pintles creaking, and the
tiller-ropes cheeping as they traversed; and the long welter of the sea
when the ship eased down, with the surgeon and his friends walking about
and laughing up to windward. From that again, I ran on putting things
together, till, in fact, Jacobs' notion of a shipwreck seemed by far the
best. No doubt Jacobs and Westwood, with a few others, would be saved,
while I didn't even object much to the old nabob himself, for
respectability's sake, and to spare crape. But, by Jove, wouldn't one
bring him to his bearings soon enough there? Every sailor gets hold of
this notion some night-watch or other, leaning over the side, with
pretty creatures aboard he can scarce speak to otherwise; and I was
coiling it down so fast myself, at the moment, that I had just begun to
pitch into the nabob about our all being Adam's sons and daughters,
under a knot of green palm-trees, at the door of a wooden house, half
thatched with leaves, when I was brought up with a round turn by seeing
a light shining through the hazy bull's-eye in the deck where I stood.
No doubt the sweet girl I had been thinking of was actually there, and
going to bed; I stretched over the quarter, but the heavy mouldings were
in the way against seeing more than the green bars of the after
window--all turned edgeways to the water, where the gallery hung out
like a corner turret from the ship's side. Now and then, however, when
she careened a little more than ordinary, and the smooth lee swell went
heaping up opposite, I could notice the light through the venetians from
the state-room come out upon the dark water in broad bright lines, like
the grate across a fire, then disappearing in a ripple, till it was gone
again, or somebody's shadow moved inside. It was the only lighted window
in the gallery, and I looked every time it came as if I could see in;
when at last, you may fancy my satisfaction, as, all of a sudden, one
long slow heave over of the ship showed me the whole bright opening of
the port, squared out of her shadow, where it shone upon the glassy
round of the swell. 'Twas as plain as from a mirror in a closet--the
lighted gallery window with its frame swung in, a bit of the deck-roof I
was standing on, and two female figures at the window--mere dark shapes
against the lamp. I almost started back at the notion of their seeing
me, but away lengthened the light on the breast of the swell, and it
sank slowly down into a black hollow, as the Indiaman eased up to
windward. Minute by minute, quite breathless, did I watch for such
another chance; but next time she leant over as much, the port had been
closed, and all was dark; although those few moments were enough to send
the heart into my mouth with sheer delight. The figure I had seen,
holding with one hand by the port-sill, and apparently keeping up her
dress with the other, as if she were looking down steadily on the heave
of the sea below--it couldn't be mistaken. The line of her head, neck,
and shoulders, came out more certain than if they hadn't been filled up
with nothing but a black shadow; it was just Lota Hyde's, as she sat in
the ball-room amongst the crowd, I'd have bet the _Victory_ to a bumboat
on it; only her hair hung loose on one side, while the girl behind
seemed to be dressing the other, for it was turned back, so that I saw
clear past her cheek and neck to where the lamp was, and her ear gleamed
to the light. For one moment nothing could be plainer than the glimpse
old Davy Jones gave me by one of his tricks; but the old fellow was
quite as decorous in his way as a chamber-blind, and swallowed his
pretty little bit of blab as quickly as if it had been a mermaid caught
at her morning toilet. Whenever I found there was to be no more of it
for the night, the best thing to calm one's feelings was to light a
cigar and walk out the watch; but I took care it should rather be over
the nabob's head than his daughter's, and went up to the weather side,
where there was nobody else by this time, wishing her the sweetest of
dreams, and not doubting I should see her next day.

"I daresay I should have walked out the first watch, and the second too,
if Westwood hadn't come up beside me before he turned in.

"'Why, you look like the officer of the watch, Ned!' said my friend,
after taking a glance round at the night. 'Yes--what?--a--a--I don't
think so,' stammered I, not knowing what he said, or at least the
meaning of it, though certainly it was not so deep. 'I hope not though,
Tom!' said I again; ''tis the very thing I don't want to look like!'
'You seem bent on keeping it up, and coming the innocent, at any rate,'
said he; 'I really didn't know you the first time I saw you in the
cuddy.' 'Why, man, you never saw our theatricals in the dear old _Iris_,
on the African station! I was our best female actor of tragedy there,
and _did_ Desdemona so well that the black cook, who stood for Othello,
actually cried. He said, "Nobody but 'ee dibble umself go for smudder
Missee Dasdemoner!"' 'I daresay,' said Westwood; 'but what is the need
for it _now_, even if _you_ could serve as a blind for me?' 'My dear
fellow,' said I, 'not at all--you've kept it up very well so far--just
go on.' 'Keep it up, Ned?' inquired he--'what do you mean? I've done
nothing except keep quiet from mere want of spirits.' 'So much the
better,' I said; 'I never saw a man look more like a prophet in the
wilderness; it doesn't cost you the least trouble--why you'd have done
for Hamlet in the _Iris_, if for nothing else! After all, though, a
missionary don't wear blue pilot cloth trousers, nor tie his neckerchief
as you do, Tom. You must bend a white neck-cloth to-morrow morning! I'm
quite serious, Westwood, I assure you,' continued I. 'Just think of the
suspicious look of two navy men being aboard an Indiaman, nobody knows
how! Why, the first frigate we speak, or port we touch at, they'd hand
one or both of us over at once--which I, for my part, shouldn't at all
like!' 'Indeed, Collins,' said Tom, turning round, 'I really cannot
understand _why_ you went out in her! It distresses me to think that
here you've got yourself into this scrape on my account! At least you'll
put back in the first home-bound ship we----' "'Oh!' exclaimed I,
blushing a little in the dark though, both at Westwood's simplicity, and
my not wishing to tell him my secret yet--'I'm tired of shore--I _want_
to see India again--I'm thinking of going into the _army_!' 'The _army_,
indeed!' said Westwood, laughing for the first time, 'and you still
midshipman all over. No, no--that won't do! I see your drift, you can't
deceive _me_! You're a true friend, Ned, to stand by an old schoolmate
so!' 'No, Tom!' said I; ''tis you yourself that has too kind a heart,
and more of a sailor's, all fair and above-board, than I can manage! I
_won't_ humbug _you_, at any rate--I tell you I've got a scheme of my
own, and you'll know more of it soon.' Tom whistled; however I went on
to tell him, 'The long and the short of it is, Westwood, you'll bring
both of us down by the head if you don't keep up the missionary.'
'Missionary!' repeated he; 'you don't mean to say you and Neville
intended all that long toggery you supplied my kit with, for me to sail
under _missionary_ colours? I tell you what, Ned, it's not a character I
like to cut jokes upon, much less to sham.' 'Jokes!' said I; 'there's no
joking about it; 'tis serious enough.' 'Why,' said Westwood, '_now_ I
know the reason of a person like a clergyman sighting me through his
spectacles for half an hour together, these two evenings below! This
very afternoon he called me his brother, and began asking me all manner
of questions, which I could no more answer than the cook's mate.'
'Clergyman be hanged!' said I, 'you must steer clear of him, Tom--take
care you don't bowse up your jib too much within hail of him! Mind, I
gave your name, both to the head-steward and the skipper, as the
Reverend Mr Thomas, going back to Bombay. There was nothing else for it,
Westwood,' I said, 'when you were beyond thinking for yourself. All
you've got to do with that solemn dissenting chap in the spectacles is
just to look as wise as possible, and let him know you belong to the
_Church_. And as for shamming, you needn't sham a bit--_take to it_, my
dear fellow, if that will do you good.' I said this in joke, but
Westwood seemed to ponder on it for a minute or two. 'Indeed, Collins,'
said he gravely, 'I _do_ think you're right. What do we sailors do but
give up everything in life for a mere schoolboy notion, and keep turning
up salt water for years together like the old monks did the ground; only
they grew corn and apples for their pains, and we have nothing but ever
so many dull watches and wild cruises ashore to remember! How many
sailors have turned preachers and missionaries, just because something,
by accident, as it were, taught them to put to account what you can't
help feeling now and then in the very _look_ of the sea. What does it
mean in the Scriptures, Ned, about "seeing the wonders of the Lord in
the deep?"' As Westwood said this, both of us stopped on the taffrail,
and, somehow or other, a touch of I didn't well know _what_ went through
me. I held my breath, with his hand on my arm, just at the sight I had
seen a thousand times--the white wake running broad away astern, with a
mark in the middle as if it had been torn, on to the green yeast of the
waves, then right to their black crests plunging in the dark. It was
midnight ahead, and the clouds risen aloft over where I had been looking
half-an-hour before; but the long ragged split to westward was opened
up, and a clear glaring glance of the sky, as pale as death, shot
through it on the horizon. '_I_ can't be sorry for having gone to sea,'
said Westwood again; 'but isn't it a better thing to leave home and
friends, as those men do for the sake of carrying the Gospel to the
heathen?' As soon as we wheeled round, with the ship before us, leaning
over and mounting to the heave, and her spread of canvas looming out on
the dark, my thoughts righted. 'Well,' said I, 'it may be all very well
for some--everyone to his rope; but, for my part, I think if man hadn't
been made for the sea, he couldn't have built a ship, and where would
your missionaries be _then_? You're older than I am, Westwood, or I'd
say you let some of your notions run away with you, like a Yankee ship
with her short-handed crew!' 'Oh, Ned,' said he, 'of all places in the
world for one's actions coming back on him the sea is the worst,
especially when you're an idler, and have nothing to do but count the
sails or listen to the passengers' feet on deck. These two days, now,
I've thought more than I ever did in my life. I can't get that man's
death out of my head; every time the sea flashes round me as I come from
below, I think of him--it seems to me he is lying yet by the side of the
Channel. I can't help having the notion he perhaps _fired in the air_!'
''Twas a base lie!' said I; 'if _he_ weren't _there_, you wouldn't be
here, I can tell you, Westwood.' 'I don't know how I shall ever drag
through this voyage,' continued he. 'If there were a French gunboat to
cut out to-morrow morning, or if we were only to have a calm some day in
sight of a Spanish slaver--'tis nothing but a jogging old Indiaman
though! I shall never more see the flag over my head with pride--every
respect I had was in the service!'




CHAPTER V


"Next morning was fine, and promised to be hot; the ship still with a
side-wind from near south-west, which 'twas easy to see had slackened
since midnight with a pour of rain, the sails being all wet, and coats
hung to dry in the fore-rigging; she was going little more than five or
six knots headway. The water was bluer, lifting in long waves, scarce a
speck of foam except about the ship; but instead of having broke up with
the sun, or sunk below the level, the long white clouds were risen high
to leeward, wandering away at the top, and facing us steady below out of
the sky, a pretty sure sign they had more to do. However, the Indiaman
was all alive from stem to stern; decks drying as clean as a table; hens
and ducks clucking in the coops at their food; pigs grunting; stewards
and cabin-boys going fore and aft, below and above, and the men from
aloft coming slowly down for breakfast, with an eye into the galley
funnel. Most of the passengers were upon deck, in knots all along the
poop-nettings, to look out for Corvo and Flores, the western-most of the
Azores, which we had passed before daybreak.

"'I say, Fawd!' said the warlike cadet with the moustache, all of a
sudden yawning and stretching himself, as if he'd been struck with the
thing himself, 'cussed dull this vessel already, ain't it?' 'No,' said
Ford, the nautical man; 'that's because you're not interested in the
ocean--the sea--as I am! You should study the _craft_, Bob, my boy! I'll
teach you to go aloft. I only wish it would blow harder--not a mere
capful of wind, you know, but a tempest!' 'By Jove! Fawd,' said the
other, '_how_ we _shall_ enjoy India--even that breakfast with old
Rollock! By-the-by, ain't breakfast ready yet?' These two fellows, for
my part, I took for a joint-model, just trying to hit a mid-helm
betwixt them, else I couldn't have got through it; accordingly they both
patronised me. 'Haw, Cawlins!' said one, nodding to me. 'Is that you, my
boy?' said the other; 'now, you're a fellow _never_ would make a
sailor!' 'I daresay not,' I said gravely, 'if they have all to commence
as horse-marines.' 'Now, such ignorance!' said Ford; 'marines don't ride
horses, Collins, you fellow!--how d'you think they could be _fed_ at
sea, eh?' 'Well--now--that didn't occur to me!' said I, in the cadet
key. 'Fawd, my boy, you know too much--you're quite a sea-cook!' 'Oh,
now! But I'm afraid, Winterton, I never shall land ashore in India--I
_am_ tempted to go into the navy, instead.' 'I say, Mr Ford,' put in a
fat unlicked cub of a tea-middy, grinning as he listened, 'I've put you
up to a few _rises_ aboard, but I don't think I told you we've got a
dozen or so of _donkeys_[11] below in the steerage?' 'Donkeys!--no?'
said the griffin. 'Yes,' replied the midshipman; 'they kick like mad,
though, if they get loose in a gale: why mine, now, would knock a hole
through the side in no time--I'll show you them for a glass of grog, Mr
Ford.'

  [11] Sea slang for sailors' chests.

"'Done!' and away they went. 'That fool, Fawd, you know, Cawlins, makes
one sick with his stuff; I declare he chews little bits of tobacco in
our room till he vomits as much as before,' said Winterton. 'I tell you
what, Cawlins, you're a sensible man--I'll let you into a secret! What
do you think--there's the deucedest pretty girl in the vessel, we've
none of us seen except myself; I caught a sight of her this very
mawning. She don't visit the cuddy at all; papa's proud, you pusseeve--a
nabob, in short!' 'Oh dear!' said I. 'Yes, I do assure you, quite a
bew-ty! What's to be done?--we absolutely must meet her, eh, Cawlins?'
Here I mused a bit. 'Oh!' said I, looking up again, 'shall we send a
deputation, do you think?' 'Or get up a ball, Cawlins? Hallo, what's
this?' said he, leaning over the breast-rail to look at a stout lady who
was lugging a chubby little boy of three or four, half dressed, up the
poop-stair, while her careful husband and a couple of daughters blocked
it up above. 'See, Tommy, dear!' said she, 'look at the _land_--the nice
land, you know, Tommy.' 'Come away, my love,' said her spouse, 'else
you won't see it.' Tommy, however, hung back manfully. 'Tommy don't want
wook at _yand_,' sang out he, kicking the deck; 'it all such 'mell of a
sheep, ma; me wook at 'at man wis _gate feel_. Fare other _feel_, man?
Oh, fat a ugwy man!' The honest tar at the wheel pulled up his shirt,
and looked terribly cut at this plain remark on his phiz, which
certainly wasn't the most beautiful; meanwhile he had the leech of the
mainto'gallant-sail shaking. 'Mind your helm, there,' sung out the
second mate from the capstan. 'My good man,' said the lady, 'will you be
so kind as to show us the land?' 'Ay, ay, sir,' growled he, putting up
his weather spokes; 'sorry I carn't, ma'am--please not to speak to the
man at the wheel.' Jacobs was coiling down the ropes on a carronade
close by, and stepped forward: 'Beg your ladyship's pardon,' said he,
'but if ye'll give me charge o' the youngster till you goes on the
poop--why, I've got a babby at home myself.' The stout lady handed him
over, and Jacobs managed the little chap wonderfully. This was the first
time Tommy had been on deck since leaving home, and he couldn't see over
the high bulwarks, so he fancied it was a house he was in. 'Oh, suts big
_tees, man_,' shouted he, clapping his hands as soon as he noticed the
sails and rigging aloft; 'suts warge birds in a _tees_.' 'Ay, ay, my
little man,' answered Jacobs, 'that's the wonderful _tree_. Did ye ever
hear Jack and the Bean-stalk, Tommy?' 'Oh, 'ess, to be soo, _man_,' said
Tommy, scornfully, as if he should think he had.

"'Well, little un,' said Jacobs, 'that's it, ye see. It grows up every
night afore Jack's door--and them's Jack an' his brothers a-comin' down
out on the wonderfowl country aloft, with fruits in their hands.' The
little fellow was delighted, and for going aloft at once. 'Ye must wait
a bit, Tommy, my lad, till you're bigger,' said Jacobs; 'here, I'll show
you the country, though'; so he lifted the boy up to let him see the
bright blue sea lying high away round the sky. In place of crying, as he
would have done otherwise, Tommy stared with pleasure, and finished by
vowing to get as soon big as possible, Jacobs advising him to eat always
as hard as he had been doing hitherto.

"That morning the breakfast party was in high spirits; Mr Finch, the
chief officer, rigged up to the nines in white trousers and Company's
jacket, laying himself out to please the young ladies, with whom he
began to be a regular hero. He was as blustering as a young lion, and as
salt-tongued as a Channel pilot to the men; but with the ladies, on the
poop or in the cabin, he was always twisting his sea-talk into fine
language, like what you see in books, as if the real thing weren't good
enough. He rubbed his hands at hearing the mate on deck singing out over
the skylight to trim yards, and gave a look along to the captain. 'You
must understand, ladies,' said the mate, 'this is what we mariners call
the "ladies' wind"!' 'Oh, delightful!' 'Oh, _so_ nice!' 'You sailors
_are_ so polite!' exclaimed the young ladies--'then does it actually
_belong_ to us?' 'Why it's a _Trade_ wind, Miss Fortescue!' said Ford,
the nautical cadet, venturing to put in a word; but the ladies paid no
attention to him, and the chief mate gave him a look of contempt. 'You
see, ladies, the reason is,' said the mate, in a flourishing way,
'because it's so regular, and as gentle as--as--why it wafts your bark
into the region of, you see--the----' 'The "Doldrums,"' put in the third
mate, who was a brinier individual by far, and a true seaman, but wished
to pay his compliments, too, between his mouthfuls. 'At any rate,' Finch
went on, 'it's congenial, I may say, to the feelings of the fair--you
need never touch her braces from one day to another. I just wish, Miss
Fortescue, you'd allow me the felicity of letting you see how to put the
ship about.' 'A _soldier_ might put her in stays, miss,' said the third
mate again, encouragingly, 'and out of 'em again; she's a remarkably
easy craft, owing to her----' 'Confound it, Mr Rickett,' said the first
mate, turning round to his unlucky inferior, 'you're a sight too coarse
for talking to ladies. Well the captain didn't hear you!' Rickett looked
dumfoundered, not knowing what was wrong; the old ladies frowned; the
young ones either blushed or put their handkerchiefs to their mouths,
and some took the occasion for walking off.

"The weather began to have a different turn already by the time we got
up--the clouds banking to leeward, the sea dusky under them, and the
air-line between rather bluish. Two or three lazy gulls in our wake
began to look alive and show themselves, and a whole black shoal of
porpoises went tumbling and rolling across the bows for half an hour,
till down they dived of a sudden, head-foremost, one after another in
the same spot, like so many sheep through a gap.

"My gentleman-mate was to be seen everywhere about the decks, and active
enough, I must say; the next minute he was amongst two or three young
ladies aft, as polite as a dancing-master, showing them everything in
board and out, as if nobody knew it except himself. Here a young girl,
one of Master Tommy's sisters, came skipping aft, half in a fright. 'Oh,
Miss Fortescue!' cried she, 'just think!--I peeped over into a nasty
black hole there, with a ladder in it, and saw ever so many common
sailors hung up in bags from the ceiling. Oh, what do you think, one of
them actually kissed his hand to me.' 'Only one of the watch below
awake, miss,' said the mate; 'impertinent swab--I only wish I knew which
it was.' 'Poor fellows,' said the young ladies, 'pray don't be harsh to
them; but what have they been doing?' 'Oh, nothing,' said he, with a
laugh, 'but swing in their hammocks since eight bells.' 'Then are they
so lazy as to dislike getting up to such delightful-looking
occupations?' 'Why, ma'am,' said the mate, staring a little, 'they've
been on deck last night two watches, of four hours each, I must say that
for them.' 'Dear me!' broke out the ladies; and on this the chief
officer took occasion to launch out again concerning 'the weary vigils,'
as he called them, 'which we mariners have to keep, far distant from
land, without a smile from the eyes of the fair to bless us. But,
however, the very thought of it gives courage to the sailor's manly
heart, to disregard the billows' fearful rage, and reef topsails in the
tempest's angry height!' Thought I, 'He'd much better do it before.'
However, the young ladies didn't seem to see that, evidently looking
upon the mate as the very pink of seamen! and he actually set a second
lower stud-sail, to show them how fast she could walk.

"'D'ye know, sir,' put in the third mate, coming from forward, 'I'm in
doubt it's going to be rather a sneezer, sir, if ye look round the
larboard stun-s'ls.' Sure enough, if our fine gentleman had had time,
amidst his politeness, just to cast an eye beyond his spread of cloth,
he would have noticed the clouds gathered all in a lump to
north-eastward, one shooting into another--the breast of them lowering
down to the horizon, and getting the same colour as the waves, till it
bulked out bodily in the middle. You'd have fancied the belly of it
scarce half-a-mile off from the white yard-arms, and the hollow of it
twenty--coming as stealthily as a ghost, that walks without feet after
you, its face to yours, and the skirt of its winding-sheet in
'kingdom-come' all the while. I went up on the poop, and away behind the
spanker I could see the sun gleam for one minute right on the eye of a
stray cloud risen to nor'-west, with two short streaks of red, purple,
and yellow together--what is called a 'wind-gall'; then it was gone. The
American was talking away with jovial old Rollock and Ford, who began to
look wise, and think there was mischief brewing in the weather. 'Mind
your helm there, sirrah!' sung out the mate, walking aft to the wheel,
as everything aloft fluttered. 'She won't lie her course, sir,' said the
man. 'All aback, for'ud!' hailed the men at work on the bowsprit; and
hard at it went all hands, trimming yards over and over again; the wind
freshening fast, stu'nsails flapping, booms bending, and the whole
spread of canvas in a cumber, to teach the mate not to be in such a
hurry with his absurd merchantman's side-wings next time. The last
stu'nsail he hauled down caught full aback before the wheel could keep
her away quick enough; the sheet of it hitched foul at the boom-end, and
crack through went the boom itself, with a smash that made the ladies
think it a case of shipwreck commencing. The loose scud was flying fast
out from behind the top of the clouds, and spreading away overhead, as
if it would catch us on the other side; while the clouds themselves
broke up slowly to both hands, and the north-east breeze came sweeping
along right into the three topsails, the wind one way and the sea
another. As she rounded away steadying before it, you felt the masts
shake in her till the topsails blew out full; she gave one sudden bolt
up with her stern, like an old jackass striking behind, which capsized
three or four passengers in a heap, and next minute she was surging
along through the wide heave of the water as gallantly as heart could
wish, driving a wave under her bows that swung back under the
fore-chains on both sides, with two boys running up the rigging far
aloft on each mast to stow the royals. The next thing I looked at was
poor Ford's nautical hat lifting alongside on the top of a wave, as if
it were being handed up to him; but no sooner seen, than it was down in
the hollow a quarter of a mile off, a couple of white gulls making
snatches at it and one another, and hanging over it again with a
doubtful sort of scream. Still the wind was as yet nothing to speak of
when once aft; the sea was getting up slowly, and the Indiaman's easy
roll over it made everyone cheerful, in spite of the shifts they were
put to for getting below. When the bell struck for dinner, the sun was
pretty clear, away on our starboard bow; the waves to south-westward
glittered as they rose; one side of the ship shone bright to the leech
of the mainto'gallant-sail, and we left the second mate hauling down the
jibs for want of use for them.

"The splendid pace she went at was plain, below in the cuddy, to
everybody; you felt her shoving the long seas aside with the force of a
thousand horses in one, then sweep they came after her, her stern
lifted, she rolled round, and made a floating rush ahead. In the middle
of it, something darkened the half-open skylight, where I perceived the
Scotch second mate's twisted nose and red whiskers, as he squinted down
with one eye aloft, and disappeared again; after which I heard them clue
up to'gallant-sails. Still she was driving through it rather too bodily
to let the seas rise under her; you _heard_ the wind hum off the
main-topsail, and sing through betwixt it and the main-course, the scud
flying over the skysail-mast truck, which I could see from below. The
second mate looked in once more, caught the first officer's eye with a
glance aloft, and the gallant mate left attending to the ladies to go on
deck. Down went the skylight frame, and somebody carefully threw a
tarpaulin over it, so that there was only the light from the port
windows, by which a dozen faces turned still whiter.

"The moment I shoved my head out of the booby-hatch, I saw it was like
to turn out a regular gale from nor'-east. Both courses brailed close
up, and blowing out like rows of big bladders; the three topsail-yards
down on the caps to reef, their canvas swelling and thundering on the
stays like so many mad elephants breaking loose; the wild sky ahead of
us staring right through in triumph, as it were, and the wind roaring
from aft in her bare rigging; while a crowd of men in each top were
laying out along the foot-ropes to both yard-arms. Below, they were
singing out at the reef-tackles, the idlers tailing on behind from the
cook to the cabin-boys, a mate to each gang, and the first officer, with
his hands to his mouth, before the wheel, shouting, 'Bear a hand!--d'ye
hear!----two reefs.' It did one's heart good, and I entered into the
spirit of it, almost forgiving Finch his fine puppy lingo, when I saw
him take it so coolly, standing like a seaman, and sending his bull's
voice right up with the wind into the bellies of the topsails--so I e'en
fell to myself, and dragged with the steward upon the mizzen reef-tackle
till it was chock up. There we were, running dead before it, the huge
waves swelling long and dark after us out of the mist, then the tops of
them scattered into spray; the glaring white yards swayed slowly over
aloft, each dotted with ten or a dozen sturdy figures, that leant over,
with the reef-points in their hands, waiting till the men at the
_earings_ gave the word; and Jacobs' face, as he turned round to do
so--hanging on heaven knows what at one of the ends--was as distinct as
possible against the gray scud miles off, and sixty feet above water. A
middy, without his cap, and his hair blowing out, stood holding on in
the maintop to quicken them; the first mate waved his hand for the
helmsman to 'luff a little.' The ship's head was rounded slowly up as
she rose on a big blue swell, that caught a wild gleam on it from
westward, when I happened to glance towards the wheel. I could scarcely
trust my eyes--in fact it had never been less in my mind since coming
aboard than at that very point--but outside one of the round-house
doors, which was half open, a few feet from the bulwark I leant over--of
all moments in the day, _there_ stood Lota Hyde herself at last. Speak
of faces!--why I hadn't even power to turn farther round, and if I was
half out of breath before, what with the wind and with pulling my share,
I was breathless now--all my notions of her never came up to the look of
her face at that instant. She just half stopped, as it were, at sight of
the state of things, her hands letting go of the large shawl, and her
hair streaming from under a straw hat tied down with a ribbon--her lips
parted betwixt dread and bewilderment, and her eyes wandering round till
they settled to gazing straight at the scene ahead in pure delight. I
actually looked away aloft from her again, to catch what it was she
seemed to see that could be so beautiful!--the second reef just made
fast, men crowding in to run down and hoist away with the rest, till,
as they tailed along decks, the three shortened topsails rose faster up
against the scud, and their hearty roaring chorus was as loud as the
gale. 'Keep her away, my lad,' said the mate, with another wave of his
hand; the topsails swelled fair before it, and the Indiaman gave a
plunge right through the next sea, rising easily to it, heave after
heave. The setting sun struck two or three misty spokes of his wheel
through a cloud, that made a big wave here and there glitter; the ship's
white yards caught some of it, and a row of broad backs, with their feet
stretching the foot-rope as they stowed the foresail, shone bright out,
red, blue, and striped, upon the hollow of the yellow fore-topsail, in
the midst of the gale; while just under the bowsprit you saw her black
figure-head, with his white turban, and his hand to his breast, giving a
cool salaam now and then to the spray from her bows. At that moment,
though, Lota Hyde's eye was the brightest thing I could find--all the
blue gone out of the waves was in it. As for her seeing myself, I hadn't
had space to think of it yet, when all of a sudden I noticed her glance
light for the first time, as it were, on the mate, who was standing all
the while with his back to her on the same plank of the quarter-deck.
'Down main-course!' he sung out, putting one hand in his jacket-pocket;
'down both tacks--that's it, my men--down with it!'--and out it flapped,
slapping fiercely as they dragged it by main force into the
bulwark-cleets, till it swelled steady above the main-stay, and the old
ship sprang forward faster than before, with a wild wash of the Atlantic
past her sides.

"'Another hand to the wheel, here!' said the first officer. He took a
look aloft, leaning to the rise of her bows, then to windward as she
rolled; everything looked trim and weatherly, so he stepped to the
binnacle, where the lamp was ready lighted; and it just struck me what a
smart, good-looking fellow the mate was, with his sunburnt face; and
when he went to work, straightforward, no notion of showing off.

"'Confound it, though,' thought I of a sudden, seeing _her_ eyes fixed
on him again, and then to seaward. 'Mr Macleod,' said he to the second
mate, 'send below the watch, if you please. This breeze is first-rate,
though!'

"When he turned round he noticed Miss Hyde, started, and took off his
cap with a fine bow. 'I beg pardon, ma'am,' said he, 'a trifle of wind
we have. I hope, Miss Hyde, it hasn't troubled you in the round-house?'
What Miss Hyde might have said I don't know, but her shawl caught a gust
out of the spanker, though she was in the lee of the high poop; it blew
over her head, and then loose--I sprang forward--but the mate had hold
of it, and put it over her again. The young lady smiled politely to the
mate, and gave a cold glance of surprise, as I thought, at me. I felt
that moment I could have knocked the mate down and died happy. 'Why,
sir,' said he, with a cool half-sneer, 'I fancied none of you gentlemen
would have favoured us this capful of wind--plenty of air there is on
deck, though.'

"It just flashed through my mind what sort of rig I was in--I looked
over my infernal longshore toggery, and no wonder she didn't recollect
me at all. '_Curse_ this confounded folly!' muttered I, and made a dart
to run up the poop-steps, where the breeze took me slap aback, just as
the judge himself opened the larboard door. 'Why, Violet,' exclaimed he,
surprised at seeing his daughter, 'are you exposing yourself to this
disagreeable--I declare a perfect _storm_.' 'But see, papa!' said she,
taking hold of his arm, 'how changed the sea is!--and the ship!--just
look where the sun was!' 'Get in--get in, do!' kept on her father; 'you
can see all that again in some finer place; you should have had a
servant with you, at least, Violet.' 'I shall come out oftener than I
thought, papa, I can tell you!' said she, in an arch sort of way, before
she disappeared.

"The mate touched his cap to the judge, who asked where the captain was.
''Gad, sir,' said the judge crossly, 'the floor resembles an
earthquake--every piece of furniture swings, sir; 'tis well enough for
sleeping, but my family find it impossible to dine. If this
_oolta-poolta_ continues in my apartments, I must speak to Captain

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