LETTER FROM MURRAY--JACK'S REPLY--THE SUPPLEJACK ORDERED HOME--THE
VOYAGE--A GALE--LONG TOM'S BURIAL--A WRECK SEEN AND BOARDED--STELLA AND
HER FRIENDS RESCUED--ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND--MURRAY'S ANXIETY RELIEVED--THE
FATE OF THE SUPPLEJACK--MURRAY'S WEDDING--JACK AWAKES FROM HIS DREAM--A
VISIT TO BALLYMACREE--JACK CAUGHT AT LAST--CONCLUSION.
Jack found letters from England at Monte Video for him, and among them
was one from Murray; he wrote much out of spirits. Mr Bradshaw had
deferred his departure from Jamaica, and Stella, who had waited for his
escort, was not likely to arrive in England for some time, wrote
Murray--
"I would have gone out myself to escort her home, but as she and her
friends may sail any day, I might, possibly, on my arrival, find that
they had left the island. I must remain, therefore, in England, till I
hear something more definite of their intentions. I have received
orders to pay off the _Tudor_, so that I shall shortly be a free man. I
have not heard whether the _Carib_, the ship for which Mr Bradshaw is
waiting, is bound for London or Liverpool, and I am, therefore, at a
loss where to take up my quarters to await her arrival. Of course, I am
very anxious to be on the spot to meet Stella. I trust that as I am not
likely to be employed again for some time, she will not consider it
necessary longer to defer our marriage, and I sincerely hope, my dear
Jack, that you will be at home to act as my best man."
Jack wrote a reply by Terence, whose ship was on the point of sailing
for England.
"Nothing I can wish for would give me greater pleasure than to take care
of you on the awful occasion to which you allude. Keep up your spirits,
my dear Alick, for I feel very sure that if you are not already spliced
by the time I arrive in England, that I shall have the satisfaction, not
long afterwards, of attending you as you propose.
"I cannot believe that so sensible a girl as Miss O'Regan is, will
longer defer your happiness. Should she contemplate so cruel a
proceeding, I must get my sisters, Mary and Lucy, to argue the point
with her, and depend upon it they will bring her round. I have promised
Terence to pay him a visit to Ballymacree, but I told him that I cannot
go till I see you settled. Should you find your fair one's obdurate
heart soften before I arrive, he will be delighted to undertake the post
you offer me, and I cannot wish for a better substitute. He begs me to
say this, and you well know that next to me you have not a truer friend.
He has promised to come and stay with us at Halliburton, after he has
paid a flying visit to his own home, and we hope to meet you and Mrs
Murray there, as my father and mother propose asking you to take it in
your way to the north, where we conclude you will wish to introduce your
bride to the Highland home you have so often described to us."
Jack said a good deal more, indeed his letter was one of the longest he
had ever indited. He, of course, also wrote home, begging Sir John to
invite Murray to stay at Halliburton till the arrival of the _Carib_.
Terence promised to post the letters as soon as he got on shore, or to
deliver Murray's, which was directed to his agent, should he by chance
be at Portsmouth.
"Good-bye," said Terence, as they parted, "we shall meet again before
long, depend upon that, for I hear that your brig is to be sent home as
soon as a steamer comes from England to relieve you; they have an idea
that such vessels are more likely to prove efficient slaver-hunters than
such small craft as yours."
Jack took an active part in the work going forward at Monte Video, and
when it was over he began eagerly to look out for the expected orders to
return home.
Two steamers at last arrived, the second came to relieve the
_Supplejack_. Without an hour's delay, having already received on board
fuel and fresh provisions, the anchor was hove up, and under all sail a
course was steered for Old England. Her crew gave three hearty cheers,
as she glided out from among the ships destined to remain behind.
Desmond had continued on board her, as Terence considered that the
longer he remained afloat the better, as it might not be so easy to get
him another ship.
Except a pampeiro, which, had not Jack been wideawake, might have taken
the masts out of the brig, or sent her--where many a vessel of her class
has gone--to the bottom, nothing of consequence occurred, until she had
got considerably to the north of the line. She had reached about the
latitude of Madeira, when a heavy gale sprang up.
For three days she lay exposed to its fury, so severely tried that Jack
entertained serious thoughts of heaving Long Tom overboard. Needham
gazed at his old friend with sorrowful eye, as Jack suggested that such
might be necessary.
"He has done good service, and she has carried him a good many thousand
miles without complaining, sir, and, unless it comes on worse than it is
at present, she will carry him home safe enough, I hope."
It, however, did come on worse; and, moreover, a leak was sprung, which
required half the watch constantly at the pumps. Long Tom was doomed.
Jack tried to comfort Needham by saying--
"From what I hear, when the ship is paid off, he will only be looked on
as so much old iron, or laid up in the gun-wharf never to bark again, so
we shall do him more honour by lowering him into an ocean grave."
The order was given, and, as the brig rolled, Long Tom sent over the
side into the foaming waters. The brig evidently floated more buoyantly
on being relieved of his weight.
At length the gale broke, and sail being made, the _Supplejack_ once
more stood on her course.
Evening was coming on; dark, leaden seas, still foam-topped, were rising
up sullenly around her as she made her way amidst them, now on the
summit of one, now sinking into the valley below, when the lookout
shouted--
"The hull of a ship, either dismasted or on her beam-ends away on the
lee-bow, sir."
Jack went aloft with his telescope.
"She is a dismasted vessel, there is little doubt about that," he
observed to Bevan, as he returned on deck. "Keep the brig away for
her."
Evening was approaching, but Jack hoped to be up with the stranger
before dark. As the brig drew near her, she was seen to be a large
ship, her three masts gone, while no attempt apparently had been made to
rig jury-masts. So deep was she, that as she rolled in the heavy seas,
the water came rushing over her decks, and gushing out through the
scuppers on the opposite side.
Jack felt thankful that he had seen her, as, in all probability, her
fate during the night would have been sealed. The brig was steered to
pass just under her stern, Jack intending to heave-to to leeward. Just
as she got up to her, Tom exclaimed--
"I see her name--it is the _Carib_, the very ship in which Mr Bradshaw
intended to come to England."
The eyes of all on board were turned towards the wreck. No one was seen
on the deck.
"She must have been abandoned, but I trust that her passengers have been
taken off by some other vessel, for should they have left in the boats,
their chance of escaping in the heavy sea which has been running would
have been small indeed," said Jack, feeling very anxious as he thought
of Stella and Murray.
"Possibly the boats may have not long left her," observed Bevan.
"You may be right," said Jack. "Send a couple of men with the sharpest
eyes to look out, in case they may be still in sight."
Just then a person was seen emerging from the companion-hatch, who no
sooner discovered the brig, than he waved his hands and appeared to be
frantically imploring assistance.
"It is Mr Bradshaw himself!" exclaimed Jack, who had been looking
through his telescope. He immediately ordered a boat to be lowered, and
sung out for volunteers.
"I will go myself, Bevan," he said. "Take charge of the brig."
Needham was the first to step in, others quickly followed, and Jack,
with some of his best men, pulled away through the heavy seas towards
the ship. It was no easy task to get alongside without the risk of
having the boat knocked to pieces. Jack watched his opportunity, and,
followed by Needham and Tim Mullens, one of the men, sprang on board.
As he did so, he ordered the boat to keep off till he called her.
"Thank Heaven you have come!" exclaimed Mr Bradshaw, as he grasped his
hand.
"Quick! quick! the ladies are in the cabin. I charged them not to come
on deck for fear of being washed overboard, but from the heavy way the
ship is rolling, I suspect that she has not much longer to swim."
"Indeed she has not, I fear," exclaimed Jack, rushing into the cabin.
Stella was seated on a sofa, supporting Miss Bradshaw, who, overcome
with alarm or illness, appeared to have fainted, while Polly was
kneeling by her side, helping her mistress. Miss O'Regan looked amazed
at seeing Jack. He, without waiting to utter an exclamation, seized her
in his arms, and carried her on deck. Needham took up Miss Bradshaw,
while Tim, who had accompanied him, tucked Polly under his arm.
"If you have nerve to leap at the proper time as the boat comes
alongside, do so," said Jack to Mr Bradshaw. "If not, wait and I will
come back for you."
Jack shouted to the men in the boat to return, and waiting till she was
close to, let himself down into her, holding Stella firmly with one arm.
Needham and Tim dropped safely with their burdens at the same time.
Mr Bradshaw still remained on board.
"Let me go, sir," cried Needham, "I will help him;" and the next moment
he was again on deck. Seizing Mr Bradshaw by the hand, he watched the
proper opportunity and dragged him down into the boat, both falling,
though being caught by the men they were not much hurt. Jack then
sheered the boat off from the wreck, and ordered his men to pull away
towards the brig. Scarcely had they got clear than the ship's stern was
seen to lift, and her bows plunging into the next sea which came rolling
up, it rushed over her deck foaming and hissing, she in a few seconds
disappearing beneath the surface, the boat having only just got beyond
the influence of the vortex she created. There was no time to ask
questions. Jack, being at the helm, could with difficulty attend to the
two ladies, who lay in the stern sheets, Stella still attending on her
friend. The boat was quickly again alongside the brig, and Jack and
Needham lifted the two ladies safely on board. Mr Bradshaw was then
helped up the side by the seamen, and the boat being hoisted in, the
brig again made sail and stood on her proper course. The ladies were at
once conveyed to Jack's cabin, and McTavish being sent for, his
appliances soon restored Miss Bradshaw to consciousness.
So much taken up had Stella been in attending her friend, that she had
had no time to thank her preserver, or to speak a word on any other
subject. Jack had also been too fully occupied to ask questions. Mr
Bradshaw now told him that the _Carib_ had been struck suddenly by the
gale, and her masts carried away. At the same time the captain and his
mates, with several of the crew, had either been washed or struck
overboard, or killed by the falling masts; and that the rest of the
crew, left without officers, had, when they believed the ship to be
sinking, taken the only boat which remained. As they had previously
broken open the spirit-room, they were probably, before long,
overwhelmed by the heavy sea. "We would not have gone with them, had
they invited us to do so, for we did not then believe that the ship was
about to founder," continued Mr Bradshaw. "When we discovered the
awful truth, having no means of escaping, we gave ourselves up as lost,
and when you appeared we were awaiting the event which we knew must soon
occur."
Jack, of course, said how thankful he was that he had been
providentially directed to the spot in time to save their lives; he then
mentioned Alick Murray, and asked Stella when she had last heard from
him, telling her of the letter he himself had received.
Hers was of about the same date.
"Poor fellow," added Jack, "he seems dreadfully out of spirits; and I
trust, Miss O'Regan, that you will do your best to restore them."
Stella said nothing, but Fanny Bradshaw told Jack that she did not think
her friend would longer be obdurate.
"I hope not," he answered, "I have promised to be his best man, and I
wish to fulfil that engagement before I pay a visit to my old friend,
Adair, at Ballymacree. You, of course, will be one of the bridesmaids?"
Fanny said that she had little doubt about that, and changed the subject
by making inquiries respecting Ballymacree. Jack, of course, gave the
description he had received from Terence.
"And your friend has a number of pretty Irish sisters?" asked Fanny.
"Irish of course they are, and as to their beauty Terence has not said
much about that, except that his sister Kathleen is an attractive girl,
and observed that I should be able to form an opinion myself on the
matter."
Fanny did not ask many more questions about Ballymacree.
Jack at first feared that it might be necessary to put into Funchal, but
the weather becoming fine, the leaks were kept under by dint of constant
pumping, and at last the _Supplejack_ reached soundings in the chops of
the Channel. The wind held fair, and she was not long in running up it.
Her leaky condition was a sufficient excuse for going at once into
Portsmouth harbour, without waiting for orders.
Jack immediately went on shore to report his arrival to the admiral. He
was again hurrying on board to escort the ladies and Mr Bradshaw to an
hotel, when who should he meet but Admiral Triton, looking scarcely a
day older than when he last saw him.
"Jack, my boy, I am rejoiced to see you," exclaimed the old man, "and
the more so, as I want your assistance in consoling a heartbroken friend
of yours, Alick Murray. He has just received intelligence that the ship
in which the young lady he expected to marry was coming home was seen by
a vessel just arrived, dismasted in mid-Atlantic, and as the gale
continued for several days afterwards, great fears are entertained for
her safety."
"My task will be an easy one, then, admiral," cried Jack, "for I have
all her passengers safe on board my brig; and if you can tell me where
he is to be found, the sooner I relieve his mind the better."
"Let us jump into a hackney coach, and we shall soon be there,"
exclaimed the admiral.
Jack brought the joyful intelligence to Murray, whom he found almost
prostrated. It quickly had the effect of reviving him, and accompanied
by the admiral they were soon on board the _Supplejack_.
Whether or not Murray asked Stella the question on that occasion does
not matter, but very shortly afterwards, Fanny told Jack that all was
settled, and that she had promised to become his, soon after their
arrival in London, where her father intended to remain for some weeks.
Alick escorted the ladies and Mr Bradshaw to town the next day, after
they had somewhat recovered their fatigue by a night's rest.
Jack had to remain at Portsmouth to pay off the brig, though he would
rather have accompanied his friends. Admiral Triton stopped also, as he
said, to look after Tom and Desmond, but in reality to hear the yarns
which he made the youngsters spin about their adventures.
It did not take long to pay off the poor little _Supplejack_, which was
then towed up the harbour and placed on the mud, never again to float on
blue water.
Needham heaved a deep sigh as he heard the report of her destined fate.
It was too true, he found. She was to become a target for the guns of
the _Excellent_.
"Well, well," he said, "she has done good service in her day. It is
better to be of use to the last than to be broken up, as is the lot of
many a once stout ship, for firewood."
Through the interest of Admiral Triton, Needham got charge of a ship in
ordinary, where he hoped to remain till he should get appointed to one
on active service.
Jack immediately on his arrival wrote to Terence, who had gone to
Ballymacree; he had invited Desmond to accompany Tom to Halliburton. In
reply, Terence begged him to come over to Ireland as soon as he could
tear himself away from home. "Nora is of course anxious to see her
boy," he added, "so I beg you will bring him over, and Tom also, if his
mother and sisters can spare him." Jack, however, was very doubtful
about going to Ballymacree at all; he had been greatly attracted by the
person and manners of Fanny Bradshaw, though, to be sure, she had not
said anything to make him suppose that she regarded him in any other
light than that of a friend, who had rendered her and her father an
essential service.
"Well, I will try it, however," thought Jack. "Perhaps at Murray's
wedding, I shall be able to judge better how she feels towards me."
Admiral Triton accompanied his young friends up to London, where they
remained a couple of days, he taking them to see every sight that could
by any possibility be inspected during the time, while Jack spent most
of his time with Murray at the Bradshaws'. When he bade farewell, after
having promised Alick to return in a couple of weeks, he felt quite as
uncertain as at first as to Fanny's feelings towards him.
Of course every one was delighted to see him at Halliburton. Tom and
Desmond were as happy as the day was long, they only wished that Archy
Gordon, who had gone back to his friends in Scotland, could have been
with them. Gerald Desmond behaved with wonderful discretion and
propriety.
"Really, Jack, if Lieutenant Adair is as quiet and steady as his nephew
appears to be, we need no longer fear, should he come here, that he will
play the tricks we once supposed he would," observed Lucy.
"I always told you that Terence is as well conducted a young Irishman as
one can wish to meet with," answered Jack. "I will ask him to come over
and pay us his long-promised visit before I go to Ballymacree, and he
then can attend Murray's wedding with me."
Jack wrote, and Terence accepted the invitation and came. Lucy
confessed that she thought Lieutenant Adair was the most pleasing,
right-minded gentleman she had ever met.
"Of course he is," said Jack. "But then, remember that he is a half-pay
navy lieutenant, and that his paternal estate is in the Encumbered
Estate Court."
The day before Murray's wedding, Jack and Terence went up to London, and
at once called at his lodgings. They found a gentlemanly-looking man,
with the cut of a lawyer, seated with him. He significantly introduced
his friend as Mr Stapleton, "who is to undergo the same fate for which
I am destined tomorrow."
After some lively conversation, Mr Stapleton took his departure.
"Who is he?" asked Jack. "He seems a very happy fellow."
"He is the destined husband of Fanny Bradshaw," answered Alick.
"Matters, for certain reasons, were not settled till after you left
town, and therefore Mr Bradshaw did not inform you of the cause of his
coming to England. It has been a long engagement; and as Stapleton
could not go out to the West Indies, Fanny wisely consented to come to
England, and she and Stella arranged, if possible, to marry the same
day."
Jack said nothing, he was suddenly awakened from his dream, and he very
soon began to doubt whether he had been as desperately in love with
Fanny as he had supposed after all. At all events he could earnestly
wish her and her husband every happiness.
The wedding took place, and he appeared with as serene a countenance as
Terence, who, at the breakfast made a capital speech, and was the life
of the party.
The same evening Jack, with Terence and the two midshipmen, set off by
the Holyhead mail bound for Ballymacree. Jack did not lose his heart at
first sight, but he, at all events, thought Kathleen Adair more charming
than her West Indian cousins, or any of the young ladies he had met in
the neighbourhood of Halliburton, or, indeed than Fanny Bradshaw
herself. He could not help it, whether wisely or not, telling her so
one day, and as she forthwith accepted him, he had to write home and
inform his father of the fact.
Sir John, in reply, promised his sanction and blessing, provided the
young lady would wait till he was a commander. Kathleen said that she
would wait till he was an admiral, if he wished, but observed that, for
her part, she could not see why a lieutenant should not make as good a
husband as a captain. It was a wonder that the two midshipmen did not
break their necks out hunting, or finish themselves off in some other
way, but happily, while still sound in limb, both they, Jack, and
Terence received orders to join a ship fitting out for the East Indies,
the arrangement having been made, at Sir John's instigation, by their
old friend Admiral Triton.