THE DUEL.
‘This is our chance,’ exclaimed Captain Crimp; ‘she’ll go quietly now.
She might have done it afore though. Let’s bear a hand or she’ll be
reviving.’
‘Wilfrid, see if our boat’s alongside, will you?’ I cried, anxious
to get him out of the way and to correct as far as possible the
unmistakable mood of madness that had come upon him with Lady Monson’s
insults and blow, by finding him occupation; ‘and send Finn to help us,
and let the men stand by ready to receive the lady.’
He cast a look of fury at his wife as she lay motionless on the deck,
her head supported on my arm, and sped away in long strides, chattering
to himself as he went.
‘Is she dead!’ cried Miss Jennings, in a voice of terror and her ashen
face streaming.
‘Bless us, no,’ said I, ‘a downright faint, and thank goodness for it.
Now, captain.’
How between us we managed to carry her on deck, I’m sure I do not know.
Captain Crimp had her by the feet, I by the shoulders, and Miss Laura
helped to keep the apparently lifeless woman’s head to its bearings.
She was as limber as though struck by lightning, and the harder to
carry for that reason,--a noble figure, as I have said, and deucedly
heavy to boot. My part was the hardest, for I had to step backwards
and mount the companion ladder, that was almost perpendicular,
crab-fashion. The captain and I swayed together, staggering and
perspiring, bothered excessively by the ungainly rolling of the barque,
both of us nearly dead with heat, and I half suffocated besides by the
abominable acid stench from the hold. We were animated, however, into
uncommon exertions by the desire to get her over the side before she
recovered; and the fear of her awakening and resisting us and shrieking
out, and the like, gave us, I reckon, for that particular job the
strength of four men. We conveyed her to the gangway, helped by Finn,
who received us at the companion hatch, and with infinite pains handed
her over the side, still motionless in her swoon, into the boat. A hard
task it was; we durst not call out, for fear of reviving her, and the
melancholy business was carried through by signs and gestures, topped
off with sundry hoarse whispered orders from Finn.
I paused panting, my face burning like fire, whilst Captain Crimp
looked to be slowly dissolving, the perspiration literally streaming
from his fingers’ ends on to the deck as though he were a figure of
snow gradually wasting.
‘Why couldn’t she have fainted away at first?’ he muttered to me.
‘That’s the worst of women. They’re always so slow a-making up their
minds.’
Now that she was in the boat the trouble was at an end; though she
recovered consciousness she could not regain the barque’s deck, and
there was no power in her screams to hinder the yachtsmen’s oars
from sweeping her to the ‘Bride.’ Preserve me! What a picture it all
made just then: the wild-haired, wild-eyed, semi-nude figures of the
barque’s crew overhanging the rail to view Lady Monson as she lay
white and corpse-like in the bottom of the boat; the sober, concerned
faces of our own men; Wilfrid’s savage, crazy look as he waited with
his eyes fixed upon his yacht for Miss Laura to be handed down before
entering the boat himself; the prostrate form of his wife with her head
pillowed on Finn’s jacket, her eyes half opened, disclosing the whites
only, and imparting the completest imaginable aspect of death to her
countenance, with its pale lips and marble brow and cheek bleached into
downright ghastliness by contrast of the luxuriant black hair that had
fallen in tresses from under her hat. The men who had belonged to the
‘Shark’ stood in a little group near the foremast looking on, but with
a commiserating respectful air. One of them stepped up to us as Miss
Laura was in the act of descending the side, and addressing Finn whilst
he touched his cap, exclaimed, ‘We should be glad, sir, if y’d take us
aboard the “Bride.” We’ll heartily tarn to with the rest; you’ll find
us all good men.’
‘No!’ roared Wilfrid, whipping round upon him, ‘I want no man that has
had anything to do with the “Shark” aboard my vessel.’
The fellow fell back muttering. My cousin turned to Captain Crimp.
‘Sir,’ he cried, ‘I thank you for your friendly offices.’ He produced
a pocket-book. ‘You have acted the part of an honest man, sir. I am
obliged to you. I trust that this may satisfy all charges for the
maintenance of Lady Monson on board your ship.’ He handed him a Bank
of England note; Crimp turned the corner down to look at the figure--I
believe it was a hundred pounds--and then buried it in his breeches
pocket.
‘I’m mighty obliged to you, mighty obliged,’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s a
deal more’n the job’s worth. I’d like to see my way to wishing you
happiness’--and he was proceeding, but Wilfrid stopped him by dropping
over the side, calling to me to make haste.
‘Captain Crimp,’ I said hurriedly, ‘you will please keep your barque
hove-to as she is now for the present. There’s to be a duel; you of
course know that.’ He nodded. ‘You also heard the promise made to
Colonel Hope-Kennedy, that after the duel he is to be at liberty to
return to your vessel.’
‘Then I don’t think he will, for the guv’nor means to shoot him,’
said Captain Crimp, ‘and I’ll wager what he guv me that he’ll do it
too; and sarve ’im right. Running away with another man’s wife! Ain’t
there enough single gals in the world to suit the likes of that there
colonel? But I’ll keep hove-to as you ask.’
All this he mumbled in my ear as I put my foot over the side waiting
for the wash of the swell to float the boat up before dropping. We then
shoved off.
We had scarcely measured a boat’s length, however, from the barque’s
side, when Lady Monson stirred, opened and shut her eyes, drew a long,
fluttering breath, then started up, leaning on her elbow staring about
her. She gazed at the men, at me, at her husband and sister, with her
wits abroad, but intelligence seemed to rush into her eyes like fire
when her sight encountered the yacht. I thought to myself what will
she do now? Jump overboard? Go into hysterics? Swoon away again? I
watched her keenly, though furtively, prepared to arrest any passionate
movement in her, for there had come a wilder look in her face than
ever I had seen in Wilfrid’s. My cousin sat like a figure of stone,
his gaze riveted to his schooner, and Miss Laura glanced at her sister
wistfully, but, as one saw, on the alert to avoid meeting her gaze.
I could very well understand now that this fair, gentle, golden-haired
girl should have held her tall, dark, imperious, tragic-eyed sister in
awe.
I know I felt heartily afraid of her myself as I sat pretending not to
notice her, though in an askant way I was taking her in from head to
foot, feeling mightily curious to see what sort of a person she was,
and I was exceedingly thankful that the yacht lay within a few minutes
of us. But happily there was to be no ‘scene.’ She saw how things
stood, and with an air of haughty dignity rose from the bottom of the
boat and seated herself in the place I vacated for her, turning her
face seawards to conceal it from the men. Nobody but a woman possessed
of her excellent harmonious shape could have risen unaided with the
grace, I may say the majesty, of motion she exhibited from the awkward,
prostrate posture in which she had lain. The bitter, sarcastic sneer
upon her lip paralysed in me the immediate movement of my mind to offer
her my hand. She seemed to float upwards to her full height as a stage
dancer of easy and exquisite skill rises to her feet from a recumbent
attitude. I might well believe that many men would find her face
fascinating, though it was not one that I could fall in love with. She
was out and away handsomer than her picture represented her, spite of
the traces which yet lingered of suffering, privation, and distress of
mind, such as shipwreck and even a day’s tossing about in an open boat
might produce.
Not a syllable was uttered by any one of us as the flashing oars of
the rowers swept us to the ‘Bride.’ The sailors with instinctive good
feeling stared to right and left at their dripping and sparkling
blades as though absorbed by contemplation of the rise and fall of
the sand-white lengths of ash. Finn at the yoke-lines sat with a
countenance of wood. We buzzed foaming to the accommodation ladder. I
was the first to spring out, and stood waiting to hand Lady Monson on
to the steps; but without taking the least notice of me she exclaimed,
addressing her sister in a low but distinctly audible voice, ‘Take me
at once to your cabin,’ and so saying she stepped on to the ladder. I
helped Miss Laura out of the boat, and then they both passed through
the gangway and I saw no more of them. Wilfrid mounted slowly at my
heels. I passed my arm through his and walked him aft. He made as if he
would resist, then came passively enough, sighing deeply as though his
heart had broken.
‘Wilfrid,’ I said gently, ‘a hard and bitter part of the project of
your voyage is ended. You have regained your wife--your one desire is
fulfilled. Why not, then, abandon the rest of your programme? Yonder
barque will be kept hove-to until we hail her to say that she may
proceed. Colonel Hope-Kennedy does not want to fight you. Let me go
to him and arrange that he shall return to that vessel forthwith. I
abhor the notion of a duel between you. Your end has been achieved
bloodlessly; your baby has such a claim upon your life, that if you
will but give a moment’s thought to the significance of it, you would
not, you dare not, turn a deaf ear to the infant’s appeal. Consider
again, we are without a surgeon; there is no medical help here for
the sufferer, be he you or be he your enemy. This colonel, again, is
without a second. Wilfrid, in the name of God, let him go! He may
reach England, and will meet you ashore, if you desire it; but between
then and now there will be abundance of time for you to consider
whether there is any occasion for you to give the scoundrel a chance
of completing the injury he has already dealt you by sending a bullet
through your heart.’
He listened to me with wonderful patience, his head bowed, his eyes
rooted on the deck, his hands clasped in front of him. I was flattering
myself that I had produced something of the impression I desired to
make, when, lifting his face, he looked slowly round at me, and said
quietly, almost softly, ‘Charles, I shall not love you less for your
advice. You speak out of the fulness of your heart. I thank you, dear
cousin, for your kindness. And now do me this favour.’ He pulled out
his watch and let his eye rest on it for a brief pause, but I doubt
if he took note of the hour. ‘Go to Colonel Hope-Kennedy and make all
necessary arrangements for our meeting as soon as possible. See Captain
Finn, and request him to send the sailors below when the appointed
time arrives. Come to my cabin and let me know the result. Colonel
Hope-Kennedy shall have choice of the pistols in my case, and, seeing
that he has no second any more than I have, for your office will simply
consist in chalking the distance and in giving the signal, he must load
for himself.’
He took my hand in both his, pressed it hard, and then, without a word,
walked to the companion and disappeared. Captain Finn, who had been
watching us from a distance, waiting till our conversation had ended,
now walked up to me.
‘Can you tell me his honour’s wishes, sir?’ he inquired. ‘I suppose now
that he’s fallen in with her ladyship he’ll be heading home?’
‘Let the yacht lie as she is for the present, Finn,’ said I; ‘no need
to hoist in the boat either. She cannot hurt herself alongside in
this smooth water. We may be wanting her shortly to convey Colonel
Hope-Kennedy to the barque. Sir Wilfrid means to fight him, and at
once. I would give half what I am worth to avert this meeting, but my
cousin is resolved, and I must stand by him.’
‘Sir,’ said Finn, ‘he has been cruelly used.’
‘When the time comes,’ I continued, ‘he wishes the men to be sent
below. You will see to that.’
‘Oh, yes. But I dorn’t think the helm should be desarted, sir.’
‘Certainly not,’ I exclaimed. ‘Arrange it thus: Let Mr. Crimp hold the
wheel. I must have help at hand, for one of the men may fall badly
wounded. Therefore, stay you on deck, Captain Finn, and keep by me
within easy hail. Cutbill is also a strong, serviceable fellow in such
an emergency as this. Post him at the forehatch to hinder any man from
popping his head up to look. I shall thus have two--you and him--to
assist me.’
‘Right, sir,’ he exclaimed, touching his cap.
‘Better mark off the ground, or deck rather, at once,’ said I; ‘fetch
me a piece of chalk, Finn.’
He went forward, and in a few moments returned with what I required. A
broad awning sheltered the whole of the quarterdeck that lay gleaming
white as the flesh of the cocoa-nut in the soft, almost violet-hued
shadow. There was just air enough stirring aloft to keep the lighter
cloths quiet and to provide against the yacht being slued or revolved
by the run of the long, delicate, tropic swell. I said to Finn, after
considering a little and anxiously observing the effects of the
sunshine gushing through the blue air betwixt the edge of the awning
and the bulwark rail, or rising off the sea in a trembling flashing
that whitened the air above it, ‘I don’t think it will matter which
side of the quarterdeck we choose. The men must toss for position. But
there’s a dazzle on the water off the port bow that might bother the
eye that faces forward. Better mark the starboard side therefore.’
He gazed thoughtfully around, and said, ‘The yacht’s position can be
altered, if you like, sir.’
I answered, ‘No; leave her as she is. She rolls regularly and quietly
thus.’
I had never before been concerned in a duel, and in the matter of the
strict etiquette of this sort of encounter was entirely at a loss how
to act. However, I had always understood that twelve paces were the
prescribed distance, so ruling a line athwartships almost abreast
of the mainmast, I made twelve steps and then scored another line
crosswise, measuring the interval a second time, and finding that it
was very fairly twelve of my own paces. The men had come together in
a crowd forward, and were staring aft with all their might. They knew
perfectly well what was going to take place, and they were not yet
sensible that they were not to be admitted to the spectacle. It was to
be something of a far more wildly exciting sort than catching a shark,
ay, or even may be of seeing a man hung at a ship’s yardarm. It put a
sort of sickness into me somehow to witness that swarm of whiskered
mahogany-checked faces, all looking thirstily, expectation shaping
every posture, with a kind of swimming of the whole body of them too
in the haze of heat into which the yacht’s jibboom went twisting in a
manner to make the brain dizzy to watch it. One never gets to see how
thoroughly animal human nature is at bottom until one has examined the
expression of the countenances of a mob, big or little, assembled in
expectation of witnessing human suffering.
I stepped below. Colonel Hope-Kennedy sat bareheaded at the cabin
table, supporting his head on his right elbow and drumming softly with
the fingers of his left hand. I approached him, and giving him a bow,
which he returned with an air of great dignity--men are amazingly
polite when arranging the terms of some cut-throat job--I said, ‘It is
my painful duty, sir, to inform you that my cousin desires the meeting
between you and him should take place at once.’
‘Not a moment need be lost so far as I am concerned,’ he answered,
gazing at me steadfastly with eyes that looked like porcelain with the
singular glaze that seemed to have come suddenly upon them.
‘My cousin requests me to state,’ I continued, ‘that you will consider
him as acting without a second equally with yourself. My unhappy office
will consist simply in giving the signal to fire. I would to God that
my influence had been powerful enough with him to arrest his resolution
at this point----’
‘It could not have prevailed with me,’ he exclaimed. ‘The madman’s blow
was needless. On what part of the yacht do we fight?’
‘On the quarterdeck,’ I answered.
‘Measured by you?’
I bowed.
‘As there are no seconds,’ he said, ‘I presume we load for ourselves?’
‘That is Sir Wilfrid Monson’s suggestion,’ I answered.
‘Have you the pistols, sir?’
‘I will fetch them.’
I went at once to Wilfrid’s berth and knocked, and walked in without
waiting for him to tell me to enter. He was writing in his diary; he
instantly threw down his pen and jumped from his chair.
‘Is all ready, Charles?’ he asked.
‘Your pistols are identical, I believe?’ said I.
‘Exactly alike,’ he answered.
‘Then Colonel Hope-Kennedy’s choice,’ said I, ‘cannot furnish him with
any advantage over you, by his choosing, I mean, with a soldier’s
experience the preciser weapon?’
‘There is not an atom of difference between them,’ he exclaimed.
‘Yonder’s the case, Charles. Take it, and let the scoundrel choose for
himself.’
He could not have spoken more coolly had he been giving me the most
commonplace instructions. I remember wondering whilst I looked at him
and listened to him whether he actually realised his own intention; yet
I should have known better than this if only for the meaning his face
conveyed, and for a note in his voice that made every accent hard and
steady. He said, ‘When you are ready ring the hand-bell on the table; I
will then join you.’
‘But you will charge your own pistol,’ said I, ‘so I must return with
the weapon after the Colonel has made his choice.’
‘No,’ he exclaimed; ‘carry the case on deck and load for me.’
‘Very well,’ said I, wearily and sick at heart, and devoutly wishing
that some heavy black squall would come thundering down on the yacht as
the precursor of a gale of wind and delay this wretched business, for
the present anyway. I took the pistol-case, and returned it to Colonel
Hope-Kennedy. He slightly glanced at the fire-arms, and said with a
faint smile, ‘They are an elegant brace of weapons. Either will do for
me.’
‘Will you load on deck or here, sir?’ said I.
‘Here, if you please.’
He extracted one of the pistols, poised it in his hand, toying a moment
or two with it, tried the trigger once or twice, then loaded it,
fitting the cap to the nipple with fingers in which I could not discern
the least tremor. He then returned the pistol to the case. Both of us
would know which one he had handled very well, as it lay against the
side upon which the lid locked.
‘Have you a surgeon on board?’ he inquired.
I answered No. He looked a little anxious, and exclaimed, ‘No one of
any kind qualified to deal with a wound?’ Again I answered No. He
seemed to wince at this, the only expression of uneasiness I had
witnessed in him. Finding he asked no more questions, I said, ‘If you
are ready, sir, I will summon my cousin.’
‘I am ready,’ he replied.
On this I rang the little hand-bell that stood upon the table, and in
a minute Wilfrid came out. In grim silence we mounted the companion
steps, my cousin leading the way, the Colonel next, and I at his heels,
with the pistol-case under my arm and a very lively sense of murder
in my heart. All was hushed where the ladies were. Whether Miss Laura
guessed what was going forward I know not, but I was very thankful that
she remained hidden, since, in the face of the Colonel’s coolness, it
was most important that nothing should imperil Wilfrid’s composure.
The yacht’s decks were deserted save by the figures of the men who it
had been arranged were to remain. Forward at the hatch conducting to
the forecastle stood the tall, burly figure of Cutbill; close beside
the cabin skylight was Finn, pale, agitated, his mouth working in the
middle of his face as though he were rehearsing a long speech; Crimp
grasped the wheel. Heaven knows how it was that I should have found
eyesight for small outside features of such a scene as this at that
moment, but I clearly recollect observing that sour old Jacob, with a
view, mayhap, of supporting his spirits, had thrust an immense quid
into his cheek, the angle whereof stood out like a boil or a formidable
bruise against the clear gleam of sky past him; up and down which the
curtseying of the yacht slided his squab, homely figure, and I also
observed that he gnawed upon this junk with an energy that suggested a
mind in an advanced stage of distraction.
I said to the Colonel, ‘It will be satisfactory to myself, sir, if you
will kindly measure the distance I have chalked.’
His eye swiftly ran from line to line, and then giving me a slight bow
he said, nonchalantly, ‘I am quite satisfied.’
‘With regard to the light,’ I continued, looking from him to Wilfrid,
‘you will decide for yourselves, gentlemen, which end of the vessel you
will face.’
‘It is immaterial,’ said the Colonel, with a slight shrug.
‘Then,’ said Wilfrid, ‘I will have my back to the wheel.’
I could not be sure that he was well advised, for the blue dazzle of
sunshine past the awning would throw out his figure into clear relief,
as I noticed Crimp’s was projected, clean lined as a shadow cast by the
moonlight on a white deck.
‘It may be as well to toss for position,’ I said.
‘No,’ cried Wilfrid, ‘I am content.’
I loaded his pistol and handed the weapons to the men. My heart thumped
like a coward’s in my breast, but I strove hard to conceal my agitation
for Wilfrid’s sake. Each took up his respective post, and both held
their pistols at level. The Colonel exclaimed ‘Tell your mad relative
to feather-edge himself. He is all front. ’Tis too irrational to take
advantage of.’
Wilfrid heard him and cried out, ‘Let him look to himself. Ready with
the signal, Charles.’
I pulled out my pocket-handkerchief, and as I did so old Crimp suddenly
let go the wheel and came skimming up to Finn, rumbling out, in a voice
half choked with tobacco-juice, that the gent’s pistol (meaning the
Colonel’s) was upon him full, and that he wasn’t going to be made cold
beef of for any man.
‘Ready, gentlemen!’ I cried, and desirous of emphasising the signal,
lest the Colonel’s keener sight should witness the fall of the
handkerchief before the flutter of it caught Wilfrid’s eye, I called
out ‘_Now!_’ and the handkerchief fell to the deck.
There was one report only; it was like the sharp crack of a whip. For
the instant I did not know which man’s pistol had exploded, but the
little curl of smoke at Wilfrid’s end told me that it was his. I saw
the Colonel fling his arms up, and his weapon flashed as he seemed
to fire it straight into the air. ‘Good God! how generous!’ was the
thought that swept through me; ‘he will not fight.’ He continued
holding his pistol elevated whilst you could have counted ten, with a
slight backward leaning posture and an indescribable look in his face,
absolutely as though he were endeavouring to follow the flight of the
bullet; his weapon then fell to the deck, he made a clutch with both
hands at his heart, with a deep groan sank--his knees yielding, and,
with his hands still at his heart, dropped, as a wooden figure might,
on his side and lay without motion.
Finn and I rushed up to him. Whilst the skipper freed his neck I
grasped his wrist, but found it pulseless. Yet it was difficult to
credit that he was dead. His face was as reposeful as that of a
sleeper. There was no look whatever of pain in it--nay, such faint
distinguishable expression as I remember had the air of a light smile.
I opened his coat, and found a small perforation in the shirt under the
right arm; the orifice was as cleanly clipped as though made with a
pair of scissors. There was no blood.
‘Dead, sir!’ exclaimed Finn. ‘A noble-looking gentleman, too. A pity, a
pity! How gents of this kind stand upon their honour! yet they’re the
people to break up homes.’
‘Call Cutbill,’ said I, ‘and let the body be taken below.’
I rose from my knees and walked aft to Wilfrid, who remained standing
at the chalked line, his arm that grasped the pistol hanging by his
side. There was a kind of _lifting_ look in his face, that with his
swelled nostrils and large protruding eyes and a curve of the upper
lip, that was made a sarcastic sneer of by the peculiar projection of
the under one, indicated a mood of scornful triumph, of exultation
subdued by contempt.
‘You have killed your man, Wilfrid,’ said I.
‘I have shot him through the heart,’ said he, talking like one newly
aroused from his slumber and still in process of collecting his mind.
‘Most probably. You hit him in some vital part, anyway. He dropped
dead.’
‘He made sure of killing me; I saw it in his cold, deliberate way of
covering me.’ He laughed harshly and mirthlessly. ‘He’ll trouble no
other man’s peace. I’ve merely liberated the spirit of a devil that
is now winging its way on black, bat-like wings back to that hell it
came from. There will be disappointment amongst the fiends. That fellow
there,’ nodding at the body over which Cutbill and Finn were bending,
‘was good at least for another twenty years of scoundrelism. What are
they going to do with him?’
‘Carry him below.’
‘Finn!’ he called.
‘Sir!’ answered the skipper, looking up from the body, whose arms he
grasped.
‘Hide it in some forward cabin, and if stone-dead, as Mr. Monson
declares, get it stitched up. I’ll tell you when to bury him.’
‘Ay, ay, sir,’ answered Finn promptly, but looking shocked nevertheless.
My cousin handed me his pistol. As he did so his manner changed;
a broken-hearted look--I do not know how else to describe the
expression--entered his face. He drew a long, deep breath, like to the
sigh of a sufferer from some exquisite throe, and said in a low voice,
trembling with the tears which pressed close behind, ‘His death does
not return to me what he has taken from me. With him go my honour,
my peace of mind, the love that was my wife’s--all gone--all gone!’
he muttered. ‘My God!’ he almost shrieked, ‘how blank has the world
become, now that he lies there.’
‘Be advised by me, Wilfrid,’ said I; ‘withdraw to your cabin and rest.
This has been a terrible morning--enough to last out a lifetime has
been crowded into it. You met him bravely, fairly, honourably. He has
paid the penalty of his infamy, and though Heaven knows I would have
gone to any lengths to avert this meeting, yet, since it has happened,
I thank God your life is preserved and that you have come out of it
unharmed.’
His eyes moistened and he took my hand; but just then Cutbill and Finn
came staggering towards the companion hatch, bearing the body between
them, on which he walked hastily to the rail and stood peering over
into the water, supporting his temples in his hands.
Jacob Crimp had resumed his hold of the wheel. I went up to him. ‘I’ll
keep the helm steady,’ said I, ‘whilst you wipe out those chalk marks
on the deck. Meanwhile pick up that pistol yonder and bring me the case
off the skylight.’
Whilst he did this we were hailed from the barque. She lay close to us,
with her sailors in a crowd about the fore-rigging, where they had been
standing attentive spectators of the duel. ‘Beg pardon!’ bawled Captain
Crimp, erect on the rail and steadying himself by a backstay, ‘but I
should be glad to know if the gent’s coming aboard?’
I shouted back, ‘No. You need not wait for him.’
The man tossed his arm with a gesture very significant of a growling
‘Well, well!’ and then with a flourish of his hat he cried, ‘A lucky
run home to ’ee, gentlemen all!’ dismounted, and fell to singing out
orders. His wild-looking crew ran about, the maintopsail-yard slowly
swung round, and presently the deeply-laden, malodorous craft, rolling
clumsily upon a swell to whose light summer heavings our yacht was
curtseying with fairy grace, was heading round to her course, blurring
the water at her bows to the blowing of the mild breeze that had
scarcely power enough to lift her foresail.
Finn and Cutbill arrived on deck, and Wilfrid on seeing them went below.
‘Better turn the hands up, I suppose, now, sir?’ said Finn to me.
‘There’ll be nothen more, your honour, that’ll be onfit for them to
see.’
‘By all means, Captain Finn; and then get the boat hoisted and a course
shaped for home, for our quest is over, and we have made southing
enough, Heaven knows!’
Cutbill went forward. There is a magic in the mere sound of homeward
bound that would put a jocund nimbleness into the proportions of a
marine Falstaff. Cutbill tried to walk and look as though he were
sensible that death lay under his feet and that the shadow of a
dreadful event hung dark upon the yacht, but scarce was he abreast of
the galley when his spirits proved too much for him, and he measured
the rest of the deck in several gleesome, floundering jumps, pounding
the scuttle with a capstan bar that he snatched up, and roaring out,
‘All hands trim sail for home!’ The men came tumbling up as though the
yacht’s forecastle were vomiting sailors, and in a breath the lustrous
decks of the ‘Bride’ were full of life, colour, and movement.
A man came to the wheel. I lingered a minute or two to exchange a few
words with Finn.
‘You are sure the Colonel is dead?’
‘Ay, sir; he’ll be no deader a thousand years hence.’
‘A bloody morning’s work, Finn! I feel heart-sick, as though I had
shared in the assassination of a man. But since it was bound to end in
one or the other’s death, ’tis best as it is. Have you any particulars
of the foundering of the “Shark”?’
‘The yarn her people--I mean the surwivors aboard the barque--spun our
men whilst they lay alongside was that they met with a gale of wind,
that, after blowing with hurricane fury for two days and two nights,
ended in dismasting ’em. The fall of the mainmast ripped the plank out
of the deck as clean as though shipwrights had been at work there. Then
the pounding of the wreckage alongside started a butt, and she took in
water faster than they could pump it out. There were boats enough for
all hands and to spare, and they had just time to get away when the
“Shark” foundered. ’Twas blowing hard then, and a high sea running,
and before it came on dark the boats had lost sight of one another. The
Colonel and her ladyship were together, along with five sailors, one of
whom fell overboard on the second day and was drownded. They were three
days and four nights washing about afore the “’Liza Robbins” fell in
with them. That’s all I got to hear, sir; but I suppose it’s the true
yarn right enough.’
‘I dare say they encountered much such weather as we met with,’ said I;
‘the same straight-lined storm thundering up from the south, for all
one knows. Well, now, Finn, drive us home as fast as ever you can. Bowl
her along--we’ve all had enough of it. In what berth have you placed
the body?’
‘In the one that was occupied by his honour’s walet, sir.’
I gave him a nod, and, with the pistol-case under my arm, descended the
steps and went to my cabin.