“But, for the miracle,
I mean our preservation, few in millions
Can speak like us.”
_Tempest._
The “Dolphin” might well have been likened to a slumbering beast of
prey, during those moments of treacherous calm. But as nature limits
the period of repose to the creatures of the animal world, so it would
seem that the inactivity of the freebooters was not doomed to any long
continuance. With the morning sun a breeze came over the water,
breathing the flavour of the land, to set the sluggish ship again in
motion. Throughout all that day, with a wide reach of canvas spreading
along her booms, her course was held towards the south. Watch succeeded
watch, and night came after day, and still no change was made in her
direction. Then the blue islands were seen heaving up, one after
another, out of the sea. The prisoners of the Rover, for thus the
females were now constrained to consider themselves, silently watched
each hillock of green that the vessel glided past, each naked and sandy
key, or each mountain side, until, by the calculations of the
governess, they were already steering amid the western Archipelago.
During all this time no question was asked which in the smallest manner
betrayed to the Rover the consciousness of his guests that he was not
conducting them towards the promised port of the Continent. Gertrude
wept over the sorrow her father would feel, when he should believe her
fate involved in that of the unfortunate Bristol trader; but her tears
flowed in private, or were freely poured upon the sympathizing bosom of
her governess. Wilder she avoided, with an intuitive consciousness that
he was no longer the character she had wished to believe, but to all in
the ship she struggled to maintain an equal air and a serene eye. In
this deportment, far safer than any impotent entreaties might have
proved, she was strongly supported by her governess, whose knowledge of
mankind had early taught her that virtue was never so imposing, in the
moments of trial, as when it knew best how to maintain its equanimity.
On the other hand, both the Commander of the ship and his lieutenant
sought no other communication with the inmates of the cabin, than
courtesy appeared absolutely to require.
The former, as though repenting already of having laid so bare the
capricious humours of his mind, drew gradually into himself, neither
seeking nor permitting familiarity with any; while the latter appeared
perfectly conscious of the constrained mien of the governess, and of
the altered though still pitying eye of her pupil. Little explanation
was necessary to acquaint Wilder with the reasons of this change.
Instead of seeking the means to vindicate his character, however, he
rather imitated their reserve. Little else was wanting to assure his
former friends of the nature of his pursuits; for even Mrs Wyllys
admitted to her charge, that he acted like one in whom depravity had
not yet made such progress as to have destroyed that consciousness
which is ever the surest test of innocence.
We shall not detain the narrative, to dwell upon the natural regrets in
which Gertrude indulged, as this sad conviction forced itself upon her
understanding, nor to relate the gentle wishes in which she did not
think it wrong to indulge, that one, who certainly was master of so
many manly and generous qualities, might soon be made to see the error
of his life, and to return to a course for which even her cold and
nicely judging governess allowed nature had so eminently endowed him.
Perhaps the kind emotions that had been awakened in her bosom, by the
events of the last fortnight, were not content to exhibit themselves in
wishes alone, and that petitions more personal, and even more fervent
than common, mingled in her prayers; but this is a veil which it is not
our province to raise, the heart of one so pure and so ingenuous being
the best repository for its own gentle feelings.
For several days the ship had been contending with the unvarying winds
of those regions. Instead of struggling, however, like a cumbered
trader, to gain some given port, the “Rover” suddenly altered her
course, and glided through one of the many passages that offered, with
the ease of a bird that is settling swiftly to its nest. A hundred
different sails were seen steering among the islands, but all were
avoided alike; the policy of the freebooters teaching them the
necessity of moderation, in a sea so crowded with vessels of war. After
the vessel had shot through one of the straits which divide the chain
of the Antilles, she issued in safety on the more open sea which
separates them from the Spanish Main. The moment the passage was
effected, and a broad and clear horizon was seen stretching on every
side of them, a manifest alteration occurred in the mien of every
individual of the crew. The brow of the Rover himself lost its
contraction; and the look of care, which had wrapped the whole man in a
mantle of reserve, disappeared, leaving him the reckless wayward being
we have more than once described. Even the men, whose vigilance had
needed no quickening in running the gauntlet of the cruisers which were
known to swarm in the narrower seas, appeared to breathe a freer air,
and sounds of merriment and thoughtless gaiety were once more heard in
a place over which the gloom of distrust had been so long and so
heavily cast.
On the other hand, the governess saw new ground for uneasiness in the
course the vessel was taking. While the islands were in view, she had
hoped, and surely not without reason, that their captor only awaited a
suitable occasion to place them in safety within the influence of the
laws of some of the colonial governments. Her own observation told her
there was so much of what was once good, if not noble, mingled with the
lawlessness of the two principal individuals in the vessel, that she
saw nothing that was visionary in such an expectation. Even the tales
of the time, which recounted the desperate acts of the freebooter, with
not a little of wild and fanciful exaggeration, did not forget to
include numberless striking instances of marked, and even chivalrous
generosity. In short, he bore the character of one who, while he
declared himself the enemy of all, knew how to distinguish between the
weak and the strong, and who often found as much gratification in
repairing the wrongs of the former, as in humbling the pride of the
latter.
But all her agreeable anticipations from this quarter were forgotten
when the last island of the groupe sunk into the sea behind them, and
the ship lay alone on an ocean which showed not another object above
its surface. As if now ready to lay aside the mask the Rover ordered
the sails to be reduced, and, neglecting the favourable breeze, the
vessel to be brought to the wind. In a word, as if no object called for
the immediate attention of her crew, the “Dolphin” came to a stand, in
the midst of the water her officers and people abandoning themselves to
their pleasures, or to idleness, as whim or inclination dictated.
“I had hoped that your convenience would have permitted us to land in
some of his Majesty’s islands,” said Mrs Wyllys, speaking for the first
time since her suspicions had been awakened on the subject of her
quitting the ship, and addressing her words to the self-styled Captain
Heidegger, just after the order to heave-to the vessel had been obeyed.
“I fear you find it irksome to be so long dispossessed of your cabin.”
“It cannot be better occupied,” he rather evasively replied; though the
observant and anxious governess fancied his eye was bolder, and his air
under less restraint, than when she had before dwelt on the same topic.
“If custom did not require that a ship should wear the colours of some
people, mine should always sport those of the fair.”
“And, as it is?”——
“As it is, I hoist the emblems that belong to the service I am in.”
“In fifteen days, that you have been troubled with my presence, it has
never been my good fortune to see those colours set.”
“No!” exclaimed the Rover, glancing his eye at her, as if to penetrate
her thoughts: “Then shall the uncertainty cease on the sixteenth.—Who’s
there, abaft?”
“No one better nor worse than Richard Fid,” returned the individual in
question, lifting his head from out a locker, into which it had been
thrust, as though its owner searched for some mislaid implement, and
who added a little quickly, when he ascertained by whom he was
addressed, “and always at your Honour’s orders.”
“Ah! ’Tis the friend of _our_ friend,” the Rover observed to Mrs
Wyllys, with an emphasis which the other understood. “He shall be my
interpreter. Come hither, lad; I have a word to exchange with you.”
“A thousand at your service, sir,” returned Richard unhesitatingly
complying; “for, though no great talker, I have always something
uppermost in my mind, which can be laid hold of at need.”
“I hope you find that your hammock swings easily in my ship?”
“I’ll not deny it, your Honour; for an easier craft, especially upon a
bow-line, might be hard to find.”
“And the cruise?—I hope you also find the cruise such as a seaman
loves.”
“D’ye see, sir, I was sent from home with little schooling, and so I
seldom make so free as to pretend to read the Captain’s orders.”
“But still you have your inclinations,” said Mrs. Wyllys, firmly, as
though determined to push the investigation even further than her
companion had intended.
“I can’t say that I’m wanting in natural feeling, your Ladyship,”
returned Fid, endeavouring to manifest his admiration of the sex, by
the awkward bow he made to the governess as its representative, “tho’f
crosses and mishaps have come athwart me as well as better men. I
thought as strong a splice was laid, between me and Kate Whiffle, as
was ever turned into a sheet-cable; but then came the law, with its
regulations and shipping articles, luffing short athwart my happiness,
and making a wreck at once of all the poor girl’s hopes, and a Flemish
account of my comfort.”
“It was proved that she had another husband?” said the Rover, nodding
his head, understandingly.
“Four, your Honour. The girl had a love of company, and it grieved her
to the heart to see an empty house: But then, as it was seldom more
than one of us could be in port at a time, there was no such need to
make the noise they did about the trifle. But envy did it all, sir;
envy, and the greediness of the land-sharks. Had every woman in the
parish as many husbands as Kate, the devil a bit would they have taken
up the precious time of judge and jury, in looking into the manner in
which a wench like her kept a quiet household.”
“And, since that unfortunate repulse, you have kept yourself altogether
out of the hands of matrimony?”
“Ay, ay; _since_, your Honour,” returned Fid, giving his Commander
another of those droll looks, in which a peculiar cunning struggled
with a more direct and straight-going honesty, “_since_, as you say
rightly, sir; though they talked of a small matter of a bargain that I
had made with another woman, myself; but, in overhauling the affair,
they found, that, as the shipping articles with poor Kate wouldn’t hold
together, why, they could make nothing at all of me; so I was
white-washed like a queen’s parlour and sent adrift.”
“And all this occurred after your acquaintance with Mr Wilder?”
“Afore, your Honour; afore. I was but a younker in the time of it,
seeing that it is four-and-twenty years, come May next, since I have
been towing at the stern of master Harry. But then, as I have had a
sort of family of my own, since that day, why, the less need, you know,
to be birthing myself again in any other man’s hammock.”
“You were saying, it is four-and-twenty years,” interrupted Mrs Wyllys,
“since you made the acquaintance of Mr Wilder?”
“Acquaintance! Lord, my Lady, little did he know of acquaintances at
that time; though, bless him! the lad has had occasion to remember it
often enough since.”
“The meeting of two men, of so singular merit, must have been somewhat
remarkable,” observed the Rover.
“It was, for that matter, remarkable enough, your Honour; though, as to
the merit, notwithstanding master Harry is often for overhauling that
part of the account, I’ve set it down for just nothing at all.”
“I confess, that, in a case where two men, both of whom are so well
qualified to judge, are of different opinions, I feel at a loss to know
which can have the right. Perhaps, by the aid of the facts, I might
form a truer judgment.”
“Your Honour forgets the Guinea, who is altogether of my mind in the
matter, seeing no great merit in the thing either. But, as you are
saying, sir, reading the log is the only true way to know how fast a
ship can go; and so, if this Lady and your Honour have a mind to come
at the truth of the affair why, you have only to say as much, and I
will put it all before you in creditable language.”
“Ah! there is reason in your proposition,” returned the Rover,
motioning to his companion to follow to a part of the poop where they
were less exposed to the observations of inquisitive eyes. “Now, place
the whole clearly before us; and then you may consider the merits of
the question disposed of definitively.”
Fid was far from discovering the smallest reluctance to enter on the
required detail; and, by the time he had cleared his throat, freshened
his supply of the weed, and otherwise disposed himself to proceed Mrs
Wyllys had so far conquered her reluctance to pry clandestinely into
the secrets of others, as to yield to a curiosity which she found
unconquerable and to take the seat to which her companion invited her
by a gesture of his hand.
“I was sent early to sea, your Honour, by my father,” commenced Fid,
after these little preliminaries had been duly observed, “who was, like
myself, a man that passed more of his time on the water than on dry
ground; though, as he was nothing more than a fisherman, he generally
kept the land aboard which is, after all, little better than living on
it altogether Howsomever, when I went, I made a broad offing at once,
fetching up on the other side of the Horn, the very first passage I
made; which was no small journey for a new beginner; but then, as I was
only eight years old”——
“Eight! you are now speaking of yourself,” interrupted the disappointed
governess.
“Certain, Madam; and, though genteeler people might be talked of, it
would be hard to turn the conversation on any man who knows better how
to rig or how to strip a ship. I was beginning at the right end of my
story; but, as I fancied your Ladyship might not choose to waste time
in hearing concerning my father and mother, I cut the matter short, by
striking in at eight years old, overlooking all about my birth and
name, and such other matters as are usually logged, in a fashion out of
all reason, in your everyday sort of narratives.”
“Proceed,” she rejoined, with a species of compelled resignation.
“My mind is pretty much like a ship that is about to slip off its
ways,” resumed Fid. “If she makes a fair start, and there is neither
jam nor dry-rub, smack see goes into the water, like a sail let run in
a calm; but, if she once brings up, a good deal of labour is to be gone
through to set her in motion again. Now, in order to wedge up my ideas,
and to get the story slushed, so that I can slip through it with ease,
it is needful to overrun the part which I have just let go; which is,
how my father was a fisherman, and how I doubled the Horn—Ah! here I
have it again, clear of kinks, fake above fake, like a well-coiled
cable; so that I can pay it out as easily as the boatswain’s yeoman can
lay his hand on a bit of ratling stuff. Well, I doubled the Horn, as I
was saying, and might have been the matter of four years cruising about
among the islands and seas of those parts, which were none of the best
known then, or for that matter, now. After this, I served in his
Majesty’s fleet a whole war, and got as much honour as I could stow
beneath hatches. Well, then, I fell in with the Guinea—the black, my
Lady, that you see turning in a new clue-garnet-block for the starboard
clue of the fore-course.”
“Ay; then you fell in with the African,” said the Rover.
“Then we made our acquaintance; and, although his colour is no whiter
than the back of a whale, I care not who knows it, after master Harry,
there is no man living who has an honester way with him, or in whose
company I take greater satisfaction. To be sure, your Honour, the
fellow is something contradictory and has a great opinion of his
strength and thinks his equal is not to be found at a weather-earing or
in the bunt of a topsail; but then he is no better than a black, and
one is not to be too particular in looking into the faults of such as
are not actually his fellow creatures.”
“No, no; that would be uncharitable in the extreme.”
“The very words the chaplain used to let fly aboard the ‘Brunswick!’ It
is a great thing to have schooling, your Honour; since, if it does
nothing else, it fits a man for a boatswain, and puts him in the track
of steering the shortest course to heaven. But, as I was saying, there
was I and Guinea shipmates and in a reasonable way friends, for five
years more; and then the time arrived when we met with the mishap of
the wreck in the West-Indies.”
“What wreck?” demanded his officer.
“I beg your Honour’s pardon; I never swing my head-yards till I’m sure
the ship won’t luff back into the wind; and, before I tell the
particulars of the wreck, I will overrun my ideas, to see that nothing
is forgotten that should of right be first mentioned.”
The Rover, who saw, by the uneasy glances that she cast aside, and by
the expression of her countenance how impatient his companion was
becoming for a sequel that approached so tardily, and how much she
dreaded an interruption, made a significant sign to her to permit the
straight-going tar to take his own course, as the best means of coming
at the facts they both longed so much to hear. Left to himself, Fid
soon took the necessary review of the transactions, in his own quaint
manner; and, having happily found that nothing which he considered as
germain to the present relation was omitted, he proceeded at once to
the more material, and what was to his auditors by far the most
interesting, portion of his narrative.
“Well, as I was telling your Honour,” he continued, “Guinea was then a
maintopman, and I was stationed in the same place aboard the
‘Proserpine,’ a quick-going two-and-thirty, when we fell in with a bit
of a smuggler, between the islands and the Spanish Main; and so the
Captain made a prize of her, and ordered her into port; for which I
have always supposed, as he was a sensible man, he had his orders. But
this is neither here nor there, seeing that the craft had got to the
end of her rope, and foundered in a heavy hurricane that came over us,
mayhap a couple of days’ run to leeward of our haven. Well, she was a
small boat; and, as she took it into her mind to roll over on her side
before she went to sleep, the master’s mate in charge, and three
others, slid off her decks to the bottom of the sea, as I have always
had reason to believe, never having heard any thing to the contrary. It
was here that Guinea first served me the good turn; for, though we had
often before shared hunger and thirst together, this was the first time
he ever jumped overboard to keep me from taking in salt water like a
fish.”
“He kept you from drowning with the rest?”
“I’ll not say just that much, your Honour; for there is no knowing what
lucky accident might have done the same good turn for me. Howsomever,
seeing that I can swim no better nor worse than a double-headed shot, I
have always been willing to give the black credit for as much, though
little has ever been said between us on the subject; for no other
reason, as I can see, than that settling-day has not yet come. Well, we
contrived to get the boat afloat, and enough into it to keep soul and
body together, and made the best of our way for the land, seeing that
the cruise was, to all useful purposes, over in that smuggler. I
needn’t be particular in telling this lady of the nature of boat-duty,
as she has lately had some experience in that way herself; but I can
tell her this much: Had it not been for that boat in which the black
and myself spent the better part of ten days, she would have fared but
badly in her own navigation.”
“Explain your meaning.”
“My meaning is plain enough, your Honour, which is, that little else
than the handy way of master Harry in a boat could have kept the
Bristol trader’s launch above water, the day we fell in with it.”
“But in what manner was your own shipwreck connected with the safety of
Mr Wilder?” demanded the governess, unable any longer to await the
dilatory explanation of the prolix seaman.
“In a very plain and natural fashion, my Lady, as you will say
yourself, when you come to hear the pitiful part of my tale. Well,
there were I and Guinea, rowing about in the ocean, on short allowance
of all things but work, for two nights and a day, heading-in for the
islands; for, though no great navigators, we could smell the land, and
so we pulled away lustily, when you consider it was a race in which
life was the wager, until we made, in the pride of the morning, as it
might be here, at east-and-by-south a ship under bare poles; if a
vessel can be called bare that had nothing better than the stumps of
her three masts standing, and they without rope or rag to tell one her
rig or nation. Howsomever, as there were three naked sticks left, I
have always put her down for a full-rigged ship; and, when we got nigh
enough to take a look at her hull, I made bold to say she was of
English build.”
“You boarded her,” observed the Rover.
“A small task that, your Honour, since a starved dog was the whole crew
she could muster to keep us off. It was a solemn sight when we got on
her decks, and one that bears hard on my manhood,” continued Fid, with
an air that grew more serious as he proceeded, “whenever I have
occasion to overhaul the log-book of memory.”
“You found her people suffering of want!”
“We found a noble ship, as helpless as a halibut in a tub. There she
lay, a craft of some four hundred tons, water-logged, and motionless as
a church. It always gives me great reflection, sir, when I see a noble
vessel brought to such a strait; for one may liken her to a man who has
been docked of his fins, and who is getting to be good for little else
than to be set upon a cat-head to look out for squalls.”
“The ship was then deserted?”
“Ay, the people had left her, sir, or had been washed away in the gust
that had laid her over. I never could come at the truth of them
particulars. The dog had been mischievous, I conclude, about the decks;
and so he had been lashed to a timber head, the which saved his life,
since, happily for him he found himself on the weather-side when the
hull righted a little, after her spars gave way. Well, sir there was
the dog, and not much else, as we could see, though we spent half a day
in rummaging round, in order to pick up any small matter that might be
useful; but then, as the entrance to the hold and cabin was full of
water, why, we made no great affair of the salvage, after all.”
“And then you left the wreck?”
“Not yet, your Honour. While knocking about among the bits of rigging
and lumber above board, says Guinea, says he, ‘Mister Dick, I hear some
one making their plaints below.’ Now, I had heard the same noises
myself, sir; but had set them down as the spirits of the people moaning
over their losses, and had said nothing of the same, for fear of
stirring up the superstition of the black; for the best of them are no
better than superstitious niggers, my Lady; so I said nothing of what I
had heard, until he saw fit to broach the subject himself. Then we both
turned-to to listening with a will; and sure enough the groans began to
take a human sound. It was a good while, howsomever, before I could
make up whether it was any thing more than the complaining of the hulk
itself; for you know, my Lady, that a ship which is about to sink makes
her lamentations just like any other living thing.”
“I do, I do,” returned the governess, shuddering. “I have heard them,
and never will my memory lose the recollection of the sounds.”
“Ay, I thought you might know something of the same, and solemn groans
they are: But, as the hulk kept rolling on the top of the sea, and no
further signs of her going down, I began to think it best to cut into
her abaft, in order to make sure that some miserable wretch had not
been caught in his hammock at the time she went over. Well, good will,
and an axe, soon let us into the secret of the moans.”
“You found a child?”
“And its mother, my Lady. As good luck would have it, they were in a
birth on the weather-side and as yet the water had not reached them.
But pent air and hunger had nearly proved as bad as the brine. The lady
was in the agony when we got her out; and as to the boy, proud and
strong as you now see him there on yonder gun, my Lady, he was just so
miserable, that it was no small matter to make him swallow the drop of
wine and water that the Lord had left us, in order, as I have often
thought since, to bring him up to be, as he at this moment is, the
pride of the ocean!”
“But, the mother?”
“The mother had given the only morsel of biscuit she had to the child,
and was dying, in order that the urchin might live. I never could get
rightly into the meaning of the thing, my Lady, why a woman, who is no
better than a Lascar in matters of strength, nor any better than a
booby in respect of courage, should be able to let go her hold of life
in this quiet fashion, when many a stout mariner would be fighting for
each mouthful of air the Lord might see fit to give. But there she was,
white as the sail on which the storm has long beaten, and limber as a
pennant in a calm, with her poor skinny arm around the lad, holding in
her hand the very mouthful that might have kept her own soul in the
body a little longer.”
“What did she, when you brought her to the light?”
“What did she!” repeated Fid, whose voice was getting thick and husky,
“why, she did a d——d honest thing; she gave the boy the crumb, and
motioned as well as a dying woman could, that we should have an eye
over him, till the cruise of life was up.”
“And was that all?”
“I have always thought she prayed; for something passed between her and
one who was not to be seen, if a man might judge by the fashion in
which her eyes were turned aloft, and her lips moved. I hope, among
others, she put in a good word for one Richard Fid; for certain she had
as little need to be asking for herself as any body. But no man will
ever know what she said, seeing that her mouth was shut from that time
for ever after.”
“She died!”
“Sorry am I to say it. But the poor lady was past swallowing when she
came into our hands, and then it was but little we had to offer her. A
quart of water, with mayhap a gill of wine, a biscuit, and a handful of
rice, was no great allowance for two hearty men to pull a boat some
seventy leagues within the tropics. Howsomever, when we found no more
was to be got from the wreck, and that, since the air had escaped by
the hole we had cut, she was settling fast, we thought it best to get
out of her: and sure enough we were none too soon, seeing that she went
under just as we had twitched our jolly-boat clear of the suction.”
“And the boy—the poor deserted child!” exclaimed the governess, whose
eyes had now filled to over-flowing.
“There you are all aback, my Lady. Instead of deserting him, we brought
him away with us, as we did the only other living creature to be found
about the wreck. But we had still a long journey before us, and, to
make the matter worse, we were out of the track of the traders. So I
put it down as a case for a council of all hands, which was no more
than I and the black, since the lad was too weak to talk and little
could he have said otherwise in our situation. So I begun myself,
saying, says I, ‘Guinea, we must eat either this here dog, or this here
boy. If we eat the boy, we shall be no better than the people in your
own country, who, you know, my Lady, are cannibals; but if we eat the
dog, poor as he is we may make out to keep soul and body together, and
to give the child the other matters.’—So Guinea, he says, says he,
‘I’ve no occasion for food at all; give ’em to the boy,’ says he,
‘seeing that he is little, and has need of strength.’ Howsomever,
master Harry took no great fancy to the dog, which we soon finished
between us; for the plain reason that he was so thin. After that, we
had a hungry time of it ourselves; for, had we not kept up the life in
the lad, you know, it would have slipt through our fingers.”
“And you fed the child, though fasting yourselves?”
“No, we wer’n’t altogether idle, my Lady, seeing that we kept our teeth
jogging on the skin of the dog, though I will not say that the food was
over savoury. And then, as we had no occasion to lose time in eating,
we kept the oars going so much the livelier. Well, we got in at one of
the islands after a time, though neither I nor the nigger had much to
boast of as to strength or weight when we made the first kitchen we
fell in with.”
“And the child?”
“Oh! he was doing well enough; for, as the doctors afterwards told us,
the short allowance on which he was put did him no harm.”
“You sought his friends?”
“Why, as for that matter, my Lady, so far as I have been able to
discover, he was with his best friends already. We had neither chart
nor bearings by which we knew how to steer in search of his family. His
name he called master Harry, by which it is clear he was a gentleman
born, as indeed any one may see by looking at him; but not another word
could I learn of his relations or country, except that, as he spoke the
English language, and was found in an English ship, there is a natural
reason to believe he is of English build himself.”
“Did you not learn the name of the ship?” demanded the attentive Rover,
in whose countenance the traces of a lively interest were very
distinctly discernible.
“Why, as to that matter, your Honour, schools were scarce in my part of
the country; and in Africa, you know, there is no great matter of
learning; so that, had her name been out of water, which it was not, we
might have been bothered to read it. Howsomever, there was a
horse-bucket kicking about her decks, and which, as luck would have it,
got jammed-in with the pumps in such a fashion that it did not go
overboard until we took it with us. Well, this bucket had a name
painted on it; and, after we had leisure for the thing, I got Guinea,
who has a natural turn at tattooing, to rub it into my arm in
gunpowder, as the handiest way of logging these small particulars. Your
Honour shall see what the black has made of it.”
So saying, Fid very coolly doffed his jacket, and laid bare, to the
elbow, one of his brawny arms, on which the blue impression was still
very plainly visible Although the letters were rudely imitated, it was
not difficult to read, in the skin, the words “Ark, of Lynnhaven.”
“Here, then, you had a clue at once to find the relatives of the boy,”
observed the Rover, after he had deciphered the letters.
“It seems not, your Honour; for we took the child with us aboard the
‘Proserpine,’ and our worthy Captain carried sail hard after the
people; but no one could give any tidings of such a craft as the ‘Ark,
of Lynnhaven;’ and, after a twelvemonth, or more, we were obliged to
give up the chase.”
“Could the child give no account of his friends?” demanded the
governess.
“But little, my Lady; for the reason he knew but little about himself.
So we gave the matter over altogether; I, and Guinea, and the Captain,
and all of us, turning-to to educate the boy. He got his seamanship of
the black and myself, and mayhap some little of his manners also; and
his navigation and Latin of the Captain, who proved his friend till
such a time as he was able to take care of himself, and, for that
matter, some years afterwards.”
“And how long did Mr Wilder continue in a King’s ship?” asked the
Rover, in a careless and apparently indifferent manner.
“Long enough to learn all that is taught there, your Honour,” was the
evasive reply.
“He came to be an officer, I suppose?”
“If he didn’t, the King had the worst of the bargain.—But what is this
I see hereaway, atween the backstay and the vang? It looks like a sail;
or is it only a gull flapping his wings before he rises?”
“Sail, ho!” called the look-out from the mast head. “Sail, ho!” was
echoed from a top and from the deck; the glittering though distant
object having struck a dozen vigilant eyes at the same instant. The
Rover was compelled to lend his attention to a summons so often
repeated; and Fid profited by the circumstance to quit the poop, with
the hurry of one who was not sorry for the interruption. Then the
governess arose too, and, thoughtful and melancholy she sought the
privacy of her cabin.