Never did a vessel leave port under more propitious circumstances than
did the _Zodiac_, with a fair, steady breeze, a smooth sea, and at a
time of the year when there was every prospect of the continuance of
fine weather.
As Bowse walked the deck with a spy-glass under his arm in man-of-war
fashion, a smile of contentment lit up his honest countenance, and
glistened in his eye; and as he felt the freshening breeze fanning his
cheek, and lifting his vessel, as it were, he began to laugh at his
momentary suspicions about the character of the speronara and her crew.
Every now and then he would stop in his walk, and would look over the
side to judge how fast the vessel was going through the water, or he
would examine the compasses to assure himself that they were true, or he
would cast his eye aloft to see how his sails drew, or his clear, full
voice would be heard issuing some necessary order for the government of
the ship.
Even Colonel Gauntlett could not help expressing his satisfaction at the
propitious commencement of their voyage, as he stopped in his short and
otherwise silent walk on the poop to address a few words to the master.
Ada sat silently in her chair, gazing on the fast-receding shore; and it
is not surprising that her thoughts were fixed on him who was, she felt
sure, even then watching, from its most extreme point, the bark which
bore her away. Her little Maltese maid, Marianna, stood by her side
with tears in her bright eyes, and gazing her last for an indefinite
time on the land of her birth, and where all her affections were
centred, except those which had lately arisen for her young mistress.
The colonel's man, not knowing exactly where he ought to be, being too
dignified, at first, to mix with the men forward, and astonished and
confused at manoeuvres which he could not comprehend, as is generally
the case with his class, always managed to get exactly where he was most
in the way.
"Port a little, you may, my son," said the master to the man at the
helm; "steady, so, keep her. East-and-by-north is the course,"
pronouncing the north with a strong emphasis on the O, and without the
R--as if it were spelt Nothe. "Just get a gentle pull on our
weather-braces, Mr Timmins," to the mate. "The wind's drawing a little
more aft again. We're making her walk along, sir," to the colonel.
"She's not going less than six knots an hour, I'll warrant, which, with
this light wind, is not bad for a craft of her build--she's no clipper,
I own, sir. Heave the log here. I dare say you'll like to be certain,
miss," turning to Ada, as he thought the operation would amuse her.
The second mate and two hands came aft with the log-line and reel.
Bowse took a half-minute glass from the binnacle, and watching till all
the sand had run into one end, held it up before him. The seamen,
meantime, held the reel up before him, so as to allow it to turn easily
in his hands, and the mate, taking the little triangular bit of wood,
called the log-ship, adjusted the peg, and drew off, with a peculiar
jerk of his left hand, several coils of the stray-line, which he held
for a moment over the quarter of the vessel, till he saw that his chief
was ready with the glass, and he then hove it over into the water. The
first part of the line is called the stray-line, and its object is to
allow the log-ship to settle properly in the water, as well as to take
it clear of the eddy. As soon as this part had run out, a cloth mark
ran through the mate's fingers. "Turn," he exclaimed. "Turn," repeated
the master, and turned the glass. The marks rapidly passed through the
mate's hand, as he jerked the line of the reel, always keeping it at a
stretch.
"Stop," sung out Bowse, as the sand had run out of the upper end of the
glass.
"Done," said the mate, and stopped the line.
He had not to count the knots run off, for his experienced eye was able
to tell the number by the mark on the line. It must be understood that
this line is divided into a certain number of equal parts, each of which
bears the same proportion to a mile, which thirty seconds do to an hour,
and therefore, as the log-ship remains stationary in the water,
according to the number of these proportions dragged through, while the
sand is running, so is shown how many miles or knots the vessel is going
through the water.
"Six and a quarter," exclaimed the mate. "That's what I call good going
for a ship with a full cargo, in a breeze like this."
"That's what we call heaving the log, Miss Garden," said the master, who
had been explaining the use of the log, though in not quite so succinct
a way as I have attempted to do. "You'll be able to turn the glass
another time, I'm sure."
The glass runs, in reality, only for twenty-eight seconds, as two are
considered to be employed in turning it.
Ada, who enjoyed an advantage over the reader, by having the operation
performed before her eyes, answered that she clearly understood it, and
would always, in future, hold the glass.
"By this calculation, you see, miss, as it is just two hours since we
passed Fort Saint Elmo, we have run exactly twelve knots and a half off
the reel; though we didn't go through the water so fast at first, as we
are now doing. However, by the look of the land, I calculate we are not
much less than that off it. You see we call miles--knots, miss, on
account of the knots which are marked on the line. When we can just see
the last of some conspicuous point, we shall take its bearing by compass
and its distance, and then I shall commence pricking the ship's course
off on the chart, and that is what we call taking our departure. Now
you see there's many people on shore would fancy that when we left the
port we took our departure; but the ties which bind a seaman to the
shore, and to those we leave behind, are not so quickly parted as they
may think, you see, miss." And the honest master, chuckling at one of
the first attempts at wit and gallantry of which he had ever been
guilty, thought the next instant he blushed at his own audacity.
"It's surprising, miss, what funny mistakes them who never leave the
land make about seafaring concerns; but then, what can you expect of
them? they know no better," he added, in a tone showing the deep
commiseration he felt for the ignorance of landsmen. "To say that they
don't know the stem from the stern, isn't to say anything. They know
nothing about a ship, how she's built, how she sails, or what she's
like. The last voyage I made I had a passenger on board who was a
cleverish sort of gentleman, too, and for talking politics he'd go on
for an hour; yet he wanted to know why I couldn't bring the ship to an
anchor right out in the Bay of Biscay; and one night, when it was
blowing a stiffish gale, with a heavy sea running, he roused me out of
my sleep to ask me to send a better hand to the helm; one who knew how
to keep the craft steady, or else to run into some harbour till the
morning. He never could get it out of his head that he was not in the
Thames. Now, miss, I see that you are not one of those sort of people,
and that you will soon know all about a ship, though you may not just
yet be able to act the captain. To-morrow I'll show you how to shoot
the sun, as we tell greenhorns we are doing, when we take an observation
with the quadrant. It's a very pretty instrument, and you will be
pleased to know how to use it."
"I shall like very much to learn all you can teach me, Captain Bowse,"
answered Ada, making a great effort to rouse herself from the feeling of
sadness which oppressed her. "I wonder how mariners managed to
traverse, as they did, the most distant seas, before these instruments
were invented."
"They used to trust more to the sun and stars, and to their lead
reckoning, than they do now, I suppose, miss," answered the master.
"Even now, there's many a man in charge of a vessel who never takes more
than a meridional observation, if even that; and having found his
latitude, runs down the longitude by dead reckoning. Some even go about
to many distant parts entirely by rule of guess, and it is extraordinary
how often they hit their point. Now and then, to be sure, they find
themselves two or three hundred miles out of their course, and sometimes
they get the ship cast away. I have, too, met vessels out in the
Atlantic which had entirely lost their reckoning, and had not the
slightest notion where they were. Once, I remember, when I belonged to
the _Harkaway_ frigate, coming home from the Brazils, we sighted a
Spanish man-of-war corvette. When we got up to her we hove to, and an
officer came on board who could speak a little English; and you would
scarcely believe it, but the first thing he did was to ask us for the
latitude and longitude; and he confessed that the only instruments they
had on board were out of repair, and, for what I know, the only man who
knew how to use them was ill. Our captain then sent an officer on board
the corvette, and a pretty condition she was in for a man-of-war. They
had a governor of some place as a passenger, and his wife and family,
and two or three other ladies and their families; and there they were
all lying about the decks in a state of despair, thinking they were
never to see land again. They had been a whole month tossing about in
every direction, and not knowing how to find the way home. The decks
were as dirty as if they had not been holystoned or swept all that time;
not a sail was properly set, not a rope flemished down. If I hadn't
seen it with my own eyes, I could not have believed such a thing
possible. Our appearance raised their spirits a little, and they began
putting themselves to rights as soon as they had made sail on their
course. They kept company with us till we got into the latitude of
Cadiz, for their craft sailed very well, for all that they did not know
how to handle her, and I believe that they managed to get into port in
safety at last."
"I am surprised at what you tell me," observed Miss Garden, "I should
have thought the Spaniards could not have so totally forgotten their
ancient naval renown as to allow such dreadful ignorance to exist."
"The men are active, intelligent fellows enough, and the officers in the
merchant service are, from what I have seen, very good seamen; but since
the war, their navy has been much neglected, and men were made officers
who did not know the stem from the stern of the ship, just because they
happened to be some poor dependent of one of their nobles, or the son of
a valet out of place. Things are mending a little now with them, I
hear."
"I wonder any but such beggarly fellows as you speak of can be induced
to go into the navy at all," said the colonel, who had been listening to
the master's story, and was far from pleased at the interest Ada took in
what he said. "For my part, I would as soon be a shoe-black; but you
seem determined to give my niece a dose of the sea."
"Oh, yes, sir!" answered Bowse, perfectly indifferent to the colonel's
ill-temper; "I hope we shall make the young lady a first-rate sailor
before long."
"I hope you will do no such thing, Mr Bowse; she thinks a great deal
too much about it already," returned the colonel, taking another turn
aft.
"Indeed I do not, uncle," replied Ada, as he came back, in a
half-playful tone, calculated to disarm his anger. "You must
acknowledge that the scene before us is very beautiful and enjoyable.
Look at that blue and joyous sea, how the waves leap and curl as if in
sport, their crests just fringed with sparkling bubbles of snow-white
foam, which, in the freshness of their new-born existence, seem inclined
to take wing into the air--then, what can be more bright and clear than
the expanse of sky above us, or more pure than the breeze which wafts us
along. Look, too, at the blue, misty hills of our dear Malta, just
rising from the water. What mere mole-hills those wild rocks now seem.
And then that glorious mass of glowing fire which spreads far and wide
round the sun as he sinks into that clear outline of sea; and distant
though it seems, sends its reflection across the waves even up to the
very ship itself. Ah! if one could but secure that orange tinge, one
might gaze at it unwearied all day long. See, also, the dark,
fantastically-shaped spots on the ocean as the sails of the distant
vessels appear between us and the sun, like evil spirits gliding about
the ocean to cause shipwrecks and disaster; while again, on the opposite
quarter, the canvas appears of snowy whiteness, just catching the last
rays of the light-giving orb of day, and we would fain believe them
benign beings hovering over the ocean, to protect us poor mortals from
the malign influences of their antagonists; while our proud ship glides
majestically along in solitary grandeur, casting indignantly aside the
waves which it seems to rule, like some mighty monarch galloping over
the broad domains which own him as their lord. Come, uncle, can you
deny the correctness of my description? And I am sure Captain Bowse
will agree with me."
She laughed playfully at her attempts at a description of the scene
surrounding them, and which she had purposely made as long as she could
find words to go on with, well-knowing the effect which her own sweet
voice exercised in calming the habitual irritation of her uncle.
"A pretty bit of jargon you have managed to string together," said the
colonel, looking more amiable than he had before done, "and that is what
I suppose you call a poetical description, missie. Well, as it does not
convey a bad idea of what we have before our eyes, it must pass for
something of the sort, I suppose. What do you say, Mister Bowse?"
Now, although Bowse had not entirely comprehended all that Ada had said,
he felt that he was called on to give an answer, and accordingly looked
round the horizon, as if to satisfy himself that her description was
correct. He had taken a survey of the whole expanse of the sea to the
westward, and his eye had gradually swept round to the east, when,
instead of turning round to answer, he kept it fixed on a distant spot
just seen over the weather or larboard bow. Shifting his position a
little, he placed his telescope to his eye, and took a steady gaze.
"That's her, I can't help thinking," he muttered. "But what she wants
out there, I can't say."
To the surprise of Ada, he walked forward, and called his mate to his
side.
"Here, Mr Timmins, just tell me what you think of that chap out there,
over the weather cat-head," he said, giving his officer the glass.
The mate took the instrument, and looked as he was directed.
"She's a lateen-rigged craft standing on a wind athwart our course,
sir," answered the mate instantly, as if there was no difficulty in
ascertaining thus much.
"That one may see with half an eye, Mr Timmins; but do you see nothing
unusual about her?"
"I can't say that I see any difference between her and the craft, which
one is always meeting with in these seas," answered the mate. "Her
canvas stands well, and looks very white as we see her beam almost on to
us. She seems one of those vessels with a name I never could manage to
speak, which trade along the coast of Sicily and Italy, and come over to
Malta."
"By the way she is standing, she will pass at no great distance to
leeward of us, and if she was to haul up a little, she would just about
reach us," observed the master in a tone of interrogation.
"Just about it, sir," replied the mate.
"Well, then, Mr Timmins, keep your eye on her, and when we get near
her, if there is still light enough left to make her out, tell me if you
have ever seen her before."
The mate, somewhat surprised at the directions his chief had given him,
prepared, however, to obey them, and while he superintended the people
on deck, he constantly kept his telescope fixed on the stranger. A
quarter of an hour or twenty minutes might have passed, when, after
taking a longer scrutiny than before, he suddenly turned round, and
walked to where his commander was standing.
"I know her, sir," he exclaimed. "She is no other than the craft which
nearly ran foul of us yesterday, and which went out of harbour this
morning. She had two outlandish-looking chaps as passengers; and one of
them came on board in the evening to talk about taking a passage to
Greece. I remember him well, sir, though I did not say anything to
you."
"You are right, Mr Timmins, it's her, there's no doubt," said Bowse.
"We'll give her a wide berth, for there seems to be something suspicious
about her," and he mentioned what Captain Fleetwood had said to him. "I
don't think the chap would dare to attack us; but, with females on
board, it's as well to be cautious. We'll haul up a little by degrees,
not to make it remarkable, so as to pass to windward of him, and have
the guns loaded and run out, just as a matter of course, in the
Mediterranean, tell the people. I don't want to have any talking about
it, you know; for it will all be moonshine, I suspect. Look you, too,
have the small arms and cutlasses up on deck, just to overhaul them, as
it were. The studden-sails must come in, at all events; it won't do to
be carrying on at night as if we had fifty hands in a watch instead of
five. Now let the people knock off work."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate, and, without the slightest appearance
of hurry, he set to work to obey his commander's orders.
The crew, who had been employed beyond the usual hour in getting the
ship to right, finished stowing away everything that was loose, and got
the hatches on over the cargo. One after another the studden-sails,
which had been extended beyond the yard-arms came flying down like huge
white birds from their lofty perches, the moment the halyards and sheets
were let go, and, as they bulged out, they looked as if they were about
to sail off before the wind ahead of the vessel. As all hands were
wanted for the work, Bowse clapped on himself, petting a rope into even
Mitchell's hands, and in a short time the _Zodiac_, stripped of her
wings, was brought under more easy-working canvas. The lee-braces were
then flattened in a little, and the helm being put a few strokes to
starboard, she headed up towards the north. While the mate was
following the other directions he had given, Bowse again brought his
glass to bear on the speronara, and, while so doing, his eye was
attracted to a sail which appeared in the horizon, and which he at once
knew to be a square-rigged vessel. From its height, too, above the
water, and its faint outline, he judged her to be a ship or a brig of
some size. He had, indeed, remarked her some time before, and it now
occurred to him that she had not altered her position since first seen.
It would therefore appear that she was standing the same course as the
_Zodiac_; but as they neared her rapidly, such could scarcely be the
case, and he, now seeing that her head was turned towards them, could
only come to the conclusion that she was hove to. He calculated, also,
that the speronara, supposing that she had, for some time, steered the
same course she was now on, must have passed close to her.
The idea came into the master's head more as a matter of speculation
than because any further suspicions occurred to him, for the probability
of those he still entertained being correct, he thought so very slight,
that he was almost vexed with himself for acting on them; and had it not
been for his promise to Captain Fleetwood, he most likely would have
done so. That the speronara, now to leeward of him, was the self-same
craft he had seen in Malta harbour, he could, however, no longer
entertain a doubt. He had noted her long, low hull, with overhanging
stern and high bow, the great length of her tapering yards, and the way
her immense lateen sails stood; there was also a peculiar dark mark on
the cloth next to the outer leech of her foresail, near the head of the
yard, which was unmistakable, and when he could clearly see that her
identity would be proved. As he now brought his glass again to bear on
the speronara, he saw that as the _Zodiac_ was brought on a wind, she
was immediately hauled close on it, so that, notwithstanding the change
he had made in his course, she might still pass, if she liked, even to
windward of him, unless she also chose to hug the wind as he had done.
On seeing this, the spirit of the British sailor was roused within him.
"Oh, hang it," he muttered. "I'm not going to be altering my course for
fear of a rascally Italian piccaroon, if such that fellow should be. If
he chooses to come near us, he must take the consequences. We'll show
him that we've got some bulldogs on board who can bark pretty well if
they like. But I forgot the young lady, and the little Smaitch girl
with her. It won't do to let them run any risk of being hurt, should
the villains begin by firing into us before they speak, as is the
fashion of the cowards. I must manage to get them down below without
frightening them."
Having arrived at the conclusion of these cogitations, Bowse approached
to where the colonel and his niece were sitting; the young lady employed
in gazing on the sea, while he was looking with somewhat an inquiring
eye at the preparations carrying on under the mate's superintendence on
deck.
"Don't you think the young lady had better go below, out of the way of
the damp, sir," began Bowse, puzzled what excuse to make.
"Damp! surely there's none to hurt me," said Ada, looking up somewhat
surprised. "It is so refreshing."
"No, miss, the cold--the night air may do you harm," rejoined Bowse.
"I have no fear of either," answered Ada. "It's quite warm, and I do
not even require a cloak."
The master was sadly perplexed, and the colonel would not come to his
aid; at last he bethought him of a better reason, which must succeed.
"Yes, miss; but you see it's coming on night, and it's a rule that all
ladies should go below at night," he said, in a grave tone.
This made Ada fairly laugh outright.
"Oh! but I intend to break through the rule, I can assure you. The
evening, when the moon is playing on the water, is the most delightful
time of the twenty-four hours; and you will not persuade me to forego
its pleasures."
The colonel at length came to his rescue.
"What is it makes you so anxious for my niece to go below, Mr Bowse?"
he asked. "If you have any particular reason, pray mention it, and I am
sure she will be most ready to obey your wishes."
"Why, sir," said Bowse, drawing the colonel, who had risen, a little
forward, and whispering so as not, he thought, to be heard by Ada; "you
see, sir, I don't quite like the look of that craft we are nearing--some
murderous work has been done lately in these seas; and I was told, just
before we sailed, to be cautious of her--that's all."
"It was for that reason you were loading your guns, and getting up your
arms?" exclaimed the colonel, in a less cautious voice than that in
which the kind master had spoken. "Very right and proper. I'm glad to
see precautions taken. We'll fight the rascals with pleasure."
Ada overheard the words, and coming up, placed her arm on her uncle's.
"What is the matter?--Is there any danger?" she exclaimed, in a pleading
tone. "If there is--oh! let me share it with you. Do not send me down
into the cabin." She trembled, but it was more with excitement than
fear.
"Oh! nonsense, girl--suppose there was any danger, what object could
there be in your staying on deck?" answered the colonel. "You couldn't
save me from being hurt, missie, and I don't think you would manage to
hurt any of the enemy, if there should prove to be one in the case,
after all, which is in no way certain yet."
While the colonel was speaking, Bowse again looked at the speronara. He
now, to a certainty, ascertained that she had the dark mark in her
foresail, and that she was full of men. This at once decided him in
urging Miss Garden to go below, and on her still resisting, the colonel
gave indubitable signs of anger.
"Come, come, missie, no more nonsense. Go below you must, without
further delay, and take your little nigger with you."
Ada pleaded for a few minutes more to see what was likely to happen, but
in vain, and was reluctantly compelled, in company with her maid, to go
into her cabin, there to await the result of the meeting between the two
vessels. Ada did as every right-minded girl, under the circumstances,
would do--she knelt in prayer--not through abject fear for her own
safety, did she pray, for of herself she thought not; but she prayed
that her uncle, and the brave men with him on deck, might be shielded
from danger--a danger which it was very natural that from what she had
heard she should considerably exaggerate.