CHAPTER I.

MY DANISH SWEETHEART

A Novel

BY W. CLARK RUSSELL

AUTHOR OF 'THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR,' 'THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL

LORD COLLINGWOOD,' 'A MARRIAGE AT SEA,' ETC., ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. III.

Methuen & Co.

18, BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C.

1891

[_All rights reserved_]

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. WE SPEAK A SHIP 1

II. I MAKE FREE 34

III. JOPPA IS IN EARNEST 58

IV. A NIGHT OF HORROR 87

V. A CONFERENCE 116

VI. HELGA'S PLOT 146

VII. FIRE! 177

VIII. HOME 221

MY DANISH SWEETHEART.

CHAPTER I.

WE SPEAK A SHIP.

On the afternoon of this same day of Tuesday, October 31, Helga having

gone to her cabin, I stepped on deck to smoke a pipe--for my pipe was in

my pocket when I ran to the lifeboat, and Captain Bunting had given me a

square of tobacco to cut up.

We had dined at one. During the course of the meal Helga and I had said

but very little, willing that the Captain should have the labour of

talking. Nor did he spare us. His tongue, as sailors say, seemed to have

been slung in the middle, and it wagged at both ends. His chatter was an

infinite variety of nothing; but he spoke with singular enjoyment of

the sound of his own voice, with ceaseless reference, besides, in his

manner, to Helga, whom he continued silently and self-complacently to

regard in a way that rendered her constantly uneasy, and kept her

downward-looking and silent.

But nothing more at that table was said about our leaving his ship.

Indeed, both Helga and I had agreed to drop the subject until an

opportunity for our transference should arrive. We might, at all events,

be very certain that he would not set us ashore in the Canary Islands;

nor did I consider it politic to press him to land us there, for,

waiving all consideration of other reasons which might induce him to

detain us, it would have been unreasonable to entreat him to go out of

his course to oblige us, who were without the means to repay him for his

trouble and for loss of time.

He withdrew to his cabin after dinner. Helga and I sat over his

draughtboard for half an hour; she then went below, and I, as I have

already said, on deck, to smoke a pipe.

The wind had freshened since noon, and was now blowing a brisk and

sparkling breeze out of something to the northward of east; sail had

been heaped upon the barque, and when I gained the deck I found her

swarming through it under overhanging wings of studdingsail, a broad

wake of frost-like foam stretching behind, and many flying fish sparking

out of the blue curl from the vessel's cutwater ere the polished round

of brine flashed into foam abreast of the fore-rigging. Mr. Jones

stumped the deck, having relieved Abraham at noon. The fierce-faced,

lemon-coloured creature with withered brow and fiery glances grasped the

wheel. As I crouched under the lee of the companion-hatch to light my

pipe, I curiously and intently inspected him; strangely enough, finding

no hindrance of embarrassment from his staring at me too; which, I take

it, was owing to his exceeding ugliness, so that I looked at him as at

something out of nature, whose sensibilities were not of a human sort to

grieve me with a fancy of vexing them.

'Well, Mr. Jones,' said I, crossing the deck and accosting the shabby

figure of the mate as he slouched from one end to another in shambling

slippers and in a cap with a broken peak, under which his thimble-shaped

nose glowed in the middle of his pale face like--to match the poor

creature with an elegant simile--the heart of a daisy, 'this is a very

good wind for you, but bad for me, seeing how the ship heads. I want to

get home, Mr. Jones. I have now been absent for nearly eleven days,

though my start was but for an hour or two's cruise.'

'There's no man at sea,' said he, 'but wants to get home, unless he's

got no home to go to. That's my case.'

'Where do you hail from?'

'Whitechapel,' he answered, 'when I'm ashore. I live in a big house;

they call it the Sailors' Home. There are no wives to be found there, so

that the good of it is to make a man glad to ship.'

'The sea is a hard life,' said I, 'and a very great deal harder than it

need be--so Nakier and his men think, I warrant you. There's too much

pork goes to the making of the Captain's religious ideas.'

'The pork in this ship,' said he, 'is better than the beef; and what is

good enough for English sailors is good enough for Malays.'

'Ay! but the poor fellows' religion is opposed to pork.'

'Don't you let them make you believe it, sir,' he exclaimed. 'Religion!

You should hear them swear in English! They want a grievance. That's the

nature of everything afore the mast, no matter what be the colour of the

hide it's wrapped up in.'

'What sort of sailors are they?'

'Oh, they tumble about; they're monkeys aloft; they're willing enough;

I'm bound to say that.'

I could instinctively guess that whatever opinions I might offer on the

Captain's treatment of his crew would find no echo in him. Poverty must

make such a man the creature of any shipmaster he sailed with.

'Have you received orders from Captain Bunting,' I asked, 'to signal and

bring-to any homeward ship that may come along?'

'No, sir.'

'We wish to be transhipped, you know, Mr. Jones. We should be sorry to

lose the opportunity of a homeward-bounder through the Captain omitting

to give you orders, and through his being below and asleep, perhaps, at

the time.'

'I can do nothing without his instructions, sir,' he exclaimed, with a

singular look that rose to the significance of a half-smile.

'All right!' I said, perceiving that his little blue eyes had witnessed

more than I should have deemed them capable of observing in the slender

opportunities he had had for employing them.

The wind blew the fire out of my pipe, and to save the tobacco I went

down to the quarter-deck for the shelter of the bulwarks there. While I

puffed I spied Jacob low down in the lee fore-rigging repairing or

replacing some chafing-gear upon the swifter-shroud. I had not exchanged

a word with this honest boatman since the previous day, and strolled

forward to under the lee of the galley to greet him. I asked him if he

was comfortable in his new berth. He answered 'Yes;' he was very well

satisfied; the Captain had given orders that he was to have a glass of

grog every day at noon; the provisions were also very good, and there

was no stint.

''Soides,' he called down to me, with his fat, ruddy face framed in the

squares of the ratlines, 'three pound a month's good money. There'll be

something to take up when I gets home, something that'll loighten the

loss o' my eight pound o' goods and clothes, and make the foundering of

the _Airly Marn_ easier to think of.'

'You and Abraham, then, have regularly entered yourselves for the round

voyage?'

'Ay; the Capt'n put us on the articles this afternoon. He called us to

his cabin and talked like a gemman to us. Tain't often as one meets the

likes of him at sea. No language--a koind smoile--a thank'ee for

whatever a man does, if so be as it's rightly done--a feeling consarn

for your morals and your comforts: tell'ee, Mr. Tregarthen, the loikes

of Capt'n Buntin' ain't agoin' to be fallen in with every

day--leastways, in vessels arter this here pattern, where mostly a man's

a dog in the cap'n's opinion, and where the mate's got no other argument

than the fust iron belaying-pin he can out with.'

'I am very glad to learn that you are so well satisfied,' said I. 'A

pity poor Thomas isn't with you.'

'Pore Tommy! There's nothen in my toime as has made me feel so ordinary

as Thomas's drownding. But as to him making hisself happy here----'

'I beg your pardon, sah,' said a voice close beside me.

I turned, losing the remainder of Jacob's observations, and perceived

the face of Nakier in the galley door, that was within an arm's length

of me from where I leaned. His posture was one of hiding, as though to

conceal himself from sight of the poop. As I looked, a copper-coloured

face, with black, angry eyes flashing under a low forehead as wrinkled

as the rind of an old apple, with the temper that worked in the

creature, showed behind Nakier's head, and vanished in a breath. I now

recollected that when I had first taken up my station under the lee of

the galley I had caught the hiss of a swift fiery whispering within the

little structure, but it had instantly ceased on my calling to Jacob,

and the matter went out of my head as I listened to the boatman in the

rigging.

'I beg your pardon, sah! May I speak a word wit you?'

'What is it, Nakier?' I exclaimed, finding a sort of pleasure in the

mere contemplation of his handsome face and noble liquid Eastern eyes,

dark and luminous like the gleam you will sometimes observe in a

midnight sea.

'Are you a sailor, sah?'

'I am not,' I responded.

'Can you tellee me de law of ships?'

Here the copper-coloured face came out again, and now hung steadily with

its frown over Nakier's shoulder; but both fellows kept all but their

heads hidden.

'I know what you mean,' I answered. 'I fear I cannot counsel you.'

'Our Captain would have us starve,' said he; 'he give us meat we must

not eat, and on dose days we have only bread and water. Dat is not

right?'

'No, indeed,' said I; 'and how little we think it right you may know by

what the lady said to-day.'

'Ah! she is good; she is good!' he exclaimed, always speaking very

softly, and clasping his long thin fingers with filbert-shaped nails

while he upturned his wonderful eyes. 'We are not of de Captain's

religion--he sabbe dat when we ship. Is dere law among Englishman to

ponish he for trying to make us eat what is forbidden?'

'I wish I knew--I wish I could advise you,' said I, somewhat secretly

relieved by hearing this man talk of law; for when I had watched him

that morning on the poop I could have sworn that his and his mates'

whole theory of justice lay in the blades which rested upon sheaths

strapped to their hips. 'One thing you may be sure of, Nakier: Captain

Bunting has no right to force food upon you that is forbidden to you by

your religion. There must be lawyers in Cape Town who will tell you how

to deal with this matter if it is to be dealt with. Meanwhile, try to

think of your Captain in this business as----' I significantly tapped my

forehead. 'That will help you to patience, and the passage to the Cape

is not a long one.'

The copper-coloured face behind Nakier violently wagged, the frown

deepened, and the little dangerous eyes grew, if possible, more menacing

in their expression.

'He is a cruel man,' said Nakier, with a sigh as plaintive as one could

imagine in any love-sick Eastern maid: 'but we will be patient; and,

sah, I tank you for listening.'

The copper-coloured face disappeared.

'You are no sailor, sah!' continued Nakier, smiling and showing as

pearl-white a set of teeth as were ever disclosed by the fairest woman's

parted lips; 'and yet you have been shipwreck?'

I briefly related my lifeboat adventure, and in a few words completed

the narrative of the raft and of our deliverance by the lugger. Indeed,

it pleased me to talk with him: his accent, his looks, were a sort of

realization, in their way, of early boyish dreams of travel; they

carried me in fancy to the provinces of the sun; I tasted the ripe

aromatic odours of tropic vegetation, there seemed a scent as of the

hubble-bubble in the blue and sparkling breeze gushing fair over the

rail. He begot in me a score of old yearning imaginations--of the

elephant richly castellated, of the gloom of palatial structures

dedicated to idols, their domes starry with encrustation of gems and the

precious ores.

The brief spell was broken by Jacob's gruff, 'longshore voice:

'It don't look, Mr. Tregarthen, as if you and the lady was to git home

as fast as ye want to.'

'No,' I replied. 'Do you see anything in sight up there, Jacob?'

He spat, and looked leisurely ahead.

'Nothen, sir.'

'I beg pardon, sah!' broke in Nakier's voice. 'Do you sabbe navigation?'

'I do not,' I answered, struck with a question that recalled

Punmeamootty's inquiries that morning.

'But Mr. Vise,' he continued, 'he sabbe navigation?'

I shook my head with a slight smile.

'He has some trifling knowledge,' said I. 'Fortunately, there is no

occasion to trust to his skill.'

'De sweet young lady sabbe navigation, sah?'

'I will not answer for it!' I exclaimed, looking at him. A sudden fancy

in me may have been disclosed by my eyes. His gaze fell, and he drew in

his head. Just then I caught sight of Helga at the break of the poop to

leeward, looking along the decks. She saw me, and beckoned. As I knocked

the ashes out of my pipe, Jacob cried out:

'Blowed if I don't believe that's a steamer's smoke ahead.'

'Ha!' thought I, 'Helga has seen it;' and I at once made for the

poop-ladder.

It was as I supposed. She had seen the smoke when she came on deck, and

instantly looked about for me. It was the merest film, the faintest

streak, dim as a filament of spider's web; but it was directly ahead,

and it was easy to guess that unless the steamer was heading east or

west she must be coming our way, for assuredly, though the _Light of the

World_ was sweeping through it at some six or seven knots, we were not

going to overhaul a steamer at that pace.

A telescope lay in brackets inside the companionway; I fetched and

levelled it, but there was nothing more to be seen than the soaring of

the thin blue vein of smoke from behind the edge of the sea, where the

dark, rich central blue of it went lightening out into a tint of opal.

It did not take long, however, to discover, by the hanging of the smoke

in the same place, that the steamer was heading directly for us. I put

down the glass, and said to Mr. Jones:

'Will you be so good as to call the Captain and tell him that there is a

steamer in sight, coming this way?'

'I have no orders to call the Captain merely to report a ship in sight,

sir,' he answered.

'That may be,' said I; 'but here is a chance for us to leave this

vessel, and the Captain might not thank you to keep him ignorant of the

opportunity.'

'I can't help it, sir. My duty here is to obey orders and to do what's

expected of me, and no more;' and so saying, he marched shambling aft;

yet I will not say that his manner of leaving me was abrupt or

offensive.

'There is no time to be lost, Helga,' said I. 'If that steamer is doing

ten and we are doing six the joint speed is sixteen knots, and she will

be abreast of us and away again quickly. I will report to the Captain

myself,' with which I went on to the quarter-deck and passed into the

cabin and knocked on the door of Captain Bunting's berth.

He immediately cried:

'Who's there?'

'Mr. Tregarthen,' I answered.

'Are you alone?' he called.

I told him I was.

'Then pray walk in,' said he.

I opened the door and found him lying in his bunk in his shirt-sleeves.

Full as I was of the business of the steamer heaving into view, I could

yet manage to notice, now that he was under no particular obligation to

smile, that his habitual grin when his face was off duty, so to speak,

was of the kind that is called sardonic. It was the set of his mouth

with the thick curve of its upper lip that made the smile; but his eyes

bore not the least part in this expression of mirth. It was a mere

stroke of nature in him, however, and, though the congenital grin did

not increase his beauty, it left untouched in his countenance the old

character of blandness, self-complacency and an air of kindness too.

'What can I do for you, Mr. Tregarthen?' said he, promptly sitting up in

his bunk, with a glance around for his coat.

'I must ask your pardon for intruding upon you,' said I; 'there is a

steamer's smoke in sight over the bows. Mr. Jones declined to report to

you. I venture to do so, and I have also to ask you, Captain Bunting, to

signal her to stop that she may receive Miss Nielsen and me.'

'I shall be very willing to transfer you, Mr. Tregarthen,' said he,

without more or less significance in his manner than was usual in it;

'but you must not, you really must not, ask me to part in this sort of

hurry with your sweet engaging companion.'

'I certainly shall not leave you without her,' said I, breathing

quickly.

'Just so,' he exclaimed, 'nor is it my wish that you should. I want you

to convert your experience of shipwreck into a little holiday cruise. I

hope you are comfortable with me?'

'Perfectly comfortable; but all the same, Miss Nielsen and I desire to

return to England, and I must entreat--indeed, Captain Bunting, I must

_insist_ upon your signalling the steamer that is rapidly approaching

us.'

He opened his eyes at the word _insist_, which I deplored having made

use of the moment it had escaped me; but he continued very bland, and

his smile, being now vitalized, as when he was at the table or on deck

with us, had lost what I had found sardonic in it.

'A captain's powers, Mr. Tregarthen, are considerable,' he exclaimed.

'He is first on board his own ship; his will is the law that governs

the vessel; no man aboard but he can _insist_ for an instant. But my

desire is for cordial feelings between us. Let us be friends and talk as

friends. Pray bear with me. You are in possession of my hopes. Do not

add fears to them by your behaviour.'

He dropped his head on one side, and surveyed me with an eye that seemed

almost wistful. I believed that he meant to keep me talking till the

steamer had passed.

'Captain Bunting,' said I, 'I am as fully disposed as you are to be

friendly; but I must tell you that, if you decline to transfer us--if,

in other words, you force us to proceed on this voyage--you will be

acting at your peril. I shall exact reparation, and whatever the law can

do for me shall be done. Practically you will be abducting Miss Nielsen,

and _that_, you must know, is a highly punishable offence.'

He motioned with both his hands.

'It is no abduction,' said he. 'When you rescue a young lady with your

lifeboat from a foundering craft you do not abduct her. I can understand

your impatience, and forgive your irritability. Yet I had thought to

have some claim upon you for a more generous, for a handsomer

interpretation of my wishes. What is the reason of this extreme hurry in

you to return home?'

'You surely do not require me to repeat my answer to that question!' I

exclaimed, curbing my temper with an effort.

'To be sure. You are concerned for your poor dear mother. Come, Mr.

Tregarthen, suppose we send news of your safety by this steamer you have

reported!' His face beamed. 'Let me see--your home is--your home is----'

he scratched his head. I viewed him without speaking. 'Ah, I have

it--Tintrenale!' He spelt it twice or thrice. 'Hugh Tregarthen,

Tintrenale. Come, the steamer shall report your safety, and then your

mind will be at ease.'

'I am to understand that you refuse to transfer us?'

'Nay, never interpret the mind of another harshly. You know my wishes:

every hour renders them dearer and dearer to me.'

Under all this blandness I could now perceive a spirit of resolution

that was clearly no more to be influenced by me than his ship's side was

to be kicked out by a blow of my foot. I turned to leave the cabin.

'If you are going on deck, will you have the kindness to send Mr. Jones

to me?' said he.

I pulled the door to, and regained the poop.

'The Captain wants you,' I called to Mr. Jones, who immediately left the

deck.

Helga came to me.

'He refuses to tranship us,' said I.

'He dare not!' she cried, turning pale.

'The man, all smiles and blandness, says no, with as steady a thrust of

his meaning as though it were a boarding-pike. We have to determine

either to jump overboard or to remain with him.'

She clasped her hands. Her courage seemed to fail her; her eyes shone

brilliant with the alarm that filled her.

'Can nothing be done? Is it possible that we are so entirely in his

power? Could we not call upon the crew to help us?' A sob arrested her

broken exclamations.

I stood looking at the approaching steamer, wrestling with my mind for

some idea to make known our situation to her as she passed, but to no

purpose. Why, though she should thrash through it within earshot of us,

what meaning could I hope to convey in the brief cry I might have time

to deliver? I cannot express the rage, the bitterness, the

mortification, the sense, too, of the startling absurdity of our

position, which fumed in my brain as I stood silently gazing at the

steamer, with Helga at my side, white, straining her eyes at me, swiftly

breathing.

In the short time during which I had been below, the approaching vessel

had shaped herself upon the sea, and was growing large with a rapidity

that expressed her an ocean mail-boat. Already with the naked sight I

could catch the glint of the sun upon the gilt device at her stemhead,

and sharp flashes of the reflection of light in some many-windowed deck

structure broke from her, end-on as she was, to her slow stately

swaying, as though she were firing guns.

The Captain remained below. A few minutes after Mr. Jones had gone to

him, he--that is, the mate--came on to the poop bearing a great black

board, which he rested upon the deck.

'Captain Bunting's compliments, Mr. Tregarthen,' said he, 'and he'll be

glad to know if this message is satisfactory to you?'

Upon the board were written, in chalk, in very visible, decipherable

characters, like the letters of print, the following words:

HUGH TREGARTHEN, OF TINTRENALE,

BLOWN OUT OF BAY NIGHT OCTOBER 21ST,

IS SAFE

ON BOARD THIS SHIP, 'LIGHT OF THE WORLD,'

BUNTING, MASTER, TO CAPE TOWN.

PLEASE REPORT.

'That will do,' said I coldly, and resumed my place at the rail.

Helga said, in a low voice:

'What is the object of that board?'

'They will read the writing aboard the steamer,' I answered, 'make a

note of it, report it, and my mother will get to hear of it and know

that I am alive.'

'But how will she get to hear of it?'

'Oh, the message is certain to find its way into the shipping papers,

and there will be twenty people at Tintrenale to hear of it and repeat

it to her.'

'It is a good idea, Hugh,' said she. 'It is a message to rest her heart.

It may reach her, too, as quickly as you yourself could if we went on

board that steamer. It was clever of you to think of it.'

'It was the Captain's suggestion!' I exclaimed.

'It is a good idea!' she repeated, with something of life coming into

her blanched, dismayed face; 'you will feel a little happier. I shall

feel happier too. I have grieved to think your mother may suppose you

drowned. Now, in a few days she will know that you are well.'

'Yes, it is a good idea,' said I, with my eyes gloomily fastened upon

the steamer; 'but is it not monstrous that we should be imprisoned in

this fashion? That fellow below has no right to detain us. If it should

cost me five years of my income, I'll punish him. It is his admiration

for you that makes him reckless--but what does the rascal hope? He

talked of his willingness to transfer me, providing _you_ remained.'

'Oh, but you would not leave me with him, Hugh!' she cried, grasping my

arm.

'Leave you, Helga! No, indeed. But I made one great blunder in my chat

with him this morning. He asked me if there was anything between

us--meaning were we sweethearts--and I said no. I should have answered

yes; I should have told him we were betrothed; then perhaps he would

have been willing to let us leave him.'

She returned no answer. I looked at her, and saw an expression in her

face that told me I had said too much. The corners of her little mouth

twitched, she slightly glanced at me, and tried to smile on observing

that I was regarding her, then made a step from my side as though to get

a better view of the steamer.

'She's a fine big ship,' exclaimed Mr. Jones, who had quietly drawn

close to me; 'a Cape boat. In six days' time she'll be snug in dock.

When I was first going to sea I laughed at steam. Now I should be glad

if there was nothing else afloat.'

My impulse was to draw away, but my temper had somewhat cooled, and was

now allowing me to exercise my common-sense again. If I was to be kept

aboard this ship, it could serve no sort of end to make an enemy of Mr.

Jones.

'Yes,' said I, 'she is coming along in fine style--a mail-steamer

apparently. Why will not the Captain signal her? Surely she would

receive us!'

'Not a doubt of it,' he answered, almost maliciously; 'but the Captain

knows his own business, sir.'

'Where's your flag-locker?' cried I. 'Show it me, and I'll accept the

responsibility of hoisting the ensign half-mast high!'

'Not without the Captain's orders, Mr. Tregarthen,' said he.

'The Captain!' I exclaimed. 'He has nothing to do with me. He's your

master, not mine!'

'He's master of this ship, sir; and the master of a ship is the master

of everything aboard of her!'

Helga softly called to me. I went to her.

'Do not reason with him!' she whispered. 'Let the people in that steamer

read the message, and we can afford to be patient--for a little,' she

added.

'For a little!' I rejoined. 'But how long will that little make? Is it

to stretch from here to Table Bay?'

But by this time the steamer was on the lee bow, and when abreast would

be within a few cables' length of us. I thought to myself, 'Shall I

spring upon the rail and hail her in God's name, wave my hands to her to

stop, and take my chance of her people hearing the few words I should

have time to bawl?' Then, with the velocity of thought, I reflected that

the mate would be certain to hinder any such attempt on my part, to the

length, I dare say, of laying hands upon me and pulling me off the rail,

so that I might subject myself to what would prove but little short of

an outrage, while I should likewise forfeit the opportunity of getting

the message delivered; for there was no man on the poop to hold up the

board but the mate, and if the mate was busy with me the board must

remain hidden.

All this I thought, and while I thought the steamer was sweeping past us

at a speed of some twelve or thirteen knots, with Mr. Jones standing

something forward of the mizzen-rigging, holding up the board at

arm's-length.

The picture of that rushing metal fabric was full of glittering beauty.

Her tall promenade deck, draped with white awnings, out of which the

black column of her funnel forked leaning, was crowded with passengers,

male and female. Dresses of white, pink, green--the ladies of South

Africa, I believe, go very radiantly clad--fluttered and rippled to the

sweep of the strong breeze raised by the steamer's progress. Those who

walked came to a stand to survey us, and a dozen binocular glasses were

pointed. High above, on the white canvas bridge, the mate in charge of

the ship was reading the handwriting on the black board through a

telescope that flashed like silver in his hands. Beside him, twinkling

in buttons and lace, stood the commander of the steamer, as I might

suppose. The sun was in the south-west sky; his reddening brilliance

beat full upon the ship that was thundering by faster than a hurricane

could have blown the _Light of the World_ along; and the glass in her

line of portholes seemed to stream in fire as though the tall black iron

sides were veritably belted with flame. There were stars of gold in her

bright-yellow masts and a writhing of glowing light all about the

giltwork with which her quarters were glorified. She rolled softly, and

every inclination was like the twist of a kaleidoscope for tints. How

mean did the little barque look at that instant! how squalid her poor

old stumpy decks with their embellishment of rude scuttle-butt, of grimy

caboose, of squab long-boat, not to mention the choice humanities of her

forecastle, the copper-coloured scarecrows who had dropped the various

jobs they were upon to stare with their sloe-like eyes at the passing

show!

She had not swept past abreast by more than her own length when the

twinkling commander on the bridge flourished his arm.

'And about time, too!' cried Mr. Jones, lowering the board and leaning

it against the rail. 'They must be poor hands at spelling aboard that

ship to keep me holding up that board as if I were a topsail-yard proper

to set a whole sail upon!'

'Have they read the message, do you think, Mr. Jones?' cried Helga.

'Oh, yes, yes, miss,' he answered.

He ran in an awkward sprawl to the skylight, where the telescope lay,

pointed it, and exclaimed, 'See for yourself, miss!'

She levelled the glass with the ease and precision of an old sailor.

'Yes,' she called to me, while she held the telescope to her eye; 'the

man in the jacket and buttons is writing in what looks to be a

pocket-book; the other bends over him as though to see that the words

are correct. I am satisfied!' and, putting the glass down, she returned

to me.

The steamer was now astern of us, showing but little more than the

breadth of her, rapidly growing toy-like as she swept onwards, with an

oil-smooth wake spreading fan-shaped from her counter, and the white

foam curving with the dazzle of sifted snow from either side the iron

tooth of her shearing stem. My heart ached with the yearning for home as

I followed her. At that moment eight bells was struck forward, and

almost immediately Abraham came aft to relieve Mr. Jones, who, after

saying a word or two to the boatman, picked up the board and went below.

'There's a hopportunity lost, Mr. Tregarthen,' exclaimed Abraham,

looking at the receding steamer; 'not that me and Jacob ain't

satisfied, but there's ne'er a doubt that wessel 'ud ha' taken you and

the lady, if so be as Capt'n Bunting had asted her.'

'We are kept here against our will,' said I. 'What the man means to do I

don't know, but what he _can_ do I now see. Unless I can get those black

fellows to back the topsail and put us aboard the next ship when she

comes along, here we must stop until it is the Captain's pleasure to

release us.'

'But what does he want along of ye?' inquired Abraham, in a low, hoarse

voice, with a glance at the open skylight.

I looked at Helga, and then said bluntly--for I had some dim hope of

this boatman and his mate being able to help us, and the plain truth

must therefore be given to them: 'The long and short of it is, Abraham,

the Captain greatly admires Miss Nielsen--he has fallen in love with

her, in short--and so you have it.'

Helga looked and listened without any air of embarrassment, as though

the reference were of general instead of individual interest.

'But he hain't fallen in love with _you_, sir? Why do he want to keep

ye both, then? Couldn't he have sent _you_ aboard?'

'You astonish me!' I cried. 'Do you suppose I would leave this lady

alone in the vessel?'

'Why, p'raps not,' he answered; 'but, still, 'tain't as if _you_ was a

lady, one of her own sex, as was hacting companion to her. Oi don't mean

to say that one man's as good as another; but I don't see no call for

_you_ to keep all on in this here wessel.'

'What am I to understand you to mean?' cried I. 'That Miss Nielsen is to

be left without a protector in the company of a fellow like Captain

Bunting?'

'But if he's willing to be her protector, sir, ain't it all right?' he

inquired.

'Has not your head been turned?' said Helga warmly, with a flushed face.

He looked stupidly from one to the other of us with a slow gaze and a

mind labouring to master the difficulty he could not understand.

'Sorry if I've said anything to offend ye, miss,' said he; 'this here

Capt'n's an honourable man, Oi allow, and he's evidently on the look-out

for a wife. All I says is, what's the good of his keeping Mr.

Tregarthen away from his home when he's willing to take his place?'

'But he must not take his place!' exclaimed Helga, with glowing eyes, in

which I looked to see a tear presently. 'I would drown myself if I were

to be left here alone!'

A slow smile animated the leathern countenance of Abraham.

'Then, mum, asking your pardon, all Oi can say is, Mr. Tregarthen should

ha' put it differently. When there's wan there's no call for tew, and

there being wan already, then, of course, it's the Capt'n's duty to send

ye both home as soon as he can.'

'If Captain Bunting persists,' said I, not choosing to follow the line

of Abraham's reasoning, 'what is my remedy? You Deal boatmen have the

reputation of knowing the law pretty well. First, has he the right to

carry us with him against our wishes?'

'There's never much question of right along with sea captains,' he

answered. 'My 'sperience is that what the master of a wessel chooses to

do he _will_ do, and the rights of it somehow seems to come out of his

doing of it.'

'But have we no remedy?' said I.

'Ask yourself the question!' he answered. 'Where's the remedy to be

found?' and here he sent his eyes roaming over the sea and up aloft and

along the decks.

'Of all Job's comforters!' I exclaimed.

'If I was you,' he continued, apparently not understanding my remark,

and sending another cautious look at the open skylight, with a further

subduing of his voice, 'what Oi'd do is this: Oi'd just enjoy myself at

this 'ere gemman's expense, eat his wittles and drink his rum--and I'm

bound to say this, that a better drop o' rum than he keeps in that there

locker of his isn't to be met with afloat or ashore--I say Oi'd drink

and eat at his expense, and keep my spirits as joyful as sarcumstances

might permit, but taking care to let him know every day, oy, and p'raps

twice a day--say at breakfast and at supper--that the lady and me wants

to get home; and this Oi'd dew till we got to port, and then Oi'd bring

an action agin him and sail home on the damages, with a few pound to the

good.'

He had barely ceased, when he turned sharply round and marched aft, and

as he did so the Captain mounted the poop ladder, exclaiming:

'What very enjoyable weather, to be sure! Mr. Jones informs me that the

message was duly noted. Now, Miss Nielsen, we may take it that our

friend Mr. Tregarthen's mind is perfectly at ease.'