The evening after that on which the commander of the _Gloucester_
Indiaman introduced his adventures, nearly the same party met on the
poop to hear them continued.
"Well then," began Captain Collins, leaning back against a stanchion of
the quarter-rail, with folded arms, legs crossed, and his eyes fixed on
the weather-leech of the mizzen-topsail to collect his thoughts; "well
then, try to fancy the _Seringapatam_ in chase of the _Gloucester_; and
if I _do_ use a few extra seaterms, I consider the ladies good enough
sailors for them already. At any rate, just throw a glance aloft now and
then, and our good old lady will explain herself; to her own sex, she
ought to be as good as a dictionary, with signs for the hard words!
"The second day out we had the wind more from seaward, which broke up
the haze into bales of cloud, and away they went rolling in for the Bay
of Biscay; with a longer wave and darker water, and the big old Indiaman
surged over it as easily as might be, the blue breeze gushing right into
her main-tack through the heave of the following seas, and the tail of
the trade-wind flying high above her trucks in shreds and patches.
Things got more ship-shape on deck; anchor-flukes brought in-board on
the head-rail, and cables stowed away--the very best sign you can have
of being clear of the land. The first officer, as they called him, was a
good-looking fellow, that thought no small-beer of himself, with his
glossy blue jacket and Company's buttons, white trousers, and a gold
thread round his cap; he had it stuck askew to show how his hair was
brushed; and changed his boots every time he came on deck. Still he
looked like a sailor, if but for the East-India brown on his face, and
there was no mistake about his knowing how to set a sail, trim yards, or
put the ship about; so that the stiff old skipper left a great deal to
him, besides trusting him for a first-rate navigator that had learned
head-work at a naval school. The crew were to be seen all mustering
before tea-time in the dog-watch, with their feet just seen under the
foot mat of the fore-course, like actors behind a playhouse curtain--men
that I warrant you had seen every country under heaven amongst them--as
private as possible, and ready to enjoy their pots of tea upon the
forecastle, as well as their talk.
"However, all this was nothing to me, as I saw no sign of the passengers
I had counted on. I could do little for poor Westwood but leave him to
mope below, over his own thoughts.
"If the Indian judge really chanced to be on board after all, he
evidently fought shy of company, and perhaps meant to have his own
mess-table under the poop as long as the voyage lasted; scarcely any of
the ladies had apparently got their sea-qualms over yet, and, for all I
knew, _she_ might not be with him, even if he were there; or, if she
were, her father seemed quite Turk enough to keep her boxed up with
jalousie-blinds, Calcutta fashion, and give her a walk in the middle
watch, with the poop tabooed till morning. The jolly, red-faced
indigo-planter was the only one that tried to get up anything like
spirit at the table; indeed, he would have scraped acquaintance with
me, if I had been in a mood for it; all I did was to say 'Yes' and 'No,'
and to take wine with him. 'Poor fellow!' said he, turning to three or
four of the cadets, that stuck by him like pilot-fish to an old shark,
'he's thinking of his mother at home, I daresay.' The fools thought this
was meant for a joke, and began to laugh. 'Why, you unfledged griffins
you,' said the planter, 'what d'ye see to nicker at, like so many
jackals in a trap? D'ye suppose one thinks the less of a man for having
a heart to be sick in, as well as a stomach--eh?' 'Oh, don't speak of
it, Mr Rollock!' said one. 'Come, come, old boy,' said another, with a
white moustache on his lip, ''twon't do for you to go the sentimental,
you know.' 'Capsize my main-spanker, 'tis too funny, though,' put in a
fellow who wore a glazed hat on deck, and put down all the ropes with
numbers on paper, as soon as he had done being sick. The planter leant
back in his chair, looked at them coolly, and burst out a-laughing.
'Catch me ever "going home" again,' said he. 'Of all the absurd
occasions for impudence with the egg-shell on its head coming out, hang
me if these fifteen thousand miles of infernal sea-water ain't the
worst. India for ever!--that's the place to _try_ a man. He's either
sobered or gets room to work there; and just wait, my fine fellows, till
I see _you_ on the Custom-house _Bunda_ at Bombay, or setting off up
country--you're all of you the very food for _sircars_ and _coolies_.
That quiet lad there, now, soft as he looks'--meaning me--'I can tell by
his eye he won't be long a griff--he'll do something. I tell you what,
as soon as he's tasted his first mango-fish, he'll _understand_ the
country. Why, sir,' said he again, smacking his lips, ''tis worth the
voyage of itself--you begin a new existence so to speak. I'll be bound
all this lot o' water don't contain one single mango-fish. Remember,
boys, I promised you all a regular blow-out of mango-fish, and
_florican_ with bread-sauce, whenever you can get across to Chuckbully
Factory.' 'Blow, good breeze, then; blow away the main jib!' said the
nautical young gentleman; 'I'll join you, old fellow!' 'Not the best way
to bring it about, though,' said the indigo-planter, good-naturedly, not
knowing but there _was_ such a sail on the ship.
"The yellow setting sun was striking over the starboard quarter-boat,
and the Bay of Biscay lay broad down to leeward for a view--a couple of
large craft, with all studding-sails set before the wind, making for
land, far enough off to bring their canvas in a piece, and begin to look
blue with the air--one like a milk-woman with pitchers and a hoop; the
other like a girl carrying a big bucketful of water, and leaning the
opposite way to steady herself. There was one far to north-east, too, no
more than a white speck in the grey sky; and the land-cloud went up over
it into so many sea-lions' heads, all looking out of their manes. The
children clapped their hands and laughed; and the ladies talked about
the vessels, and thought they saw land--Spain or the Pyrenees, perhaps.
However, it wasn't long before my American friend Snout caught sight of
me in the midst of his meditations, as he turned bolt round on his toes
to hurry aft again. 'The fact is, mister,' said he, '_I'm_ riled a
little at _the_ tarnation pride of you Britishers. There now,' said he,
pointing at the blaze of the sun to westward, with his chin, 'there's
_a_ consolation. I calculate the sun's just over Noo-York, which I
expect to give you old country folks considerable pain.'
"'No doubt,' said I, with a sigh; 'one can't help thinking of a banker
run off with ever so much English gold.' 'You're a sensible chap, you
are. It's _a_ right-down asylum _for_ oppressed Eur_o_pains--that can't
be denied.' 'And Africans, too,' I put in. 'Indy, now,' said he; 'I
reckon there's a sight of dollars made in that country--you don't s'pose
I'm goin' out there for _nothing_? We'll just take it out o' your hands
yet, mister. I don't ought to let you into the schim till I know you
better, you see; but I expect to want a sort o' company got up before we
land. There's one of your nabobs now came into the ship at Possmouth,
with a whole tail of niggurs dressed up----' 'And a lady with him, I
think?' said I, as coolly as I could. 'I'll somehow open on that chap
about British tyranny, I guess, after gettin' a little knowledge out of
him. We'd just _rise_ the niggurs, if they had _not_ such a right-down
cur'ous _my_thullogy--but I tell you now, mister, that's one of the very
p'ints I expect to meet. Miss'naries won't do it so slick off in two
thousand years, I kinder think, as this identical specoolation will in
_ten_--besides payin' like Peruvain mines, which the miss'nary line
don't. I'm a regoolar down-easter, ye see--kinder piercin' into a
subject, like our nation in gin'ral--and the whull schim hangs together
a little, I calculate, mister?' 'So I should think, Mr Snout, indeed,' I
said. Here the American gave another chuckle, and turned to again on his
walk, double quick, till you'd have thought the whole length of the poop
shook, when who should I see with the tail of my eye but my friend the
_kitmagar_ salaaming to Mr Snout by the break of the quarter-deck. The
Yankee seemed rather taken aback at first, and didn't know what to make
of him. 'S'laam sah'b,' said the dark servant with an impudent look, and
loud enough for me to hear, as I stepped from aft. 'Judge sahib i-send
genteeman salaam--say too much hivvy boot he get--all same as
_illimphant_. S'pose master not so much loud walk _this_ side?'
'_Well!_' broke out the American, looking at the Bengalee's flat turban
and moustache, as if he were too great a curiosity to be angry with,
then turning on his heel to proceed with his walk. 'Now, mister,' said
he to me, 'that's what I call an incalculable imp_u_dent black; but he's
the first I ever saw with hair on his lip, it's a fact.' 'Master not
_mind_?' said the _kitmagar_, raising his key next time Mr Snout wheeled
round. 'Judge sahib burra burra buhadoorkea!--ver' great man!' 'Low
niggur!' said Mr Snout, tramping away aft; 'there's your British
regoolations, I say, young man--niggurs bààing on the quarter-deck, and
free-born citizens put off it!' '_Bhote khoob_, mistree!' squeaked out
the native again; 'burra judge sahib not to i-sleep apter he dine, eh?
Veri well; I tell the sahib, passiger mistree moor stamp-i-stamp all the
moor I can say!' So off he went to report in the poop-cabin. A little
after up shot a head wrapped in a yellow bandana, just on the level of
the poop-deck, looking through the breast-rail; and the next thing I saw
was the great East-Indian himself, with a broad-flapped Manilla hat over
his topgear, and a red-flowered dressing-gown, standing beside the
binnacle with Captain Williamson. 'What the deuce, Captain Williamson,'
said the judge, with an angry glance up to the poop,' cannot I close my
eyelids after dinner for one instant--in my own private apartments,
sir--for his hideous noise? Who the deuce _is_ that person there--eh,
eh?' 'He's an American gentleman, I believe, Sir Charles,' replied the
captain. '_Believe_, sir,' said the judge; 'you ought to _know_ every
individual, I think, Captain Williamson, whom you admitted into this
vessel. I expressly stipulated for quiet, sir--I understood that no
suspicious or exceptionable persons should travel in the same conveyance
with _my_ suwarry. I'd have taken the whole ship, sir!' 'I've no more to
do than tell him the regulations aboard, Sir Charles,' said the captain,
'and the annoyance will cease.' '_Tell_ him, indeed!' said the judge, a
little more good-humouredly. 'Why, captain, the man looks like a
sea-pirate. You should have taken only such raw griffins as that young
lad on the other side. Ho, _kitmagar_!' '_Maharaj?_' said the footman,
bowing down to the deck. '_Slippers lao!_' '_Jee khodabund_,' answered
the native, and immediately after he reappeared from the round-house
door, with a pair of turned-up yellow slippers. 'Take them up with my
salaam to that gentleman there,' said Sir Charles, in Hindoostanee, 'and
ask him to use them.' 'Hullo!' sung out Mr Snout, on being hove-to by
the _kitmagar_, with one hand on his breast, and the other holding the
slippers, 'this won't do! You'd better not _rile_ me again, you cussed
niggur you. Out o' my way!' There they went at it along the poop
together, Mr Snout striding right forward with his long legs, and the
_kitmagar_ hopping backward out of his way, as he tried to make himself
understood; till, all at once, the poor darkey lost his balance at the
ladderhead, and over he went with a smash fit to have broken his neck,
if the captain's broad back hadn't fortunately been there to receive it.
The rage of Sir Charles at this was quite beyond joking; nothing else
would satisfy him but the unlucky Yankee's being shoved off the poop by
main force, and taken below--the one stamping and roaring like an old
buffalo, and the other testifying against all 'aristocratycal
t_y_ranny.'
"At eight bells again I found it a fine, breezy night, the two upper
mates walking the weather quarter-deck in blue-water style, six steps
and a look to windward, then a wheel round, and, now and then, a glance
into the binnacle. I went aft and leant over the _Seringapatam's_ lee
quarter, looking at the white back-wash running aft from her bows, in
green sparks, into the smooth alongside, and the surge coming round her
counter to meet it. Everything was set aloft that could draw, even to a
starboard main-topmast stunsail; the high Indiaman being lighter than if
homeward-bound, and the breeze strong abeam, she had a good heel-over to
port; but she went easily through the water, and it was only at the
other side you heard it rattling both ways along the bends. The shadow
of her went far to leeward, except where a gleam came on the top of a
wave or two between the sails and under their foot. Just below the sheer
of the hull, aft, it was as dark as night, though now and then the light
from a port struck on it and went in again; but every time she sank, the
bight of her wake from astern swelled up away round the counter, with
its black side as smooth as a looking-glass. I kept peering into it, and
expecting to see my own face, while all the time I was very naturally
thinking of one quite different, and felt uneasy till I should actually
see her. 'Confound it,' I thought, 'were it only a house, one might walk
round and round it till he found out the window.' I fancied her
bewitching face through the garden-door, as clearly as if I saw it in
the dark head of the swell; but I'd have given more only to hear that
imp of a cockatoo scream once--whereas there was nothing but the water
working up into the rudder-case; the pintles creaking, and the
tiller-ropes cheeping as they traversed; and the long welter of the sea
when the ship eased down, with the surgeon and his friends walking about
and laughing up to windward. From that again, I ran on putting things
together, till, in fact, Jacobs' notion of a shipwreck seemed by far the
best. No doubt Jacobs and Westwood, with a few others, would be saved,
while I didn't even object much to the old nabob himself, for
respectability's sake, and to spare crape. But, by Jove, wouldn't one
bring him to his bearings soon enough there? Every sailor gets hold of
this notion some night-watch or other, leaning over the side, with
pretty creatures aboard he can scarce speak to otherwise; and I was
coiling it down so fast myself, at the moment, that I had just begun to
pitch into the nabob about our all being Adam's sons and daughters,
under a knot of green palm-trees, at the door of a wooden house, half
thatched with leaves, when I was brought up with a round turn by seeing
a light shining through the hazy bull's-eye in the deck where I stood.
No doubt the sweet girl I had been thinking of was actually there, and
going to bed; I stretched over the quarter, but the heavy mouldings were
in the way against seeing more than the green bars of the after
window--all turned edgeways to the water, where the gallery hung out
like a corner turret from the ship's side. Now and then, however, when
she careened a little more than ordinary, and the smooth lee swell went
heaping up opposite, I could notice the light through the venetians from
the state-room come out upon the dark water in broad bright lines, like
the grate across a fire, then disappearing in a ripple, till it was gone
again, or somebody's shadow moved inside. It was the only lighted window
in the gallery, and I looked every time it came as if I could see in;
when at last, you may fancy my satisfaction, as, all of a sudden, one
long slow heave over of the ship showed me the whole bright opening of
the port, squared out of her shadow, where it shone upon the glassy
round of the swell. 'Twas as plain as from a mirror in a closet--the
lighted gallery window with its frame swung in, a bit of the deck-roof I
was standing on, and two female figures at the window--mere dark shapes
against the lamp. I almost started back at the notion of their seeing
me, but away lengthened the light on the breast of the swell, and it
sank slowly down into a black hollow, as the Indiaman eased up to
windward. Minute by minute, quite breathless, did I watch for such
another chance; but next time she leant over as much, the port had been
closed, and all was dark; although those few moments were enough to send
the heart into my mouth with sheer delight. The figure I had seen,
holding with one hand by the port-sill, and apparently keeping up her
dress with the other, as if she were looking down steadily on the heave
of the sea below--it couldn't be mistaken. The line of her head, neck,
and shoulders, came out more certain than if they hadn't been filled up
with nothing but a black shadow; it was just Lota Hyde's, as she sat in
the ball-room amongst the crowd, I'd have bet the _Victory_ to a bumboat
on it; only her hair hung loose on one side, while the girl behind
seemed to be dressing the other, for it was turned back, so that I saw
clear past her cheek and neck to where the lamp was, and her ear gleamed
to the light. For one moment nothing could be plainer than the glimpse
old Davy Jones gave me by one of his tricks; but the old fellow was
quite as decorous in his way as a chamber-blind, and swallowed his
pretty little bit of blab as quickly as if it had been a mermaid caught
at her morning toilet. Whenever I found there was to be no more of it
for the night, the best thing to calm one's feelings was to light a
cigar and walk out the watch; but I took care it should rather be over
the nabob's head than his daughter's, and went up to the weather side,
where there was nobody else by this time, wishing her the sweetest of
dreams, and not doubting I should see her next day.
"I daresay I should have walked out the first watch, and the second too,
if Westwood hadn't come up beside me before he turned in.
"'Why, you look like the officer of the watch, Ned!' said my friend,
after taking a glance round at the night. 'Yes--what?--a--a--I don't
think so,' stammered I, not knowing what he said, or at least the
meaning of it, though certainly it was not so deep. 'I hope not though,
Tom!' said I again; ''tis the very thing I don't want to look like!'
'You seem bent on keeping it up, and coming the innocent, at any rate,'
said he; 'I really didn't know you the first time I saw you in the
cuddy.' 'Why, man, you never saw our theatricals in the dear old _Iris_,
on the African station! I was our best female actor of tragedy there,
and _did_ Desdemona so well that the black cook, who stood for Othello,
actually cried. He said, "Nobody but 'ee dibble umself go for smudder
Missee Dasdemoner!"' 'I daresay,' said Westwood; 'but what is the need
for it _now_, even if _you_ could serve as a blind for me?' 'My dear
fellow,' said I, 'not at all--you've kept it up very well so far--just
go on.' 'Keep it up, Ned?' inquired he--'what do you mean? I've done
nothing except keep quiet from mere want of spirits.' 'So much the
better,' I said; 'I never saw a man look more like a prophet in the
wilderness; it doesn't cost you the least trouble--why you'd have done
for Hamlet in the _Iris_, if for nothing else! After all, though, a
missionary don't wear blue pilot cloth trousers, nor tie his neckerchief
as you do, Tom. You must bend a white neck-cloth to-morrow morning! I'm
quite serious, Westwood, I assure you,' continued I. 'Just think of the
suspicious look of two navy men being aboard an Indiaman, nobody knows
how! Why, the first frigate we speak, or port we touch at, they'd hand
one or both of us over at once--which I, for my part, shouldn't at all
like!' 'Indeed, Collins,' said Tom, turning round, 'I really cannot
understand _why_ you went out in her! It distresses me to think that
here you've got yourself into this scrape on my account! At least you'll
put back in the first home-bound ship we----' "'Oh!' exclaimed I,
blushing a little in the dark though, both at Westwood's simplicity, and
my not wishing to tell him my secret yet--'I'm tired of shore--I _want_
to see India again--I'm thinking of going into the _army_!' 'The _army_,
indeed!' said Westwood, laughing for the first time, 'and you still
midshipman all over. No, no--that won't do! I see your drift, you can't
deceive _me_! You're a true friend, Ned, to stand by an old schoolmate
so!' 'No, Tom!' said I; ''tis you yourself that has too kind a heart,
and more of a sailor's, all fair and above-board, than I can manage! I
_won't_ humbug _you_, at any rate--I tell you I've got a scheme of my
own, and you'll know more of it soon.' Tom whistled; however I went on
to tell him, 'The long and the short of it is, Westwood, you'll bring
both of us down by the head if you don't keep up the missionary.'
'Missionary!' repeated he; 'you don't mean to say you and Neville
intended all that long toggery you supplied my kit with, for me to sail
under _missionary_ colours? I tell you what, Ned, it's not a character I
like to cut jokes upon, much less to sham.' 'Jokes!' said I; 'there's no
joking about it; 'tis serious enough.' 'Why,' said Westwood, '_now_ I
know the reason of a person like a clergyman sighting me through his
spectacles for half an hour together, these two evenings below! This
very afternoon he called me his brother, and began asking me all manner
of questions, which I could no more answer than the cook's mate.'
'Clergyman be hanged!' said I, 'you must steer clear of him, Tom--take
care you don't bowse up your jib too much within hail of him! Mind, I
gave your name, both to the head-steward and the skipper, as the
Reverend Mr Thomas, going back to Bombay. There was nothing else for it,
Westwood,' I said, 'when you were beyond thinking for yourself. All
you've got to do with that solemn dissenting chap in the spectacles is
just to look as wise as possible, and let him know you belong to the
_Church_. And as for shamming, you needn't sham a bit--_take to it_, my
dear fellow, if that will do you good.' I said this in joke, but
Westwood seemed to ponder on it for a minute or two. 'Indeed, Collins,'
said he gravely, 'I _do_ think you're right. What do we sailors do but
give up everything in life for a mere schoolboy notion, and keep turning
up salt water for years together like the old monks did the ground; only
they grew corn and apples for their pains, and we have nothing but ever
so many dull watches and wild cruises ashore to remember! How many
sailors have turned preachers and missionaries, just because something,
by accident, as it were, taught them to put to account what you can't
help feeling now and then in the very _look_ of the sea. What does it
mean in the Scriptures, Ned, about "seeing the wonders of the Lord in
the deep?"' As Westwood said this, both of us stopped on the taffrail,
and, somehow or other, a touch of I didn't well know _what_ went through
me. I held my breath, with his hand on my arm, just at the sight I had
seen a thousand times--the white wake running broad away astern, with a
mark in the middle as if it had been torn, on to the green yeast of the
waves, then right to their black crests plunging in the dark. It was
midnight ahead, and the clouds risen aloft over where I had been looking
half-an-hour before; but the long ragged split to westward was opened
up, and a clear glaring glance of the sky, as pale as death, shot
through it on the horizon. '_I_ can't be sorry for having gone to sea,'
said Westwood again; 'but isn't it a better thing to leave home and
friends, as those men do for the sake of carrying the Gospel to the
heathen?' As soon as we wheeled round, with the ship before us, leaning
over and mounting to the heave, and her spread of canvas looming out on
the dark, my thoughts righted. 'Well,' said I, 'it may be all very well
for some--everyone to his rope; but, for my part, I think if man hadn't
been made for the sea, he couldn't have built a ship, and where would
your missionaries be _then_? You're older than I am, Westwood, or I'd
say you let some of your notions run away with you, like a Yankee ship
with her short-handed crew!' 'Oh, Ned,' said he, 'of all places in the
world for one's actions coming back on him the sea is the worst,
especially when you're an idler, and have nothing to do but count the
sails or listen to the passengers' feet on deck. These two days, now,
I've thought more than I ever did in my life. I can't get that man's
death out of my head; every time the sea flashes round me as I come from
below, I think of him--it seems to me he is lying yet by the side of the
Channel. I can't help having the notion he perhaps _fired in the air_!'
''Twas a base lie!' said I; 'if _he_ weren't _there_, you wouldn't be
here, I can tell you, Westwood.' 'I don't know how I shall ever drag
through this voyage,' continued he. 'If there were a French gunboat to
cut out to-morrow morning, or if we were only to have a calm some day in
sight of a Spanish slaver--'tis nothing but a jogging old Indiaman
though! I shall never more see the flag over my head with pride--every
respect I had was in the service!'