"Next evening, when the cuddy dinner was scarce over, I went up to the
poop, where there was no one to be seen; the sun just setting on our
starboard-quarter in a golden blaze that stretched overhead, with flakes
of it melting, as 'twere, all over the sky to port, and dropping in it
like threads of oil in water; the ship with a light breeze aft, and
stu'nsails packed large upon her, running almost due for the line. The
waves to westward were like liquid light, and the eddies round our
counter came glittering out, the whole spread of her mizzen and main
canvas shining like gold cloth against the fore: then 'twas but the
royals and sky-sails brighter than ever, as the big round sun dipped
down with a red streak or two, and the red water-line, against his hot
old face. Every blue surge between had a clear green edge about its
crest, the hollows turning themselves inside out from deep purple into
bright blue, and outside in again--and the whole rim of the sea grew out
cool and clear, away from the ship's taffrail. A pair of sharp-headed
dolphins that had kept alongside for the last few minutes, swimming near
the surface, turned tail round the moment I put my nose over the
bulwark, and shot off like two streaks of a rainbow after the
flying-fish.
"I was just wondering where Lota Hyde could be this time, when on a
sudden I observed little Tommy poke his curly head out of the
booby-hatch, peeping cautiously round; seeing nobody, however, save the
man at the wheel, who was looking over his shoulder at the sun, the
small rogue made a bolt out of the companion, and scampered aft under
the awning to the judge's starboard door, with nothing on but his
night-shirt. There he commenced kicking and shoving with his bare feet
and arms, till the door flew open, and over went Tommy on his nose,
singing out in fine style. The next thing I heard was a laugh like the
sound of a silver bell; and just as the boy's sister ran up in a fright
lest he had gone overboard, Violet Hyde came out leading the little chap
wrapped in a long shawl that trailed astern of him, herself with a straw
bonnet barely thrown upon her head. 'Tommy says you put him in bed too
soon, Jane!' said she, smiling. 'Iss!' said Master Thomas, stoutly, 'go
'way, Dzane!' 'You hadn't bid me good-night--wasn't that it, Tom? But
oh! _what_ a sea!' exclaimed she, catching sight of it under the awning.
The little fellow wanted to see it, too; so the young lady lifted him up
in her arms, no small weight I daresay, and they both looked over the
bulwark: the whole sky far out of the awning to westward being spotted
with orange scales, turning almost scarlet, faster than the dusk from
both ends could close in; the clear greenish tint of it above the
openings of the canvas going up into fathomless blue overhead, the
horizon purple, and one or two still black clouds tipped with vermilion
against the far sky--while the Indiaman stole along, scarce plashing
under her bends.
"Every now and then you heard a whizz and a flutter, as the flying-fish
broke out of a bigger surge, sometimes just missing the ship's side; at
last two or three fell over the mizzen chains, and pop came one all of a
sudden right into the white breast of Miss Hyde's dress inside her
scarf, where only the wings kept it from disappearing. She started, Jane
screamed, but the little boy coolly pulled it out, commencing to
overhaul it in great delight. 'Oh, fat a funny ickoo bird!' shouted he;
'it's fell down out of 'ese t'ees!' looking aloft. 'No, no,' said Miss
Hyde, laughing, as she drew her shoulders together with a
shiver--'birds' noses don't drop water! 'Twill die if you don't put it
in again, Tommy--'tis a fish!' 'A fish!' said he, opening his eyes
wider, and smacking his lips. 'Yes, Tommy eat it for my beckfust!'
However, the young lady took it out of his hand, and dropped it
overboard; on which the small ogre went off rather discontented, and
kissed her more as a favour than otherwise. It was almost dark already,
the water shining up in the ship's wake, and the stars coming out aloft;
so I was left wondering at the impudence of flying-fish, and the
blessings of being a fat little imp in a frock and trousers, compared
with this puzzle of a 'traverse,' betwixt _being_ a third lieutenant and
hailing for a 'griffin.'
"The night following, after a sultry hot day, the wind had varied a good
deal, and the ship was running almost close-hauled on a warm
south-easterly breeze, with somewhat of a swell in the water. Early in
the first watch there was a heavy shower, after which I went on deck,
leaving Westwood at his book. The half-moon was just getting down to
leeward, clear of a ragged dark cloud, and a long space of faint white
light spread away on the horizon, behind the sheets of the sails hauled
aft; so that you just saw a sort of a glimmer under them, on the black
heave of the swell between. Every time she rolled to leeward on it, a
gleam of the moonshine slipped inside the shadow of her high bulwarks,
from one wet carronade to another, and went glistening over the moist
decks, and among the boats and booms, that looked like some big brute or
other lying stretched out on his paws, till you saw the men's faces on
the forecastle as if they were so many mutineers skulking in the dark
before they rush aft: then up she righted again, and all was dark
in-board.
"The awnings were off, and the gruff third mate creaking slowly to and
fro in his soaked shoes; the judge stood talking with the captain before
one of the round-house doors; directly after I noticed a young lady's
figure in a white dress close by the mizzen-rigging, apparently intent
on the sea to leeward. 'Well, now or never!' thought I, stepping over in
the shadow of the mainsheet. I heard her draw a long breath; and then,
without turning her head at the sound of my foot, 'I wonder if there is
anything so strange in India,' exclaimed she; '_is_ there now?' 'No, no,
madam!' said I, starting, and watching as the huge cloud grew darker,
with a rusty stain in it, while three or four broad-backed swells, one
beyond the other, rose up black against the setting moon, as if they'd
plunge right into her. Miss Hyde turned round, with one hand on the
bulwark to steady herself, and half looked at me. 'I thought,' said
she--'where is papa?--I thought my father----' I begged pardon for
intruding, but next minute she appeared to have forgotten it, and said,
in a musing sort of way, partly to herself, partly to me--'I seem to
_remember_ it all--as if I just saw that black wave--and--that monstrous
cloud over again! Oh! really that is the _very_ same top it had
_then_--see!'--'Yes,' said I, leaning forward, with a notion I _had_
seen it before, though heaven knew when. 'Did you ever read about
Columbus and Vasco di Gama?' asked she, though directly afterwards her
features broke into a laughing smile as she caught sight of mine--at the
thought, I suppose, of my ridiculous figure the last time she saw me.
'No, never,' said I; 'but look to windward, ma'am; 'tis coming on a
squall again. For heaven's sake, Miss Hyde, go in! We're to have another
shower, and that pretty thick. I wonder the mate don't stow the royals.'
'What do you mean?' said she, turning. 'Why are you alarmed, sir? I see
nothing particular.' The sea was coming over, in a smooth round-backed
swell, out of a dirty, thick jumble of a sky, with a pitch-black line
behind--what Ford would have called 'wild' by daylight; but the young
lady's eye naturally saw no more in it than a dark night.
"Here the judge came over from the binnacle, giving me a nod, as much as
to say he recollected me. 'I am afraid, sir,' said I, 'if you don't make
haste, you'll get wet.' 'How!' said Sir Charles, ''tis an exceedingly
pleasant night, I think, after such a very hot day. They don't know how
to cool rooms here--this perpetual wood retains heat till midnight, sir!
That detestable pitch precludes walking--the sea absolutely glares like
tin. _Why_ do you suppose so now--eh, young gentleman?' said he again,
turning back, all of a sudden, with his daughter on his arm.
"'Why--why--why, Sir Charles,' said I, hesitating betwixt sham innocence
and scarce knowing what reason to give; 'why, I just think--that is to
say, it's my feeling, you see.' 'Ah, ah, I _do_ see,' replied the judge,
good-humouredly; 'but you shouldn't ape the sailor, my good fellow, as I
fancy you do a little. I don't particularly admire the class, but they
always have grounds for what they say in their profession, frequently
even acute. At your aunt's, Lady Somers's now, Violet, who was naturally
so surrounded by naval officers, what I had to object to was, not their
want of intelligence, but their forwardness. Eh--eh! who--what is
_that_?' exclaimed he suddenly, looking straight up into the dark, as
five or six large drops fell on his face out of it. All at once you
heard a long sigh, as it were, in the canvas aloft, a clap like two or
three carronades fired off, as all the sails together went into the
masts--then a hum in the air far and near--and whish! rush! came the
rain in sheets and bucketfuls off the edge of a cloud over our very
heads, plashing and washing about the deck with coils of rope; ship
rolling without a breath of wind in her sails; sails flapping out and
in; the rain pouring down ten times faster than the scupper-holes would
let it out, and smoking grey in the dark hollow of the swells, that sank
under the force of it.
"The first officer came on deck, roaring in the hubbub to clue up and
furl the royals before the wind came again. It got pitch-dark, you
couldn't see your hand before you, and we had all lost mark of each
other, as the men came shoving in between us. However, I knew
whereabouts Miss Hyde was, so I felt along the larboard rigging till I
found a back-stay clasped in her hands, and the soaked sleeve of her
muslin dress, while she leant back on a carronade, to keep from being
jerked down in the water that washed up over her feet with every roll,
full of ropes and a capstan bar or two. Without saying a word, I took up
Lota in my arms, and carried her aft in spite of the roll and confusion,
steering for the glimmer of the binnacle, till I got her inside one of
their own cabins, where there was a lamp swinging about, and laid her on
a sofa. I felt somehow or other, as I went, that the sweet creature
hadn't fainted, though all the while as still as death; accordingly I
made off again at once to find the judge, who, no doubt, was calling for
his daughter, with a poor chance of being heard.
"In a minute or two more the rain was over; it was light enough to make
out the horizon, as the belt of foam came broadening out of it; the ship
gave two or three wild bounds, the wheel jolting and creaking; up
swelled the black waves again over one side, the topsails flapped full
as the squall rushed roaring into them, and away she rose; then tore
into it like a scared horse, shaking her head and throwing the
snow-white foam into her fore-chains. 'Twas as much as three men could
do to grind down her wheel, leaning and grinning to it; you saw just the
Indiaman herself, scarce so far forward as the booms, and the broad
swell mounting with her out of the dark, as she slowly squared yards
before it, taking in to'gallant-sails while she did so with her
topsail-yards lowered on the caps. However, the look of it was worse
than its force, else the swell wouldn't have risen so fast, as every
sailor knew; and by two bells of the mid-watch she was bowling under
all, as easy as before, the mate of the watch setting a stunsail.
"When I went down, shaking myself like a Newfoundland, Westwood was
swinging in his cot with a book turned to the lamp, reading _Don
Quixote_ in Spanish. 'Bless me, Ned!' said he, 'you seem to like it!
paying fair and weathering it too!' 'Only a little adventure, Westwood!'
said I, laughing. 'Why, here have I been enjoying better adventures than
we seem likely to have,' said he, 'without stirring a hand, except for
the wild swings you gave me from deck. Here's _Don Quixote_----' 'Don
Quixote be hanged!' said I: 'I'd rather wear ship in a gale, myself,
than all the humbug that never happened--_out_ of an old play-book.
What's the use of _thinking_ you see service, when you don't? After all,
you couldn't _expect_ much till we've crossed the Line--nothing like the
tropics, or the Cape, for thickening a plot, Tom. Then there's the
Mozambique, you know!' 'Well, we'll see,' said Westwood, lazily, and
half asleep.
"The whole next day would have been weary enough in itself, as not a
single glimpse of the fair Lota could I catch; and the weather, between
the little puffs of air and squalls we had, was fit to have melted poor
Ford to the bone, but for the rain. However, that day was sufficient, by
fits and starts, to bring us up to the Line; and before crossing it,
which we did by six o'clock in one of the black squalls, half of the
passengers had been pretty well ducked by Neptune and his gang besides.
"Rare fun we had of it for three or four hours on end; the cadets and
writers showing fight in a body, the Yankee being regularly keelhauled,
tarred, and feathered, though I believe he had crossed the Line twice by
land; while the Scotch surgeon was found out, in spite his caution,
never to have been lower than the West Indies--so he got double ration.
A word to Jacobs took Westwood scot-free; but, for my own part, wishing
of course to blind the officers, I let the men stick the tar-brush in my
mouth the first word I spoke, and was shaved like the mischief, not to
speak of plumping afterwards behind the studding-sail curtain into three
feet water, where I absolutely saved Ford from drowning, he being as
sick as a dog.
"Late at night the breeze held and freshened, and, being Saturday night,
the gentlemen in the cuddy kept it uproariously after their troubles;
drinking and singing songs--Tom Little's and your sentimental affairs;
till, being a bit flushed myself, I was on the point of giving them one
of Dibdin's, when I thought better of it, and went on deck instead. The
mate was there, however, and his red-whiskered Scotch sub with the
twisted snout, leaning on the capstan with their noses together. The
night was dark, and the ship made a good noise through the water; so
'Hang it!' thought I, 'somehow or other I'll have out a stave of
"Black-eyed Susan" at the top of my pipe, though overboard I go for it.
"There was an old square topsail-yard slung alongside to larboard, as
far as the quarter-boat, and I went up to the poop to get over and sit
on it; especially when I found Ford's friend the fat midshipman was in
the boat itself, 'caulking'[12] his watch out, as he did every night in
a fresh place.
[12] Sleeping on deck.
"I was no sooner there again, than I saw a light in the aftermost
gallery window, and took it in my head if I sung _there_, why, in place
of being afraid there was someone under her casement, that and the wind
and water together would put her to sleep, if she was the worse of last
night--in fact, I may say I was a little '_slewed_'[13] at the time. How
to get there, though, was the matter, it being rather a nice practice to
sling over an Indiaman's quarter-gallery, bulging out from her steep
counter; accordingly, first I took the end of coil round the
mizzen-shrouds, and made a bowline-knot to creep down the
stern-mouldings with, and then swing free by help of a guide-line to
boot. Just before letting go of the taffrail, another fancy struck me,
to hitch the guide-line to the trigger of the life-buoy that hung ready
for use; not that I'd the notion of saving myself if I went overboard,
but just because of the good joke of a fellow slipping his own
life-buoy, and then cruising away, with a light at his mast-head, back
to the Line.
[Footnote 13: Anglicé, _not_ sober.]
"'Twas curious, but when I was 'two or three sheets in the wind,' far
from growing stupid, I used always to get a sort of cunning that would
have made me try and cheat a purser; so away I lowered myself till the
rope was taut, when I slipped easy enough round the counter, below the
window. Every time she rolled, out I swung, and in again, till I
steadied with my feet, slacking off the other line from one hand. Then I
began to give voice like old Boreas himself, with a sort of a notion, at
each shove I got, how I was rocking the Indiaman like a big cradle, as
Jacobs did his baby. All at once I felt the rope was _giving_ off the
belaying-pin, till I came down with a jolt under the window below; only
singing the louder, as it was half open, and I could just look in. With
every wash of the waves the water, a couple of fathoms under my feet,
blazed up like fire, and the wake ran boiling out from the black stern
by the rudder, like the iron out of a furnace; now and then there came a
sulky flare of dumb lightning to leeward, and showed the black swell out
of the dark for miles.
"I fancied I didn't care for the water, but I began to think 'twas
rather uncomfortable the notion of sousing into such an infernally
flame-looking stream; I was actually in a fright at being boiled, and
not able to swim. So I dropped chorus to haul myself up, when of a
sudden, by the lamp inside the state-room, I saw Winterton and Ford come
reeling in, one after the other, as drunk as lords. Winterton swayed
about quietly on his legs for a minute, and then looked gravely at Ford,
as if he'd got a dreadful secret to make known.
"'Ford!' said he. 'Ay,' said Ford, feeling to haul off his
trousers--'ay--avast you--blub-lub-lubber!' 'I say, Ford!' said the
cadet again, in a melancholy way, fit to melt a marling-spike, and then
fell to cry--Ford all the time pulling off his trousers, with a cigar in
his mouth, till he got on a chest, and contrived to flounder into his
cot with his coat on. After that he stretched over to put the lamp out,
carefully enough, but he let fall his cigar, and one leg of his nankeen
trousers hung out of the cot, just scraping the deck every time he
swung. I watched, accordingly, holding on by the sill, till I saw a
spark catch in the stuff, and there it was, swinging slowly away in the
dark, with a fiery ring creeping round the leg of the trousers, ready to
blow into a flame as soon as it had a clear swing. No doubt the fool
would come down safe enough himself with his cot; but I knew Winterton
kept powder in the cabin sufficient to blow up the deck above, where
that sweet girl was sleeping at the moment. 'Confound it,' I thought,
quite cooled by the sight, 'the sooner I get on deck the better.'
"However, you may fancy my thoughts when I heard men at the taffrail,
hauling on the spanker-boom guys; so I held on till they'd go forward
again; suddenly the mate's voice sung out to know 'what lubber had
belayed the slack of a topsail clueline _here_?' Down I went with the
word, as the rope was thrown off, with just time to save myself by a
clutch of the port-sill at arm's-length--where, heaven knew, I couldn't
keep long. The mate looked over and caught sight of my face, by a
flicker of the summer lightning, as I was slipping down: I gave him one
curse as loud as I could hail, and let go the moulding. 'Man overboard,'
shouted he, and the men after him; however, I wasn't altogether
overboard yet, for I felt the other part of the rope bring me up with a
jerk and a swing right under the quarter-boat, where I clung like a cat.
"How to get on deck again without being seen was the question, and
anxious enough I was at thought of the burning train inside, when out
jumped someone over my head; I heard a splash in the water, and saw a
fellow's face go sinking into the bright wake astern, while the boat
itself was coming down over me from the davits. I still had the
guide-line from the life-buoy round my wrist, and one moment's thought
was enough to make me give it a furious tug, when away I sprang clear
into the eddies. The first thing I saw at coming up was the ship's
lighted stern-windows driving to leeward, then the life-buoy flaring and
dipping on a swell, and a bare head, with two hands, sinking a few feet
off. I made for him at once, and held him up by the hair as I struck out
for the buoy. A couple of minutes after, the men in the boat had hold of
us and it; the ship came sheering round to the wind, and we were very
shortly on board again.
"'Confound it, Simm, what took you overboard, man?' asked the mid in the
boat at his dripping messmate, the fat reefer. 'Oh, bother!' said he,'if
you must know--why, I mistook the quarter-boats; I thought 'twas the
_other_ I was in when you kicked up that shindy. Now I remember, though,
there was too much _rain_ in it for comfort.' 'Well, youngster,' said
Tom, the man-o'-war's-man, 'this here gentleman saved your life,
anyhow!' 'Why, mate,' whispered Bill, ''tis the wery same greenhorn we
puckalowed so to-day. Didn't he jump sharp over, too?' 'Pull! for your
lives, my lads!' said I, looking up at Ford's window; and the moment we
got on deck, below I ran into the state-room, and cut Ford down by the
heels, with the tinder hanging from him, and one leg of his trousers
half gone. As for the poor reefer, a pretty blowing up he got; the men
swore I had jumped overboard after him, and the mate would have it that,
instead of sleeping, he wanted to get into the judge's cabins;
especially when next day Sir Charles was in a rage at his daughter being
disturbed by some sailor or other singing outside.