"While I was listening, I had scarcely noticed, that within the last few
minutes a light air had begun to play aloft among the higher canvas, a
faint cat's-paw came ruffling here and there a patch of the water, till
by this time the Indiaman was answering her wheel again, and moving
slowly ahead, as the breeze came down and crept out to the leeches of
her sails, with a sluggish lifting of her heavy fore-course. The men
were all below at breakfast, forward, and, of course, at that hour the
poop above me was quite a Babel of idlers' voices; while I looked into
the compass and watched the ship's head falling gradually off from
north-east-by-north, near which it had stuck pretty close since
daybreak. The sun was brought before her opposite beam, and such a
perfect gush of hazy white light shot from that quarter over the
larboard bulwarks, that thereaway, in fact, there might have been a
fleet of ships, or a knot of islands, and we none the wiser, as you
couldn't look into it at all.
"The chief mate came handing a wonderfully timid young lady down the
poop-ladder with great care, and as soon as they were safe on the
quarter-deck, she asked, with a confiding sort of lisp, 'And where are
we going _now_ then, Mr Finch?' 'Well, miss,' simpered he, 'wherever
_you_ please, I'll be glad to conduct you!' 'Oh, but the ship I mean,'
replied she, giggling prettily. 'Why,' said Finch, stooping down to the
binnacle, 'she heads due south-east at present, miss.' 'I _am_ so glad
you are going on again!' said the young lady; 'but oh! when shall we see
dear _land_ once more, Mr Finch?' 'Not for more than a week, I fear,'
answered the mate, 'when we arrive at the Cape of Good Hope. But there,
miss, your poetic feelings will be gratified, I assure you. The hills
there, I might say, Miss Brodie,' he went on, 'not to speak of the
woods, are quite dramatic! You mustn't suppose the rough mariner, rude
as he seems, Miss Brodie, is entirely devoid of romance in his
sentiments, I hope!' and he looked down for the twentieth time that
morning at his boots as he handed her down the cabin hatchway, longing
to see the Cape, no doubt. 'Much romance, as you call it, there is in
ugly Harry yonder!' thought I; and comparing this sort of stuff, aft,
with the matter-of-fact notions before the mast, made me the more
anxious for what might turn up in a few hours, with this gallant first
officer left in full charge, and the captain, as I understood, unable to
leave his cot. A good enough seaman the fellow was, so far as your
regular deep-sea work went, which those India voyagers had chiefly to do
with then; but for aught out of the way, or a sudden pinch, why, the
peace had just newly set them free of their leading-strings, and here
this young mate brought his new-fangled school navigation, forsooth, to
run the _Seringapatam_ into some mess or other; whereas, in a case of
the kind, I had no doubt he would prove as helpless as a child.
"By this time, for my part, all my wishes for some ticklish adventure
were almost gone, when I thought of our feelings at the loss of the
boat, as well as the number of innocent young creatures on board, with
Lota Hyde herself amongst them; while here had I got myself fairly set
down for a raw griffin. Yet neither Westwood nor I, unless it came to
the very worst, could venture to make himself openly useful! I was
puzzled both what to think of our exact case, and what to do; whereas a
pretty short time in these latitudes, as the foremast-man had said,
might finish our business altogether; indeed, the whole look of things,
somehow or other, at that moment, had a strange unsettled touch about
it, out of which one unaccustomed to those parts might be sure some
change would come. The air, a little ago, was quite suffocating, the
heat got greater; and the breeze, though it seemed to strengthen aloft,
at times sank quietly out of her lower canvas like a breath drawn in,
and caught it again as quietly ere it fell to the masts. What with the
slow huge heave of the water, as it washed glittering past, and what
with the blue tropical sky overhead, getting paler and paler at the
horizon astern, from fair heat--while the sunlight and the white haze on
our larboard beam, made it a complete puzzle to behold--why, I felt just
like some fellow in one of those stupid dreams after a heavy supper,
with nothing at all in them, when you don't know how long or how often
you've dreamt it before. Deuce the hand or foot you can stir, and yet
you've a notion of something horrid that's sure to come upon you.
"We couldn't be much more than a hundred miles or so to south'ard of St
Helena; but we might be two thousand miles off the land, or we might be
fifty. I had only been once in my life near the coast thereaway, and
certainly my recollections of it weren't the most pleasant. As for the
charts, so little was known of it that we couldn't depend upon them; yet
there was no doubt the ship had been all night long in a strong set of
water toward north-east, right across her course. For my own part, I was
as anxious as anyone else to reach the Cape, and get rid of all this
cursed nonsense; for since last night, I saw quite well by her look that
Violet Hyde would never favour me, if I kept in her wake to the day of
judgment. There was I, too, every time I came on deck and saw those
round-house doors, my heart leapt into my throat, and I didn't know port
from starboard! But what was the odds, that I'd have kissed the very
pitch she walked upon, when _she_ wasn't for _me_!--being deep in love
don't sharpen the faculties neither, and the more I thought of matters
the stupider I seemed to get. 'Green Hand!' thought I, 'as Jacobs and
the larboard watch call me, it appears--why, they're right enough! A
green hand I came afloat nine years ago, and, by Jove! though I know the
sea and what belongs to it, from sheer liking to them, as 'twere--it
seems a green hand I'm to stick--seeing I know so blessed little of
womankind, not to speak of that whole confounded world ashore! With all
one's schemes and one's weather-eye, something new always keeps turning
up to show one what an ass he is; and hang me, if I don't begin to
suppose I'm only fit for working small traverses upon slavers and
jack-nasty-faces, after all! There's Westwood, without troubling
himself, seems to weather upon me, with her, like a Baltimore clipper on
a Dutch schuyt!' In short, I wanted to leave the _Seringapatam_ as soon
as I could, wish them all a good voyage together away for Bombay, sit
down under Table Mountain, and then perhaps go and travel amongst the
Hottentots by way of a change.
"The chief officer came aft towards the binnacle again, with a strut in
his gait, and more full of importance than ever, of course. 'This
breeze'll hold, I think, Macleod?' said he to the second mate, who was
shuffling about in a lounging, unseamanlike way he had, as if he felt
uncomfortable on the quarter-deck, and both hands in his jacket pockets.
'Well,' said the Scotchman, 'do ye not think it's too early begun, sir?'
and he looked about like an old owl, winking against the glare of light
past the mainsheet to larboard; 'I'll not say but it will, though,'
continued he, 'but 'odsake, sir, it's terrible warm!' 'Can't be long ere
we get into Cape Town now,' said the mate, 'so you'll turn the men on
deck as soon as breakfast's over, Mr Macleod, and commence giving her a
coat of paint outside, sir.' 'Exactly, Mr Finch,' said the other, 'all
hands it'll be, sir? For any sake, Mr Finch, give they lazy scoundrels
something to do!' 'Yes, all hands,' said Finch; and he was going below,
when the second mate sidled up to him again, as if he had something
particular to say. 'The captain'll be quite better by this time, no
doubt, Mr Finch?' asked he. '_Well_--d' ye mean?' inquired the mate,
rather shortly; 'why no, sir, when the surgeon saw him in the morning
watch, he said it was a fever, and the sooner we saw the Cape the better
for him.' 'No doubt, no doubt, sir,' said the second mate, thoughtfully,
putting his forefinger up his twisted nose, which I noticed he did in
such cases, as if the twist had to do with his memory--'no doubt, sir,
that's just it! The doctor's a sharp Edinbro' lad--did he see aucht by
common about the captain, sir?' 'No,' said Finch, 'except that he wanted
to go on deck this morning, and the surgeon took away his clothes and
left the door locked.' 'Did he, though?' asked Macleod, shaking his
head, and looking a little anxious; 'didna he ask for aucht in
particular, sir?' 'Not that I heard of, Mr Macleod,' replied the mate;
'what do you mean?' 'Did he not ask for a green leaf?' replied the
second mate. 'Pooh,' said Finch, 'what if he did?' 'Well, sir,' said
Macleod, 'neither you nor the doctor's sailed five voyages with the
captain, like me. He's a quiet man, Captain Weelumson, an' well he knows
his calling; but sometimes warm weather doesn't do with him, more
especial siccan warm weather as this, when the moon's full, as it is the
night, ye know, Mr Finch. There's something else besides that, though,
when he's taken that way.' 'Well, what is it?' asked the mate,
carelessly. 'Oo!' said Macleod, 'it can't be _that_ this time, of
course, sir--it's when he's near the _land_! The captain knows the smell
of it, these times, Mr Finch, as well as a cockroach does--an' it's then
he asks for a green leaf, and wants to go straight ashore--I mind he did
it the voy'ge before last, sir. He's a quiet man, the captain, as I
said, for ord'nar'--but when he's roused, he's a----' 'Why, what was the
matter with him?' said Finch, more attentive than before; 'you don't
mean to say?--go on, Mr Macleod.' The second mate, however, looked
cautious, closed his lips firmly, and twirled his red whiskers, as he
glanced with one eye aloft again. 'Hoo!' said he, carelessly, 'hoo, it's
nothing, nothing--just, I'm thinking, sir, what they call disgestion
ashore--all frae the stommach, Mr Finch. We used just for to lock the
state-room door, an' never let on we heard--but at any rate, sir, _this_
is no the thing at all, ye know! Mester Semm,' continued he to the fat
midshipman, who came slowly up from the steerage, picking his teeth with
a pocket-knife, 'go forrid and get the bo'sun to turn up all hands.'
"'Sir,' said I, stepping up to the mate next moment, before the
round-house, 'might I use the freedom of asking whereabouts we are at
present?' Finch gave me a look of cool indifference, without stirring
head or hand; which I saw, however, was put on, as, ever since our
boating affair, the man evidently detested me, with all his pretended
scorn. 'Oh certainly, sir!' said he, 'of course!--sorry I haven't the
ship's log here to show you--but it's two hundred miles or so below St
Helena, eight hundred miles odd off the south-west African coast, with a
light westerly breeze bound for the Cape of Good Hope--so after that you
can look about you, sir!' 'Are you _sure_ of all that, sir?' asked I,
seriously. 'Oh no, of course not!' said he, still standing as before,
'not in the least, sir! It's nothing but quadrant, sextant, and
chronometer work, after all--which every young gentleman don't believe
in!' Then he muttered aloud, as if to himself, 'Well, if the captain
_should_ chance to ask for a _green_ leaf, I know where to find it for
him!'
"I was just on the point of giving him some angry answer or other, and
perhaps spoiling all, when I felt a tap on my shoulder, and on turning
round saw the Indian judge, who had found me in the way either of his
passage or his prospect, on stepping out of the starboard door. 'Eh!'
said he, jocularly, as I begged his pardon, 'eh, young sir--I've
nothing to do with pardons--always leave that to the governor-general
and councillors! Been doing anything wrong, then? Ah, what's this--still
calm, or some of your wind again, Mr Officer?' 'A fine breeze like to
hold, Sir Charles,' answered the mate, all bows and politeness. 'So!'
said Sir Charles; 'but I don't see Captain Williamson at all this
morning--where is he?' 'I am sorry to say he is very unwell, Sir
Charles,' said Finch. 'Indeed!' exclaimed the judge, with whom the
captain stood for all the seamanship aboard, and looking round again
rather dissatisfied. 'Don't like that, though. I hope he won't be long
unable to attend to things, sir--let me know as soon as he is recovered,
if you please.' 'Certainly, Sir Charles,' said the chief officer,
touching his cap with some appearance of pique; 'but I hope, sir, I
understand my duties in command, Sir Charles.' 'Daresay, sir,' said the
judge, '_as_ officer, probably. Commander absent--horrible accidents
already,' he muttered, crossly, changing his usual high sharp key to a
harsh croak, like a saw going through a heavy spar, 'something sure to
go wrong--wish we'd done with this deuced tiresome voyage. Ha, young
gentleman,' exclaimed he, turning as he went in, 'd'ye play
chess--suppose not--eh?' 'Why yes, sir,' said I, 'I do.' 'Well,'
continued he, overhauling me more carefully than he had done before,
though latterly I had begun to be somewhat in his good graces when we
met by chance, 'after all, you've a _chess_ eye, if you know the game at
all. Come in, then, for God's sake, and let's begin. Ever since the poor
brigadier _went_, I've had only myself or a girl to play against. 'Gad,
sir, there is something, I can't express how horrible to my mind, in
being matched against _nobody_--or, what's worse, against a _woman_! But
recollect, young gentleman, I can not bear a tyro'; and he glanced at me
as we walked into the large poop-cabin as sharply and as cold as a
nor'-wester, ere it breaks to windward.
"Now I happened to know the game, and to be particularly fond of it; so,
restless as I felt otherwise, I gave the old nabob a quiet nod, laid
down my griffin-looking straw hat on the sofa, and in two minutes there
we were, sitting opposite over a splendid China-made chess-board, with
elephants, emperors, mandarins, and Chinamen, all square and ataunto,
as if they'd been set ready for days. The dark _kitmagar_ commenced
fanning over his master's head with a bright feather punka, the other
native servant handed him his twisted hookah and lighted it, after which
he folded his arms and stood looking down on the board like a pundit at
some campaign of the Great Mogul; while the judge himself waited for my
first move, as if it had been some of our plain English fellows in
Hindostan commencing against your whole big India hubbub and finery, to
get hold of it all in the end. For my part I sat at first all of a
tingle and tremble, thinking how near his lovely daughter might be; and
there were the breakfast-cups laid out on a round table at the other
side, behind me.
"However, I made my move, Sir Charles made his, and pitched into the
game in a half-impatient, half long-headed sort of way, anxious to get
to the thick of it, as it were, once more. Not a word was said, and you
only heard the suck of the smoke bubbling through the water-bottle of
his pipe, after each move the judge made; till I set myself to the play
in right earnest, and, owing to the old gentleman's haste at the
beginning, or his over-sharpness, I hooked him into a mess with which I
used to catch the old hands at chess in the cockpit, just by fancying
what _they_ meant to be at. The judge lifted his head, looked at me, and
went on again. 'Your queen is in check, Sir Charles!' said I, next time,
by way of a polite hint. '_Check_, though, young gentleman!' said he,
chuckling, as he dropped one of his outlandish knights, which I wasn't
yet up to the looks of, close to the windward of my blessed old Turk of
a king; so the skirmish was just getting to be a fair set-to, when I
chanced to lift my eyes, and saw the door from the after-cabin open,
with Miss Hyde coming through. 'Now, papa,' exclaimed she on the moment,
'you must come to breakfast'--when all of a sudden, at seeing another
man in the cabin, she stopped short. Being not so loud and griffin-like
in my toggery that morning, and my hat off, the young lady didn't
recognise me at first--though the next minute, I saw by her colour and
her astonished look, she not only did that, but something else--no doubt
remembering at last where she had seen me ashore. 'Well, child,' said
the judge, 'make haste with it, then!--Recollect where we are, now,
young gentleman--and come to breakfast.' She had a pink muslin
morning-dress on, with her brown hair done up like the Virgin Mary in a
picture, and the sea had taken almost all the paleness off her cheek
that it had in the ball-room at Epsom, a month or two ago--and, by Jove!
when I saw her begin to pour out the tea out of the silver teapot, I
didn't know _where_ I was! 'Oh, I forgot,' said the judge, waving his
hand from me to her, in a hurry, 'Mr Robins, Violet! ho, _kitmagar_,
curry l'ao!' 'Oh,' said she, stiffly, with a cold turn of her pretty
lip, 'I have met Mr--Mr----' 'Collins, ma'am,' said I. 'I have met this
gentleman by accident _before_.' 'So you have--so you have,' said her
father; 'but you play chess well, Mr--a--a--what's his name?--ah! Colly.
Gad, you play _well_, sir--we must have it out!'
"The young lady glanced at me again with a sort of astonishment; at last
she said, no doubt for form's sake, though as indifferently as possible:
'You have known your friend the missionary gentleman long, I believe,
sir?--the Reverend Mr Thomas--I think that is his name?' 'Oh no, ma'am!'
said I hastily, for the judge was the last man I wished should join
Westwood and me together, 'only since we crossed the Line, or so.' 'Why,
I thought he said you were at school together!' said she, in surprise.
'Why--hem--certainly not, ma'am--a--a--I--a--a--I don't remember the
gentleman there,' I blundered out. 'Eh, what?--check to your queen,
young gentleman, surely?' asked Sir Charles. 'What's this, though!
Always like to hear a mystery explained, so'--and he gave me one of his
sharp glances. 'Why, why--surely, young man, now I think of it in that
way, I've seen you before in some peculiar circumstances or other--on
land, too. Why, where was it--let me see now?' putting his finger to his
forehead to think; while I sat pretty uneasy, like a small pawn that had
been trying to get to the head of the board, and turn into a knight or a
bishop, when it falls foul of a grand figured-out king and queen.
However, the queen is the only piece you need mind at a distance, and
blessed hard it is to escape from _her_, of course. Accordingly, I cared
little enough for the old nabob finding out I had gone in chase of them;
but there sat his charming little daughter, with her eyes on her
tea-cup; and whether the turn of her face meant coolness, or malice, or
amusement, I didn't know--though she seemed a little anxious too, I
thought, lest her father should recollect me.
"'It wasn't _before_ me, young man?' asked he, looking up of a sudden:
'no, that must have been in India--_must_ have been in England, when I
was last there--let me see.' And I couldn't help fancying what a man's
feelings must be, tried for his life, as I caught a side-view of his
temples working, dead in my wake, as it were. The thing was laughable
enough, and for a moment I met Lota's eye as he mentioned England--'twas
too short a glimpse, though, to make out; and, thought I, 'he'll be down
on Surrey directly, and then Croydon--last of all, the back of his
garden-wall, I suppose!' 'Check' it was, and what I was going to say I
couldn't exactly conceive, unless I patched up some false place or
other, with matters to match, and mentioned it to the old fellow, though
small chance of its answering with such a devil of a lawyer--when all at
once I thought I heard a hail from aloft; then the second mate's voice
roared close outside, 'Hullo!--aloft there!' The next moment I started
up, and looked at Miss Hyde, as I heard plainly enough the cry, 'On deck
there--land O!' I turned round at once, and walked out of the
round-house to the quarter-deck, where, two minutes after, the whole of
the passengers were crowding from below, the judge and his daughter
already on the poop. Far aloft, upon the fore-to'-gallant-yard, in the
hot glare of the sun, a sailor was standing with his hand over his eyes,
and looking to the horizon, as the Indiaman stood quietly before the
light breeze. 'Where-away-ay?' was the next hail from the deck. 'Broad
on our larboard bow, sir,' was the answer."