"Well, ma'am," continued the naval man, on again resuming his narrative,
"as I told you, the sudden hail of 'Land!' brought us all on deck in a
twinkling, in the midst of my ticklish conversation with the judge.
'Hallo! you aloft!' shouted the chief officer himself, 'd'ye hear,
sirrah! use your eyes before hailing the deck!' 'Land, sir!' came
falling down again out of the sunlight; 'land it is, sir--broad away on
our larboard bow, sir.'
"By this time it was about half-past nine, or ten o'clock, of the
morning. Heading nearly due south-east, as we now were, the Indiaman's
bowsprit ran up into the full white blaze of light, in which her flying
jib-boom seemed to quiver and writhe far away from her like an eel in
water; while the spread of her sails against it loomed twice as large as
ordinary from the sort of hazy double-edged look they had, with a
twinkling thread of sun drawing all round them like a frame, as if one
saw through a wrong-screwed glass. You'd have thought by the glance
under the fore-course, over the ship's head-gratings, she was travelling
off quietly into some no-man's-land or other, where it would be so
bright we should have to wear blue spectacles: the light breeze being
almost direct from nor'-west, and so fairly in her favour, with the help
of her studding-sails she was making wonderful progress for such a mere
breath--about four knots to the hour, as I reckoned. The air aloft
appeared in the meantime to be steadying and _sucking_ though the water
kept smooth, and her bows scarce made a noise in it: the wide soft
swells of the sea just floated up of a pale blue, and lifted her on,
till she went seething gently down into it again; only, if you put your
head over the starboard side, and listened, you thought you heard a sort
of dull poppling ripple coming along the bends from round her counter.
As for the line of horizon on one bow or the other, 'twas hardly to be
made out at all, with a streaky white haze overlying it, up in the sky
as it were, on both sides, behind the dazzle of light. However, the
passengers were fancying all kinds of fine tropical matters lay hidden
thereaway; and in fact, what with the notion of land after a long
voyage, and what with the faint specks of bright cloud that seemed to be
melting far off in the glare--to anyone last from Gravesend, that had
never seen anything stranger than Richmond Hill of a Sunday, the whole
thing ahead of the ship would have rather an enchanted sort of a look.
At length the third mate was seen to shove his spy-glass together in the
top-gallant cross-trees, and came slowly down the rigging. 'Well, Mr
Rickett,' said the chief officer, meeting him, as he landed on deck.
'Well, sir,' said Rickett, 'it is land after all, Mr Finch!' The mate
rapped out an oath, and took another turn: Macleod screwed his mouth as
if he were going to whistle, then pulled his red whiskers instead, and
looked queer at Rickett; while Rickett stood peering into his spy-glass
as he would have done into his hat, had he still been a foremast-man.
The mate's eye met his, then turned to the passengers leaning over the
poop-railing; and they all three walked to the capstan, where they began
to overhaul the charts, and laid their heads together out of earshot.
"Now, whether this said land just made out on the north-east trended
away back to south-east, as the clearer look of the horizon to starboard
made one think, it was hard to say--though in _that_ way of it, there
were _seemingly_ two plans for widening her distance. Either Finch might
think it better to keep hold of a fair wind, and just edge her off
enough to drop the point on her weather quarter--when, of course, if
things stood as they were, we should soon set a good stretch of water
betwixt us and the coast; or else they might brace direct round on the
other tack, and head right south-west'ard, out to sea again; though if
we were still in it, the current would set us every bit as much in its
own direction as ever. Accordingly, I sidled nearer to the capstan, and
watched anxiously for what the third mate had to propose, after humming
and hawing a little, and scratching his head under his cap for half a
minute. 'At any rate, Mr Finch, sir,' said he, 'more especially the
captain being off charge, I may say, why, I'd advise ye, sir, to----'
Here he dropped his voice; but Finch apparently agreed to what he said.
"'Ready about ship, there!' said the second mate aloud to the boatswain
forward; and in ten minutes afterwards the _Seringapatam_ was fairly
round, as I had expected, heading at a right-angle to her former course,
with the breeze before her starboard beam, and the sun blazing on the
other. I walked forward to the bows, and actually started to hear how
loud and clear the ripple had got under them of a sudden; meeting her
with a plash, as if she were making six or seven knots headway, while
the canvas seemed to draw so much stiffer aloft, you'd have supposed the
breeze had freshened as soon as the helm was put down. The mates looked
over the side and aloft, rubbing their hands and smiling to each other,
as much as to say how fast she was hauling off the bad neighbourhood she
was in, though the heat was as great as ever, and you didn't feel a
breath more air below, nor see the water ruffle. To _my_ notion, in
fact, it was just the set of the current against her that seemingly
freshened her way, the ship being now direct in its teeth; so that, of
course, it would keep bearing her up all the time away north-eastward,
with _her_ own leeway to help it; and the less could anyone notice the
difference betwixt the water going past her side, and her passing the
water. This tack of hers, which Rickett, no doubt, thought such a safe
plan, might be the very one to put her in a really dangerous way yet:
for when they did discover this under-tow, how were they to take her out
of it, after all? Probably by trying to stand fair across the stream of
it to southward, which, without three times the wind we had, would at
best take us out many miles nearer the land it set upon, or leave us
perhaps becalmed in the midst of it.
"The truth was, that although I hadn't seen what like the land was, and
couldn't have said, by the chart, _where_ we were, I began to have a
faint notion of whereabouts we possibly soon might be, from what I
remembered hearing an old quartermaster in the _Iris_ say, a couple of
years before, regarding a particular spot on the south-west coast, where
the currents at some seasons, as he phrased it, made a regular
racecourse meeting. The old fellow gave me also, at the time, some
bearings of the nearest coast, with the landmarks at the mouth of a
river a little farther north--which, he said, he would know if you set
him down there of a dark night, though he had been in his bed at Gosport
the minute before, if there was just a bright streak of sky to the
eastward--namely, a big black rock like two steps, and a block at the
foot of them, somewhat the shape of a chipped holystone, running down on
one side out of a high headland, like an admiral's cocked hat, with six
mop-headed trees upon the root of the rock, for all the world like hairs
on a wart. Here I recollected how my worthy authority pointed modestly
for example to a case of the kind on his own nose. The opposite shore of
its mouth was flat, with a heavy white surf; but it shut in so far upon
the other, he said, that, steering from the south'ard, one would never
know there was a river there at all. The Bambar he called it; but if he
meant the Bembarooghe, we could scarcely be near _it_, or that much
toward being abreast of St Helena. For all I saw, indeed, we might have
nothing to eastward of us save a hard coast, or else the sandy coast
farther down, shoaling out of sight of land. At any rate, I knew we must
have got into the tail of the great sea-stream from round the Cape of
Good Hope, which would, no doubt, split out at sea on Viana's Bank, and
turn partly to north-eastward thereabouts; so that it wasn't a very bad
guess to suppose we were getting up somewhere near Cape Frio, the
likeliest place in the world to find old Bob Martin's 'Maze,' which we
used to joke about so in the _Iris_.
"What was done, though, required to be done quickly, and I looked about
for Tom Westwood, till I saw him on the poop amongst the rest, talking
again to Miss Hyde, as they all crowded towards the lee-quarter to watch
the land-haze seemingly dropping astern. My heart swelled as it were
into my throat, however, at such an appearance of good understanding
betwixt the two--whereas there was _she_, an hour ago that very morning,
would scarce favour me with a look or a word!--and, for the life of me,
I couldn't have spoken to Westwood at the time, much less gone hand in
hand; for that matter he didn't seem to be suspecting aught wrong to
trouble himself about. What to say or do, either, I couldn't think;
since the more he cut me out, and the less friendly I felt to him, the
less could I risk the chance of showing us both up for what we
_were_--which, of course, would bring him in for the worst of it; as if
_I_, by Jove, were going to serve him some low trick for the sake of
shoving _him_ out with the young lady.
"Meantime I kept fidgeting about, as if the deck were too hot for me,
snatching a glance now and then, in spite of myself, at Violet Hyde's
fairy-like figure; so different from the rest of them, as she stretched
eagerly from below the awning over the ship's quarter-gallery, trying to
make out where the land lay--now putting her little hand over her eyes
to see better, then covering them altogether from the dazzle, as she
drew in her head again and shook her bright brown hair in the shadow,
answering Westwood--confound him! The Indian servant each time carefully
poking out the red and yellow punkah-fringe for a cover over her, while
the passengers were one and all ready to cry at not seeing the land, and
leaving it behind. The judge himself was the only man that seemed to
have a dim notion of something queer in the whole case; for every few
minutes he walked quietly to the break of the poop, where I noticed him
cast a doubtful look down upon the 'chief officer'; and when the surgeon
came up, he asked anxiously how Captain Williamson was, and if he
couldn't be seen below. However, the surgeon told him the captain had
just fallen for the first time into a good sleep, and there was no
admittance, but he was likely to be much better soon.
"By this time there was no standing out from under the awnings, and the
quarter-deck and poop had to be well swabbed to keep them at all cool,
the steam of it rising inside with a pitchy, hempen sort of smell you
never feel save in the Tropics; the _Seringapatam_ still feeling the
breeze aloft, and lifting on the water with a ripple forward, although
her big courses went lapping fore and aft every time she swung. The long
white haze on the horizon began to melt as the sun heightened, clearing
from under the wake of the light, till now you could fairly see the sky
to eastward. Near noon, in fact, we had almost dropped the haze
altogether on the ship's quarter; and at first I was glad to see how
much way she had made in the two hours, when on second thoughts, and by
noticing some marks in the loom of it, I had no doubt but though she
might be farther off, why it was only while she set more up to
north-eastward, so that we were actually, so to speak, leaving it by
getting nearer! However, as the men were at dinner, and most of the
passengers gone off the poop, down to 'tiffin,' I made up my mind to try
what I could do in a quiet way, towards making the mate think of it more
seriously.
"'Ah,' said I, in a would-be brisk and confidential kind of way, 'glad
we're leaving that--a--you know, that land, Mr Finch.' 'Indeed, sir,'
said he indifferently. 'Oh, you know,' said I, 'it's all very well for
the _passengers_ there to talk fine about land--land--but you and I, Mr
Finch, don't need to be told that it's always dangerous at sea, you
know.' The mate lifted his head and eyed me for a moment or two between
the disgust a sailor feels at seeing a fellow pretend to aught like
seamanship, and a particular sort of spite toward me which I'd noticed
growing in him for the last few days--though I daresay my breakfasting
that morning in Sir Charles's cabin might have brought it to a height.
"'Land dangerous, sir!' answered he carelessly, as he went on wiping
his quadrant again; 'who put _that_ into your head?' 'Oh, well,'
returned I, just as carelessly, 'if it's to leeward of course--or with a
current taking you towards it--only then. But I've no doubt, Mr Finch,
if this wind _were_ to--ah--you know, heave more abaft, that's to say
get stronger, the craft would at least stand still, till you got her.'
'What on earth _are_ you talking about, Mr Ford--Collins, I mean?' asked
he sharply. 'Really, sir, I've got something more to attend to at
present, than such trash about a current, and the devil knows what
else!' 'How, why, Mr Finch,' said I, seemingly surprised in my turn,
'_are_ we not in a current just now, then?' 'Current!' replied Finch,
almost laughing outright, 'what _does_ the man mean?' 'Why, every one
thinks so, in the cuddy,' said I, as if rather taken aback, and
venturing what you fair ladies call a 'fib,' 'ever since we picked up
the bottle last night.' This, by-the-by, had got spread through some of
the men to the passengers, though, of course, nobody knew what had been
in it yet. '_There_, I declare now,' continued I, pointing to our
lee-bow, where I'd had my eyes fixed during the five minutes we spoke,
'we can try it again. Do you see that bird yonder on the water?' The
mate turned his head impatiently, and 'Look, watch him, sir,' said I.
"This was a tired man-o'-war bird afloat about twenty fathoms off, with
its sharp white wings stretched just clear of the water, and its black
eye sparkling in the sunlight, as it came dipping on the long, smooth,
hot-blue swell into the lee of the ship's lofty hull, till you saw its
very shadow in the glitter below it. The Indiaman seemed to pass him as
if he rode there at anchor; only the curious thing was, that the bird
apparently neared her up from leeward, crossing her larboard quarter
within a fathom or two, when all of a sudden he got becalmed, as it
were, in the wake right astern, and by the time either of us could walk
to the ship's taffrail, she was close over him; as if, whenever her hull
was end-on, it took his surface-drift away from him, and, what was more,
as if the _ship_ kept hold of it--her eighteen feet or so to his little
inch of a draught--for it couldn't be owing to the wind.
"However, the man-o'-war bird took offer of the next swell to get air in
his wings, and rose off the heave of it with a sharp bit of a scream,
away after some black boobies diving for fish, which no doubt he would
catch, as they dropped them at sight of him.
"The mate upon this started and looked round, then aloft. 'Confound it!'
said he to himself, 'if this breeze would only freshen! There _is_ a
sort of set on the surface just now,' continued he to me, coolly enough,
'though how you idlers happened to have an idea of it puzzles me, unless
because you've nothing else to do but watch the water. Currents are
pretty frequent hereabouts, however.' 'Dear me!' said I, 'but if we
should----' 'Stuff, sir!' said he, quickly, 'the coast here must be
steep-to enough, I should think, since if it weren't for the haze, we'd
have sighted it thirty miles off! What we want is wind--wind, to let's
cross it.' 'But then a calm, Mr Finch,' I said; 'I'm hanged afraid of
those calms!' 'Well, well, sir,' said he, not liking just to shake me
off at once, after my proving less of a ninny in sea matters than he had
supposed, 'these long currents never set right ashore; even if we lose
the wind, as we may soon, why, she'll take off into the eddy seaward,
sir, if you _must_ know--the dead-water in-shore, and the ebb-tide,
always give it a safe turn!'
"All this, of course, was as much to satisfy himself as me. 'Well,
that's delightful,' said I, as if quite contented, and Mr Finch walked
away hastily down one of the poop-ladders, no doubt glad to get rid of
me in a decent manner, though I saw him next minute glancing in at the
compass-boxes.
"'Keep her up to her course, sirrah; luff, d'ye hear,' said he to
Jacobs, who was, perhaps, the best helmsman aboard. 'She falls off
tremendous bad, sir,' answered Jacobs, with another whirl of the spokes;
her want of actual headway making the Indiaman _sag_ dead away to
leeward, as she shoved into the force of the sea-stream, running more
and more direct upon her starboard bow. One minute the courses would
sink in with a long sighing fall to the lower-masts, the next her
topsails would flutter almost aback, and the heat even in the shadow of
her awnings was extreme, yet she still seemed to have a breeze through
the white glare aloft. I was determined to bring things to a point
somehow or other, so I followed the mate down the steps. 'Oh, by-the-by,
Mr Finch!' said I eagerly, 'suppose one of those dreadful--what do you
call 'em?--ah, tornadoes--were to come on! I understand this is just the
way, near Africa--baffling breeze--heat suffocating--hazy
atmosphere--long swell--and current rising to the surface!'
"At this Finch stood up in a perfect fury. 'What the devil d'ye mean,
sir,' said he, 'by dodging me about the decks in this fashion, with
these infernally foolish questions of yours?' 'Oh, my fine fellow,'
thought I, 'you shall settle with me for that.' 'Tornadoes never blow
hereabouts, except off-shore, if you _must_ know, sir!' he rapped out,
sticking his hands in his jacket-pockets as he said so, and taking a
turn on the quarter-deck. 'That's quite a mistake, I assure you, sir!'
said I, carried away with the spirit of the thing; 'I've seen the
contrary fifty times over, and, from the look of the sky aloft just now,
I'd bet----' Here I stopped, recollected myself, put the top of my cane
in my mouth, and peered under the awning at the sea with my eyes
half-shut, as sleepily as usual with my messmates the cadets. The chief
officer, however, stepped back in surprise, eyed me sharply, and seemed
struck with a sudden thought. 'Why, sir,' said he, rather anxiously,
'who may--what can _you_ know of the matter?' 'Pooh!' replied I, seeing
some of the passengers were coming on deck, 'I'm only of an inquiring
turn of mind! You seafaring persons, Mr Finch, think we can't get any of
that kind of knowledge on land; but if you look into Johnson's
Dictionary, why, you'll find the whole thing under the word Tornado:
'twas one of the pieces I'd to get by heart before they'd admit me into
our yacht-club--along with Falconer's _Shipwreck_, you know!' 'Indeed!'
said the mate, slowly, with a curl of his lip, and overhauling me from
head to foot and up again; 'ah, indeed! That was the way, was it, sir?'
I saw 'twas no use. I daresay he caught the twinkle in my eye; while
Jacobs' face, behind him, was like the knocker on a door with trying to
screw it tight over his quid, and stuffing the knot of his neckerchief
in his mouth.
"'Of course, sir,' answered I, letting my voice fall; 'and the long and
the short of it is, Mr Finch, the sooner you get your ship out of this
current the better! And what's more, sir, I daresay I could tell you
_how_!'
"Whether he was waiting for what I'd to say, or thinking of something
just occurred to him, was doubtful: he still gazed steadily at me,
without saying a word; so I went on. 'You must know I had an old uncle
who was long in His Majesty's Royal Navy, and if there was one point he
was crazy upon, 'twas just this very matter of currents--though, for my
part, Mr Finch, I really never understood what he meant till I made a
voyage. He used to tell my mother, poor woman--who always fancied they
had somewhat to do with puddings--that he'd seen no less than
half-a-dozen ships go on shore, owing to currents. Now, Jane, he'd say,
when you're fairly in a current, never you try to cross out of it, as
folks often do, _against_ the run of it, for in that case, unless the
wind's strong enough, why, instead of striking the eddy to take your
craft right off-shore, it'll just set you over and over to the _inside_.
You'll cross, in the end, no doubt--but ten to one it's exactly where
the water begins to shoal; whereas, the right plan's as simple as
daylight, and that's why so few know it! Look ye, he'd say, always you
cross _with_ the stream--no matter though your head seems to make
landward; why, the fact is, it'll just set you outside of itself, clear
into its own bight, when you can run off to seaward with the eddy, if ye
choose. _That's_ the way to cross a current, my uncle used to say,
provided you've but a light wind for handling her with! Now, Mr Finch,'
added I, coolly, and still mouthing my stick as before--for I couldn't
help wishing to give the conceited fellow a rub, while I lent him a
hint--'for my own part, I can't know much of these things, but it _does_
seem to me as if my uncle's notions pretty well suited the case in
hand!'
"Finch was too much of a fair seaman not to catch my drift at once, but
in too great a passion to own it at the time. 'D'ye think, sir,' said
he, with a face like fire, 'so much sense as there is in this long
rigmarole of yours, that I'm such a--that's to say, that I didn't know
it before, sir? But what I've got to do with _you_, Mr Collinson, or
whatever your name may be--you may have been at sea twenty years, for
aught I care--but I'd like to know _why_ you come aboard here, and give
yourself out for as raw a greenhorn as ever touched ropes with a kid
glove?' 'Well, Mr Finch,' said I, 'and what's that to you, if I choose
to be as green as the North Sea whaling-ground?' 'Why, sir,' said Finch,
working himself up, 'you're devilish cunning, no doubt, but perhaps
you're not aware that a passenger under a false rig, in an Indiaman,
may be clapped in limbo, if the captain thinks fit? Who and what are
you, I ask?--some runaway master's mate, I suppose, unless you've got
something deeper in hand! Perhaps,' ended he, with a sneer, 'a
pickpocket in disguise?' 'Sir,' said I, getting up off the bulwark I'd
been leaning upon, 'at _present_ I choose to be a cadet, but at any
rate, you shall make an apology for what you said just now, sir!'
'Apology!' said the mate turning on his heel, 'I shan't do anything of
the sort! You may be thankful, in the meantime, if I don't have you
locked up below, that's all! Perhaps, by-the-by, sir, all you wanted was
to show off your seamanship before the young lady in the round-house
there?' Here the glance the fellow gave me was enough to show he knew
pretty well, all the while, what we were matched against each other for.
"I could stand this no longer, of course; but, seeing that one or two of
the passengers were noticing us from the poop, I looked as polite as is
possible to do when you've lost your temper; and, in fact, the whole
disappointment of this hair-brained cruise of mine--not to speak of a
few things one had to stand--carried me away at the moment. There was no
scheme I wouldn't rather have been suspected of, by this time, than the
real one--namely, having gone in chase of Violet Hyde. I took a card out
of my pocket and handed it quietly to Mr Finch. 'You don't seem able to
name me, sir,' said I. 'However, I give you my word, you may trust that
bit of pasteboard for it; and as I take you to be a gentleman by your
place in this ship, why, I shall expect the satisfaction one gentleman
should give another, the first time we get ashore, although it _should_
be to-morrow morning! And, by Jove!' thought I, 'I hope I'm done with
the most foolish trick ever a fellow played himself! The man that
ventures to call me _green_ again, or look at me as if he wanted to cool
his eyes, hang me if he shan't answer for it! As for a woman,' thought
I, but, oh, those two blue eyes yonder--confound it! as I caught sight
of a white muslin skirt in the shade of the poop-awning above.
"I must say, for Finch, he took my last move coolly enough, turning
round to give me another look, after glancing at the card. 'Indeed!'
said he, as if rather surprised; 'well, sir, I'm your man for _that_,
though it can't be just as soon as to-morrow morning! A Company's
officer may meet a lieutenant in the Navy any time--ay, and take his
ship off the land too, I hope, sir!' and with that he walked off
forward. 'Lieutenant!' said I to myself; 'how did he give me my
commission so pat, I wonder?' and I pulled out another card, when I
found, to my great annoyance, that in my hurry that morning I had
happened to put on a coat of Westwood's by mistake, and instead of plain
'Mr Collins,' they were all 'Lieutenant Westwood, R.N.' 'Here's another
confounded mess!' thought I, 'and all will be blown in the end!'
However, on second thoughts, the notion struck me, that, by sticking to
the name, as I must do _now_ at any rate, why, I should keep Westwood
clear of all scrapes, which, in _his_ case, might be disagreeable
enough; whereas, at present, he was known only as the Reverend Mr
Thomas--and, as for _his_ either shamming the griffin, or giving hints
how to work the ship, he was one of those men you'd scarce know for a
sailor, by aught in his manner, at least: and, indeed, Tom Westwood
always seemed to need a whole frigate's ways about him, with perhaps
somewhat of a stir, to show what he really was.
"Five minutes or so after this, it didn't certainly surprise me much to
see the Indiaman laid on the opposite tack, with her head actually
north-by-east, or within a few points of where the light haze faded into
the sky: the mate seeming by this time to see the matter clearly, and
quietly making his own of it. The ship began to stand over towards the
outer set of the current, which could now be seen rippling along here
and there to the surface, as the breeze fell slowly: you heard nothing
save the faint plash of it astern under one counter, the wafting and
rustling of her large main-course above the awnings, for she was covered
over like a caravan--the slight flap of her jibs far ahead on the
bowsprit startled you now and then as distinctly as if you got a fillip
on your own nose; the stunsail, high up beside the weather-leech of her
fore-topsail, hung slack over the boom, and one felt each useless jolt
of the wheel like a foot-slip in loose sand when you want to run--all
betwixt the lazy, listless voices of the passengers, dropping and
dropping as separate as the last sands in an hour-glass. Still, every
minute of air aloft helped her nearer to where you saw the water winding
about the horizon in long swathes, as it were, bluer than the rest, and
swelling brimful, so to speak, out of a line of light; with the long
dents and bits of ripple here and there creeping towards it, till the
whole round of the surface, as far as you could see, came out into the
smooth, like the wrinkles on a nutmeg.
"Four bells of the afternoon watch had struck--two o'clock, that
is--when Rickett, the third mate, and one or two men, went out to the
arm of the spritsail-yard across the bowsprit, where they lowered away a
heavy pitch-pot with a long strip of yellow bunting made fast to it, and
weighted a little at the loose end, to mark the _set_ of the current;
and as the pot sank away out on her larboard bow, one could see the
bright-coloured rag deep down through the clear blue water, streaming
almost fairly _north_. She appeared to be nearing the turn of the eddy,
and the chief officer's spirits began to rise. Rickett screwed one eye
close, and looked out under his horny palm with the other, doubtful, as
he said, that we should 'sight the land off-deck before that. As for
this trifle of an air aloft, sir,' said he, 'I'm afraid we won't----'
'Hoot, Mr Reckett,' put in Macleod, stepping one of his long trouserlegs
down from over the quarter-deck awning, like an ostrich that had been
aloft, 'ye're aye afraid; but it's not easy to see aloft, Mr Fench,
sir.' 'How does the land lie _now_, Mr Macleod?' asked the first
officer. 'Well, I wouldn't wonder but we soon dropped it, sir--that's to
_east'ard_, I mean,' replied he; 'though it's what we call a bit
mountainous, in Scotland--not that unlike the Grampians, Mr Fench, ye
know!' 'Hang your Grampians, man!--what's _ahead_ of us, eh?' said the
mate hastily. 'Why, sir,' said the Scotchman, 'there _is_ some more of
it on the nor'-east, lower a good deal--its just flush with the water
from here, at present, Mr Fench--with a peak or two, trending away
too'ard north; but the light yonder on our starboard bow makes them hard
for to see, I may say.'
"In fact, some of the men forward were making it out already on the
starboard bow, where you could see the faint ragged shape of a headland
coming out, as it were, of the dazzle beyond the water, which lay
nickering and heaving between, from deep-blue far away into pale; while
almost at the same time, on her starboard quarter, where there was less
of the light, another outline was to be seen looming like pretty high
land, though still fainter than the first. As for the space betwixt
them, for aught one could distinguish as yet, there might be nothing
_there_ except air and water over against the ship's side.
"'Well,' said the mate briskly, after a little, 'we're pretty sure,
_now_, to have the land-breeze to give us sea-room, before two or three
hours are over--by which time, I hope we'll be in the eddy of this
infernal current, at any rate!' However, I was scarce sure he didn't
begin to doubt the plan I'd given him; whereas had he known the whole
case in time, and done the thing _then_, it was certain enough--and the
best thing he could do, even as it was: but what troubled me now, why,
suppose anything happened to the ship, mightn't he turn the tables on me
after all, and say I had some bad design in it? I loitered about with my
arms folded, saying never a word, but watching the whole affair keener
than I ever did one of Shakspeare's plays in the theatre after a dull
cruise; not a thing in sea, sky, or Indiaman, from the ripples far off
on the water to ugly Harry hauling taut the jib-sheet with his chums,
but somehow or other they seemed all to sink _into_ me at the time, as
if they'd all got to come _out_ again strong. You hardly knew _when_ the
ship lost the last breath of air aloft, till, from stealing through the
smooth water, she came apparently to a standstill, everything spread
broad out, not even a flap in the canvas almost, it had fallen a dead
calm so gradually.
"However, _my_ troubles weren't seemingly over yet, for just then up
came the judge's dark kitmagar to the gangway where I was, and, from the
sly impudence of the fellow's manner, I at once fancied there was
something particular in the wind, as if he'd been seeking me
about-decks. 'S'laam, mistree!' said he, with but a slight duck of his
flat brown turban, 'Judge sahib i-send Culley Mistree his
chupprass'--_message_, forsooth!--'sah'b inquire the flavour of
gentlyman's Ees-Inchee Coompanee, two-three moment!' 'The flavour of my
East-India Company, you rascal!' said I, laughing, yet inclined to kick
him aft again for his impertinent look; 'speak for yourself, if you
please!'
"In fact, the whiff of cocoa-nut oil, and other dark perfumes about him,
came out in a hot calm at sea, when everything sickens one, as to need
no inquiry about the matter; however, I walked straight aft to the
round-house, and in at the open door, through which Sir Charles was to
be seen pacing from one side of his cabin to the other, like a Bengal
tiger in a cage. 'Harkye, young man,' said he sternly, turning as soon
as I came in, with my hat in my hand, 'since I had the honour of your
company here this morning, I have recollected--indeed, I find that one
of my servants had done the same--that you are the person who molested
my family by various annoyances beside my garden at Croydon, sir!'
'Indeed, Sir Charles!' said I coolly, for the bitter feeling I had made
me cool: 'they must have been unintentional then, sir! But I was
certainly at Croydon, seeing my mother's house happens to be there.'
'You must have had some design in entering this vessel, sir!' continued
the judge, in a passion: ''gad, sir, the coincidence is too curious!
Tell me what it is at once, or by----' 'My design was to go to India,
sir,' answered I, as quietly as before. 'In what capacity?--who are
you?--what--who--what do you want _there_, eh?' rapped out the judge.
'I'm not aware, sir,' said I, 'what right you've got to question me; but
I--in fact, I'll tell _so_ much to any man--why, I'm an officer in the
Navy.'
"Sir Charles brought short up in his pacing and stamping, and stared at
me. 'An officer in the Navy!' repeated he; 'but yes--why, now I think, I
do remember something in your dress, sir--though it was the _face_ that
struck me! In short then, sir, this makes the case worse: you are here
on false pretences--affecting the very reverse, sir--setting yourself up
for a model of simplicity,--a laughing-stock indeed!' 'I had reasons for
not wishing my profession to be known, Sir Charles,' said I; 'most
special reasons. They're now over, however, and I don't care _who_ knows
it!' 'May I ask what these were?' said the judge. '_That_ I'll never
tell to any man breathing!' I said determinedly.
"The judge walked two or three times fore and aft; then a thought seemed
to strike him--he looked out as if at the decks and through below the
awnings, then shut the door and came back to me again. 'By-the-way,'
said he seriously, and changing his tone, 'since this extraordinary
acknowledgment of yours, sir, something occurs to me which makes me
almost think your presence in the vessel in one sense opportune. I have
reason to entertain a high opinion of naval officers as technical men,
professionally educated in His Majesty's regular service, and--you look
rather a _young_ man--but have you had much experience, may I ask?' 'I
have been nine or ten years at sea, sir,' replied I, a little taken
aback, 'in various parts of the world!' 'I have some suspicion lately,'
he went on, 'that this vessel is not navigated in a--in short, that at
present, probably, we may be in some danger--do _you_ think so, sir?'
'No, Sir Charles,' said I, 'I don't think she _is_, as matters
stand--only in a troublesome sort of quarter, which the sooner she's out
of the better.' 'The commander is, I find, dangerously unwell,'
continued he, 'and of the young man who seems to have the chief care of
the vessel, I have no very high--well--_that_, of course I----Now, sir,'
said he, looking intently at me, 'are _you_ capable of--in short, of
managing this Company's vessel, should any emergency arise? I have seen
such, myself--and in the circumstances I feel considerable
alarm--uneasiness, at least--Eh, sir?' 'Depend upon it, Sir Charles,' I
said, stepping toward the door, 'in any matter of the kind I'll do my
best for this ship! But none knows so well as a seaman, there are cases
enough where your very best can't do much!'
"The judge seemed rather startled by my manner--for I _did_ feel a
little misgiving, from something in the weather on the whole; at any
rate I fancied there was a cold-bloodedness in every sharp corner of his
face, bilious though his temper was, that would have let him see _me_ go
to the bottom a thousand times over, had I even had a chance with his
daughter herself, ere he'd have yielded me the tip of her little finger:
accordingly 'twas a satisfaction to me, at the moment, just to make him
see he wasn't altogether in his nabob's chair in Bengal yet, on an
elephant's back.
"'Ah, though!' said he, raising his voice to call me back, 'to return
for an instant--there is one thing I must positively require, sir--which
you will see, in the circumstances, to be unavoidable. As a mere simple
cadet, observe, sir, there was nothing to be objected to in a slight
passing acquaintance--but, especially in the--in short, equivocal--sir,
I must request of you that you will on no account attempt to hold any
communication with my daughter, Miss Hyde--beyond a mere bow, of course!
'Twill be disagreeable, I assure you. Indeed, I shall----' 'Sir,' said
I, all the blood in my body going to my face, 'of all things in the
world, _that_ is the very thing where your views and mine happen to
square!' and I bowed.
"The man's coolness disgusted me, sticking such a thing in my teeth,
after just reckoning on my services with the very same breath--and all
when it wasn't required, too! And by Heaven! thought I, had _she_ shown
me favour, all the old nabobs in Christendom, and the whole world to
boot, shouldn't hinder me from speaking to her! What I said apparently
puzzled him, but he gave me a grand bow in his turn, and I had my hand
on the door, when he said, 'I suppose, sir, as a naval officer, you have
no objection to give me your name and rank. I forget what----' Here I
remembered my mistake with the mate, and on the whole I saw I must stick
by it till I was clear of the whole concern; as for _saying_ my name was
Westwood, that I couldn't have done at the time for worlds; but I
quietly handed him another card, meaning, of course, to give Westwood
the cue as shortly as possible, for his own safety. The judge started on
seeing the card, gave me one of his sharp glances, and made a sudden
step towards me. 'Have you any relation in India, Mr Westwood?' said he,
slowly, to which I gave only a nod. 'What is he, if I may inquire?'
asked he again. 'A councillor or something, I believe,' said I,
carelessly. '_Thomas_ Westwood?' said Sir Charles. 'Ah,' said I, wearied
of the thing, and anxious to go. 'An uncle, probably, from the age?' he
still put in. 'Exactly, that's it!' I said. 'Why--what!--why did you not
mention this at first?' he broke out suddenly, coming close up; 'why,
Councillor Westwood is my very oldest friend in India, my dear sir! This
alters the matter. I should have welcomed a nephew of his in my house,
to the utmost! Why, how strange, Mr Westwood, that the fact should
emerge in this curious manner!' and with that he held out his hand. 'Of
course,' said he, 'no such restriction as I mentioned could for a moment
apply to a nephew of Councillor Westwood!'
"I stared at him for a moment, and then--'Sir,' said I, coolly, 'it
seems the whole matter goes by names; but if my name were the devil or
the Apostle Paul, I don't see how it can make a bit of difference in
_me_: what's more, sir,' said I, setting my teeth, 'what_ever_ my name
may be, depend upon it, I shall never claim acquaintance either with you
or--or--Miss Hyde!' With that I flung straight out of the cabin,
leaving the old gentleman bolt upright on the floor, and as dumb as a
stock-fish, whether with rage or amazement I never stopped to think.
"I went right forward on the Indiaman's forecastle, clear of all the
awnings, dropped over her head out of sight of the men, and sat with my
legs amongst the open woodwork beneath the bowsprit, looking at the
calm--nobody in sight but the Hindoo figure, who seemed to be doing the
same. _Westwood!_ thought I, bitterly; then in a short time, when the
mistake's found out, and he got safe past the Cape, perhaps--it'll be
nothing but Westwood! He'll have a clear stage, and all favour; but at
any rate, how_ever_ it may be, _I_'ll not be here, by Heaven, to see it.
That cursed councillor of his, I suppose, is another nabob--and no doubt
he'll marry her, all smooth! Uncles--I little thought, by Jove! when I
knocked off that yarn to the mate about _my_ uncle--but, after all, it's
strange how often a fellow's paid back in his own coin!
"The heat at the time was unbearable--_heat_, indeed! 'twasn't only
heat--but a heavy, close, stifling sort of feeling, like in a hot-house,
as if you'd got a weight on your head and every other bit of you: the
water one time so dead-blue and glassy between the windings of it, that
the sky seemed to vanish, and the ship looked floating up into where
_it_ was--then again you scarce knew sea from air, except by the
wrinkles and eddies running across each other between, toward a sullen
blue ring at the horizon--like seeing through a big twisted sieve, or
into a round looking-glass all over cracks. I heard them clue up
everything aloft, except the topsails--and _they_ fell slapping back and
forward to the masts, every now and then with a _thud_ like a thousand
spades clapped down at once over a hollow bit of ground--till all seemed
as still between as if they'd buried something. I wished to Heaven it
were what I _felt_ at the time, and the thought of Violet Hyde, that I
might be as if I never had seen her--when on glancing up betwixt the
figure-head and the ship's stern, it struck me to notice how much the
land on her starboard bow and beam seemed to have risen, even during the
last hour, and that without wind; partly on account of its clearing in
that quarter, perhaps; but the nearest points looked here and there
almost as if you could see into them, roughening barer out through the
hue of the distance, like purple blotches spreading in it. Whereas, far
away astern of us, when I crossed over her headworks, there were two or
three thin white streaks of haze to be seen just on the horizon, one
upon another, above which you made out somewhat like a dim range of
peaked land, trending one couldn't say how far back--all showing how
fairly the coast was shutting her in upon the south-east, as she set
farther in-shore, even while the run of the current bade fair to take
her well clear of it ahead; which was, of course, all we need care for
at present. Her want of steerage-way, however, let the Indiaman sheer
hither and thither, till at times one was apt to get confused, and
suppose her more in with the landloom than she really was. Accordingly
the mate proved his good judgment by having a couple of boats lowered
with a tow-line, to keep her at least stem-on to the current, although
the trouble of getting out the launch would have more served his
purpose, and the deeper loaded the better, since in fact there were
_two_ favourable drifts instead of one, between every stroke of the
oars. The men pulled away rather sulkily, their straw hats over their
noses, the dip of the hawser scarce tautening at each strain, as they
squinted up at the _Seringapatam's_ idle figure-head. For my part I had
thought it better to leave him by himself, and go below.