"The night was warm enough, however, in all conscience; and, if one had
been fit to eye it calmly, a glorious scene to see was the sky that rose
above our heads, glowing dark as indigo-blue through the rigging aloft,
as the ship's tall spars stood up into it, from one rope-ladder to
another; her main-truck like a white button against the midmost depth,
with every line running distinct to its place across knots of stars, and
single bright ones piercing sharp through the black squares of the
shrouds; while all round from her it widened away, glittering and
seething with lights, that brought the woods looming out bigger and
blacker along the nearest shore, making the dirty brown river look
dirtier and drearier than before, as the steam spread over the close
mangrove bank on the other side, and began to creep low out upon the
water like fleeces of wool, with the stars here and there sparkling from
the far horizon through the straggling fringe of cocoas beyond, and the
huge bloated baobabs that twisted up out of the tall guinea-grass, as if
their roots were in the air. The next glance I caught from Violet Hyde
showed nothing but the distress she was in; and I walked forward to hail
Jacobs on the fore-to'-gallant-yard, asking if he saw the signal yet.
'No, no, sir,' answered he, 'not a sign on it up to this time.'
"So back again I went, gloomy enough myself, but trying to keep up my
countenance, and saying I was sure we should see the boats come down
with the tide when it turned.
"'Have you noticed the stars aloft, Miss Hyde?' said I, in a cheerful
way, to take off her thoughts till the upshot came; 'they never saw
these in Europe, nor a night like this!' She looked up, and for a moment
or two the soft blue dark of the hollow seemed to sweep round both of
us, catching you up into it; the Milky Way falling over to westward,
like a track astern of the great star-ship down in the south; and
Orion's figure to be made out overhead, with the belt about him,
stretching off west out of the Milky Way--the Serpent streaming far up
to his foot; then Magellan's two shining bits of cloud, and the dim one,
seaward. There were patches to be seen blacker than ink, too, where you
seemed to look _through_ the sky, while every now and then a meteor shot
far across it and fell, leaving a trail like a silver thread. 'Twas
terrible, though, to see up into it, far away as they stood, and as
steady as if we weren't there, when heaven only knew _what_ might come
down river next half-hour. I felt her shoulder touch me as she leant
back--the starlight glistening in her blue eyes, and nothing but it
between her lovely young face and the stars; and I don't know how, but
it appears to me I thought during that half-minute as I never thought
before, and as if I looked off the other side of the world for the first
time--yet you couldn't expect a fellow's brain to breed such notions in
a merchantman's forecastle, or a frigate's steerage or gun-room, as it
did beside an Indiaman's bulwarks, entering for a moment or two into the
very feelings of a creature like the judge's daughter, when her warm
breath almost lighted on his cheek!
"Next minute I noticed over my shoulder, low down in the deep blue swell
of the south, where the five bright stars of the Southern Cross were
gleaming nearly upright over the top of a cocoa-clump on the opposite
bank, for all the world like some diamond ornament; and I pointed it out
to her, though I knew by the bearings of it how far the night was gone
toward the middle. Its top and bottom stars flashed out of the pure face
of heaven like jewels, each fit to buy the Great Mogul ten times over.
The dark fringes of her two eyes showed brown over the light in them,
while it looked like the hearts in violet flowers, as she turned. 'At
sea,' said I, 'we mids used to know by it when eight-bells would come,
to let us go below and turn in. Soon after you lose sight of the
Pole-star you rise the Southern Cross--and the men had a notion it was a
brooch the Virgin Mary lost from her breast, in the daylight, when she
went up to heaven! 'Twas her son gave it her, they fancied, but 'twas
always to be _found_ in the dark--though, meanwhile, 'tis a sign to the
Flying Dutchman, as he tries to weather the Cape, that he'll be forgiven
at the day of judgment--so that's the reason it has the power of showing
what's o'clock until _then_, and why the Cape is the Cape of Good Hope!'
'Yes, yes!' said she; 'in Paul and Virginia, I remember, when they were
so unwilling to part, _it_----' But she stopped with a blush, as her eye
met mine; and we were both so confused that, before I knew, I found
myself beginning to stammer out all manner of tender words, I daresay,
and to whisper her first name near her ear, she scarce seeming to mark
the difference--in fact _one_ bewildered sort of look was all she gave
me at the moment, as if she were listening more to the hum rising out of
the woods than to me.
"Once or twice the still shine of the lamp up through the open
skylight-frame drew my eye to it in spite of me--it was the only light
burning in the ship, and you saw the gleam of it from the starboard
port-window of the cuddy, drawn in as it was for air, thrown on the
dusky water, not many fathoms, apparently, off the jungly bank nearest
the ship. I can't tell you how, but somehow or other the appearance of
it there, like a yellow break in the misty shadow, letting one see the
very froth floating over it, and the muddy tint of the river on its
edges--with the hush below us in the cabin--awed me more than aught
besides; and whether it was from mixing the thing with what happened
afterwards, or how--perhaps the missionary moved inside--but when I
noticed the gleam on the water quiver and darken for a moment, then
shine out again, I felt I _knew_ it was then the captain's spirit passed
away. I slipped with a thrill of my blood to the skylight, and saw
Macleod still asleep, the missionary settling his spectacles on his nose
to read again, as if _he_ had looked up too when I did; while the cot
and bedclothes were hanging white in the shade as before, except that
the knees were drawn up, and the head turned away. He might be dozing,
though it came into my head I had heard the captain say he should last
till the _turn of the tide_; and in fact all the sick men I ever knew
die, unless there was something uncommon, died as the ebb came on. As I
stepped back to the young lady's side, I could mark the Southern Cross
by the after-edge of the mainmast, sparkling fairly upright above the
cocoa-nut trees, and Orion high up nor'-westward seemed farther away--it
was midnight. The thought flashed through me how something in the sky
could draw up a man's soul, as the shot at his hammock-foot would sink
his body down deep through blue water at sea--but the first light plash
of the ebb alongside brought me back to the case in hand, and I gave
Jacobs a quiet sign to look out sharp aloft.
"'Hark!' whispered Violet Hyde, suddenly, glancing sideways to me with
her ear eagerly toward the shore, and putting back her hair with one
hand to listen--'what is _that_?' I thought at first I could see a stir
along the thick aloe-bushes, and make out the rustle of leaves; but the
land-breeze was sighing in puffs through them already, and the fog
beginning to creep out from over the bank, as if to meet the muddy
stream from the other side; till next minute I heard what she meant,
like wild cries from human creatures half choked, or out of breath,
sounding along deep in the woods; then free out it rose in a clear
chorus of savage screams and yells, and then seemed smothered up again.
'Twas only a pack of jackals hunting from thick bush to opening, but
Violet pressed closer to me as the devilish noise drew nearer the river;
and suddenly my hand met hers--to say what I felt, passes me--but the
very next moment I had it fast clasped in my own, though I hadn't time
enough to say what the thing was, before the entire pack of throats
seemed to break out right upon the bank a little higher up than the
ship, barking and yelping like the very hounds of Satan. ''Tis only the
chase has taken to the water!' continued I, in a low voice, as the
infernal uproar stopped at once.
"However, _then_, the sweet girl was trembling like a leaf; and, by
Jove! madam, take it as you will, the man who wouldn't have had one arm
round her before that, could have been no sailor--that's all. 'For God's
sake, dear, dear Miss Hyde,' whispered I--'dearest Violet, let me take
you under shelter--we may have dangerous work before long!'
"I started up from the bulwarks, in fact, for the river by this time was
all aplash alongshore in the haze, and under the ship's bends, beginning
to run past her side seaward, as the branches and loose stuff came
floating out with the current off a point; the sedge and bulrushes
opposite us moaning and clattering, as the breeze rushed through them,
bringing the fog rolling down stream. The mist was closing overhead from
both sides already, though the stars sparkled through the middle yet;
and I knew the moon must be rising, fit to show us anything that came
out of the upper reach. 'No--no!' faltered out Violet, in tears, as she
slid herself quickly out of my hold, drawing the shawl over her with a
shudder; 'I cannot go inside till we see them come back--my dear, dear
father, I must see that he is safe!' 'By heaven! though,' exclaimed I,
jumping upon the carronade to look out, 'those brutes are swimming after
the deer, and the stream is bringing them down on our stern!' The
Indiaman was swinging her stern down to the ebb, and through the dusk I
fancied I just saw their black heads tipping here and there out of the
water, amongst the driftwood and froth, where the light from the cabin
port swung slowly into the mist, with the ship. However, they went past;
and she hadn't got her bow fair to the current, when a man from the bow
sung out, 'Hurrah! here's the boats now!'
"'Where, where?' said I, springing forward to the fore-chains, while the
young lady stood as if her life hung on the next word. 'There, sir,
right ahead almost as she swings,' said the sailor; and thick as the
blue fog was close to us, the cream-coloured haze filling up the reach
of the river beyond, was lighting up like white gauze with the moon, in
which I saw two or three black objects come dropping out as if from the
creek, their oar-blades flashing in it. But I thought they crowded
together awkwardly, like maimed craft, and the weight seemed to keep
them down, unless, as I hoped, they were waiting for the others. 'No,
no, Mr Collins!' whispered Jacobs, suddenly sliding down a topmast
backstay to my side, 'they're canoes, sir!' 'By the Lord! so they are,'
said I, seeing a flourish of the paddles that betrayed them. 'They're
hanging on yet, though, to catch us napping--keep cool, Bob, my man,'
continued I, for my spirits rose, to find my fears mistaken as yet about
our boats. 'But the cable--the cable!' added I hastily--'by George,
they'll try to cut it, as sure as fate! Ready there--don't fire a shot
till they're close--nothing but stupid nigger heathens after all, my
lads! Quick, a couple of you,' said I, 'bowse up the jib at once, and
down fore-topsail sheets--brace the yard sharp up, to cast her head down
if they do cut! If we go aground, Jacobs, we're gone!'
"'Twas vain to think of hindering them, few as we were, and scarce able
to see what they did for the fog; but the land-breeze already blew
pretty fresh, and the ebb rushing on her bows made the Indiaman heave to
it as her jib rose from the boom. I had no time to stand upon
ceremony--to think of the pilotage again--with the savages, the narrow
channel in the dusk, and the breakers together, was quite enough.
"In the very nick of such a breathless moment, I had just fancied I
caught the stroke of their paddles coming on--when all at once, out of
the open cabin-skylight aft, rose a sound, the like of which I never
heard in my life--between a yell and a cry; but the mouth of the
skylight seemed to send it up higher than the mast-heads, loud and
long, into the slit of starlight between the fog. For a single second
the marrow curdled in my bones, and I lost all thought even of the
canoes ahead, 'twas so unearthly; till, catching a glimpse of Violet's
white figure crouching in terror to the round-house door, I rushed aft,
and looked down at the cuddy. It was all black as midnight below, the
stink of the swinging lamp coming out; but by the horrible tumbling,
staggering, struggling sound inside, you'd have thought it full of some
awful thing, doing God knows what in the place--then a thump and a
groan. I scarce believe I could have mustered heart to go down the
companion and see--till next moment the Scotch mate's bare head and his
shoulders came thrusting up out of the stair, wrestling wildly with
three or four pitch-black naked figures--the narrow booby-hatch
hindering them from sticking together to him, except one that leapt out
almost on his back, aiming a fierce stroke with a club at his skull.
Quick as thought, however, my coolness had come back to me, and I just
sent the bullet from the ship's musket I had snatched up fair flash
through his lungs, the blood spouting out of his mouth almost over us,
as he spun round with his club in the air, and fell back--while smash
after smash I brought the stock of my piece down on the crowns of the
others, trying to get on deck too thick together; and Macleod was doing
the same like a man, at the skylight, where they were catching at the
edge of the frame. The shrieks of the ladies came off the poop above;
and as for the men, they were dodging under the forecastle bulwarks as
they fired at the canoes ahead, from the spears and arrows that came
whistling over, and quivering into the planks near me. What else the
fiendish wretches might be doing I didn't know, but I had no sooner
managed to shove the scuttle over the booby-hatch, the second mate
loading as fast as he could, and blazing away down into the skylight
like a perfect devil, lighting up the black faces and sharp teeth of the
savages below at every shot, rushing back, than I felt the Indiaman was
broadside on to the tide and current, sweeping down to open the next
reach with her jib and topsail full to the land-breeze. I sprang back to
seize the wheel, near which Violet Hyde stood cowering with her two
hands over her eyes, when, in the midst of it all, you may fancy my
horror to catch a glimpse of one hideous black stealing round towards
her in the shadow of the round-house, with a hatchet gleaming in one
hand, and the other stretched out to clutch her. 'Twas the work of a
second. I made one leap, and barely caught the blow on my gun-stock, as
he took hold of her dress; then over he and I rolled on the deck, first
one uppermost, then the other, till I found his strength was too much
for me, breathless as I was.
"The fellow had his huge hand round my throat, choking me, and ready to
spring up with the hatchet in his other fist--'twas the mulatto that had
been with the Portuguese--when I saw Violet Hyde dart forward between me
and the stars, throwing her large shawl round his head and arm from
behind him, and holding it tight, her face turned away white as death.
The mulatto loosened his grasp and jumped up, throwing her reeling back
to the door; but I was on my feet as soon as he, twisting his hatchet
from his grip, and sent the edge of it with all my force clean down into
his brain, through cashmere and everything. Ere he had time to pull it
off, he was stretched, breast and knees up, over the carronade-slide at
my feet.
"The dear girl had fainted. I lifted her, and hurried with her to the
sofa in the round-house, my heart swelling toward her in a way no man
can tell, though there was not a moment to stay, for when I reached the
wheel again, a sight broke upon me that showed the fearful danger we
were in. The savages in the cuddy could be heard plunging out of the
port to swim ashore; and though the ebb-tide was taking the ship
apparently clear round the woody turn, she had no sooner opened the wide
reach, where the fog was scattering before the breeze, than we began to
see a stretch of the nearest bank, off our starboard bow, glimmering out
to a huge fire on the edge, that lighted up the thick white haze like
sulphur--throwing a bloody red glow on the eddies in-shore, with two or
three black canoes dipping up and down in them; a crowd of dark naked
negroes rushing round the fire, bringing logs and branches to throw in,
till up it blazed again; the sparks flying into the smoke, the feathery
black jungle sinking back behind, and the banyan branches shooting out
into it, as if they were alive, licking the crimson gleams with their
sharp leaves; while a horrible noise of tree-drums beating and
buffalo-horns blowing floated off to us.
"The wretches seemed to expect we were coming straight in to them, and
they waited for us. And no wonder; for it wasn't till Jacobs came
running aft, to tell the mate and me, that, to our horror, we found the
canoes had got the rest of the cable fastened somehow or other low down
to her cutwater, and were coolly towing us in by it. We could neither
cut it nor dispose of them, as at every shot there were plenty more to
fill places; while the helm was only enough to steer her, had she been
free.
"'Jacobs,' said I, 'for heaven's sake bear a hand with two or three of
these heavy shot in a hammock--let's sling it out to the flying-jibboom
end, and I'll stand by to drop it fair over them--quick!' Three of us
ran out from the bowsprit, with the end of the line, swinging out the
weight and hauling it up, till we were nearly over their heads in the
foggy gleam from the blaze ashore. The cable tautened fair under us as
the blacks gave a stroke ahead together with their paddles, and 'Watch!'
I sung out above them, in a voice that made them huddle all three canoes
in a lump, peering up at us. 'Let go, my lads,' whispered I, and down
went the weight of shot full slap upon them, crash through their
gunwales, leaving no more than the bits, with the woolly heads bobbing
about in the stream. The second mate whirled round the spokes of the
wheel, on deck, and her jib and topsail drawing the breeze right again,
she began to stand out toward the middle once more. I watched the glare
of the fire sinking back into the blue fog, while the hubbub of wild
cries showed that they had taken the alarm, and were pushing off as fast
as possible in their canoes from the bank in chase.
"The next thing I saw, two or three minutes after, was the flash of a
large gun away on our starboard quarter, flaring out in the mist round
the strange schooner herself, as she came swiftly down astern of us,
under her two boom-sails and flying-jib, the froth whitening up from her
forefoot, and she crushing through amongst the canoes, letting drive at
them right and left, flash after flash, and roar after roar--her deck
crowded with men, too, amongst whom I thought I could make out the dark
Frenchman's broad-leafed Manilla hat. However, the wreaths of thick
smoke blew curling from her towards us; and directly after nothing was
to be heard but the ripple under our bows, as we went surging toward
the river's mouth, with the clear plash upon her copper coming nearer.
"Jacobs and I, as well as the other hand, hung over the boom together
for a little to loose the flying-jib, then out of pure weariness, till I
sent Jacobs to take the wheel and steer by my signals; for the Indiaman
had the full force of current and breeze astern of her, carrying her
fast toward the bar, as I guessed; while the second mate let her yaw
dreadfully, from fear of going wrong. As for the schooner, we could make
out her lights through the fog, the wind bringing us the sound of her
cutwater--though probably they couldn't know whereabouts we were; so I
hoped she might perhaps go past us in the dark, if she were actually in
chase of the Indiaman, as I feared.
"However, the moment the cheep of our flying-jib hanks on the stay was
heard as the sail was hoisted, a sharp hail came along the water.
'_Hola!_' sang out the creaking voice of the little French skipper, who
had bamboozled me so at sea. None of us answered, and I ran down the
spar to be ready for what might happen, when '_Hola! où êtes-vous?_'
shouted he again. 'Hullo! the _Seringapatam_, ahoy!' roared our chief
officer himself; to which no sooner had Macleod replied, than we caught
three hearty English cheers, and next minute the schooner's canvas was
looming up from the yellow glimmer of her lanterns a few fathoms on our
starboard quarter--the foam hissing off her sharp bright bows, while she
raced up with us. Everyone of us started at the jovial sound of old
Rollock the planter's voice, shouting, 'All's right, my boys!' as if he
had risen from the dead out of the sea--the schooner slipping easily by,
abreast of our high bulwarks; and the crowd of heads from stem to stern,
English, French, and Kroomen, gliding past below, for all the world like
a dream to most of us, with the light from the lanterns flaring up red
under hats, caps, and tarpaulins, and the black shadow of their figures
and small-arms thrown high in two clusters on the broad glare over her
fore and main boom-sails. 'Have ye actually taken the blackguards, sir?'
hailed the Scotch mate; at which a shout of laughter ran from one end of
her to the other; while one of the cadets seemingly half-drunk, could be
seen staggering aft to the stern as she forged swiftly ahead, just in
order to call out, 'Macleod, my old cock, _comment vous portez-vous_?'
The little French master jumped up on the schooner's taffrail, waving
his hand politely: '_J'aurai l'honneur pour vous conduire en débouchant,
Messieurs!_' shouted he; 'follow de light een my starn!'
"In fact, by this time we were already in the suck of the channel, so
that longer speaking was out of the question, as the boom of the surf
could be heard wide ahead of the ship. Suddenly a broad gleam of light
off the sea struck over our starboard bow, beyond the tumbling water
upon the bar, and to starboard the rocky headland broke through the fog
rolling out with the breeze: the schooner's stern lifted glimmering
before our figure-head, and we lost sight of her again, till we had
swept safe round the point. Five minutes more, and both Indiaman and
schooner were heaving on the waves from the shadow of the high land, the
dark-blue swells cresting up all round against a bank of cloud on the
horizon, and the long _send_ of the sea to be felt once more under
you--the moon rising out of the river, while a fresh breeze blew in the
offing, and promised to get a good deal stronger.
"The schooner soon hove to, and before we could have beaten up to her,
being to leeward, we saw one boat after another dropped astern or off
the side, till the whole five could be made out pulling for the ship;
but the minute after they were alongside, she filled away again,
standing almost right before the breeze up to north-westward.
"Well, you can fancy the confusion on board of us for a short time, what
with questions and explainings, and what with seeing worthy old Rollock
again, Ford, Winterton, the Brigadier, and Mrs Brady, after being parted
for a number of days in such a way. The young lady Miss Fortescue's
meeting with her mother was touching enough to witness, though of course
the gentleman had got it all over before; and in fact they seemed to
have made pretty merry aboard the French craft, while we were fighting
for fair life with those infernal Congo savages. The dead blacks on deck
and below had been thrown overboard already, and the Indiaman crowding
sail on her course; but I saw the judge for a minute before the
round-house door was shut, with his daughter sobbing on his neck; and as
soon as the rest met below in the cuddy, a scene was to be found there
which one doesn't easily forget--the steward lying in one doorway,
dead, with his head smashed by a club; the missionary under the table,
still bleeding, though he was alive, and not very much hurt after all.
Neither he nor Macleod could tell very well how the thing happened,
plain as it was now to me; but the strangest part of it to see, horrid
as it seemed at first, was the body of Captain Williamson. His cot had
been knocked to the deck, some of the devilish wretches had given his
forehead one gash, and his breast another, each fit to kill a man. There
was little or no blood, however; his face had a peaceful look on it,
almost smiling, you'd have said, by comparison with the poor steward's;
and as soon as his eyelids were down, the old seaman appeared to be
sleeping yet. For my part, I felt as sure as if I'd seen it, that when
the savages struck _that_ body, they might as well have struck at the
stars we had seen over the deck.
"Still, when all was cleared away, and the passengers gone tired out to
their berths, I couldn't turn in without a walk on the poop beside the
planter, to hear something from him--the ship all the time rising on the
brisk seas, every stitch of canvas spread, the African coast beginning
to drop in the moonshine, and the schooner a dim speck to north-west
through the long gleam on the horizon. I found to my great surprise,
there was no reason he could think of for the French craft's detaining
them, except that the Brigadier had sworn at Bonaparte in the brig's
cabin, or else Mrs Brady's having said she would give the world to see
him just now at St Helena; in fact she would go through fire and water
only to kiss the hand of such a great hero--such an enemy to all Saxons
and tyrants, she vowed. But in fact they had been sitting below at the
time our boat came aboard, and knew nothing about it; the French master
swore to Rollock, and to the chief officer afterwards, he had mistaken
_my_ meaning--because I spoke bad French, no doubt; after which the gale
came on, and they never saw the Indiaman again till to-night. As for
their going into the river, and changing her rig, the little Frenchman
said he found a brig's rig didn't suit a schooner's hull. For my part,
however, I didn't see how their course for the Isle of France could be
_north-west_. 'By-the-by, though,' added Rollock, 'Mrs Brady made some
mystery about the whole affair. She seemed to have a few private
discourses with that strange dark-faced passenger of theirs, who, I
suspect, had more to do with the vessel than he pretended. But I
daresay, Collins, my boy,' said he, laughing, 'she wanted to make us
think the foreigner had taken a fancy to her.'
"As we were both going below, I said, 'By-the-way, where is Mr Daniel
Snout?--I haven't seen _him_ yet.' 'Ah!' said the planter, turning
round, 'where is Daniel, after all! _I_ haven't seen him either, since
we left the schooner's deck--no, by Jove! sir, he really hasn't come on
board, now I think of it! I recollect we were the last boat, and he
wasn't in it, although he was behind me just before I got down.' 'What
can the man mean?' said I; and we both stood at the top of the hatchway
ladder, looking toward the horizon, at the speck of a schooner. 'By
jingo, Collins!' exclaimed the planter, chuckling, 'the Yankee is gone
to be a pirate!'"