"Well, ma'am," continued our narrator, addressing himself, as usual, to
his matronly relative in the chair, and with the accustomed catch-word,
which was like the knotting together of his interrupted yarn: "well--it
was between a fortnight and three weeks after losing sight of St Helena,
that, being at last fairly in the latitude of the Cape, the frigate and
schooner tacked in company, and stood close-hauled on a wind to the
eastward. By the middle watch that night, when the moon set, we could
make out the long flat top of Table Mountain heaving in sight off the
horizon over against her. Next day, in fact, we were both of us quietly
at anchor outside of the shipping in Table Bay; Cape Town glittering
along on the green flat amongst the trees to southward, with the hills
on each side of it like some big African lion lying on guard close by;
while Table Mountain hove up, square-shouldered, blue to the left, four
thousand feet high, as bare and steep as a wall, with the rocks and
trees creeping up from the foot, and the wreaths of light cloud resting
halfway, like nothing else but the very breakwater of the world's end.
The sea stretched broad off to north and west, and a whole fleet of
craft lay betwixt us and the land--half of them Indiamen--amongst which,
you may be sure, I kept a pretty sharp look-out with the glass, to see
if the _Seringapatam_ were there still.
"I was soon saved further pains on this head, however, when shortly
afterwards the frigate was beset by a whole squadron of bumboats,
shoving against each other, and squabbling in all sorts of nigger
tongues, who should be first: the chief of them being in evident command
of a fat old Dutch Vrouw, with an immense blue umbrella over her, two
greasy-looking Hottentot rowers in blankets, and a round-faced Dutch
boy, the picture of herself, steering the boat; as the old lady made a
clear berth for herself, by laying about her with her blue umbrella,
till she was close under our quarter, sitting all the while with the
broad round stern of her bright-coloured gown spread over a couple of
beer-barrels, like a peacock's train. In two minutes more the little
fellow was up the side, flourishing a bundle of papers under the first
lieutenant's very nose, and asking the ship's custom, even whilst the
sentries were ordering them all off. A midshipman took this youth by the
cuff of the neck, and was handing him rather roughly along to the care
of the purser's steward, when I stepped betwixt them; and a bumboat
being the best directory on the point, of course, I soon found the old
lady had had dealings with the _Seringapatam_, which her bluff-built
little progeny described as a very good ship indeed, all having paid
their bills, except one young officer, who had left a balance standing,
for which he had given a letter to his brother in a ship that was to
come after. As for the Indiaman herself, the Dutch boy said she had
sailed about a week before our arrival, along with two others; and he
was anxious to know if we were the vessel in question. I accordingly
unfolded the open letter, which was addressed: 'Thomas Spoonbill Simm,
Esquire, of His Britannic Majesty's ship _Nincompoop_ (or otherwise)';
and it ran somehow thus:--'_Hon. East India Company's ship_
Seringapatam, _Table Bay, September 1, 1816_.--My dear Brother,--This is
to certify that I have eaten four dozen and a half of eggs, supplied by
the worthy Vrouw Dulcken, the bearer of this, whom I can recommend as an
old screw, and am due her for the same the sum of nine shillings and
sixpence sterling, which you will kindly pay her, taking her receipt or
mark, unless you are willing to forfeit our family watch, herewith
deposited by me in the hands of said Mother Dulcken. I may add that, in
justice to the worthy Vrouw, three of the above-mentioned eggs ought to
be charged as _fowls_, which, by-the-way, I did not consume; and, with
love to all at home, remain your affectionate brother, JOHN SIMM,
H.E.I.C.S.--_P.S._ The watch I have discovered to be pinchbeck, and it
does not go; so that a sad trick must have been originally played upon
our venerated uncle, from whom it descended.--J. S.'
"This precious epistle was, without doubt, a joke of the fat mid Simm,
who used to come such rigs over Ford the cadet, and that jumped
overboard one night by mistake out of the Indiaman's quarter-boat,
during the voyage. As for the existence of his brother Thomas, or the
chance of his touching at that port, I set them down with the coming
home of Vanderdecken; though the thought of this young scamp of a
sea-lawyer breakfasting for a fortnight so comfortably, only a few feet
distant from my charmer's state-room, sent me all abroad again, and
right into the Indiaman's decks, by this time far out of sight of land.
Piece of impudent roguery though it was, I was actually loath to part
with the scrawl, which the reefer had fisted, no doubt, on the lid of
his chest--probably with a pipe in his mouth at the time, it smelt so of
tobacco--only seven days before: I could even see the grin on his fat
face as he wrote it below in the steerage, with his chin up, and his
eyes looking down past his pipe; while the little Dutch boy's round flat
frontispiece glistened as he peered up at me, in the evident notion of
my being the brother expected.
"In fact, ma'am, I was so soft as to intend paying the nine-and-sixpence
myself, and keeping the letter, when I was startled to see the old lady
herself had contrived to be hoisted on board amongst her cabbages; and
having got wind of the thing, seemingly, she came waddling towards me to
hand over Simm's watch to boot. In another half-minute the letter was
being read aloud in the midst of the whole gun-room officers, amongst
roars of laughter; the honest old Dutchwoman holding aloft the precious
article, and floundering through to find out the rightful owner, as
everyone claimed it and offered the nine-and-sixpence; while for my part
I tried first to get down one hatchway, then another; and Lord Frederick
himself came up on the starboard side of the quarter-deck in the height
of the scene. Indeed, I believe it was a joke for months after in the
_Hebe_, of a night, to say it was 'the second lieutenant's watch'; the
sole revenge I had being to leave Mother Dulcken and her boy to expect
the 'ship that was coming after.'
"A Government boat came aboard in the afternoon; and as soon as it left
us Lord Frederick took his gig and steered for a frigate lying some
distance off, which had the harbour-flag hoisted at her main, being the
only man-o'-war besides ourselves, and commanded by a senior captain.
"Till it got dark I could see the crews of the nearest merchantmen
looking over their bulwarks at us and our prize, apparently comparing
the schooner with the frigate, and speculating on her character, as she
lay a few fathoms off the _Hebe's_ quarter, both of us rising and
falling in turn on the long heave of the Cape swell from seaward. 'Twas
hard to say, in fact, so far as their hulls went, which was the most
beautiful sample of its kind; though the schooner's French-fashioned
sticks and offhand sort of rigging, showed rather like jury-gear beside
the tall regular sticks aloft of the _Hebe's_ decks, with all her hamper
perfect to a tee. The _Hebe's_ men very naturally considered their own
ship a model for everything that floated--a sort of a Solomon's temple,
in short; and to hear the merciless way they ran down the Indiamen all
round would have raised the whole homeward-bound fleet against us;
whereas the schooner was our own, at any rate, and she was spoken of
much in the manner one mentions an unfortunate orphan, as good as
already christened by the name of the _Young Hebe_.
"This our learned chaplain said was quite improper, and he gave another
name in place of it--the _Aniceta_--which meant, as he observed, the
_Hebe's_ youngest daughter; so the _Aniceta_ she was called, happening
to be a title that went, according to the boatswain, full as sweetly
through the sheave-hole.
"Next day the schooner had landed not only her passengers from St
Helena, but the prisoners also, as we still understood the French and
their Kroomen to be. Not long after that Lord Frederick came back from
Cape Town, looking grave, and went straight down to his cabin, or
'cabins,' as his lordship preferred to have it said. The first
lieutenant dined that day with the captain; but they could scarcely have
finished when the 'young gentlemen,' who had been as usual from the
reefer's mess, came up with a message from the captain, that his
lordship would be glad if I would join the first lieutenant and himself
in a glass of wine. I found them sitting at the side of the table
nearest the open port, with the decanters between them, and the broad
bright bay in full sight to the shore and the foot of Table Mountain,
which rose up blocking the port with the top of it beyond view; the
sounds of the merchantmen clicking at their heavy windlasses, and
hoisting in water-casks, floated slowly in from every side, while the
schooner had hauled on her cable more abreast of the frigate, leaving
the sight clear over the eddy round her low counter.
"'A lovely piece of workmanship, certainly!' observed Lord Frederick
thoughtfully, as he leant back swinging his eyeglass round his finger,
with the other hand in the breast of his waistcoat, and looking out at
what was seen of the schooner. 'And how one might have improved her
spars, too!' said Mr Hall, wistfully. 'I should have recommended longer
lower-masts altogether, Lord Frederick, and a thorough overhaul, I may
say, from the combings upwards!' 'I would not have her hull touched for
the world, Mr Hall!' said the captain; ''tis too----excessively
provoking, at least! But pass the bottles to Mr Collins, if you please.'
I had taken a chair, and quietly filled my glass, wondering what could
be the matter, when his lordship turned to me and said, 'Do you know, Mr
Collins, this schooner of ours is likely to be laid up in Chancery,
heaven knows how long. The Admiralty Court ashore are doubtful of
condemning her, apparently, and she must either be sent home or to Monte
Video, or somewhere, where the master of her claims to belong!' 'Indeed,
my lord,' said I, setting down my glass, 'that is curious.' 'Curious,
indeed, sir!' replied he, biting his lips, 'though, after all, we really
can scarce say what she is to be condemned for--only in the meantime I
sail to-morrow for India.' 'She's French to the backbone, that I'll
swear, Lord Frederick!' I said; 'and what's more, she was----' 'Ah,'
broke in the captain, 'I know, I know; but the less we say of that, in
present circumstances, the better! Once get her entangled with politics,
and we may give her up altogether.' Lord Frederick twisted his eyeglass
round his forefinger faster than before, still watching the schooner;
the first lieutenant held up his claret betwixt himself and the light,
and I sipped mine. 'I tell you what, gentlemen,' exclaimed his lordship,
suddenly, 'I _must_ have that schooner at any cost!--What is to be done,
Mr Hall?' 'She'd be of great service in the China seas, my lord,
certainly,' said the first lieutenant, looking thoughtfully into his
empty glass; 'a perfect treasure for light service, especially if new
sparred and----' I noticed Lord Frederick glancing sideways at me, as I
thought, with a slight gleam in his eye; and accordingly I suggested
that he might buy her from the Frenchman himself; a very poor idea, no
doubt, as both the captain and first luff seemed to think, and we all
three kept eyeing her doubtfully through the port, without a word.
"At this time the schooner's counter had been slowly sheering towards
the frigate's beam, owing to the ebb-tide, and her holding only by a
single cable, till her stern began to show right opposite the cabin, I
should say not twenty feet off. Lord Frederick put his glass to his eye,
and was peering through it, when he remarked that they had brought up
rather too near, leaving scarce room for the schooner to swing as she
did, earlier than we, so that she would be in danger in getting foul of
the frigate's cables. 'The worst of it is, Lord Frederick,' said I,
'that in case of a gale from seaward here, she might have to slip and
run upon very short warning, whereas the _Hebe_ has plenty of
ground-tackle to let her ride it out. Considering it was Table Bay, at
this season, he ought to have kept her a clearer berth for herself, or
else have gone well outside!' 'Ah!' said Lord Frederick quickly, meeting
my eye for half-a-minute, till the gleam came into his again; and
somehow or other mine must have caught it, though I must say the notion
that struck me then all at once wasn't in my head before. 'Do you know,
that's well thought of, Collins!' said his lordship. 'You've weathered
the Cape before, by-the-by?' 'A dozen times, Lord Frederick,' said I;
when a regularly jovial roar of laughter broke fair through the port
into the cabin from the schooner's taffrail, as she sheered end-on to
the frigate's quarter, and Lord Frederick leant forward with the glass
screwed into his right eye to see along their decks, which were covered
aft with an awning like the open gable of a tent at a fair. 'Singular!'
said he; 'by the Lord Harry, who or what can that be Mr Hammond has got
there?' Dangling over the French schooner's taffrail were to be seen the
soles of two immense boots, with calves and knees to match, and a pair
of tightish striped trousers worked up more than halfway, till you saw
the tops of the stockings; just beyond the knees was the face leaning
back in the shade of the awning and a straw hat together, out of which a
huge green cabbage-leaf hung like a flap over one eye, while the other
kept gazing in a half-closed sleepy sort of way at the sky, and the red
end of a cigar winked and glowed in the midst of the puffs of smoke
lower down. The first lieutenant started up shocked at the sight, the
noble captain of the _Hebe_ sat with his eyeglass fixed, between
amusement and wonder; for my own part, when the voice of this same
prodigy broke all of a sudden on us out of the awning, in a mixture of
stuttering, hiccuping, Yankee drawling, and puffs at the cigar, 'twas
all I could do to hold on, with the knowledge of where I was. 'Wall now,
general,' said the American, as if he were talking to someone aloft or
in the sky, 'ye-you're qui-quite wrong--I ki-kick-calc'late I've fit a
deal more be-be-battles than you have--I re-respect you, Ge-Ge-General
Washington; but I ho-ho-hope you know who--hic--who I am!' Here Mr
Daniel Snout, who was in a state of beastly intoxication, swayed himself
up bodily into the schooner's taffrail, and sat with his arms folded,
his long legs swinging over the stern, and his head trying to keep
steady, as he scowled solemnly aloft over the frigate's
mizzenroyal-mast-head; while the third lieutenant, Mr Hammond, and the
master's mate he had aboard with him, could be heard laughing at his
back, as if they had gone mad--Hammond being a wild sprig of an
Irishman, who would go any length for a piece of fun.
"Just then the American's one eye lighted on the side of the frigate,
till it settled lazily on the port of the captain's cabin: first he
seemed to notice Lord Frederick Bury, and then myself, the first
lieutenant having just recovered himself enough to rush toward the door
to get on deck. Daniel himself surveyed me scornfully for a moment, then
with a sort of doubtful frown, and a gravity that passes me to describe,
unless by the look of an old cock a-drinking--evidently trying to
recollect me. 'Hallo, mister!' shouted he suddenly, 'you haven't touched
those _notions_ of mine, I hope.' With that he made a spring off where
he sat, as if to come towards us--no doubt thinking of the
_Seringapatam_, and the valuables he had left aboard, without seeing the
water between; and a pretty deep dive Mr Snout would have made of it,
into an ebb-tide that would have swept him under the frigate's bottom,
if Mr Hammond and the midshipman hadn't both sprung forward in time to
catch him by the neck of the coat. There, accordingly, was the Yankee
hanging like a spread eagle over the schooner's taffrail, yelling and
turning round at the same time like a fowl on a spit--the third
lieutenant's and the mate's faces two pictures of dismay, as they held
on, at finding for the first time where the schooner had shied them
round to, with their two pairs of eyes fair in front of the captain's
eyeglass--while Mr Hall was singing out like thunder from the deck above
us, 'The schooner ahoy!--d'ye see where you've got to, sir? Haul ahead
on that cable, d'ye hear, you lubbers, and keep clear of the ship!'
"'Mr Collins,' said his lordship quietly to me, as soon as he could keep
his countenance, and looking the sterner for the trouble he was put to
in doing it, 'you will get your things and go aboard the schooner
directly--take her in charge, sir, and send Mr Hammond back here.' 'Very
well, my lord,' said I, waiting in the doorway for something more,
which, from something in Lord Frederick's look, I had reason to expect,
knowing it of old. 'I can only spare you a dozen of the men she has,'
added he; 'but if you choose, you can send ashore at once to pick up a
few makeshifts, or anything you find!' 'Ay, ay, my lord,' said I; 'the
best hand for that would be Mr Snelling, if I may take him, Lord
Frederick?' 'Oh, certainly,' was the answer; 'and harkye, Collins, you
had better shift your berth a few cable-lengths farther off, or more, if
you please.' 'One thing, my lord,' said I, stooping down to see through
the port, 'I don't much like the heavy ground-swell that begins to meet
the ebb, and I fancy it won't be long ere Table Mountain spreads its
supper-cloth--in which case I'd consider it necessary to slip cable and
run out at once, though I mightn't get in again so easily. Am I to find
the frigate here again, Lord Frederick?'
'Deuce take it, man--no!' said his lordship. He turned his back to hide
the evident twinkle of his eye. 'Should we part company, of course you
make for the Bay of Bengal! You can't be sure of the _Hebe_, short of
the Sandheads--and if not there, then opposite Fort William, at
Calcutta.' 'Very good, my lord,' said I, and had made my bow to go on
deck, when Lord Frederick called me back. 'By-the-by,' said he hastily,
'about that Indiaman of yours, Collins--she is here no doubt?' 'No, Lord
Frederick,' answered I, 'I believe she sailed a week ago.' 'Dear me, the
deuce!' exclaimed he; 'why, I meant to have sent to-morrow to have your
friend Westwood arrested and brought aboard!' I started at this, on
which his lordship explained that if Westwood got to Bombay, whither the
_Seringapatam_ was bound, the authorities there would have news of the
thing by this time, and could send him overland at once to England,
which would be far worse for him than being carried to Calcutta, where
his uncle the Councillor's interest might do something for him. 'The
best thing you can do, Collins,' added Lord Frederick, 'if you are
obliged to run out to sea, is to look after that Indiaman! With such a
neat thing of a sea-boat under you, you might do anything you please; so
cruise to windward or leeward in chase, find her out and take out
Westwood bodily--lose him afterwards in the Hoogley, if you like--carry
away those old spars of hers, and send up new ones--only don't lose the
schooner, I beg; so good-bye to you, my dear fellow, lest we should not
meet on this side the line again!' 'Good-bye, my lord!' said I
cheerfully, and hurried on deck, understanding all he wanted as well as
if I'd been ordered to set her jib that moment and heave up anchor. In
ten minutes I was over the frigate's side, and in ten more Hammond was
back in her, with the men who were to leave; while I sent my baggage
below, set the hands to work shifting the schooner's berth, and by
sundown we were lying beyond hail of the ship, opposite the
custom-house, and a long line of a main street in Cape Town, where we
could see the people, the carriages, and the Dutch bullock-carts passing
up and down; while Table Mountain hove away up off the steep Devil's
Hill and the Lion's Rump, to the long level line a-top as blue and bare
as an iron monument, and throwing a shadow to the right over the peaks
near at hand.
"Our friend from the United States being by this time in quite an
oblivious condition, the first thing I did was to have him put quietly
into the boat with which Mr Snelling was to go ashore for fresh hands,
and I instructed the reefer to get clear of him anyhow he liked, if it
was only above tide-mark. When they were gone I walked the schooner's
little quarter-deck in the dusk by myself, till the half-moon rose with
a ghostly copper-like glare over the hollow in the Lion's Rump,
streaking across the high face of Table Mountain, and bringing out all
its rifts and wrinkles again. The land-breeze began to blow steadily
with a long sighing sweep from the north-east, meeting the heavy swell
that set into the broad bay; and the schooner, being a light crank
little craft, got rather uneasy; whereas you could see the lights of the
frigate heaving and settling leisurely, less than half-a-mile off. I had
only six or seven good hands aboard altogether at the time, which, with
those the midshipman had, were barely sufficient to work her in such
seas; so with all I had to do, with the difficulty of getting men in the
circumstances, a long voyage before us, and things that might turn up,
as I hoped, to require a touch of the regular service, why the very
pleasure of having a command made me a good deal anxious. Even of that I
didn't feel sure; and I kept watching Table Mountain, eager for the
least bit of haze to come across the top of it, as well as sorry I had
sent Snelling ashore. 'I'd give a hundred pounds at this moment,'
thought I, 'to have had Bob Jacobs here!'
"As the moon got higher, I could see the swell washing up between the
different merchantmen in sight, into their shadows, and heavy enough
some of them seemed to roll round their cables, betwixt a breeze and a
swell running the contrary ways; first one let go a second anchor, and
then another, to help their heads shoreward; but still there was no
danger, as things went. It wasn't long before I made out two boats
coming from toward the town, round the stern of one of the ships, the
frigate lying betwixt her and us, so that they took her by the way, and
a good deal of hailing seemed to pass between them. I could even see
epaulets glisten over the _Hebe's_ quarter, as if there was a stir made
aboard; after which the boats were plainly pulling for the schooner.
What all this might mean I couldn't very well conceive, unless it were
either Snelling come back already, or else some hands Lord Frederick
himself had provided before this, as I saw both boats were full of
people. 'Forward there!' I sung out, 'hail those boats.' 'Ay, ay, the
schooner ahoy!' was the answer in a sharp voice from the headmost of
them, 'from the shore--all right! Stand by to heave us a line, will ye?'
Next came a hail from Snelling, in our own gig; so I at once gave
orders to heave them a rope and have both boats brought under the
gangway, naturally supposing the sharp little fellow had come some
marvellous good speed in shipping hands. As soon as he jumped on deck, I
accordingly inquired how many men he had brought, when to my great
surprise he informed me there was only one, 'a scuffy sort of a swab,'
as he expressed it, 'who would do for cook!' 'The devil he will! you
young rascal,' I broke out.
"'Hush, sir, for heaven's sake,' said he, making some extraordinary
sign, which I didn't understand; 'it'll all be right in the end, Mr
Collins. Now then, sir,' to someone in the boat alongside, as he
carefully handed him the accommodation-ropes, 'here you are--hold on,
sir--so-o!' This was a rather youngish fellow in a huge pilot-coat and a
glazed cap, with some kind of uniform inside, and a large breastpin in
his shirt, who handed me a paper the moment he stood firm on deck,
without speaking a word; though, by the light of the deck-lantern, I
didn't much like the look of his foxy sort of face, with the whiskers on
it coming forward from both cheeks to his mouth, nor the glance he gave
round the schooner with his pair of quick sharp little eyes. 'Much more
like a custom-house officer than a cook!' thought I, 'unless we mean to
have a French one'; but what was my astonishment, on opening the paper,
to find him called 'Gilbert Webb, harbour master's assistant, hereby
authorised by the Admiralty Court, sitting in Cape Town, to take charge
of the doubtful vessel described in her papers as the _Ludovico_,
belonging to Monte Video--from the officer commanding the prize crew of
his Brittanic Majesty's ship _Hebe_.' My first thought was to have Mr
Gilbert Webb pitched over into his boat again, when Lord Frederick's own
signature met my eye at the bottom of the paper, addressed below to
'Lieutenant Collins of His Majesty's schooner _Aniceta at sea_.'
"A wonderfully mysterious squint from Snelling, behind the officer, was
sufficient to clinch the matter in my own mind, showing that the reefer
was as sharp as a needle; and I handed back the document to the harbour
gentleman, with a 'Very well, sir, that will do.' 'I suppose I'd better
have my men up, Lieutenant Collins?' said he, with a quick pert kind of
accent, which made me set him down at once for a Londoner, while at the
same time he seemed impatient, as I thought, to get the management.
'Why, sir,' said I, 'I suppose you had.'
"Hereupon up mounted four or five decent enough looking
_stevedores_[24]--one or two of whom had rather the air of sailors, the
rest being broad-beamed, short-legged Dutchmen, with trousers like
pillow-slips--followed by a whole string of fourteen or fifteen Indian
Lascars, their bundles in their hands, and an ugly old _serdug_ at their
head; while a lame, broken-down, debauched-like fellow of a
man-o'-war's-man, that Snelling had found sitting on a timberhead
ashore, got aboard with our own boat's crew. Our gangway was choke-full,
to my fresh dismay, for, to get rid of such a tagrag-and-bobtail, in
case of running to sea, was impossible; even if they weren't odds
against us, here was it likely to get a thick night, the swell growing
under the schooner till she began to jerk at her anchor, head to wind,
like a young filly at a manger; so that dropping them back into their
boat when needful, as I intended at first, was out of the question for
the present. I found from the harbour officer that the number of hands
would all be required with the morning tide, when his orders were to
have the schooner towed in opposite the Battery Dock, especially as
there was much chance of the wind blowing strong from seaward next day.
The swell on the water, he said, was such that, after putting off, he
thought of going back again till the tide began to turn; if he had not
been encouraged to stick to it and keep on by the midshipman, whom he
fell in with near the quay. This piece of news was the finish to the
rage I felt brewing in me, vexed as I naturally was to give up the
notion of a free cruise, in command of a craft like the schooner; and as
soon as Mr Webb was comfortable in the cabin, over a tumbler of stiff
grog and some cold beef, I sent for Snelling to my own cupboard of a
state-room.
[24] Men employed in the stowing of ship's cargoes.
"'You cursed unlucky little imp, you!' I burst out, the moment he made
his appearance, 'what's the meaning of this, sirrah, eh?' 'What is it,
if you please, sir?' said Snelling, pretending to hold down his
shock-head like a frightened schoolboy, and looking up all the time both
at me and the lamp at once, while he swayed with the uneasy heave of the
deck in such a way as made me grip him by the arm in a perfect fury,
fancying he had got drunk ashore. 'You young blackguard, you!' said I,
shaking him, 'didn't I tell you to get hands--didn't you know I meant
to--to----' 'Oh yes, Mr Collins,' gasped the reefer, 'I did indeed--you
meant to cut and run--I saw it by your eye, sir, and--don't shake me any
more, sir, or you'll spoil my hair--and I don't deserve it--it's--all
right!' And on my letting him go, the ugly little scamp sunk down on a
chair with his eyes starting from his head, and a leer like a perfect
demon incarnate: but so perfectly laughable it was, not to mention the
air of complete confidence between us that he threw into it, that I sat
down myself, ready to grin at my bad luck. 'Well, Mister Snelling,' said
I quietly, 'you _are_ a touch beyond me! Let's have the joke, at
least--out with it, man, else another shake may be----'
"The reefer pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to the cabin,
shoved his chin forward, and whispered, 'Why, sir, I'm only doubtful
whether you could make him third officer--but at any rate, he'll always
be useful at a rope, Mr Collins--won't he, sir?' I gave Snelling one
look, meant to be as grave as an Old Bailey chaplain's, but it wouldn't
do--my conscience wouldn't stand it--in fact the very self-same notion
seemed to me to have been creeping into my mind. 'You--young--rascal!'
was all I could manage to say, before making bolt to go on deck.
'By-the-by, Mister Snelling,' said I, turning and looking down from the
hatchway, 'you must want a glass of grog--tell the boy to let you have
some--and go and keep the officer company, sir.'
"By this time it was raining hard, the half-moon coming out at moments
and shining through it with a sudden sharp gleam, in some gust of the
wind off the land--showing the swell in as far as the wet white
custom-house and the bare quays, the ships with their hazy lights all
hither and thither, while Table Mountain was to be seen now and then
peering half over the mist, first one corner and then another, of a
colour like dead ashes. One time I looked down toward the dusky little
cabin, where the midshipman, quite in his element, was sitting with the
harbour officer, the lamp jerking and making wild swings betwixt them,
while Snelling evidently egged on his companion to drink; then I gave a
glance seaward, where there was nothing but a glimmer of rain and spray
along the dark hollows of the water.
"I couldn't make up my mind, all I could do--it was too barefaced a
thing to slip from the roadstead with a breeze blowing off-shore; but
the worst of it was, that I didn't feel easy at the idea of parting with
an anchor in the circumstances, not to say carrying off the Government
people, unless forced to it. I accordingly went below to mix myself a
stiffener, and found the officer a cool head, for, in spite of all
Snelling could do, the reefer himself had got provoked, whereas the
sharp Mr Webb was only a little brisker than before. 'A rough sort of
night,' said I, nodding to him, as I knocked the water out of my cap.
'Well, it seems,' said he, free and easy. 'S'pose I go on deck then,
gentlemen--I've refreshed, I assure you, so you needn't trouble about
this 'ere schooner no farther--glad to get quit of it and turn in, I
desay lieutenant?' 'No trouble in the world, Mr Webb,' said I, going on
with my mixture, 'far from it; but sit down a minute, pray, sir--Mr
Snelling here will take charge of the deck for us in the meantime'; and
Snelling vanished at once, Mr Webb apparently flattered at my wishing
his company. 'Will that cable of yours hold, think ye, Lieutenant
Collins?' asked he, filling up another glass. 'Why,' said I, almost
laughing, 'to tell you the truth, I begin to feel rather doubtful of
it.' 'What!' broke out the harbour officer, starting up, 'then I must
'ave another put down immediately: why, what's the effect, sir--we'll be
carried out to sea!' 'You said it exactly, Mr Webb,' I said: ''twould
have been much worse, I suppose, if we were driven ashore, though! Now
look you, if I were to let go a second anchor at present, I couldn't
light upon a better plan either to break her back or lose both anchors
in the end, from the difference of strain on the two cables with this
ground-swell. The fact is, my good fellow, you're evidently not fit to
take charge at present.'
"'What, lieutenant!' said he, looking fierce and foolish at the same
time, 'here's strange lang'age to a Gov'ment officer, sir; I hask the
meanin' of it _at once_, mister!' 'But I depend a good deal on your
knowledge of Table Bay weather,' I continued, leaning back with my
weather eye screwed to bear upon him. 'D'ye think this wind likely to
moderate soon, sir? come now.' 'No,' replied he sulkily, 'I'm sure it
won't; and to-morrow it's certain to blow back ten times worse.' 'Then,
Mr Webb,' said I, rising, 'you oughtn't to have come aboard to-night; as
the short and the long of it is, I shall get the schooner an offing the
first possible moment!' The officer stared at me in a bewildered manner;
and as for the schooner, she seemed to be bolting and pitching in a way
worse than before, with now and then a plunge of the swell on her
broadside, as if she had been under weigh. Suddenly Snelling lifted the
skylight-frame and screamed down into the cabin: 'Mr Collins, Mr
Collins! she's been dragging her anchor for the last ten minutes, sir!'
"I sprang on deck at two bounds; the schooner had somehow or other got
her anchor out of hold at the time, with the cable as taut as a
fiddle-string. It was quite dark aloft, and not a vestige of Table
Mountain to be seen, though the moonshine, low down to westward, brought
out two or three tracks of light along the stretch of water, and you saw
the lights in the ships slowly sweeping past. Where we happened to be,
it blew two ways at once, as is often the case in Table Bay, round the
bluffs of the mountain, and as soon as she brought up again with a surge
at the windlass, the heave of a long swell took her right on the
quarter, lifting her in to her anchor again with a slack of the hawser,
at which every second man sung out to 'hold on!' Over she went to port,
a sea washing up the starboard side, and throwing a few dozen bucketfuls
at once fair into the companion, where our friend the harbour officer
was sticking at the time; so down plumped Mr Webb along with it, and the
booby hatch was shoved close after him, while the poor devils of Lascars
were huddled together as wet as swabs in the lee of the caboose forward.
'A hand to the wheel!' shouted I, as soon as I recovered myself; when to
my great surprise I saw Snelling's new hand, poor creature as I'd
thought him, standing with a spoke in each fist, as cool and steady as
possible, and his eye fixed on me in the true knowing way which I felt
could be trusted to. 'Jib there!' I sung out, 'see all clear to run up a
few hanks of the jib--stand by to cut the cable at the bitts!' 'Ay, ay,
sir,' answered Snelling, who was working away with the harbour men, his
bare head soaked, and altogether more like an imp than a young gentleman
of the navy--'all's clear, sir.'
"Five minutes I daresay we stood, everyone in the same position, while
I waited for a good moment in the run of the swell looking into the
binnacle; till she hung slack, as it were, in a wide seething trough of
the sea, when I signed to the man behind me to put the helm gradually to
starboard. I glanced at the fellow again, caught his sharp weatherly eye
once more--then putting both hands to my mouth I sung out to bowse on
the jib-halliards. 'Now--cut--the cable!' shouted I, springing forward
in my anxiety.
"The schooner rose away from her anchor on the heavy roll of the sea; I
saw two quick strokes of the axe on the instant, and she was spinning
head off from the wind, heeling over betwixt the force of it and the
ground-swell together, while the mass of black water was washing bodily
away with us; the new helmsman showing down below me he as leant to the
wheel, like somebody at the foot of a slide. If he had'nt helped her at
the moment with a back turn of the spokes to port, 'twould have been all
up with us. As it was, the schooner fell off gallantly in his hands,
with a sliding surge into the lee of the next swell, that buried her
sharp bows in the green sea till it foamed about our very shoulders as
we hung on like grim death to the weather bulwark. She was just shaking
herself free, and rising like a buoy over the broad tops of the waves,
when Snelling, myself, and two or three of the men staggered down to her
mainmast to swing up the throat-halliards, letting her feel a little of
the boom mainsail; and we had scarce belayed, as the last glimpse of the
frigate's lights was caught astern of us, heaving and setting, as she
rode with her two bower anchors down; we had driven past close enough to
have heard the creak of her hamper aloft. After that I had the
fore-staysail set on her, then the reefed mainsail, and the lively
schooner yielded to the long rolling seas so well, as very soon to make
her own weather of it, especially since--clear of the high land about
Table Bay--it was blowing only a strong breeze; and the more I began to
feel master of her, the more inclined I was to let her show her good
qualities.
"Such a craft I never had had the full management of before in my life;
and you may easily fancy how I felt at dividing the hands into the two
watches, giving little Snelling command of one, as first mate, and
picking out our men in turn. I looked round amongst mine, rather at a
loss for one to make a second mate for the cruise, though there were
three prime enough man-o'-war's-men, and I had chosen one of the
Government officer's gang for his activity. As for the Lascars, we
slumped in half of the number to each of us, for make-weights--when
Snelling's fresh hand, who had fallen to my share, caught my eye again
as he stood at the wheel. Every half-spoke he gave the schooner told;
she was topping the heavy seas as they rose, and taking them just where
they melted one to the other, with a long floating cleave that carried
her counter fairly free of the after-run, though nearly right before the
wind: the main-boom had been guyed over to the lee-quarter, till a third
of the sail hung clear of her hull, and the breeze swept into the hollow
of it, thick with spray. The light from the little binnacle shone up
distinctly on the man's face, and with all the desperate, used-up,
marbled sort of look of it, like one getting the better of a long spree
ashore, I thought there was something uncommonly promising about him,
not to say greatly above the run of foremast men. The wet, the wind, and
the work he was at took off the seediness of his clothes; even the old
rag of a handkerchief round his hairy neck had got a gloss to it, and he
stood handling the wheel with a strange mixture of recklessness and
care, as he glanced from the compass to the gaff of the mainsail against
the scud, and down again.
"The very contrast between the man's manner and his outward rig was
sufficient to strike one, though plenty of seamen are to be found in the
like state ashore; but what fixed me to him above all was the expression
in those two keen, searching, _living_ eyes of his, when they once or
twice met mine on their way from aloft to the compass-boxes. 'Twas as if
they'd woke up since he came aboard out of a sleepy, maudlin condition,
with the 'blue-devils,' or scarce fully out of 'em; like a sick man's in
the lull of a fever, suddenly seen watching you out of the dusk of the
bed, when one happens to glance up from the nurse's seat.
"'What's your name, my man?' asked I, stepping aft to the binnacle. 'My
name is Jones, sir,' said he readily. 'And your first name?' I said.
'Jack,' was the answer in an offhand way, with a hitch of one shoulder,
and a weather-spoke to the wheel; spoken in an accent you'd have
expected more in a West-End drawing-room than from a common sailor.
'Ah,' said I sharply. 'Jack Jones? I wonder how many Jack Joneses there
are afloat! An able seaman, I think, Jones?' 'Why, sir,' replied the
man, 'I never rate myself, sir--'tis all one to me, able, ordinary,
landsman, or boy--I carry no papers, and leave my betters to rate me.'
'Where were you last, my man?' I asked; whereupon I met such a cool,
steady, deep look out of the fellow's strange light-coloured eyes,
bloodshot as they were with drinking, that I felt almost our very two
souls jostle in it; as much as to say: To all eternity fathom me if you
can! 'Well, I forget where, sir,' said he, lowering his look to the
compass-box again; 'always the way with me after a trip, a cruise, a
voyage, or whatever it may be. I've got--ha!' and he yielded his body
coolly to a jerk of the schooner's wheel. 'A sweet craft this, sir, but
a little ticklish!' 'You've got what?' said I, not unwilling to wear out
the time. 'I've got--no memory!'
"Still there was somewhat so gloomy and mournful in the next glance
aloft, I don't know how it was, but I felt inclined to offer him a
mate's place on trial, and so I hinted, if he knew half as well how to
handle a craft as he did of steering her. To my own surprise, Jones's
wonder didn't seem to be roused at the notion, except that he gave me
another quick glance, from head to foot, with a queer smile that struck
me as if I were being questioned, instead of _him_; then he looked down
over his own outfit, judging by which you'd have said he'd been
shipwrecked. 'Well,' said I, 'I daresay you've been hard put to it,
somehow, Jones--so as soon as you leave the wheel, you can go below to
the steward, and get a seagoing suit of my own, till we see Calcutta,
when your mate's wages will set you all right again.' The man touched
his battered old straw hat; but I noticed his eyes gleam for a moment by
the binnacle light, and a strange twitch run round his mouth at the
mention of the mate's wages, the only way I could account for it at the
time being his late hard-up condition; and nothing to my mind was more
deucedly pitiable than to see the thought of a few paltry additional
rupees light up a head like that, with the glistening sort of expression
of a miser as I fancied.
"The man had a head on him, in fact, when you eyed him, fit for a
gentleman's shoulders, or more--his hair and his whiskers curly and
dark, draggled though they were with the rain, not to say Cape Town
mud--while the wearing away of the hair about the temples, and the red
grog-streaks in the veins of his face, made him, no doubt, a dozen years
older to appearance than he was. For my part I was quite convinced
already, this same Jack Jones hadn't been sent out a cabin boy; there
was not only a touch of high blood in him at bottom, but I'd have sworn
he had been some time or other in the place of a gentleman, afloat or
ashore, though plainly now 'going to the devil.'
"Meanwhile the breaking look of the clouds away on our larboard bow
showed it wasn't far off dawn; so, sending another hand to the wheel,
and finding a snug spot under a stern-grating for a snooze on deck, I
told Jones to begin with taking charge of the deck for me. 'One thing,
sir,' said he, touching his hat again, as I lay down, 'I've only shipped
for the outward voyage, and leave at the first port.' 'Why, what!' said
I, lifting my head; 'what do you mean to do there, eh?' 'I--I want to go
ashore,' answered he, eagerly; 'ay, if we're years on the cruise, so
much the better, sir, but so soon as she drops anchor off Calcutta, I'm
my own master?' 'Have your own way, then,' said I; 'at any rate I'll try
you in the meantime--so Mister Jones, let's see how you mind the
schooner till eight bells!' Whereupon I turned myself over to sleep, and
it was as broad daylight as we had any likelihood of about the Cape,
when I woke.