"After breakfast-time the breeze freshened again, and the ship had
evidently perceived us, as well as the fact of our having hauled on a
wind to make up with her course; for we could see her hoisting out one
stunsail after another to the lee-side, and keeping off in order to give
them full play. This was what I was afraid of, in fact, that our looking
her way in the circumstances would make her show her heels; and being
hull down, almost dead to windward of us, with her spread of sail to
such a breeze as the present, it was like to be a troublesome matter ere
we got within signalling distance; especially if she had kept hold of
her wind a little more, instead of falling off before it as she did,
which tended the schooner always steadily to weather upon her, the
sharper we kept her nose to the sun in the spray. Indeed, the wind
during the forenoon came gradually round more in our favour, till it
stood south-east by east or so; by which time, however, we had dropped
her topsails from the deck, then her to'gallant-sails, to a white speck
far down on the lee-bow. We weathered fast upon her, and I fancied I
made out the yellow India patches in her canvas; when, on turning about,
I caught Jones's glance at me, as if he couldn't understand my
eagerness, or else had got curious what the schooner wanted with the
ship at all. 'She loses, I think, sir,' said he looking off to her
again. 'Little doubt of that, Mr Jones,' said I. 'I know that Indiaman's
sailing to a tee--but we shan't overhaul her at this rate an hour too
soon, before she might have a chance of dropping us in the dark, or our
running to leeward of her again.' 'Why, yes,' said Jones, carelessly,
'if they knew how to do it, sir.' 'By George! Mr Collins,' exclaimed
Snelling, 'I see her stern-gallery sparkling in the run of the surges.'
"In a little while we could notice her canvas darken slowly from the
courses to the to'gallant-sails, leaving the royals and studding-sails
whiter than before: they were wetting her sails. 'She must take us for
something bad, Lieutenant Collins!' remarked Jones, as if the thing were
at all doubtful. 'A pirate, in fact,' added the reefer, with a grin.
'Why, sir,' said he, 'these Company's men seem to think the sea swarms
with pirates, though I'm blessed if we've been so lucky as to sight even
the tail-feather of one--my eye! though, how the griffins must be
skipping about just now!'
"The truth was, the nearer we got, the more it struck me that, altered
as the schooner was aloft, our red streak and lead-coloured sides were
just as the first time I saw them; which wouldn't do much toward
settling the Indiaman's doubts of us, for they couldn't fail to remember
her the moment our hull came in sight; and as for my own character all
along aboard the _Seringapatam_, why, neither first nor last did it seem
to stand in good odour. 'Mr Jones,' said I, as we slipped quietly
through the water, 'have you got any old canvas at hand, sir?--be so
good as have it ripped up in lengths, and fast clapped outside from stem
to stern along that red streak of ours, up as far as the plank sheer,
missing the ports--give her a good broad white stripe, sir, instead!'
'Ay, ay, sir!' answered he, with a gleam in his eye as he turned off,
half knowing, half in surprise. 'And, Mr Snelling,' continued I, 'hark
ye, see all the hammocks stowed over the bulwarks in her waist--and run
both those long-guns forward, chock in to the eyes of her, to bring her
down by the head a little--keep the men on the foc'sle too--she looks
rather rakish at present, I must confess!'
"All this the young gentleman seemed to do with as rueful a look as if
he were putting knee-breeches and gaiters in place of white ducks, on
his own lower timbers; and presently he came aft to ask if he mightn't
stick a shot into each of the guns. 'What for?' said I. 'Oh,' said the
midshipman, 'won't she show fight at all, sir, then?' Just then the
white range of the Indiaman's heavy quarter-gallery came into view, then
the bulge of her big hulking body half on to us, with a port-lid or two
raised in the white band: we were to windward of her already, stealing
up on her quarter. 'My eye!' said Snelling, 'she could blow us out of
water, if she choose, Mr Collins, and only had pluck enough.' 'Why,
that's all you know about it, Mr Snelling,' said I, with a laugh, 'since
she don't carry long muzzles in her side, and in a light breeze like
this we could--however, as we happen to be friends, that's of no moment,
Mr Snelling.' 'After all, though,' I added, 'you _may_ load once, and
stand by to fire across her course, if required; but, for the life of
you, Snelling,' said I, seriously, 'in any case, if I give the word to
fire, don't let anything in the shape of iron go near that ship's hull!
By Jove! sir, I'd let her blow us out of the water first, or else show
her our heels, myself!'
"Well, about four in the afternoon, there we were coming down actually
on the ship's quarter, from windward; when we took in our flying-kites,
clued up gaff and fore-topsails, and to'gallant-sail, leaving St
George's flag fluttering bright at the main-peak, and our long
coach-whip streaming from the mast-head, while she kept gliding easily
ahead under nothing but the two boom-sails and large jib. Still the
Indiaman gave no other sign except showing the British ensign, then her
striped Company's flag under it, at the mizzen-peak: she went jogging
steadily on, as I was afraid she would, like a fellow giving you the
go-by in the street. 'Nothing else for it, after all, Mr Snelling,' said
I, walking forward, as we got within long range. 'The confounded fools!'
I couldn't help saying, 'do they think a piratical craft would give
herself the trouble of hoisting all the flags in Christendom one after
the other, and she, of course, with a long-Tom on a pivot amidships? Mr
Jones, oblige me by pitching a shot right across her forefoot?' Jones
stepped forward, had the gun slued, and blew the match. 'Are you ready?'
said I--'now mind your eye--fire!' and the ball went spinning from the
top of one swell to another beyond the Indiaman's bows, rather wide of
the mark, as I thought: when, all at once, the smoke had scarce cleared
away betwixt us ere I saw her jib-sheets fly, and the Indiaman luffing
up in the wind. Jones started, as almost next moment we could see the
spritsail-yard hanging in two across the spars--I must say, rather to my
own surprise, in spite of a good deal of old cruising practice.
"'A good aim, sir!' remarked he, turning round. 'There goes her
main-yard, now!' said Snelling; and she seemed to be heaving-to, when
the mainsail filled again, and on she stood as before; then actually
broached-to, all aback, and gathering stern-way with her bows fairly
facing us; while the black figure-head under the bowsprit showed me his
turban again once more, like a fellow leaning over a horse he couldn't
manage. 'What the mischief _are_ the lubbers about!' I said, 'can't they
heave-to at once and be done with it, now that I fancy they see their
mistake?'
"Here Jones, who had got aft and stood up on the taffrail, jumped down
again all at once, and met me at the capstan. 'Lieutenant Collins,' said
he in a low voice, and looking me straight in the face with a very queer
expression, 'the ship has _struck_!' 'Struck!' repeated I, starting; and
he, Snelling, and I sprang to the taffrail together. There was the
Indiaman, in fact, at length heaving into the wind, about three-quarters
of a mile off our lee-beam, with her two ensigns hauled down, and
something flying instead of them at the gaff-end, which I couldn't make
out. Our helm was put up, and the schooner edged swiftly down to her,
slipping along in sight of her stretch of bulwarks till we had hove-to
abreast of her starboard bow.
'What ship is that?' hailed I from abaft, as we ran past in the shadow
of her sails; and I saw my gentleman 'first officer,' Finch, standing up
in her mizzen-chains with the trumpet, more dashing than ever, as he had
poor Captain Williamson's uniform coat and hat on, apparently, and a
sword by his side: her whole quarter-bulwark bristling with spy-glasses
and gun-barrels turned upon the schooner, though not another head could
be seen. 'The Honourable East In----' began Finch; but that moment there
was a perfect hubbub of cries and cheers, as a dozen faces I knew well
showed themselves popping up from the quarter-deck: Old Rollock in a
huge straw hat and his shirt-sleeves, with a ship's musket in his fists;
Ford, Winterton, and the cadets--the long-faced Scotch surgeon, and
Macleod's screwed nose and red whiskers--every eye fixed on me, as I
fancied, not to say three or four rusty barrels. Their confusion and
bewilderment was rare to witness; and being forty hands of us--the
Lascars' outlandish physiognomies and all--why, the schooner must have
looked rather respectable as she still slid ahead.
"In the meantime, the look of our smart _Hebe's_ men, with the frigate's
name shining in front of their regular-built hats, and everything about
us, not to say the reefer's naval uniform and mine, seemed to have set
the Indiaman's people more at their ease; till, when our gig's crew was
ready to lower away, there was even a glimpse of ladies to be seen along
toward her poop. Every moment I expected the sight of a certain face to
flash on me from over the black rail, as the ship rolled and plunged in
the heave of water opposite us, showing her broad white band, with the
drips of rust across it from her chain-plates. 'We made somewhat of an
awkward mistake, sir!' hailed Finch, eyeing me queerly enough, and
trying to appear at his ease. 'So I supposed, sir,' said I; 'I shall
send a boat aboard of you directly'; and I turned to the midshipman, who
stood surveying the ship from stem to stern with his nose turned away
from her, and his hands in the tails of his coat, speaking all the time
to Mr Jones, though the latter was apparently the least interested of
the two, for he had his eye seaward.
"'Mr Snelling,' said I, 'd'ye see that gentleman yonder near the
main-rigging, with the black hat on? You'll go aboard in the gig, sir,
give your commanding-officer's compliments to the captain of the
Indiaman, and mention to him that that gentleman is wanted
here--Westwood his name is.'
"To tell you the truth, my head was in a perfect whirl at knowing that,
if I chose, five minutes could set me within speaking distance of
Violet--yet you'd scarce believe I actually almost made up my mind not
to go on deck again till our sheets were hauled aft, and we leaving the
ship astern. Bless your heart! I wasn't aware till that minute _what_ I
felt for her; everything about the voyage from Portsmouth came back so
fresh on me, at sight of the different parts about the old
_Seringapatam's_ bulwarks, to the very odds-and-ends of ropes hanging
alongside that blessed lumbering coach-house of hers amidships, and the
live-stock cackling and bleating in it between times! And there was I
glancing aft into our little stern-cabins, which I fancied two or three
days ago might serve for _their_ passage. But now, though I had a pretty
sharp guess these same cabins were meant originally for neither more nor
less than an emperor himself, why, I saw the very notion was too
ridiculous to mention! 'Mr Jones,' said I, speaking up the skylight, 'as
soon as you see that passenger is in the boat, have the head sheets
hauled aft, sir, and the helm put up to make sail.' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said
he; but directly after, he added in a low voice, 'I believe though, sir,
we are not likely to part company from this ship so soon!' 'How, sir!'
exclaimed I sharply, and starting up off the chair to see him, for
something in the cool, collected tone of his voice jarred on me the more
on account of the state I was in myself--'what do you mean by that?' I
had merely to catch sight of my mate's broad throat and hairy chin,
however, as he stood with his full chest thrown back, and one hand in
his waistcoat, looking aloft by the skylight, when, following his eye to
our main-gaff, it was easy to know the last fanning of the wind; which,
taken together with the schooner's yerking motion abaft, was sufficient
to give you word of a calm. 'We have lost the breeze for to-night, at
any rate, sir,' said Jones, letting his eyes suddenly fall upon me, and
meeting the flicker of pleasure I couldn't help showing on my face.
'Confound the thing! you don't say so, Mr Jones!' rejoined I quickly.
'Then as long as she has a foot's steerage-way, sir, let her slip off
the Indiaman's bow at once--else the two of us will be grinding together
ere daylight like a couple of mill-stones without corn!'
"On deck there were twenty things worth noticing, that struck one at the
same time. The schooner's light spars and white canvas seen sharp
against the white glare of light in the west, as she settled round on
the ship's other bow; while the light air high aloft in the Indiaman's
royals still kept steadying her with her lee-side to the sunset, where
it made a red trough along the horizon down through a golden cloud or
two, that looked like bright-winged things whirling off and about the
sun.
"Our gig was holding off by the boat-hook from her lee-quarter, the oars
up-ended, and two or three sailors, with their heads shoved out under a
port-lid on the main deck, talking to the boat's crew, while a few of
the men hung over the high black top-sides, peering aft at the gig; the
rest being gathered in the ship's bows, with their eyes fixed on the
schooner. The huge round of the sun went down astern like the mouth of a
furnace, sending a broad stream of red light across the face of the
water with every wet streak and wrinkle shown heaving in it, right up to
the Indiaman's white band and her pitch-black bulwarks. Her
quarter-galleries lashed out, and you saw the passengers' heads aft
through the red arch under the wide mainsail-foot, till every face shone
crimson-bright out of the awning below; and I could see the midshipman's
gold band glisten as he took his cap off to some ladies coming down the
poop-stair, amidst a hubbub of cadets turning round to eye the schooner.
For half-a-minute the smooth sea all astern of the ship seemed to wash
to her water-line in a flood of light and blood almost, as if the
horizon vanished; then the tip of the sun went down like a burning ruby,
the blue heave of water sank away from the copper at the Indiaman's
bows, giving us an easy lift at the other side of the swell, and the
whole compass of the sea appeared to slide round cool and clear against
the soft flush of all possible tints in the west; till the deep indigo
hue of the calm spread melting off from both of us.
"What I gave most heed to was the knots of men's faces on the
_Seringapatam's_ forecastle, as the golden gleam of light and the red
glare struck across them with all sorts of queer touches, that brought
back every one of them clearly to mind at once; and, stepping forward
where Mr Jones's figure was to be seen dark against the pale glow in the
west, I could easily make out ugly Harry's big buffalo head, as he leant
his chin on his two hands, and surveyed us up and down, with his dirty
tarpaulin on the back of his head as usual, and his shaggy black hair
like thatch over his forehead, almost down to the meeting of his thick
eyebrows. The moment I appeared, Mister Harry Foster shifted himself
with a start, looked aloft to his own ship, and began to whistle as if
for wind; the same moment Jones turned and noticed me, too, and the
difference of the two men's faces struck me the more, that I couldn't
help thinking extremes met. 'That fellow there seems to like us so well,
Mr Jones,' said I, laughing, 'that I've half a mind to bring him aboard,
as I _could_!' 'Who--which, sir?' said the mate, looking to every part
of the Indiaman but the right one. 'Why, that misbegotten-like rascal
you were looking at,' said I; 'I know a little of him, and a more
thorough blackguard doesn't walk planks!' 'There's the boat, though,
Lieutenant Collins!' said Jones suddenly: the boat-hook struck our
mizzen-chains on the other side in the dusk, and next minute Tom
Westwood swung himself on board, with the midshipman and Old Rollock the
planter following in his wake; the last, to my surprise, carrying two
hat-boxes and an umbrella.
"'Why, Ned Collins!' broke out Westwood, 'what is the meaning of all
this--what wind has blown you here?' 'My _dear_ fellow!' shouted the
planter, almost jumping on top of me, 'I never in my life saw the like
of you--the very same infernal schooner, too! Come, let's hear--have you
taken 'em all then, head and tail--have you----' "'For Heaven's sake,
Mr Rollock,' said I, sheering out of his way as well as I could, 'come
below, sir, if I must answer all these questions!' 'So you are actually
in command?' said Westwood; and hereupon I gave him the bearings of his
own affair, with the fact of my falling in with Lord Frederick Bury, of
course; and of all men in the world, I believe, the 'Honourable Bury'
was the one Westwood could feel comfortable under, as his face showed at
the time. 'Whether I _lose_ you or not in the Hooghly, Tom,' said I, 'I
daresay you'll find yourself in the end aboard the _Hebe_, in some shape
or other! and meantime I shall be glad of you here for a first mate.'
'Well, well,' put in the planter again, impatiently, after having kept
questioning me every now and then for the last ten minutes, which I
answered without well knowing what he said--'then you hung him, of
course?' 'Hung whom?' asked I, obliged to attend by Mr Rollock's
perseverance. 'Why, El Americano, to be sure--the Yankee--Snout!' said
he, trying to lengthen his face for the news. 'Hung him--no!' said I,
laughing; 'when I saw him on deck there, last, he was lively enough, and
anxious to get those images of his out of the _Seringapatam_.' The
planter's rosy gills turned a shade or two paler, and he started off his
seat. 'God bless me!' said he, in a low voice, and looking over his
shoulder, 'you don't mean to say you've brought the man back on me. I
declare to you I lost a few pounds of my weight here before, by his
actually conceiving a friendship for me!' Old Rollock's dismay was so
comical that I could scarce find in my heart to ease his mind, as I did.
"'Why, my dear fellow,' said Westwood, with a smile, 'I assure you that
disappearance of yours took me by surprise. Indeed, I only guessed, from
something Captain Finch let drop afterwards, how it came about; and till
the very moment the brig-of-war got under way, I fancied you had some
other plan in view, or else you never would have carried it out. The
fact was, Ned, if your heart was bound for India, mine was ashore in old
England, and I'd rather have run the risk to go back!' Here Tom caught
my glance, and looked shyly into one waistcoat pocket, then into
another, fidgeting on his chair, poor fellow! in a way that brought my
sister Jane's grey eyes, and her demure little arch face, distinctly
before me, thousands of miles as there were between us and Croydon. The
thought of the _Seringapatam_ being so near, on the other hand, somehow
rushed on me at the same time, and I felt wonderfully mild toward Tom.
'Hang it, Tom!' said I, 'never mind thinking of it--mix your grog, man,
and confound all care to the bottom of the sea. You're well off! For my
part,' said I, 'I had no notion at all how _that_ case stood, so I made
a cursed mistake in the matter--but here's luck!'
"'However,' said he, 'I saw _your_ drift by that time; and the young
lady herself was in the fore-cabin when I told her father the whole
story, not long after you went off. 'Twas no use with Sir Charles,
though, to say you were only carrying out the joke to screen me, and
amuse yourself at the same time--he was sure you were after some scheme;
and all the while Miss Hyde sat sewing on the sofa behind us, as quiet
and careless as if she didn't hear a word, or trouble herself about the
matter. When I came upon your vanishing so suddenly in the brig,
however, and said I was sure, by that time, you did so in order to let
me clear off, I had my eye on the looking-glass opposite the young lady;
and whatever you may make of it, Ned, I can tell you she started and
glanced up at that point.' 'Well, and what of that?' I asked. But
Westwood went on--'It was all one to Sir Charles, nevertheless, whatever
way I turned it. According to him, this was just of a piece with the
rest of your doings, which showed the bad effects of the naval service.
'Twas no use my standing up for you, saying how fast you had risen, and
would rise, if you had the right thing to do--for the old gentleman
allowed everything, adding it was so much the worse for such fellows to
be set loose. "I tell you what, Mr Westwood," said he, looking round
sharply, as if he were speaking _at_ somebody else, "there is a soul of
mischief in that young man that nothing will root out, unfitting him for
everything else, however admirably it may be suited to maritime pursuits
or to savage warfare. In short," added the judge, drawing himself up,
"it is my conviction he will either be drowned or knocked on the
head----"' 'The precious old curmudgeon!' I rapped out, betwixt laughter
and rage at the thought of _her_ hearing all this pretty character of
me. '"And I must say, my young friend," said the judge, "I felt much
relieved at finding Councillor Westwood's nephew so different an
individual--exceedingly relieved! Besides that, you cannot, of course,
continue in the navy!" Just at this moment,' continued Westwood, 'I saw
the young lady gather up her work behind us with a sparkle in her eye,
rise off the sofa, and walk straight aft through the cabin-door.'
"'Was _that_ all?' said I, biting my lip. '_All_, you heathen!' answered
Tom, laughing. 'Why, what would you have? I'll be bound the judge didn't
mean all that for my use, my dear fellow. But the worst of it was, that
next day, when I met her with the Brigadier's lady on the poop, the
young beauty passed me with as scornful an air as possible; and for a
week or so, whenever the judge happened to ask me into the round-house
cabins, either she wasn't there, or took an opportunity of walking
out--the most I got was a bow or a "good-morning"; so you see the real
Simon Pure didn't prosper half so well as the false one!' 'Pooh!' said
I, gloomily, thinking of the little ground I had made myself, 'all
contradiction--the fact is, you're too simple for women's ways,
Westwood.' Westwood looked down and gave a queer smile--as much as to
say, I suppose, the case stood just the contrary; and I must own, it
struck me _he_ must be rather a knowing fellow that could fathom my
sister, seeing that, for my part, I understood her no more than my
mother's housemaid did, with her high-flown music and poetry, and all
that sort of thing.
"'However,' said Westwood, 'I contrived by degrees to get over all this,
and for the last week or two we were as good acquaintances as before--in
fact, the judge was evidently bent on it. And I tell you what it is,
Ned, as charming a girl, in her way, as Violet Hyde I can't well
fancy--but one more hopeless to deal with, for a fellow that hasn't got
hold of her heart, I believe doesn't breathe! Why, young as she is,
you'd feel her playing you round her pretty forefinger as a woman would,
looking at you all the time under her soft eyelids with those bright
eyes of hers, as if you could fancy her falling in love in a moment with
someone else, but never with yourself!' 'By Jove, yes!' said I, feeling
as dismal as I daresay I looked. 'Do you know,' Westwood went on, 'her
figure and walk always remind me of a Hindoo girl's, all over English as
her face and hair are, with a touch of the tropical, you can't say
where, about it--owing to her being born in India, as I believe she
was; and altogether, Ned, I'm glad to----' Here Westwood shrugged his
shoulders, and I poured myself out another glass of grog in pure
despair.
"'The truth is,' said I, 'I wish I had never _seen_ that confounded
_Seringapatam_! Didn't she say any--didn't you--in fact, Tom, what do
you think of the matter, plump and plain, stem and stern?' said I
manfully. 'Why,' said Tom, in a thoughtful way, 'not to set you at all
wrong on either side, the thing that strikes me is, I don't think she
ever once mentioned you, Ned, except in passing. But to my mind, in the
circumstances, that's not so much against you. The young lady can say
little when she pleases, I assure you; for only last night, in that fine
moonlight, we happened to touch on that affair in the river--you know?'
'Yes,' I said, for it wasn't easy to forget. 'Now I always thought that
night a turning-point with you,' Westwood said; 'and it was the last
night you were aboard; so I spoke of you a good deal, and never a word
did Miss Violet utter, save "Yes" and "No," while her face being in the
shadow, I couldn't see it. Oh, by-the-by, though,' continued he, 'she
_did_ say one thing!'
"'For Heaven's sake, what was it?' I broke out eagerly. 'Well, then,
Ned,' answered he, leaning back on the two back legs of his chair, and
eyeing me with a comical air, which surprised me a little; 'do you
consider yourself good-looking?' I started up. 'What do you mean by
that, Tom?' said I; but next moment I sat down again with a sulky 'No,
I'll be hanged if I do! so----' 'No more does your lady-love, then,'
said Westwood, 'for she made the remark very coolly, and even without my
asking her--but don't be down-hearted at that, my dear Ned, for I think
more of that little sentence, in the way it was said, than of all she
did _not_ say!' 'The greater the difference between us, I suppose,' said
I savagely. 'Why,' replied Tom, ''tis my conviction you never hear a
woman say the man she likes is handsome--and from a perverse young gipsy
like----' 'Well, by Jove! Westwood,' said I, losing my temper
altogether, and giving the table a slap with my fist that sent my glass
crash to the deck, 'you beat everything! I suppose if she'd called me a
fool and a blessed lubber, you'd turn it to my favour. But the truth is,
I don't understand your niceties--I want something broad and
above-board, that a fellow can lay hold of--and the short and the long
of it is----' With that I laid my face on my arms down in the spilt grog
on the table, and fairly groaned. My head reeled till I scarce knew it
was myself that was sitting there, as all of a sudden one thought after
another crowded on me. Somehow I seemed for a single moment to be out
and out in the open sea, the different faces I'd seen along the ship's
bulwarks rushing past me, with Jones's face, and the look of the
Indiaman in the sunset; through all sorts of weather, too, in that
confounded moment.
"Then, I can't say why, but my hair crept as I came back to the thought
of the Indiaman and the schooner in the calm at the time, and I almost
fancied I heard a whisper at my ear. I looked up, and saw Tom Westwood
sitting opposite me, with a musing air, and rather melancholy. The sight
of my wild stare, with the grog I suppose trickling down my forehead,
and dripping off my nose, appeared to startle him, and our eyes met
queerly enough for half-a-minute--till all at once the notion seemed to
strike both of us, of the absurdity of two fellows hobnobbing and
lackadaisying away this fashion in a hole of a schooner's cabin,
thousands of miles from land; and I'm blessed if we didn't both burst at
the same moment into regular roars of laughter--first one broadside,
then 'bout ship, as it were, to deliver the other, gun after gun. By
George! though, I felt it do me good, as if something deadly went off
with it. 'Hallo!' sung out the planter, blocking up the moonlight that
shone misty-white down the steps of the companion, to a blue glimmer at
the foot of them; 'both surviving _yet_, I declare'; and we felt the
scent of his cheroot in the hot calm as he walked aft again.
"'Well, Ned,' said Westwood, still laughing, 'there's one thing more I
_did_ contrive to get out, and it is certainly broad enough to lay hold
of, as you say. Do you know, from some hints the judge let drop in
course of the passage, after he got to know me, I have a rather sharp
suspicion he has someone in view for his daughter already!' At this I
gasped once more. 'Whether she knows it herself or not, I'm not sure,'
added Tom; 'but, very naturally, the gentleman I mean was often enough
mentioned in Sir Charles's cabins--for who do you imagine, of all
persons in the world, it is?'
"I made no trial at a guess, but sat eyeing Westwood in perfect silence,
and he went on--'Who but--don't look so fierce, my dear fellow--just
this--this said nabob of an uncle of mine, the Bengal Councillor! Why,
you've no conception,' said Westwood, 'what presents of pearl necklaces,
fans, cashmere shawls, and China ivory work-boxes, and so on, the
Councillor must have sent home to her at different times, for the
_Seringapatam_ to bring back again. I didn't see her wear any of them;
but every now and then Sir Charles would point to something that lay
about, telling me it came from my uncle! He is a bachelor, you know, not
so old as Sir Charles himself, who isn't so old as he looks, and they
seem to be sworn friends!' 'Tuts, man!' said I, brightening a bit,
'can't you see he wants to adopt her?' 'So I should have imagined,'
answered Westwood; 'but the fact is, two or three times, as I told you,
Sir Charles Hyde hinted as much as that it was an idea of long standing
between himself and his friend the Councillor, so----' 'The old
villain!' I roared. 'Begging your pardon, Westwood--but I must say you
are the pattern of a Job's comforter, and no mistake!' 'Well,' answered
he, 'if you had heard the way in which the young lady mentioned my uncle
to me, you wouldn't be much afraid of your rival, Ned. Why, she said she
thought she remembered him when she was a little girl, bringing her
Indian sweetmeats from the bazaar in his carriage--she actually supposed
he must be older than her father, when the judge set her right eagerly
enough--but, you must know, he no more seems able to say a sharp word to
_her_, than Jacobs yonder would. So what did she say next, after
apparently thinking a little, but that, now she recollected, my uncle
used to have gray hair and white whiskers, like Mr Rollock, which for my
part I knew no more about than the table, when her father broke out
describing him as warmly as possible; and suddenly Miss Hyde looked at
him with a little turn of her pretty lip, and a twinkle in her eye, that
sent the old gentleman fiddling about his coffee-cup, and stopped him in
a moment as if she had been a little witch!'
"'What's to be done, Tom?' I faltered out, after a long stop. 'I'm sure
I don't know, Ned,' said he gravely; 'let's go on deck at any rate, for
it's too hot here to sleep.' The moment the sight of the calm burst upon
us, however, with the two vessels together in the midst of it, in the
hazy sort of moonlight, the same notion seemed to strike both of us in
a different way. 'I'll tell you what, Collins,' said Westwood,
half-jokingly, half in earnest, 'uncle though he be, if you can contrive
to cut out the Councillor anyhow, I'll forgive you, for one!' 'How,
though--_how_, by Jove!' replied I--'if they go to Bombay in the
Indiaman, by the time they reach Calcutta, I shall be in the Pacific!'
''Tis a difficult case,' said Westwood, 'no doubt. And even suppose you
had the opportunity, 'twould be hard to manage an elopement ashore in
India, travelling "dauk" in two palanquins. Seriously speaking, Ned, I
see nothing for it but to wait till you come _back_ from the Pacific.'
"I looked hopelessly round: the calm and heat together gave one a
helpless feeling, and every notion of an active sort appeared desperate.
A perfect calm it was, too: there was some filmy scum of a haze aloft,
that served to spread the moonlight all over, shutting out the shape of
the sky, and softening off the horizon; with the moon standing slant up
in it, like a brighter spot, and a few stars low down in the east. But
for the long wide tremble of the water, in fact, as it glanced up with a
blue flicker, you'd have fancied we mightn't be far from land; while the
big Indiaman lay off the schooner's bow, without the least motion one
could see; the moonshine edging round her spars and ropes from the other
side, and her sails hanging shadowy against it, except below, under her
brailed-up courses, where the masts, the thick of the rigging, and the
tops of her deck-lumber, glistened as if they were newly wet. Half of
her watch were on the bowsprit, sending out a 'fished' spritsail-yard,
the same we had set dangling about their ears that afternoon, and we
could hear them speaking plain enough; every time they sang out at a
haul, it went far away on all sides--ho-ho-ho-he-ho-ho-o--till you lost
it in the dead calm, as if somebody had gone there. Now and then the
_Seringapatam_ made a slight plunge by the head, as the wide soft swell
floated up with her; and the glossy black shadow, that seemingly gave
her hull the height of a tower, came wavering in quicksilver circles to
our very cutwater, while the lights from her after-windows went twisting
away round her heavy counter to the moonshine, like yellow snakes; the
schooner all the time lying as quiet as if she were on a pond, except
that by little and little she kept shifting her bearings to the
Indiaman, and things were confoundedly like our both sticking together
in course of the morning, if the calm held. I went forward to the
forecastle and desired Jones to get all hands down into the boats, and
have her towed off to safe distance, seeing that the worst of it would
be sure to fall to our share.
"This was doing, and we drew slowly off the ship's bow, where her men
coolly knocked off working to watch ours, and pass jokes on our gang of
Lascars, as they handled the oars in awkward style; in fact, by the way
the Indiaman's watch carried on, most of them seemed to have passed the
grog-can pretty freely, being Saturday night, which we could hear they
were still keeping up below in the forecastle, when our quarter came
abreast of her larboard bow. 'Hurrah!' said one, waving his tarpaulin;
and 'Pull, you beggars!' roared another; when my old customer, ugly
Harry, all at once leant out of her fore-chains, and sung out to Jones,
who was next him in the stern-sheets of our gig: 'I say, mate, so ye're
clearing off, are ye? The better for that 'ere nutshell of a schooner o'
yours, I reckon!' Jones made no answer, and the fellow added; 'Come
aboard when you've got a safe berth, anyhow, and drink "sweethearts and
wives," will ye?' I saw Jones start, and turn his face fiercely into the
shadow of the ship's main-course on the water, rising half-up with one
fist clenched, but he said nothing. 'Oh, you're blasted proud!' Foster
called out: 'you forgets a man, blow me! D'ye think I doesn't know a
fellow I got glorious with myself, in old Van Stinkoff's, at Cape Town?
Sink me, mates,' said he, as loud as before, turning round on the rail
of the bulwarks to the rest, 'I picked him out o' the street scuppers,
under the sign of the Flying Dutchman, an' I'm blowed if I didn't think
it beneath me at the time!' Here the end of our main-boom opened us in
sight of the ugly ruffian, and he was sinking down in-board, when I
hailed the Indiaman's quarter-deck, where the Scotch mate was to be
seen. 'Ay, ay, the schooner ahoay!' sung out he, coming to the gangway.
'Did you hear that man's impertinence, sir,' said I sternly, 'to my
officer on duty there? I expect you to see him punished, sir.' The
Scotchman said he'd inquire into it; but shortly after he came back,
saying he 'doubted' he couldn't be sure of the man; and, at any rate, he
could have 'meant no ill.' The boats had towed us by this time almost
out of fair hearing, but Harry Foster was to be seen coolly eyeing us
from the midst of his watchmates, as he slung a couple of blocks over
his shoulder; when he turned away with as much indifference as if we had
been a Thames collier, growling some two or three words or other that
brought a loud laugh from the Indiaman's forecastle to her bowsprit,
where the men were turning lazily to their business again.
"Being now clear off the ship, with the rake of her hull in our command
if I chose, and free of her broadside at the same time, I hailed the
boats to leave off towing and come aboard. As Jones came on deck, I saw
that in his face to make me think he took the thing to heart, seeing he
met my first look with his lips set together and a steady gleam of his
eyes. The truth was, I never in my life came across a man that struck me
so much with the notion of his having a devil in him, seeking to get the
better of what was good.
"'I think we shall do, Mr Jones?' I said. 'Quite safe, sir,' said he,
quietly; at that moment, standing as we did out of earshot, with the
setting moon in sight past the Indiaman, shining in a rusty yellow glare
to her hanging sails, 'twas strange how the odds of our different
stations passed off. We were foot to foot, in fact; I was fully aware,
if never before, what an enemy Jones would make--he had great daring and
knowingness in him, and all on the wrong side of the hedge for me at the
time, seeing I had such a ticklish part to play with the Indiaman. I
caught myself, on the instant, measuring youth and activity, not to say
regular breeding to the service, and a clear conscience besides, against
him and his thews and sinews; but as for turning and twisting with the
man before me, I saw it was the tack likely to throw him to windward of
me. My voice changed, and I lowered it as I said: 'Mr Jones, I happened
to sail half the voyage as a passenger in that ship, and I've no common
reason to be anxious about her getting safe into port. There's one
single being in her at this moment I'd willingly lose my life to save
from anything like what one could fancy--ay, so help me God, suppose I'd
no chance of ever setting eyes on her again!' Jones never stirred a
feature, but looked past me into the gleam of the moon over my shoulder.
"'Well, Mr Jones,' I said, 'I'll acknowledge to you frankly, as from one
seaman to another, the question is, Are you for me--or _not_?' 'We
speak as man with man, it seems, Mr Collins!' said Jones quietly; 'then
I am--_for_ you!' and he struck his hand all at once into mine; 'here's
a hand that never lied, whatever the tongue may have done--bad or good;
I am for you, sir, and no more of it! I knew as well as if you'd told
me, Mr Collins, by the looks of the passengers, that you had sailed
aboard that ship in some way or other--and what's more, sir, I
_saw_----' here he stopped, looking at me with his back to the sinking
gleam of light beyond the ship's hull, from the moon as she touched the
water, and I saw nothing but the shape of his head under the straw hat,
with a shadow blurring his face together, though I felt him eyeing me
out of it all the time--'what some would think more worth while than if
you were a Spanish plate-ship,' he went on; and he lowered his voice
nearly to a whisper as he added, 'I tell you what, Mr Collins, 'tis my
conviction that, _if you chose_, you might do what you liked in the end
with that Indiaman and _all_ aboard her!' I stepped back with a shiver
through me, as the sudden setting of the moon blended everything black
in with Jones's shoulders, leaving his head instead of her against a
glimmer of light, till for a moment it seemed peering at me off the
horizon with the whole lump of shadow betwixt the two craft for a body;
and I must say I thought of old stories about the Tempter in human form.
'Devil!' said I hoarsely, while the last gleam to westward went out, and
it got so dark I could have fancied Jones had vanished from the bulwarks
without stirring a foot; in fact, on my moving to the place I touched
the cool planks with my hand--he was actually gone! Nothing was visible
beyond our own decks, save a slight glimmer such as one would make in
sculling with a single oar; and I saw at once he had taken the small
boat alongside to go aboard the Indiaman! All the rest was that thick
heavy darkness only to be found in a calm in the Indian Ocean, towards
morning: you may not only say you see it, but could stir it, as it were,
with a stick.
"A horrid notion of Jones's purpose crept through my mind at first; but
on second thoughts I easily saw this wasn't the occasion for him to
choose, if he had really meant ill, and accordingly there was more the
reason to trust him. Indeed, as I stood listening and watching, after
Westwood and the planter went below, the Indiaman's binnacle lamp seemed
to go slowly out, while at the same time the sound of her watch
speaking on the forecastle apparently got distincter, till I could hear
them clear of the ship's hull and rigging, like low voices muttering in
the air betwixt her and us. 'Twas only her having sheered gradually
bow-on to the schooner again, however, as a calm near the equator has
always something like a _pulse_ in it--but it struck me there were men
out on her jib-boom, which being of course the very privatest part of
any in a ship for talk--why, to find more than one going out there, of a
dark night, and with no work to do, never looks otherwise than
suspicious. Nothing of this kind surprised me at present in the
_Seringapatam_, with the opinion I had of her; but the curious thing
was, that the fellows must have supposed it the farthest point they
could get out of sight of us, as well as from their own decks, she
having had her beam to the schooner when the moon set.
"The desperate feelings that steal upon a man in such a case, and the
fearful notions that breed in his head, with the quickness of his senses
and the way he holds on by a single rope, you can scarcely conceive,
though if a cry had come from the Indiaman at that moment I daresay I
should have sprung in head foremost to get to her, when all at once,
from up in the air again, I thought I heard the smart click of a flint
and steel; at any rate, I saw the sparks showering from it in the midst
of the black space before me--even the pair of fists as they knocked
together, then a mouth blowing the match, till there was a light in a
lantern between four heads leaning towards each other over the spar.
Queer enough it would have been to see, in ordinary circumstances, but
you'll readily fancy what a thing it looked all of a sudden, right out
in the midst of the pitch-black night, one didn't know how or where--in
fact, two of them faced each other in the stream of light from one side
of the lantern, like the two edges of a rent in the dark, and another
was like a sprawling blot in the centre--you just saw they were faces
and heads, with a foot or two of the thick round boom slanting up
betwixt them; but as for their bodies, they were all of a piece with the
perfect blackness beyond. I could see one of them hold up the lantern
and pass it round the three others' faces, bringing out their chins and
noses, as if to be sure who they were--a piece of caution which served
almost equally well for me, for I remembered each of them by headmark
amongst the crew, only I didn't see the said fellow himself, even when
he drew out some paper or other in one hand, seemingly unfolded it with
the help of his teeth, and spread it over the jib-boom under the
lantern, whereupon the whole four of the heads drew close together in a
black lump round the light, peering down upon the paper, and muttering
away as much at their ease, no doubt, as if they'd been in a tap-room.
All I wished for was a good rifle-barrel in my hand at the time, to have
knocked the light out from the midst of them, and sent the bullet by
accident through the tarpaulin hat behind it--especially when a glaring
red flipper was shoved out on the white paper, and the thumb planted
steadily on a particular spot. All at once, however, the light was put
out in the lantern, and I heard them going in-board, as the noise of the
morning watch being called, at four o'clock, got up round the
forehatchway.