"In about half-an-hour the faint glimmer of Jones's oar in the water
showed how hard it was to find the schooner again; however, he managed
to get aboard at last, by which time I was walking carelessly past the
binnacle in the dark, and as soon as he sought me out and began to
speak, I saw it was all right. Mr Snelling came on deck to his watch,
blowing up the men for letting out the only light aboard, as he didn't
know fore-and-aft from 'thwart-ships, nor north from south. The cabin
lamp under the skylight had gone out too for want of oil, without being
noticed as long as the moon shone, and not even the planter's cheroot
was to be seen. From the snatches of their conversation he had time to
gather, I agreed with Jones that, whatever the four fellows on the
jib-boom might have intended beforehand, their present cue wasn't at all
to try seizing the ship; in fact, the schooner's sudden appearance in
this latitude, with what they knew of her before, had naturally enough
brought out a number of the crew in different colours to what they'd
stick to after getting a fright and finding their mistake--though by
this time I had no doubt in my own mind that the villain who bent on his
silk neckerchief to the signal halliards in that hurry the afternoon
before actually meant it for the _black flag_, while the absurdity of an
Indiaman _striking_ at all to a cruiser that wanted her just to
heave-to, was a sign how most of the crew's minds went, as long as they
fancied us pirates. However, Jones had seen sufficient of the lantern
affair on the boom to explain it to my great relief; the ringleader of
them, no other I was sure than ugly Harry himself, seemed to scrub
trousers ordinarily for one of the quarter-deck officers, and had got
hold of an old chart in his berth that same evening, which the four had
come out there to get a private overhaul of. All Jones could get room to
see was that it was a chart of some islands, with a particular mark at
one of them, on which the fellow with the lantern put his thumb, when
another asked if there weren't any trees on it. 'Trees, ay, trees enough
to hang all the blasted lubbers afloat!' said the first, as Jones
listened. 'I'd as soon think of sailing in a craft without spars as
aboard a dazart ileyand without trees!' One was tired of the Indiaman,
another sick of the world, and a third, with Jack down on the bowsprit,
wanted to chase buffaloes and shoot birds. As for the rest, the head of
the gang assured his mates there were plenty of other islands not far
off, and natives in them; whereupon the light was put out, and, in
short, they made it up amongst them to take one of the ship's boats
quietly some night as soon as she got in the latitude of the Maldives,
and steer for this said island; although, in case of their being dogged
about by the schooner, of which the chief scoundrel seemed, by Jones's
account, to have a wholesome fear, it wouldn't be so easy a matter.
Indeed the last words he was heard to say, as they crept inward down the
boom, were to the effect that he thought there were _some aboard_ as
anxious to drop the cruiser as they were. ''Faith, Mr Jones,' said I,
glad to find this was what they wanted, 'if that's all, I shan't stand
in their way--so as soon as the breeze springs up, we'd better clear off
altogether. The smoothest way is to let them take themselves quietly off
and I've no fear of the ship--only, before fairly shaping our own course
for Bengal, we must manage to have another sight of her under full sail
for Bombay!'
"Neither of us thought of turning in, for by the next half-hour, in
fact, the Indiaman's hull and canvas began to blacken out of the gloom
on one side--the blue of the water spread round till it glittered
against the ring of light kindling and kindling on the horizon, till it
rose seemingly in a perfect fire at one spot in the rim of it, blazing
up toward the cool blue aloft; then the sun was out. As long as we had
to stick to your niceties and fine manners, in fact, I felt as much
afraid of meeting Violet herself as a country booby would--I'll be
hanged if I wasn't in doubt of her cutting me dead, suppose I met her,
and I shouldn't have had a word to say; whereas with a spice of the
rough work I thought of all night, or even a chance of something
desperate behind, why, a fellow needn't to mind much how he went about
it--seeing that in the midst of a hubbub the words come into your mouth
of themselves, and you're not expected to stand upon ceremony.
"The Scotch mate, being now first officer, had the side-ropes handed us
civilly enough, having just seen the decks washed down in his own
thorough manner, carronades, ropes, and all; but as the captain wasn't
turned out yet, I went up the poop, where a couple of boys were still
swabbing up the wet. The moment I reached it, the sight of the only two
passengers that were out so early, rather took me aback, one of them
being the last I cared to meet--namely, the Irish Brigadier's lady, who
was walking the deck in pattens, the boys evidently keeping clear of her
with their swabs; and the stout red-faced Brigadier himself, buttoned up
to the throat, while he stalked dismally fore-and-aft with her on his
arm. At the first glimpse of me, General Brady stopped short and
stared--I daresay he was doubtful whether to call me out or not. 'Glad
to _say_ you again, sir!' said he. 'Well, now,' said his lady, 'you're
the very man I wanted to see!' I still looked at her, unable to say the
like of herself, but terrified to speak a wrong word, with the knowledge
of her confounded temper: the Brigadier had planted himself betwixt me
and the poop-stairs, and never having fairly come across her since the
affair about her dog and the shark, why, absurd as it was, I didn't know
what the woman might make of my connection with the same craft that
carried her off so soon after.
"'Yes, indeed, and 'twas foolish of me not to see it in ye at first!'
she went on, shaking her parasol at me in a knowing way, and eyeing the
schooner again. 'Howiver, _I heard_ of you!' said she, with another
look that set me all alive, 'and a mighty bold sort of admirer you are!'
'Faith, sir,' said the Brigadier, 'if I'd commanded the batthery down
there last night, I'd have waited till ye got nearer, and blown you out
of the wather.' ''Tis only a lieutenant you are?' said his lady,
speaking without scruple in the midst of his words, and frowning him
quiet. 'Nothing more, ma'am,' I said. 'Well, now, Mister Lieutenant,'
said the lady suddenly, 'what d'ye mean to do? You didn't find us out
here, I suppose, and actually take these cowardly ship-people of ours by
_say_ge-like a bold fellow, for nothing?' After a few words more, Mrs
Brady all of a sudden vanished down the little quarter-gallery stair
near the ship's taffrail; though I had scarce missed her ere she
appeared again, making me a signal. 'Hush, now!' said she in a whisper
out of the stairway, 'and step after me like a cat amongst broken
b_h_ottles, for he's shaving yonder just now on the opposite side--I saw
his kitmagar taking in the hot water.' Next moment I had followed her
into the small state-room in the larboard quarter, where she opened an
inner door and left me. By Jove! I could have hugged that Irishwoman on
the spot, vixen as she was--no matter though the very ship might be out
of sight in a few hours, and I never set eyes on her again; I thought no
more of it at the moment than I did of her skipper waiting for
me--everything was lost in the notion of seeing Violet Hyde's face come
out of that door. All the time there was a whispering, a rustling, and a
confusion in the berth, as if she were taken by surprise, naturally
enough--then I caught a word or two of the young lady's own, that made
me think it was all up.
"The door-handle turned, and the door half opened, then it shut to
again, and I heard Mrs Brady's voice in a coaxing sort of strain, till
at last she opened the door wide and said: 'Then you won't, my dear? So
Mister Lieutenant what's-his-name,' added she, 'you may be off to your
vessel, and----' Suddenly I saw Violet's figure shrinking back, as it
were, behind the Brigadier's lady, into the berth; but all at once she
walked straight out to the state-room, half frowning and half laughing,
with an angry kind of blush all over her face. Her hair was only looped
up on the side, and braided on the other, as if it weren't rightly
ship-shape yet for the day; while as for her dress, I remember nothing
except its being some brown cloak or other wrapped so close about her
that one couldn't even see her hands, like the picture of a nun. 'Mrs
Brady seems so astonished to see you here again, Mr Collins,' said she,
rather sharply, as I thought, 'that she cannot rest without all the
passengers meeting you, I suppose, before you go?' With that she looked
back, but Mrs Brady had walked out, though I heard the young lady's
waiting-girl moving about inside the berth yet. ''Twas all an accident,
my happening to come on board just now, Miss Hyde,' said I, anxiously,
'or, indeed, my having orders to speak the Indiaman at all!' 'Ah!' she
answered--'and it was so strange of Mrs Brady to--to persist!' The
lovely girl had scarce condescended to look at me yet, but here she
glanced past me through the quarter-gallery window at the schooner,
where there was nothing betwixt her and the gay little state-room save
the blue heaving water and the light--then her eye seemed to pass from
the epaulet on my shoulder to the other that had none, till it lighted
for the first time on my face, with a smile.
"'How beautiful your schooner looks just now, Mr Collins!' said she,
turning hastily again; 'it is the--the same that--that we saw before?'
Now there was something in those blue eyes of hers, with the dark lashes
over them and under them, that made me lose sight at the moment of
everything in the way of my success, fear and all--a sort of a flying
glance it was, that I couldn't help turning to my favour. 'For God's
sake, Miss Hyde,' said I, 'let me have something one way or other to
know my fate by--it's no use telling my mind after all that's come and
gone; but as I mayn't see you again--and the breeze will be up
directly--why----' Violet stood all the while gazing down on the
state-room carpet, making no answer: there was a dead stop, and I heard
the first ripple of the breeze work against the ship's rudder below--by
Jove! I could have hanged myself at that moment--when I saw her shoulder
tremble as she looked down, her soft eyelids just lifted till I caught
the blue of her eye, and the smile came over her lip. How I got hold of
her hand--for that confounded cloak, or whatever it was, I really don't
know; but so it was, and out I came with the words, 'Violet--I love you
to the last drop of my blood, that's all!' I said; 'and I only wish I
had the chance of showing it!' Violet Hyde drew her hand gently out of
mine, and looked me straight in the face for a moment with a merry sort
of a quizzical air, as if I meant some other adventure--and 'Oh no! I
hope not!' added she, with a shudder, and then a blush, no doubt
thinking of the African river.
'But Violet, Violet!' said I, eagerly, as she made a move toward the
nearest door, 'won't you say, then--_something_, for Heaven's sake, to
keep one in hope?' 'Why, what would you have, sir?' said she, quickly,
still turning away--but bless me! I don't exactly remember what
followed, in the desperation I felt--nor how near she was to me when I
heard her begging me to 'go, go, if I really loved her!' 'Dearest girl!'
I said, 'I shall be far enough off in a short time!' 'Do you actually
sail so soon, then?' said Violet, in a low voice. 'Why, they're bracing
round the ship's yards already, I hear,' answered I; 'but indeed I think
the schooner might keep near for a few days, too----' 'No--no!' said she
anxiously, 'go altogether, else my father will be still more set
against--against----Perhaps,' she added, 'we may see you in Calcutta,
when--you are'--and her eye glanced from one shoulder of my uniform to
the other. 'When I've got my epaulet shifted to the right shoulder?'[26]
asked I, eagerly; '_then_ may I see you?' '_See_--yes,' was the whisper
I caught--and 'Dearest, _dearest_ Violet,' said I, almost going down on
the deck before her, 'suppose I manage to ship them on _both_, in this
confounded peace, will you----' Hush!' said Violet, listening, and all
in a flutter, 'indeed you must go, else _I_ must!' 'For God's sake,
Violet,' I went on, keeping hold of her hand as she tried to get away,
'will you wait a year or two and give me the chance of a war in
China--or up the Mediterranean--or----' But here the wild notions I had
for a moment left me.
[26] At that period the distinguishing mark of a commander, as the
epaulet on the _left_ shoulder, of a lieutenant, and the epaulet
on _both_, of a post-captain.
"Somehow or other at that instant a terrible glimpse, as it were, of
Bonaparte standing up on the crag in St Helena flashed across me; and as
the folly of the thing, let alone the impudence of it, struck me, I
nigh-hand groaned, while Violet Hyde's fingers slipped out of mine. Just
then she turned full round with a soft look of her eyes, and was going
to say something, as I thought; but the handle of the aftermost door
turned, and the Brigadier's lady hastened in. As I glanced round,
something or other dropped lightly into the palm of my hand, and next
moment Violet was gone. 'Twas only a little knot of white ribbon I'd
got, though the scent and the warm touch of it together were enough to
startle one--I almost thought she'd changed into it; and to this day,
ma'am, I'll be hanged if I know what _that_ was the scent of--unless it
was sandal wood!
"'Quick!' said Mrs Brady, in a hurry, 'what d'ye stand staring there
for, man alive? Sir Charles is upstairs, and you can't go this way; so
through the cabins with ye, lieutenant, and out on the quarther-dheck!'
Before I well knew what I was doing, accordingly, we were in the judge's
main-cabin, where the ship's masts and the men gathering about the ropes
could be seen through the round-house doors as they stood open. 'Mrs
Brady,' said I, suddenly stepping back to her, 'you're an angel, ma'am,
and----' 'You unprincipled young villain ye!' said she, springing aft
with her fingers spread, and begining to raise her voice, 'what would ye
do! Brigadier.--D'ye think 'tis deaf I was in the stair yonder, you
promiscuous young----' However, I gave her one bewildered look, and
heard no more of it, bolting as I did through the nearest door right
against the man coming to the wheel; while the midshipman was on the
look-out for me everywhere to say that the captain of the Indiaman was
waiting for me below in his cabin.
"Indeed she was moving slowly through the water already, as the light
cat's-paws ruffled it here and there, and drew aloft into her royals;
our own little craft beginning to slip gently along to leeward of the
ship, with the dark Lascars' faces under the foot of her white
fore-topmast-staysail, giving her a doubtful enough air, I must own. I
had nothing particular to say to Finch, in fact; but, captain as he was
of the Indiaman for the time, 'twas the least I could do to see him;
besides that somehow or other, I had a sort of feeling as I came on
board half-an-hour before, I couldn't exactly say why, that made one
anxious for a near sight of him. If he suspected anything wrong amongst
his crew, why at any rate he would have an opportunity of mentioning it
ere we parted company; but, awkward as our meeting each other again
was, of course, and both being on such different footing from before,
while my own mind was naturally full of what had just happened, it
turned out much as might be expected. Finch was evidently not the same
man he had been a few weeks before, except in his puppy fine gentleman
manners and way of dress, which were twice as high-flown; with his hair
curled, a white handkerchief hanging half out of his breast-pocket, a
regular East India uniform, and everything showing the tiptop skipper.
The thing that set me less at my ease with him was, that I was sure, by
one glance of his eye, he had a pretty fair guess of where I had been
last, and saw it in my manner--which made me the more careful, as
matters stood, to give no signs of more meddling with the Indiaman.
However, I threw in a hint or two, when Finch out and told me quite
frankly, there _had_ been a little disorderly conduct on board after
they left the Cape, but he had thoroughly put it down, without letting
the passengers know anything about it, as he said: only, the very day
before, at the time when the schooner fired, there were a few of the
men, he told me, that seemed inclined to disobey orders--fellows he
wished he could get rid of.
"'Now, Captain Finch,' said I, as I looked over my shoulder at them from
the capstan, 'will you point out the men you spoke of, sir, that showed
themselves mutinous?' Finch drew back at this, however, and hummed and
hawed at the word. 'Yes, _mutinous_,' repeated I; 'there's no use
mincing the matter, I suppose. Just be so good as let me see the
fellows, and I'll rid you of them at once!' Finch's glance followed mine
as it lighted on Harry Foster's shaggy head watching us with the eye of
a buffalo, past a knot of slouching, hulking, foremast-men of his own
kidney. The moment I caught sight of Jacobs' broad, hearty, brown face,
standing apart a bit with his friends, Tom, Bill, the red-haired Irish
topman, and three other honest-like man-o'-war's-men, I took my cue for
the meantime. 'My lads,' said I, walking quietly forward, 'I want a few
hands for the _Hebe_ frigate--you know her, I daresay--and that's
enough; for a model like the _Hebe_ doesn't float the water--now, I
can't press any of you!' Here a general laugh ran along both rows, and I
heard a growling chuckle from ugly Foster. 'But,' added I, laughing too,
'you can _volunteer_!'
"There was a dead silence, in the midst of which Tom, the fore-topman,
the most dashing fellow in the ship, stepped aft with his hat in his
hand, then Jacobs, then Bill, and my acquaintance the 'Savage,' then the
three others. In place of grumbling, in fact, there began to be a hurrah
amongst the rest, except some of Foster's chums; a few more seemed
inclined to follow, and as for my gentleman captain, he appeared not to
know what to do. 'Now, my man,' said I, stepping straight up to ugly
Harry, and eyeing him right in the face as he stood, 'you're a fine
seaman-like fellow--true-blue, I'm sure--I've taken a particular fancy
to ye--won't you ship for the _Hebe_--eh?' Foster didn't know where to
look, twisting himself round, hitching up his trousers, and altogether
taken fairly aback; every eye was on him, and I'll be hanged if I don't
think he turned it in his mind to agree. 'Come, Foster,' said I, in a
low voice, 'I know you, my man, but if you ship I'll look over the
whole!' All at once Captain Finch walked up to me, saying, 'If you
persist in taking these men, sir, you'll have to answer for it, I can
tell you!' 'I know my own meaning, sir,' said I firmly; 'I am in the
regular course, and answer for it I will! Say the word, my man, and
ship?' said I again. 'Blowed if I do!' said Harry, turning on his heel
with a grim scowl; 'none o' yer frigates for me!' and he walked off.
Jacobs and the others came on the gangway with their bags, however, and
pitched them to the men in the boat, without anyone offering to
interfere; indeed, Finch had seemingly given it up sooner than I
expected.
"'Now, Captain Finch,' said I, before stepping over the side after Mr
Snelling and the men, 'I'd much rather we could have hit upon the right
men; however, the more need for my keeping in sight of you to windward,
as I shall do at least till we steer for the Bay of Bengal. I couldn't
do less, you see,' added I, on getting no answer, 'than make myself
strong enough to help you if needful!' 'I shall report to the Admiral at
Bombay, sir!' said he fiercely. 'You may do that, Captain Finch,' I
said, 'as soon as possible; but, in the meantime, you can't be sure of
what may turn up of a dark night, and a couple of lights at your
main-yardarm, or anywhere, will bring the schooner down in half-an-hour
or so if there's a breeze. As for a calm,' said I, turning round--but
such a strange white look had come over Finch's face as he glanced after
me, that, thinking he was beside himself with rage, I went down the side
without another word. 'Take your own way!' I fancied I heard him mutter
betwixt his teeth; but next moment we were pulling off.
"Well, the breeze ere this time was steady, though light, and we drew
gradually to windward of the Indiaman, till by the afternoon the white
band on her hull was just awash with the water, and there I kept her,
with a little variety, pretty near the whole night, and most of the
following day.
"The next night came almost as dark as it had been that night of the
calm; but the breeze freshened again pretty strong, and accordingly I
kept the schooner down to get nearer the ship, which we had seen in the
first dog-watch dead to leeward. I was rather uneasy for a while at not
being able to make out her lights, and we slipped fast through the
water, when all at once both Jones and Westwood called out from forward
that they saw them, and I walked to the bows.
"'All right,' said I, 'but, no, by heaven! That's the signal I named to
the captain! Set stunsails, Mr Jones, and make her walk, for God's
sake!' _Two_ lights it was aloft in the gloom, right to leeward as
before: there was something wrong, or else she wanted to speak us; so
away we flew before the wind, under everything that could be set. I
looked and looked, when a thought struck me; not another light was to be
seen below, and they weren't high enough from the heave of the sea for
even a ship's lower mast.
"Yes, by George!' said I hurriedly to Westwood and Jones, 'that's a
_trick_! The fellow means to give us the slip. Clap the helm down, Mr
Snelling, and haul aft the sheets there--luff, luff!' We were losing our
weather-gage; in fact, the Indiaman must actually be to windward of us
ere then, and if the breeze freshened we might lose them altogether. The
thing that troubled me most was, that I couldn't believe the man had
thought of such a plan himself; and if he once took a hint from any of
the scoundrels I knew were aboard, why, there was no saying what might
be the upshot in the end. Finch was a common enough character at bottom;
but with such notions as I was sure were working in his head about Miss
Hyde, one step might lead him on to another, till any chance occasion
might make a desperate villain of him, especially if he suspected
myself of aught like good fortune with the young lady. It wasn't much
past midnight, the air was wonderfully heavy and sweltering, and the
swell going down, when we heard a murmur amongst the men on the
forecastle, and saw a red fire-ball pass high over to nor'ard for
half-a-minute, leaving a trail in the dark sky beyond the headsails.
"A queer ghastly sort of ruddy gray streak opened out in the black of
the horizon, where some of them thought they made out the ship; but soon
after we could hear a low hollow kind of a hum, rushing as it were from
east to west, till it grew almost like the sound of waves on a beach;
which made us begin to look to ourselves. There was a bright line of
light directly in the opposite quarter, and the sea far away seemed
getting on fire, with a noise and hubbub coming along below, that nobody
appeared to know the meaning of; while aloft it was as still as a
church. For a moment I saw the _Seringapatam_ quite plainly several
miles off; but from the confusion, I never could say whether it was
north or east; in fact, we kept watching the canvas, expecting to have a
hurricane into it next minute. Suddenly the sea came gleam-gleaming and
flickering on, as it were, with a washing bubble and a hissing smother
of foam, till it splashed right against our larboard bulwarks, heaping
up like perfect fire upon the schooner's side, and running past both
stern and bows, away with a long rolling flash to the other horizon. All
was pitch-dark again after that, and a whisper went about our decks and
round the binnacle lamp of 'The _ripples_!--It's the ripples!'[27]
'Nothing more, sir!' said Jones, even he seemingly taken by surprise at
first. Twice again we had it, though each time fainter, right out of the
midst of the gloom; after which it was as calm as before. 'Thank God!'
said I, breathing hard, 'we'll have that Indiaman in the morning, at any
rate!' 'Why, sir,' answered Jones, thoughtfully, 'after this we are
likely to have the south-west monsoon upon us ere long--'tis just the
place and the season for it.'
[27] The "Ripples"--a marine phenomenon peculiar, apparently, to the
Indian Ocean.
"And so it was. Instead of sighting the _Seringapatam_ at daybreak, I
had a strong suspicion she had gone to eastward; but of course the
faster the schooner was, why if it were the wrong way we should only
get from her the farther, and miss her altogether, without ever knowing
how matters went, even if she got quietly into port; so, being the best
plan I could think of for the meantime, away we drove north-westward,
sweeping the horizon with the glass every morning. We had run so far,
indeed, without success, that I was sure she couldn't be ahead; when one
day I asked Mr Jones to bring me up the chart for those parts, as we
took the latitude. We were a long way to westward of our own course at
the time, and Jones's finger went along eastward till it stopped right
upon the Maldive islands, while he looked up with a sudden sharp glance.
'By heaven,' said I, 'yes!--I forgot that story altogether--be so good
as to send that man there, Jacobs, to me. Jacobs,' said I, 'which of the
officers' clothes did that fellow Foster use to scrub lately, in the
Indiaman?' Jacobs gave his hair a rub, recollected a moment, and
answered, 'Why, sir, the captain's own.' 'Oh!' I said, 'well, that'll
do, Jacobs'--and Jacobs walked forward again. 'Mr Jones,' said I,
quickly, '_that_ chart belonged to the captain!--I'll have a look at
that said desert island, sir!' We found something answering to it on the
chart; and in a few minutes the schooner was bowling before the dregs of
the monsoon to eastward.
"'At all events,' added I, 'we'll see if these vagabonds mean to keep
their word and turn hermits--either we catch them there, Mr Jones, or
else we must find that Indiaman, though she were in sight of Colibah[28]
lighthouse!' Jones's eye lighted, and he turned his nostrils to the
monsoon as if he snuffed it in; in fact, he was that sort of man that
needed somewhat out of the common way to keep him right."
[28] Outside the harbour of Bombay.