But help came to my aid from a most unlooked-for quarter.
"Ah! you blackguard," cried a voice that sounded dimly in my ears, my
head at the time seeming to be whirling round like the arms of a
windmill from the sense of suffocation and the rush of blood to the
brain. "Coward! miscreant! you are here again."
Breathless though I was, I was so surprised, and indeed frightened at
the voice and accent of the speaker, which I immediately recognised,
that I at once came to myself and opened wide my half-closed eyes.
Good heavens! Shall I ever forget the sight? Yes; it was Captain
Alphonse, whom I had last seen only half an hour or so previously in the
skipper's cot on board the _Star of the North_, when Garry O'Neil said
he would probably never wake to consciousness again in this life, or
move out of the skipper's state room!
Here he was though, all the same, looking like an apparition from the
dead, wild, ghastly, awful, but quite sufficiently in his senses to
recognise his terrible enemy, the pseudo "marquis."
It is a scene I shall never forget, as I remarked before.
Like poor Ivan, and with equal ferocity, the Frenchman sprang at the
ugly villain's throat, the whole lot of us tumbling headlong on the deck
together, which caused the wretch to release me in order to protect
himself from Captain Alphonse, who, kneeling on the top of him, hammered
him against the bulwarks as though trying to beat the life out of him.
Making a last desperate effort, the Haytian "marquis" gripped his
antagonist round the waist as he previously gripped me, dragging him
down beside him again; and then, as the two came with all their might
against the side of the ship where the port flap was loose, the whole of
the planking gave way, and poor Captain Alphonse, with that scoundrel
the black "marquis," crashed through the splintering wood together,
falling with a heavy splash overboard into the sea beneath, going to the
bottom locked in each other's arms--a terrible ending to the terrible
episode of this, their last meeting.
For the minute the colonel seemed overwhelmed with grief at this awful
and sudden termination of poor Captain Alphonse's life, and we would all
sooner have seen him die unconsciously if not quietly, in his bed; but
such are the ways of Providence, and we cannot control them!
But this day certainly witnessed a series of surprises, so it seemed to
me, the most wonderful things happening every moment.
Colonel Vereker had dragged himself as well as he could, up to where I
lay on the deck, after being set free from the bearlike hug of the
negro, helping me up on my legs in the same Good Samaritan way in the
which I had saved him shortly before; and we were both looking over the
side, talking excitedly of the dreadful catastrophe that had just
happened, and wondering whether the poor captain's body would rise to
the surface again, when all of a sudden, something bright crossing the
deck caught my eye like a flash of light, and I heard the sound of light
and hurried footsteps.
Wheeling round hastily I was amazed at the beautiful object that met my
gaze, for I saw standing there, only a pace or two off, a lovely young
girl, with a profusion of long silky hair of a bright golden hue, that
streamed in a tangled mass over her shoulders, and reaching down almost
to her feet.
"My father, my dear father!" she exclaimed in broken and ecstatic tones,
her voice sounding to me like the soft cooing of a dove, as she flew and
nestled herself into the outstretched arms of the colonel, who had also
turned round at her approach, some sympathetic feeling having warned him
of her coming, telling him who it was even before he saw her.
"Oh, my father! my father! At last, at last!"
And then, unable to control herself longer, she burst into a passion of
tears and sobs.
Colonel Vereker, on his part, was equally overcome.
"God be thanked!" cried he, raising his face to heaven, clasping her at
the same time fondly to his heart and kissing her trembling lips again
and again. "My darling one, my own little daughter, whom I thought I
had lost for ever, but whom the good God has preserved to be the delight
of my eyes again, my little one, my precious!"
For a few minutes I too had a lump in my throat, but turned aside, and
then, not wishing to appear to be observing them, I left them alone and
went off to another part of the ship.