MAN OVERBOARD
Another day had passed and the south wind still blew gently, neither
increasing nor decreasing in force, so that the log showed that the
_Emperor of the Moon_ had progressed between a hundred and fifty and
two hundred miles farther north. Farther north, as all said now, but
not to Bombay, since they had abandoned all hope of reaching that port
in their present short-handed condition, and without obtaining fresh
assistance--but towards the Seychelles. That was the harbour of refuge
to which their thoughts and aspirations pointed at this time; the spot
where, even though they should obtain nothing else, they would at
least be in safety, and the one from which they could be taken off by
some other ship if they were not able to find the means of working
their own.
But, even as this day was drawing towards its conclusion--a day
hotter, it seemed to all on board, than any they had previously
experienced, and when neither the awnings nor the breeze that came aft
protected them sufficiently to allow of their being on deck, unless
duty demanded that they should be there--a change was perceived to
have taken place in the condition of one or two who had been attacked
by blindness. Mr. Fagg had declared that he was regaining his sight,
and that, although he could not distinguish small objects with any
amount of clearness, he was nevertheless able to see large things,
such as the form of a man or woman, in a blurred, indistinct manner if
he or she happened to enter his cabin; while Wilks averred that his
sight was also returning rapidly to him.
'For, see here, sir,' he said to Charke, who, learning what was
happening, or said to be happening, had gone forward to question him
on the subject, 'I can walk aft to the break of the poop without
stumbling against anything or over anything either. May I show you,
sir?'
'Ay,' replied Charke. 'Show me. Let's see what you can really do,'
while at the same time he motioned to a sailor, who happened to be by
the mizzen-mast, to throw down gently a coil of rope he held in his
hand so that, when Wilks neared the spot where it was, they would be
able to observe whether he could see clearly enough to avoid it or
not.
Meanwhile, Wilks, having received the necessary permission, had
started from close by the fife-rail, where the conversation had been
going on, and was making it perfectly clear that what he had stated
was undoubtedly the truth. For, independently of the coil which the
sailor had deposited abreast of the mizzen-mast, there was at this
moment a good deal of raffle lying about the deck, as well as a bucket
or so, and also a squeegee alongside the saloon skylight. But Wilks
saw them all and steered himself along, avoiding each and every object
both great and small, while, when he approached the coil of cable, he
passed round it in almost precisely the same manner that a man in
possession of his ordinary eyesight would have done. Then he looked
back--at least he turned his face back--towards where he had started
from, and, with a gratified grin on his countenance, asked Charke if
he was not all right.
'Yes,' replied Charke, 'or getting so. If one or two more of your
mates would only recover in the same way, we might bend another sail
and, so, make a few more knots. Yet, curse it!' he muttered to
himself, 'as one gets well another gets ill.'
This was unhappily only too true, for not an hour before he had been
called to observe that Wilks seemed to be on a fair way towards
recovery, he had learnt that Pooley was, although not stricken with
the blindness, yet rapidly becoming blind. He had himself discovered
such to be the case when, after lying down for an hour, he had been
unable to perceive anything clearly on awakening. And, in another hour
after this had been found by him to be the case, he was obliged to
acknowledge his darkness of vision was becoming more intense, and that
he feared his sight would be entirely gone by nightfall.
This was, perhaps, the greatest blow of all to several on board the
unfortunate ship; on Bella it fell with overwhelming force. For now
she recognised that, of all others, the very man she most feared and
dreaded--though she could not have explained why that dread should
have taken possession of her--was in absolute control over the ship,
and could indeed do what he liked with it. Her uncle, she understood,
could of course still issue orders, but--how was it to be known that
those orders were being obeyed?
Then, strong-minded as she was, and feeling more so, as well as more
self-possessed because of the presence of her lover in the ship, she
again forced herself to discard such miserable and--as she termed them
in her own mind--ridiculous fears, and set herself about the task
which had now for some time developed on her of attending to the
catering of the ship and looking after the sufferers generally. For,
from Mrs. Pooley, Bella had not at any time received much assistance,
owing to the fact of the poor lady having been quite ill since the
calamities on board began to follow each other in such frequent
succession, while, now that her husband was struck down, she appeared
to have collapsed altogether. Indeed, at this present time, she was
doing nothing except lying on the plush-covered sofa of the saloon,
while moaning feebly that they were all doomed, and that, even if the
ship was not utterly cast away and lost, there would soon not be a
living soul on board who would be able to see.
'And then,' she sobbed, 'what can happen to a vessel--in the night,
especially--full of men and women who are all blind and cannot find
their way from one end of the deck to another?'
'Nonsense, aunty, dear, nonsense!' Bella replied, while endeavouring
bravely to dispel her aunt's forebodings, which, in solemn truth, she
shared to the full with her, though not for worlds would she
acknowledge that she did so. 'Are not some already getting well--Mr.
Fagg, and the sailor, Wilks, and Bengalee----'
'While at the same time others succumb to the blindness,' Mrs. Pooley
interjected, still with a moan. 'And now your poor uncle, of all
others.'
'Well,' said Bella, still stout of heart, 'we have this comfort: it
soon passes away. Let me see. Bengalee has been blind about a
fortnight, Wilks and Mr. Fagg about twelve days--whatever is that
noise!' she exclaimed, breaking off suddenly.
As she uttered that exclamation there had come a sudden racket above
their heads, the noise descending through the wide-open skylight. A
noise which seemed first like the yelp of a dog in pain; then another
which resembled somewhat the spitting of a cat, followed by a
shrieking kind of growl, and then the voice of Charke exclaiming
angrily: 'I'll have the infernal thing thrown overboard. Here you,
catch hold of it--make a loop and fling it over its neck. Catch it,
one of you!'
'Oh!' cried Bella, forgetting everything else for the moment, and
rushing towards the companion, 'it's Bengalee!' Then she swiftly ran
up to the deck, and saw the tiger-cub standing close up by the frame
of the skylight and growling at Charke, whom it regarded with terribly
vicious eyes. And she noticed, too, that it held up one of its hind
legs as though it were injured.
'What are you doing to the creature?' she cried. 'You have been
kicking it again, you----' she was going to say 'brute,' but
restrained herself. 'And you shall not have it thrown overboard, as I
heard you order the men to do!' she continued. Then she went towards
the creature perfectly fearlessly, and spoke to it, and eventually
stroked its back, so that at last its growls subsided altogether.
The chief mate's face had presented an appearance of scowling rage as
she reached the deck, while it had on it an expression that boded ill
for any extended existence being accorded to Bengalee had she not
appeared at the moment she did. Yet, by the time she had ceased
petting the animal he had managed to control himself considerably, and
to smooth out the look of temper from his countenance. And now he
said:
'Oh, of course I did not really mean to do that, Miss Waldron. Though
it will have to be got rid of eventually. It is impossible that it can
be kept much longer. And, you know, we have enough work to do without
attending to such an animal as this. Just think! I am the only officer
fit for duty, and I have only four able men to work with--since Wilks
cannot be called well yet.'
Honestly, Bella felt sorry that she had spoken as hotly as she had
done, since she did indeed recognise the almost superhuman amount of
work that had fallen on Charke's shoulders just now. He seemed never
to sleep but was on deck night and day, sometimes steering, sometimes
even going aloft alone, and hardly ever snatching a quarter of an hour
for his hasty meals. She murmured, therefore, some words of regret,
and was going on to say how sorry she was for having been excited,
when he stopped her.
'No, no, Miss Waldron. It was nothing--nothing. The thing did spring
at me angrily as I passed where it was sleeping, and I kicked it. I am
sorry, too. And you know I would not injure anything you liked,'
while, as he spoke, he bent his dark, handsome eyes on her.
Perhaps it was a pity he uttered these last words, since in her own
heart she did not believe that they were true. She had seen his
glances more than once directed at Gilbert when he had not known that
she was observing him, and she thoroughly believed that, in them,
there was a malignant look, a look of hatred, which belied his words.
And she had seen--she _thought_ she had seen--something else in those
glances when Gilbert was first attacked with blindness which, if not
gloating, was very like it. She said, therefore, now, as she turned
towards the ladder: 'Then you won't punish it, Mr. Charke, will you?
You won't let it be thrown overboard in any circumstances, will you?'
'It shall be as sacred to me as you are,' he replied. 'Its life as
sacred as yours.'
But all the same, she told herself as she went back to the saloon,
that, if there was anything Charke hated in that ship, or rather, any
two things he hated more than all else, those things were her lover
and Bengalee.
Presently, not ten minutes later, she again heard his voice, calling
out loudly to one of the men this time: 'If we could only get another
on her we could make two more knots, I believe. If only some of those
who are blind but not otherwise incapacitated would help on the braces
and get the yards round, we could do it.'
She was not the only person who heard these words. Not a moment had
they left his lips before the curtains in front of Gilbert's and Mr.
Fagg's cabins were pushed swiftly back with a metallic jangle, as the
rings ran along the rod, and each of the young men appeared in the
saloon and began making his way guided by his hands, towards the
stairs leading up to the deck.
'Oh!' cried Bella, not quite understanding what it was Charke wanted
done, or what assistance could be rendered by persons who were blind,
'what are you going to do? Gilbert, don't do anything rash! Nor you,
Mr. Fagg!' though she saw by their faces and the smile that came to
each that she had overrated any harm that was possible.
'We'll get that sail on,' exclaimed Gilbert, as he felt his way up the
stairs, and Fagg said: 'We will so,' as he followed him after they had
each jostled the other at the foot in a slight collision which their
sightlessness had caused, and, a moment afterwards, Bella and Mrs.
Pooley were left alone in the cabin. Yet they could hear, plainly
enough, the words of approval bestowed on Gilbert and Fagg for their
promptness, when the meaning of it was recognised by those on deck;
and they caught, too, the orders bawled with great rapidity by Charke
the instant he had received this extra assistance. Also, they heard
him ordering one man to the starboard main braces and another to go
forward and loose the jib.
A moment later they heard something else as well.
The cry of two or three voices together, the roar of Charke, and then
his trumpet-tones, exclaiming:
'My God! he's overboard!'
And Bella, with the image of one man alone in her mind, reeled
backwards towards the sofa where Mrs. Pooley lay, and gradually slid,
fainting, on to the cabin floor by her side.