A GHOST APPEARS TO JUDITH.
The ships were now both repaired as well as they could be at sea. Passed
Midshipman Bestor was placed upon the _Sea Scourge_ with a prize crew,
and ordered to sail when the _Xyphias_ should, and if possible, to keep
her always in view, or if he should lose sight of her, to shape for Cape
Town and meet her there. The prisoners were then divided, half of them
being sent back to the _Sea Scourge_.
By eight bells every preparation was completed for sailing. But there
was no wind. A dead calm still prevailed. All that night and the next
day it continued. But on the ensuing morning, just before dawn,
Lieutenant Ethel was awakened, and notified that the wind was rising.
He sprang up and hurried on deck, where he found the men all alert, and
in the highest spirits. And soon both ships were bounding on their
course.
From this day everything went on smoothly; wind and weather favored
them; the ships kept in consort, and no unpleasant event occurred to mar
the prosperity of the voyage.
Justin, under Britomarte’s fostering care, rapidly improved. It was
strange to see with what a motherly tenderness and solicitude this young
girl guarded and guided the sick man who was at least ten or twelve
years her elder. She would not permit him to overexert himself in any
way; she forestalled all his needs; she walked with him, sang to him,
and amused his waking hours or soothed him to repose.
Poor Justin! this was a great joy and a great trial to him. He idolized
her, but he was forbidden to tell her so. He was in raptures and he was
in despair. He considered himself the happiest man alive, and he wished
himself at the bottom of the sea.
Notwithstand which he got well so fast under Britomarte’s fostering
care, that on the seventh day from his sailing his name was stricken
from the sick list.
Captain Yetsom also improved very rapidly under the skillful treatment
of the surgeon.
On the tenth day, at night, every one was awakened by the lusty cry:
“Land ho!”
And on the morning of the eleventh, coming on deck, they found
themselves anchored in Table Bay.
Here the captain announced that they should remain for twenty-four
hours, as he had to see the American consul, and parole a portion of his
prisoners.
Under these circumstances, Justin and Britomarte, taking Judith with
them, went into Cape Town, and spent the day with their hospitable
friends, the Burneys, at Silver Tree Villa.
In the meantime Captain Yetsom, who had now resumed command of his ship,
went on shore, and made arrangements with the American consul there
concerning the prisoners of the _Sea Scourge_, who he proposed should be
paroled and put ashore at Cape Town. This measure, when made known to
the prisoners, was met by different individuals in different ways. Some
among them who were vagrants belonging to no particular country, such as
might be picked up at any seaport to serve under any flag, were willing
enough to be turned loose at Cape Town, where they would be sure to find
employment.
Others, chiefly American and Irish, rather than be left in a foreign
port, were willing to take the oath of allegiance to their own or their
adopted government, and to ship as seamen on board the _Xyphias_, which,
by reason of the large number killed and wounded, was now short handed.
Others again were neither willing to remain at Cape Town nor to take
service on the _Xyphias_, and they earnestly exclaimed against the
enormity of Captain Yetsom’s cruelty in turning them loose upon a
foreign shore.
Captain Yetsom, when he good naturedly condescended to notice these
grumbling remonstrances, answered them in a few words: “Military, or
rather naval necessity!” The _Xyphias_, going on her cruise after more
privateers, could not be encumbered with prisoners—could not be
converted into a floating gaol; and the prisoners could not be trusted
on the _Sea Scourge_, which was to be sent home.
So these malcontents were left with the others.
The prisoners thus disposed of, Captain Yetsom turned his attention to
other and equally important matters.
He relieved Passed Midshipman Bestor of his charge, and ordered
Lieutenant Ethel to take command of the prize to take her home to New
York. He reinforced the crew of the prize with some of the best seamen
from the _Xyphias_, and he wrote his dispatches to the Secretary of the
Navy, describing the capture of the privateer, praising the conduct of
his officers and crew, especially recommending Lieutenant Ethel for
promotion.
Britomarte, Justin and Judith were to go home on the prize. So on the
afternoon of that day all their luggage was transferred from the cabin
of the _Xyphias_ to the quarters prepared for them on the _Sea Scourge_.
But they themselves, yielding no less to their own inclinations than to
the solicitations of the captain, determined to remain with their
friends on the man-of-war all that night, and up to the hour of sailing
the next morning.
Very early the next morning all was cheerful bustle on both ships,
making ready to sail.
Lieutenant Ethel came on board the _Xyphias_ to receive his captain’s
last orders, and then immediately returned to the _Sea Scourge_.
But not until the last hour, when the sails were set and the anchor was
weighed, did Britomarte and Justin take a last leave of Captain Yetsom
and his officers, and amid many mutual good wishes leave the deck of the
_Xyphias_ for the yawl boat that was to take them to the _Sea Scourge_.
When all was ready for sailing, the two vessels fired their signal guns
and stood out to sea, the _Xyphias_ shaping her course to the northeast,
and the _Sea Scourge_ to the northwest.
Britomarte, Justin and Judith stood in the stern of the _Sea Scourge_,
leaning over the taffrail, and watching the _Xyphias_ as long as she
continued in sight.
On board the _Xyphias_ the doctor and the chaplain stood in a similar
position watching them. At intervals Captain Yetsom appeared with the
other two, and waved his hat to his friends on the _Sea Scourge_, and
was answered by the waving handkerchiefs of our party.
And this was kept up long after they failed to distinguish each other’s
faces, and until the ships themselves were out of each other’s sight.
One evening, about the fifth day from that on which they left the Cape,
Lieutenant Ethel, Justin, Britomarte and a young midshipman were seated
around the cabin table engaged in a rubber of whist, when they were all
startled by piercing shrieks, followed immediately by the form of the
girl, who came pitching, tumbling and rolling down the companion ladder,
and fell upon the cabin floor.
All the company around the table sprang up simultaneously. And Justin
rushed to Judith and raised her up, while Britomarte eagerly inquired
what the matter was.
“Oh, it’s the ghost! the ghost!” gasped Judith, beside herself with
terror.
“What ghost, girl? Are you mad?” said Justin.
“Oh, the ghost iv me swateheart, sure!” sobbed Judith, white and shaking
in her panic.
“Nonsense,” laughed Justin; “ghost, indeed! I’d like to see one, for
once. What does a ghost look like, Judith?”
“Och, a raw head and bloody bones it was! Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” she
screamed, covering up her face and falling into spasms.
“Give her some brandy,” suggested the young midshipman.
And Lieutenant Ethel called the steward, and had a glass of brandy
brought immediately and poured down her throat. It seemed to do her
good. They set her back in an armchair, and Britomarte said:
“Now, Judith, tell us what alarms you so.”
“Lorrd bless ye, ain’t I afther telling yez? It was the ghost, sure—the
ghost iv me gay Tom, as was dhrowned in the dape say more’n two wears
ago!”
“The ghost of Foretop Tom! Judith, you were dreaming!”
“Faix, I wish it was a dhrame itself. But I was wide awake, sure,
sitting at the head iv the ladher there, and gazing at a great star, and
wondering how far it was off, and what it would be like if one could
take howld iv it. And sure I got tired iv that, and I riz up, so I did,
and seeing there was none iv thim bastes iv saymen about, I thought I’d
take a turn on the deck. And sure I hadn’t walked tin steps afore,
happening to rise my head, there I saw the ghost iv me gay Tom standing
right foreninst me own two looking eyes. Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!”
“Hush, Judith; don’t scream so. Tell me what he looked like,” said Miss
Conyers, convinced in her own mind that the girl had been dreaming.
“Troth, ain’t I afther telling yez before? Sure a raw head and bloody
bones he was! Thin as a skillippin! pale as a spicter! and tall as the
mainmast, wid a white linen cloth bound round his head, and his right
fut tied up in a rag! and his left arm in a sling! and he a-laning on a
crutch!”
“Judith, it was one of the convalescent wounded men you saw.”
“Divil a bit! It was the ghost iv me own Foretop Tom. Sure wouldn’t I
know it when I saw it standing there forninst me own two looking eyes!
And didn’t I like to die wid the fright? And didn’t I wish the ship
would open and let me down into the say?”
“Did it speak to you, Judith?” laughed Justin.
“Spake to me? Lorrd help ye! do you think I was going to wait there for
it to spake to me? No, I ran down into the cabin here as fast as me
hales would bring me!”
“What do you think the ghost wanted of you, Judith?” inquired Lieutenant
Ethel.
This was an unlucky question for Judith’s equanimity. It set her
speculating in horrors.
“What it wanted iv me, is it? Ah, Lorrd kape us, who can tell! Maybe to
warn me iv another shipwreck, whin we would all be dhrowned. Or another
say fight, whin we should all be murthered. Or at laste of me own death
itself. Sure a ghost nivir appears for nothing.”
“Never,” said Lieutenant Ethel, mischievously.
“Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” screamed Judith, falling into fresh spasms.
And it became necessary to give her more brandy. And then Miss Conyers
coaxed her off into her stateroom and made her go to bed, and sat with
her until, under the influence of the brandy she had taken, Judith fell
asleep.
“What could have frightened her so?” inquired Miss Conyers, as she came
out into the cabin.
“It was as you suggested, either a dream of the figure of one of our
convalescent wounded men, I suppose,” said young Ethel.
And this explanation seemed so plausible that it was adopted by all.
“You have very little good of your attendant, I fear, Miss Conyers.
Since I have known her she has certainly been more trouble than use,”
said the lieutenant.
Britomarte laughed and answered:
“That is because since you have known her she has been in circumstances
to draw out all the faults of her character. No one is perfect. But
Judith would be a treasure if it were not for her absurd fears—fears of
everything—beasts, guns, ghosts—what not.”
Saying which Miss Conyers sat down to the table and they finished the
rubber of whist.
Next morning, under the influence of the cheerful sunlight, Judith
herself was half inclined to laugh at her own superstitious terrors of
the preceding night, and to admit that she might have been dreaming or
deceived by an accidental likeness. But when evening came again she kept
closely in the cabin, and nothing would induce her to leave it.
On the next afternoon, being the third day from the first appearance of
the mysterious visitor, Miss Conyers left Judith engaged in tidying the
cabin, and went up on deck to sit and read. She had not been there more
than ten minutes when, with piercing shrieks and streaming hair and wild
eyes, Judith came flying toward her and dropped at her feet, and buried
her face in her lap.
“In the name of Heaven, Judith, what is the matter now? Are you really
going mad?” exclaimed Britomarte.
“It appeared to me again! It appeared to me again!” screamed the girl.
“What?”
“The ghost! It looked in at me through the cabin windys! It had its head
tied up in a cloth again and its arm in a sling! I know its come to warn
me in me death! I know it has!”
“Judith! you will drive me out of my wits if you go on so. Be quiet,”
said Miss Conyers, sternly.
“Ow-oo! Ow-ootch!” screamed Judith, clasping Britomarte firmly, and
burying her head in her lap.
Miss Conyers beckoned a cabin boy who was passing by, and sent him to
ask Mr. Rosenthal to come to her.
And when Justin obeyed the summons, Britomarte pointed to Judith and
said, laughing:
“She has seen the ghost again, and is senseless and helpless with
terror. Assist me to take her down into the cabin.”
With an impatient shrug of his shoulders, Justin complied with the
request. And they took Judith down and laid her on the berth of her
stateroom.
“It is worse than useless to be dosing this girl with brandy. We shall
teach her to drink. Go and bring me a glass of cold water,” said Miss
Conyers.
And when Justin brought it she made Judith swallow it all.
“What can ail the girl, Justin? Is she losing her reason, do you think?”
impatiently inquired Britomarte.
“I think she labors under an optical illusion, incident upon an abnormal
condition of the nervous system. She has an excessively nervous
temperament, which has been severely tried in the last fortnight,”
answered Justin.
“Then I must try to have patience with her,” smiled Britomarte.
But Judith did not get over her panic till the next morning, and then
several days passed without a re-appearance of the ghost or the
illusion.
At length one evening when the moon was bright, Miss Conyers, instead of
going down into her cabin, sat in the stern enjoying the beauty of the
night; and presently feeling chilly, she told Judith to go to her
stateroom and fetch a shawl.
The girl started to obey; but the next minute uttered a terrific shriek.
Miss Conyers sprang to her feet; and there, not three yards from her,
stood Judith, struck, statue-still, with terror, gazing upon—what?
A figure just as she had described the apparition to be—thin as a
skeleton, pale as a spectre; and if not as tall as the mainmast,
certainly looking preternaturally tall from being so preternaturally
lean; his head was bound up in a white cloth, his foot tied up in a rag,
his arm in a sling, and himself leaning on a crutch;—the ghost of that
Foretop Tom who had been drowned more than two years ago.
An icy chill of superstitious horror, that all her will and intellect
could not prevent, shot through the veins of Britomarte Conyers.
But the next instant she had governed this feeling; and saying to
herself, “I will find out what this means,” she walked straight up to
the figure and laid her hand on its shoulder.