I CONVERSE WITH WETHERLY
Not to dwell too long on a detail of insignificance, it will suffice to
say that by dint of rummaging the wardrobes of Captain Braine and Mr.
Chicken I obtained several useful articles, and Miss Temple went to work
to convert them into wearing-apparel for herself, with the help of a
pair of scissors which I borrowed from the carpenter, and needles and
thread procured from amongst the men by Wetherly. The occupation was
useful to her in other ways; it killed the tedious, the insufferably
tedious time, and it gave her something to think of, and even something
to look forward to, so blank had been the hours.
I remember coming out of my cabin after a spell of sleep to take sights
shortly before noon, and finding her seated at the table with some
flannel or fine blanket stuff before her, at which she was
stitching—ripped up and violated vestments of either Braine or Chicken,
but brand-new, or she would scarcely have meddled with them. She
received me with a smile and a few words, and then went on sewing with
an air as of gratification in her that I should have found her at work.
I halted, and stood looking on, feigning to watch her busy fingers,
whilst in reality I gazed at her face with a lover’s delight. It was
hard to believe that what was passing was something more than a dream,
astonishingly vivid and logical. Again and again, when in the company of
this girl, a sense of the unreality of our association had possessed me
to such a degree at times that had the feeling continued, I might
honestly have feared for my head. But never before this moment had that
sense been so strong upon me. I forgot her beauty in my wonder. It was
sheer bewilderment to recall her as she was on board the Indiaman; her
haughtiness, her disdain, her contemptuous insensibility to all
presences save that of my Lord Sandown’s son, the cold glance of
scornful surprise that would instantly cause me to avert mine—to recall
this and how much more? and behold her now pensively bending her lovely
head and face of high-bred charms over that sordid need of rough
sailor’s clothes, occasionally stealing a peep at me of mingled
sweetness and a sort of wistful amusement, as though she grieved while
she smiled at the necessity that had brought her to such a pass. Yet
there was no repining; if she sighed, it was under her breath; forced as
her light air of cheerfulness might be, it proved a growing resolution
of spirit, a development of heroic forces, latent in her till recently.
Secretly, however, I was worried by keen anxiety. What was to be the
issue of this voyage? I merely feigned a manner of confidence when
talking with her about the result of this amazing ramble, as I chose to
figure it. In reality, I could not think of the time when we should have
arrived upon the spot where the dead captain had declared his island to
be without dread. Suppose there were no island! What next step would the
men take? The disappointment that must follow their long dream of gold
might determine them upon plundering the barque—put them upon some wild
scheme of converting her and her cargo into money. Or suppose—though I
never seriously considered the matter thus—suppose, I would ask myself,
that the island proved real, that the treasure proved real, that the men
should dig and actually find the gold! What then? Was I to conceive that
a body of ignorant, reckless, lawless sailors, led by a man who was at
heart the completest imaginable copy of a sea-villain, would peaceably
divide the treasure amongst them, pay me over my share—which, God knows,
I should have been willing to attach to Mr. Lush’s feet on condition of
the others throwing him overboard—and suffer me to quietly navigate the
barque to an adjacent port, conscious that I owed them a bitter grudge
for the outrage they had committed in forcing me and the lady to
accompany them?
At long intervals I would exchange a few sentences with Joe Wetherly.
Unfortunately, he was in the carpenter’s watch, and my opportunities,
therefore, for speaking with him were few. It was only now and again,
when he was required to keep a lookout for Lush or myself, that I
contrived to gather what was going forward amongst the men by engaging
him in a brief chat before he quitted the poop. I was so sensible of
being keenly observed by all hands, that I was obliged to exercise the
utmost caution in speaking to this man. On the poop there was always the
fellow at the helm to observe me; and the quarter-deck was within the
easy reach of men stirring about the galley, or leaving or entering the
forecastle.
However, it happened one dog-watch that Wetherly came aft instead of the
carpenter to relieve me. Mr. Lush, he told me, felt unwell, and had
asked him to stand his watch from eight to twelve. It was a clear night,
but dark, the south-east trade-wind strong off the port beam, and the
weather dry and cold, with a frosty glitter in the trembling of the
stars which enriched the heavens with such a multitude of white and
green lights that the firmament seemed to hover over our mastheads like
some vast sheet of black velvet gloriously spangled with brilliants and
emeralds and dust of diamonds and tender miracles of delicate prisms.
Miss Temple had left me some twenty minutes or so, and was now in the
cabin, seated at the table under the lamp, with a pencil in her hand,
with which she drew outlines upon a sheet of paper with an air of
profound absent-mindedness. She wore over her dress a knitted waistcoat
that had belonged to the captain; it stretched to her figure, and it was
already a need even in the day-time with the sun shining brightly, for
we were penetrating well to the southwards, and every score of miles
which the nimble keel of the barque could measure made a sensible
difference in the temperature of even the shelter in the cabin. It was
too dark to distinguish Wetherly until he was close. On hearing that he
was to keep the deck until twelve, I determined to have a long chat with
him, to get with some thoroughness at his views, which, to a certain
extent, I had found a bit puzzling, and to gather what information I
could from him touching the behaviour I might expect in the crew if
there should be no gold, or, which was the same, no island.
The fellow who had come to the wheel at eight bells was Forrest, the
supple, piratic-looking young sailor, whose walk, as he rolled along the
lee-deck, his figure swinging against the stars over the rail, had told
me who he was without need of my going to the binnacle to make sure.
Whilst Wetherly talked about the carpenter feeling unwell, I drew him
aft, that we might be within earshot of Forrest, and said, as I turned
to the companion hatch: ‘I’ll bring my pipe on deck, Wetherly, for a
smoke after I’ve had a bite below. I wish to keep an eye upon the
weather till two bells. Those green stars to wind’ard may signify more
than a mere atmospheric effect.’
‘Ay, ay, sir,’ he answered in a voice that made me see that he took my
words in their most literal meaning.
I remained below until half-past eight, talking with Miss Temple, eating
a little supper, and so on. I then fetched my pipe, and told her that I
should be down again at nine, and that I did not ask her to accompany
me, as I wished to have a talk with Wetherly. She fixed her dark eyes
upon me with an expression of inquiry, but asked no questions. There had
been a time when she would have opened the full battery of her alarm and
anxiety upon me, but silence was now become a habit with her. It was her
confession of faith in my judgment, an admission that she expected no
other information than such as I chose to give her. I cannot express how
this new behaviour was emphasised by the eloquence of her beauty, in
which I could witness the curiosity and the apprehension which she had
disciplined her tongue to suppress.
I left her, and went on deck. I first walked to the binnacle, into which
I peered, and then in the sheen of it gazed very earnestly to windward
and around, as though I was a little uneasy. The floating figure of
Forrest swayed at the wheel, and I observed that he cast several glances
to windward also. Muttering to myself, as though thinking aloud, ‘Those
green stars show uncommonly bright!’ I went abruptly to the break of the
poop, where the dark form of Wetherly was pacing, as though my mind were
full of the weather.
‘What’s wrong with them stars, sir, d’ye think?’ said he.
‘Oh, nothing in the world,’ I answered. ‘They are very honest trade-wind
stars. I wanted an excuse for a chat, Wetherly. Forrest has the ears of
a prairie hunter. I’m not here to talk to you about the weather. You are
the only man on board in whom I can confide. As we approach the Horn, my
anxieties gain upon me. How is this voyage to end? By this time you
pretty well understand the disposition of the crew. If there should be
no island, what then, Wetherly?’
I noticed a cautious pause in him.
‘Mr. Dugdale,’ he answered, ‘I’m heartily consarned for you, and for the
lady too, and I may say particularly for the lady, who seems to me to be
a born princess, a sight too good for such quarters as them’—he pointed
to the skylight with a shadowy hand—‘with naught but a dead man’s
clothes to keep her warm. If I could be of sarvice to ye, I would; but
I’ve got to be as careful as you. Mr. Lush has such a hold upon the
minds of the crew that there’s nothen he couldn’t get ’em to do, I
believe; and if he should come to suspect that there’s anything ’twixt
you and me, any sort of confidence that aint direct in the interests of
the fo’c’sle, it ‘ud go as hard with me as I may tell ‘ee it certainly
would with you if _you_ was to play ’em false.’
This speech he delivered in a low key, with frequent glances aft and at
the quarter-deck below. I listened with patience, though he told me
nothing that I was not fully aware of.
‘But what course, Wetherly, do you think these men will adopt if on our
arrival at the latitude and longitude named by that unhappy madman as
the spot where his treasure lies, there should be no island?’
‘Well, sir,’ he responded, preserving his cautious tone, ‘I can answer
that question, for it’s formed a part of the consultations the crew is
agin and agin a-holding. They’ll think ye’ve dished ’em, and that o’
purpose you han’t steered a true course.’
‘Ha!’ I exclaimed; ‘and what then?’
‘You’ll have to find the island, sir.’
‘But, my God, Wetherly, if it be not there! There is no rock marked on
the chart in the place that was named by Captain Braine.’
‘They’ll keep ye a-hunting for it,’ said he grimly.
‘And if we don’t find it?’
‘Well, I can’t tell ‘ee _what_ they’ll do. All they’ve said is, “If it
ain’t there, it’ll be because he don’t mean it shall be.” But I’ve heard
no threats—no talk of what ‘ud follow.’
‘If there should be no gold, no island,’ said I, ‘my opinion is that
they will seize upon the ship and cargo, and compel me to navigate her
to some port where they will find a market for their plunder.’
‘And where will that be?’ he asked.
‘Impossible to say. Lush will probably know. He has the airs and
appearance of a man to whom a performance of the kind I suggest would be
no novelty. I may tell you now, Wetherly, and, indeed, I might have done
so long ago, that it was the carpenter whom Captain Braine charged with
murder.’
‘Well, sir, you’ll excuse me. I’m not for believing that, Mr. Dugdale.
That Lush has been a rare old sinner, ye need only watch him by daylight
and hear him talk in his sleep at night, to know; but, as I said afore,
when ye mentioned it—murder’—I saw him wag his head by the
starlight—‘I’d choose to make sure afore believing it on the evidence of
a madman.’
‘But don’t you think the carpenter and, let me add, most of the crew
equal to the commission of any crime?’
‘Well, I won’t say no to that now with this here glittering temptation
of money getting into their souls, to work everything that may be evil
in ’em out through their skins. I wouldn’t trust ’em, and so I tell ‘ee,
Mr. Dugdale; and if this here barque was any other ship than the _Lady
Blanche_, and my mates any other men but what they are, I’d be content
to pawn for sixpence all that I’ve got in my chest.’
I came to a stand with him for a while at the weather rail in feigned
contemplation of the weather.
‘Wetherly,’ said I quietly, as we resumed our crosswise walk, ‘my
position is a frightful one. Were it not for the cursed lunatic fancy
that that shambling villain Wilkins overheard—the completest lie that
ever took shape in a madman’s brain—I might hope to be able to tempt the
crew with a handsome reward to allow me to sail this ship to a port
whence the lady and I could get home. But what could I offer, with
honest intention to pay, that should approach the thousands which those
fools yonder dream about day and night?’
He made no answer.
‘Supposing, Wetherly,’ I continued, ‘I should determine, in a mood of
desperation, to drop my command here, and refuse to navigate the vessel
another league unless Miss Temple and I are put ashore?’
‘You know what ‘ud happen,’ he cried; ‘ye’ve said it o’er and o’er agin,
hitting upon what’s most likely. For God’s sake, sir, clear your mind o’
that scheme, if it’s only for the lady’s sake!’
‘But what’s to follow upon our arrival in the Pacific?’ I exclaimed with
an emotion of despair.
‘There’s nothen to be done but to wait,’ he answered gloomily.
‘Do you believe that every mother’s son forward believes in the
existence of the treasure?’
‘Every mother’s son of ’em, sir. The belief mightn’t have been so
general, I daresay, if it hadn’t been for them documents you signed.
Ignorant as the men are, they know how to git four out of two and two.
First, there’s the drawing on that there bit of parchment; then there
was the capt’n’s yarn of how he come by the gold, as ship-shape to the
minds of the men as if they’d seen him fetch it out of the Bank of
England; then comes the plot of getting rid of ’em at Rio, with a crew
of Kanakas to follow; and then a company of beachcombers atop of them,
to carry the barque on. Here alone’s a thought-out scheme proper to
convince an atheist. But then follows them documents o’ yourn to prove
that you, a born gent of eddication and first-class intelligence, don’t
doubt the truth o’ what ye hear, and, to make sure, provide for your
share when the gold’s come at and for your security, if so be as the law
should lay hold on the capt’n for a-deviating.’
‘It’s all very true,’ I exclaimed, staggered myself by the consistency
of the wretched business, and forced to mentally admit the
reasonableness of the illiterate creatures in the forecastle accepting
it all as indisputable. ‘But you know my motive in acting as I did?’
‘Well, I _do_, sir. As I told ye, I was a bit nonplushed at first; but
it’s a madman’s yarn—ne’er a doubt of it. And I’m as wishful, Mr.
Dugdale, as ever ye can be to be quit of the whole blooming job.’
Again I came to a pause at the weather rail, as though I lingered on
deck only to observe the weather.
‘Now, Wetherly, listen to me,’ said I. ‘You know you are the only man in
the ship that I would dream of opening my lips to. You have my full
confidence; I believe you to be sound to the core. If you will give me
your word I shall be perfectly satisfied that you will not betray me.’
‘Whatever ye may tell me, Mr. Dugdale,’ he responded in a voice slightly
agitated, ‘I swear to keep locked up in my bosom; but afore I can give
ye my word, I must know what I’ve got to take my oath on.’
‘You misunderstand me,’ I exclaimed; ‘I desire no oath. Simply assure me
that should a time ever come when I may see my way to escape, you will
stand my friend; you will actively assist me if you can—you will not be
neutral; I mean, merely my well-wisher; simply tell me this, and I shall
know that when an opportunity arises, I will have you to count upon.’
‘Have you a scheme, first of all, Mr. Dugdale?’ he inquired. ‘There’s no
good in my consenting to anything that’s agoing to end in getting our
throats cut.’
‘No; I have no scheme. What plan could I form? I must grasp the first,
the best chance that offers, and then it may be that I will want you.
There are others besides myself whom you would find grateful. Miss
Temple’s mother is a lady of title, and a rich woman’——
‘Excuse me, Mr. Dugdale,’ he interrupted; ‘I don’t want no bribe to
bring me into a proper way of acting, if so be as that proper way ain’t
a-going to cost too much. I’ll say downright, now, that if I can help
you and the lady to get out of this job and put ye both in the road of
getting home, ye may depend upon my doing my best. More’n that there’d
be no use in saying, seeing that it ain’t possible to consart a scheme,
and that we must wait until something tarns up. If there be an island,
and we bring up off it, the sort of opportunity you want may come, and
you’ll find all of me there. If the island be a delusion, then something
else’ll have to be waited for. But I tell you as man to man that I’m
with you and the lady, that I don’t like Mr. Lush nor the business he’s
brought the vessel’s crew into but that I’ve got to be as cautious as
you; which now means, sir—and I beg that you’ll onderstand me as
speaking respectfully—that that there Forrest has seen us together long
enough.’
‘Right,’ I exclaimed, grasping his hand; ‘I thank you from my heart for
your assurance; and Miss Temple shall thank you herself.’
With which I went aft, gazing steadfastly to windward as I walked, and
after a final peep into the binnacle and a slow look round, I stepped
below.
There was little to comfort me in this chat with Wetherly; it was worth
knowing, however, that he regarded the captain’s yarn as a mere emission
of craziness; for heretofore, in the few conversations I had had with
him, his hesitation, his cautious inquiries, his manner, that in a
superior person would to a certain extent have suggested irony, had
caused me to see that his mind was by no means made up on the subject.
This, then, was to the good, and it was satisfactory to be informed by
him that he would befriend us if an opportunity occurred, providing his
assistance should not jeopardise his life. I was grateful for this
promise, but scarcely comforted by it. I carried a clouded face into the
cabin; Miss Temple, who awaited my return to the cabin, fixed an anxious
gaze upon me, but asked no questions.
‘How good you are to suppress your curiosity!’ I exclaimed, standing by
her side, and looking into her upturned face; ‘you incalculably lighten
my burthen by your forbearance.’
‘You have taught me my lesson,’ she answered quietly; ‘and as a pupil I
should be proud of the commendations of my master.’ She pronounced the
word ‘master’ with a glance of her proud eyes through the droop of the
lashes, and a smile at once sweet and haughty played upon her lips.
‘It will comfort you to know that Wetherly is our friend,’ said I.
‘I have always regarded him as so,’ she responded.
‘Yes; but he has now consented to aid me in any effort I may by-and-by
make to escape with you from this barque.’
She was silent, but her face was eloquent with nervous eager
questioning.
‘Moreover,’ I proceeded, ‘Wetherly is now convinced that Captain
Braine’s gold was a dream of that man’s madness. A dream of course it
is. But do you know I am extremely anxious that we should find an island
in that latitude and longitude of waters to which I shall be presently
heading this ship.’
‘May I ask why?’
‘Because I think—mind, I do but think—that I may see a way to escape
with you and Wetherly alone in this barque.’ She breathed quickly, and
watched me with impassioned attention. ‘In fact,’ I continued, ‘even as
I stand here, looking at you, Miss Temple, a resolution grows in me to
create an island for Captain Braine’s gold, should the bearings he gave
me prove barren of land.’
‘Create?’ she exclaimed musingly.
‘Yes. The South Sea is full of rocks. I’ll find the men a reef, and that
reef must provide me with my chance. But,’ I exclaimed, breaking off and
looking at my watch, ‘it is time for me to seek some rest. I shall have
to be on deck again at twelve.’
‘I shall go to bed also,’ she exclaimed; ‘it is dull—and there are many
weeks before us yet.’ She smiled with a quivering lip, as though she
would have me know that she rebuked herself for complaining. ‘I believe
you would tell me more if you had the least faith in my judgment.’
‘At present, I have nothing to tell; but an hour may come when I shall
have to depend very largely upon your judgment and your spirit also.’
She met my eyes with a firm, full, glowing gaze. ‘No matter what task
you assign to me,’ she cried with vehemence, ‘you will find me equal to
it. This life is insupportable; and I would choose at this instant the
chance of death side by side with the chance of escape, sooner than
continue as I am in this horrible condition of uncertainty, banishment,
and misery.’
‘That may be the spirit I shall want to evoke,’ I said, smiling, whilst
I held open her cabin door. ‘Good-night, Miss Temple.’
She held my hand a moment or two before relinquishing it. ‘I hope I have
said nothing to vex you, Mr. Dugdale?’ she exclaimed, slightly inclining
her fine head into a posture that might make one think of a princess
expressing an apology.
‘What have _I_ said that you should think so?’ I answered.
‘Your manner is a little hard,’ she exclaimed in a low voice.
‘God forgive me if it be so,’ said I. ‘Not to you, Miss Temple, would I
be hard.’
My voice trembled as I pronounced these words, and abruptly I caught up
her hand and pressed her fingers to my lips, and bowing, closed the door
upon her and entered my own berth.