WAITING FOR THE BOAT.
Poor Mrs. Millar went out of her house, and followed my grandfather down
to the pier. I waited indoors with little Timpey, straining my ears to
listen for the sound of their footsteps coming back again.
But the clock struck half-past seven, and still no sound was to be
heard. I could wait no longer; I wrapped the child in a shawl, and
carried her into the Millars' house, and left her under the care of Mrs.
Millar's little servant. And then I ran down, through the thick,
smothering fog, to the pier.
My grandfather was standing there with Mrs. Millar. When I came close to
them he was saying, 'Cheer up, Mary, my lass; he's all right; he's only
waiting till this mist has cleared away a bit. You go home, and I'll
tell you as soon as ever I hear his boat coming. Why, you're wet
through, woman; you'll get your death of cold!'
Her thin calico dress was soaked with the damp in the air, and she was
shivering, and looked as white as a sheet. At first she would not be
persuaded to leave the pier; but, as time went on, and it grew darker
and colder, she consented to do as my grandfather told her, and he
promised he would send me up to the lighthouse to tell her as soon as
Jem arrived.
When she was gone, my grandfather said 'Alick, there's something wrong
with Jem, depend upon it! I didn't like to tell her so, poor soul! If we
only had the boat, I would go out a bit of way and see.'
We walked up and down the pier, and stopped every now and then to listen
if we could hear the sound of oars in the distance, for we should not be
able to see the boat till it was close upon us, so dense had the fog
become.
'Dear me,' my grandfather kept saying anxiously, 'I wish he would come!'
My thoughts went back to the bright sunny morning when Jem Millar had
started, and we had heard him singing, as he went, those two lines of
the hymn,--
'On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.'
The time passed on. Would he never come? We grew more and more anxious.
Mrs. Millar's servant-girl came running down to say her mistress wanted
to know if we could hear anything yet.
'No,' my grandfather said, 'nothing yet, my lass; but it can't be long
now.'
'Missis is so poorly,' said the girl; 'I think she's got a cold: she
shakes all over, and she keeps fretting so.'
'Poor soul! well, perhaps it's better so.'
'Whatever do you mean, grandfather?' I asked.
'Why, if aught's amiss, she won't be so taken aback as if she wasn't
afraid; and if Jem's all right, why, she'll only be the better pleased.'
The girl went back, and we still waited on the pier. 'Grandfather,' I
said at length, 'I think I hear a boat.'
It was a very still night; we stood and listened. At first my
grandfather said he heard nothing; but at length he distinguished, as I
did, the regular plash--plash--plash--of oars in the distance.
'Yes, it _is_ a boat,' said my grandfather.
I was hastening to leave the pier, and run up to the house to tell Mrs.
Millar, but my grandfather laid his hand on my shoulder.
'Wait a bit, Alick, my lad,' he said; 'let us hear what it is first;
maybe it isn't Jem, after all!'
'But it's coming here, grandfather; I can hear it better now.'
'Yes,' he said, 'it's coming here;' but he still kept his hand on my
shoulder.
The boat had been a long way off when we first heard it, for it was many
minutes before the sound of the oars seemed to become much more
distinct. But it came nearer, and nearer, and nearer. Yes, the boat was
evidently making for the island.
At last it came so near that my grandfather called out from the end of
the pier,--
'Hollo, Jem! You're late, my lad!'
'Hollo!' said a voice from the boat; but it wasn't Jem's voice.
'Whereabouts is your landing-place?' said the voice; 'it's so thick, I
can't see.'
'Why, Jem isn't there, grandfather!' I said, catching hold of his arm.
'No,' said my grandfather; 'I knew there was something wrong with the
lad.'
He called out to the man in the boat the direction in which he was to
row, and then he and I went down the steps together, and waited for the
boat to come up.
There were four men in the boat. They were sailors, and strangers to me.
One of them, the one whose voice we had heard, got out to speak to my
grandfather.
'Something's wrong,' said my grandfather, before he could begin;
'something's wrong with that poor lad.'
'Yes,' said the man, 'we've got him here; and he pointed to the boat.
A cold shudder passed over me as he said this, and I caught sight of
something lying at the men's feet at the bottom of the boat.
'What's wrong with him? Has he had an accident? Is he much hurt?'
'He's dead,' said the man solemnly.
'Oh dear!' said my grandfather, in a choking voice. 'However shall we
tell his wife? However shall we tell poor Mary?'
[Illustration: 'HOW DID IT HAPPEN?' I ASKED.]
'How did it happen?' I asked at length, as soon as I could speak.
'He was getting a sack of flour on board, over yonder' said one of the
men in the boat, 'and it was awful thick and foggy, and he missed his
footing on the plank, and fell in; that's how it happened!'
'Yes,' said another man, 'and it seems he couldn't swim, and there was
no boat nigh at hand to help him. Joe Malcolmson was there and saw him
fall in; but before he could call any of us, it was all over with him.
We got him out at last, but he was quite gone; we fetched a doctor, and
took him into a house near, and rubbed him, and did all we could; but it
wasn't of no good at all! Shall we bring him in?'
'Wait a bit,' said my grandfather; 'we must tell that poor girl first.
Which of you will go and tell her?'
The men looked at each other and did not speak. At last one of them, who
knew my grandfather a little, said, 'You'd better tell her, Sandy; she
knows you, and she'll bear it better than from strangers; we'll wait
here till you come back, and then we can bring him in.'
'Well,' said my grandfather, with a groan, 'I'll go then! Come with me,
Alick, my lad,' said he, turning to me; 'but no, perhaps I'd better go
by myself.'
So he went very slowly up towards the lighthouse, and I remained behind
with the four men on the shore, and that silent form lying at the bottom
of the boat.
I was much frightened, and felt as if it was all a very terrible dream,
and as if I should soon wake up to find it had all passed away.