I had been greatly struck by the firmness with which Miss Robertson
had received the ghastly bit of information I gave her, and not more
by this than by her gentle and genial manner towards the carpenter,
wherein she had shown herself perfectly well qualified to act with me
in this critical, dangerous time. She had only just been rescued from
one trial frightful enough in character to have driven one, at least,
of the male sufferers mad; and now fate had plunged her into a worse
situation, and yet she could confront the terrors of it calmly, and
deliberate collectedly upon the danger.
Such a character as this was, I thought, of the true type of heroine,
with nothing in it that was strained; calm in emergency, and with a
fruitful mind scattering hope around it--even though no more than
hope--as the teeming flower sheds its perfume. I had especially noticed
the quickness with which she had conceived and expressed that idea
about her father rewarding the men; it inspirited me, in spite of the
reception Stevens had given it. One hundred pounds a man was a promise
that might move them into a very different train of thought from what
Stevens had induced and was sustaining.
Having heard the carpenter enter his cabin, I determined to step on
deck and take the boatswain's sense on this new idea. But before
quitting the cuddy, I knocked lightly on Miss Robertson's cabin door.
She opened it instantly.
"Will you come on deck?" I asked her.
"Yes, if I can be of use there."
"The air will refresh you after your confinement to this cabin, and
will do your father good."
"He is sleeping now," she answered, opening the door fully, that I
might see the old man.
"Let him sleep," said I; "that will do him more good. But you will
come?"
"Yes, with pleasure."
"You have nothing to fear from the men," I said, wishing to reassure
her. "They are willing to acknowledge the authority of the persons they
have put over them--the bo'sun, Stevens, and myself."
"I should not mind if they spoke to me," she exclaimed. "I should know
what to say to them, unless they were brutal."
She suddenly added, putting her hand to her head, and almost laughing--
"I have no hat."
"I have a straw hat you shall have," I said, and brought it.
She put it on her head, and it sat very well on the pile of yellow hair
that lay heaped over her comb.
"How strange," she said, speaking in the whisper in which our
conversation had been carried on, "to find oneself destitute,--without
even the commonest necessaries! When the captain of the _Cecilia_ said
we were sinking, papa ran with me out of the cabin. We did not think of
putting on our hats, nor of saving anything but our lives."
She turned to look at her father, closed the door tenderly, and
accompanied me on deck.
The morning was now advanced. The day was still very bright; and
the wonderful blue of the heavens lost nothing of its richness from
contrast with the stately and swelling clouds--pearl-coloured where
they faced the sun, and with here and there a rainbow on their skirts,
and centres of creamy white--which sailed solemnly over it.
The breeze had freshened, but the swell had greatly subsided, and the
sea was almost smooth, with brilliant little waves chasing it. The ship
was stretching finely along the water, all sail set and every sail
drawing.
On our lee beam was the canvas of a big ship, her hull invisible; and
astern of her I could just make out the faint tracing of the smoke of a
steamer upon the sky. The sun shone warm, but not too warm; the strong
breeze was sweet and soft; the ship's motion steady, and her aspect a
glorious picture of white and rounded canvas, taut rigging delicately
interlaced, and gleaming decks and glittering brass-work. The blue
water sang a racing chorus at the bows, and the echo died upon the
broad and bubbling wake astern.
I ran my eye forwards upon the men on the forecastle. Most of the crew
were congregated there, lounging, squatting, smoking--no man doing any
work. I wondered, not at this, but that they should be so orderly and
keep their place. They might have come aft had they pleased, swarmed
into the cuddy, occupied the cabins; for the ship was theirs. Since
they acted with so much decency, could they not be won over from their
leader's atrocious project? If I went among them, holding this girl,
now at my side, by the hand, and pleaded for her life, if not for my
own, would they not spare her? would not some among them be moved by
her beauty and her helplessness?
Nothing should seem more rational than such conjectures, always
providing that I ceased to remember these men were criminals, that
their one idea now was to elude the law, and that I who should plead,
and those for whom I pleaded, could by a word, when set on shore,
procure the conviction of the whole gang, charge them with their
crimes, prove their identity, and secure their punishment. Would not
Stevens keep them in mind of this? Knowing what they knew, knowing what
they meditated, I say that in the very orderliness of their behaviour,
I witnessed something more sinister than I should have found in violent
conduct. I alone could carry them to where they wished to go. I must be
conciliated, pleased, obeyed, and my fears tranquillized. If I failed
them, their doom was inevitable; shipwreck or capture was certain. All
this was plain to me as the fingers on my hand; and during the brief
time I stood watching them, I found myself repeating again and again
the hopeless question, "What can I do?"
Miss Robertson seated herself on one of the skylights, that nearest the
break of the poop. The boatswain glanced at her respectfully, and the
men forward stared, and some of them laughed, but none of the remarks
they indulged in were audible.
Fish was at the wheel. I went to the binnacle, and said--
"That's our course. Let this wind hold, and we'll soon be clear of this
mess."
"Three weeks about, I gives us," answered the man.
"And long enough, too," said I.
He spat the quid in his mouth overboard, and dried his lips on his
cuff. As he did not seem disposed to talk, I left him and joined the
boatswain, and at my request he came and stood with me near Miss
Robertson.
"I have told this lady what you repeated to me at breakfast," I said,
in a low voice. "She is full of courage, and I have asked her to come
on deck that we may talk before her."
"If she's as brave as she's pretty, I reckon not many 'll carry stouter
hearts in 'em than her," he said, addressing her full, with an air of
respectful gallantry that was very taking.
She looked down with a smile.
"Boatswain," said I, "every hour is precious to us, for at any moment
Stevens may change the ship's course for a closer shore than the
American; and though we should hold on for the Gulf, it may take us all
our time to hit on a scheme to save ourselves and work it out. I have
come to tell you an idea suggested by this lady, Miss Robertson. Her
father is a rich man, owner of the vessel he was wrecked in----"
"Robertson and Co., of Liverpool, ship-brokers?" he interrupted,
addressing her.
"Yes," she replied.
"Why, I sailed in one o' that firm's wessels as bo'sun's mate, three
year ago, the _Albany_ she was called, and a werry comfortable ship she
was, well found and properly commanded."
"Indeed!" she exclaimed, brightening up and looking at him eagerly.
And then, reflecting a little, she said--"The _Albany_--that ship was
commanded by Captain Tribett."
"Quite right, miss, Tribett was the name. And the first mate's name
was Green, and the second's Gull, and the third--ah! he were Captain
Tribett's son,--same name of course. Well, blow me if this ain't wot
the Italians calls a cohincidence."
He was as pleased as she, and stood grinning on her.
"Mr. Royle," she exclaimed, raising her fine eyes to mine, "surely
there must be others like the boatswain in this ship. They cannot all
be after the pattern of that horrible carpenter!"
"We ought to be able to find that out, bos'un," I said.
"Look here, miss," he answered, with a glance first at the men forward
and then at Fish at the wheel, "the circumstances of this here affair
is just this: the crew have been very badly treated, fed with rotten
stores, and starved and abused by the skipper and chief mate until they
went mad. I don't think myself that they meant to kill the captain and
Mr. Duckling; but it happened, and no man barrin' Stevens was guiltier
than his mate, and that's where it is. The carpenter knocked the
skipper down, and others kicked him when he was down, not knowing he
was dead; and four or five set on Mr. Duckling, and so you see it's
a sin as they all share alike in. If one man had killed the skipper,
and another man had killed the chief mate, why then so be, miss, the
others might be got to turn upon 'em to save their own necks. But here
it's all hands as did the job. And the only man who kept away, though
I pretended to be one with 'em hearty enough, was me; and wot's the
consequince. Stevens don't trust me; and I'm sartin in my own mind that
he don't mean to let me into the boats when the time comes, any more
than you."
So saying, he deliberately walked aft, looked at the compass, then at
the sails, and patrolled the poop for several minutes, for the very
obvious reason that the men should not take notice of our talking long
and close together.
Presently he rejoined us, standing a little distance away, and in a
careless attitude.
"Bo'sun," said I, addressing him with my eyes on the deck, so that from
a distance I would not appear to be speaking, "Miss Robertson told
Stevens that her father would handsomely reward every man on board this
ship on her arrival in port. He asked her what her father would give,
and she said a hundred pounds to each man. If this were repeated to the
crew, what effect would it produce?"
"They wouldn't believe it."
"My father would give each man a promise in writing," she exclaimed.
"They wouldn't trust him," said the boatswain, without reflecting.
"They'd think it a roose to bring 'em together to give 'em into
custody. If I was one of them that's what I should think, and you may
be sure I'm right."
"But he would give them written orders on his bankers; they could not
think it a ruse," she said eagerly, evidently enamoured of her own
idea, since she saw that I entertained it.
"Sailors don't no nothing about banks and the likes of that, miss.
There are thirteen men in the ship's company, counting the cook and
the steward. Call 'em twelve. If your father had a bag of sovereigns
on board this wessel, and counted out a hundred to each man, then
they'd believe him. But I'd not believe _them_. They'd take the money
and scuttle the ship all the same. Don't make no mistake. They're fond
o' their wagabone lives, and the carpenter's given 'em such a talkin'
to, that they're precious keen on gettin' away and cuttin' off all
evidence. It 'ud take more than a hundred pound each man to make 'em
willing to risk their lives."
He walked away once more and stood lounging aft, chatting with Fish.
"I am afraid the bo'sun is right," said I. "Having lived among them and
heard their conversation, he would know their characters too well to be
deceived in the consequences of your scheme."
"But papa would pay them, Mr. Royle. He would give them any pledge they
might choose to name, that they would run no risk. The money could be
sent to them--they need not appear--they need not be seen."
"We know they would run no risks; but could we get them to believe us?"
"At least let us try."
"No--forgive me--we must not try. We must have nothing more to say. You
have spoken to Stevens; let _him_ talk among the men. If the reward
tempt them, be sure they will concert measures among themselves to land
you. But I beg you to have no faith in this project. They are villains,
who will betray you in the end. The boatswain's arguments respecting
them are perfectly just--so just that he has inspired me with a new
kind of faith in him. He owns that his own life is in jeopardy, and I
believe he will hit upon some expedient to save us. See how he watches
us! He will join us presently. I, too, have a scheme dawning in my
head, but too imperfect to discuss as yet. Courage!" I said, animated
by her beauty and the deep, speaking expression of her blue eyes: "the
bo'sun's confession of his own danger makes me feel stronger by a man.
I have greater confidence in him than I had. If I could but muster a
few firearms--for even the steward might be made a man of, fighting
for his life with a revolver in his hand--there is nothing I would not
dare. But twelve to two!--what is our chance? It must not be thought
of, with you and your father depending for your lives on ours."
"No," she answered firmly. "There must be other and better ways. I will
think as well as you."
The boatswain came sauntering towards us. He flung a coil of rope over
a belaying-pin, looked over the ship's side, approached us nearer, and
pulled out a pipe and asked me for a light. I had one in my pocket and
gave it to him. This was his excuse to speak.
"It isn't so suspicious lookin' to talk now as it would be at night
or in the cuddy--and in the cuddy there's no telling whose ears are
about," he said. "I'll give you my scheme, thought on since breakfast,
and listen close, for I durstn't talk much; after this we must belay,
or the men 'll be set jawing. When we come to the Gulf of Mexico,
you'll let me know how long it'll be afore we're fifty mile off the
Mississippi. I helped to stow the cargo in this vessel, and she's
choke full, and there's only one place as they'll be able to get at to
scuttle her, and that's right forrards of the fore hatch. I'll let that
out to Stevens bit by bit, in an ordinary way, and he'll remember it.
The night afore we heave to--you'll tell me when--I'll fall overboard
and get drowned. That'll happen in your watch. We'll get one o' them
packin' cases full o' tin-tack up out o' the steerage and stow it away
in one of the quarter-boats, and you'll let that drop overboard, d'ye
see? which 'll sound like a man's body, and sink right away, and then
you'll roar out that the boatswain's fallen overboard. Let 'em do
what they like. I shall be stowed away forrard, down in the forepeak
somewheers, and the man as comes there to bore a hole, _I'll choke_.
Leave the rest to me. If Stevens he sings out to know if it's done,
I'll say 'Yes,' and tell him to lower away the boats, and hold on for
me. He'll take my voice for the fellow as is scuttling the ship. Now,"
he added vehemently, "I'll lay any man fifty pound agin ten shillings,
that Stevens don't wait for the man he sends below. He'll get into the
boat and shove off and lay by. You'll give me the signal, and I'll
come up sharp, an' if there's a breath o' air we'll have the mainyards
round somehow; and if the boats get in our road we'll run 'em down; and
if there's no wind, and they try to board us--let 'em look out! for
there'll be more blood-letting among 'em than ever they saw before, by
God!"
He motioned with his hand that we should leave the poop, and walked
away.
Miss Robertson looked at me and I at her for some moments in silence.
"Will it do, Mr. Royle?" she asked, in a low voice.
"Yes," I said.
"You think we shall be saved by this stratagem?"
I reflected before answering, and then said, "I do."
She went down the companion-ladder, and when we were in the cuddy, she
took my hand in both of hers, and pressed it tightly to her heart, then
hurried into her cabin.