to the summit of a steep descent, and looked below me on the sea. About
all the coast, the surf, roused by the tornado of the night, beat with a
particular fury and made a fringe of snow. Close at my feet I saw a
haven, set in precipitous and palm-crowned bluffs of rock. Just outside,
a ship was heaving on the surge, so trimly sparred, so glossily painted,
so elegant and _point-device_ in every feature, that my heart was seized
with admiration. The English colours blew from her masthead; and, from
my high station, I caught glimpses of her snowy planking, as she rolled
on the uneven deep, and saw the sun glitter on the brass of her deck
furniture. There, then, was my ship of refuge; and of all my
difficulties only one remained: to get on board of her.
Half an hour later, I issued at last out of the woods on the margin of a
cove, into whose jaws the tossing and blue billows entered, and along
whose shores they broke with a surprising loudness. A wooded promontory
hid the yacht; and I had walked some distance round the beach, in what
appeared to be a virgin solitude, when my eye fell on a boat, drawn into
a natural harbour, where it rocked in safety, but deserted. I looked
about for those who should have manned her; and presently, in the
immediate entrance of the wood, spied the red embers of a fire and,
stretched around in various attitudes, a party of slumbering mariners.
To these I drew near: most were black, a few white; but all were dressed
with the conspicuous decency of yachtsmen; and one, from his peaked cap
and glittering buttons, I rightly divined to be an officer. Him, then, I
touched upon the shoulder. He started up; the sharpness of his movement
woke the rest; and they all stared upon me in surprise.
"What do you want?" inquired the officer.
"To go on board the yacht," I answered.
I thought they all seemed disconcerted at this; and the officer, with
something of sharpness, asked me who I was. Now I had determined to
conceal my name until I met Sir George; and the first name that rose to
my lips was that of the Senora Mendizabal. At the word, there went a
shock about the little party of seamen; the negroes stared at me with
indescribable eagerness, the whites themselves with something of a
scared surprise; and instantly the spirit of mischief prompted me to
add: "And if the name is new to your ears, call me Metamnbogu."
I had never seen an effect so wonderful. The negroes threw their hands
into the air, with the same gesture I remarked the night before about
the Hoodoo camp-fire; first one, and then another, ran forward and
kneeled down and kissed the skirts of my torn dress; and when the white
officer broke out swearing and calling to know if they were mad, the
coloured seamen took him by the shoulders, dragged him on one side till
they were out of hearing, and surrounded him with open mouths and
extravagant pantomime. The officer seemed to struggle hard; he laughed
aloud, and I saw him make gestures of dissent and protest; but in the
end, whether overcome by reason or simply weary of resistance, he gave
in--approached me civilly enough, but with something of a sneering
manner underneath--and touching his cap, "My lady," said he, "if that
is what you are, the boat is ready."
My reception on board the _Nemorosa_ (for so the yacht was named)
partook of the same mingled nature. We were scarcely within hail of that
great and elegant fabric, where she lay rolling gunwale under and
churning the blue sea to snow, before the bulwarks were lined with the
heads of a great crowd of seamen, black, white, and yellow; and these
and the few who manned the boat began exchanging shouts in some _lingua
franca_ incomprehensible to me. All eyes were directed on the passenger;
and once more I saw the negroes toss up their hands to Heaven, but now
as if with passionate wonder and delight.
At the head of the gangway, I was received by another officer, a
gentlemanly man with blond and bushy whiskers; and to him I addressed my
demand to see Sir George.
"But this is not----" he cried, and paused.
"I know it," returned the other officer, who had brought me from the
shore. "But what the devil can we do? Look at all the niggers!"
I followed his direction; and as my eye lighted upon each, the poor
ignorant Africans ducked, and bowed, and threw their hands into the air,
as though in the presence of a creature half divine. Apparently the
officer with the whiskers had instantly come round to the opinion of his
subaltern; for he now addressed me with every signal of respect.
"Sir George is at the island, my lady," said he: "for which, with your
ladyship's permission, I shall immediately make all sail. The cabins are
prepared. Steward, take Lady Greville below."
Under this new name, then, and so captivated by surprise that I could
neither think nor speak, I was ushered into a spacious and airy cabin,
hung about with weapons and surrounded by divans. The steward asked for
my commands; but I was by this time so wearied, bewildered, and
disturbed, that I could only wave him to leave me to myself, and sink
upon a pile of cushions. Presently, by the changed motion of the ship, I
knew her to be under way; my thoughts, so far from clarifying, grew the
more distracted and confused; dreams began to mingle and confound them;
and at length, by insensible transition, I sank into a dreamless
slumber.
When I awoke, the day and night had passed, and it was once more
morning. The world on which I reopened my eyes swam strangely up and
down; the jewels in the bag that lay beside me clinked together
ceaselessly; the clock and the barometer wagged to and fro like
pendulums; and overhead, seamen were singing out at their work, and
coils of rope clattering and thumping on the deck. Yet it was long
before I had divined that I was at sea; long before I had recalled, one
after another, the tragical, mysterious, and inexplicable events that
had brought me where I was.
When I had done so, I thrust the jewels, which I was surprised to find
had been respected, into the bosom of my dress; and, seeing a silver
bell hard by upon a table, rang it loudly. The steward instantly
appeared; I asked for food; and he proceeded to lay the table, regarding
me the while with a disquieting and pertinacious scrutiny. To relieve
myself of my embarrassment, I asked him, with as fair a show of ease as
I could muster, if it were usual for yachts to carry so numerous a crew?
"Madam," said he, "I know not who you are, nor what mad desire has
induced you to usurp a name and an appalling destiny that are not yours.
I warn you from the soul. No sooner arrived at the island----"
At this moment he was interrupted by the whiskered officer, who had
entered unperceived behind him, and now laid a hand upon his shoulder.
The sudden pallor, the deadly and sick fear that was imprinted on the
steward's face, formed a startling addition to his words.
"Parker!" said the officer, and pointed towards the door.
"Yes, Mr. Kentish," said the steward. "For God's sake, Mr. Kentish!"
And vanished, with a white face, from the cabin.
Thereupon the officer bade me sit down, and began to help me, and join
in the meal. "I fill your ladyship's glass," said he, and handed me a
tumbler of neat rum.
"Sir," cried I, "do you expect me to drink this?"
He laughed heartily. "Your ladyship is so much changed," said he, "that
I no longer expect any one thing more than any other."
Immediately after, a white seaman entered the cabin, saluted both Mr.
Kentish and myself, and informed the officer there was a sail in sight,
which was bound to pass us very close, and that Mr. Harland was in doubt
about the colours.
"Being so near the island?" asked Mr. Kentish.
"That was what Mr. Harland said, sir," returned the sailor, with a
scrape.
"Better not, I think," said Mr. Kentish. "My compliments to Mr. Harland;
and if she seem a lively boat, give her the stars and stripes; but if
she be dull, and we can easily outsail her, show John Dutchman. That is
always another word for incivility at sea; so we can disregard a hail or
a flag of distress, without attracting notice."
As soon as the sailor had gone on deck, I turned to the officer in
wonder. "Mr. Kentish, if that be your name," said I, "are you ashamed of
your own colours?"
"Your ladyship refers to the 'Jolly Roger'?" he inquired, with perfect
gravity; and, immediately after, went into peals of laughter. "Pardon
me," said he; "but here for the first time, I recognise your ladyship's
impetuosity." Nor, try as I pleased, could I extract from him any
explanation of this mystery, but only oily and commonplace evasion.
While we were thus occupied, the movement of the _Nemorosa_ gradually
became less violent; its speed at the same time diminished; and
presently after, with a sullen plunge, the anchor was discharged into
the sea. Kentish immediately rose, offered his arm, and conducted me on
deck; where I found we were lying in a roadstead among many low and
rocky islets, hovered about by an innumerable cloud of sea-fowl.
Immediately under our board, a somewhat larger isle was green with
trees, set with a few low buildings and approached by a pier of very
crazy workmanship; and a little inshore of us, a smaller vessel lay at
anchor.
I had scarce time to glance to the four quarters ere a boat was lowered.
I was handed in, Kentish took place beside me, and we pulled briskly to
the pier. A crowd of villainous, armed loiterers, both black and white,
looked on upon our landing; and again the word passed about among the
negroes, and again I was received with prostrations and the same gesture
of the flung-up hand. By this, what with the appearance of these men and
the lawless, seagirt spot in which I found myself, my courage began a
little to decline, and, clinging to the arm of Mr. Kentish, I begged him
to tell me what it meant.
"Nay, madam," he returned, "_you_ know." And leading me smartly through
the crowd, which continued to follow at a considerable distance, and at
which he still kept looking back, I thought, with apprehension, he
brought me to a low house that stood alone in an encumbered yard, opened
the door, and begged me to enter.
"But why?" said I. "I demand to see Sir George."
"Madam," returned Mr. Kentish, looking suddenly as black as thunder, "to
drop all fence, I know neither who nor what you are; beyond the fact
that you are not the person whose name you have assumed. But be what you
please, spy, ghost, devil, or most ill-judging jester, if you do not
immediately enter that house, I will cut you to the earth." And even as
he spoke, he threw an uneasy glance behind him at the following crowd of
blacks.
I did not wait to be twice threatened; I obeyed at once and with a
palpitating heart; and the next moment, the door was locked from the
outside and the key withdrawn. The interior was long, low, and quite
unfurnished, but filled, almost from end to end, with sugar-cane,
tar-barrels, old tarry rope, and other incongruous and highly
inflammable material; and not only was the door locked, but the solitary
window barred with iron.
I was by this time so exceedingly bewildered and afraid, that I would
have given years of my life to be once more the slave of Mr. Caulder. I
still stood, with my hands clasped, the image of despair, looking about
me on the lumber of the room or raising my eyes to Heaven; when there
appeared, outside the window bars, the face of a very black negro, who
signed to me imperiously to draw near. I did so, and he instantly, and
with every mark of fervour, addressed me a long speech in some unknown
and barbarous tongue.
"I declare," I cried, clasping my brow, "I do not understand one
syllable."
"Not?" he said in Spanish. "Great, great, are the powers of Hoodoo! Her
very mind is changed! But, O chief priestess, why have you suffered
yourself to be shut into this cage? why did you not call your slaves at
once to your defence? Do you not see that all has been prepared to
murder you? at a spark, this flimsy house will go in flames; and alas!
who shall then be the chief priestess? and what shall be the profit of
the miracle?"
"Heavens!" cried I, "can I not see Sir George? I must, I must, come by
speech of him. Oh, bring me to Sir George!" And, my terror fairly
mastering my courage, I fell upon my knees and began to pray to all the
saints.
"Lordy!" cried the negro, "here they come!" And his black head was
instantly withdrawn from the window.
"I never heard such nonsense in my life," exclaimed a voice.
"Why, so we all say, Sir George," replied the voice of Mr. Kentish. "But
put yourself in our place. The niggers were near two to one. And upon my
word, if you'll excuse me, sir, considering the notion they have taken
in their heads, I regard it as precious fortunate for all of us that
the mistake occurred."
"This is no question of fortune, sir," returned Sir George. "It is a
question of my orders, and you may take my word for it, Kentish, either
Harland, or yourself, or Parker--or, by George, all three of you!--shall
swing for this affair. These are my sentiments. Give me the key and be
off."
Immediately after, the key turned in the lock; and there appeared upon
the threshold a gentleman, between forty and fifty, with a very open
countenance and of a stout and personable figure.
"My dear young lady," said he, "who the devil may you be?"
I told him all my story in one rush of words. He heard me, from the
first, with an amazement you can scarcely picture, but when I came to
the death of the Senora Mendizabal in the tornado, he fairly leaped into
the air.
"My dear child," he cried, clasping me in his arms, "excuse a man who
might be your father! This is the best news I ever had since I was born;
for that hag of a mulatto was no less a person than my wife." He sat
down upon a tar-barrel, as if unmanned by joy. "Dear me," said he, "I
declare this tempts me to believe in Providence. And what," he added,
"can I do for you?"
"Sir George," said I, "I am already rich: all that I ask is your
protection."
"Understand one thing," he said, with great energy: "I will never
marry."
"I had not ventured to propose it," I exclaimed, unable to restrain my
mirth; "I only seek to be conveyed to England, the natural home of the
escaped slave."
"Well," returned Sir George, "frankly I owe you something for this
exhilarating news; besides, your father was of use to me. Now, I have
made a small competence in business--a jewel mine, a sort of naval
agency, et caetera, and I am on the point of breaking up my company, and
retiring to my place in Devonshire to pass a plain old age, unmarried.
One good turn deserves another: if you swear to hold your tongue about
this island, these little bonfire arrangements, and the whole episode of
my unfortunate marriage, why, I'll carry you home aboard the
_Nemorosa_."
I eagerly accepted his conditions.
"One thing more," said he. "My late wife was some sort of a sorceress
among the blacks; and they are all persuaded she has come alive again in
your agreeable person. Now, you will have the goodness to keep up that
fancy, if you please; and to swear to them, on the authority of Hoodoo
or whatever his name may be, that I am from this moment quite a sacred
character."
"I swear it," said I, "by my father's memory; and that is a vow that I
will never break."
"I have considerably better hold on you than any oath," returned Sir
George, with a chuckle; "for you are not only an escaped slave, but
have, by your own account, a considerable amount of stolen property."
I was struck dumb; I saw it was too true; in a glance, I recognised that
these jewels were no longer mine; with similar quickness, I decided they
should be restored, ay, if it cost me the liberty that I had just
regained. Forgetful of all else, forgetful of Sir George, who sat and
watched me with a smile, I drew out Mr. Caulder's pocket-book and turned
to the page on which the dying man had scrawled his testament. How shall
I describe the agony of happiness and remorse with which I read it! for
my victim had not only set me free, but bequeathed to me the bag of
jewels.
My plain tale draws towards a close. Sir George and I, in my character
of his rejuvenated wife, displayed ourselves arm-in-arm among the
negroes, and were cheered and followed to the place of embarkation.
There, Sir George, turning about, made a speech to his old companions,
in which he thanked and bade them farewell with a very manly spirit; and
towards the end of which he fell on some expressions which I still
remember. "If any of you gentry lose your money," he said, "take care
you do not come to me; for in the first place, I shall do my best to
have you murdered; and if that fails, I hand you over to the law.
Blackmail won't do for me. I'll rather risk all upon a cast, than be
pulled to pieces by degrees. I'll rather be found out and hang, than
give a doit to one man-jack of you." That same night we got under way
and crossed to the port of New Orleans, whence, as a sacred trust, I
sent the pocket-book to Mr. Caulder's son. In a week's time, the men
were all paid off; new hands were shipped; and the _Nemorosa_ weighed
her anchor for Old England.
A more delightful voyage it were hard to fancy. Sir George, of course,
was not a conscientious man; but he had an unaffected gaiety of
character that naturally endeared him to the young; and it was
interesting to hear him lay out his projects for the future, when he
should be returned to parliament, and place at the service of the nation
his experience of marine affairs. I asked him if his notion of piracy
upon a private yacht were not original. But he told me, no. "A yacht,
Miss Valdevia," he observed, "is a chartered nuisance. Who smuggles? Who
robs the salmon rivers of the west of Scotland? Who cruelly beats the
keepers if they dare to intervene? The crews and the proprietors of
yachts. All I have done is to extend the line a trifle; and if you ask
me for my unbiassed opinion, I do not suppose that I am in the least
alone."
In short we were the best of friends, and lived like father and
daughter; though I still withheld from him, of course, that respect
which is only due to moral excellence.
We were still some days' sail from England, when Sir George obtained,
from an outward-bound ship, a packet of newspapers; and from that fatal
hour my misfortunes recommenced. He sat, the same evening, in the cabin,
reading the news, and making savoury comments on the decline of England
and the poor condition of the navy; when I suddenly observed him to
change countenance.
"Hullo!" said he, "this is bad; this is deuced bad, Miss Valdevia. You
would not listen to sound sense, you would send that pocket-book to
that man Caulder's son."
"Sir George," said I, "it was my duty."
"You are prettily paid for it, at least," says he; "and much as I regret
it, I, for one, am done with you. This fellow Caulder demands your
extradition."
"But a slave," I returned, "is safe in England."
"Yes, by George!" replied the baronet; "but it's not a slave, Miss
Valdevia, it's a thief that he demands. He has quietly destroyed the
will; and now accuses you of robbing your father's bankrupt estate of
jewels to the value of a hundred thousand pounds."
I was so much overcome by indignation at this hateful charge and concern
for my unhappy fate that the genial baronet made haste to put me more at
ease.
"Do not be cast down," said he. "Of course, I wash my hands of you
myself. A man in my position--baronet, old family, and all that--cannot
possibly be too particular about the company he keeps. But I am a deuced
good-humoured old boy, let me tell you, when not ruffled; and I will do
the best I can to put you right. I will lend you a trifle of ready
money, give you the address of an excellent lawyer in London, and find a
way to set you on shore unsuspected."
He was in every particular as good as his word. Four days later, the
_Nemorosa_ sounded her way, under the cloak of a dark night, into a
certain haven of the coast of England; and a boat, rowing with muffled
oars, set me ashore upon the beach within a stone's throw of a railway
station. Thither, guided by Sir George's directions, I groped a devious
way; and, finding a bench upon the platform, sat me down, wrapped in a
man's fur greatcoat, to await the coming of the day. It was still dark
when a light was struck behind one of the windows of the building; nor
had the east begun to kindle to the warmer colours of the dawn, before a
porter, carrying a lantern, issued from the door and found himself face
to face with the unfortunate Teresa. He looked all about him; in the
grey twilight of the dawn, the haven was seen to lie deserted, and the
yacht had long since disappeared.
"Who are you?" he cried.
"I am a traveller," said I.
"And where do you come from?" he asked.
"I'm going, by the first train, to London," I replied.
In such manner, like a ghost or a new creation, was Teresa with her bag
of jewels landed on the shores of England; in this silent fashion,
without history or name, she took her place among the millions of a new
country.
Since then, I have lived by the expedients of my lawyer, lying concealed
in quiet lodgings, dogged by the spies of Cuba, and not knowing at what
hour my liberty and honour may be lost.
THE BROWN BOX (_concluded_)
The effect of this tale on the mind of Harry Desborough was instant and
convincing. The Fair Cuban had been already the loveliest, she now
became, in his eyes, the most romantic, the most innocent and the most
unhappy of her sex. He was bereft of words to utter what he felt: what
pity, what admiration, what youthful envy of a career so vivid and
adventurous. "Oh, madam!" he began; and finding no language adequate to
that apostrophe, caught up her hand and wrung it in his own. "Count upon
me," he added, with bewildered fervour; and, getting somehow or other
out of the apartment and from the circle of that radiant sorceress, he
found himself in the strange out-of-doors, beholding dull houses,
wondering at dull passers-by, a fallen angel. She had smiled upon him as
he left, and with how significant, how beautiful a smile! The memory
lingered in his heart; and when he found his way to a certain restaurant
where music was performed, flutes (as it were of Paradise) accompanied
his meal. The strings went to the melody of that parting smile; they
paraphrased and glossed it in the sense that he desired; and for the
first time in his plain and somewhat dreary life, he perceived himself
to have a taste for music.
The next day, and the next, his meditations moved to that delectable
air. Now he saw her, and was favoured; now saw her not at all; now saw
her and was put by. The fall of her foot upon the stair entranced him;
the books that he sought out and read were books on Cuba and spoke of
her indirectly; nay, and in the very landlady's parlour, he found one
that told of precisely such a hurricane and, down to the smallest
detail, confirmed (had confirmation been required) the truth of her
recital. Presently he began to fall into that prettiest mood of a young
love, in which the lover scorns himself for his presumption. Who was he,
the dull one, the commonplace unemployed, the man without adventure, the
impure, the untruthful, to aspire to such a creature made of fire and
air, and hallowed and adorned by such incomparable passages of life?
What should he do, to be more worthy? by what devotion, call down the
notice of these eyes to so terrene a being as himself?
He betook himself, thereupon, to the rural privacy of the square, where,
being a lad of a kind heart, he had made himself a circle of
acquaintances among its shy frequenters, the half-domestic cats and the
visitors that hung before the windows of the Children's Hospital. There
he walked, considering the depth of his demerit and the height of the
adored one's super-excellence; now lighting upon earth to say a pleasant
word to the brother of some infant invalid; now, with a great heave of
breath remembering the queen of women, and the sunshine of his life.
What was he to do? Teresa, he had observed, was in the habit of leaving
the house towards afternoon: she might, perchance, run danger from some
Cuban emissary, when the presence of a friend might turn the balance in
her favour: how, then, if he should follow her? To offer his company
would seem like an intrusion; to dog her openly were a manifest
impertinence; he saw himself reduced to a more stealthy part, which,
though in some ways distasteful to his mind, he did not doubt that he
could practise with the skill of a detective.
The next day he proceeded to put his plan in action. At the corner of
Tottenham Court Road, however, the Senorita suddenly turned back, and
met him face to face, with every mark of pleasure and surprise.