A BAD NIGHT
Now our Captain had not been very long gone when the fair weather proved
as fitful as a woman's mood, and the smiling skies grew sullen. That
same moaning of the wind which we had heard with such terror on the
preceding evening began to be heard again, and its sound struck a chill
into all our hearts. The evening sky waxed darker, and the water that
had been placable all day grew mutinous and mounted into waves--not very
mighty waves, indeed, but big enough to make us all fearsome for the
safety of our ship, for where the Royal Christopher was, perched upon
that bank of ill omen, the force of the water was always greatest in any
agitation, and there was ever present to our minds the chance that she
might go to pieces before some sudden onslaught of the sea. In the face
of that common peril we all forgot our watchfulness of each other, and
Jensen and the sailors worked as earnestly to do all they could for the
safety of our vessel as on our side Lancelot and I and the stout
fellows under our command worked.
It was in all this trouble and hubbub that Marjorie showed herself to be
the gallantest girl in the world. She was resolved to stay with
Lancelot, but she was no less resolved to hamper him not at all by her
presence. So when I came at dusk to the Captain's cabin to consult with
Lancelot, who had shifted his quarters thither, I found his sister with
him, but very changed in outward seeming. For she had slipped on a
sea-suit of Lancelot's and her limbs were hid in a pair of seaman's
boots and her fair hair coiled out of sight under a seaman's cap, and in
this sea change she made the fairest lad in the world and might have
been my Lancelot's brother to a hasty eye. She had a mind, she said, to
play the man till fortune mended, and vowed to take her share of work
with the best of us. At which Lancelot smiled sweetly and commended her
wisdom in changing her rig, and as for me I would have adored her more
than before, had that been possible, to find her so adaptable to danger.
But there was little for her to do save to encourage us with her
comradeship, and that she did bravely through it all, acting as any boy
messmate might, and taking her place so naturally and simply in those
hours of trial that it was not until later that I thought how strangely
and how rarely she carried herself and how quietly she played her part.
[Illustration: "HER FAIR HAIR WAS COILED OUT OF SIGHT UNDER A SEAMAN'S
CAP."]
I shall never forget that terrible night on board the ship, with the
waves smacking our poor sides, that groaned at every blow, and the wind
moaning through the ruined rigging in a kind of sobbing way, as if all
the elements were joining in a requiem for our foredoomed lives. There
was never a moment when we could be sure that the next might not be our
last; never a moment when we could not tell that the next wave might not
sweep the ship with riven timbers into hopeless wreck, and plunge us
poor wretches into the stormy seas to struggle for a few seconds
desperately and unavailingly for our lives.
Through all that dismal night there was but little for us to do, and so
I passed a portion of my time in the cabin fortifying my heart with the
perusal of the book Mr. Davies gave me. I did not on that night neglect
the thoughts of religion. Indeed, if I had been of a mind to, which
Heaven be praised I was not, I could not have very well done so. For
among our people there was a reverend man, one Mr. Ephraim Ebrow, whom
extreme poverty had tempted to accompany Captain Amber's party, and
this excellent man was at all times ready to deliver an exhortation, or
to favour us with readings from the Holy Book. He was truly one of the
Church Militant, and came of an old fanatique stock, and in moments of
danger he was as gallant and as calm as any seasoned adventurer. He had
a very fine voice, and it was no slight pleasure to hear him put up a
prayer, or deliver a sermon, or read out chapters of the Scriptures in
the authorised version. He himself, because he was no mean scholar, was
wont to search the Scriptures from a Hebrew copy which he always carried
with him. On this night he read to us many portions of the Scriptures,
and got us to pray with him, and did many things of the kind that went
to stay our alarm and strengthen our trust in the merciful wisdom of
Providence. But that I found balm in the Holy Word was no reason why I
should not find courage also from the plain words of a plain swordsman.
So I read in my book by the light of a ship's lantern, and tried to give
my thoughts to the exercise of weapons.
While I was reading thus in the cabin the door swung ajar, for ever
since the accident the furniture of the ship was all put out of gear.
Presently I heard the tramping of feet along the passage, and then the
door was pushed open and Cornelys Jensen stood in the doorway and stared
at me. I lifted my eyes and stared back at him.
'This is a wise way of passing the time,' he said with a sneer.
'Book-learning, forsooth, when the ship may go to pieces every instant.'
The tone of his voice galled me, and I answered him angrily, perchance
rashly.
'I am no bookman,' I said. 'But there is nothing to do at this hour, and
I feel no need for sleep.' For we had divided the night in watches, but
I was wakeful as a hare that is being chased, and could not close my
eyes to any purpose.
'Nay,' said I, 'there are worse things than reading a good book. Where
is your black flag, Master Jensen?'
You should have seen how, just for a moment, he glared at me. He was
armed, of course, and I think at that moment that he was sorely minded
to take my life. But I had a pistol on the table, and my hand lay on the
pistol, and the muzzle pointed across the table very straightly in the
direction of Cornelys Jensen. Then the angry look fell away from his
face, and he broke into long, low laughter, moving his head slowly up
and down, and fixing me very keenly with his bright eyes.
'You are a smart lad,' he said at last. 'What the plague have you to do
with my black flag?'
'What have you to do with it were a question more to the point,' I
answered him, and I make no doubt now that in speaking as I did I was
doing a very foolish thing. But I was only a boy, and inexperienced, and
indeed all my life I have been given to blurting out things that mayhap
I had better have kept to myself.
He laughed again.
'Nay,' he said, 'it is one of my most treasured possessions. I hauled it
down with mine own hands from a pirate ship in my youth, when we
captured the bark of that nefarious sea rover Captain Anthony. I have
carried it with me for luck ever since, and it has always brought me
luck--always till now.' Then he nodded his head again slowly twice or
thrice. 'I will give it to you if you wish, Master Ralph,' he said; 'I
will give it to you for luck.'
'I do not want it,' I said angrily, being somewhat confused with the
turn things had taken. 'I am not superstitious for luck.'
Which indeed was not true, for I never met a seaman yet who was not
superstitious; but I was wrathful, and I knew not what to say.
'Very well,' he said, 'very well. But you are welcome to it if you
wish.'
Then he went out of the cabin without another word and drew the door
behind him. I sat still for some seconds listening to the sound of his
departing footstep.
Now I was bitterly vexed with myself. I had done a vain thing. I had put
Jensen upon his guard by showing him that I knew something at least of
his purposes, and I had put it into his power to offer a very ready
explanation of suspicious circumstances. Indeed, how was I to know that
what he said was not true? There was nothing whatever on the face of it
unlikely, and if he told such a story to Captain Marmaduke, why, it was
ten chances to one that Captain Marmaduke would implicitly believe in
him. For there was no doubt about it, Captain Marmaduke had a great
regard for Cornelys Jensen.
There was nothing for it but to tell Lancelot of what Jensen had said,
and I did this with all dispatch. My statement had at least the effect
of convincing Lancelot that I had in very fact seen what I had described
to him about the flag. But I could see that Jensen's explanation had its
effect upon him very much as I felt sure that it would have its effect
upon Captain Marmaduke. Lancelot had nothing like the same regard for
Jensen that his uncle had, but I knew that he did follow his uncle's
lead in trusting him.
'You see, Ralph,' he said to me, 'this is a very likely story. Jensen is
an old sailor. My uncle has told me a thousand times that he has served
against pirates in his youth. What more natural than that he should
preserve such a trophy of his prowess as the captured flag of some such
villain as that same Captain Anthony, of whom I have often heard? But we
will be watchful none the less, and well on our guard.'
I could see that Lancelot did not share my fears as regarded Jensen,
although he was troubled by the mutinous carriage of certain of the
crew. I know that I was very apprehensive and unhappy, and that it
seemed to me as if that night would never end.