MRS. VANSITTART'S FEAR.
The tribulations which clustered, in bee-like swarm, in and around the
Gulf Rock Lighthouse during those weary hours were many and various.
Damp clothing, insufficiency of food, interior temperatures ranging from
the chill draught of the entrance passage and stair-ways to the partial
suffocation of rooms with windows closed owing to the incursions of the
rising tide--this unpleasing aggregate of physical misery was seriously
augmented by an ever-increasing list of sick people, an almost total
absence of any medical comforts, and a growing knowledge, on the part of
those not too despondent to think, that their ultimate relief might be
deferred for days rather than hours.
No mere man can understand, and a woman of ordinary experience can but
dimly imagine, the difficulty and arduousness of the task undertaken by
Constance and Enid.
To cook and supply food for eighty-one persons with utensils intended
for the use of three, to give each separate individual an utterly
inadequate portion, so skilfully distributed that none should have cause
to grumble at his or her neighbor's better fortune--here were culinary
problems at once complex and exhaustive.
By adopting fantastic devices, bringing into service empty jam-pots and
sardine-tins, they found it was possible to feed twenty at a time. This
meant the preparation of four distinct meals, each requiring an hour's
work. Long before the last batch, which included themselves, was
lamenting the absurd discrepancy between appetite and antidote in the
shape of anything to eat, the first was ravenous again.
The women complained the least. In the occupants of the two bedrooms the
girls encountered a passive fortitude which was admirable. It was an
extraordinary scene which met their eyes when they entered either of
these stuffy apartments. Many of the rescued ladies had not given a
thought to changing the demi-toilette of evening wear on board ship for
more serviceable clothing when the hurricane overtook the vessel. They
all, it is true, possessed cloaks or wraps of some sort, but these
garments were still sodden with salt water and therefore unwearable,
even if the oppressive warmth in each room rendered such a thing
possible. Their elegant costumes of muslin, cotton, silk or satin, were
utterly ruined. Lucky were the few whose blouses or bodices had not been
rent into tatters.
Some of the worst sufferers in this respect were now the best provided.
Blankets and sheets had been ruthlessly torn up and roughly stitched
into articles of clothing. Mrs. Vansittart, for instance, who first
suggested this _via media_, wore an exquisite Paris gown and a loose
dressing-jacket arrangement of yellow blanket, the component parts of
which she persuaded two other women to sew together on the model
provided by her own elegant figure.
A few quick-witted ones who followed her example exhausted the available
stock, and pillow-cases and rugs would have undergone metamorphosis in
the same way had not Constance come to the rescue by impounding them,
declaring that they must be reserved for the use of those sufferers who
needed warmth and rest.
The men passed their time in smoking, singing, yarning and speculating
on the chance of the weather clearing. Ultimately, when the banging of
the waves again made the column feel unsafe, a small section began to
plan petty attempts to pilfer the provisions. It is the queer mixture of
philosopher and beast in the average human being that makes it possible
for the same man, in one mood, to risk his life quite voluntarily to
save others, and in another, to organize selfish theft.
After an ingenious seaman had been detected in the attempt to pick the
store-room lock, and when a tray of cold ham was deliberately upset
whilst a football scrimmage took place for the pieces, Mr. Emmett
stopped these ebullitions by arming the watch with assorted weapons from
the work-shop and issuing stern orders as to their use in case of need.
Here, again, the warring elements which form the human clay were
admirably displayed. On duty, under the bonds of discipline, the
coarse-grained foremast hand who had gobbled up a surreptitious lump of
fat pig during the first successful scuffle would brain the daring
rascal who tried to better his condition by a similar trick a second
time. Discipline, sometimes, converts a skulker into a hero.
When the state of the tide permitted, storm-shutters were opened and a
free draught of air allowed to enter through the door. Then all hands
eyed the sea with anxiety. The wind was strong and piercing, and the
reef maintained its ceaseless roaring. Wherever a window opened towards
the land there was a small crowd waiting to peep through it. At last,
the sense of orderliness gradually permeating the inmates of the
lighthouse actually resulted in the formation of queues, with stated
intervals for moving on. There was a momentary relief in looking at the
land. The cliffs, the solitary white houses, the little hamlets half
hidden in cozy nooks, seemed to be so absurdly near. It was ridiculous
to imagine that help could be long deferred. The seaward passing of a
steamer, carrying flowers from the Scilly Isles to Penzance for Covent
Garden, caused a flutter, but the sight of a Penzance fishing-smack
scudding under jib and close-reefed foresail between the rock and
Guthenbras Point created intense excitement. Noah, gazing across the
flood for the return of the dove with the olive branch, could not be
more pleased than these castaways in their granite ark when the
brown-sailed boat came within their view.
The window in the coal-cellar opened fair towards the Land's End, and
the grimy occupants of this compartment could look their fill at the
messenger of life. A rich New Yorker in vain offered a hundred dollars
to any man who gave up his place in the line after he himself, by the
operation of the time-limit, was remorselessly sent away from the narrow
loop-hole. Dollars and pounds sterling have a curiously depreciated
value under such circumstances.
The men of the watch were always questioned for news by the unemployed
majority. They related the comings and goings of the _Falcon_, carried
sympathetic inquiries from story to story--promiscuous passing to and
fro being forbidden owing to the narrowness of the stairs--and seized
every trifling pretext on their own part to reach the topmost height and
feast their eyes on the extensive panorama visible from the storm-girt
gallery. Had they watched the coast-line less and the reef more their
observations would have had value.
Quite early in the day, the purser handed to the occupants of each room
a full list of passengers and crew, with the survivors grouped
separately. In only three instances were husband and wife both saved.
The awful scene in the saloon accounted for this seeming discrepancy.
Dazed men and senseless women were wrenched from each other's clasp
either by the overwhelming seas or during the final wild fight for life
at the head of the companion stairway. A wreck, a fire in a theatre,
pays little heed to the marriage tie.
The third, and last meal of the day was eaten in silence and gloom. All
the spare lamps were diverted to the kitchen, because Brand, during a
further detailed survey of the stores, made in company with Mr. Emmett
and the purser, discovered that there was an alarming deficit of fresh
water in the cistern.
In the hurry of the earlier hours a serious miscalculation had been made
in transmuting cubic feet into gallons. It became an instant necessity
to use every heating appliance at command and start the distillation of
a drinkable fluid.
The Gulf Rock Light did not possess a proper apparatus. The only method
that could be adopted was to improvise a coil from canvas sewn into a
tube. The exterior was varnished, and wrapped in wet cloths to assist
the condensation of the steam. Hence, every kettle and pot being
requisitioned for this paramount need, cocoa could be supplied to the
women alone, whilst the taste of the water, even thus disguised, was
nauseating. No more potatoes could be boiled. Raw, they were almost
uneatable. And potatoes happened to be the food most plentiful.
The genuine fresh water, reduced to a minimum in the cistern, was only a
little better in condition unless it was filtered, and Brand decided
that it ought to be retained for the exclusive use of those seriously
ill. Patients were multiplying so rapidly that the hospital was crowded;
and all fresh cases, as they occurred, perforce remained where they
were.
Neither Constance nor Enid felt the time hang heavily on their hands.
They were too busy, though the new ordinance regarding the food supply
transferred their attention from active cooking to the replenishing of
utensils which must be kept full of salt-water at boiling-point.
Pyne was an invaluable assistant.
In the adjustment of refractory canvas tubes over hot spouts, in the
manipulation of the condensing plant so that it might act efficiently,
in the trimming of lamps, and the stocking of the solitary coal fire, he
insisted on taking to himself the lion's share of the work.
He always had a pleasant quip or funny story to brighten their talk.
"You can conquer trouble with a grin," he said. "Worry doesn't cut ice."
Enid, of course, chaffed him about his American accent, which, she
protested, she would acquire after a week's practice.
"It is so quaint to our ears," she went on. "I never before grasped the
reason why Mark Twain makes me laugh. All he does is to act as a
phonograph. Every American is a born humorist."
"There's something in that," admitted Pyne. "We do try to dis-inter a
joke. Say, have you girls ever heard how an English professor explained
the Yankee drawl?"
"No," they cried.
"He said it represented the effort of an uneducated man to make a
speech. Every time his vocabulary gave out he lifted his voice to show
he wasn't half through with his ideas."
"Oh," said Constance, "that is neither kind nor true, surely."
"Well," agreed Pyne slowly, "that is the view a friend of mine took of
the remark. So he asked the professor if he had a nice agreeable sort of
definition, all ready for use, of the way Englishmen clipped their
syllables. The other fellow allowed that he hadn't pondered on it. 'I
guess,' said my friend, 'it represents the effort of an educated ass to
talk English.'"
Though the laugh was against them they were forced to snigger approval.
"I think," said Constance, "that our chief national failing is
pomposity, and your story hits it off exactly. In one of our small
Cornish towns we have a stout little Mayor who made money in cheese and
bacon. He went to see the Paris Exhibition, and an Exeter man, meeting
him unexpectedly at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, hailed him with
delight. 'Hello, Mr. Mayor--' he began. 'Hush,' said the mayor, glancing
around mysteriously, 'I'm 'ere _in cog_.'"
None who heard these light-hearted young people yelling with merriment
would imagine that they had just dined off a piece of hard-baked bread
made without yeast and washed down with water tasting of tar and
turpentine.
"Now, Miss Enid, your turn," cried Pyne.
Her eyes danced mischievously.
"Unfortunately, by the accident of birth, I am deprived of the sense of
humor," she said.
"It seems to be in the family all right," he hazarded, looking at
Constance.
"Alas!" said Enid, "I am an American."
"I'll smile now, if that is all," said Pyne.
"But, please, I am not joking a little bit. When you go ashore you will
probably hear all about me, so I may as well take the wind out of the
sails of gossip. I am a mere waif, who came sailing in out of the West
one day in a little boat, which must have come from the New World as no
one appeared to have lost either me or it in the Old. Dad picked us both
up and adopted me."
Pyne did not know whether to take her seriously or not, until he sought
confirmation in a pair of tranquil eyes which he gazed into at every
opportunity.
"It is quite true," said Constance, gravely. "I suppose that the
mysterious affinity between parents and long-lost children which exists
in story-books is all nonsense in reality. No family could be more
united and devoted to each other than we are, yet Enid is not my sister,
and my father is her's only by adoption. He found her, half dying,
drifting past this very rock, and before he could reach her he fought
and killed a dreadful shark. We are very proud of dad, Mr. Pyne. You
see, he is our only relation. Enid knows neither her father nor mother,
and my mother died when I was a baby."
"Great Scott!" cried Pyne.
He turned quickly towards the door. Mrs. Vansittart, very pale, with
eyes that looked unnaturally large in the faint light, stood there. For
an instant he was startled. He had not seen Mrs. Vansittart since they
came to the rock, and he was shocked by the change in her appearance.
He did not like her. His alert intelligence distrusted her. But it was
not his business in life to select a wife for his uncle, as he put it,
and he had always treated her with respectful politeness. Now, owing to
some fleeting aspect which he could not account for, some vague
resemblance to another which he did not remember having noticed before,
he viewed her with a certain expectant curiosity that was equally
unintelligible to him.
She held out a scrap of paper.
"Mr. Traill is here," she said quietly.
"Here!" he repeated, wondering what she meant, and perplexed by her icy,
self-contained tone, whilst he thought it passing strange that she had
no other greeting for him.
"Well," she said, "that is the best word I can find. He is near to us,
as near as a steamer can bring him. Mr. Brand has received a signaled
message; he wrote it out and sent it to me by a man. I inquired where
you were, and was told you were engaged in the kitchen."
For some reason Mrs. Vansittart seemed to be greatly perturbed. Her
presence put an end to the gaiety of the place quite effectually.
The young man took the paper in silence.
He read: "Dear Madam--a signal just received from the _Falcon_ runs as
follows:--'Mr. Cyrus J. Traill is on board and sends his love to Etta
and Charlie. He will make every preparation for their comfort ashore and
trusts they are bearing up well under inevitable hardships.' Yours
faithfully, Stephen Brand."
Pyne strode to the door.
"I must see if I can't get Mr. Brand to answer the old boy," he cried.
"Perhaps you have attended to that already."
She did not make way for him to pass.
"No," she said. "I came to seek you on that account. If not too late,
will you tell your uncle that I do not wish to delay a moment in
Penzance. He will please me most by arranging for a special train to
await our arrival at the station."
"What's the hurry?" he demanded.
"A woman's whim, if you like, but a fixed resolve, nevertheless."
"Will you travel in that rig-out?" he asked quizzically.
"It is an easy matter to call at a shop if we reach shore by daylight.
Then I can purchase a cloak and hat to serve my needs. Otherwise, it is
matterless how I am attired. Will you do this?"
"Why, certainly."
She gave a little gasp of relief. In another instant Pyne would have
gone, but Enid, who happened to glance through the window which opened
towards the northwest, detained him.
"There is no hurry now, for sure," she said. "The _Falcon_ is half way
to Carn du by this time. I do not suppose she will return until it is
too dark to do more than signal important news very briefly."
"But this is important," cried Mrs. Vansittart shrilly. "It is of the
utmost importance to me."
"'Fraid it can't be helped ma'am," said Pyne civilly. "Anyhow we're not
ashore yet, and I can't see that any time will be wasted."
The electric bell jangled in the room, causing Mrs. Vansittart to jump
visibly.
"Oh, what is it?" she screamed.
"My father is calling one of us up," explained Constance. "It may be a
message from Jack. You go, Enid."
Enid hurried away. She had scarcely reached the next floor before Mrs.
Vansittart, who seemed to have moods in full compass, said sweetly:
"Convey my deep obligations to Mr. Brand, won't you, Charlie. Indeed,
you might go now and write out the text of my message to your uncle.
Some early opportunity of despatching it may offer."
"All right," he said in the calm way which so effectually concealed his
feelings. "Shall I escort you to your room?"
"By no means. I came here quite unassisted. Miss Brand and I can chat
for a little while. It is most wearying to be pent all day and all night
in one little room. Even the change to another little room is grateful."
Pyne bowed, and they heard his steady tread as he ascended the stairs.
"Quite a nice boy, Charlie," said Mrs. Vansittart, coming forward into
the kitchen, with its medley of queer-looking, hissing, steaming
contrivances.
"Yes. We think he is exceedingly nice," said Constance. She wondered
why the other woman seemed always to stand in the shadow, by choice. The
strongest light in the darkened chamber came from the grate, and Mrs.
Vansittart deliberately turned away from it.
"If all goes well he will soon be my nephew by marriage," went on the
other. "I quitted New York yesterday week in order to marry his uncle in
Paris. Rather a disastrous beginning to a new career, is it not?"
"I hope not, indeed. Perhaps you are surmounting difficulties at the
commencement rather than at the end."
"It may be. I am so much older than you that I am less optimistic. But
you did not grasp the significance of my words. I said I was to be
married in Paris."
"Yes," said Constance, still at a loss to catch the drift of an
announcement which Mrs. Vansittart seemed so anxious to thrust upon her.
"Well, the _Chinook_ was wrecked last night, or rather, early this
morning. The name of the ship was not made known throughout the world
until long after daybreak. It is quite impossible that Mr. Traill should
have reached this remote corner of England from Paris in the interval."
For one moment the girl was puzzled. Then a ready solution occurred to
her.
"Oh, of course, that is very simple. Mr. Traill was awaiting your
arrival in Southampton, thinking to take you by surprise no doubt. That
is sure to be the explanation. What a shock the first telegram must
have given him!"
"How did he ascertain that his nephew and I were alive?"
"The very first thing father did was to telegraph the names of all the
survivors. I know that is so because I saw the message."
"Ah. He is a man of method, I suppose. You are proud of him, I heard you
say."
"I think there is no one like him in all the world. We are so happy at
home that sometimes I fear it cannot last. Yet, thank God, there is no
excuse for such night-mare terrors."
Mrs. Vansittart cooed in her gentle way.
"Indeed, you have my earnest good wishes in that respect," she said. "Do
we not owe our lives to you? That is an excellent reason for gratitude,
if a selfish one. But, some day soon, you will be getting married and
leaving the parental roof."
"I do not wish to die an old maid," laughed Constance, "yet I have not
discovered a better name than my own up to the present."
She fancied that Mrs. Vansittart winced a little at this remark. Deeming
her visitor to be a bundle of nerves, she jumped to the conclusion that
the other woman read into the words some far-fetched disparagement of
her own approaching marriage.
"Of course," she continued, affably tactful, "I will hold another view
when the right man asks me."
"Were you in my place," murmured her visitor, apparently thinking aloud
rather than addressing Constance, "you would not be fearful of
misfortune? You would not read an omen of ill luck into this dramatic
interruption of all your plans? After many years of widowhood I am about
to be married again to a man who is admirable in every way. He is rich,
distinguished in manner and appearance, a person of note not only in the
States but on the Continent. No woman of my years might desire a better
match. Why could not the way be made smooth for me? Why should the poor
_Chinook_, out of the hundreds of mail-steamers which cross the Atlantic
yearly, be picked out for utter disaster? It is a warning--a threat from
the gods!"
The unconscious bitterness of her tone moved the girl to find words of
consolation.
"I would not question the ways of Providence in the least," she said.
"Surely you have far more reason for thankfulness than for regret."
"Regret! I am not regretting. But I have gone through such trials that I
am unnerved. There, child! Forgive me for troubling you. And--and--kiss
me, will you, and say you wish me well!"
She moved nearer, as if driven by uncontrollable impulse. Constance, not
prepared for such an outburst, was nevertheless deeply touched by this
appeal for sympathy.
"I wish you all the joy and happiness which I am sure you deserve," she
said, stooping to kiss the wan, shrinking face held up to her.
Mrs. Vansittart burst into a paroxysm of tears and tottered towards the
door.
"No, no," she gasped, as Constance caught her by the arm. "Do not come
with me. I am--shaken. It will pass. For God's sake, let me go alone!"