Leaving the brilliantly lighted saloon I went on deck with Captain
Corsican. The night was dark; not a star in the firmament; an
impenetrable gloom surrounded the ship. The windows of the saloon shone
like the mouths of furnaces; the man on watch, heavily pacing the poop,
was scarcely discernible, but one could breathe the fresh air, and the
Captain inhaled it with expanded lungs.
“I was stifled in the saloon,” said he; “here at least I can breathe. I
require my hundred cubic yards of pure air every twenty-four hours, or I
get half suffocated.”
“Breathe, Captain, breathe at your ease,” said I to him; “the breeze
does not stint your wants. Oxygen is a good thing, but it must be
confessed Parisians and Londoners know it only by reputation.”
“Yes,” replied the Captain, “and they prefer carbonic acid. Ah well!
every one to his liking; for my own part I detest it, even in
champagne.”
Thus talking, we paced up and down the deck on the starboard side,
sheltered from the wind by the high partitions of the deck cabins. Great
wreaths of smoke, illuminated with sparks, curled from the black
chimneys; the noise of the engines accompanied the whistling of the wind
in the shrouds, which sounded like the cords of a harp. Mingling with
this hubbub, each quarter of an hour, came the cry of the sailors on
deck, “All’s well, all’s well.”
In fact no precaution had been neglected to insure the safety of the
ship on these coasts frequented by icebergs. The Captain had a bucket of
water drawn every half-hour, in order to ascertain the temperature, and
if it had fallen one degree he immediately changed his course, for he
knew that the “Peruvian” had been seen but a fortnight since blocked up
by icebergs in this latitude; it was therefore a danger to be avoided.
His orders for night were to keep a strict look-out. He himself remained
on the bridge with an officer each side of him, one at the wheel signal,
the other at the screw; besides these a lieutenant and two men kept
watch on the poop, whilst a quarter-master with a sailor stood at the
stern; the passengers might therefore rest quietly.
After noticing these arrangements we went back again to the stern, as we
had made up our minds to stay some time longer, walking on deck like
peaceful citizens taking an evening stroll in their town squares.
The place seemed deserted. Soon, however, our eyes grew accustomed to
the darkness, and we perceived a man leaning perfectly motionless, with
his elbow on the railing. Corsican, after looking at him attentively for
some time, said to me,—
“It is Fabian.”
It was indeed Fabian. We recognized him, but absorbed as he was in a
profound contemplation he did not see us. His eyes were fixed on an
angle of the upper deck; I saw them gleam in the dark. What was he
looking at? How could he pierce this black gloom? I thought it better to
leave him to his reflections, but Captain Corsican went up to him.
“Fabian,” said he.
Fabian did not answer; he had not heard. Again Corsican called him. He
shuddered, and turned his head for a moment, saying,—
“Hush.”
Then with his hand he pointed to a shadow which was slowly moving at the
further end of the upper deck. It was this almost invisible figure that
Fabian was looking at, and smiling sadly he murmured,—
“The black lady.”
I shuddered. Captain Corsican took hold of my arm, and I felt that he
also was trembling. The same thought had struck us both. This shadow was
the apparition about which Dean Pitferge had spoken.
[Illustration: THE BLACK LADY.]
Fabian had relapsed into his dreamy contemplation. I, with a heaving
breast and awe-struck glance, looked at this human figure, the outline
of which was hardly discernible; but presently it became more defined.
It came forward, stopped, turned back, and then again advanced, seeming
to glide rather than walk. At ten steps from us it stood perfectly
still. I was then able to distinguish the figure of a slender female,
closely wrapped in a kind of brown burnous, and her face covered with a
thick veil.
“A mad woman, a mad woman, is it not?” murmured Fabian.
It was, indeed, a mad woman; but Fabian was not asking us: he was
speaking to himself.
In the meantime the poor creature came still nearer to us. I thought I
could see her eyes sparkle through her veil, when they were fixed on
Fabian. She went up to him, Fabian started to his feet, electrified. The
veiled woman put her hand on her heart as though counting its pulsation,
then, gliding swiftly away, she disappeared behind the angle of the
upper deck. Fabian staggered, and fell on his knees, his hands stretched
out before him.
“It is she,” he murmured.
Then shaking his head,—
“What an hallucination!” he added.
Captain Corsican then took him by the hand.
“Come, Fabian, come,” said he, and he led away his unhappy friend.